Jyowa

A slow, meditative plunge into intimate rope work, more visual poem than documentary, asking quiet patience as it explores trust and unspoken connection.

Directed by

Daniel Costa Neves, Pedro Diniz Reis

Genres

Documentary

Starring

Akira Nakata, Nozomi Mashiro, Haruki Yukimura

Tagline

communicating through ropes

Overview

Jyowa is a made-up word created by Yukimura Sensei which merges the characters for “rope” and for “speaking or communicating”, hence it can be translated as “communicating through ropes” or “rope stories”. This project was started in Tokyo in 2011 as a documentary film, yet it ended up becoming more of an aesthetic experience that takes the viewer into the unique universe of five of Japan’s top rope artists (by order of appearance): Naka Akira, Yukimura Haruki, Nawashi Kanna, Urado Hiroshi and Hajime Kinoko. In each of the the five chapters we can see two people taking a journey into a deep and profound level of communication in which rope takes a very special place.

How it feels

Eerie, earnest, melancholic and romantic. Slow-burning and demanding.

About

Art, identity, isolation, sexuality

Content

Strong sexual content. Mild language. No violence or gore.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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