SHINDO

AKA: Shindo
Year: 2007
Directed: Koji Hagiuda
Genre: Drama/Music
Runtime: 120 mins
Cast:
- Riko Narumi
- Kenichi Matsuyama
- Satomi Tezuka
- Masahiro Komoto
- Hidetoshi Nishijima
- Shihori Kanjiya

Though comparisons may be forthcoming, Shindo is most definitely not Nodame Cantabile. Adapted from a Saso Akira manga, Shindo follows the subtle growth and emotions of a sullen piano prodigy, played to perfect note by teen actress Narumi Riko. Matsuyama Kenichi (Death Note) co-stars as an aspiring pianist with plenty of heart but little skill. Director Hagiuda Koji, known for his indie dramas Going Home and Paradise Sea, doesn’t play to genre conventions, letting the story and characters expand and contract at will, while never drifting too far from reality or his glum adolescent muse. Quietly laced with teen angst and classical crescendos, Shindo is a restrained drama feels alive and three-dimensional. Laconic thirteen-year-old piano prodigy Uta (Narumi Riko) has been in a detached slump ever since her father disappeared. With her mother (Tezuka Satomi) struggling to make ends meet, Uta was forced to leave her old house and piano behind - her father’s piano, the only piano she wants to play. Much to her mother’s dismay, she keeps skipping her piano lessons, distancing herself even more from the people and places around her. She starts to open up when she meets 19-year-old aspiring pianist Wao (Matsuyama Kenichi), with whom she develops an unlikely friendship

source:www.avistaz.com