7.22 (Tue) Competition
How to Build a Secret Base
- Onsite
- 7.22 (Tue) 17:00 Audio Visual Hall
©2025 emir heart Inc.
Director: Tomoya ITABASHI
Cast: Hiromasa HIROSUE, Takehiko FUJITA, Kozo SATO, Takao MORI, Hibiki KIDERA
2025 / Japan / 109min.
When 50-year-old Kenichi and his childhood friends reunite at the funeral of their classmate, they decide to bring a long-forgotten dream back to life—the “secret base construction plan” they’d drawn up as kids. They have just six days that summer to build their hideout without cars, electric tools or smartphones. Rediscovering the spirit of their youth, the men throw themselves into the challenge with all their hearts. Still, they are unable to escape the struggles they face as adults. They clash, they talk, and they reconnect with one another, immersing themselves in a cocktail of laughter and sorrow, leaving viewers with a lingering sense of warmth inside their hearts. The characters are vibrant, and the humorous exchanges between the former classmates are tinged with bitterness. A coming-of-age drama for those navigating midlife, this is the first feature-length film by Tomoya Itabashi who also directed the short film THAT MOTHER (20), which received multiple awards at various film festivals. This screening marks its world premiere.
Director: Tomoya ITABASHI
Tomoya Itabashi is the director, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor of the short film THAT MOTHER which won the Excellence Award and the Best Screenplay Award at the 2020 Kadoma International Film Festival, as well as the Grand Prize at the TACHIKAWAMEIGAZADORI CINEMA FESTIVAL in the same year. The following year, the film also received the Excellence Award at the nakamaaru Short Film Contest. In 2021, Itabashi worked as an editor for a series of video installations entitled “Nogizaka46: Flowering Plants of Summer and Autumn” (featuring Mizuki Yamashita and Shiori Kubo), exhibited at the Tokyo National Museum. In the music video genre, he directed, shot, and edited Natsuko Nisshoku’s “Epigone” which has gained approximately 1.25 million views (as of April 2025).
Message
This is not the kind of film driven by a dramatic turn of events or a bold message. It’s a story I wrote when I reached a point in my life where I began to acknowledge that, while there were parts of me that hadn’t changed since childhood, there were things that I had completely grown out of. This realization had filled me with a sense of loneliness.
I believe that my experience resonates with many people, and created this film with the hope that it might touch their hearts.
