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BEIJING WATERMELON
1989
Director
Nobuhiko Obayashi
Starring
Bengal
Masako Motai
Yasufumi Hayashi
Toru Minegishi
Runtime
135 minutes
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A lesser-seen, gentle masterwork from director Nobuhiko Obayashi (HOUSE), BEIJING WATERMELON is a warm, bustling, slice-of-life picture, based on the real-life story of a Tokyo greengrocer who put his own livelihood at risk to extend help to a succession of poor Chinese exchange students in Japan. The film is a tender, populist drama brimming with anarchic, comic energy and is presented here in a vital new restoration.
Shunzo (Bengal) and his wife Michi (Masako Motai) run a beloved greengrocer on the outskirts of Tokyo. When Lee, a struggling exchange student from China, visits the shop but is unable to afford the produce, an uneasy relationship sprouts. Begrudgingly, Shunzo agrees to lower his prices. Soon, Lee’s classmates begin frequenting the shop. As Shunzo’s generosity sneaks up on him and strains his family’s welfare, he confronts his role as surrogate father to his newfound Chinese friends.
Shot between May - July of 1989 and addressing the historically charged notion of a Sino-Japanese friendship, this masterpiece from director Obayashi chronicles the end of a decade marked by the Japanese economic bubble and the brutal close of possibility in China. A delicate elegy to the Chinese students of its time, BEIJING WATERMELON finds Obayashi at his most modern, channeling the style of Yasujiro Ozu, while his experimental flourishes provide the perfect disruption, inviting viewers to fill in the blanks of history.
Shunzo (Bengal) and his wife Michi (Masako Motai) run a beloved greengrocer on the outskirts of Tokyo. When Lee, a struggling exchange student from China, visits the shop but is unable to afford the produce, an uneasy relationship sprouts. Begrudgingly, Shunzo agrees to lower his prices. Soon, Lee’s classmates begin frequenting the shop. As Shunzo’s generosity sneaks up on him and strains his family’s welfare, he confronts his role as surrogate father to his newfound Chinese friends.
Shot between May - July of 1989 and addressing the historically charged notion of a Sino-Japanese friendship, this masterpiece from director Obayashi chronicles the end of a decade marked by the Japanese economic bubble and the brutal close of possibility in China. A delicate elegy to the Chinese students of its time, BEIJING WATERMELON finds Obayashi at his most modern, channeling the style of Yasujiro Ozu, while his experimental flourishes provide the perfect disruption, inviting viewers to fill in the blanks of history.