Untamagiru ( Okinawan: , ''untamagiruu'') is a 1989

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese film directed by

Gō Takamine (sometimes credited as Tsuyoshi Takamine) is an Okinawan director of fiction films, documentaries and experimental films. Born on Ishigaki Island and raised in Naha, Takamine went to university in Kyoto and there began making 8mm films. He made hi ...

. It is a magical realist story of the legendary

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

n hero Untamagiru participating in efforts to form an independent Okinawa before the island was returned to

in 1972. Many of the characters speak in the

Okinawan language The Okinawan language (, , , ) or Central Okinawan, is a Northern Ryukyuan languages, Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the Okinawa Island, island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama Islands, Ker ...

and thus mainland Japanese spectators needed subtitles to understand it.

Cast

* Chikako Aoyama * Kaoru Kobayashi *

John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and ''L ...

Jun Togawa is a Japanese singer, musician and actress. Her close friends over the years include Susumu Hirasawa. Career After gaining attention a guest singer for the New Wave band Halmens and her acting roles in Japanese dramas and commercials for th ...

Awards and nominations

14th

Hochi Film Award The are film-specific prizes awarded by the ''Hochi Shimbun , previously known as , is a Japanese-language daily sports newspaper. In 2002, it had a circulation of a million copies a day. It is an affiliate newspaper of ''Yomiuri Shimbun''. ...

*Won: Best Film

References

External links

* 1989 films Films directed by Gō Takamine 1980s Japanese-language films Films set in Okinawa Prefecture 1980s Japanese films {{1980s-Japan-film-stub