Asia Pacific Triennial Cinema Ryusuke Hamaguchi
When
28 Mar – 11 May 2025
Where
Gallery of Modern Art & Cinema A
Accessibility
- Subtitled
- Wheelchair Accessible
Admission
Free
About
A survey of acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, one of the most remarkable directors to emerge since the start of 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 sprawling opus Happy Hour 2015.
An astute observer of the human condition, Hamaguchi crafts 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 revered filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa and directed the 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 also transforming his own practice as a filmmaker.
His international breakthrough arrived with Happy Hour 2015, a five-hour intimate epic that chronicles the lives of four women. Its success on the festival circuit was followed by his Palme d'Or-nominated doppelgänger romance Asako I & II in 2018.
Hamaguchi further secured his place as a major figure of contemporary cinema with the Haruki Murakami adaptation Drive My Car and the triptych anthology film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy 2021. Both films were widely celebrated, with the former winning numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best International Feature FIlm, and becoming a crossover commercial hit.
His most recent works are the intertwined Evil Does Not Exist 2023 and Gift 2023. Evil Does Not Exist is a transfixing lo-fi 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 film that is presented with a live score from 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.
Live Music & Film: GIFT - A Live Score by Eiko Ishibashi X Film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
24 & 26 Apr 2025 | Ticketed | Tickets on sale Fri 1 Nov 2024
The Australian premiere of Eiko Ishibashi and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's acclaimed audiovisual performance work GIFT, featuring live musical accompaniment from Ishibashi.
Further screening details to be announced Fri 1 Nov 2024
Presenting Partner:
Program curated by Robert Hughes, Australian Cinémathèque.