Nobuko Otowa

The international breakthrough for one of Japan's most innovative filmmakers, who went on to make such other marvelous movies as Onibaba and Kuroneko. It follows a family whose home is on a tiny, remote island off the coast of Japan. They must row a great distance to another shore, collect water from a well in buckets, and row back to their island, a nearly backbreaking task essential for the survival of these people and their land.