Akio Fujimoto

Akio Fujimoto

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Along the Sea 2020 (8)

Phuong, An, and Nhu are Vietnamese women in their early 20s. The three become illegal residents in Japan after escaping from their workplace as technical trainees. An contacts a broker to help them find work. The broker takes them to a fisherman's ice-covered hut where they can stay in exchange for labour. They are happy because, as well as finding a job, they have also doubled their salary. As they start their work, Phuong suddenly falls, stricken with severe pain. Worried, An and Nhu take Phuong to a hospital, but they are refused admission for not having an ID card.
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Passage of Life 2017 (6)

Burmese boy Kaung and his family emigrated to Japan with the hope for a better life. They have lived in Tokyo for years, but never obtained a visum. The daily strain of their illegal residence eventually starts to tear the family apart.
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Bleached Bones Avenue 2020

Myanmar-based director Fujimoto returns after his documentary-like feature drama Passage of Life (JC 2018) with an affective, drama-like documentary. The local Zomi people of the Chin State in western Myanmar dig to recover the remnants of 30,000 Japanese soldiers who fell in the “Battle of Imphal” 75 years ago—a form of daily labor for the Zomi that is complicated by the fact that many Burmese people died in the battle fighting for the Japanese. In this Japanese-Myanmar co-production, Fujimoto trains the camera to unravel the multiple perspectives and consider the act of digging up bones as both a metaphysical and physical act of reconciliation.