Latest news with #Kore-eda
Asahi Shimbun
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Asahi Shimbun
Kore-eda all in favor of digital tech, but also reveres old ways
Acclaimed film director Hirokazu Kore-eda makes clear he embraces cutting-edge digital tools but also cherishes what's old. That message rings loud and clear in his latest project. Shot entirely on the iPhone 16 Pro, 'Last Scene,' a 30-minute short, is currently streaming on Apple Japan Inc.'s YouTube channel and elsewhere. The story opens as screenwriter Kurata (played by Taiga Nakano) revises his script in a family restaurant. A woman who calls herself Yui (Momoko Fukuchi) speaks to him. She says she has come from 50 years in the future and is a granddaughter of an actress starring in a TV drama series Kurata is working on. She adds that TV dramas have disappeared from terrestrial channels in her world because of his work. Kore-eda said he was surprised most by the smartphone's Action Mode feature. 'The footage I shot while I was running looked steady as if they were shot (with a camera installed) on a rail,' he said. 'I didn't use the iPhone to record sound, but the sound quality is also remarkable.' Kore-eda clearly welcomes advances in technology. But at the same time, he wants to resist progress. 'In 1995, when I made a professional debut, films were shot on film. But now, they are shot, edited and screened digitally,' he said. 'I also want to cherish the inconvenient aspects of film. When things become convenient, it is difficult to think of answers on-site,' he added. While at the restaurant, Yui refuses to order from a tablet and demands a menu with the dishes written on paper. Although 'Last Scene' is streamed on YouTube, Yui has come to the present day to prevent the extinction of terrestrial TV dramas. 'I wanted to make it a story that isn't simple,' Kore-eda said. 'It is only natural to accept changes in a positive manner,' he continued. 'But I also want to cherish the affection for things that are disappearing.' 'I hope the audience shares the ambivalence the protagonist has.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Japan's Imagica Group Selects ‘Maria' As First Project For Financing Scheme Supported By Hirokazu Kore-eda
Tomoka Terada's Maria, a drama about a young woman facing an unwanted pregnancy, is the first project to secure financing through a new initiative launched by Japan's Imagica Group and backed by leading filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda. The film will be produced by Hana Tsuchikawa, who has worked in production on live-action films by Takashi Miike and other directors, as well as working as a line producer on U.S., UK and other foreign co-productions. More from Deadline 'Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning' Director Christopher McQuarrie Reveals Tom Cruise's Scary New Stunt: "No One On Earth Can Do That" 'Riders Republic' Sets Movie Adaptation With 'Bad Boys' Duo Adil & Bilall Directing For Gaumont & Ubisoft - Cannes Market Chioma Ude On Founding The Africa International Film Festival: "It's Inclusive Of Everything The African Diaspora Has To Offer" Imagica Group, one of Japan's leading post-production and VFX companies, has committed to co-financing five director-driven films from emerging Japanese filmmakers over the next five years. The company said it would invest up to $500,000 (JYP70m) in the first selected film. Kore-eda, who won the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2018 for Shoplifters, is on the jury selecting the projects along with Shozo Ichiyama, programming director of the Tokyo International Film Festival, and Yuka Sakano, head of international relations for the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute. Terada, who is also a social worker, moved into filmmaking in 2020 and has worked as an assistant director to Kore-eda and other filmmakers. Her script for Maria follows a young woman in a nondescript, industrial area of Japan who finds herself pregnant with no chance of asking her absent boyfriend or family for support. With nowhere to turn, she approaches a local youth, who is working in a care home and dealing drugs on the side, to see if they can team up to make some money. Imagica Group president and CEO Shunjiro Nagase unveiled the scheme – the company's first foray into production launched to celebrate its 90th anniversary – at an event in the Cannes Marche today. Filmmakers can apply for the funding by partnering with a producer who belongs to an Imagica Group company, which include Robot Communication Inc, P.I.C.S. and OLM. Nagase said: 'The purpose of this project, launched on this milestone, is to provide the next generation of filmmakers with a place to work and to open up new possibilities for Japanese cinema. 'It is our responsibility and investment in the future to create an environment where producers within our group, as well as young directors and filmmakers from Japan and abroad, can freely challenge and express themselves. International film festivals in Europe and elsewhere are highly acclaimed for works depicting social issues and unique artistic expressions, but in Japan, there are still high hurdles to overcome in order to produce such works.' Kore-eda said: 'I sympathize with Imagica Group's efforts to discover the talents of the next generation in the film industry and nurture them to become active on the world stage. I joined this project to see what I can do to help.' Best of Deadline Everything We Know About The 'Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping' Movie So Far TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far Book-To-Movie Adaptations Coming Out In 2025
Gulf Today
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Hirokazu Kore-eda's Netflix series ‘Asura' is transformative
Sometimes, a great new television series arrives with loud announcements and general heralding; sometimes, one slips in quietly as if on slippered feet, declining to call attention to itself. I don't know why there weren't pronouncements from the hilltops when 'Asura,' the new series from the great Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda ('Nobody Knows,' 'Our Little Sister,' 'Shoplifters' and many more) arrived on Netflix in January, but nonetheless here it is, and we can only be grateful. Kore-eda, who's been making feature films since the 1990s, is a master of the quiet moments of family life: a sibling's unspoken resentments, a boy who dreams of bringing his divorced parents back together, a mother longing for her child, a parent's slow fading away. All of these are beautifully in play in 'Asura,' and the longer TV format (the series has seven episodes, each about an hour long) gives time for the plot elements to simmer, like the delicious-looking food frequently served during the scenes. (Everyone in 'Asura' is always delightfully hungry.) Set in 1979 Tokyo, and based on an original television series from that year, 'Asura' is the story of the four Takezawa sisters: Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa), a widowed teacher of traditional flower arranging; Makiko (Machiko Ono), a homemaker and mother of two teens; Takiko (Yū Aoi), an unmarried librarian; and Sakiko (Suzu Hirose, grown up from 'Our Little Sister'), a young restaurant worker in love with a boxer (Kisetsu Fujiwara). As the series begins, the women have learned something shocking: Their father Kotaro (Jun Kunimura) — 'a doddering old fool who can't shop on his own,' as one of the sisters describes him — is having an affair. But this is far from the only secret among the Takezawa sisters, as we learn over seven hours — and as we become part of the family as well. Like the March sisters of 'Little Women,' the four Takezawa sisters form ever-shifting pairs and alliances, connected by the metallic ring of a '70s-era telephone and by their own shared past. Life-changing events happen: A man calls his wife, thinking she's his lover; a young woman collapses at work; a fire blazes out of control; a woman points a gun at her husband and his mistress; a young man lies in a hospital bed, unmoving. But, as in real life, the drama exists side by side with the mundane: sisters having tea, or giggling together, or sorting through the belongings of someone who is gone. Kore-eda's observational style is simply to drop us into this family and let us figure out the connections, and you might spend much of the first episode, as I did, trying to sort out who's who. But once you're in, you're all in. Miyazawa, as oldest sister Tsunako, gives a particularly mesmerizing performance; this woman, who has a way of holding her face as if she's carefully arranged it beforehand, has a rather more complicated life than her traditional clothing and serene manner would indicate. And Aoi's quiet Taki, always seeming to be on the sides watching, is gradually revealed to be the heart of the family. 'This sister thing is so strange,' she says at one point, reflecting. 'The envy and jealousy can be so strong, yet when my sisters are unhappy, in the end, it's unbearable.' Watching 'Asura' (whose title is only explained in the series' final scene, so I won't give it away here) is a gentle and often transformative experience — like Kore-eda's movies but even more immersive. The cinematography, softly faded as befits the 1970s setting, is particularly artful, with the camera often peeking through windows or around shelves like a quiet observer. You find yourself disappearing into the shots: Sakiko driving on a wooded road, the trees' limbs seeming to blend into hers; a bonfire that lights up the faces of those around it as if by magic; the delicate drop of an apple peel as a knife twists away from the fruit. And I found myself fascinated by one shot of Tsunako's hands at work, carefully trimming a red-blossomed branch, paring away all excess, until only what matters remains.
The Guardian
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Asura is the best Netflix drama in years': this strikingly beautiful show will leave you salivating
Trust Netflix to make absolutely no fuss whatsoever about Asura, which could be the best drama it has put out in years. The lack of fanfare for the series, quietly released in early January, is genuinely baffling. It comes from the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who previously made the gorgeous The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House for the streamer and was nominated for an Oscar for his majestic 2018 film Shoplifters, which also won the Palme d'Or. You would think those credentials might have earned this a bit of a push. Instead, we must rely on word of mouth, so here it is: this is a fantastic television series, and it would be criminal to let it pass you by. Asura is an adaptation of a novel by Kuniko Mukôda, which was turned into a popular Japanese TV series in 1979. In Kore-eda's reimagining, the four Takezawa sisters represent a different vision and version of womanhood and femininity during this period. Takiko (Yû Aoi) is a civil servant, working in a library, who is as buttoned up as her youngest sister Sakiko (Suzu Hirose) – a waitress with a deadbeat boxer for a boyfriend – is flamboyant. They are frequently at each other's throats in some of the show's funniest scenes. Oldest sister Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa) is widowed with an adult son, and arranges flowers for a local restaurant, while Makiko (Machiko Ono) is a housewife, the mother of two teenage children, and the centre of these women's firm bond. Despite the constant scrapping between Takiko and Sakiko, the sisters are a solid unit throughout. It begins with a phone call from Takiko, urging them all to get together so she can share some important news. They suspect that she may finally be getting married, but the big reveal is even more explosive: she has spotted her elderly father Kôtarô (Jun Kunimura) with another woman, and a small boy, whom she overheard calling their father 'papa'. There is proof, in the form of clandestine photographs taken by the private detective she has hired to follow him. How should they handle this revelation, and what does it illuminate about their own lives? There are seven hour-long episodes, and each is as strikingly beautiful as the last. It is stunningly shot, the sort of show where you want to linger on every detail. For non-Japanese speakers, like me, it urges a second watch, to catch those delicate moments you may have missed when reading the subtitles. The sisters express their personalities through their clothing, their homes, the things they eat and how they eat them. And there is a lot of food here, as should be expected from Kore-eda. This is not a series to watch when even remotely peckish. Food is ceremonial, bonding, a plot driver and a focus. There are Fuji apples (for their mother, Fuji), rice cakes, pickled cabbage, endless platters of sushi. Food is savoured and shared. I have never been so desperate to gobble up everything on the screen. As with food, phones are a focal point, too. The drama kicks off with Takiko's phone call, summoning her sisters, but as this is set in the late 1970s, the telephone is the instigator of many dramatic moments: one call brings terrible news, another – a wrong number of sorts – sows the seeds of suspicion that form deep roots. The initial call, about their father's big secret, could have been played for tragedy, but here it is both significant and not: the lightness of the sisters' discussion about it, which zigzags between shock and amusement, hints at the show's careful balancing of comedy and tragedy. Its sense of humour is consistent, even in dark moments. It is much more laugh-out-loud than I expected it to be, and as a result, much more touching when the chips are down. All of this is a testament to how much Asura makes us care about the sisters, and how quickly it achieves this. In 1979, the behaviour of men is difficult for the women to confront, let alone question. But they quietly question it, in turn revealing hidden truths about their own moral compasses. There are affairs, difficult relationships, imagined infidelities and real ones. Following the news of their father's affair and a possible fifth sibling, a letter appears in the newspaper, outlining the family's predicament, with only a few minor details changed. The sisters suspect that one of them has written it, though its author remains mysterious. The letter builds towards a climactic question, which is really the driving force behind the series: 'Is it really happiness for women like us to live without making waves?' The Takezawa sisters make waves, some large, some smaller, each gathering up the turmoil of the moment and letting it crash down, before starting again. Asura is full of heart, full of joy, a remarkable, empathetic drama that deserves far more attention than it has been given so far. Asura is on Netflix now.
