Japanese sellers are in Busan to showcase a buzzy slate of features in the festival and market, ranging from bittersweet love stories to tech-based horror.
Festival
Between Two Lovers
Dir Nanako Hirose
Playing here in Competition, this relationship drama centres on a married woman who proposes living as a throuple with her husband and female lover, after both partners say they want a child. The cast is led by Masami Nagasawa, who won best actress at the Japan Academy Awards in 2021 for Mother, Tasuku Emoto (Samurai Vengeance) and Shizuka Ishibashi (Nagi Notes). It marks the second fiction feature of Hirose, whose debut His Lost Name played in New Currents at Busan in 2018. She previously worked as an assistant director for Hirokazu Koreeda.
Contact K2 Pictures
The Day After Sunday
Dir Takuya Kato
Hidden tensions come to the surface when a husband and wife take a hotel break while awaiting the results of a prenatal screening. The wife is played by Haru Kuroki, who won the Silver Bear for best actress at the 2014 Berlinale with Yoji Yamada’s The Little House and an Asian Contents Award at Busan in 2020 for her role in series Nagi’s Long Vacation. Screening in Competition, The Day After Sunday is Kato’s third feature after Grown‑ups (2022) and Fly On (2023).
Contact Antoine Jouve, Comme des Cinémas
In My Father’s Room
Dir Maha Harada
Acclaimed novelist Harada makes her directorial debut with this drama, based on a screenplay she adapted from her short story An Unnecessary Man. It tells the story of a museum worker who receives a mysterious key that unlocks a room once used by her late father. The cast is led by Yu Aoi (Wife Of A Spy) with Issey Ogata (Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle), Eita Nagayama (Monster) and Eri Watanabe (Shall We Dance?). It plays in A Window On Asian Cinema after premiering at San Sebastian, where it won the Fipresci prize.
Contact Bitters End
Satoko Always
Dir Shuichi Okita
Acclaimed director Okita returns with a drama following three generations of women named Satoko, navigating life aged 15, 35 and 55. The cast includes Hikari Ishida (Renoir), Kasumi Arimura (Call Me Chihiro) and newcomer Kashun Himeno. Okita returns to Busan having previously been here in 2020 with Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone. He is known for award-winning titles The Woodsman And The Rain and The Mohican Comes Home.
Contact Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures
Silver Express
Dir Miki Tanaka
This story of modern intimacy revolves around an asexual woman and an aromantic man, whose relationship is disrupted when he reveals his physical attraction to her. The cast is led by newcomer Yui Okamoto and Hayato Kurihara, who won best newcomer at the Asian Film Awards last year for Venice 2024 title Happyend. Tanaka makes her feature directorial debut in Competition after her short Ginger Boy played in Cannes’ La Cinef competition last year, winning third prize.
Contact Kokone Fukuhara, The Klockworx
Market
All Of World! (working title)
Dir Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
This sequel to 2024’s All Of Tokyo! is set three years after the original film. Starring the members of Japanese idol group Hinatazaka46, it follows the girls as they venture out of Tokyo on graduating from high school. Director Kumakiri is known for 2023 drama Yoko, which won three prizes including best film at Shanghai’s Golden Goblet Awards, as well as Kichiku (1997), Hole In The Sky (2001) and #Manhole (2023), all of which screened at the Berlinale.
Contact Gaga
All That Exists
Dir Takahisa Zeze
Prolific filmmaker Zeze returns with this thriller about the aftermath of a kidnapping in 1991 and the mysterious life of one of its victims, now a brilliant painter. The film stars Hidetoshi Nishijima of Oscar winner Drive My Car and Suzu Hirose from A Pale View Of Hills. It is based on a 2023 novel by Takeshi Shiota, whose Kiba: The Fangs Of Fiction was adapted into a 2021 feature. Zeze is known for Heaven’s Story, which won the Fipresci prize at the Berlinale in 2011, and Fragments Of The Last Will, which opened Tokyo International Film Festival in 2022. A local release for All That Exists is scheduled for February 5, 2027.
Contact Toei
Cursed Meme
Dir Kan Yamamoto
When a lonely girl and her classmates find an old smartphone in a disused school building, they power it up and watch a strange video. Soon after, they begin to receive AI-generated videos of their own deaths, which begin to come true. Ikoi Hayase leads the cast of this contemporary take on the J-horror films of the late 1990s. Director Yamamoto’s previous film Catching The Stars Of This Summer screened at the International Film Festival of India in 2025. Cursed Meme received its world premiere at South Korea’s Bifan in July.
Contact Shochiku
It’s All Bananas!
Dir Kenji Yamauchi
A surreal comedy in which nothing is quite what it seems, It’s All Bananas! stars three of Japan’s biggest pop stars — Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Shingo Katori and Goro Inagaki — who are caught up in a series of bizarre and seemingly disconnected events, blurring the line between documentary and fiction. It marks the latest from director Yamauchi, whose credits include Her Father, My Lover (2015) and At The Terrace (2016), which both screened at Tokyo.
Contact Bitters End
My Sister’s Boyfriend (working title)
Dir Mahito Kimura
Based on popular manga Midori Loves My Sister by Amu Meguro, this live-action adaptation is a bittersweet love story about a girl who falls for her older sister’s boyfriend. It stars Japanese idol Masaki Hashimoto in his feature debut alongside Runa Nakashima, who won the Japan Academy Award in January for newcomer of the year for Tokyo Taxi. This is the feature debut of director Kimura after a string of TV credits. A local release is set for December 4.
Contact Shochiku
Never Guilty
Dir Katsuhide Motoki
Based on a true story, this courtroom drama centres on a real-estate developer who is accused of embezzlement and fights to prove his innocence. The cast is led by Seiyo Uchino (First Love) and Wakana Matsumoto (Cells At Work!). Director Motoki is best known for Samurai Hustle (2014) and Recall (2018). The local release of Never Guilty is scheduled for November 13.
Contact Gaga
Three Millimeters To You
Dir Chun Jinrung
This Japan-South Korea co-production stars Soya Kurokawa (Kokuho) as a listless high-schooler who meets a Korean exchange student and eventually travels to reunite with her in Busan. The romance, which offers insight into the sensitive relationship between the two nations, also stars Kim Ji-an of 2024 horror hit Exhuma. Director Chun is known for the Japan-Korea co-produced short Route 7. Three Millimeters To You is set for a local release on November 6.
Contact Toei
Two Cigarettes, Three Nights
Dir Yukiko Mishima
This romantic drama follows a 29-year-old illustrator in Kyoto who reconnects with her “guy friend” after seven years, changing the course of her life. The cast is led by Mayu Matsuoka, known for Hirokazu Koreeda’s 2018 Cannes Palme d’Or winner and Oscar nominee Shoplifters, alongside Ryo Narita. Director Mishima is known for Dear Etranger, which premiered at Jeonju in 2017. Two Cigarettes, Three Nights will debut in competition at Tokyo later this month.
Contact Happinet Phantom Studios
Wandance
Dir Naoya Kusaba
Jo from Japanese boyband &Team stars in this adaptation of the hip‑hop manga series of the same name. The story follows an introverted high-school student named Kabo, held back by his stutter, who meets a confident classmate named Wanda (Anji Ikehata) and discovers freedom through dance. It marks the second feature of rising director Kusaba after 2025’s Yukiko a.k.a., which was also themed around hip‑hop. Happinet Phantom Studios is set to release Wandance in Japan on November 27.
Contact Hive Filmworks
No comments yet