March 31: ある精肉店のはなし / Tale of a Butcher Shop (Japan, 2013)
Friday, March 31, 4:00pm,
COED 010 TBA, UNC Charlotte Main Campus
Director Aya Hanabusa
Japan, 2013, 108 min.
Japanese with English subtitles
Introduction by Yukiko Yokono, Lecturer of Japanese and presentation by Dr. Maren Ehlers, Assistant Professor, UNC Charlotte Department of History. Discussion will follow screening.
In Kaizuka City, Osaka, the family-run Kitaide butcher shop makes its living by raising and slaughtering cattle, selling the meat. From the moment of tension when the hammer drops on the forehead of the cow, cattle are transformed into meat through practiced movements. This labor, traditionally the work of the Burakumin, the outcastes of feudal Japan, is passed down to the next generation by parents, who hope their children will not encounter discrimination as they have. People live by eating the lives of others. This is a record of a family who looks into the nature of life, every single day.
” I cannot forget the shock I experienced when I first saw the work done in slaughterhouses. I encountered a world completely different than my imagination. What I had thought to be a dark, cold, and frightening place was replaced by an image of a warm space full of energy, where the workers engaged with life with every fiber in their body. I was fortunate to meet a family that was earnest and steadfast in its relationship with butchering.”—Aya Hanabus
Warning: Some scenes that show the slaughtering process may be disturbing for sensitive viewers.
