In Nara prefecture’s Kawakami Village, the Japanese inn ‘Asahikan’, stands among the mountains. It is here that NARAtive’s first Japanese director, Daichi Murase, depicts the story of a family that runs a Japanese inn. This documentary captures the passion behind the challenges he faced in this land surrounded by deep greenery and fog.
- Director：Bilal Kawazoe
- Japan
- 2022
- 30min.
- color
- -
- Japanese
- ENG Sub.
Born in Kobe, Japan, Bilal is of Japanese-Pakistani descent. He studied video production and film at Visual Arts Osaka. His first short film went on to be accepted at multiple film festivals. Bilal then began his career as an on-set interpreter and assistant director. This led him to learn and work closely with renowned filmmakers and internationally acclaimed auteurs such as Naomi Kawase. His second short film ‘WHOLE’ (’19), a story about the struggles of multiracial people living in Japan, won the Japan Cuts Special Mention Award at the 14th Osaka Asian Film Festival. The film was officially invited to screen in New York’s JAPAN CUTS 2019, the largest Japanese film festival in North America, and made a theatrical debut in 2021. He currently works as a freelance director, and is preparing his first feature film.
