after the quake (remount)

“Wildly original and warm without ever lapsing into sentimentality, after the quake is both a great ride and a testament to the healing powers of imagination…It’s the stuff of dreams.” – The Georgia Straight

“I’ve never seen anything like it. And I loved every minute of it.” – Vancouver Courier

Haruki Murakami is the West’s favorite Japanese novelist. His work has been translated into forty different languages, so perhaps it is unsurprising that he has spent much of his adult life away from his homeland. In 1995 two disasters struck Japan: the lethal earthquake in Kobe and the deadly poison gas attacks on the Tokyo subway. Spurred by these tragic events, Murakami abandoned his life abroad and returned home to confront his country’s grief. after the quake is a collection of short stories set in the months that fell between the earthquake and the subway attack presenting a world marked by despair, hope, and a kind of human instinct for transformation.

Renowned American Writer/Director Frank Galati’s adaptation of After the Quake takes its audience on a journey where magic and realism collide, in an exploration of disrupted realities. Junpei, a gentle, caring writer, loses the love of his life, Sayoko, when his aggressive best friend, Takatsuki, marries her. They have a child, Sala. He remains close friends with them and becomes even closer after they divorce, but still cannot bring himself to declare his love for Sayoko. Sala is traumatized by the quake and Junpei concocts a wonderful allegorical tale to ease her hurt. To give himself courage he crafts a tale of a bank loan officer’s struggle to distinguish between what is real and what is not, when six foot tall Frog asks for help to fight off Giant Worm for the future of Tokyo. Together, these stories explore the emotional aftershocks of disaster, and offer a message of hope and healing.