Chen Liang (Yulai Lu), an undocumented Chinese immigrant in Japan, acquires a fake ID belonging to an existing person through a shady black market transaction. Spending his days doing illicit odd jobs that put him at risk for deportation, a new opportunity (meant for his identity’s real-life counterpart) leads him to a Japanese soba shop where he apprentices for an elderly soba master (Tatsuya Fuji, In The Realm of the Senses) who takes him under his wing. A moving debut feature from director Kei Chikaura, Complicity delivers a compassionate portrait of the immigrant experience in Japan and the struggle to live while in constant fear of being exposed.
“Complicity implies involvement in a crime. The film, though, is cause for celebration.” —The Japan Times
Streaming in the U.S. from February 5-25 as part of 21st Century Japan: Films from 2001-2020
In Japanese and Mandarin with English subtitles