Yügen (en)

Yügen

Selection: 

Director: 

Joshua Gil

Country: 

  • United States
  • Mexico

Format: 

Feature film

Type: 

Fiction

Film exhibited in Toulouse: 

Santuario, 2019, Official competition

Script writer(s): 

Joshua Gil

Synopsis: 

Ichi is the eldest of two brothers and a member of the Yakuza mafia in Japan. He was sent to Mexico to start a human trafficking business in association with the Mexican mafia. Ichi disappears without a trace and is presumed dead, so his younger brother – outside of the mafia – travels to Tijuana where Ichi was seen for the last time.

Visual concept: 

Yügen is inspired by the Japanese film noir. Visually, poetry and violence will coexist in bringing characters to life and death. The characters are also designed to live between the daily life in Japan and Mexico, and this duality will be reflected by the camera, while Haiku will help metrically to support the rhythm of the montage. Tokyo and Tijuana – two nighttime cities – coexist in a new aesthetic that combines dark and bright places simultaneously, where characters will blend the northern Mexican culture with the new Yakuza mafia of Japan