A Fugitive From the Past – Staff Picks

Staff Picks – Pascal Plante (associate programmer)

In 1947, three men are witnessed fleeing a burning pawn shop as a freak typhoon sends a passenger ferry running between Hokkaido and mainland Japan plunging to the ocean depths. The police suspect theft and arson, and when Detective Yumisaka (Junzaburo Ban) discovers the burned remains of a boat and the corpses of two men, he sets about tracking the shadowy third figure. Meanwhile, the mysterious Takichi Inukai (Rentaro Mikuni) takes shelter with a prostitute, Yae (Sachiko Hidari), a brief encounter that will come to define both of their lives. A decade later, long after the trail has gone cold, Yumisaka is called back by his successor Detective Ajimura (Ken Takakura) as two new dead bodies are found. Widely considered one of the finest Japanese films of the 20th century, Tomu Uchida’s A FUGITIVE FROM THE PAST is an unsettling karmic allegory of a man’s struggle to escape his past sins.