Cast
Chisato Kameoka
Chisato Kameoka
Kikuna/Kikuna
CHISATO KAMEOKA was born in Japan in 2006. Since the age of 10 years, she has been a member of the famous Toranoko Performing Arts Company of Matsuyama, Japan, where she studied acting, singing and art. She made her debut as a stage actor in the media production “Muybridge’s Strings and Rhythm of Motion” in collaboration with Koji Yamamura’s animated “My Bridge Strings”. Chisato has been invited to perform at the Przemysl International Arts Festival in Poland in 2016 and the Etiuda & Anima International Animation Film Festival in Krakow, Poland in 2017. Chisato made her film debut in 2019 and stars in the key role as a delicate girl, Kikuna in "A Story Sewn and Bound with a Red Thread."
Soyoka Kan
Suga Soka
Sumire/Violet
SOYOKA KAN was born in Japan in 2007. Since the age of 10 years, she has been a member of the famous Toranoko Performing Arts Company of Matsuyama, Japan where she studied acting, singing and art. Soyoka made her debut as a stage actor in the media production “Muybridge’s Strings and Rhythm of Motion” in collaboration with Koji Yamamura’s animated “My Bridge Strings” at Yokohama BankART studio NYK performance. Soyoka has been invited to perform at the Etiuda & Anima International Film Festival of Krakow, Poland in 2017. She made her film debut in "A Story Sewn and Bound with a Red Thread." in 2019 and plays the second daughter Sumire with remarkable sensitivity.
Noe Hayashi
HayashiMochinaga
Kasumi/haze
NOE HAYASHI was born in Japan in 2006 and, since she was 6 years old, has been a member of the famous Toranoko Performing Arts Company of Matsuyama, Japan where she studied acting. Singing and art. Noe made her debut as a stage actor in the production of Shuji Terayama’s “Stolen Memory”. She performed in the Japan Week Festival in Poznan, Poland in 2013 and gave a special performance at Poznan’s Opera House. She then gave stage appearances in the productions of “I Want to Dance But I Can’t Dance” and “Ribbon in the Sea”, originally written by Shuji Terayama . Noe appeared in the media production Muybridge’s Strings and Rhythm of Motion” in collaboration with Koji Yamamura’s animated “My Bridge Strings” in 2016. She has been invited to perform at the Przemysl International Arts Festival and the Etiuda & Anima International Animation Film Festival in Krakow, Poland in 2017. Noe made her film debut in "A Story Sewn and Bound with a Red Thread." in 2019 and plays the oldest daughter Kasumi, who tries to protect her family with dignity and kindness.
Yuzuki Shinmaru
Shinmaru Yuzuki
Nanoka/Nanoka
YUZUKI SHINMARU was born in Japan in 2009. Since she was 4 years of age she has been a member of the famous Toranoko Performing Arts Company in Matsuyama, Japan where she studies acting, singing and art. Yuzuki made her debut as a stage actor in the media production “Muybridge’s Strings and Rhythm of Motion” in collaboration with Koji Yamamura’s animated :My Bridge Strings”. She has been invited to perform at Poland’s Przemysl International Arts Festival in 2016.Yuzuki made her film debut in "A Story Sewn and Bound with a Red Thread." in 2019 and plays the innocent and lonely fourth daughter Nanoka.
Rii Ishihara
Ishihara Robe
Shuko/Hiragiko
Rii Ishihara was born in Japan in 1976.
She joined Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. after graduating from the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Chuo University. After retiring from the company, She studied under a scriptwriter and director for 6 years, studied acting while working as an assistant in planning and scripting, and started acting. She is active in a wide range of fields such as movies, TV dramas, theatrical performances, and commercials.
She made her debuted in the movie "Blue Blue Sky" (10) directed by Takafumi Ohta. Since then, she has appeared in two or three movies every year, and played the heroine of Junya Yamamoto's "Wakeari" (14), Takahiro Ishihara's "The Lever" (16) and "Red Capsule" (18). She acted in the Japanese-Russian collaboration movie "Sorokin's Cherry Blossoms" directed by Masaki Inoue.
Currently, she works as an actress and produces movies, and hosts the Four Seasons Hanabi film festival to promote Japanese films in France.
In this work, she plays the stepmother of the four sisters Shuko, who is trying to protect her family in her way but in the end she misleads the surroundings with a suspicious charm.
Yuri Yamamura
Yuri Yamamura
Futa/Fuuta
Yuri Yamamura was born in Tokyo in 1992, lives in Iwate Prefecture in Japan. He started juggling at the age of 10. Pursuing a unique expression of dancing with the ball, he participated in numerous juggling circus projects such as "MOB", "Nagame Kurashitsu", "100 Years Circus", "Daggle Crew", and "Head and Mouth". In 2010, he won the silver prize in the group category of the national juggling competition as "MOB". In addition to performing at events and stage performances in various parts of Japan, he has performed solo in eight countries including the United States, Russia, Spain, South Korea, and Singapore. After attending the prestigious circus school "Le Lido" in France in 2014-16, he moved to Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture. He is the representative of Juggling Dance Studio tasse / Representative of Morioka Zakka no Kai, expanding the range of activities and explorations such as actors, dancers, and juggling instructors.
Kohei Ando
Kohei Ando
Art teacher/pottery teacher
Kohei Ando, who in his youth worked with Shuji Terayama, is known for his refined and creative expressivity as a filmmaker. He is a global pioneer in incorporating Hi-vision techniques into filmmaking. His films have received numerous awards, including the Silver Maile Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival and the Grand Prize at the International Electronic Cinema Festival in Montreux.
His works are included in the collections of major art museums and film libraries in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and elsewhere. In both 2001 and 2005, Ando retrospectives were held in Paris.
He is Emeritus Professor at Waseda University in Tokyo.
Yuria Matsushita
Yuria Matsushita
Director/director
JOINT DIRECTOR OF TORANOKO PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY
Film Director, Scriptwriter, Hair and Makeup Artist
Yuria Matsushita was born in Ehime, Japan, in 1977.
In 1998 Yuria Matsushita graduated from the London College of Fashion’s School of Make-up and Hair for Performing Arts. In 1999 she studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan, Poland then moved to Thailand, where she studied art and began to write poetry and scripts for stage and film performances. In 2000, traveling between Thailand and Japan, she worked in the production of films, fashion shows and exhibitions.
In 2001, Yuria Matsushita’s film “TUTU” was among sixteen works chosen from 758 entries at the PIA Film Festival. In 2008 she directed the film “Canna Lily” for Maxwell Hi-Vision Theatre.
In 2009 Yuria Matsushita received her Master’s Degree from Waseda University’s Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies, majoring in Digital Cinematography. During that year, with her sister Erika Matsushita, she founded the thriving fashion company “Little Black Swan”, which produces timeless fashion accessories. Despite her work in “Little Black Swan”, Yuria Matsushita’s principal ambition is to continue to encourage children in the Ehime Prefecture of Japan to pursue their dreams and develop their individual creative talents.
Erika Matsushita
Erika Matsushita
Costume Designer/costume
JOINT DIRECTOR OF TORANOKO PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY
Photographer, Costume Designer, Choreographer, Vocal Artist
Erika Matsushita was born in Ehime, Japan, in 1980.
In 1998 Erika Matsushita completed a course of study at Elmhurst Ballet School in England, majoring in performing arts. In the following year 1999 she completed the “Image Management Film and Television Screen Acting” course while she studied oil painting from the Australian artist Archie Graham. Later in 1999 she undertook a four year course in costume making at the Kalwin International Institute in Thailand, graduating in 2003.During this time she was encouraged to study photography while on a short visit to Madagascar.
Erika Matsushita completed a foundation course in Period Costume Design at the London College of Fashion in 2004.In the following year 2005 she studied hat design from legendary Mrs Helena and Photography from Asia Pawlowska in Poland.
In 2009 Erika Matsushita directed the short film “Miuro” which was nominated for the Grand Prix at the Kitazawa Film Festival. With her sister Yuria Matsushita, she started the thriving fashion company “Little Black Swan”, which produces timeless fashion accessories.
In 2011 Erika Matsushita was awarded a Master of Arts Degree by Waseda University’s Graduate School of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies. In 2014 she obtained a Barre Astie Diploma, enabling her to be a qualified Barre Astie instructor.
Despite her hectic workload, Erika Matsushita has retained a passionate interest in the TORANOKO PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY, in which she continues to act as Joint Director with her sister and best friend Yuria Matsushita.
Magdalena Zuk
magdalena zook
Music director/music
The musical universe of Magdalena Zuk is inspired by the truly international, educational and cultural influences of Poland, France and England, where she was guided by both eminent artists and personalities. At the invitation of Professor Eugen Indjic Magdalena Zuk studied from 1998 in Paris, as a French Government Scholar at La Schola Cantorum de Paris, where she received the Diplôme Supérieur and Virtuosity Prize.
Magdalena is a winner of the prestigious Royal College of Music Concerto Competition for which she performed Szymanowski’s Symphony Concertante with the RCM Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Kees Bakels.
The French Première of Roman Polanski’s film, The Pianist, opened with a Chopin recital performed by Magdalena Zuk at Cinema Studio 28 in Paris.
Since her Japan début concerts in 2012, under the honourable patronage of Mainichi News in Tokyo and Osaka and of the Petrof Society in Kyoto, Magdalena returned to perform in 2013 with solo recitals to Tokyo, Matsuyama, Kessenuma, Seiyo and for Kuma Kogen Chopin Festival on Shikoku Island. She has been invited to Japan since with a series of concerts at Chopin's Festival in Kuma Kogen, the International Art Festivals in Nakayama, Nakamura, Matsuyama and Kyoto and in Osaka, by invitation of composer Nobuya Monta and with recitals on Shikoku Island at Chopin Festival in Tobe, Namura, Nakayam, IYO International Art Festival with Toranoko Performing Arts Company and in Tokyo.
In 2018 Magdalena Zuk presented new CD with her piano&voice compositions « Une belle histoire » recorded live in Japan at Tobe Concert Hall, with artistic collaboration of Japanese artists Yuria and Erika Matsushita, founding directors of Toranoko Performing Arts Company.
This collaboration gave life to new project for 2019- 2020, a film, based on Shuji Terayama writing « A Story Sewn and Bound with a Red Thread» for which Magdalena composed music.
Kong Pahurak
con puff rack
Cinematographer/photograph
Kong Pahurak was born in Thailand in 1981 and started work as a still photographer in the early 2000s. In 2007 he was awarded a Monbukagakusho
academic scholarship grant by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, sports, Science and Technology which enabled him to study filmmaking at Waseda University in Tokyo.
While studying filmmaking, he began to write and direct many short films. Upon returning to Thailand in 2013,
Kong began working on his first feature-length film In the Flesh, which premiered at the Asean Film Festival in Bangkok in 2017. Kong also works as a director of
photography for many independent films, notably River of Exploding Durians released in Malaysia in 2014, Someone From Nowhere (Thailand 2017), A Story Sewn and Bound with a Red Thread (Japan 2020) and Malu (Malaysia-Japan to be released in November 2020).
Staff
ABOUT
TORANOKO Performing Arts Company
The words “between reality and unreality” illustrate the sensitive and undefined world of adolescence. The feelings that are released in this dreamlike world, as interpreted by Toranoko, reflect the freedom and flexibility of senses that are still in the process of development.
TORANOKO specializes in a specific form of visual art which combines a broad spectrum of theatre art with artistic exhibitions, and children play the main parts. The motto of the TORANOKO children is “The World Is Our Stage”.
The TORANOKO Performing Arts Company was first invited to perform in Poland in 2010. That performance was in Kielce during the festival to celebrate 1000 years of the founding of the town. On that tour TORANOKO gave eight performances of “Remaining Dreams” (Zanmu) in three cities which were enjoyed by audiences totaling 2,000. In 2011 TORANOKO performed in the Za-Koenji Theatre in Tokyo, where it performed the story written by Shuji Terayama “I Want To Dance But I Can’t Dance” (Odoritai Kedo Odorenai). In 2013 TORANOKO performed “Stolen Memories” (Omoide Nusumareta) by Shuji Terayama in the Poznan Opera House, Poland during Japan Week.
In 2015 TORANOKO commenced collaborating with the famous animation film director, Koji Yamamura, and presented one of his most awarded films “Muybridge’s Strings” in 2016 during the International Festival in Przemysl in Poland. In 2017 TORANOKO performed “Muybridge’s Strings and Rhythm of Motion” in BankART NYK in Yokohama. In November TORANOKO was officially invited to perform “Muybridge’s Strings and Rhythm of Motion” at “Etiuda & Anima Film Festival” in Krakow in Poland.