I guess the idiom “if pigs could fly” musthave a different meaning in Chinese and Japanese. A Chinese student Shu Yi is enjoying her lastday in Sapporo, Hokkaido. While touringthe sites of the city (Odori Park, the TV tower, the Clock Tower) she ends upin the famed Tanuki Koji shopping arcade. There she encounters a young Chinese man named Guo Fu who has just begunhis studies at Hokkaido University. He is bowled over by Shu Yi’s charm and givesher a present of a figurine of a pig with wings, telling her that the pig is asymbol of good luck and the wings symbolize freedom. Shu Yi finds this charming and insists that ShuYi join her in her final tour of Sapporo.
At the end of what must have been anexhausting day (they trek everywhere from Sapporo Factory to Maruyama Park),the two part ways, with Shu Yi being coy about them ever seeing each otheragain. Guo Fu invites her to come andmeet him on the banks of the canal in the neighbouring city of Otaru, so thathe can show her the town where he lives. One day, Shu Yi does show up and they have a whirlwind tour of thesights of Otaru from the Otaru Taisho Glass Palace to the Asahi Observatory. It seems like an idealistic whirlwindromance, but maybe Guo Fu should have investigated the English meaning of a pigwith wings.
Yosuke Yamaguchi’s Tourism Hokkaido “City”(2010) won the Best Short Award at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia. The film was a part of the “Let’s Travel!Project” supported by the Japan Tourism Agency. This contest encouraged filmmakers to submit short films that show offthe rich and diverse cultural attractions that Japan has to offer tourists. Unlike Heaven’s Island (2010), which showedoff Taketomi Island in Okinawa without feeling like a promotional film, TourismHokkaido “City” is pretty cheesy and spends much more time acting as a postcardfor Sapporo and Otaru than it does on developing the characters of Shu Yi andGuo Fu. I only enjoyed the film becauseit was a natsukashii experience for me as I have a soft spot for Sapporo andenvirons because of the good times I have had there.
This film screened at Japan Week, Frankfurt am Main on November 5, 2011.
The event was sponsored by Nippon Connection:
