祝日Selection | Midnightblurfilms

Selection

祝日

China/Japan｜2025｜Drama｜Coming-of-Age｜23min

Director: Zhang Yaoyuan
Screenwriter: Zhang Yaoyuan
Producer: Xu Mei, Wang Shen
Cinematographer: You Jin
Editor: Hong Wei
Art Director: Zhou Zixuan
Sound: Suzuki Akihiko
Starring: Abe Tsuyoshi as Xiao Wei, Wang Qiaosong as Yang Yang

导演: 张曜元
编剧: 张曜元
制片: 徐梅、王屾
摄影指导: 由进
剪辑: 洪炜
美术指导: 周子轩
声音: 铃木昭彦
主演: 阿部力饰小伟，王乔松饰阳阳

Synopsis

On an afternoon at a soccer field, a father and son give their all to succeed in a football trial.

Festival&Award

FIRST Official Selection 2025

Director's Note

This film centers on a father taking his son to a football trial, using a small soccer field as a lens to explore societal issues arising from multicultural coexistence in contemporary Japan. It portrays the confusion and hardships faced by Chinese immigrants striving to integrate into Japanese society, which is the essence of this work.

Yaoyuan Zhang

Yaoyuan Zhang was born in Dalian, China in 1989. He embarked on film studies in Japan in 2014 as a Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho) Scholarship recipient under the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Graduating with a Ph.D. in Film from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2024, he had been awarded by the Housen Cultural Foundation Film Fund four times. His last short film Half Time entered the selection of Shanghai International Film Festival, Pingyao Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon International Film Festival the 5th NOWNESS short film awards and won the Best Picture. His latest short film, Life is Snow, won the Best Short Film at the 8th Pingyao International Film Festival and was selected by 2025 Busan International Short Film Festival.