Film: Otobai Shoojo's "The Motorbike Girl"

"The film is an adaptation of the manga "The Motorbike Girl"by Ouji Suzuki, which was originally published in "Gekkan Manga Garo"in 1973. It is the simple and poetic story of a junior high-school girl who goes off to the seaside on a motorbike, and comes back amidst wild cherry blossoms. However, the simplicity enhances the girl's vulnerability, her strength and femininity of which one gets an occasional glimpse. In adapting the original story to film, Hakodate, a town in Hokkaido was chosen as the background for the motorbike trip, and "the girl's search for her father" was hinted at the end of her horizon in order to add depth to the girl's gaze and to her journey. Morio Agata directed the film and also appears in it in the role of the girl's father." So who is Agata Morio?

"Morio Agata made his debut in 1972 with his now famous love song "Sekishoku Elegy". His trademark long hair, jeans and geta sandals made him one of the symbols of the 'gentle generation' from the early seventies, and a dominant singer/songwriter of the time. Although influenced by contemporary American folk/rock music and the hippy movement, he was not a mere follower, and created a thoroughly original music world which evoked the romantic popular culture of Taisho and Showa era-Japan.

After his debut album Otome no Roman, he zoomed through the seventies and eighties with the release of such works as Aa Mujou (Les Miserables), Zipangu Boy, Eien no Enkoku, all pregnant with the Morio Agata worldview. The release of Bandoneon no Jaguar in 1987 coincided with the Tango boom of the time, and also marks the start of Agata's foray into World Music, resulting in his formation of Raizo in the early nineties."