APM - Asian Project Market

 

Back to list Five Minutes to Tomorrow

Director’s Profile

Yukisada Isao was born in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, in 1968. He made his feature-film directing debut with Open House (1997). His second film, Sunflower, won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Busan International Film Festival 2000. He won numerous awards with Go (2001), including the Japan Academy Prize for the Best Director. With subsequent films Crying out Love in the Center of the World, Year One in the North, Snowy Love Fall in Spring, and Closed Diary, he cemented his status as a hitmaker. In 2010, he won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival for Parade. That same year, he directed a segment of Camellia, a three-story omnibus film with directors from Korea and Thailand helming the other segments. The project was commissioned by the Busan International Film Festival, and was the closing film at the Busan International Film Festival 2010. His segment Kamome was his first international project, and was shot entirely in Busan.

Synopsis

Ryo, a clockmaker living in Taipei, meets a beautiful woman named Maggie in a chance encounter. Maggie turns out to have an identical twin, Michelle, who is an actress and engaged to a man named Leon. The sisters have displayed identical tastes from a young age – they always find themselves drawn to the same things. Although they have only just met, Maggie decides to recruit Ryo to help find an unexpected present for Michelle. Despite the odd encounter, Ryo is entranced by this strange and beautiful woman. The twin sisters, who resemble each other so strikingly, occasionally pretend to be one another to confuse Ryo. However, as Ryo and Maggie grow closer, he becomes aware of the darkness within Maggie’s heart. Maggie loves Michelle as if she were a part of herself. Yet, the twins’ tendency to love the same things means that Maggie is also in love with Leon, and is fiercely jealous of Michelle as a result. Ryo quietly accepts this, and he and Maggie become lovers. Just before Michelle’s wedding, the sisters go on an overseas trip together. There, they get into an accident, and Maggie dies. A devastated Michelle returns to Taipei alone, resumes her acting work, and marries Leon. Ryo hides his memories of Maggie in his heart and returns to his monotonous, solitary life. A year later, Ryo is suddenly contacted by Leon. He wants Ryo to see Michelle. Ryo is surprised to see Leon’s gaunt and agonised face. Since the accident, Leon has been plagued with a suspicion: was it Michelle, not Maggie, who died in the accident, and has Maggie been pretending to be Michelle since? Aware of Leon’s wariness towards her, Michelle herself is in a state of confusion, no longer sure of her own identity. Ryo tries to convince Leon that “she” is Michelle, but Leon ends up leaving her. Sometime later, “she” comes back to Ryo once again. Though he is no longer completely sure he knows who she is, he welcomes her back all the same, easing her anxiety about her identity. Wrapped in this warmth, she is finally able to sleep soundly. They fall sleep in his shop surrounded by clocks, and time passes steadily and quietly. Amid the never-ending gentle tick-tocking of the clocks, the night grows ever closer to a new tomorrow, a tomorrow that comes at the end of sadness.

Achievements

2014 Busan International Film Festival
2014 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival
Released in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan

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