Latest news with #ChieHayakawa
Tokyo Weekender
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Tokyo Weekender
Renoir Director Chie Hayakawa on Turning Grief Into Art
Chie Hayakawa was in elementary school when she decided she wanted to be a filmmaker. The Tokyo native went on to study photography at the New York School of Visual Arts before releasing her breakthrough short 'Niagara,' a story about a girl who goes to live with her dementia-afflicted grandmother. It was selected in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. Hayakawa's debut feature, Plan 75 , came eight years later. A critically acclaimed dystopian drama about a government-sponsored euthanasia program available to all Japanese citizens 75 and older to address the country's aging society, it was awarded the Camera d'Or Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022. Her latest flick, Renoir , a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale set in Tokyo in the late 1980s about a pre-teen girl named Fuki whose father is battling terminal cancer, was recently nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival. Hayakawa recently spoke to Tokyo Weekender about the film. Complete Interview with Chie Hayakawa Why did you decide to make Renoir? My previous movie, Plan 75, was an issue-driven film. I, therefore, wanted to make something different; a movie about emotions that I couldn't describe in words. I've been wanting to make a film about an 11-year-old because I was about that age when I first started to think about becoming a filmmaker. There were a lot of ideas and scenes in my mind for my future film. © Renoir – Loaded Films You mentioned Plan 75, which also deals with preemptive grief. How connected are the two films? And what was it like making such a personal movie from an emotional perspective? My personal experience of living with a father who had cancer affected my perception of death, solidarity and human dignity. So I think you have similar underlying themes in both films. For me, making Renoir was like a journey to find myself. I gained a new perspective on my childhood. What kind of films inspired you when making this film? I was inspired by movies which have a child as the protagonist, such as Shinji Somai's Moving , Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive and François Truffaut's The 400 Blows, to name a few. Why did you decide on Renoir as the title? I wanted to have a title that didn't have a specific meaning. I like the contrast between a story about a little Japanese girl and a French painter. However, after showing the film at Cannes, a lot of people mentioned that the movie was like an impressionist painting. A picture starts to emerge with a lot of brush strokes and colors. Renoir has a lot of small episodes which don't look like they connect with each other, but the collections of these episodes help to give the film something special and, I hope, leave a lasting impression. © Renoir – Loaded Films The film includes a story about a pedophile who attempts to groom Fuki via phone chat chat lines. Why did you include that? Girls are constantly exposed to such dangers. Sometimes they don't understand what's going on, but have a feeling of fear or uneasiness. They also have curiosity about sexual things at that age. I wanted to depict a girl's complex feelings and bitter experience. How her dignity can be hurt by men's desires. Why did you choose the Yellow Magic Orchestra song 'Rydeen' in the movie? That was the song I danced to at a summer camp when I was a child. Also, the film is set in 1987, so I think it also embodies the positivity that Japan was feeling at that time during the bubble period. Telepathy is another theme in the film. Were you interested in that growing up? Yes, I was drawn into it. I practiced a lot when I was in my early teens. I wanted to believe it existed and that miracles were possible. © Renoir – Loaded Films Yui Suzuki was the first child to audition for the role. What impressed you about her? And what was she like to work with? I found that she has her own universe inside of her. She is a very creative artist who is brave and is very comfortable in front of the camera. I really liked her strong gaze. Once I cast her, though, I was expecting that it would be very challenging to direct a child. However, it was so easy working with Yui. I didn't really give her detailed directions. I just let her do whatever she wanted. She acted so naturally. She has real talent. What about the performances of Lily Franky and Hikari Ishida? Lily Franky reminds me of Chishu Ryu because his acting is so minimal and his presence, just standing or sitting, gives a very strong and true impression. I was impressed with Hikari Ishida's performance as she embodied a mother's frustration, desperation and weakness. How did it feel to be nominated for the Palme d'Or? I was honored and felt very encouraged as a filmmaker. But at the same time, it was very surrealistic to see my name among other legendary filmmakers. For a long time, it didn't feel real. Of course, I would love to be nominated again. My future goal, though, is just to keep making films that I can put my soul into. Renoir is showing at Shinjuku Piccadilly Cinema with English subtitles until July 17. Related Posts Chie Hayakawa's Renoir Competes for Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival 2025 Johatsu: A Haunting Documentary About Japan's 'Evaporated People' David Lynch and Japan – The Twin Peaks of a Decades-Long, Mutual Obsession
Japan Times
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘Renoir': An impressionistic portrait of grief and girlhood
Screened in the main competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Chie Hayakawa's second feature, 'Renoir,' is rather unlike her first, 2022's 'Plan 75,' which also premiered at Cannes and became a favorite on the festival circuit. In contrast to the earlier film's clear concept — the elderly are encouraged to sign up for state-sponsored euthanasia in a near-future Japan — the movingly impressionistic 'Renoir' is a loosely plotted journey through the life and mind (including the vivid dreams) of an 11-year-old girl (talented newcomer Yui Suzuki) as her father succumbs to terminal cancer. In scripting and directing 'Renoir,' Hayakawa drew on memories of her own father's death from cancer when she was her protagonist's age and the film feels deeply rooted in the characters' pasts and intensely alive to their present moment. One parallel is the 1993 Shinji Somai masterpiece 'Moving,' which also features a strong-willed girl (Tomoko Tabata) dealing with a family crisis — in her case, her parents' divorce. Similar to Somai and Hirokazu Kore-eda, another master director famed for his work with young actors (see Suzu Hirose in his 2015 'Our Little Sister' for a pertinent example), Hayakawa draws out a performance from Suzuki that is true to her character's stubbornly individual nature while feeling natural and unforced. And like Tabata, who later went on to a flourishing career, Suzuki is a riveting on-screen presence, even when her character, Fuki, is silently observing the adults around her with a hard-to-read expression and distanced air. This attitude may impress as coldness, as if she hardly cares whether her father Keiji (Lily Franky), who looks frail and elderly, lives or dies. But the blank looks, we come to understand, are a sort of coping mechanism, as is Fuki's interest in psychic and mystic powers, from mind reading to magic spells (with failures by her and others serving as moments of mild comic relief). Although her mother, Utako (Hikari Ishida), is a busy career woman who seems to regard Keiji's illness and Fuki's presence as burdens, when we catch glimpses of earlier, happier times, we realize that Utako is not an ogre. Instead, she's trying to function in the face of overwhelming stress and, as Ishida's heartfelt performance reveals, deserves sympathy. The story, which unfolds in the summer of 1987, when Japan's bubble economy was at its height and digital distractions were nowhere to be found, is more a succession of incidents than a tightly woven narrative, but its development is not scattershot. Rather, its portrait of Fuki and her parents is cumulative in its power. There is also an undeniable sadness and darkness to it: Fuki becomes close to a classmate — a tall girl who shares her fascination with the supernatural — but their friendship does not last. Utako, on company orders, joins a therapy group, but the understanding leader turns out to have ulterior motives. Keiji tries to maintain his ties to his company from his sick bed, but his colleagues view him as a man of the past. 'Renoir,' however, does not descend to miserabilist drama. Like an 1880 painting by the title artist — a portrait of a girl whose cheap reproduction becomes Fuki's prized possession — it also glows with a youthful beauty and light. And we eventually see a smile from our protagonist that is not in a dream. Death hurts, but her life continues — and hope endures.
Nikkei Asia
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Nikkei Asia
'Urgency' drives movie-making turn by Japan's Chie Hayakawa
TOKYO -- Chie Hayakawa was in fifth grade when she figured out that she wanted to be a movie director when she grew up. Yet more than three decades passed before the Tokyo native had the chance to make anything more than student projects. It was simply not possible in the years she was raising children after college, particularly given the harsh working conditions prevalent in Japanese film production.
Japan Times
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
Japan's Seto wins International Critics Award at Cannes
Japanese director Momoko Seto's animated film "Dandelion's Odyssey" won the International Federation of Film Critics' award at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on Saturday. In the French-Belgian production, Seto presents the story of dandelion seeds that travel the universe after surviving a nuclear explosion. The dialogue-free film was the closing work of the Critics' Week, held in parallel with the film festival. "We chose this film for the great editing and the use of particular techniques of image that combine classic and modern animation forms," said the federation, known as Fipresci. The federation also awarded two other films. Meanwhile, this year's Palme d'Or went to Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi's "Simple Accident." Director Chie Hayakawa's "Renoir," the only Japanese nominee, missed out on the top prize.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Renoir' Review: An 11-Year-Old Girl Ponders the Mysteries of the Universe in Chie Hayakawa's Extremely Low-Key Coming-of-Age Drama
An article published in a 1982 edition of the research journal Social Science & Medicine found that an overwhelming percentage of Japanese doctors neglected to share terminal diagnoses with their patients, as they felt it was unethical to condemn someone to a death sentence. That information is only glancingly alluded to in Chie Hayakawa's 'Renoir,' a diaphanous coming-of-age story that's only clouded by the burden of unbecoming (no surprise to anyone familiar with Hayawaka's dystopian euthanasia drama 'Plan 75'), but the principle behind it haunts the film's young heroine all summer long. Her name is Fuki (gifted 11-year-old Yui Suzuki), she lives in a sunny Tokyo suburb at some point during the country's transitional period in the late 1980s, and she's almost subconsciously convinced that people aren't telling her something. There's a gap between her and the rest of the world, and it only grows wider after her dad ('Shoplifters' star Lily Franky) is admitted to the hospital during the final months of his bout with cancer. It's not as if the girl doesn't know about death (her short story 'I'd Like to Be an Orphan' has one of her teachers asking a lot of questions answered by the story), but the distance between recognizing mortality and living in its shadow is vast, and Fuki is desperate for someone to help close it for her. More from IndieWire 'Highest 2 Lowest' Review: Spike Lee Returns with a Jarringly Fun and Upbeat Riff on One of Akira Kurosawa's Bleakest Films 'Splitsville' Review: Open-Relationship Comedy from 'The Climb' Team Hits All the Right Notes Of course, Fuki doesn't know what she doesn't know, and her mother Utako (Ishida Hikari) — who often talks as if her daughter weren't able to hear her — has no interest in telling her. 'Do we cry because we feel sorry for the dead,' the girl asks herself in a rare snippet of voiceover, 'or because we feel sorry for ourselves?' Her only answer is to not cry at all; to keep a straight face and listen for the secret frequencies of the universe for guidance. Inspired by an American mentalist she sees on TV, the ever-imaginative Fuki becomes obsessed with telepathy; it starts with guessing what card someone might be thinking of, and quickly evolves into 'hypnotizing' a grief-stricken neighbor into talking about her late husband. Later, Fuki will neigh at a horse in an effort to understand them, listen to her own voice echo around a tunnel in the hopes of hearing something she couldn't distill from her thoughts, and even meet a grown man from a telephone dating service in a singularly harrowing sequence that reflects Hayakawa's continued fascination with the darkest parts of the human psyche. It's a fascination that's on full display from the opening moments of 'Renoir,' and renders the entire film allergic to the cuteness that seeps into so many coming-of-age stories like it. Animated by the creative spark that pops and fizzes behind Suzuki's eyes at all times, Fuki remains a compelling figure despite her refusal to betray her feelings to the outside world, and 'Renoir' leans on the character's quiet mystery as the movie drifts from one semi-connected episode to the next. Hayakawa is a plaintive storyteller who refuses to indulge in emotional cheats of any kind, and would rather a scene be impenetrably oblique than overexplain its purpose. 'Renoir' may not be quite as sterile as 'Plan 75' (a low bar), but the film is reserved enough for its title — a reference to 'the painter of happiness,' whose work is glimpsed for a half-second in the background of one shot — to feel like a perverse joke at Fuki's expense. It's possible that Hayakawa may have been inspired by the warm lighting found in some of Renoir's work, but there are few moments in which she allows her movie to indulge in the effervescence of a Tokyo summer, and even fewer in which she conflates the country's rapid transition with the equally seismic changes that befall her young heroine. Hayakawa's script eschews any sweeping commentary in favor of a more honest and incidental portrait of growing up — one that would rather be true to the reality of Fuki's experience than mold it to fit the poetic forms of adult memory. The film's plotting is elliptical (Utako's maybe affair with the counselor at her anger management seminar is filtered through a child's understanding), its direction unimposing to the point of feeling unformed, and its poignancy more rooted in the slow build of Fuki's snowballing isolation than it is in the moment when someone finally breaks through it. There are a handful of memorable episodes along the way, such as the nightmare fuel of Fuki's aforementioned pedophile encounter, and the much nicer sequence in which she spends a day at the track with her father, but incidents like that only have so much value to a story whose beats only matter so far as they help broker Fuki's connection to the world beyond her. As would be the case in real life, there's no single incident that explains how Fuki grows over the course of that one fateful summer (even if one especially meaningful gesture towards the end helps pull her out of her silent isolation). But 'Renoir' — with its faint traces of sentiment, and complete absence of sentimentality — delicately articulates the girl's inner child in a way that allows us to feel it expand across the season. Life can try to keep its secrets from her, but it's only a matter of time before someone as curious and deprived as Fuki is able to discover them all for herself. 'Renoir' premiered in Competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. Best of IndieWire The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst
