Snow Prince

Snow Prince (2009)

スノープリンス 禁じられた恋のメロディ

10-year-old Sota lives with his grandfather and a dog named Chibi in a small snowy village. They live in such a poverty that Sota cannot even afford to go to school, but however hard the situation is, Sota never holds a bad feeling against anyone around and keeps his dream alive to become a painter. He has been friends with Sayo, a girl brought up in a wealthy family, ever since they were little despite the difference of their family position, which Sayo’s father has uneasy feelings against. In spite of the difficulties he faces, Sota manages to complete a piece of painting which he wishes to give Sayo. He and Chibi goes down a snowy night path to Sayo’s house to find that her father’s storage is on fire... What waits for Sota and Chibi gently reminds that genuine happiness always exists in your heart.

Date of release
2009-12-12
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (8)
Runtime
1h 56m
Genres
Drama
Director
Jōji Matsuoka

Casting

Interesting facts

Snow Prince - Forbidden Love Melody is a 2009 Japanese film. This film is adapted from the 1872 novel A Dog of Flanders and is inspired by the 1971 film A Small Love Melody. Directed by Joji Matsuoka and written by Kundō Koyama—the scriptwriter for the film Departures, it is a poignant story of a middle class woman's teenage friendship with a poor artist. Shintaro Morimoto plays the role of Sota, the orphan artist who lives with his grandfather, and Marino Kuwashima plays the role of Sota's friend, Sayo. Together, they have to weather the many challenges that come their way because of their lowly social status. Snow Prince marked the film debuts of Morimoto and Kuwashima.

Production

Snow Prince was directed by Joji Matsuoka, whose previous works include the films Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad (2007) and Sayonara, Kuro (2003). Kundō Koyama wrote the screenplay of his film. Snow Prince is Kundo Koyama's second work, after his work on the Departures, which won the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 81st Academy Awards.

The film was inspired by the 1872 English novel A Dog of Flanders, written by Marie Louise de la Ramée, and by the film Small Love Melody, both of which were popular with Japanese audiences and well known in Japan. In the movie, an Akita dog was used instead of the Flemish breed used in the novel, and the setting was moved to Yamagata Prefecture in Japan instead of Flanders, Belgium.

New actor Shintaro Morimoto and new actress Marino Kuwashima were officially revealed as the lead cast members of this film at the film's 10th press conference on 11 May 2009. They were handpicked from a group of 10,000 people in an audition by director Joji Matsuoka. Matsuoka reportedly decided to choose Shintaro and Marino because they "had a different twinkle in their eyes".

Other notable cast members of the film includes actors Teruyuki Kagawa and Tadanobu Asano, and actress Rei Dan. Actor Teruyuki Kagawa previously starred in films like 20th Century Boys (2009) and Dear Doctor (2009), and was also the two-time recipient of the "Best Supporting Actor" award at 29th and 31st Japan Academy Awards respectively. He has also starred in television series like Mr. Brain (2009) and Diplomat Kosaku Kuroda (2011).

Scenes of Sota's and the Arima family's houses, the village and the playhouse of Sota and Sayo were shot at the "Shonai Movie Village" (庄内映画村, Shōnai Eigamura) in Shōnai, Yamagata. The filming at this location took place from November 2008 to February 2009. In addition, the scene where Mr. Arima's warehouse caught fire was filmed in "Sakata, Sankyo Sōko" (酒田 山居倉庫), Yamagata Prefecture.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

Recommended