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Back to list SEPTEMBER 1923 (aka People’s Violence)

Director’s Profile

After quitting a TV production company, Mori Tatsuya debuted as a documentary filmmaker with A (1998), depicting the followers of Aum Shinrikyo (a pseudo-religious cult) following the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. It was released in theaters and screened at numerous international film festivals, including Berlin International Film Festival 1999. He also directed documentary Songs Banned from Broadcasting (1999), and documentary film A2 (2001), which won the Special Award and the Citizen′s Prize at Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2001. He co-directed 311 (2011) with Watai Takeharu, Matsubayashi Yoju, and Yasuoka Takuji, which was shot in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. He also directed Fake (2016), a film about a plagiarism scandal; and I -Documentary of the Journalist- (2019), featuring Tokyo Shimbun Journalist Mochizuki Isoko. People′s Violence is his first fiction project.

Synopsis

Fifteen poor vendors, of medicine and daily goods, who own no land or property, travel from place to place in search of their bread. Shortly after arriving at Fukudamura (Fukuda Village) in Chiba prefecture, their final destination, the Great Kanto Earthquake strikes just before noon on 1 September 1923, causing unprecedented turmoil. Rumors spread around the region that Koreans have been poisoning wells and attacking the Japanese. The military and police do not deny the rumors and actively encourage many citizens to believe them. Vigilante groups, mainly made up of local soldiers, organize in various places. Amid this chaos, the vendors remain in the village. Since the vendors only speak their own local dialect and cannot communicate well with the villagers, they are mistaken for Koreans during a minor argument. This leads to the Fukudamura Incident, in which the villagers slaughter nine out of the fiftheen vendors. What made the villagers, usually good people, fathers and mothers, behave in such a way and attack the innocent? The film painstakingly depicts the suspicion and discrimination towards Koreans that has taken root in Japan; attitudes underpinned by fear of differences and collective pressure.

Achievements

2023 Busan International Film Festival - New Currents Award
2024 CinemAsia Film Festival
2024 Taipei FIlm Festival
Released in Japan

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