Japanese society as seen by millennial directors
On November 1, 2024 at the talk session “How We Make Our Films” with directors selected for the Nippon Cinema Now section of the Tokyo International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival’s Film Department Director-Deputy General Delegate Christian Jeune remarked on the emerging contours of young directors in the Japanese film industry over the past several years, and he expressed confidence that something new is happening. In response, Tokyo International Film Festival Programming Director Ichiyama Shozo mentioned standouts in the Japanese film industry in the wake of Hamaguchi Ryusuke, namely Shiraishi Kazuya, Okuyama Hiroshi, Igarashi Kohei, Yamanaka Yoko and Sora Neo. Directors born in the 1990s left particularly vivid impressions at the 2024 Tokyo International Film Festival.
At the forefront is Yamanaka Yoko (born 1997), whose film Desert of Namibia was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 77th Cannes Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI Prize, and has earned prizes in Japan alongside lead actress Kawai Yuumi. In particular, the film vividly captures the psychological landscape of a young woman who feels suffocated in her relationships with two men, with an emphasis on Kawai’s dynamic physicality. This feeling of being suffocated by one’s circumstances also runs through the Cannes selection My Sunshine from Okuyama Hiroshi (born 1996); Sora Neo’s (born 1991) HAPPYEND, which was selected for the Orizzonti Competition in the Venice International Film Festival; and Kusaba Naoya’s (born 1991) {Yukiko a.k.a.}, an official selection for the Feature Film competition at the International Film Festival of the Province of Buenos Aires. It so happens that these three works depict relationships between children and teachers, exploring the roots of what makes Japanese society so constricting.
This was also the year that the #MeToo movement emerged, as seen in Matsubayashi Urara’s (born 1993) Blue Imagine, which deals with sexual assault in the Japanese film industry and was selected for the Bright Future program at the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The generation born in the 1980s more keenly observes contemporary society and points the way toward new kinds of relationships. All the Long Nights from Miyake Sho (born 1984) was an official selection in the 74th Berlin Film Festival’s Forum section. The film depicts emotional reconciliation through gentle acceptance of utterly inexplicable situations, centering on the workplace friendship between a man with panic attacks and a woman with PMS-related emotional dysregulation. Igarashi Kohei’s (born 1983) SUPER HAPPY FOREVER opened the Venice Days program at the Venice Film Festival and won the top prizes at both the 51st International Film Fest Gent and the 21st Reykjavik International Film Festival. The film depicts the absence of loved ones and the instability of having your everyday life fall apart in the course of just five years, which likely captures a sentiment common to many viewers who have been exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic, sudden global conflicts and political turmoil.
Furthermore, in 2024 the 97th Academy Awards saw nominations for Black Box Diaries from Ito Saori (born 1989) in the Documentary Feature Film category and Instruments of a Beating Heart (short film version of Making of a Japanese) from Ema Ryan Yamazaki (born 1989) in the Short Documentary Film category. Ito was sexually assaulted by a TV executive and takes legal action, and the film documents the daily struggles she faced due to the assailant’s social status and judicial system barriers. Yamazaki’s short film is set in an elementary school and documents a child tasked from age six with various roles and missi ons that must be handled as a member of the group that keeps the school running smoothly. Both films show the source of the difficulty in deviating from the group in favor of individual dignity, and it is fascinating and encouraging to see the contours of the invisible atmosphere that constitutes Japanese society emerge through the camera and frame, from the perspectives of contemporary filmmakers in their 20s and 30s.
