Distance (film)

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Distance
Directed by	Hirokazu Koreeda
Produced by	Masayuki Akieda
Written by	Hirokazu Koreeda
Starring	Arata, Yusuke Iseya, Susumu Terajima, Yui Natsukawa
Cinematography	Yutaka Yamasaki
Editing by	Hirokazu Koreeda
Release date(s)	2001
Running time	132 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese
IMDb profile

Distance is a 2001 movie by Japanese director Koreeda Hirokazu, starring Arata, Asano Tadanobu, Iseya Yusuke, Terajima Susumu, and Natsukawa Yui.

[edit] Plot summary

Members of a cult modelled on Aum Shinrikyo sabotage a city's water supply, then commit mass suicide near the shores of a lake. Family members (the credited cast minus Asano) of the perpetrators meet at the lake to observe the anniversary of their loved ones' deaths. While there their car is stolen. They meet a former member of the cult who had trained for the water sabotage attack but defected last minute. He leads them to the cabin he's currently holed up in, where he and the deceased cult members had trained for the attack, and they pass the night reminiscing about those they'd known and lost, shown cinematically through improvised dialogues and flashbacks. Sakata, the surviving cult and last to see most of the departed alive, and Atsushi (Arata) interrogate one another about Yûko (played by actress/model Ryo), Atsushi's sister whom Sakata had asked to run away him the night before the attack, whom (it appears) neither really knew.