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Director Ema Ryan Yamazaki On Her Oscar Contender ‘Instruments Of A Beating Heart’: Film Reveals “How A Japanese Person Is Made”
Japanese culture -- "how a Japanese person is made"-- is explored in the short film 'Instruments of a Beating Heart,' directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki.
Her Oscar-contending documentary Instruments of a Beating Heart, a New York Times Op-Doc, goes inside a typical Tokyo school where kids are preparing to complete first grade. Instruments of a Beating Heart follows Ayame, a schoolgirl eager to take part in a group performance of “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s 9 th Symphony which is being organized to welcome the next crop of first graders. Ayame wins the audition to crash a cymbal to Beethoven’s beat, but in the ensuing days she arrives late for practice and rehearsals demonstrate she’s been slacking off in preparations meant to be done at home.
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