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The latest
film from director Ryuichi Hiroki, whose 2003 film,
Vibrator, gained widespread recognition at film festivals
in Japan and internationally. Silent Big Man is based
on a novel of the same name by Naoki Prize-winning
author, Shizuka Ijuin which itself won the prestigious
Shibata Renzaburo Prize.
In
about 1960, a young teacher, Seigo, arrives at a school
of only seven pupils on a small island. The children
are anxious to meet their new teacher, but he doesn’t
speak a word. Instead, he writes on the blackboard
“I cannot speak, but I will work hard with you
all”. The children are surprised, but they soon
become attached to their new teacher, naming him ‘Locomotive
Teacher’ because he looks big and strong like
the picture of a locomotive hanging in their classroom.
The bond
between Seigo and his pupils grows day by day, until
tragedy strikes the island, and one pupil, Shuhei,
loses his father when his fishing boat sinks. Seigo
helps Shuhei to accept reality, and realise that true
strength is within oneself. However before he leaves
the island, Seigo too will have to confront his own
memories of the past to show his pupils what true
courage is. |
