AUGUST AT AKIKO’S
August At Akiko's
Christopher Makoto Yogi, 2019
Catalog No.: FTF-076
Length: 75 minutes
Armed with just his suitcase and a sax, cosmopolitan musician Alex Zhang Hungtai (from the band Dirty Beaches) returns home to the Big Island of Hawaii having been away for nearly a decade. Hungtai, playing a fictional version of himself, takes refuge in a Buddhist B&B with a woman named Akiko (Akiko Matsuda, playing herself). Alex’s experimental free jazz music at first collides with the bell sounds of Akiko’s meditation, but as the film evolves and a friendship develops, the two harmonize.
Written and Directed by Christopher Makoto Yogi
Produced by Sarah S. Kim
Director of Photography Eunsoo Cho
Additional Cinematography by José Asunción
Original Music by Alex Zhang Hungtai
Starring: Alex Zhang Hungtai, Akiko Masuda, Phoenix Yamashiro, Easten Tanimoto, Steve Iwamoto, Robbie Kane, Akemi Bischo and Ciara Lacy
Festivals: International Film Festival Rotterdam, Maryland Film Festival, TaoYuan Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Hawaii International Film Festival, Zinebe 60, IndieMemphis Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, International Film Festival of Kerala and more…
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“Cool and calming as a summer sea breeze.”
- Guy Lodge, Variety
"Transcendently inventive."
- Richard Brody, The New Yorker
"Rapturous."
- Jason Sanders, Filmmaker Magazine