Oyster Factory (Japan/USA)  

The everyday life of small-town oyster-industry labourers in Ushimado is captured in extensive detail in this lengthy documentary.

Overly generous in its coverage, it includes everything from the unloading, shucking, and cleaning of the day’s catch to scenes of children babysitting toddlers, workers cooking meals, and cats wandering in and out of their lives. Amid all of this, interviewees reflect upon the declining state of the industry, as factories vanish and it becomes increasingly reliant upon Chinese workers as Japanese youth turn their backs on the work, which workers themselves describe as dirty, hard, and dangerous.

Although much could have been omitted, the film remains an intriguing time capsule capturing a vanishing way of life.