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Tremble All You Want

2017
Tokyo international Film Festival
Hong Kong International Film Festival
Udine Far East Film Festival
Nippon Connection
We Are One Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival

Yoshika is a socially-awkward, self-possessed 24-year-old office worker. For the past 10 years, she’s harbored a crush on her classmate “Ichi” (One), her one and only love, whom she romanticizes daily. Her comfortable existence, however, is shaken when her clumsy colleague “Ni” (Two) asks her out. Adapted from Risa Wataya’s award-winning novel, with charismatic performance by Mayu Matsuoka, Akiko Ohku’s refreshing, genre-bending film plays skillfully and poignantly with notions of loneliness, delusion, and power of the stories you tell yourself.
( 117 min. )
Available in US & Canada


▷About the Filmmaker - Learn more about the director Akiko Ohku
▷Send Message to the Filmmaker - Share your thoughts of the film!


Ohku’s Tremble all you want is nothing like the ordinary Japanese romantic cinematographic narrative. The main reason for this is that, besides showing a lighthearted romantic narrative, Ohku is able to successfully show the problematic impact of fantasy on our life and sensible evoke the inherent self-deceptiveness of our ego. In other words, Tremble all you want is a refreshing little gem, a truly heart-warming experience full of honest and heartfelt emotions.

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Matsuoka’s emotionally complicated performance anchors the film and keeps Yoshika interesting even at her most self-centred or self-abasing. Challenging cinematic myths about the nature of romance and musing on the role of fantasy in day to day life, it’s an ambitious film which by and large succeeds in achieving its goals.

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Bonus Content

DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY [Exclusively available with rental/purchase]

15m

The director Akiko Ohku discusses the unique turning point of the film, and shares an insightful behind-the-scenes.

"MAKING OF" INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR AKIKO OHKU [Exclusively available with rental/purchase]

13m

Interview with the director Akiko Ohku. Produced by Kani Releasing.

IN CONVERSATION ON MUSIC [Exclusively available with rental/purchase]

14m

Interview with the director Akiko Ohku and the music supervisor Masaki Takano. Produced by Kani Releasing.

Director's Note

The protagonist is selfish, and is not an admirable person at all. But the way she smolders her anger and frustration did not feel foreign to me, and I projected myself into her while I was making this film. The process was like a journey that made me discover the anger and frustration I was still holding inside of me that I want to vent. So, I was determined to go for what I thought was good, and I would have been happy if even one person sincerely loved this film. That was my mentality when I made this film, and I did not listen to other people’s opinions even more than usual (!!) up to the completion. However, once the film was shared with the audience, people from all over the world of different generations and sexualities have come to me and said, "I am Yoshika,” which has been very comforting to me. I would be glad if you like the film, but I would also understand if you find the selfish protagonist extremely annoying. I hope you will have a good time watching it…

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