Soichi Ito

Movies

Yuntanza Okinawa
Narrator
38 years after the Pacific War, 84 victims of a mass suicide ordered by the Japanese military were uncovered in a cave in Yomitan village. This film contains the testimonies of some of the survivors, the story of a sculptor leading bereaved family members in creating a statue of peace, and the resistance of a group of girls against the raising of the Japanese flag at the high school graduation ceremony.
Ningen no machi
Narrator
Interviews with Burakumin in Osaka, victims of discrimination
The Minamata Mural
Narrator
After a handful of groundbreaking films detailing the tragedy and suffering of the mercury-poisoned Japanese town of Minamata, documentary master Noriaki Tsuchimoto revisits the subject of Minamata through the eyes of the celebrated husband-and-wife painting duo Iri and Toshi Maruki. Tsuchimoto follows the Marukis from their quaint homestead studio, where they paint slews of ghastly, psychotropic mural panels depicting the effects of Minamata disease, to the streets of Minamata, where they meet and paint portraits of several victims of mercury poisoning.
Message from Minamata to the World
Narrator
An update to the story of Minamata disease, going up to 1976
The Gentle Japanese
Noguchi
A survivor of the tragic mass suicides on Tokashiki Island in 1945 falls in love with a near-mute motorcycle engineer.