Natsuka Kusano

Natsuka Kusano

Birth : , Japan

History

Born in 1985, raised in Kanagawa, Japan. After graduating from Tokai University’s School of Cultural Studies (Department of Creative Writing), Kusano completed the 12th Fiction Course of the Film School of Tokyo. In 2014 she directed her first featurelength film, Antonym (Rasen Ginga), which received the SKIP City Award and Best Director Award at the 11th SKIP City International D-Cinema Festival in Saitama, Japan. Her second feature-length film, Domains, was created on the invitation of Aichi Arts Center, Japan.

Profile

Natsuka Kusano
Natsuka Kusano

Movies

Would You Like to Go to the Cinema Today?
Would You Like to Go to the Cinema Today?
Director
An omnibus movie produced to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Motomachi Eigakan.
Domains
Domains
Editor
Aki and Naoko are childhood friends who are drifting apart as adults. Immersed in her family life, Naoko now has a husband and daughter; Aki, on the other hand, remains single and is on leave from work due to a personal crisis. The plot might sound familiar but it has never been told like this. The director Kusano Natsuka stages the interactions through an actors’ table-read and, as the lines are repeated, the scenes gradually develop into on-location conversations. Moreover, she repositions the dramatic peak of the story to the beginning: Aki has murdered Naoko’s daughter.
Domains
Domains
Director
Aki and Naoko are childhood friends who are drifting apart as adults. Immersed in her family life, Naoko now has a husband and daughter; Aki, on the other hand, remains single and is on leave from work due to a personal crisis. The plot might sound familiar but it has never been told like this. The director Kusano Natsuka stages the interactions through an actors’ table-read and, as the lines are repeated, the scenes gradually develop into on-location conversations. Moreover, she repositions the dramatic peak of the story to the beginning: Aki has murdered Naoko’s daughter.
Antonym
Antonym
Writer
Antonym is a slow-burning drama about human connection, told through the story of two women who come together to write a radio drama. Vain and self-centred Aya is forced to find a writing partner to work on the radio script she is developing. Heavily reluctant to collaborate, she partners shy co-worker Sachiko, who eagerly embraces the project. Peppered with coincidental occurrences and failed relationships, and powered by the friction and growing friendship between the women as they work on the script, Antonym is as much about the inevitability of human connection as it is about the necessity of it.
Antonym
Antonym
Director
Antonym is a slow-burning drama about human connection, told through the story of two women who come together to write a radio drama. Vain and self-centred Aya is forced to find a writing partner to work on the radio script she is developing. Heavily reluctant to collaborate, she partners shy co-worker Sachiko, who eagerly embraces the project. Peppered with coincidental occurrences and failed relationships, and powered by the friction and growing friendship between the women as they work on the script, Antonym is as much about the inevitability of human connection as it is about the necessity of it.