Japanese filmmaker Chie Hayakawa, whose Plan 75 earned a Camera d’Or Special Mention at the Cannes Film Fest, is back with competition title Renoir, a coming-of-age drama set during Japan’s economic bubble of the late 1980s.
The centers on Fuki, a sensitive girl of 11, played by newcomer Yui Suzuki, as she navigates a challenging summer while coping with terminally ill father and stressed-out working mother.
The cast also features Hikari Ishida and Lily Franky in pivotal roles.
The director’s current perspective brings valuable insight. “I’m about the same age as my mother and father at the time. I also have two kids, so I understand how parents live and what kind of mind they have. I feel more compassion to my parents now, and I have a different perspective on my past.”
Hayakawa chose to set the story in 1987, during Japan’s economic success, seeing parallels with contemporary society. “Back then, Japan’s economy was growing. People had lot of hope in our future, and we had adoration and respect for Western cultures,” she explains. “It was a consumption culture. Everyone was consuming everything and relationships between families were weakening. We were losing what was important to us and what’s real.”
“In the development, I had the benefit of feedback from producers from France and Singapore,” Hayakawa notes. “For production, I had sound recordists and boom operators from France in the entire shooting in Japan.”
Working with child actor Yui Suzuki, who carries the film’s emotional weight, proved seamless. “This was my first time working with a child actor, so I thought it would be difficult. I expected her to need careful direction, but it turned out to be easy because she performed naturally without direction,” Hayakawa explains. “I didn’t really give her instructions on how to say dialogue or make facial expressions; she did it so naturally. My only direction was about physical movements.”
Veteran actor Lily Franky, who plays a key role in the film, was the person I had in mind when writing. I always imagined him as the father. He has an eye as a director, so just standing without saying anything, or sitting in chair without any dialogue, it becomes cinema.”
With “Plan 75” and now “Renoir,” Hayakawa shows interest in characters navigating isolation within society. I’m very interested in solidarity of human beings, so maybe I will keep working on that theme.”
Hayakawa is optimistic. “For the past two years, new Japanese directors have been emerging, so I have positive feeling about Japanese cinema. We’re aware of the problems in the Japanese industry, so we’re trying to make changes.”
“Not many Japanese directors work with international co-productions, but my case can be good example of working with international production and targeting a global market. It gives people inspiration about how to make films beyond the Japanese market.”
