YEAR ONE IN THE NORTH

KITA NO ZERONEN

By Isao YUKISADA

TOEI COMPANY, LTD. - as SALES All rights, World

Historical - Completed 2005

In the end of Samurai period, the people of Awaji, western district of Japan, were falsely charged by the government and forced to move to the far north, where they start to build a new land.

    • Year of production
    • 2005
    • Genres
    • Historical, Drama
    • Countries
    • JAPAN
    • Languages
    • JAPANESE
    • Budget
    • 10 - 25 M$
    • Duration
    • 168 mn
    • Director(s)
    • Isao YUKISADA
    • Writer(s)
    • Machiko NASU
    • Synopsis
    • With the fall of Japan's Shoguns and the 'Meiji Restoration' of its emperor to political power in 1868 bringing vast changes to the country, the new government has ordered the Inada clan, from Awaji Island near Kobe, to settle on the northern island of Hokkaido.

      In 1871, after a two-week sea voyage, the first group of 546 settlers makes its way to the region of Shizunai. One of them, Shino Komatsubara, is reunited with her husband Hideaki, already there as one of the advance party, and a leader in encouraging the Inada samurai to build a new land for themselves here.

      Their crops, however, do not flourish in the harsh northern environment, and the second party of settlers is lost at sea. To restore their fading hopes, Hideaki goes to study new crop techniques in Sapporo, leaving Shino and their daughter Tae to await his return. The women's hopes come to nothing, however, as Hideaki vanishes.

      Five hard years later, with Shino living happily with Tae on the horse ranch she has struggled to establish, Hideaki reappears, bearing a government order that will again bring turmoil to their lives…