Film Screening

The Lion Standing in the Wind 

Sunday, February 7, 2016
2 PM & 6 PM

The Aratani Theatre

U.S. Premiere in Japanese w/English Subtitles

Synopsis:
In 1987, a Japanese doctor, Koichiro (Takao Osawa), is dispatched by a university hospital to a research facility in Kenya, Africa. This is a dream posting for Koichiro, whose medical career was inspired by Albert Schweitzer, a lifelong medical missionary in Africa. This assignment, however, also meant a long separation from his girlfriend, Takako, also a doctor, who had taken over her father’s practice on a remote island in Japan.

The idealistic Koichiro is soon requested to work for one month at the local Red Cross Hospital.
He is shocked by the overwhelming numbers of wounded child soldiers who are drugged and forced into combat, and decides to stay at this hospital. Dispatched from Japan to the same hospital is an extremely capable nurse Wakako (Satomi Ishihara), and while butting heads, the two develop a bond of mutual respect. Welcoming the wounded boy soldiers with a warm “Okay! Daijobu!” Koichiro becomes not only their trusted doctor, but also their friend.

One day, a child soldier named Ndung’u is carried into the hospital. Suffering from gunshot wounds, Ndung’u’s greater trauma was witnessing his parents’ massacre in front of his own eyes. Drugs mask his deep emotional scars. Koichiro confronts the boy’s physical and emotional wounds head on, but…

This inspirational story recounts the “baton of hope” passed on by a Japanese doctor in the magnificent setting of Kenya.

Director:Takashi Miike

CastTakao Osawa, Satomi Ishihara, Yoko Maki,
Masato Hagiwara, Ryohei Suzuki,  Ayako Fujitani,Kumi Nakamura, Hajime Yamazaki, Renji Ishibashi, Erick Oketch, Patrik Oketch, Nick Reeding, Lydia Gitachu