Friends meet at a restaurant for a birthday dinner in the opening scenes of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Passion. Everyone loves the wrong person. Tomoya (Ryuta Okamoto) is engaged to math teacher Kaho (Aoba Kawai), but like the married Takeshi (Kiyohiko Shibukawa), is drawn to post-grad Takako (Fusako Urabe).
Their stories unfold in a world of diners, small apartments, and taxis familiar to fans of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and the Oscar-winning Drive My Car. Shot as his thesis film at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Passion is Hamaguchi’s second feature. Though filmed in 2008, it only now opens for its North American theatrical run on Friday, April 14 at Film at Lincoln Center.
Ahead of its release, we spoke to the writer-director via Zoom about his second feature, the Oscars, and future projects. Thanks to Monika Uchiyama for her translations.
The Film Stage: What is your screenwriting process? Do...
Their stories unfold in a world of diners, small apartments, and taxis familiar to fans of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and the Oscar-winning Drive My Car. Shot as his thesis film at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Passion is Hamaguchi’s second feature. Though filmed in 2008, it only now opens for its North American theatrical run on Friday, April 14 at Film at Lincoln Center.
Ahead of its release, we spoke to the writer-director via Zoom about his second feature, the Oscars, and future projects. Thanks to Monika Uchiyama for her translations.
The Film Stage: What is your screenwriting process? Do...
- 4/12/2023
- by Daniel Eagan
- The Film Stage
Moving into adult life is quite a transition, overshadowed by many obstacles, decisions and changes within yourself, which can often feel soul-crushing and confusing. It is also one of those phases in the life of a person, which has inspired many artists to reminisce about the nature of growing up, how the choices one makes are based on free will or other aspects, such as social pressure or gender expectations. In his second feature, produced as his thesis at Tokyo University of Arts, Ryusuke Hamaguchi's “Passion” tells a story of a group of characters caught in the middle of that period of transition in their lives. It is a movie which not only highlights the director's gift of working with actors, but also his sense of place and time, resulting in a story which is both contemplative and captivating.
Film Movement has announced that “Passion” is opening theatrically on...
Film Movement has announced that “Passion” is opening theatrically on...
- 4/4/2023
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Much of the world learned of the talent of Ryusuke Hamaguchi when Drive My Car miraculously and deservedly was nominated for multiple Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film, the latter of which it won. However, many cinephiles have been banging the drum for the director since his 5.5-hour drama Happy Hour, Asako I & II, and his earlier 2022 release, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. The start of his career goes back even further and now, never before released in the U.S., his second feature Passion will finally get a theatrical release starting at NYC’s Film at Lincoln Center and LA’s Laemmle Royal on April 14. Ahead of the release, the new trailer for his Tokyo University of the Arts thesis graduation film, which he completed in 2008, has arrived courtesy of Film Movement.
The film examines a series of intersecting love triangles,...
The film examines a series of intersecting love triangles,...
- 4/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s sophomore feature will soon be available stateside.
The Japanese filmmaker behind “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” first earned international attention with his thesis graduation film “Passion” out of the Tokyo University of the Arts.
Never before released in the U.S., the second feature from Hamaguchi examines a series of intersecting love triangles as only he can, plunging headlong into the exposed-nerve confessions and unrequited attachments among a group of thirtysomethings. It begins when a couple, Kaho (Aoba Kawai) and Tomoya (Ryuta Okamoto), announce their engagement to their friends over dinner, where it’s also revealed the groom had an affair years earlier. While the two spend the evening apart, Tomoya follows his friends to the apartment of his former classmate (Fusako Urabe), with whom he’s in love, and are led into ever more vulnerable and shocking exchanges of emotional honesty.
The...
The Japanese filmmaker behind “Drive My Car” and “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” first earned international attention with his thesis graduation film “Passion” out of the Tokyo University of the Arts.
Never before released in the U.S., the second feature from Hamaguchi examines a series of intersecting love triangles as only he can, plunging headlong into the exposed-nerve confessions and unrequited attachments among a group of thirtysomethings. It begins when a couple, Kaho (Aoba Kawai) and Tomoya (Ryuta Okamoto), announce their engagement to their friends over dinner, where it’s also revealed the groom had an affair years earlier. While the two spend the evening apart, Tomoya follows his friends to the apartment of his former classmate (Fusako Urabe), with whom he’s in love, and are led into ever more vulnerable and shocking exchanges of emotional honesty.
The...
- 3/31/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
There’s only one New Year’s resolution which makes sense in 2022: have as good a year as Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 2021. The Japanesewriter-director won near-unanimous acclaim at Cannes for Drive My Car – though admittedly not quite mine – just a couple of months after Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy won prizes at Berlin. If Hamaguchi’s more awarded second film is a dense telling of a Haruki Murakami short story, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is a little easier on the mind. An hour shorter and split into three self-contained stories, it’s a more accessible introduction to Hamaguchi’s undoubtedly unique and provocative style. And for cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike, Hamaguchi’s way of making films is not one to miss.
The first part, titled “Magic (or Something Less Assuring)”, is about a model whose best friend falls for her ex. Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) keeps a cool head...
The first part, titled “Magic (or Something Less Assuring)”, is about a model whose best friend falls for her ex. Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) keeps a cool head...
- 2/7/2022
- by Adam Solomons
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Moving into adult life is quite a transition, overshadowed by many obstacles, decisions and changes within yourself, which can often feel soul-crushing and confusing. It is also one of those phases in the life of a person, which has inspired many artists to reminisce about the nature of growing up, how the choices one makes are based on free will or other aspects, such as social pressure or gender expectations. In his second feature, produced as his thesis at Tokyo University of Arts, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Passion” tells a story of a group of characters caught in the middle of that period of transition in their lives. It is a movie which not only highlights the director’s gift of working with actors, but also his sense of place and time, resulting in a story which is both contemplative and captivating.
“Passion” screened at Close-Up Film Centre as part...
“Passion” screened at Close-Up Film Centre as part...
- 12/8/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
IFC presents Mia Hansen-Løve’s Cannes entry Bergman Island, Film Movement brings Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy to the arthouse this weekend, as A24’s surprise hit Lamb and Greenwich Entertainment’s The Rescue go wider week two after a strong open. It’s early days but a nascent specialty revival may be in the works ahead of a stream of potential hits from The French Dispatch to Spencer to Belfast.
Icelandic horror folktale Lamb moves from 500 to over 800 screens after viewers – can we say flocked? – to the Ari Aster-ish genre pic (Hereditary in 2018 was also from A24). Adventure documentary The Rescue, by the directors of Free Solo, where intrepid divers save a Thai boys soccer club trapped in a remote flooded cave, expands from five screens to 552.
“Is there hope? Yes” said Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, which is opening Hard Luck Love Song. “There have to...
Icelandic horror folktale Lamb moves from 500 to over 800 screens after viewers – can we say flocked? – to the Ari Aster-ish genre pic (Hereditary in 2018 was also from A24). Adventure documentary The Rescue, by the directors of Free Solo, where intrepid divers save a Thai boys soccer club trapped in a remote flooded cave, expands from five screens to 552.
“Is there hope? Yes” said Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, which is opening Hard Luck Love Song. “There have to...
- 10/15/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Was Ryûsuke Hamaguchi referencing the tarot when he wrote his Berlinale Silver Berlin Bear winning, and 2021 New York Film Festival selection, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy?
According to Tarot.com the wheel of fortune card in the upright position signifies change. The wheel turns in one continuous motion, churning events in a ceaseless progression of ups and downs, thus freeing us from the past. No one can escape its cyclical action. Hamaguchi weaves the same concept of the movement of time into this film which contains three short stories that follow the lives of women who are navigating love, loss, reconnection, and letting go.
Magic (Or something Less Assuming) is the first entry, and it follows Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) as she taunts and gaslights her ex-boyfriend Kazuaki (Ayumu Nakajima), who now has feelings for her best friend Tsugumi...
According to Tarot.com the wheel of fortune card in the upright position signifies change. The wheel turns in one continuous motion, churning events in a ceaseless progression of ups and downs, thus freeing us from the past. No one can escape its cyclical action. Hamaguchi weaves the same concept of the movement of time into this film which contains three short stories that follow the lives of women who are navigating love, loss, reconnection, and letting go.
Magic (Or something Less Assuming) is the first entry, and it follows Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) as she taunts and gaslights her ex-boyfriend Kazuaki (Ayumu Nakajima), who now has feelings for her best friend Tsugumi...
- 10/9/2021
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
When Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi made his return to fiction after time away in the realm of documentary, he dispensed with the idea that stories must conform to feature length. “Happy Hour,” the sprawling ensemble drama that sparked interest in him among cinephiles, ran more than five hours, and while his latest, “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” boasts a conventional enough running time of 121 minutes, the film is actually composed of three short stories, stitched together and somewhat arbitrarily presented as a single package.
The vignettes are, by the director’s own description, explorations of “coincidence and imagination” — the first three of what he conceived as seven stories, pointing toward what might have been another epic-length project. Audiences tend not to take well to coincidence in drama, which can feel unrealistic when handled clumsily. In Hamaguchi’s hands, however, lucky (or unlucky) twists don’t feel so much like manipulation...
The vignettes are, by the director’s own description, explorations of “coincidence and imagination” — the first three of what he conceived as seven stories, pointing toward what might have been another epic-length project. Audiences tend not to take well to coincidence in drama, which can feel unrealistic when handled clumsily. In Hamaguchi’s hands, however, lucky (or unlucky) twists don’t feel so much like manipulation...
- 3/11/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
European A-list festivals have rolled their red carpets multiple times for Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who started conquering the Old Continent with his graduation film “Passion” in the official selection of San Sebastian in 2008. Three years later, he was in the official selection of Locarno with “Sound of Waves”, and in 2015 – in Locarno again – his film “Happy Hour” won the awards for Best Actress and Special Mention for Script. Cannes welcomed him in the official competition in 2018 with “Asako I & II”, and now he’s in the main competition of Berlinale with his omnibus “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”, consisting of three short films dealing with the theme of coincidence and imagination.
We had the opportunity to talk to the director about his ideas and inspirations in a generous one-on-one interview, due to this year’s special circumstances – done over a Zoom call.
”Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” is a film...
We had the opportunity to talk to the director about his ideas and inspirations in a generous one-on-one interview, due to this year’s special circumstances – done over a Zoom call.
”Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” is a film...
- 3/6/2021
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, after the excellent “Asako I&ii” seems to have established a specific style, contextually at least, that has “unremarkable” people experiencing remarkable, somewhat surrealistic events, and characters, particularly women, who exhibit behaviors that are exactly the opposite of how Japanese people usually conduct themselves. This approach is cemented in the three episodes of “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is screening on Berlinale
The first episode, “Magic (or Something Less Assuring)” has two best friends, younger Meiko and on the brink of middle age Tsugumi chatting, in the back of a car, about a man the latter met, and her growing fondness of him. The discussion is rather revealing, with the two women speaking quite sincerely about both him and the way they conduct themselves on relationships, including sex. Soon, however, it is revealed that the man Tsugumi was talking about is Meiko’s ex boyfriend,...
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is screening on Berlinale
The first episode, “Magic (or Something Less Assuring)” has two best friends, younger Meiko and on the brink of middle age Tsugumi chatting, in the back of a car, about a man the latter met, and her growing fondness of him. The discussion is rather revealing, with the two women speaking quite sincerely about both him and the way they conduct themselves on relationships, including sex. Soon, however, it is revealed that the man Tsugumi was talking about is Meiko’s ex boyfriend,...
- 3/5/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is cinema portmanteau: three short stories focused on three different characters, each a little lovesick and just a little lost. The director is Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, an emerging filmmaker from Japan who seems to have already mastered his craft, and whose work is perfectly at home to such dilemmas. His 2015 film Happy Hour, a five-hour saga, followed the lives of four women in Kobe, one of whom had filed for divorce. Next came Asako I & II in 2018, an adaptation of Tomoka Shibasaki’s novel about a woman who starts seeing a man who looks exactly like the boy she loved when she was younger––a story of doppelgängers, it also showcased his touch for surrealist flourishes.
While fast closing in on auteur status, Hamaguchi’s films continue to hold a kind of literary spirit: Happy Hour the epic; Asako the novella; and now Wheel of Fortune,...
While fast closing in on auteur status, Hamaguchi’s films continue to hold a kind of literary spirit: Happy Hour the epic; Asako the novella; and now Wheel of Fortune,...
- 3/4/2021
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
One of the few things that may be keeping Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 2015 film Happy Hour from being recognized as one of the great films of the 2010s is its length: At over five hours, its drama of mid-30s women wrestling with their place in life is undoubtedly imposing, regardless of the fact that Hamaguchi’s style is clean and crisp, underscored by shadows of mystery, with none of the arduous challenge usually presented by lengthy art films. Possibly if it had been presented in the format of a multi-episode series, its audience would have easily found it. Hamaguchi’s follow-up, Asako I & II, broke things up cleverly by segmenting its Vertigo-esque story of lovers lost and found into two parts. Now, the Japanese director’s latest, the sly and intriguing portmanteau Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which is premiering in Berlin's main competition, helps the audience by being...
- 3/4/2021
- MUBI
The award ceremony was held on February 7th in the Yokohama Kannai Hall and the winners were:
Best Film: Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Best Director: Hirokazu Koreeda (Our Little Sister) Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three stories of Love)
Yoshimitsu Morita Memorial Best New Director: Daishi Matsunaga(Pieta in the Toilet)
Best Screenplay: Shin Adachi (100 Yen Love, Obon Brothers)
Best Cinematographer: Mikiya Takemoto (Our Little Sister)
Best Actor: Masatoshi Nagase (Sweet Red Bean Paste) Kiyohiko Shibukawa (Obon Brothers, Areno)
Best Actress: Haruka Ayase (Our Little Sister)
Best Supporting Actor: Ken Mitsuishi (Obon Brothers, Three stories of Love)
Best Supporting Actress: Aoba Kawai (Obon Brothers, Kabukicho Love Hotel)
Best New Talent:Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister) Hana Sugisaki (Pieta in the Toilet, The Pearls of the Stone Man) Ryoko Fujino (Solomon’s Perjury)
Special Jury Prize: The cast and staff of Bakuman
Special Grand Prize: Kirin Kiki
Top Ten Movies:
1. Our Little Sister...
Best Film: Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Best Director: Hirokazu Koreeda (Our Little Sister) Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three stories of Love)
Yoshimitsu Morita Memorial Best New Director: Daishi Matsunaga(Pieta in the Toilet)
Best Screenplay: Shin Adachi (100 Yen Love, Obon Brothers)
Best Cinematographer: Mikiya Takemoto (Our Little Sister)
Best Actor: Masatoshi Nagase (Sweet Red Bean Paste) Kiyohiko Shibukawa (Obon Brothers, Areno)
Best Actress: Haruka Ayase (Our Little Sister)
Best Supporting Actor: Ken Mitsuishi (Obon Brothers, Three stories of Love)
Best Supporting Actress: Aoba Kawai (Obon Brothers, Kabukicho Love Hotel)
Best New Talent:Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister) Hana Sugisaki (Pieta in the Toilet, The Pearls of the Stone Man) Ryoko Fujino (Solomon’s Perjury)
Special Jury Prize: The cast and staff of Bakuman
Special Grand Prize: Kirin Kiki
Top Ten Movies:
1. Our Little Sister...
- 2/8/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
irector: Junichi Yamamoto and Yudai Yamaguchi. Review: Adam Wing. Another day, another Japanese head-fuck. To be fair though, the plot for Meatball Machine reads like the latest best selling romance novel. A shy boy called Yoji (Issei Takahashi) works at a factory in a dead end job; he’s an outcast, a misfit, and a loner. Ignored and ridiculed by his workmates, he finds scant satisfaction each day watching a girl from across the way on his lunch break. The girls name is Sachiko (Aoba Kawai) and just like him, she’s shy too. More to the point, she’s liked Yoji from a distance for quite sometime. Even though he just kind of sits there and stares at her, not in the least bit creepy then. The only problem is, they're both really shy (have I mentioned that?) and it’s not until Sachiko is attacked by a rampaging sex maniac that romance blossoms.
- 7/3/2009
- 24framespersecond.net
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