The summer of an 11-year-old confronting imperfect adults. Director Chie Hayakawa's latest film, "Renoir," will be released on June 20.

The interest in, and fear of, adults that I felt as a child, the difference in environment and thinking from my friends, and the hazy perception of death. This film is a rare work that scoops up those feelings that I could not understand in my head but felt in my heart.

story
One summer in the 1980s, 11-year-old Fuki lives with her parents in a house in the suburbs. His father, Keiji, is in and out of the hospital repeatedly due to a battle with illness, while his mother, Utako, is busy with housework and work. While attending her father's hospital, Fuki catches a glimpse of the world of "imperfect" adults. There is a woman who has just lost her husband, a couple who scam her by claiming to have a medicine to save her from cancer, her best friend who is unaware of her father's adulterous relationship, and a college student she meets on a message dial: ....... Her daily life is undeniably shaken.

The film was directed by Chie Hayakawa. Her previous film, "PLAN 75," a cynical depiction of the consequences of an aging society, won the Camera d'Or Special Mention at the 75th Cannes International Film Festival's "Un Certain Regard" section that year.

Three years after the last film, the new film "Renoir" will be released as an international co-production between Japan, France, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Qatar.

Suzuki Yui, who plays the lead role of Fuki, convinced the director that he should make this film after meeting (her). Suzuki made a strong debut as a promising newcomer with her first starring role in a film, "Fure" (2024, directed by Kyosuke Takada).

A "girl" in the process of growing up from a child to an adult does not only express simple emotions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. The actresses played the unspoken emotions that lurk in between these emotions from a life-size perspective.

The supporting cast includes Lily Franky as the father, Hikari Ishida as the mother, and other splendid actors such as Yumi Kawai, Ayumi Nakajima, and Ryuta Bando. The actors, who have accepted the sadness and insanity that each of them carries, live their roles with sincerity.

Director Hayakawa's film takes as its starting point the feelings she harbored as a child. The bursting emotions that inhabit the small body of a young girl are sure to stir the hearts of all.

In the history of Japanese cinema, there have been many masterpieces in which children played the leading roles, and this film is a shadow of one of them, but it also has an overwhelming sense of individuality that rivals them. The film will be released in theaters on Friday, June 20.