Umi -The Sea-

TYPE: Narrative Feature
GENRE: Drama
STATUS: Pre-Production

LOGLINE

After a tsunami devastate Northern Japan, a spared fisherman learns how to dive to search for the remains of his missing wife but a freak diving accident forces him to reconcile the frail relationship with his daughter.

SYNOPSIS

Umi is a small seaside fishing town in Northern Japan that is attempting to rebuild after a devastating tsunami destroyed its community and washed away its inhabitants. A local abalone fisherman, Kazuo, and his teenage daughter, Naomi, have been spared but they are left to reckon with their fragile relationship that was always held together by Mariko, the mother and wife, who was taken by the sea.

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

I deeply admire the Tohoku (northern Japan) people who choose to live by the wild sea. The ocean is an integral part of their life and livelihood, yet it is governed by no set of rules. It gives and takes, as it pleases. When one of the biggest tsunami in modern history arrived at the shores of northern Japan in 2011 it re-claimed parts of the town and its peoples back into the dark sea. I wondered how fisherman who depended on the sea could go back out into the water, day after day, after it had swept away their loved ones and the only land they have known. How could they not feel betrayed? How was their pride for the sea not replaced with anger and fear? It broke my heart when I heard the true story of two men, whose wife and daughter were swept away while waiting to be rescued standing atop the roof of the bank where they worked. When the two men chose to learn diving to uncover any traces of their loved ones, I was amazed that they chose to heal themselves by diving directly into the mouth of the same sea that stole their loved ones from them. Even if the chance of finding something, anything was slim to none, searching became their way to stay close to the ones they lost. Their deep sea diving journey led me to wonder what it meant to be a survivor, to be the one left standing on the land— the one who was spared. How did these survivors cope with the pain of losing someone who, in one fell swoop, disappeared from this earth. With nothing to bury or say farewell to, I wondered if the survivors could ever find closure, and if so, what did that process look and feel like? I want to understand what it feels like to be at once buoyed and then swallowed by this body of water. How does this floating and sinking sensation change the view of the horizon? Life is never without movement, but when you are constantly searching for something, someone, is that movement pulling you back with the tide or pushing you forward to try to build something new? Maybe, in the water, we find something other than what we are looking for; instead we get a lesson in letting the tide take us where we need to be.

KEY CREW

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