By Sean Barry
With the release of his latest film, “Drive My Car,” filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi continues to solidify himself as one of Japan’s finest filmmakers working today. Hamaguchi’s movies are stories about people experiencing everyday struggles with a raw realism that is not often captured in Japanese cinema as often as once was. Furthermore, the acclaimed artist is also known for pictures with long runtimes. At first glance, this may seem like a detriment, yet every minute of his work is generally utilized to the fullest potential. This is perfectly demonstrated in his intimate five-hour epic “Happy Hour.”
on Amazon
Development for the movie began in 2013 during his time as an artist-in-residence at the creative arts center Kiito Design and Creative Center Kobe, where he hosted many theater workshops. He would get the project rolling when he held an improvisational acting workshop. Many of...
With the release of his latest film, “Drive My Car,” filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi continues to solidify himself as one of Japan’s finest filmmakers working today. Hamaguchi’s movies are stories about people experiencing everyday struggles with a raw realism that is not often captured in Japanese cinema as often as once was. Furthermore, the acclaimed artist is also known for pictures with long runtimes. At first glance, this may seem like a detriment, yet every minute of his work is generally utilized to the fullest potential. This is perfectly demonstrated in his intimate five-hour epic “Happy Hour.”
on Amazon
Development for the movie began in 2013 during his time as an artist-in-residence at the creative arts center Kiito Design and Creative Center Kobe, where he hosted many theater workshops. He would get the project rolling when he held an improvisational acting workshop. Many of...
- 6/17/2022
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film won best feature and best screenplay.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car was the big winner at the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), which took place on the Gold Coast in Australia today (November 11).
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The film – Japan’s entry for the best international feature Oscar and the Cannes 2021 best screenplay winner – won best feature film and best screenplay for Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa. It follows a theatre actor and director who is grappling with grief for his lost wife and is based on a novella of...
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car was the big winner at the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa), which took place on the Gold Coast in Australia today (November 11).
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The film – Japan’s entry for the best international feature Oscar and the Cannes 2021 best screenplay winner – won best feature film and best screenplay for Hamaguchi and co-writer Oe Takamasa. It follows a theatre actor and director who is grappling with grief for his lost wife and is based on a novella of...
- 11/11/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Leah Purcell is the first Australian to be awarded the Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) after being recognised for The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson.
A total of ten films from 11 countries triumphed at the 14th Apsa Ceremony tonight, which was presented from Hota (Home of the Arts) on the Gold Coast.
A re-imagining of the Henry Lawson short story, The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson follows a woman and her stubborn determination to protect her family from the harshness of life in the 1893 Snowy Mountains.
Purcell wrote directed, starred in, and co-produced the project, which was adapted from her stageplay of the same name.
The Apsa international jury said the final product represented “not only an artist’s total dedication to her craft but also a spirited act of courage and tenacity”.
“The Drover’s Wife is a film that quickly...
A total of ten films from 11 countries triumphed at the 14th Apsa Ceremony tonight, which was presented from Hota (Home of the Arts) on the Gold Coast.
A re-imagining of the Henry Lawson short story, The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson follows a woman and her stubborn determination to protect her family from the harshness of life in the 1893 Snowy Mountains.
Purcell wrote directed, starred in, and co-produced the project, which was adapted from her stageplay of the same name.
The Apsa international jury said the final product represented “not only an artist’s total dedication to her craft but also a spirited act of courage and tenacity”.
“The Drover’s Wife is a film that quickly...
- 11/11/2021
- by Sean Slatter
- IF.com.au
European A-list festivals have rolled their red carpets multiple times for Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who started conquering the Old Continent with his graduation film “Passion” in the official selection of San Sebastian in 2008. Three years later, he was in the official selection of Locarno with “Sound of Waves”, and in 2015 – in Locarno again – his film “Happy Hour” won the awards for Best Actress and Special Mention for Script. Cannes welcomed him in the official competition in 2018 with “Asako I & II”, and now he’s in the main competition of Berlinale with his omnibus “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”, consisting of three short films dealing with the theme of coincidence and imagination.
We had the opportunity to talk to the director about his ideas and inspirations in a generous one-on-one interview, due to this year’s special circumstances – done over a Zoom call.
”Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” is a film...
We had the opportunity to talk to the director about his ideas and inspirations in a generous one-on-one interview, due to this year’s special circumstances – done over a Zoom call.
”Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” is a film...
- 3/6/2021
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Ryusuke Hamaguchi brings a gentle warmth to this ingenious collection of three stories united by themes of fate and mystery
Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a Japanese film-maker whose work I first encountered in 2018 with his doppelgänger romance Asako I & II and indirectly via last year’s experimental chamber-piece Domains, whose screenwriter Tomoyuki Takahashi has worked with Hamaguchi. Now he has unveiled this ingenious, playful, sparklingly acted and thoroughly entertaining portmanteau collection of three movie tales.
Their themes and ideas are emerging as keynotes for this director: fate and coincidence, identity and role-play, and the mysteries of erotic pleasure and desire. There is a rather European flavour in the mix – one of its characters is a specialist in French literature – and I found myself thinking of Emmanuel Carrère and Milan Kundera. And although there is no formal connection between the stories (other than the thematic echoes) the simple act of juxtaposition creates something pleasingly cohesive.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a Japanese film-maker whose work I first encountered in 2018 with his doppelgänger romance Asako I & II and indirectly via last year’s experimental chamber-piece Domains, whose screenwriter Tomoyuki Takahashi has worked with Hamaguchi. Now he has unveiled this ingenious, playful, sparklingly acted and thoroughly entertaining portmanteau collection of three movie tales.
Their themes and ideas are emerging as keynotes for this director: fate and coincidence, identity and role-play, and the mysteries of erotic pleasure and desire. There is a rather European flavour in the mix – one of its characters is a specialist in French literature – and I found myself thinking of Emmanuel Carrère and Milan Kundera. And although there is no formal connection between the stories (other than the thematic echoes) the simple act of juxtaposition creates something pleasingly cohesive.
- 3/5/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A policeman reads a taciturn woman her statement back to her, a confession of killing her friend’s child. She reacts minimally, either disconnected or disassociated, and when the policeman informs her that her confession will lead to judgement, she foggily explains she has already been judged—by something, something "like time." This strange transition from a criminal drama to intangible abstraction is the suggestive opening to Natsuka Kusano’s second feature Domains, where this terrible crime and the genre story attached to it—how did this murder come about, why did the woman kill the child, what will happen to her?—are a misdirection. The truly important part of this prelude was the fact that the policeman read out loud the woman’s story for her, because what follows over the next two and a half hours in this bold venture is just that: reading. After some credits, Kusano...
- 1/28/2019
- MUBI
I Am Not Madame Bovary’s Feng Xiaogang took the best director prize.Scroll down for full list of winners
The jury of the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) has awarded the best film prize to Mustafa Kara’s Turkish drama Cold Of Kalandar. The film won a total of three prizes at the regional film awards, which took place tonight (Nov 24) in Brisbane, Australia.
The best director prize went to Chinese director Feng Xiaogang for his satirical critique of bureaucratic indifference to the populace of mainland China, I Am Not Madame Bovary.
Cold of Kalandar’s Apsa best film win comes after similar honours at the Tokyo Film Festival, and Turkey’s Istanbul and Antalya film festivals.
In September it was selected as Turkey’s candidate for the foreign language Oscar.
The film depicts an impoverished family’s attempt to make a living through farming in Turkey’s mountainous northern region. Tensions between...
The jury of the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) has awarded the best film prize to Mustafa Kara’s Turkish drama Cold Of Kalandar. The film won a total of three prizes at the regional film awards, which took place tonight (Nov 24) in Brisbane, Australia.
The best director prize went to Chinese director Feng Xiaogang for his satirical critique of bureaucratic indifference to the populace of mainland China, I Am Not Madame Bovary.
Cold of Kalandar’s Apsa best film win comes after similar honours at the Tokyo Film Festival, and Turkey’s Istanbul and Antalya film festivals.
In September it was selected as Turkey’s candidate for the foreign language Oscar.
The film depicts an impoverished family’s attempt to make a living through farming in Turkey’s mountainous northern region. Tensions between...
- 11/24/2016
- ScreenDaily
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