It wasn’t with that intention that Kaori Oda started this film, but it ended up becoming the final chapter in a trilogy that explores underground spaces and includes Aragane (2015) and Cenote (2019). It all started from a desire to film various locations, underground or in caves, that would allow for a historical exploration of what happened there, how it affected the people who lived there, or nearby, and the trauma associated with these spaces.
The actress Nao Yoshigai plays a human presence in the film who interacts with what is external to her, from which viewers can feel things and touch them. Director Kaori Oda proposes herself as an intermediary for recording human and non-human lives and relationships, the affective memory of the spaces and objects that surround them. Storyteller Mitsuo Matsunaga collects bones in his spare time and introduces the filmmaking team to memories in Okinawa’s underground caves.
Underground is the result of intensive research and is the final part of a trilogy about the collective consciousness of ‘various underground spaces in Japan and how they impact the people who live in and around them’, from the most obvious repercussions to ghostly forms.
Bianca Dias
