2008 APM (aka. PPP) Project Director Yamashita Nobuhiro’s ninth feature film, [My Back Page], is about Japan’s radical student movement during of the late ’60s and early ’70s. The story begins when fledgling journalist Sawada gets to spend time with Umeyama, a mysterious and radical leader of the student movement. Sawada is the kind of idealist that continually questions his journalistic ethics. This is put to the test as he finds himself torn between the complex Umeyama’s charm and his suspicious behavior. Sawada sees a strength of conviction in the revolutionary, though it is one he doesn't share. As it transpires Umeyama plans to weaponize the movement. Sawada is then thrown into turmoil by Umeyama’s melancholic, musical late night appearances at his flat: this man of revolutionary zeal may be human after all. This film may be a surprise for fans of Yamashita’s more typical work: relatively trivial stories with an overall endearing tone. This heavy and serious film randomly blends nostalgia with bitterness, mashing Japan’s ’60s student movement generation with the work of Bob Dylan and the influence of new American cinema. (KANG Sowon)