Latest news with #ChieHayakawa
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
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Renoir' Review: A Delicate and Touching Tokyo-Set Portrait of a Girl's Loneliness
In her debut feature Plan 75, which premiered at Cannes in 2022, Chie Hayakawa offered a quietly disconcerting vision of the future in which Japanese residents over the age of 75 could elect to be euthanized. At first the program seems to be benign, but Hayakawa's film steadily reveals how the policy thrives on the cruel capitalist tenet that people are disposable. Plan 75 won a 'special mention' Camera d'Or (best first film) prize that year and announced Hayakawa as a director to watch. Now, three years later, the Japanese filmmaker turns her considered eye to the past. Premiering in competition at Cannes, Renoir is a poetic meditation on a crucial summer in the life of 11-year-old Fuki (a gorgeous turn by newcomer Yui Suzuki) as she navigates her father's battle with cancer, her mother's ambient stress and persistent loneliness. The film, set in suburban Tokyo in 1987, moves at the speed of a leisurely stroll, using direct, but by no means harsh, cuts (editing is by Anne Klotz) to carry us from one scenario to the next. More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Nouvelle Vague' Review: Richard Linklater's Enjoyable Deep Dive Celebrates How Godard's 'Breathless' Came to Life Cannes Hidden Gem: 'A Useful Ghost' Is a Socio-Political Parable Starring a Vacuum Cleaner Cannes: Young Danish Collective Reboots Dogma for New Generation We follow Fuki as she wanders the city and retreats into her imagination. Hobbies are acquired, friends are made, enemies procured and people lost. Throughout, Hayakawa maintains a steady control of this delicate story. There are moments toward the end when Renoir takes sentimental turns that feel a touch too obvious for its subtle framing. Still, the film will likely find a life outside the festival circuit, especially with the arthouse crowd. As with many lyrical coming-of-age films (like All Dirt Road Taste of Salt, for example), Renoir rewards patience with fragmented narratives and surrealist touches. And it's fair to say not everyone will be able to get on its wavelength. The movie is calibrated to the volume of a whisper, as if Hayakawa is in a conspiratorial conversation with her own memories. Renoir's themes are deeply personal for the director, who, like the central character, grappled with the realities of a terminally ill parent. Working with her Plan 75 DP Hideho Urata, Hayakawa embraces a dreamy aesthetic that enhances the perspective of a child who is always looking. At one point in the film, Fuki stares at a man (Ayumu Nakajima) her mother, Utako (Hikari Ishida), has brought around and he jokingly asks if she finds his face interesting. And the answer is, well, yes, of course. Because Fuki is a curious child, the kind of 11-year-old people find peculiar because of the intensity of her gaze and the directness of her manner. We meet Fuki in a quietly harrowing opening sequence. She is watching a montage of crying infants on a VHS, which she quickly discards in her apartment complex's trash room. It's in that dark, musty area that she encounters a strange man with a gruff voice. He asks her invasive questions and Fuki, freaked out, runs. Later that evening, the man strangles her in bed and Fuki, through voiceover, considers her own death. It turns out that this is a short story she has written for a school assignment, a literary musing on grief and sadness. A few scenes after this, Fuki's teacher meets with her mother to ask if the young girl is alright. In many ways, Fuki isn't. She's surrounded by adult anxiety. Her father, Keiji (Lily Franky, a regular in Hirokazu Kore-eda's films), has cancer and her mother is buckling under the strain of caring for him. When he is hospitalized early in the film, Utako asks the hospital to assume long-term care duties. She is expecting he will die soon and accepting that reality comes with its own challenges. While her parents negotiate the emotional and financial weight of a looming death, Fuki tries to stave off loneliness and boredom through hobbies and friendships. She becomes close with Kuriko (Yuumi Kawai), a girl at her school with perfectly braided hair, and starts a suspect relationship with Kaoru (Ryota Bando), an older boy whom she meets by calling into a hotline for people seeking connections. Out of all these amusements, however, Fuki's obsession with magic and telepathy remains constant. Early in the film, the young girl watches an English-language show hosted by a kind of musician. He mostly guesses which card people have chosen from a deck, but he occasionally wills a pair of glasses to levitate with his mind. His primary instruction for those trying to tap into their psychic power is to concentrate. Fuki takes the directive seriously and spends most of the film conscripting those around her to take part. Kuriko is her most willing participant, and together the pair arrange rituals and try to read each other's minds. When Kuriko eventually moves away, it's a heartbreaking turn, leaving Fuki once again alone. Part of the reason Renoir, despite its modesty, hits emotionally is because of Suzuki's compelling performance. The newcomer has a wide-eyed, penetrating stare that at once communicates the reality of Fuki's innocence and the depth of her curiosity. In the actress' hands, the character becomes someone you come to feel deeply protective of. When Fuki decides to meet the young man she's been talking to on the telephone in real life, an anxious tension creeps into Renoir as you start to spiral about all the ways that interaction could go wrong. But thankfully Hayakawa cares about Fuki too, and so the character, despite her quirks and odd predilections, never gets into too much trouble. The director is interested, above all, in bringing the complications of Fuki's emotional life to the surface, a mission that the film largely accomplishes. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now "A Nutless Monkey Could Do Your Job": From Abusive to Angst-Ridden, 16 Memorable Studio Exec Portrayals in Film and TV The 10 Best Baseball Movies of All Time, Ranked
South China Morning Post
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Cannes 2025: Renoir movie review – Plan 75's Chie Hayakawa considers amorality in Japan
4/5 stars Advertisement In Renoir, hardly anybody cries. Its eerily calm characters shed barely a tear even when caring for the dying, mourning the dead or struggling with their lifeless marriages. Yet Chie Hayakawa's second feature isn't set in the kind of dystopia seen in her debut film Plan 75 , in which the elderly are encouraged to participate in a state-sponsored euthanasia programme to make the country young again. Set in Japan in the 1980s and revolving around the life of a schoolgirl whose father lies dying in hospital from cancer, Renoir is an empathetic portrait of a child's rite of passage in a society beset by very real moral dilemmas. More importantly, Hayakawa offers a subtle, yet spot-on critique of the twisted social norms which would have made the inhuman scheme in Plan 75 a very distinct reality. Advertisement Premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Renoir is bolstered by Hayakawa's sound screenplay and solid mise-en-scène, in which her characters' frostiness is contrasted with the warm colour palettes of cluttered Japanese homes in summertime.
CNA
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
3 made-with-Singapore films selected for Cannes Film Festival 2025
Three made-with-Singapore films will be presented at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13 to 24 in France. These are: Renoir, which will be in the main Competition and competing for the top Palme d"Or award; A Useful Ghost, which will be screened at the Critics' Week segment; and the short film Before The Sea Forgets, which is at the Directors' Fortnight. Renoir marks the second time a film with involvement from Singapore has made it to the main competition, 17 years after Singaporean director Eric Khoo's My Magic in 2008. It will be up against 20 other films. Previous Palme d'Or winners include 2019's Parasite and 1994's Pulp Fiction. Directed Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa and co-produced by Singapore-based Akanga Film Asia, Renoir follows the story of a Japanese girl as she copes with a terminally ill father and stressed-out working mother while encountering various adults dealing with their own struggles. Its Japanese cinematographer, Hideho Urata, is currently a senior lecturer at Lasalle College of the Arts and has also worked on the award-winning Singapore film A Land Imagined. The film, which also involves producers from Japan, France, the Philippines and Indonesia, is set to be released in Japan on Jun 20. A Singapore release date has yet to be announced. Meanwhile, A Useful Ghost is directed by Thailand's Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke and co-produced by Singapore-based Momo Film Co, along with French and Thai counterparts. It's about a wife who dies due to dust pollution and unexpectedly returns in the form of a vacuum cleaner unravelling an unconventional human-ghost love story. The Singapore release date for the film will be announced later. Singaporeans involved in the film include sound designer Lim Ting Li and product designer, Sim Hao Jie. Both Renoir and A Useful Ghost received support from the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), via its Go-Global Grant and Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant, respectively, under the IMDA's Media Talent Progression Programme. A total of 30 Singapore talents were involved in both films, including production, sound, editing, art department and casting. The short film Before the Sea Forgets by Vietnamese director Le Ngoc Duy was produced by Singapore production houses 13 Little Pictures and WBSB Films. It follows a young man in Vietnam haunted by doubts about his lover's faithfulness. His encounter with a ghost, when he searches for a soldier's grave, forces him to face uncomfortable truths about his own relationship. The cinematography, colour grading and post-production for the film were by Singaporean co-producer Looi Wan Ping, local colorist Eugene Seah and production house The Chop Shop Post, respectively. Last year, Singaporean director Chiang Wei Liang's film, Mongrel, received a Camera d'Or Special Mention. 'As Singapore marks its 60th birthday this year, we celebrate nearly three decades of showcasing Made-with-SG content and local talent at Cannes Film Market,' said Yvonne Tang, assistant chief executive of IMDA. 'Cannes remains a key platform for Singapore filmmakers and producers to market their stories globally and build international partnerships. Our strong presence here demonstrates how Singapore, despite its size, consistently produces brilliant storytellers who can compete on the world stage.'
