Broken Commandment

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SEGAWA Ushimatsu (MAMIYA Shotaro) is a teacher at a rural school in early 20th-century Japan. A keen humanist passionate about his job, he also hides a dangerous secret that may never be revealed: he is a burakumin, a member of Japan’s outcaste community.

Only by hiding his roots was Ushimatsu able to become a teacher, but now he is constantly tormented by his professional duty to lead by example and tell the truth. His feelings are intensified by his admiration for INOKO Rentaro (MASHIMA Hidekazu), a writer and activist who makes no secret of his burakumin status. Though Ushimatsu continues to keep his own secret for the sake of his social survival and romantic prospects, those around him begin to question his origins, and his position within the school soon comes under threat.

Adapted from literary master SHIMAZAKI Toson’s 1906 classic, Broken Commandment is a moving deep-dive into a hidden, taboo class system that still lingers in Japan today. A contemporary successor to previous adaptations by master directors like KINOSHITA Keisuke and ICHIKAWA Kon, this new version inherits its predecessors’ opposition to injustice and discrimination while critiquing the growing militarism at the turn of the century.

Screening as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2025, under this year's theme Am I Right? Justice, Justification and Judgement in Japanese Cinema