Being Natural

This special limited edition glow-in-the-dark & embossed slipcover (designed by Earl Kessler Jr.) is limited to 1,500 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Named after Yasujiro Ozu’s custom-made, tatami-level, crab-like tripod, Kani is a new home video label dedicated to leveling the gaze and furthering the understanding of Asian cinema in North America. Focused on genre-defying films, Kani aims to expand the canon, bolster up-and-coming filmmakers and reintroduce repertory classics in context. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

Takashi Uno (Yohta Kawase, RUBBER’S LOVER) wants little more from life than to play the bongo under the starlight. When his uncle passes, his freshly divorced cousin inherits their traditional country home and tasks the shy slacker with caring for it. Together with the town’s underdog grocer, the three revert to a joyful childhood dynamic. Leisurely BBQ (the cheapest beef!) and cup noodles, it’s all fun and games until a family from Tokyo led by an unhinged patriarch (screen veteran Kanji Tsuda, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE) and his enigmatic wife (Natsuki Mieda) manifest their desire to open a countryside café at all costs.

Tadashi Nagayama – a protégé of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival since his 2017 Grand Prix-winning debut JOURNEY OF THE TORTOISE – baffles audience expectations at every turn with this mellow yet thoroughly eccentric pastoral comedy about the right to do nothing, Japan’s growing urban-rural divide, and the country’s ongoing nuclear anxieties.

directed by: Tadashi Nagayama
starring: Yohta Kawase, Kanji Tsuda, Natsuki Mieda, Kazua Akieda, Tadahiro Tsuru, Shoichiro Tanigawa
2018 / 96 min / 1.78:1 / Japanese Stereo with English subtitles

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray
• OUT FISHING (2021, 19MINS): NEW FEATURETTE INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR TADASHI NAGAYAMA, WRITER YURIKO SUZUKI AND ACTOR YOHTA KAWASE
• MAKING OF BEING NATURAL: PUBLIC TALK AT K’S CINEMA (2019, 19MINS) FEATURETTE WITH DIRECTOR, SFX AND VFX TEAM
• “A STORY OF FLOATING RADIUM” NEW WRITING ON BEING NATURAL BY MATHIEU LI-GOYETTE
• JAPANESE THEATRICAL TRAILER
• Inside sleeve artwork
• English and Japanese SDH subtitles