Anime Director's Talk and Screening: Keiichi Hara @ JFT, Sept. 20

-------------------------------

Director’s Talk and Screening:
Keiichi Hara’s Summer Days With Coo

Tuesday, September 20, 6:30 – 9:45 pm
The Japan Foundation , Toronto

Screening and talk
with Keiichi Hara and Chris MaGee of Toronto J-Film Pow Wow

Address: 131 Bloor St. W. , 2nd Floor of the Colonnade Bldg
Admission: FREE
RSVP: www.jftor.org/whatson/rsvp.php or (416) 966-1600 x102
Film Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Discussion Language: English and Japanese with English translation
Audience: Suitable for ages 10+. Themes of bullying and mild violence may be upsetting for young children.

----------------------------------------------------------
Acclaimed Anime Director Keiichi Hara will be on hand to introduce his 2007 animated film Summer Days with Coo and answer questions from the audience after the film.

Hara's latest film, Colorful, won the Special Distinction and Audience Awards at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Summer Days with Coo (2007, 2’18”)
Koichi Uehara is a fourth grade student living in the suburb of Tokyo . One day, he picks up a large stone which turns out to be a fossil of a baby Kappa (a Japanese mythical water creature) that has been sleeping underground for the past 300 years.

Koichi and the Kappa, whom he names "Coo," become good friends, and Coo starts living with Koichi's family. However, Coo has difficulty adjusting to life in Tokyo and starts to miss his family. On a hot summer day, Koichi and Coo decide to go on an adventurous road trip to find his peers.

Watch the trailer

A labor of love that touches on important contemporary issues such as environmental destruction, bullying, and media overload, this film took director Hara Keiichi five years to make. Hara is known for his work on Crayon Shinchan and Doraemon.