Wilderness: Part One & Part Two (Japanese: あゝ、荒野, Hepburn: Ā, Kōya, lit: "Ah, Wilderness") is a 2017 Japanese two-part drama film based on arthouse screenwriter Shūji Terayama's one and only full length novel, Aa Koya, published in 1966. Directed by Yoshiyuki Kishi, it stars Masaki Suda and Yang Ik-june. It made its world premiere in A Window on Asian Cinema at the 22nd Busan International Film Festival in 2017.^[1]

Plot

Two "losers" meet by chance when they decide to join a rundown boxing gym by half-blind trainer Horiguchi (Yūsuke Santamaria). Ex-convict Shinji (Masaki Suda), whose father's suicide death impacts his mental health and outward aggressiveness, has just been released from a juvenile detention centre and is out to take revenge on Yuji Yamamoto (Yūki Yamada) who betrayed him and has since become a boxer. Kenji (Yang Ik-june), a mild-mannered half-Korean-half-Japanese barber, is extremely shy and stutters due to a traumatic past with his abusive father. They form an unlikely friendship as they journey their way to become professional boxers and a way back into an unforgiving society.^[2][3][4]

Cast

• Masaki Suda as Shinji Sawamura
• Yang Ik-june as Kenji
• Yūsuke Santamaria as Horiguchi
• Yūki Yamada as Yuji Yamamoto
• Akari Kinoshita as Yoshiko Sone
• Anna Konno as Keiko Nishiguchi
• Kou Maehara as Keizo Kawasaki
• Tae Kimura as Kyoko Kimizuka

Awards and nominations