Exotic Cinema

Japanese Story

A cross cultural drama with a twist, and one of the finest Australian films of the year, combining a sharp script with strong direction, sympathetic performances, a striking use of landscape and a considerable emotional punch.

Thirty-something Sandy Edwards is a unfulfilled, workaholic geologist who is handed the assignment of chaperoning a prominent Japanese businessman named Hiromitsu through the Pilbara Desert rich in iron ore deposits. Relations get off to a rocky start when it transpires that neither speaks the other’s language, and he makes the assumption that she is simply his driver, much to her irritation. Following a tour of a huge iron ore mine, Hiromitsu instructs Sandy to take him on a drive through a remote area and, after a heated exchange, she agrees. They wind up stranded in their bogged-down Range Rover and must endure a lonely night in the desert. As is often the case, events endured bring people together, and Sandy and Hiromitsu emerge in the morning with a new understanding and appreciation of each other. The end of the journey will leave no-one capable of going back to where they started from.