Okuyama Hiroshi’s ‘My Sunshine’ Looks at Adolescence, Ice Skating and Repression in Japan
variety.comMark Schilling Japan Correspondent A 22-year-old prodigy when he won the New Directors Award at San Sebastian in 2018 for his student film “Jesus,” Okuyama Hiroshi took something of a roundabout route to his second feature, “My Sunshine,” which screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard lineup.
Okuyama’s coming-of-age drama about two tween ice skaters — a boy and girl who study under the same coach in a northern provincial town — originated from his own seven years in the sport. “I learned skating from the age of 5 to 12 — I wanted to become a professional,” says Okuyama.
But he also struggled to construct a story from his childhood skating memories until he came across a 2014 hit by the singer-songwriter duo Humbert Humbert.
Called “Boku no Ohisama” (“My Sunshine”), it not only supplied the title of his film, but its lyrics about “getting stuck when I try say something important” also gave him the idea for his protagonist, Takuya (Koshiyama Keitatsu).
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