Yusuke KINOSHITA

Director / Screenwriter

Title

"Children of the Empire"

Format / Genre

Format: Feature Film | 90 min
Genre: Coming of age / Family drama

Logline

A ten-year-old boy longs to become the family heir and earn his father’s love. When told to abandon his war-scarred brother, he defies his father to save him.

Concept

Japan, 1945. Even after defeat, a wealthy family that controls a vast industrial empire remains obsessed with strength. Ten-year-old Mamoru wants to earn his father’s approval and become the family heir. As his missing brother returns from the war and begins to fall apart, Mamoru listens for the voice his brother cannot put into words. For the first time, the boy encounters pain, his family’s crimes, and memories that are about to be erased. Questioning the strength his family believes in, and torn between the father and brother he loves, Mamoru discovers his own sense of justice. Set in a haunted mansion haunted by the ghosts of war, the film portrays a family in which love, hatred, and domination have become inseparable—and a boy seeking freedom from that world.

Profile

東京都生まれ。小学生時代をオーストラリアで過ごす。早稲田大学在学中に自主映画「鳥籠」が、2003年ぴあフィルムフェスティバルにて準グランプリと観客賞を受賞。PFFスカラシップによる劇場用長編映画「水の花」が、2006年ベルリン国際映画祭で上映、渋谷ユーロスペースほか全国で公開。2012年UPLINK製作の短編「NOTHING UNUSUAL」を発表。2018年、香港・日本・タイ・台湾の国際共同プロジェクト、是枝裕和総合監修の元制作されたオムニバス映画「十年Ten Years Japan」の一遍「いたずら同盟」が、釜山国際映画祭で上映、テアトル新宿ほか全国・香港・韓国で劇場公開。これまで国際共同制作ワークショップやマーケットのTies That Bind、Talents Tokyo、台北FPPなどに参加。長編映画企画「帝国の子供たち」はVIPO Film Lab NY脚本ワークショップ、ATMOVIE GLOBAL TRACKのフェローに選ばれる。2026年、株式会社spectraを設立。