Jellyfish Boy (くらげくん Kurage-kun)

Screening with The Dark Harbour

Kotaro (Ren Yasuda) knows that his best friend (Daiki Gunji) is a bit weird. He wears a dress, a long scarf, and a toy flute around his neck, so Kotaro has nicknamed him Kurage-kun, or Jellyfish Boy. Kotaro likes Kurage-kun, but he doesn’t quite understand just how much Kurage-kun likes him. One day after telling Kotaro that that he’s moving with his family to another town the two boys head off on one last summer adventure to the coast. Shoh Kataoka’s Jellyfish Boy is a short film that reminds us that true friendship and love comes without prejudice.

Director: Shoh Kataoka

Producer: Yue Harveg

Writer: Shoh Kataoka

Cinematography: Yoshinobu Murahashi

Editing: Shoh Kataoka

Music: Mayumi Nakata

Cast: Ren Yasuda, Daiki Gunji

Released: 2009

Running time: 14 min.

Trailer /  Official Website

Director’s Bio

Born in 1982 in Sapporo Hokkaido Shoh Kataoka studied filmmaking at Tokyo’s New Cinema Workshop. In 2004 he founded Nekome Film, his own production company and it was through Nekome Film that Kataoka produced his 2006 feature length debut Can Kick. Since then Kataoka’s short films have screened at film festivals worldwide.