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Every year is a good year to admire Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose filmography runs far and deep enough to essentially guarantee you’ve yet to discover something wondrous. 2024 is of particular note, though: it’s brought Cloud, a thrilling detour into action cinema; the French-language remake of his essential Serpent’s Path; and Chime, which spends its fleet 50 minutes hitting every key note of his greatest projects sans one dull step.

Kurosawa appeared at this year’s Beyond Fest, where he took time from presenting 2024’s trio to speak with me, via Zoom, on the subjects of prolificacy, pride, and resurrecting an elder form of filmmaking.

Thanks to Junko Goda for providing interpretation.

The Film Stage: I’ve seen two of the three films you made this year––Cloud and Chime. You work at a frequent pace––one pleasure of loving your cinema is that there’s always so much of it...

Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a directorial polyglot, no doubt about it, but he’s more fluent in some cinematic languages than others. Having more or less co-founded the J-horror wave, and with “Pulse” and “Cure,” giving it an artistic and thematic depth it only rarely attained without him, he then spent the best part of the last two decades turning in dour sci-fi, turgid metaphysical melodramas, and grimly forgettable serial killer movies (“Creepy“).

Continue reading Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s ‘Wife Of A Spy’ Is A Beautifully Crafted, Twisty Thriller [San Sebastian Review] at The Playlist.

After leveraging his success in J-horror into a string of grounded social dramas that culminated with the 2008 masterpiece “Tokyo Sonata,” Japanese auteur Kurosawa Kiyoshi seemed to hit the ceiling of his talent or grow bored of himself. Possibly both. The years that followed told the story of a restless artist who was desperate for something — anything — that might live up to the prescient chill of “Pulse,” or the disquieting uncertainty of “Bright Future.”

Kurosawa’s search led him down an increasingly esoteric path that saw him zig-zag from a pair of lifeless ghost dramas (“Journey to the Shore” and the French-language “Daguerreotype”), to an interminable alien invasion throwback (“Before We Vanish”), a toothless “return-to-form” (the psychological thriller “Creepy”), and even the godforsaken wilds of television. By the time last year’s odd and comparatively entrancing “To the Ends of the Earth” found the director trawling for purpose in the arid sands of Uzbekistan,...

When it comes to the U.S. distribution of Kiyoshi Kurosawa films, we often learn about their arrival just before they debut. Following the VOD-only release of Daguerrotype last fall, this is certainly the case for his sci-fi invasion feature Before We Vanish. Following a Cannes premiere and ahead of a February release, a new trailer and poster have now arrived.

Rory O’Connor said in our review, “There are few directors who would choose to take a semi-sincere approach to a lengthy pseudo-philosophical science-fiction film — especially not one that lightly pries into our fundamental psychological foibles — but there are few directors quite like Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The prolific Japanese filmmaker behind such varied genre gems as Pulse and Tokyo Sonata has constructed a sort of skittish and overlong, albeit pleasantly existential oddity in Before We Vanish, an alien-invasion B-movie packed with A-grade ideas and craft. Nail down your windows. Lock your doors.

"You bend reality to suit yourself." An official Us trailer has arrived for one of Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films from last year, titled Daguerrotype (properly spelled - Daguerreotype). The film first premiered at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival, and has been awaiting a Us release ever since. It goes under a few different titles - The Woman in the Silver Plate, or in France it's Le secret de la chambre noire, which translates roughly to The Secret of the Dark Room. French actor Tahir Rahim stars as a young apprentice in Paris, back in the days of daguerreotypes. He falls for the photographer's daughter, but they learn there's some kind of malevolent forces stopping them from escaping. The full cast includes Olivier Gourmet, Constance Rousseau, Mathieu Amalric, Malik Zidi, Valérie Sibilia. This seems like a strange film. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Daguerrotype, direct...

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Tokyo Sonata, and Creepy) is back with Daguerreotype, and like the title suggests, the story follows the obsession of an aged photographer (Oliver Gourmet) as he uses his own daughter and assistant for rendering life-like images, using old photographic techniques. Recently stopping by the Toronto International Film Festival where it was met with a divisive reaction, a new trailer has now landed, albeit without English subtitles, for the film known in France as Le Secret De La Chambre Noire, which translates to The Secret of the Darkroom.

We said in our review, “Kiyoshi Kurosawa has ways of making it look easy, even unimpressive. To my knowledge, he has never made a film that’s less than a pleasure to simply observe, richly detailed in environment and carefully calibrated in composition, cutting, and gesture — masterclasses too focused on feeling (excitement, mystery, romance, and, most often, terror) to pronounce great pretensions.

The 43rd edition of the Belgian film festival to open with Cannes Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake.Scroll down for competition line-up

The programme for the 43rd Film Fest Gent (Oct 11-21) has been officially announced, including 12 films in official competition, as well as a diverse array of features in the Nordic, Japanese and Belgian cinema categories.

The festival will open with Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, which won this year’s Palme d’Or in Cannes.

International guests will include Loach, Isabelle Huppert, Terence Davies, Olivier Assayas, Mark Rappaport, Derek Cianfrance, Asghar Farhadi and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The official competition opens on 16 October with Fien Troch’s Home, with the cast and crew in attendance.

Other directors presenting films in competition include Ivo Ferreira, Kôji Fukada and Terence Davies.

The international jury consists of producer Jeremy Thomas, director Tran Anh Hung (Norwegian Wood), actors Lina El Arabi (A Wedding) and India Hair (Staying Vertical...

Bertrand Bonello’s Paris terror attack drama Nocturama [pictured] will open the second international directors showcase at the 41st Toronto International Film Festival next month.

Platform runs from September 8-15 and includes Pablo Larraín’s Jackie, fresh from its world premiere in Venice, as well as world premieres for Mijke de Jong’s Layla M. and Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Daguerrotype.

“A multicultural epicentre, Toronto is one of the most diverse and inclusive cities in the world, and it is the perfecthome for Platform to live and grow as a world-class programme,” said Tiff director and CEO Piers Handling.

“The lineup this year aims to shine the spotlight on fearless, artistic films that will inspire a global dialogue around issues that affect us all, and we are thrilled to honour the next generation of filmmakers who are capturing the evolving discourse with their transformative visions.”

“In its inaugural year in 2015, Platform successfully established itself as fundamental to the Festival...

Toronto International Film Festival continues to add to its already eclectic slate by announcing their Platform line-up today. Beginning last year as a special program to highlight auteur-driven features from around the world, this year’s line-up looks remarkably strong, opening with Bertrand Bonello‘s Paris-set terrorism drama Nocturama.

Also featuring new films from Fien Troch, Zacharias Kunuk, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Ivan Sen, Katell Quillévéré, Khyentse Norbu, Pablo Larraín, William Oldroyd, Mijke de Jong, Barry Jenkins, Mathieu Denis, and Simon Lavoie, check out the line-up below.

Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire) Kiyoshi Kurosawa, France/Japan/Belgium

World Premiere

Kiyoshi Kurosawa makes his first film outside Japan with this French-language ghost romance fantasy, about an aging photographer whose obsession with an archaic technique draws his young assistant and beautiful daughter into a dark and mysterious world. Starring Tahar Rahim, Constance Rousseau, Olivier Gourmet, and Mathieu Amalric. ***

Goldstone Ivan Sen, Australia...