{"id":660195,"date":"2026-10-29T02:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T02:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660195\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T02:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T02:38:09","slug":"from-carlos-reygadas-to-hamaguchis-dp-nippon-cinema-now-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660195\/","title":{"rendered":"From Carlos Reygadas to Hamaguchi’s DP: Nippon Cinema Now Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA first-time director who messaged Oscar winner Hamaguchi Ryusuke\u2019s cinematographer directly, and a former hunter whose film led Carlos Reygadas to float a collaboration, were among five Nippon Cinema Now filmmakers who shared the unexpected connections behind their work at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival<\/a> (TIFF).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cHow We Make Films\u201d panel at Tokyo Midtown Hibiya, moderated by TIFF programming director Ichiyama Shozo, brought together Ueda Shinichiro (\u201cEarthlings in Love\u201d), Saito Kisin (\u201cKefi\u201d), Natori Satoshi (\u201cChihiro | Akemi\u201d), Matsumura Shingo (\u201cBetween Us\u201d) and Yaza Takenoshin (\u201cHinotama: Ball of Fire\u201d) to discuss the making of their radically different features.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs he introduced the participants, Ichiyama noted that although the selection typically focuses on newer directors in Japanese cinema, he was interested in bringing Ueda in because of the unique vertical format of his latest film, \u201cEarthlings in Love.\u201d<\/a> Ueda explained that the film was an adaptation of sorts, born from a 30-episode microdrama series designed for social media, hence the vertical aspect ratio. Its budget, though, was \u201cequivalent to a regular independent film,\u201d he said. That already sets it apart from most microdramas, which are typically very low-budget. \u201cI\u2019m from the theatrical film world, so we were making it as if it were a film to start with [\u2026] so it became appropriate for a theatrical release,\u201d Ueda said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIchiyama then introduced \u201cKefi,\u201d a debut feature by young cinematographer Saito, which he described as \u201ca very unique, strange film,\u201d one where \u201cyou never know what\u2019s happening, but at the end, it all comes together.\u201d Asked how such a film came about, Saito said he had met a producer in charge of production and movie advertising, who found a sponsor for the project. \u201cAnd so the sponsor had a theme for us, and based on that theme, we were going to make a film, and I agreed to it. But as we continued our discussion, the sponsor said that we could make it as we like. So it turned out to be a very strange film,\u201d Saito said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe original theme, he said, was \u201cmaternal love, being a mother.\u201d The finished film instead follows three sisters after they receive the news of their father\u2019s passing. \u201cThey kind of left it to us, so I kind of just added my preferences,\u201d Saito said.<\/p>\n

\n\tMoving on to \u201cChihiro | Akemi,\u201d Natori spoke about a key location in the film, a house in eastern Hokkaido.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wanted to shoot a film that is basically about the distance between the woods and the house, just going back and forth from the house. I myself used to be a hunter, and with the experiences from hunting, I came up with all these ideas, and I tried to put them in this film. You go out hunting, you look for prey, and then you hunt, and then you eat the meat. And you continue this over and over again,\u201d Natori said. \u201cAnd I kind of compared that life and the life that I have in Tokyo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNatori, who used to work as a director at an advertising company, said that in the Hokkaido wilderness, those social roles were stripped away. \u201cI really felt like my personality changed, and I was really interested in that shift, as if there was another person inside me. I fully felt this uncanny feeling of somebody else emerging from inside me, and I felt like this would be a really terrifying idea.\u201d Nawata Canon, an actor and producer on the film, also incorporated her own experience of giving birth into it, Natori said.<\/p>\n

\n\tDiscussing his influences, Natori cited Andrei Tarkovsky\u2019s \u201cNostalghia,\u201d calling it \u201cfoundational\u201d because it taught him that \u201cthe plot is secondary.\u201d To him, the texture of a film matters more, and color and style are equivalent to story.<\/p>\n

\n\tNatori also spoke about the film\u2019s festival run, including the Split Film Festival in Croatia, where it won the Grand Prix in the feature film competition. That led to a meeting with Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, who was on the jury. \u201cHe came up to me and he said, \u2018Your film is crazy. What\u2019s going on here?\u2019 So he personally talked to me and wanted to collaborate with me. So for the next one, potentially it\u2019s going to be a Japan-Mexico collaboration,\u201d Natori said.<\/p>\n

\n\tA common theme of the panel was the freedom to make the kind of film each director wanted. Speaking about \u201cBetween Us,\u201d Matsumura said that \u201cit was very much free in terms of what I could do with the concepts\u201d in a film that \u201cfocused on theater and how the theater and reality overlap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe conversation turned to taking a chance on approaching collaborators, with Yaza describing how he came to work with cinematographer Kitagawa Yoshio, known for his work with Hamaguchi.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI had never done a feature-length film or anything that required a budget, so I didn\u2019t really know how much it would cost or what the budget would look like,\u201d Yaza said. \u201cBut then I messaged [Kitagawa] directly. He has also done many low-budget films, and so I was curious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe never imagined, he said, that \u201cthe cinematographer for Hamaguchi\u2019s film would be able to join my project,\u201d and assumed \u201cthere must be some kind of trick to make films with a low budget like Hamaguchi does.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYaza asked Kitagawa about making films on a tight budget. That eventually led to a call in which the cinematographer offered to shoot the film and connected him with a producer, who began approaching financiers. \u201cIt was my first set because I\u2019ve never been on a film set before,\u201d Yaza said. \u201cI was also the youngest person on set, and it was a very generous environment, [one] with an open mind, and we were able to enjoy ourselves until the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNatori\u2019s thoughts on what matters most in feature filmmaking seemed to capture the idiosyncratic appeal of the Nippon Cinema Now selection as a whole. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for you to make a feature-length film that you will be satisfied by,\u201d he said, \u201cthat you can only do because it\u2019s your first time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A first-time director who messaged Oscar winner Hamaguchi Ryusuke\u2019s cinematographer directly, and a former hunter whose film led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,397,1776],"class_list":["post-660195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-movies","tag-tokyo-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}