Wai-chan, 86, is one of the last remaining fishermen in Ushimado, a small village on Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. He still heads out alone in his boat to make a living. Kumi-san, 84, roams the shoreline each day, while the elderly Koso-san runs the modest fish shop her late husband once owned. Left behind by the tide of postwar modernization, Ushimado is rapidly aging and quietly fading. Shot in evocative black and white, the film gently captures the village’s twilight years and the quiet persistence of its people, set against the dreamlike backdrop of the Inland Sea.

 Inland Sea is Soda Kazuhiro’s seventh “observational film,” made in strict adherence to the ten principles that guide his documentary practice—principles that forbid advance research, scripts, narration, or setting a theme before editing. Filmed in the small fishing village of Ushimado on Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, the work quietly observes the rhythms of a community in decline. Among its subjects are Wai-chan, an 86-year-old among the last fishermen to work from a small boat; Kumi, an elderly woman who wanders the shoreline; Koso, who runs the local seafood shop left by her late husband; and Shiro, the village’s beloved cat. With long, unhurried takes, most scenes unfold in real time, creating a natural flow that maintains an exacting yet humane distance from its subjects. Shot in luminous black and white, Inland Sea captures the sea, the village, and its aging residents in images so vivid they feel almost tangible. It’s a work of unadorned poetic insight, tracing the fading remnants of a communal way of life with both rigor and grace.

 Just like all of my films, Inland Sea project emerged without planning. While we were walking around Ushimado to shoot some landscape shots for Oyster Factory, we accidentally met Wai-chan, the fisherman working at the shore. He reminded me of the story The Old Man and the Sea, so I started filming him, then Kumi started invading my frame. Then we met Koso of the fish market, Kubota and their stray cats, and Muragimi at the cemetery. Completing a cycle in Ushimado’s ecological, economic, and social chain, we found ourselves accumulating enough footage for a whole film about the town.

• ProducerKazuhiro SODA, Kiyoko KASHIWAGI
• Screenplay Kazuhiro SODA
• Cinematography Kazuhiro SODA
• Edit Kazuhiro SODA
• Production Design Kazuhiro SODA
• Sound Kazuhiro SODA

Laboratory X, Inc.

kazsoda@gmail.com@kazsoda@gmail.com​