Bizan


Bizan is a 2007 Japanese movie based on a novel by the same name by Japanese singer, Masashi Sada. It was directed by Isshin Inudou.

Plot

Sakiko, works independently at a travel agent in Tokyo. She was raised by her mother, Tatsuko, is hospitalized, Sakiko returns to her hometown Tokushima on Shikoku. The town is famous for its annual Awa Dance Festival. She is told by doctor, Terasawa Daisuke, that her mother has terminal cancer.
The Awa Dance Festival is the focal point for the mother and daughter, as the mother would like to see the dancers 'for the last time.
Although Sakiko does not feel comfortable to be with Tatsuko, she nurses her mother in the hospital everyday. Encouraged by Terasawa.
The return to Tokushima and her proximity to Ryuko forces Sakiko to reflect upon her relationship with her mother. Raised without a father, Sakiko felt her mother was cold, brusque and unloving toward her. However, when her mother's friend gives Sakiko a box filled with love letters from her father to her mother, Sakiko begins to gain a new perspective on her mother. Sakiko had been told that her father had died, but she learns that he still is alive and working as a doctor in Tokyo. Sakiko goes back to visit him only to find herself tongue-tied in his presence. Sakiko returns to Tokushima to take her mother one last time to see the city's great Awa Odori festival. There the film's events reach a culmination through which we gain a new understanding of how an unmarried mother has shown her undying love for her daughter.
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