Ryusuke Hamaguchi is one of the most world-renowned Japanese directors following Hirokazu Koreeda. Since Happy Hour shined at the Locarno International Film Festival, he has become a "darling" of major film festivals in just six years. As his creation is booming, Hamaguchi’s every new work is popular and has aroused heated discussions among the audience. Some film fans have even referred to him as "Rohmer of the East".

 

In the Famous Filmmakers Section of the 11th Beijing International Film Festival (BJIFF), two new films from Hamaguchi will be presented to the audience. One film is Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, both scripted and directed by Hamaguchi, while the other is Wife of a Spy, scripted by Hamaguchi and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. What kind of surprises will this world-renowned film author's new films bring? We will wait for fans to discover through the big screen.

 

 

The much-anticipated Wife of a Spy is undoubtedly the most suitable movie to watch on the big screen. The soft light and shadow tones, the exquisite composition and scheduling design, and the excellent interaction between the two actors Yu Aoi and Issei Takahashi all require the audience to savor and appreciate. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa even won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 77th Venice International Film Festival for this film.

 

The film was completed by three screenwriters, including Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and Tadashi Nohara, one of the screenwriters of Happy Hour. It is worth mentioning that Kiyoshi Kurosawa is the teacher of Ryusuke Hamaguchi, while Tadashi Nohara is the junior fellow student of Ryusuke Hamaguchi. In other words, the three filmmakers have a coherent teacher-student relationship. Thanks to their cooperation, the plot rhythm of Wife of a Spy is smooth and natural, and the dialogue scenes are skillful, enabling the film to vividly depict the real anti-war connotation while presenting an audio-visual feast.

 

 

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy consists of three short films -- Magic, Door Wide Open and Once Again. What the three stories have in common is that they all have factors of coincidence. “Coincidence” constitutes part of the dramatic relationship between people, while "imagination" makes the ordinary life in the film derail briefly.

When winning an award at the Berlin International Film Festival, the film received such comments from the jury: “In the place where dialogue and words usually end, the dialogue of this film only begins. That’s when they go deeper, so deep that, amazed and troubled, we ask ourselves: How much deeper can it go? The words of Hamaguchi are substance, music, material. At first it looks almost minor: a man and a woman, sometimes two women, stand in a room with white walls. Then the scene moves forward. As it advances you feel that the whole universe, including yourself, is standing there with them inside this simple room.”

 

“Imagination” in Magic seems to be a variant of Right Now, Wrong Then directed by Sang-soo Hong. Hamaguchi gives the three people in the same scene two different endings. The power of imagination acts on the obsessive girl, making her finally make a choice by following her heart.

 

“Imagination” in Door Wide Open does not happen directly, but is completed by the heroine's recitation in another layer of text space.

 

In Once Again, “imagination” is simpler and more straightforward. It is the ambiguity of identity that brings a sense of relief to the two leading characters. However, the interesting thing is that Once Again is wrapped in a sci-fi background - electronic devices all over the world are infected with a virus that leaks secrets, and people return to the original way of communication. Those who have been leaked secrets and those who have spied on other people's secrets are all burdened by the shackles of their hearts to varying degrees. This special setting leaves a very rich interpretation space for this story.

 

We invite you to continuously pay attention to Famous Filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi of this year's BJIFF, and follow us to walk into a special emotional world he has built with dialogue.