About

A survey of acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, one of the most remarkable directors to emerge in the new millennium. This program showcases his extraordinary body of work, including his Academy Award-winning Drive My Car 2021, the rarely-screened 'Tōhoku Trilogy' documentary series, and his intimate epic Happy Hour 2015.

An astute observer of the human condition, Hamaguchi makes films that explore the performance of self, the unknowable nature of others’ inner lives, and the joys and impossibilities of connection in the modern world. Both piercing and droll, his films feel exquisitely composed yet freeing in their rawness.

After producing his earliest significant work Like Nothing Happened 2003 while a student at Tokyo University, Hamaguchi briefly worked in commercial production before undertaking postgraduate film studies. During this period, he was mentored by the celebrated filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa and directed the John Cassavetes-inspired drama Passion 2008 as his graduation project.

In the aftermath of a destructive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, Hamaguchi travelled to the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. Over the next two years, he filmed the local residents for what would become the 'Tōhoku Trilogy', a series of powerful documentaries that Hamaguchi has described as transformative to his own practice as a filmmaker.

His international breakthrough arrived with Happy Hour 2015, a five-hour chronicle of the lives of four women in their thirties. Its success on the festival circuit was followed by his Palme d'Or-nominated doppelgänger drama Asako I & II in 2018.

In 2021, Hamaguchi further secured his place as a major figure of contemporary cinema with the dual release of the Haruki Murakami adaptation Drive My Car and the triptych anthology film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. Both films were widely celebrated, with the former winning numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

His most recent works are the intertwined Evil Does Not Exist 2023 and Gift 2023. Evil Does Not Exist is a transfixing feature about a rural Japanese town dealing with growing intrusions from avaricious city slickers, while Gift uses footage shot for the same project for a new audiovisual performance work that is presented with a live score by musician-composer Eiko Ishibashi. Such a dynamic approach is typical of Hamaguchi: he is forever twisting and turning the language of cinema, always finding ways to render the old new again.

GIFT - A Live Score by Eiko Ishibashi X Film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
6.30pm, Thu 24 April & 3.00pm, Sun 26 Apr 2025 | Ticketed
The Australian premiere of Eiko Ishibashi and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's acclaimed audiovisual performance work GIFT, featuring live musical accompaniment from Ishibashi.

Presenting Partner:

Program curated by Robert Hughes, Australian Cinémathèque.