Exclusive U.S. Trailer for Chie Hayakawa’s Cannes-Selected Film Renoir, Set to Premiere This May

      Returning to the Cannes Film Festival a few years after her highly praised debut feature Plan 75, Chie Hayakawa presented her Tokyo-based period drama Renoir in the competition section. Acquired by Film Movement, it is scheduled for release this summer. Ahead of its theatrical launch beginning May 29 at the IFC Center, we are excited to exclusively present the U.S. trailer.

      Here’s the synopsis: “Suburban Tokyo, 1987. Imaginative eleven-year-old Fuki begins her summer vacation feeling lonely and aimless – her gentle, terminally ill father is once again in the hospital, and her mother, preoccupied with the reality of his diagnosis, has little time for her daughter. Rather than crying, Fuki reacts with calm curiosity about death, developing an interest in the occult and trying her hand at hypnotism. As summer unfolds, she meets a series of lonely, flawed adults, all of whom guide her closer to an emotional truth she’s not yet ready to confront.”

      Rory O’Connor noted in his review at Cannes, “With its mundane details (captured in beautiful, faded tones by DP Hideho Urata), the presence of seasoned actor Lily Franky, and a slow pace, Renoir is a coming-of-age tale familiar to those who appreciate Hirokazu Kore-eda, but it lacks much (if any) of his sentimentality. Hayakawa's perspective is both steady and observant, illuminating the joys and dangers of a pivotal summer equally. The narrative revolves around Fuki (Yui Suzuki), an introspective 11-year-old navigating the challenges of adolescence. Her father (Franky) is confined to a hospital bed battling cancer, while her mother, Utako (Hikari Ishida), is preoccupied with work. Frequently left to her own devices, Fuki immerses herself in her imagination and becomes intrigued by hypnosis, practicing it on a woman upstairs and a new friend from her language school. Set against the backdrop of Japan’s economic bubble in 1987, the film also reflects aspects of Hayakawa’s own experience of losing her father at a similar age.”

      Watch the trailer below: