Looking for Anne, a feature film about a young Japanese girl who travels to P.E.I. looking for the Canadian World War II veteran who may have been her grandmother’s first love, will have its first P.E.I. screening at City Cinema Friday night.
The Canada/Japan co-production, which utilized dozens of Islanders as extras and featured several others in small speaking roles, has earned glowing reviews and earned director Takako Miyahira the top prize and the best director award at the 2009 Asian Festival of First Films.
Miyahira brought an international cast to P.E.I. in the summer of 2008 that featured young Japanese actress Honoka, Italian-born actress Rosanna Zanbon and veteran Quebec actor Daniel Pilon.
Footage was shot at locations across P.E.I., most of them rural, although some footage was shot in Charlottetown.
Montreal Gazette film critic John Griffin described the film as a “sweet small movie about roses and boats, memories, miracles, and Anne of Green Gables.”
Griffin said the movie is all about loves — last loves, lost loves and first loves.
“Looking For Anne resists every temptation to fall into gooey romance and maudlin regret. A taut, unpredictable script, restrained performances, and clean direction in both Japanese and English, enjoined with the natural beauty of a wonderful place, help the film find its modest way to a neat and satisfying conclusion. And that is the viewer’s own reward,” Griffin said.
In a 2009 interview with The Guardian, executive producer Claude Gagnon said Looking for Anne shines a larger spotlight on the land of Anne than on the pigtailed heroine herself.
“Anne is present but contemporary P.E.I. is what it is all about,’’ Gagnon said.
Looking for Anne cost $2.3-million to make, just under $220,000 of which came from the government of P.E.I. The Quebec government contributed $550,000. Most of the rest came from private investors.
The film showcases P.E.I.’s natural beauty to perfection.
“The Island is absolutely gorgeous ... with this movie, we were selling P.E.I. like crazy,’’ Gagnon said.
The film was co-written by Gagnon’s wife, Yuri Yoshimura, and director Takako Miyahira, who has worked as an editor and assistant to Gagnon for several years.
¨Yoshimura was responsible for bringing the Charlottetown Festival’s production of Anne of Green Gables to Japan 11 years ago.
Looking for Anne was shown in Asia in 2009 but only opened in Canada late last year.
Looking for Anne plays at City Cinema until Jan. 13.
