Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

PLOT: Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a camping site near Takumi’s house offering city residents a comfortable “escape” to nature.Read More »

“Evil Does Not Exist” follows Takumi and his daughter Hana, who live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. Like generations before them, they live a modest life according to the cycles and order of nature.Read More »

A famous Korean fashion photographer on assignment in Japan discovers a new kind of friendship with a mysterious male escort in Hamaguchi’s delicate character study. Anticipating his masterful epics, Asako I & II and Happy Hour, The Depths reveals Hamaguchi’s fascination with the unspoken and often indescribable bonds that create real intimacy. A Korean-Japanese coproduction, The Depths gives a new dimension to Hamaguchi’s oeuvre with its study of homosexual desire and the therapeutic potential of art making.Read More »

Quote:
Part of a trilogy focusing on the Tohoku region that is comprised of dialogues with victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Ideas on how to share experiences of the disaster with future generations, a challenge touched upon in the previous films The Sound of Waves and Voices from the Waves, is found in folk tales from the region.

Folk storytellers Ito Masako, Sasaki Ken, and Sato Reiko gather at Kurikomayama in Miyagi Prefecture. Folklore scholar Ono Kazuko, founder of Miyagi Minwa no Kai, acts as interviewer as they tell a series of fantastic and outlandish tales, including the story of a girl who marries a monkey.Read More »

Adapted from a short story in Murakami Haruki’s “Men Without Women”. A director’s wife was a playwright, but she died two years ago. When he’s invited to direct a play at a festival in Hiroshima, the director finds his chauffeur to be a stoic woman. The two share many rides, and as communication is initiated secrets and confessions are gradually exchanged.Read More »

An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction trap and an encounter that results from a misunderstanding, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.Read More »

A young couple announces their wedding at a party with friends. The reactions of the latter reveal hitherto unexpressed sentimental flaws within the group. The following days, the tension rises to the surface.Read More »

Quote:
Epic feature film that clocks in at four hours and fifteen minutes, born from a proposal at an actor training school. Three-part structure consists of an ensemble play by directors as they prepare for the stage, the play as it is actually performed before an audience, and short episodes.Read More »

Quote:
Yuzo (Nao Okabe) and Mitsuki (Anne Ogawa) live together in Yuzo’s small apartment, their constant companionship tender and indifferent in turn. Then Yuzo receives a call from Satsuki (Hyunri), a documentarian resolved to make a film about a now-distant family tragedy, and the three meet, to search for some way to account for their relationship to one another, the memories they share and those they’ve kept to themselves.Read More »