The Buried Forest
(35mm/color/European Vista/Dolby SR/93 minuites)
Directed by Kohei Oguri

STORY
The action takes place in a small town near the mountains. The heroine, MACHI, is a high school student, who has yet to find her direction in life. One day, she and her friends start making up a story, which they decide to continue as a kind of relay. One after another, the girls continue the dreamlike tale, which unfolds like a “future history”, invisible to the protagonists.

Meanwhile, for the adults of the town things are different. Their “story” is forged from the realities of life, and from their past. The two stories progress side by side, never seeming to cross. And yet, within each story, similarities begin to emerge.

One day, a heavy rainstorm causes a landslide at the croquet pitch. The storm reveals a buried forest, preserved since the eruption of a volcano centuries ago.

By and by, the separate realms of dreams, stories, past, present and future all start to amalgamate, creating a fantasy world…

Cast
Karen, Hiromitsu Tosaka, Tadanobu Asano, Akira Sakata, Taka Okubo, Sumiko Sakamoto, Yuko Tanaka, Mitsuru Hirata, Ittoku Kishibe

Staff 
Director: Kohei Oguri / Cinematographer: Norio Teranuma / Art Director: Yoshinaga Yokoo / Art Director: Koichi Takeuchi / Lighting: Meicho Tomiyama / Sound: Masato Yano / Editor: Nobuo Ogawa/ VFX Supervisor: Art Durinski / VFX Director: Norio Ishii

2005 The Buried Forest Production Committee