Wheel of Fantasy & Fortune (NC) - [Japanese Film Festival]

121 mins - Japan 2021 - Subtitles - Dir: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
Starring: Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima and Hyunri
 
We are delighted to once again be hosting the Japanese Film Festival (hyperlink www.jff.ie) here at Triskel. It is always a great opportunity to watch memorable films and learn something new about a different culture. This year is no different. Two films will be screened on Thursday 7th April while The Gate cinema will also be hosting some screenings. The Japanese Film Festival is co-organised by the Embassy of Japan, access>CINEMA and the Ireland Japan Association.
 
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, director of Drive My Car, takes on three different stories in this anthology film. In episode one, model Meiko is shocked to discover her friend Tsugumi’s new love interest is her own ex-boyfriend Kazuaki. In episode two, married mother Nao is convinced by her lover to seduce a successful university lecturer in order to create a scandal and humiliate the academic. Finally, a third episode imagines an alternate reality where people have stopped using computers and smartphones. Two women bump into each other at a train station, both believing they were classmates many years previously… but they soon start wondering whether they knew each other at all.
 
Wheel of Fortune & Fantasy is one of two recent films from Hamaguchi, alongside the Academy Award-nominated Drive My Car. An anthology format proves a perfect fit for his character-focused, methodical form of storytelling. All the stories here feature moments of mysterious revelation, unexpected connection and extraordinary emotional catharsis. It’s another masterpiece from one of world cinema’s most remarkable filmmakers.
 
“This female-led triptych of stories, with its deft, empathetic camerawork and intimate, intricately crafted character sketches, is a minor masterpiece in its own right” The Observer