Off Highway 20 (道20号線 Kokudo 20 Gosen)

“…a welcome change that shows you the reality of life in a small town as a hideous mutation spawned from the so-called economic miracle.”

- Dean Shimauchi, DeanShimauchi.com

CANADIAN PREMIERE

Route 20 is a national highway that runs west out of Tokyo from Nihonbashi in Chūō as far out as Shiojiri in Nagano Prefecture. About 130 kilometres from the highway’s starting point in Tokyo is Kofu City. Known for its onsen, or hot spring bath and the 400-year-old Maizuru Castle Kofu City has definitely got its historical charms, but Katsuya Tomita’s Off Highway 20 shows us an entirely different side that tourists and everyday Japanese never see. Hisashi (Hitoshi Ito) is bumbling street thug who huffs paint thinner and hangs out with the local yakuza. When he’s not doing that he’s at the pachinko parlour with his girlfriend Junko looking for the machine that will bring him the big jackpot. Junko is a drop out from nursing college who’d love to leave this lifestyle behind. She’s convinced if she marries Hisashi that he’ll be able to leave his life of crime behind, but it doesn’t help that she’s just as hooked on pachinko as he is and her best friend is a speed freak. Like a Jim Jarmusch film crossed with Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, Off Highway 20 takes us into the debauched heights of a group of low-lifes living somewhere on the other side of Japan’s national dream.

Director: Katsuya Tomita

Producer: Katsuya Tomita & Atsuko Ohno

Screenplay: Katsuya Tomita & Toranosuke Aizawa

Cinematographer: Yoshiko Takano

Editor: Katsuya Tomita

Music: Zahita

Cast: Hitoshi Ito, Tsuyoshi Takano, Rimi, Masahide Nishimura

Released: 2007

Running time: 77 minutes

Trailer / Official Website

Director’s Bio

Born in 1972 in Yamanashi Prefecture Katsuya Tomita originally wanted to have a career in music, but after graduating from Tokai University the life of a professional musician proved difficult. His interest shifted to filmmaking. In 2003, while working as a deliveryman he shot his feature debut On the Cloud in 8mm. This film won him a prize from the Film School of Tokyo. With the prize money he made his sophomore film Off Highgway 20 that focuses on the low-lifes living on the margins of Kofu City, the place of Tomita’s birth.