KAIDAN IKITEIRU KOHEIJI

A perfect example of restraint, nearly all the cuts in the film were shot using fixed camera angles. On top of that Takizawa Osamu, an old friend of Nakagawas, advised not to use too many long takes throughout the film. Beginning with the use of only three characters (and not a single black cat), the filmmaker imposed a variety of constraints on the film throughout its production. <i>Ikiteiru Koheiji</i> could easily be called an experiment in stoicism.

(Mori Takuya, in: «Art Theatre», No. 151)