''Firefly'' (

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

: 組画, Hepburn: ''Hotaru'') is a 2000 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by

Naomi Kawase is a Japanese film director. She was also known as , with her former husband's surname. Many of her works have been documentaries, including ''Embracing'', about her search for the father who abandoned her as a child, and ''Katatsumori'', about ...

. It was her second drama feature after her 1997 debut drama feature '' Suzaku'' and won the FIPREPSCI Prize at its 2000 debut at Locarno for its "personal and universal approach towards the conflict between tradition and modernity". Like ''Suzaku'', the film explores life in rural Japan and draws on Kawase's background as a documentary filmmaker. Together, these two films established Kawase as one of Japan's key contemporary female directors.

Plot

Ayako, a striptease dancer, falls in and out of a relationship with Daiji, a potter, and returns to her childhood hometown in

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...

province, Japan.

Cast

Yūko Nakamura is a Japanese actress. She won the award for best actress at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema 2001 for the film Firefly'' (Hotaru) ''and the award for best supporting actress at the 28th Yokohama Film Festival for ...

as Ayako * Toshiya Nagasawa as Daiji * Miyako Yamaguchi as Yasuko

Reception

Winner of the FIPREPSCI Prize and the C.I.C.A.E. Award at the Festival del film, Locarno, 2000.

won Best Actress at BAFICI (Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival), 2001.

References

{{reflist

External links

Firefly
at

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

HOTARU / Firefly
at the Japanese Film Database

(in English) 2000 films Japanese romantic drama films 2000s Japanese films