The question of who will continue the legacy of the 4Ks and particularly their successes on the international movie scene is one of the most dominant in the discussions among critics and scholars of Japanese cinema. Following the 2016 Un Certain Regard Jury Prize for “Harmonium”, one of the names that provides an answer to the aforementioned question is that of Koji Fukada. In the following text, we will take a closer and more thorough look at all the elements that make the 1980 born filmmaker a worthy successor of the aforementioned masters, starting from the very beginning of his life.
Born in Tokyo in Tokyo on January 5, 1980, Koji Fukada had a father who was a film buff, which resulted in him growing up in an environment surrounded with hundreds of VHS tapes, and subsequently, to become a cineaste, just like his old man. He watched the movies that inspired him to...
Born in Tokyo in Tokyo on January 5, 1980, Koji Fukada had a father who was a film buff, which resulted in him growing up in an environment surrounded with hundreds of VHS tapes, and subsequently, to become a cineaste, just like his old man. He watched the movies that inspired him to...
- 3/30/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
If we could summarize Koji Fukada’s cinematic style in four terms, these would definitely include his love for French cinema, his knack for experimentation, theatricality, and the concept of the stranger who appears suddenly and turns everything upside down. “Sayonara” seems to embody all of the four, with the last one having a meta hypostasis here, since the ‘stranger’ is not part of the story, but of the actual production, with Geminoid F, a female android created by Hiroshi Ishiguro, having a protagonist role. The story is based on a play by Oriza Hirata, and was promoted as “the first movie to feature a Gynoid performing opposite a human actor”
“Sayonara” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The story takes place in a not so distant future, when Japan has experienced another nuclear incident and is gradually becoming uninhabitable. The whole population has to evacuate to avoid radiation poisoning,...
“Sayonara” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The story takes place in a not so distant future, when Japan has experienced another nuclear incident and is gradually becoming uninhabitable. The whole population has to evacuate to avoid radiation poisoning,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
2010 was a rather important year for Koji Fukada, since “Hospitalité” netted the Best Film in the Japanese Eyes section of Tokyo International Film Festival and was extensively screened abroad, signaling the beginning of wider recognition for the filmmaker. The French title of the movie, according to Kiki Sugino, actress and producer of the film, was inspired by French philosopher Jacques Deridda’s idea of the term “hospitalité”.
“Hospitalité” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The story takes place in a neighborhood in Tokyo, where Mikio Kobayashi lives with his younger wife Natsuki, his daughter from a previous marriage who his current spouse teaches English, and his sister, who has recently divorced and has returned back to the house. On the ground floor of the two storey building, Mikio also operates the small Kobayashi Printing Co, which has somewhat declined since the days when his father was the boss.
“Hospitalité” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The story takes place in a neighborhood in Tokyo, where Mikio Kobayashi lives with his younger wife Natsuki, his daughter from a previous marriage who his current spouse teaches English, and his sister, who has recently divorced and has returned back to the house. On the ground floor of the two storey building, Mikio also operates the small Kobayashi Printing Co, which has somewhat declined since the days when his father was the boss.
- 2/1/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Nothing is as it seems in A Girl Missing, the latest feature from writer and director Kôji Fukada. Mariko Tsutsui stars as Ichiko, a visiting nurse who becomes a suspect in the kidnapping of Saki (Miyu Ozawa), a young student she had been helping study for school exams. Flashbacks follow Ichiko before and after the incident as she discards her past and her fiancé for a solitary life in a new neighborhood. What happens to Saki and her older sister Motoko (Mikako Ichikawa) unfolds simultaneously through two timelines.
Tsutsui also appeared in Fukada’s Harmonium, which won Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. Fukada has been a member of the Seinendan theater group, founded by Oriza Hirata, since 2005. Seinendan actors, as well as Hirata’s theories about “quiet drama,” have figured significantly in Fukada’s work. (His 2015 sci-fi drama Sayonara was based on a Hirata play.)
We spoke with...
Tsutsui also appeared in Fukada’s Harmonium, which won Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. Fukada has been a member of the Seinendan theater group, founded by Oriza Hirata, since 2005. Seinendan actors, as well as Hirata’s theories about “quiet drama,” have figured significantly in Fukada’s work. (His 2015 sci-fi drama Sayonara was based on a Hirata play.)
We spoke with...
- 7/30/2020
- by Daniel Eagan
- The Film Stage
Taking on from the first part, ‘Theatre 2’ tries to get many more details of the well-regarded Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata. His particular idiosyncrasies and principles are still present but get under a much more personal and microscopic eye of the director Kazuhiro Soda. The result is an astonishing documentation of a man with undying conviction who is inept to adapt to the technological advances or even the foreign shticks, with the energy of an enthusiastic newcomer. The better aspect of the second part is how it gets in-depth of the character without ever purposefully trying to seek information. And still, the way it has been edited makes just the right use of the material to bring the emotional quotient to a constant graph.
Theatre 2 is available from Ovid.tv
In the previous part, we saw Mr. Hirata directing trained actors, the ones who understand the craft and can pick up the cues suggested by him,...
Theatre 2 is available from Ovid.tv
In the previous part, we saw Mr. Hirata directing trained actors, the ones who understand the craft and can pick up the cues suggested by him,...
- 7/25/2019
- by Akash Deshpande
- AsianMoviePulse
Following the footsteps of the late documentary-filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, the 50-year old Kazuhiro Soda seems to be always interested in the inner-workings of his topics. Be it a mental institution, an electoral campaign or solitary confinement, he has always kept his grounded approach and brought much more authenticity to the subject. His handheld camerawork, easily reminiscent of the Dogme 95 movement, has many rules which define most of his approach. With the first part of ‘Theatre’, he gets into its mechanisms from the ever-lasting enthusiasm of Oriza Hirata, a well-known Japanese playwright.
Theatre 1 is available from Ovid.tv
From his intricate exploration into the playwright’s daily routine, the first segment, which spans almost a three-hour duration gets into the practice of theatre and Hirata’s work ethics. We get to witness several behind-the-scenes into his theatrical work and his vision. During the runtime, Hirata elaborates the process on a whiteboard,...
Theatre 1 is available from Ovid.tv
From his intricate exploration into the playwright’s daily routine, the first segment, which spans almost a three-hour duration gets into the practice of theatre and Hirata’s work ethics. We get to witness several behind-the-scenes into his theatrical work and his vision. During the runtime, Hirata elaborates the process on a whiteboard,...
- 7/24/2019
- by Akash Deshpande
- AsianMoviePulse
Mubi's retrospective Kazuhiro Soda: Radical Observation runs March 4 – April 17, 2019. A retrospective of the filmmaker is also showing March 3 – March 27, 2019 at Spectacle in Brooklyn.In the crowded field of auteur-driven nonfiction cinema, the New York-based Japanese filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda has distinguished himself as one of its most vital and consistently rewarding talents. Regularly selected for international film festivals and awards since premiering his breakout debut Campaign in 2007, Soda’s deeply personal and probing observational documentaries offer intimate revelations across a wide swath of subjects, including: political elections; public health work; artistic practice; fading rural Japanese communities and industries; and, most recently, Americanness (The Big House). Co-produced by his wife Kiyoko Kashiwagi through their independent production company Laboratory X, these consecutively numbered “Observational Films” are guided by Soda’s immense curiosity and empathetic imagination as well as his “10 Commandments of Observational Filmmaking”—a Dogme 95-like set of rules that distills the...
- 3/12/2019
- MUBI
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