'Shiawase no taiko o hibikasete: Inclusion' can be translated as 'Inclusion: The Joy of Drumming'. It's a documentary about the group members of the Zuihou Taiko drum team that placed secnd in the Tokyo International Japanese Drumming Competition.
They are professional Wadaiko (Japanese Taiko drummers) who are mentally challenged but have a creative and intellectual independence.
Living in a community called “Colony Unzen” in Nagasaki prefecture, the team leads an autonomous existence in normal, residential homes, with the support and friendship of both specialists and ordinary neighbors.
Although the members started drumming as a mere rehabilitation and therapy exercise, through sheer dedication, constant practice, they became a full-fledged drumming team, fulfilling their dream to compete professionally under the supervision of Ichiro Jishoya, a world-class taiko drummer.
The film charts their gradual command of Jishoya’s compositions, while portraying their daily lives and showing how, after many years of struggle, they have earned the right "to live normally", in Colony Unzen.
As the members of Zuihou Taiko, their families and loved ones, even a mother who once institutionalized her son, reveal the story of their lives to the camera, they show us a world of Inclusion.
Directed by Ken’ichi Oguri
Japan, 2011, B.R., 104 min., in Japanese with English subtitles, Documentary
