Heart, Beating in the Dark is a remake, a sequel, a making of and a continuation of Nagasaki's 1982 Super 8 classic of the same name. It is also, according to the Rotterdam Film Festival, “the finest achievement in recent Japanese cinema”.

Not content with simply remaking his original, Nagasaki also wanted to explore the implications of the first film by following the characters 20 years down the track - and his new version is this gripping, multi-layered morality tale. What has become of the protagonists (played by the same actors) and their guiltiest of guilty secrets? How would a comparable couple now manage?

Introducing a new young couple on the run and deftly mixing all the elements in together, Nagasaki builds a searching and extremely moving meditation on what it means to live on the wrong side of the tracks, what it means to grow up and what it means to be a parent. The new Heart, Beating in the Dark resists any easy classification but it is undoubtedly, by any standards, a contemporary classic.

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D/S Shunichi Nagasaki P Yoshihiko Higashi, Satoshi Kouno WS Bandai Visual L Japanese w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2005/104mins

Shunichi Nagasaki was born in Japan in 1956. His films include A Tender Place (2001), Some Kinda Love (1996) and Nurse Call (1993).