Housenka (The Last Blossom) - Denver Pavilions

Join me at Denver Pavilions on the 30th for a showing of Housenka (English title: The Last Blossom). The film came out back in Oct. 2025 but this is the first showing outside of the festival circuit in the US.

Length: 90 minutes
Synopsis from Annecy:
"What a pathetic life it’s been."

An elderly inmate serving a life sentence awaits a lonely death in his solitary cell—until a voice calls out to him. It belongs to a balsam flower, Housenka, that speaks like a human. Through their "conversation," the old man begins to reflect on the life he’s led.

Trailer
Tickets available online at link or at the box office.

Logistics Notes: I'll be in the lobby at 3:45 with a Denver Cinema Club sign. After the film, we'll meet at the second floor lounge for a quick debrief then mosey on over to West Saloon or 54thirty Rooftop for drinks and discussion. Denver Pavilions offers 4 hours of free parking with validation in the underground lot. Entrance is on Welton between 15th and 16th.

Context and yapping from your host: Housenka is the follow up work from writer/director pair Kazuya Konomoto and Baku Kinoshita. They appeared onto the scene back in 2021 with Odd Taxi, an original ensemble cast puzzle box of a work with a meticulously interlocking narrative revolving around the anthropomorphic riders of a Tokyo taxi cab. The show delighted in snappy dialogue, a thoughtful awareness of the mediums of modern communication folded into a meta-narrative social media campaign, and an examination of the distortions and undercurrents of modern society, from the idol industry to the Yakuza to gambling in a phone game.

Personally, I've been excited for this film for quite some time. This team getting to work with the resources and production muscle behind a theatrical production is exciting. The chance to weave a shorter, tighter narrative set in the height of 80s real estate bubble Japan and using that setting to take a look at the life of a low-level Yakuza is not oft-explored. I hope you're able to make it!