“Yujiro Harumoto directs a film that works on a number of levels, all of which are analyzed thoroughly and artfully, and eventually interconnect in the most impressive way, through a truly shocking story.”
– Asian Movie Pulse
“In its honesty about the real-life pitfalls of finding and telling the truth, A Balance is a rare and brave achievement.”
– Japan Times
“Revealing… a bracingly unsentimental picture which asks knotty questions about the relationship between the media and the subjects at which it points its cameras.”
– Screen International
SYNOPSIS
As a documentary director, Yuko (Kumi Takiuchi) has mastered the balance between journalistic integrity and self-interest. Her professional ethics, when reporting a case of high-school bullying which led to two suicides, demand impartiality and respect for the truth — there are, however, some versions of the truth which are more likely to get aired on television than others. But when Yuko, who makes a career picking through the fallout after headline news stories, realizes that a scandal is about to break much closer to home, she reevaluates her lofty principles to become a participant in a morally challenging story. And, as the boundaries between work and family, reality and ideals, beliefs and truths become blurred, and the world Yuko knew begins to veer in unexpected directions, what irreversible choices will she ultimately make?
An official selection at the 2021 Berlinale, A BALANCE captured the “New Currents Award” at the 2020 Busan IFF and the Robert Rossellini Jury Award and Audience Award at the 2020 Pingyao IFF
