After the extraordinary international success of the Oscar-winning Drive My Car, writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi turned away from the noise and quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a “glamping” retreat in the woods. The protagonist, Takumi, is a taciturn woodsman whose natural authority the developers seek to co-opt… but things don’t quite work out that way. Hamaguchi invests this all-too familiar ecological scenario not with drama, but with a rapt attention to Takumi’s way of life: how he chops wood, forages for mushrooms, or takes the measure of an icy stream. That’s not to suggest that nothing happens — there is conflict; change; tragedy — but rather than declare its intentions the film seeks to embody the patient virtues of living in harmony with nature, invites us to absorb them, and reflect.
Grand Jury Prize, Venice 2023
Community Partner
Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani, Hazuki Kikuchi
Japan
2023
Showcase
In Japanese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Satoshi Takata
Screenwriter
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Cinematography
Yoshio Kitagawa
Editor
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Azusa Yamazaki
Production Design
Masato Nunobe
Original Music
Eiko Ishibashi
Director
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Ryusuke Hamaguchi was born in Japan on December 16th, 1978. In 2008, Passion, his master degree graduate work from Tokyo University of Arts, was selected to the San Sebastian International Film Festival and Tokyo Filmex. In 2015, his film Happy Hour premiered at the 68th Locarno International Film Festival and won several awards. In 2021, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 71st Berlinale. At the 74th edition of Cannes, Drive My Car won the Screenplay Prize and 3 independent prizes, including FIPRESCI. The following year it received 4 Academy Award nominations at the 94th Academy Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay. It won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Filmography: Passion (2008); Happy Hour (2015); Asako I&II (2018); Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021); Drive My Car (2021)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Mistura
This foodie film from Peru tells the story of a newly single socialite reinventing herself — and the local cuisine — after her husband has left her for a younger woman. Along the way, she finds support from unexpected places...
The Company of Strangers
In this Canadian gem, seven elderly women find themselves stranded when their bus breaks down in the wilderness. With only their wits, memories and some roasted frogs' legs to sustain them, this remarkable group of strangers share their life stories.
GoodFellas
The ultimate crash and burn movie, Scorsese's exhilarating gangster film is infused with the excitement of fast cash, girls, guns and drugs. Yet this brazenly amoral movie also captures the brutality, betrayal, and spiritual void of the criminal world.
Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino announced himself to the world with this ingeniously fractured heist movie, carved into character-centric chapters, riffing breezily on pop culture, but counterpointing all this with blood-soaked intensity.