Italian Premiere | In Competition | Best Screenplay Candidate
Directed by: Jojo Hideo
Screenplay: Jojo Hideo, Naito Eisuke
Cinematography (color): Watanabe Masaki
Editing: Jojo Hideo
Music: Gary Ashiya
Producers: Nunokawa Hitsohi, Utagawa Yasushi, Taguchi Yusuke
Cast: Fukagawa Mai, Wakaba Ryuya, Kataoka Reiko, Taguchi Tomorowo, Sugita Kaoru
Date of First Release in Territory: January 24th, 2025
Cheap houses in the Japanese countryside have recently become a hot topic among non-Japanese, particularly those who are priced out of their own country’s housing market. Likewise, many Japanese who are fed up with city living long for a rural retreat where the pace of life is slow and the locals follow traditional ways.
But as Jojo Hideo’s slow-burn psychological thriller Welcome to the Village illustrates with the clarity and starkness of a folktale, cheapness comes at a price, and tradition can be constricting – or devastating.
The screenplay by Jojo and Naito Eisuke is based on actual incidents of murahachibu – the ancient practice of ostracizing villagers considered outcasts by the community. But in the film, this custom takes on a disturbingly contemporary twist.
The thriller genre would seem to be out of Jojo’s comfort zone: Until he directed the 2020 teen drama On the Edge of Their Seats, he was a prolific maker of adult films, with even his later mainstream work featuring erotic themes.
But Jojo handles the story of Welcome to the Village with the assurance of a pro, as though he has been cranking up scary-movie tension for years. When smiling masks fall and ugly truths come to light, the impact is skin-crawling, though warning signs were there from day one.
The film begins with a young couple, Anna (Fukagawa Mai) and Terumichi (Wakaba Ryuya), moving from Tokyo to the fictional village of Asamiya to start a new life, with Anna working as an illustrator for remote clients and Terumichi trying his hand at farming. At first, they are delighted with their new home, the realization of a long-time dream. But their next-door neighbors, the middle-aged Mitsuhashis, give off a strange vibe, with the wife (Kataoka Reiko) begging them not to “bully us.”
Anna and Terumichi also quickly discover the villagers are keenly interested in the state of their marriage – their use of separate surnames inspires suspicion, for example – and their plans for a baby, with the checkout lady at the grocery store slipping a pregnancy test into Anna’s shopping bag. How odd, not to mention intrusive.
The smarmy village big man, Takubo (Taguchi Tomorowo), soon takes them under his wing, but his suggestions, such as advising Terumichi to give up organic farming and use pesticides, sound like commands. And when Anna becomes pregnant, the joy of Takubo, his nosy wife (Sugita Kaoru) and other village women give Anna the chills. Why, she wonders, do they say “thank you” instead of the usual “congratulations”?
Despite Anna’s suspicions about the villagers’ intentions, the pliant Terumichi follows Takubo’s advice and starts to do his bidding, leading to a side job in a secret and legally questionable business.
The ensuing downward spiral into violence and death is familiar from other Japanese movies set in the boonies, from Magatani Morihei’s The Bloody Sword of the 99th Virgin (1959), with its story of human sacrifice in the mountains, to Sakamoto Yugo’s Yellow Dragon’s Village (2021), in which college students become victims of a rural murder cult.
But Welcome to the Village foregoes standard genre thrills in favor of a more realistic, if still gripping, investigation into a cultural and psychological heart of darkness.
Fukagawa, a former pop idol turned actor, plays Anna with coiled restraint as the film’s center of moral gravity and emotional strength. Even in flight, she never quite loses her look of steely determination.
But the cute beetle Anna draws in an idyllic rural scene for a magazine cover in reality is a cabbage-devouring pest. An apt metaphor for the residents of Asamiya.
GUEST:
JOJO Hideo, director
UTAGAWA Yasushi, producer
NUNOKAWA Hitoshi, producer
Jojo Hideo
Jojo Hideo (b. 1975) began shooting 8mm movies while a student at Musashino Art University. In 2003 he made his directorial debut with the pink film Ajimishitai Hitozumatachi, for which he won the Pink Grand Prix newcomer’s prize. His work has been featured in special retros and has won various honors. Jojo’s 2022 romantic comedy Love Nonetheless screened at the 24th edition of Udine FEFF. For the 27th edition of the festival Jojo has two films in competition: the horror/mystery Welcome to the Village and the dark drama A Bad Summer.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2008 – Siren X
2008 – The Homeless Is Junior High School Student
2009 – Rinko Eighteen
2012 – AV Idol
2018 – Shinjuku Punch
2022 – Love Nonetheless
2022 – To Be Killed by a High
School Girl
2025 – A Bad Summer
2025 – Welcome to the Village