18th New York Asian Film Festival

Jun 28 - Jul 14, 2019

Photo: © 2019 "FIVE MILLION DOLLAR LIFE" Film Partners

North American Premiere

5 Million Dollar Life

五億円のじんせい

Mirai Takatsuki is a seemingly normal teenager, but when he was a child his life was saved from a terrible illness thanks to magnanimous donations from the local community that paid for his medical bills. Ongoing media attention and the pressure to excel have prompted Mirai to have suicidal tendencies. Urged on by mysterious and threatening text messages he sets off on a life changing quest to repay the kindness bestowed on him and find out his life’s true meaning. This unpredictable and innovative film reverses the terminal illness genre into a novel and illuminating coming of age road movie.

Director: Moon Sung-ho
Cast: Ayumu Mochizuki, Anna Yamada, Ryu Morioka, Satoru Matsuo, Sumire Ashina, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Shingo Mizusawa, Taro Suwa
Languages: Japanese with English subtitles
2019; 112 min.; DCP

SCHEDULE:

Thursday July 11, 6:30pm
SVA Theatre

Director Moon Sung-ho in attendance (Intro and Q&A)

Moon Sung-ho
文晟豪

Moon Sung-ho hails from Hiroshima. After graduating from high school, he studied filmmaking in South Korea and then returned to Japan to shoot commercials and short films. In 2013, he was selected by the Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO) for the prestigious New Directions in Japanese Cinema project, which invites young creative talents to shoot films on 35mm. Moon wrote and directed the 2014 short Michizure, about a package delivery that goes awry. He has now made a remarkably assured feature debut with the unusual but endearing dramedy 5 Million Dollar Life.