I Will Buy You

(Anata kaimasu)

BAMPFA Collection

featuring

Keiji Sada, Keiko Kishi, Minoru Oki, Yunosuke Ito,

“Baseball had been Japan’s favorite sport for decades by the time [I Will Buy You] was released. Kobayashi fully intended to shock viewers with his takedown of the beloved institution. . . . The film is told from the perspective of and narrated by Kishimoto (Keiji Sada), a ruthless scout hot to sign the up-and-coming college player Kurita (Minoru Oki) to the major-league Toyo Flowers. . . . There’s little sports-film catharsis in I Will Buy You—and relatively little baseball. Most of the interactions are pitched like boardroom negotiations, shot by Kobayashi with clinical detachment and often in ominous shadow.”

Michael Koresky
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Zenzo Matsuyama
Based On
  • a novel by Minoru Ono

Cinematographer
  • Yuharu Atsuta
Language
  • Japanese
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • B&W
  • 35mm
  • 111 mins
Source
  • BAMPFA
Permission
  • Janus Films