International Premiere
Rikiya Imaizumi’s haunting drama offers an uncommon take on a common problem: how can we know what’s truly inside the hearts and minds of others? As the film begins, Kanae (Yoko Maki) is reopening the bathhouse she shut down when her husband Satoru (Eita Nagayama) vanished without a trace. When Hori (Arata Iura) shows up looking for work, an uneasy companionship begins to form; meanwhile, private investigator Yamasaki (Lily Franky) is investigating Satoru’s disappearance. Gradually, it emerges that Kanae is a woman with two burdens: a mystery she can’t solve and a secret she doesn’t dare reveal. Adapting a manga by Tetsudo Toyoda, Rikiya crafts a film that asks for the viewer’s patience and rewards it amply: the leisurely pace, muted emotions, and psychological ambiguity are the perfect set-up for a series of stunning revelations. Contemplative, poetic, and deceptively casual, Undercurrent is provocative in the questions it asks and richly rewarding in the answers it provides.
Media Partner
Yoko Maki, Arata Iura, Noriko Eguchi, Eita Nagayama, Lily Franky
Japan
2023
Panorama
Japanese
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Kentaro Koike, Masahiro Handa
Producer
Kentaro KOIKE, Masahiro HANDA, Akihiro HIRAISHI
Screenwriter
Kaori Sawai, Rikiya Imaizumi
Cinematography
Hiroshi Iwanaga
Editor
Masaya Okazaki
Production Design
Yukihisa Satosu
Original Music
Haruomi Hosono
Director
Rikiya Imaizumi
Born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1981, Rikiya Imaizumi made his directorial debut with the music documentary Tama no Eiga in 2010. Since his debut, he has continued to make love stories with a unique sensibility, Where Is Love (2018) was a smash hit in Japan, gaining tremendous support from young audiences. Little Nights, Little Love (2019) was selected in the competition of Shanghai International Film Festival 2019 and By the Window (2022) won Audience Award in Tokyo International Film Festival 2022.
Filmography: Where Is Love (2018); Little Nights, Little Love (2019); By the Window (2022)
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie
Alex Gibney's doc relates the near-lethal attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022, the writer's painful rehab and recovery, and his reflections on life before, during and after the publication of The Satanic Verses.
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
You Had to Be There
In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al
House of Hope
"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.