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Yuumi Kawai, born on December 19, 2000, in Tokyo, Japan, is a prominent actress and model. She began her acting career in 2019 with the TV drama “Inhand” and made her film debut in 2020’s “A Beloved Wife.” In 2021, her performances in “It’s a Summer Film!” and “A Balance” garnered critical acclaim, earning her several awards, including Best Newcomer at the 43rd Yokohama Film Festival and Best New Actor at the 35th Takasaki Film Festival.

Although her prowess was evident essentially from the beginning of her career, 2024 was the year that catapulted her to stardom. Having played in 11 different titles, both TV and movies, she also had a huge impact with her starring roles in “Desert of Namimbia”, “She Taught Me Serendipity” and “A Girl Named Ann“, with the latter recently netting her a Japanese Academy Award for Best Actress. That the roles she plays are also quite different from each other highlight her range,...

Films about filmmaking always scratch a very specific itch, exploring the various ups and downs that go into any given project. This is the subject of director Sôshi Masumoto’s debut feature, “It’s a Summer Film!”, in which he celebrates cinema’s history and ponders its future, although not without some major narrative hiccups.

Time of Eve is streaming on Jff Theater

High-schooler Barefoot (Marika Ito) is a lover of cinema. She and her friends adore classic samurai flicks and dream of making a similar film of their own. Unfortunately, the school Film Club has already decided to fund the clichéd rom-com “I Can’t Help Loving You,” directed by resident ‘it girl’, Karin (Mahiru Koda). However, when Barefoot finds the perfect samurai lead for her script in the mysterious Rintaro (Daichi Kaneko), she pulls together an unlikely crew and sets out to make “Samurai Spring”.

Following Barefoot’s endeavours...