Local Japanese community paper Bayspo, in which I have a regular column, reports that the production team of "Harimaya Bridge" held a press conference in San Francisco, where the film is shot and is the home town of its executive producer Danny Glover ("Lethal Weapon" series), on his birthday July 23.
I could not find other articles in English press, so here is the one from Tokyo conference earlier in the month.
Tokyo press conference article (Japan Today)
The story is a human drama surrounding an African American father (Bennet Guillory), whose son lived in Japan but was killed in a car accident, and the son's Japanese girlfriend (Saki Takaoka). The director and original screenwriter Aaron Woolfolk used to live in Kochi Pref. in Japan on JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program, so he incorporated Harimaya Bridge (the famouse site in Kochi city) as the symbol of the ties between the two cultures, as well as the main character's milestones.
Glover says that he himself was raised in San Francisco African American neighborhood, with Japanese community just a few blocks away, feels strongly about the dynamics of the co-existance of different cultures, and wants to express it in this film.
The movie is shot both in Kochi city, Japan, and in San Francisco, is scheduled to finish filming in December, and is trying to enter Cannes Film Festival next year. The film is scheduled to be released next summer in more than 20 markets including Japan, Korea, and the U.S
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