Shell and Joint (2019)
Nitobe and Sakamoto are childhood friends who now work at the front desk of a capsule hotel. Nitobe has a particular fondness for philosophy and crustaceans. Sakamoto, meanwhile, is fixated on suicide. The capsule hotel draws a variety of guests, including a Finnish mother who has lost her child, a fugitive woman, and a researcher studying Daphnia. None of their lives ever intersect. They exist, but never cross, like cells in a capsule hotel. The themes of life and death are explored through a fragmentary view of the characters’ lives.
Director:
Isamu Hirabayashi
Writer:
Isamu Hirabayashi
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Mariko Tsutsui as Yoko Sakamoto |
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Keisuke Horibe as Nitobe |
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Aiko Sato as |
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Hiromi Kitagawa as |
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Atsuko Sudo as |
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Koharu Kusumi as |
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Kanako Higashi as Sakura Sakurada |
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Tatsuya Gasyuin as |
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Takuya Fujisaki as |
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Ayano Kudo as |
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Naoto Nojima as Ken Ishigai |
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Karia Nomoto as |
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Tomoki Kimura as |
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Supika Yufune as |
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Ruka Ishikawa as |
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Junpei Hashino as |
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Maki Nishiyama as |
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Kaori Takeshita as |
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Mizuho Misato as |
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Kohei Mashiba as Cicadas Man |
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Hiroyuki Toritani as |
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Mitsue Banzai as |
| Directing | Isamu Hirabayashi | Director |
| Writing | Isamu Hirabayashi | Screenplay |
| Production | Madoka Katsumata | Producer |
| Camera | Isamu Hirabayashi | Director of Photography |
| Editing | Isamu Hirabayashi | Editor |
| Sound | Takashi Watanabe | Original Music Composer |
| Sound | Keitaro Iijima | Sound Designer |
| Art | Kenji Murakami | Art Direction |
| Costume & Make-Up | Sayaka Takahashi | Costume Design |