Screening of the DIY film “The Returned Miyata Busters Co.” will begin on December 3 at the Motomachi Movie Theater (4 Motomachi-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe; tel 078-366-2636 ), a mini-theater in Motomachi Shopping Arcade 4-chome, Kobe City.
Scenes from the Okinawa International Movie Festival. (From left) Yuki Mizuno and Jun Sada
This is the first screening of this film in Hyogo Prefecture. Directed and written by Atsuya Sakata. Miyata Busters Co.”, which Mr. Sakata positions as a pilot version of the film, is a 19-minute short film released in 2019, which was selected as a “promising new director” at the Kanazawa Film Festival 2019 and also attracted attention at 13 film festivals nationwide.
In 2021, through crowdfunding, “Miyata Busters, Inc.” will be reconstructed into a 74-minute feature film as “Miyata Busters, Inc. – The Great Feature Film. The “Return of the Miyata Busters” is a re-edited version of the feature film, with Kazuyoshi Okuyama of the distribution company “Team Okuyama” as the producer.
The film features Kobe natives Jun Sada and Yuki Mizuno, Naoya Watanabe, Mizuho Osu, Yumiko Teradance, Aio Yamamoto, Marina Yoshimi, and Daichi Sera, as well as a special appearance by Yoshiko Miyazaki.
The film, which depicts the activities of a small business engaged in the extermination of space organisms, features buildings and props that appear in the film that are handmade from scratch from materials purchased at a home improvement store, in order to make the world view exactly as imagined. The “Miyata Busters’ office,” the building itself, is a large set measuring more than 10 meters in length and width, and took six months to make. The symbolic “Busters company car” is also a full-size sculpture, and was made by carving out Styrofoam.
Mr. Sakata said, “I thought that since they were able to make so many buildings in the primitive age, they could make anything in the modern age. By creating the world of the movie on the set, I made reality as close to fiction as possible. I hope people will come to the theater to see how much of the film is handmade.
After the screenings on December 3 and 4, the director, Mr. Sakata, will give a stage greeting in front of the screen. The speakers on the 3rd are Jun Sada, Yuki Mizuno, Marin Makino, and Daichi Shimabara, and on the 4th are Jun Sada, Marin Makino, Takuto Okui, and Shoichi Higuchi.
Screening time is from 7:20pm. Prices are ¥1,700 for adults, ¥1,000 for students, and ¥1,200 for those aged 60 and over.