Contemporary Japanese Cinema
Gūzen to Sōzō
Dir. Hamaguchi Ryūsuke
Japan 2021, 121’
Subtitles: Polish & English
Rohmerian in spirit, but bearing the expressive mark of Hamaguchi Ryūsuke's style, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, consists of three short stories, each revolving around the theme of chance. As customary, the wheel of fortune spins in Hamaguchi's film, whose heroines (because they are the center of each story) return: to a finished romance, a mistake from the past, the town of their first love. But it is also a journey towards a growing feeling of uncanniness, because the film, which starts out like a classic morality tale, slowly moves towards fantasy, where a twist of fate takes on extraordinary features. The director of Happy Hour and Asako I & II spins the wheel of fortune with masterful skill, and the scenes, shot mainly in interiors. Brilliant observations and a discreet sense of humor are accompanied by a sadness that makes Hamaguchi's film a quiet sigh over wasted opportunities and our imperfection.
Małgorzata Sadowska
Awards and Festivals
Berlin International Film Festival 2021 Winner Silver Berlin Bear
Hamaguchi Ryūsuke
After graduating from the University of Tokyo, he worked in the film industry for a few years before entering the graduate film programme at the Tokyo University of the Arts. His graduation film, Passion, screened at San Sebastian Film Festival in 2008. His 317-minute opus Happy Hour premiered at Locarno and went on to screen and win awards at numerous film festivals. Asako I & II was selected for the competition at Cannes in 2018. He also wrote the screenplay for Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, which won the Silver Lion at Venice in 2020.
Filmography
2008 Passion
2009 I Love Thee for Good
2010 The Depths
2011 Sound of Waves
2012 Intimacies
2015 Happy Hour
Cast & Crew
Director: Hamaguchi Ryūsuke
Screenplay: Hamaguchi Ryūsuke
Cinematography: Iioka Yukiko
Music: Jono Naoki
Costume Design: Usui Fuminori
Cast: Furukawa Kotone, Shibukawa Kiyohiko, Mori Katsuki, Urabe Fusako, Kawai Aoba, Nakajima Ayumu, Hyunri, Kai Shouma
Producer: Harada Shō, Takada Satoshi, Tokuyama Katsumi
Production: Fictive, Neopa
Language: Japanese
Colouration: Colour
