Our Brief Eternity

“‘Our Brief Eternity’ is one of those rare delights: a film that could be called science fiction, but eschews the all-too familiar mold and restrictions of genre movies.” - Marc Saint-Cyr, The Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow

CANADIAN PREMIERE

A mysterious virus known as Emanon is infecting the population. Those afflicted suddenly faint and fall into a coma. A few days later they return to consciousness seemingly without any ill effects except that they have lost their memories, specifically the memory of the person closest and dearest to them. During this epidemic irresponsible playboy Teru (Kouta Kusano) runs into his old girlfriend Mio (Romi), but she doesn’t remember him. Mio has fallen victim to the virus. With the help of a shadowy virologist named Kitsune (portrayed by director Takuya Fukushima) Teru and Mio are forced to start their relationship from scratch. Teru gets a case of cold feet though, and his fear of a stable life causes him to make a drastic decision – to risk infection and his memory.

Our Brief Eternity has received its international debut at the 2009 Tokyo International Film Festival and has subsequently screened at Frankurt am Main’s Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival. A touching human drama shot through with a simple but ingenious “what if?” scenario, Our Brief Eternity is science fiction with a brain and a heart.

Director: Takuya Fukushima

Producer: Mistuhiro Iwamoto & Takuya Fukushima

Screenplay: Takuya Fukushima & Hisato Sakoda

Cinematography: Satoshi Nagano

Music: Jun Sekiguchi & Unnecessary Noise Prohibited

Cast: Kouta Kusano, Romi, Takahiro Iwasaki, Tamaki, Takuya Fukushima, Hiroki Kawano, Eriko Umeda, Shingenori Takeuchi

Released: 2009

Running time: 105 min.

Trailer /  Official Website

Director’s Bio

Takuya Fukushima was born in 1972 in Saitama Prefecture. He studied filmmaking both at Nagoya University and as an assistant to famed punk rock director Sogo Ishii. In 2001 he made his feature directorial debut with the film Prism. Since then he has not only made over 40 short films, including the Naked Over8 series for which he acted as associate producer, but has starred in numerous roles as an actor. Our Brief Eternity, his second feature film, was featured in competition at the 2009 Tokyo International Film Festival’s Japanese Eyes programme.