Matagi (1984)

Original title

マタギ

Directed by

Toshio Gotō

Genre

drama film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 43m

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 5 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

An old bear hunter from a traditional Japanese hunting community sets out to track a giant bear that mauled him years ago. The film follows his solitary journey through the mountains as he confronts the beast and his own past.

slow-burncontemplativesomberearthyvisceralatmosphericblunt

What happens

Matagi (Japanese: マタギ), known in English as The Old Bear Hunter, is a 1982 Japanese docufiction drama film directed by Toshio Gotō and co-written by Gotō with Atsushi Yamatoya. It was Gotō's second film as a director, following Komugīro no tenshi suzume to shōnen. The film depicts the story of a Matagi who sets out to hunt the giant bear that scarred him years earlier. It stars Kō Nishimura in the lead role, in addition to Yoshito Anpo, Yoshio Inaba, Goichi Yamada and Yue Hayashi. The score was composed by Kentarō Haneda. Matagi was theatrically released by SEIDO Productions and Daiei Film on January 25, 1982, in Japan. The film was shown at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival, where it was an honorable mention for the UNICEF Award. Gotō would later direct a spiritual successor to Matagi, known as Itazu Kuma (1987). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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