Ayukawa: The Weight of a Life

A small Japanese whaling town attempts to adapt to a post-whaling world in this observational documentary. 

"Ayukawa sits at the end of the Oshika peninsula, right on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. 'A town that started and ended with whaling,' in recent decades, work has dried up and Ayukawa’s population steadily declined. In this absorbing documentary by New Zealand directors Tu Rapana Neill and Jim Speers, aging citizens of various stripes (carpenters, flensers, hoteliers, gunners, Buddhist priests) open up about their personal experiences, explain their worldviews and fill in the history of the town and Japanese whaling." (Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival)

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