Shunji Iwai
Lily Chou-Chou, Hana and Alice, Fireworks and Love Letter: director Shunji Iwai returns to France to talk about his filmography!
This year, the independent filmmaker celebrates the 30th anniversary of Love Letter (1995).
Shunji Iwai, a leading Japanese director adored the world over and particularly in North America, presents a retrospective of his filmography for the first time in France.
Inspired by literature, pop-culture and shojo manga, Shunji Iwai's work has only been timidly presented in France compared to that of his contemporaries Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shinji Aoyama and Shin'ya Tsukamoto. After a notable appearance at the Annecy festival in 2015 for the release of The Case of Hana & Alice, the filmmaker returns to France at Japan Expo in collaboration with the Maison de la culture du Japon in Paris.
Born in 1963 in Sendai, Shunji Iwai dreamed of becoming a writer or mangaka, while at the same time his first steps in television, an obligatory step for budding filmmakers
since the industrial demise of the traditional studio system. There, he learned editing and
editing and writing, producing video clips and commercials, followed by TV movies.
such was their prime-time success that Iwai remounted them for theatrical release.
theatrical release.
Such was the case with Fireworks (1993), which was even awarded the prestigious
Directors Guild of Japan. In his 30-year career, from Love Letter to Kyrie's song (2023), Iwai has filmed the torments of adolescence postmodern solitude, marginality, the female condition, the disappearance of a loved one in an accident, cataclysmic events, with the spiritual journey of his characters as they seek to rebuild their lives, with an astonishing optimism and an unshakeable faith in the youthful minds.
A recipe for success.
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