The film “Dear Summer Sister,” made in 1972 by legendary Japanese director Nagisa Oshima, unspooled at the Ryukyu Shinpo Hall on April 19 to a rapt audience. Oshima, who passed away in 2013, was a renowned filmmaker who led Japanese New Wave cinema in the 1950s-70s. This work is extra special for Okinawa because Oshima shot it here in 1972, and it now serves to illustrate how much the region has changed.

The audience in Naha was clearly captivated by the work, both by the story and by seeing areas familiar to them that now look so different. The plot revolves around Momoko (Lily), who is engaged to the older Kosuke (Hosei Komatsu), and the man’s daughter Sunaoko (Hiromi Kurita). The pair head to Okinawa, for Momoko it’s to find Kosuke’s past lover and for Sunaoko it’s to find the son of that lover, who is her half-brother. Eventually they find the woman, Tsuru (Akiko Koyama) and her son Tsuruo (Shuji Ishibashi) and both females feel a romantic attraction to him.

Though Oshima is known for rough, avant-garde work that highlighted, political, personal and philosophical struggles, “Dear Summer Sister” is one of his most conventional films. Shot in a breezy relaxed manner with a handheld camera, we follow the pair searching Naha for the half-brother, when finally their fiancé/father shows up and brings another level of complexity with his old loves and rivalries. Through the streets, bars and beaches we see perplexed Momoko and stubborn Sunaoko (her name is satirical, meaning ‘obedient child’) attempt to find Tsuruo and make sense of the complicated relationship.

After the screening actress Akiko Koyama, who was also Oshima’s wife of 53 years and Shuji Ishibashi took the stage. Ishibashi told the audience “When I acted in this film I was really young, all the staff and Oshima himself really helped me. My impression at that time was more than fiction film Oshima wanted to make a something that would document Okinawa.” Koyama, agreed, “Yes I think he wanted record the place.” Koyama, who starred in many of her husband’s films mused, “Oshima and I didn’t get to travel together much, so when he decided to make a film in Okinawa he was really excited. He wanted to experience the sights, sounds and tastes of the place.”

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