Another World (KOTATSU screening)
March 7 @ 11:00 am - 1:00 pm EST
Details »
Another World
半世界
Saturday, March 7, 11:00AM (ET)
Doors open 10:30AM | Film Screening | In-Person | Innis Town Hall
Directed by SAKAMOTO Junji • 2019 • Drama • 120 minutes • Presented in Japanese with English subtitles • Trailer
Internationally recognized director SAKAMOTO Junji teams up with INAGAKI Goro to deliver an original story about three old school friends who are about to turn 40 years old. One of them returns home after a long silence and it brings the other two a moment to contemplate the days ahead in their lives. Through the perspective of men who are facing their 40s, a point in life too late to be ambitious but too soon to give up, Sakamoto depicts a human drama of new hope, bonds between friends and family, and struggle of how to live the rest of your life when you reach the
half-waypoint.
“A wistful, intimate affair about friendship and fateful choices” (Screen Daily), Another World premiered at the 2018 Tokyo International Film Festival where it received Audience Award. It was later named one of Kinema Junpo’s Best Ten Japanese Films of the Year and received 4 Kinema Junpo Awards.
This screening is a part of our annual winter film showcase, KOTATSU 2026: Japanese Cinema at Innis Town Hall.
Free admission. Registration Required.
Director Profile:
SAKAMOTO Junji (阪本 順治) is a Japanese filmmaker whose prolific career includes over thirty films. He started his career as an assistant director while studying, working with filmmakers like ISHII Gakuryu, among others. He made his directorial debut in 1989 with Knockout, earning the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award, and followed it up with another boxing film, Tekken, in 1990. Sakamoto became known for action films focusing on the conflicts between male characters, such as Tokarefu (1994) and New Battles Without Honor and Humanity (2000), but has also made films centered on female characters such as Face (2000), for which he won the award for Best Director at the 24th Japan Academy Prize.
Recently, his film Okiku and the World had its world premiere at the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam and won Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film of the Year. In 2023, Sakamoto was honoured by New York Asian Film Festival with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
