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The director was recently in Cannes with ’Tokyo 2020 Side A’.

Award-winning Japanese director Naomi Kawase has been accused of bullying her staff and assaulting a member of her film crew.

The leading auteur is alleged to have kicked an assistant director in the stomach on the set of True Mothers in May 2019 after he touched Kawase to highlight an issue with a shot. Director of photography Yuta Tsukinaga and the entire cinematography team left the shoot in the wake of the incident.

The accusation was reported in weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun in late April, which led to the publication of...

Japanese director Naomi Kawase has been accused of violence against staff members.

Allegations against Kawase date back to 2015, with numerous reports of her violently assaulting employees and crew members on various sets. The Hollywood Reporter first reported the accusations stateside.

Kawase’s most recent film “Tokyo 2020 Side A” premiered at Cannes and was commissioned for last year’s Summer Olympics.

Tokyo-based weekly magazine and scoop factory Shukan Bunshun originally reported in October 2015 that Kawase attacked a staff member at her production company Kumie. She reportedly punched a male employee, knocking him to the ground, and continued to beat him while other staff members fled the office. The employee’s face was visibly swollen after the assault and resigned immediately after the altercation.

Then, on the set of Kawase’s “True Mothers” in May 2019, an assistant director touched Kawase to say there was an issue with a shot. Kawase according to reports yelled,...

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Japanese auteur and Cannes favorite Naomi Kawase has been accused of violent behavior towards her staff and crew, including an assault that left an employee’s face swollen.

In May 2019 on the set of True Mothers, an assistant director touched Kawase to point out there was an issue with a shot. Though there is no suggestion that the contact was inappropriate, Kawase reportedly shouted “What do you think you are doing?” at the assistant director and kicked him in the stomach.

The entire cinematography team, led by Yuta Tsukinaga, resigned from the shoot following the incident. After the Tokyo-based weekly magazine and scoop factory Shukan Bunshun broke the story, Kawase said on her company’s website that the matter had been settled internally.

However, the magazine then wrote about an incident in October 2015, when Kawase reportedly assaulted a staff member at her production...

Parasite Photo: © 2019 Cj Enm Corporation, Barunson E&a The Cannes Film Festival is returning next week after a year's hiatus due to the pandemic, so to get in the mood, we've picked a selection of winners from the past 70 years for our Streaming Spotlight this week to get you in the mood. It is worth noting that, as with many prizes across the globe, gender inequality remains evident, with Jane Campion still the only woman to have won the coveted Palme d'Or, although women have made inroads with other gongs at the fest. Andrea Arnold has won the Jury Prize three times, for Red Road, Fish Tank and American Honey, while Maïwenn took home the same award for Polisse. Female winners of the festival Grand Prix include Mati Diop (Atlantics) and Naomi Kawase (The Mourning Forest). We'll be bringing you features and reviews throughout this year's festival, which runs from July 6 to 17.

Parasite,...

The director of The Mourning Forest returns with another sensitive film, this time about a difficult adoption, yet plot holes prove distracting

The Japanese auteur Naomi Kawase has returned with another of her highly distinctive, tremulously sensitive movies: heartfelt and unhurried, with a tendency to wash the screen in plangent sunlight as the camera looks plaintively up through the branches – and also, a borderline exasperating tendency towards a kind of pass-agg quietism. I have responded variously to this in the past: there was something underpowered in her sucrose drama Sweet Bean but real beauty in other films, such as her award-winning The Mourning Forest. And there is a sustained emotional seriousness in this movie, with committed performances.

Related: The Truffle Hunters review – strange and charming ode to rare dogs...

Cannes Film Festival’s regular Naomi Kawase will not see her new movie “True Mothers” screened there this year unfortunately, despite being added to the list of 2020 Official Selections, and we will not be able to see it in theatres for a while either, for reasons that we all know, but it will probably be present in many line-ups of the new post-summer round of Festivals.

Synopsis

Based on Mizuki Tsujimura’s novel of the same name, “True Mothers” follows the story of Kiyokazu Kurihara and Satoko, a married couple struggling with infertility and trying every medical help in order to conceive biologically. However, after a long stream of unsuccessful attempts, the couple decides to adopt the child Asato instead. Then, six years later a woman comes into their lives and introduces herself as Hikari Katakura, She claims to be Asato’s biological mother and extorts them for money.

The film stars Arata Iura,...

Kawase will be the fifth woman to direct an official Olympic film.

Japanese director Naomi Kawase will direct the official film of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, on behalf of the Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage.

Kawase was selected following consultation with the Foundation, the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, and Japanese and international film experts.

Her career began with documentary and short films, before she became the youngest director at the age of 27 to receive the Camera d’Or at Cannes for her debut feature Suzaku in 1997.

Subsequent Kawase titles to have appeared at Cannes include fourth feature The Mourning Forest,...

As has become commonplace for the annual event, the Cannes Film Festival’s competition slate continues to be dominated by male directors. Announced yesterday, the 2018 competition lineup includes the highest number of films from female filmmakers since 2011, and the festival will play home to new works from Nadine Labaki, Eva Husson, and Alice Rohrwacher. At the festival’s announcement press conference, artistic director Thierry Frémaux hinted that another work from a woman could be added to the lineup in the coming days.

In years past, Frémaux has blamed the lack of female directors on the Cannes slate on the discrepancy between how many male and female directors are working today, and yet Cannes has often programmed and championed a number of the film world’s best female filmmakers. The lack of many of them from this year’s lineup is jarring — though, to be fair, this year’s lineup is...

In the wake of International Women’s Day, Nick looks at the work of some of the most talented female filmmakers in world cinema...

This week has marked the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, a milestone achievement which has rightly been celebrated around the world and in a myriad of different ways.

It has particularly been celebrated in artistic fields, where it could be argued that women have often found more opportunity to excel than in the fields of business, politics and science. However, it is obvious that, even now, many areas are still male dominated, and film is no exception.

It has often been hard for women to not only succeed in the industry, but even to get started. That is not to say there haven't been exceptions, but sadly, they remain exceptions and not the norm. Film history is littered with talented, driven and inspiring women directors,...

CANNES -- After 12 days, 22 films and 60 years of the Festival de Cannes, Stephen Frears' jury reached its verdict Sunday night, bestowing the coveted Palme d'Or to Cristian Mungiu's 4 Luni, 3 Saptamini Si 2 Zile (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days).

The honor proved that all roads lead to Romanian cinema after Cristian Nemescu's California Dreamin' won the Un Certain Regard prize one day earlier.

Wild Bunch is handling international sales for Months and has already sold the film to IFC in the U.S., the U.K.'s Artifical Eye and Italy's Lucky Red.

The second place Grand Prix went to Japanese underdog Mogari No Mori (The Mourning Forest), directed by Naomi Kawase, about an old man and a caretaker at his retirement home struggling to overcome the death of their loved ones.

Julian Schnabel was named best director for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Turkey's German-born Fatih Akin won the best screenplay award for The Edge of Heaven.

Jeon Do-yeon's portrayal of a mother dealing with tragedy earned her the best actress prize for Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine, and Konstantin Lavronenko took home the best actor award for his role in Andrei Zviaguintsev's Russian entry The Banishment.

The Jury prize was split between Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis, a black-and-white animated adaptation of her popular comic book about growing up during the Iranian Revolution, and Stellet Licht, Carlos Reygadas' tale of forbidden love among Mennonite farmers.

BEIJING -- The influence of Asia will be felt from the moment Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights lights the opening-night screen Wednesday at the 60th edition of the Festival de Cannes.

Shot in the U.S., the Hong Kong director's English-language debut stars Jude Law and features the acting debut of singer Norah Jones. It joins three other Asian films in the official selection at Cannes.

"There is definitely some kind of love affair between Cannes and Asian cinema," said Christine Pernin, chief China representative of Unifrance, the French government's cultural envoy.

Also In Competition is Breath, the 14th film by Kim Ki-duk, one of South Korea's biggest names on the international film festival circuit. Breath stars Taiwanese actor Chang Chen as a man awaiting execution who falls for a betrayed wife.

Also from Korea is Secret Sunshine, by Lee Chang-dong, a former minister of culture and tourism and one of Korea's most respected filmmakers. Lee's 2002 film Oasis -- about a social misfit who falls in love with a woman with cerebral palsy -- won the FIPRESCI prize and Marcello Mastroianni awards at Venice.

In Secret Sunshine, Lee again tackles a challenging subject, the story of a grieving widow who travels to her late husband's hometown only to find that her newfound religious faith fails her when she is struck by another tragedy.

The lone Japanese entry In Competition comes from director Naomi Kawase, who, at 27, won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 1997 for her first feature film, Moe No Suzaku. Kawase is back this year with Mogari No Mori (The Mourning Forest).