{ "id": "epswthbhxj", "slug": "himizu", "title": "Himizu (ヒミズ)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations", "label": "Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.comics-and-graphic-novel-adaptations", "label": "Films based on comics and graphic novels", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.comics-and-graphic-novel-adaptations" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020: Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "path": [ { "id": "geo.asia", "label": "Asia (other)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001", "label": "Asia (other) · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.asia.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Himizu (ヒミズ) is a 2011 Japanese drama by Sion Sono adapting Minoru Furuya's manga, starring Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido as teenagers in post-3.11 Japan; both won Venice's Marcello Mastroianni Award.", "snippet": "Himizu (ヒミズ) is a 2011 Japanese drama by Sion Sono adapting Minoru Furuya's manga, starring Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido as teenagers in post-3.11 Japan; both won Venice's Marcello Mastroianni Award.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.adaptations.comics-and-graphic-novel-adaptations", "markdown": "# Himizu (ヒミズ)\n\n**Himizu** (ヒミズ) is a 2011 Japanese drama film directed and written by [Sion Sono](https://www.edgepedia.org/sion-sono) (園子温), adapted from the manga of the same title by Minoru Furuya (古谷実). It follows two 15-year-old classmates, Yuichi Sumida and Keiko Chazawa, whose lives collapse in the aftermath of the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and commentators have described it as the first major Japanese film to incorporate the disaster into its story.[1](https://www.filmcomment.com/reviews-guilty-of-romance-himizu/) The film premiered in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival, where its two leads shared the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor and actress, and opened in Japan on 14 January 2012.[2](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=341) • [3](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/157058)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and writer | Sion Sono (園子温), his first feature based on an existing work rather than an original script[4](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/) |\n| Source material | Manga by Minoru Furuya, serialized in Young Magazine from 2001 and collected in four volumes[5](https://press.moviewalker.jp/news/article/22501/) |\n| Japanese release | 14 January 2012, 129 minutes, distributed by Gaga, rated PG-12[3](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/157058) |\n| Lead cast | Shota Sometani (染谷将太) as Yuichi Sumida; Fumi Nikaido (二階堂ふみ) as Keiko Chazawa[4](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/) |\n| Major award | Marcello Mastroianni Award for both leads, 68th Venice International Film Festival, September 2011[2](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=341) |\n| Disaster setting | Script rewritten after 3.11; shot in devastated areas including Fukushima and Ishinomaki[6](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/himizu-love-and-madness-in-posttsunami-japan-2351320.html) • [7](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?doi=36a24a8a89e8333f77f2d4172ad7322c00d6e5a2&repid=rep1&type=pdf) |\n| Critical reception | 100% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes from 21 professional reviews[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/himizu) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and characters\n\nYuichi Sumida, a junior high school student, has one ambition: to become an ordinary, unremarkable adult who bothers nobody. He lives at his family's rental boat shop with a neglectful mother, and the title refers to the himizu, the shrew mole endemic to Japan, whose quiet underground existence Sumida holds up as his ideal.[4](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/) • [9](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/himizu-film-review-by-anton-bitel) His classmate Keiko Chazawa, who dreams of loving and being loved, pursues him enthusiastically despite his indifference; she covers her room with transcriptions of his sayings and calls herself, at one point, his stalker.[4](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/) • [10](https://www.eiga-square.jp/title/himizu)\n\nSumida's home life is violent. His estranged father returns only when he needs money, beating and cursing his son and telling him he should have died; his mother runs off with a lover, leaving the boy alone to run the boat business.[4](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/) Keiko's wealthy parents are no kinder: they build their daughter a noose and tell her she will use it when it is finished.[11](https://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/reviews/2012/04/11/himizu/) After one final drunken assault, Sumida impulsively kills his father, abandons his dream of ordinariness, and sets out to punish people he judges to be evil, descending into violence and madness while Keiko tries to pull him back.[4](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/)\n\nAround the two teenagers gathers a band of people displaced by the disaster, led by Yoruno Shozo (Tetsu Watanabe), a former company president who camps near the boat shop and addresses the schoolboy respectfully as \"Sumida-san\".[10](https://www.eiga-square.jp/title/himizu) The supporting cast includes Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Ken Mitsuishi as Sumida's father, Denden as the yakuza creditor Kaneko, and Yosuke Kubozuka as a pickpocket.[12](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2012/archive/himizu/)\n\n## The 3.11 rewrite\n\nThe film was planned as a faithful adaptation of Furuya's manga, and Sono's screenplay was completed shortly before the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck. Sono rewrote it to set the story in post-disaster Japan, incorporating location filming in devastated areas, including [Fukushima Prefecture](https://www.edgepedia.org/fukushima-prefecture) and the ruins of Ishinomaki in northern Japan.[6](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/himizu-love-and-madness-in-posttsunami-japan-2351320.html) • [1](https://www.filmcomment.com/reviews-guilty-of-romance-himizu/) The turnaround was fast enough that the film screened in Venice competition only six months after the disaster, and commentators have described it as the first major Japanese film to fold the events of 3.11 into its narrative.[11](https://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/reviews/2012/04/11/himizu/) • [1](https://www.filmcomment.com/reviews-guilty-of-romance-himizu/)\n\nThe adaptation also changed the source material in other ways: the character of Yoruno, a classmate in the manga, was substantially aged up, and the ending was altered, with Sono saying that without the disaster he would likely have stayed closer to the original.[10](https://www.eiga-square.jp/title/himizu) • [13](https://mastered.jp/feature/shion-sono-himizu/) Sono framed the change in generational terms, saying that the \"endless everyday\" of 1990s Japan had ended and the country had entered an \"endless non-everyday\".[13](https://mastered.jp/feature/shion-sono-himizu/)\n\n## Style and reception\n\nThe film mixes stylized violence, manga-flavored comedy, and classical music, with Mozart's Requiem and [Samuel Barber](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-barber)'s Adagio for Strings recurring on the soundtrack, and a poem by the fifteenth-century French poet [François Villon](https://www.edgepedia.org/francois-villon), the \"Ballade des pendus\", recited as a thematic refrain.[14](https://www.screendaily.com/himizu/5031648.article) • [10](https://www.eiga-square.jp/title/himizu) Reviewers noted the tonal swings between nasty violence, teen romance, and existential dialogue, and generally credited the two lead performances with holding the film together.[14](https://www.screendaily.com/himizu/5031648.article) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 100% Tomatometer from 21 reviews, with a critics consensus describing a coming-of-age story that explores uncomfortable ideas on a national scale; the audience Popcornmeter stands at 71%.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/himizu)\n\nBeyond Venice, where both Sometani and Nikaido won the Marcello Mastroianni Award, the film screened at Toronto, Busan, and Sitges in 2011 and won the International Critics Prize at the Deauville Asian Film Festival, the 7th Orbit Prize at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival in 2012.[12](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2012/archive/himizu/) • [4](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/) Sometani and Nikaido also received Newcomer of the Year awards at the Japan Academy Prize.[10](https://www.eiga-square.jp/title/himizu)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Reviews: Guilty of Romance & Himizu, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/reviews-guilty-of-romance-himizu/)\n2. [Himizu, The Japan Society Review](https://www.japansociety.org.uk/review?review=341)\n3. [ヒミズ, 映画ナタリー](https://natalie.mu/eiga/film/157058)\n4. [HIMIZU, GAGA Corporation](https://www.gaga.co.jp/intls/himizu/)\n5. [古谷実のコミック「ヒミズ」を園子温監督×染谷将太×二階堂ふみで映画化！, MOVIE WALKER PRESS](https://press.moviewalker.jp/news/article/22501/)\n6. ['Himizu': love and madness in post-tsunami Japan, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/himizu-love-and-madness-in-posttsunami-japan-2351320.html)\n7. [Furukawa and Denison, International Journal of Cultural Studies](https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?doi=36a24a8a89e8333f77f2d4172ad7322c00d6e5a2&repid=rep1&type=pdf)\n8. [Himizu, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/himizu)\n9. [Himizu (2011) Movie Review, Eye For Film](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/himizu-film-review-by-anton-bitel)\n10. [ヒミズ, 映画スクエア](https://www.eiga-square.jp/title/himizu)\n11. [Himizu, Electric Sheep](https://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/reviews/2012/04/11/himizu/)\n12. [Himizu, New Zealand International Film Festival 2012 archive](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2012/archive/himizu/)\n13. [『ヒミズ』公開直前！ 監督 園子温 単独インタビュー, Mastered](https://mastered.jp/feature/shion-sono-himizu/)\n14. [Himizu, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/himizu/5031648.article)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Adaptations of literature, stage, and other media › Films based on comics and graphic novels*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/himizu", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/himizu.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Himizu (ヒミズ)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/himizu. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Himizu (ヒミズ)](https://www.edgepedia.org/himizu)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/himizu](https://www.edgepedia.org/himizu). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Himizu (ヒミズ)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/himizu. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Himizu is a 2011 Japanese drama by Sion Sono adapting Minoru Furuya's manga, starring Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido as teenagers in post-3.11 Japan; both won Venice's Marcello Mastroianni Award." }