The Long Excuse

"Masahiro Motoki's first big screen leading role since "Departures" is startlingly in subtlety and moving power"

Variety

Archive - Festival 33
Director: Miwa Nishikawa
Japan 2016
124 minutes
Japanese
Subtitles in Hebrew, English

Sachio Kinugasa, a popular novelist, loses his wife of 20 years in a bus accident. With any affection long gone from their marriage, he has to fake the grief everyone expects from him. And then Sachio impulsively offers to care for the children of a working man who lost his wife in the same accident.

Masahiro Motoki (Departures) stars in this gently humorous drama from Japanese writer-director Miwa Nishikawa. The personal transformation his Sachio undertakes is full of joy and sadness, and it is touching to behold.

Filmography: Dreams for Sale (2012), Dear Doctor (2009), Sway (2006).

Director Miwa Nishikawa
Production Asako Nishikawa, Akihiko Yose, Tetsuo Ota, Shuichi Nagasawa, Kiyoto Matsui, Takashi Iwamura
Script Miwa Nishikawa, based on her novel
Cinematography Yutaka Yamazaki
Editing Ryuji Miyajima
Music Michiaki Katoh, Toshihiro Nakanishi
Festivals Toronto, Busan
Actors Masahiro Motoki, Pistol Takehara, Kenshin Fujita, Tamaki Shiratori
Source Elle Driver, Paris