Ito - Diary of an Urban Priest

Finnish director Pirjo Honkasalo confirmed her growing reputation as a sharp-eyed, sensitive observer with her highly-lauded documentary \i The 3 Rooms of Melancholia. \i0 While the mortars of the second Chechen war were exploding in the distance, Honkasalo patiently continued filming the desperation and resistance etched into the faces of Russian and Chechen orphans, whose lives had been torn apart by the fighting. The only commentary she provided was to read out the age and the scant details the children were able to give about their parents. In \i Ito - Diary of an Urban Priest\i0 , Honkasalo finds desperation and resistance somewhere else, following a young Buddhist priest named Yoshinobu Fujioka with her camera around Tokyo. Fujioka's deep-seated ambivalence about life emerges gradually, through conversations with strangers and friends. He relates how his life took an unexpected turn many years ago as a result of a serious accident. In response to Fujioka, his former boxing instructor, a woman who has been sentenced to death, and a man whose father recently died talk candidly about their own lives and uncertainties. In an unforced - seemingly almost unintentional - way, these discussions and Honkasalo's observing camera reveal a fraction of the agitation and fears we all secretly know.