Nagi Notes
This adaptation of classic Japanese play Tokyo Notes is a thoughtful character study set in a sublime modern art museum.
Yuri, an architect from Tokyo, arrives in regional Nagi, a small town that’s home to both a magnificent art museum and an active military base. She’s there to visit her ex-husband’s sister, Yoriko, a sculptor who wants Yuri to sit for her. Staging sessions in a workshop barn on her dairy farm, Yoriko chips away at a block of camphorwood and at Yuri’s guardedness, their conversation turning personal. Two boys who attend Yoriko’s art classes and workshops, Keita and Haruki, are fascinated by this outsider, unsure of what the relationship between the two women is. As the quartet try to make sense of one another, much is left unsaid.
Reminiscent of the films of Éric Rohmer and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (All of a Sudden, MIFF 2026), and having earnt comparisons to Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up (MIFF 2023) for its gentle depiction of artistry, this latest work from Koji Fukada (Harmonium, MIFF 2016) adapts Oriza Hirata’s 1994 theatrical production Tokyo Notes (which itself drew from Yasujirō Ozu’s masterpiece Tokyo Story, MIFF 2016). Nagi Notes is a keenly observed character study with no real explosions – save for the sound of military munitions drills that periodically ring out through the town. Pondering the nature of creativity, queer identity and the challenges of finding belonging amid the social strictures of Japanese society, this is a thoughtful, low-key conversation piece that’s perfect for those who like their dramas intimate and deeply human.
“Fukada has created a film of great lucidity and calm … [It carries] a feeling that a dreamlife of yearning is taking place underneath innocuous waking reality.” – The Guardian
Tickets
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