69

Plot

In Sasebo (on the Island of Kyushu, Southern Japan), in 1969, inspired by the iconoclastic examples of Dylan, Kerouac, Godard and Che, a band of mildly disaffected teenagers led by the smilingly charismatic Ken decide to shake up "the establishment", i.e., their repressive school and the nearby US military installation. A series of anarchic pranks meets with varying levels of success, until Ken and his friends focus their energies on mounting a multimedia "happening" to combine music, film and theater.

Cast

Satoshi Tsumabuki as Kensuke "Ken" Yazaki

Masanobu Andō as Tadashi "Adama" Yamada

Yuta Kanai as Manabu Iwase

Asami Mizukawa as Mie Nagayama

Rina Ohta as Kazuko "Lady Jane" Matsui

Yoko Mitsuya as Yumi Sato

Hirofumi Arai as Bancho

Hideko Hara as Ken's mother

Ittoku Kishibe as Matsunaga sensei

Jun Kunimura as Sasaki

Kyohei Shibata as Ken's father

Kenny Scott as military officer

Awards and nominations

47th Blue Ribbon Awards

10 best Japanese movies (won)

Nominations: Best Director, Best Actor

29th Hochi Film Award for Best Actor (Satoshi Tsumabaki) (won)

19th Takasaki Film Festival: Best Supporting Actor Award (Kyohei Shibata) (won)

Reception

A review on Asian Movie Pulse concluded, "“69” is not the best novel of Ryu Murakami neither the best film of Sang-il Lee, and the fact that a film about the 60's is stripped of any elements of nostalgia definitely works against it. However, through Tsumabuki's charisma, the in-your-face buffooness and the music ends up being entertaining and quite pleasant to both eyes and ears." while Variety stated, "Helmer Sang-il Lee, a third-generation Korean-Japanese, does a serviceable, if undistinctive, job in the director’s chair. Compared with other films based on the work of Murakami (Audition, Tokyo Decadence), this is considerably tamer fare. Perfs are likable but generic, and tech credits professional but uninspiring."