Bicycle Sighs

Director: Sono Shion
Screenwriters: Saito Hisashi, Sono Shion

Institute History

  • 1991 Sundance Film Festival

Description

As high-school friends, Kita Shiro and Tamura Keita made a Super-8 movie called The First Base about a group of kids playing baseball. They don't have enough players, so they invent an invisible person who can "hold" a base when its player bats. This invisible man somehow comes to represent their dreams of escape from small-town realities.

Keita, whose father is a doctor, thinks seriously about going to medical school, but Shiro is determined not to lose sight of their high-school dreams. After attempting to run away, Keita suddenly agrees to join Shiro in making a new Super-8 movie. But the filming goes terri-bly wrong, and Keita ends up uncon-scious after falling from a balcony. Shiro decides that this is their last chance to "escape," so he digs out the costume he wore as the "invisible runner" in The First Base and heads for the hospital . . Comment: This film goes beyond nostalgia to something truly anarchic. It manages to be poetic and cool at the same time. That central paradox makes much of it unforgettable; I find myself haunted by particular scenes and shots. It proves yet again that the most memorable films deal with things that cannot be expressed in words.

— Yamakawa Naoto (1990)

Screening Details

As you use our Online Archives, please understand that the information presented from Festivals, Labs, and other activities is taken directly from official publications from each year. While this information is limited and doesn't necessarily represent the full list of participants (e.g. actors and crew), it is the list given to us by the main film/play/project contact at the time, based on the space restrictions of our publications. Each entry in the Online Archives is meant as a historical record of a particular film, play, or project at the time of its involvement with Sundance Institute. For this reason, we can only amend an entry if a name is misspelled, or if the entry does not correctly reflect the original publication. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected]