Riceballs
Ajyal Competition - Ajyal Youth Film Festival 2016
Shingo Usami / Short Narrative / Australia / 2015 / 10 min / Colour / DCP2K / In English, Japanese / Arabic, English subtitles / Gulf Premiere
Rated: Parental guidance is advised. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
Synopsis
Kenji has lost his wife and Josh has lost his mother, and this father-son duo is not finding it easy to communicate without her. In taking over the day-to-day care of his boy, Kenji finds himself relying on Japanese rather than Australian culture – and this is perhaps nowhere more apparent than in Josh’s lunchbox. At first, Josh craves nothing more than his mother’s OzEmite sandwiches, but eventually Kenji has a creative brainwave that gets the mourning pair’s lives back on track.
About the Director
Shingo Usami has acted extensively for film, television and onstage in Australia since 1998. His theatre credits include the Australian tour of ‘Miss Saigon’, ‘Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes’, ‘Coup d’Etat’, and the Griffin Theatre Company’s ‘The Floating World’. His screen credits include ‘Curtin’ (2007), ‘Broken Sun’ (2010), ‘The Pacific’ (2010), ‘Red Dog’ (2011), ‘Emperor’ (2012), ‘The Wolverine’ (2013), ‘Backyard Ashes’ (2013), ‘Paper Planes’ (2014) and ‘Unbroken’ (2014).
Credits
- Director
- Shingo Usami
- Screenwriter
- Shingo Usami
- Producer
- Hiroshi Kasuga, Shingo Usami
- Editor
- Romain Mongin
- Music
- Jane Belfrage, Greg Nishimura-Parke
- Cinematographer
- Ella Gibbins
- Production Company
- Metro Screen
- Cast
- Shingo Usami, Tatsuo, Cat Martin, Yoko Nishimura-Parke, Benjamin Stubbs-Goulston, Joshua Stubbs-Goulston