Kodo

Directed by Masahiro Itô

Shot on high-definition video during the 1998-99 "One Earth" tour of Japan's celebrated Kodo drummers, this illuminating documentary explores the lives and philosophy of the Kodo group, who beat taiko--the signature drums of their art--to express the universal language of Kodo, a word derived from ko (or "heartbeat") and do (a reference to a childlike purity of spirit). "To beat taiko is to face yourself," says leading player Ryutaro Kaneko, expressing Kodo's goal of a complete merging of mind, body, and spirit in the act of drumming. Made up of 42 members (20 of whom actually perform on stage), the Kodo group is seen training (four months each year, with eight months of touring) at Kodo village on the Japanese island of Sado, where the group had its origins in the early 1970s before officially naming itself "Kodo" in 1981.