Cutie And The Boxer is a moving and insightful journey into the lives of two artists in a relationship that has evolved over forty years. The story begins with the eightieth birthday of Ushio Shinohara. He and his wife Norika celebrate this event by lighting a candle on a small cake. Ushio and Norika are both artists, married now for 40 years. There’s about a twenty-year age difference between the two. They met when she was an art student who had just arrived in NYC from Japan. Norika has lived in Ushio’s shadow for their entire relationship and she is now struggling to find her own identity. Up until recently she has largely neglected her own work to support Ushio and raise a son. She harbors some justifiable resentment about this that manifests itself in her pushiness and her controlling their domestic life. But even with all the stress and issues, there’s an obvious bond between these two people.
The title of the documentary, Cutie And The Boxer, is connected to one of Ushio’s painting techniques, which is to put on boxing gloves, dip them in paint and punch the canvas from left to right. He’s still doing this at age eighty. He also does sculptures and other paintings. Norika paints and draws.
To read entire review and watch trailer go to Cutie and The Boxer.
Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.