Koji Fukada enters Cannes main competition with Nagi Notes

A filmmaker capable of entering, with a sensitive and powerful gaze, into personal conflicts that reflect broader social issues, Japanese director Koji Fukada quickly gained the attention of major festivals early in his career.

His strongest connection has been with Cannes Film Festival, where he returns this year for the fourth time and, for the first time, in the main competition with Nagi Notes, based on the 1994 play Tokyo Notes by Oriza Hirata, CE Report quotes ANSA.

“It was a big surprise to be selected for the competition,” said the director, born in 1980, speaking to ANSA while attending the Asian Film Festival in Rome. “Especially because I knew that major directors from my country would be at Cannes this year. Finding three Japanese films in competition (the others are Sheep In The Box by Hirokazu Koreeda and All Of A Sudden by Ryusuke Hamaguchi) is an even greater surprise.”

Fukada is also presenting Love on Trial at the Rome festival, which debuted in 2025 on the Croisette in the Cannes Premiere section. Inspired by a true story, the film follows Mai (played by Kyoko Saito), a young J-pop idol in a rising girl group who is taken to court by her agency after violating a contractual ban on romantic relationships.

“I am very interested in exploring the nature of love and relationships, especially their ‘cruel’ side,” Fukada explains. “Because in a romantic relationship, when you choose someone, someone else is inevitably excluded.”

This theme also appears in his new film Nagi Notes, described as “an exploration of intimate human relationships, combining emotional delicacy with a sharp look at contemporary Japanese society.”

The story is set in the town of Nagi and centers on Yoriko, a sculptor haunted by a past love that continues to shape her art. When Yuri, an architect from Tokyo and her former sister-in-law, visits after a recent separation, a quiet emotional confrontation gradually unfolds between them.

“The film deals with the difficulties of romantic relationships,” Fukada adds, “and also touches on LGBTQ issues, a topic that still struggles to be fully accepted by the public in Japan. It is based on a play by Oriza Hirata, an author strongly influenced by Anton Chekhov.”

Once again, the director places female characters at the center:

“I don’t even know how it happens, but thinking about it, maybe it’s because I often find myself wanting to portray people who are victims of authority or are in the minority—and in many cases, they are women.”