40-year-old, self-employed Kazuhiko "Yama-san" is suddenly chosen as the official candidate to run for a vacant seat on the Kawasaki city council by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) staking the dominant political party position on the council; suddenly, his peaceful, humdrum life is turned upside-down. Can Yama-san, with zero experience in politics and no charisma, but with just a genuine ideology, win this heated race?

Warning. If you have a hatred of politicians, you should do as much as possible to avoid this movie. Here is one of the 101 secret processes of how to run an election campaign smoothly. “Mr. Yamauchi, the most important element in shaking hands with voters is how you end it. You must make eye contact with the person when you end the handshake.” This is the advice of a professional election campaign manager to Yamauchi Kazuhiko, the Kawasaki city council candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The film tracks the rookie politician and his wife from the start of their campaign to Election Day. It can be said that comprises three situations. The first one is at the election campaign site. Yamauchi has to impress himself in the minds of voters. At the campaign site, prominent LDP politicians and, ultimately, the Prime Minister Koizumi visit Yamauchi’s campaign and give a boost to the level of enthusiasm. The second situation is at the election office. When Yamauchi is not in, people say things, when pointing at Yamauchi’s poster, like “Some women say that picture is frightening,” and “It’s because he’s trying to be serious. The problem is he is originally a tricky person.” The third is the frank comments by Yamauchi’s wife away from campaign sites. These sequences are ’s best. Yamauchi and his wife, who used to complain about, “The teachers teaching the strategy of election campaigns are all carpers and this is just like an army.” They ask curious questions: Why does it always have to be housewife and not simply wife when introductions are made? Or why do we have to wear white gloves? When these three situations crisscross each other, the film becomes more vital. is full of adventures. But that’s not because of the rat race politic movement of the LDP vs. the Communist party, but because it reveals everything about the election and the know-how of the campaign organizers – also known as the axis of democracy. By looking at a protagonist who threw himself into the election, we are able to see the very low part of elections and campaigns, the strategic acts of the birth of democracy that we have unconsciously passed until now. Director Soda Kazuhiro pours out lightness and comedy in a different way from that of Michael Moore, and our reactions do not come because of their comic pose, but rather their ironic seriousness. It is the site where our institution of democracy is born. This film recalls all the other Yamauchis out there who become friendly only during election season. So what does happen to Mr. Yamauchi come Election Day? (JUNG Han-seok)

I don't think of (Senkyo) as a political piece, though politics is its subject matter. Rather, it is what I call "an observational film," in which the viewer is expected to perceive and interpret the complex, difficult-to-articulate reality of an election campaign run by the Liberal Democratic Party, the party that has held power in Japan for the last 50 years. Most documentary filmmakers conduct extensive research on their subjects and write detailed scripts and treatments before they begin shooting. The scripts are often written to persuade members of the production team – executive producers, staff members, and investors – that the movie is interesting and worth producing, both artistically and financially. In making I broke with this tradition. I made a conscious decision not to write a word before shooting. I was determined to record whatever took place in front of me and to avoid research and pre-shoot meetings with the subjects. This wasn't because I was lazy. It was because I wanted to be true to my philosophy of documentary filmmaking, that a filmmaker should minimize preconceived ideas and should simply learn from the crude reality captured on camera. This strategy was a luxury made possible by the fact that this was a self-financed, one-man operation; I both operated the camera and recorded sound simultaneously. As a result, the shoot was one of the most thrilling ones I've ever had, full of eye-opening experiences. In the editing room as well I chose the most naturalistic path. I constructed the cinematic reality using only moving pictures and sounds recorded during the shoot. I did not use any narration, super-imposed information, computer graphics, special effects, or music. This is because I wanted the viewers to observe and experience the election campaign as directly as I did while I was shooting it. asks viewers to observe and think about what they see on screen. In this sense, reality is not painted in black and white. Instead it is gray and complicated, the way we experience it every day. I hope that viewers will leave the theatre with unanswered questions, ones they will continue to think about for days, weeks, even years to come.