Underground

Darkness and light, reflections and projections, gloomy outlines, a shadow taking the shape of a young woman. Kaori Oda’s Underground gently leads us down into the depths of the caves of Okinawa, superimposing past and present, memory and sensual-haptic experience. The film is a creative expansion of Gama (2023), named after a local term for the caves and tunnel systems. Once again full of experimental and visual mastery, in Underground Oda discovers and peels back the subterranean spaces as a place of transgenerational memory of the battle for Okinawa in April 1945. While “peace guide”" Mitsuo Matsunaga soberly recounts the fates of the civilians who sought refuge here from the bombardment by US troops, the “shadow”, embodied by the young woman, glides through the caves, touching rock faces and traces of the past. Silently, with groping fingers. Kaori Oda superimposes memory culture and historical wounds in magical layers of images. The incomprehensible reports of collective suicide are framed by a sensual soundscape. Underground depicts a life with shadows. (Fabian Tietke, Annina Lehmann)

Kaori Oda, born in Osaka, Japan in 1987, is a filmmaker and artist. In 2016 she completed a Doctor of Liberal Arts in filmmaking in Sarajevo, supervised by Béla Tarr. Aragane (2015), shot in a Bosnian coal mine, premiered at Yamagata International Film Festival. Toward a Common Tenderness (2017) had its world premiere at DOK Leipzig and TS’ONOT / Cenote (2019), shot in underwater caves in Yucatán, premiered in Rotterdam. GAMA (2023) screened at MoMA Doc Fortnight and Cinéma du Réel. Oda received the Nagisa Oshima Prize (2020) and the New Face Award of the Japanese Education Minister (2021).

Director Kaori Oda. Screenplay Kaori Oda. Cinematography Yoshiko Takano. Editing Kaori Oda. Music Miyu Hosoi. Sound Design Iwao Yamazaki. Sound Iwao Yamazaki. Producers Ryohei Tsutsui, Eijun Sugihara. Production company trixta (Yokohama, Japan). With Nao Yoshigai, Mitsuo Matsunaga, Mikie Nishihara, Eiga Matsuo, Hayato Nagasaki.

World sales Parallax Films

Films: 2010: Thus a Noise Speaks. 2014: Ko Oh (short film). 2015: Aragane. 2017: Toward a Common Tenderness. 2019: TS’ONOT / Cenote. 2023: GAMA. 2024: Underground.