Heaven's Story
Takahisa ZEZE - Japanese Film Director
The Japanese film director Zeze Takahisa’s distinguished career has spanned commercial and independent cinema, fiction and documentary, television and motion pictures, art film and genre movies, mainstream film and erotic cinema. Echoing that, his work has also often focused on those in between, on postmodern nomads who wander between competing identities—national, ethnic, or sexual—on the margins of society. We are pleased to bring this important filmmaker to Yale to present two of his films and conduct workshops with students. Heaven’s Story is his magnum opus, a 4½ hour epic that won multiple awards at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival and was voted the best film of 2010 by Japan’s Film Art magazine. This is only its second screening in North America. No Man’s Land is an example of his early training years in pink film (soft erotica), combining crime, sex and fragmented narration amidst the media politics of the first Gulf War.
Heaven’s Story
Winner of multiple awards at home and abroad, Heaven’s Story interweaves several characters and narratives in an epic tale of murder, revenge, and forgiveness. Filmed independently over 18 months, the film spans several seasons and divergent landscapes to create a passionate and philosophical world that treads between real-life crime and myth.