Rising Japanese directors reveal horror, fantasy and drama projects at ACFM

Four projects from rising Japanese filmmakers are being showcased at Busan’s ACFM by Japan’s Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO) and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

The Blue Breaks is the latest from director Takuya Uchiyama, who has helmed several features including 2024’s The Young Strangers.

The film is about an aspiring novelist who begins have an identity crisis after turning 30, Uchiyama told Screen. The protagonist embarks on a journey with a band of misfits, including a dying woman and a ethnic Korean boxer who has never been to Korea.

“It’s a tale of searching for one’s roots and identity, but told in a poppy, romantic way,” said Uchiyama.

The film, now in development, is produced by Naomi Satoh, Tokushi Suzuki and Ryoichiro Honma at Differentia, and is meeting with potential finance partners at the market in South Korea.

Where All Things Drowse is an upcoming project from director Yurina Kaneko, who directed 2023’s People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which nature has taken over and through which a ghost wanders, mimicking extinct humans to try to understand their existence.

“I want to create the kind of film, and the kind of world, I’ve never seen before on screen,” said Kaneko, who cited artist Christian Boltanski and his installation No Man’s Land as visual inspiration.

To achieve her post-apocalyptic vision, Kaneko intends to use traditional analogue filmmaking techniques such as matte painting. The project, produced by Masahiro Yataka and Shobu Kimura at Robot Communications, is seeking development partners.

Ichiren: Overcome This Together is a project from director Sakura Ueki, whose credits include a VIPO-produced short lensed by longtime Takeshi Kitano cinematographer Katsumi Yanagijima. The project, produced by Keiichi Yoshino at Altamira Pictures, is about a novelist who seeks to learn the truth about her grandfather’s estranged mother, whose mysterious past is intwined with the end of the Second World War. The story is partially inspired by Ueki’s real-life great-grandmother.

“My grandfather passed away without sharing the story of his mother, but I didn’t want to her legacy to end there, so I decided to give her a new story,” said Ueki.

Rounding out the titles is Gabu, a thriller from Shinsuke Kurimoto, who studied under horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa and whose shorts have played at Nippon Connection.

The film, conceived by writer Ryu Shimamura, features traditional Japanese ningyo johruri puppets, which are manipulated on-stage by three puppeteers. The “gabu” of the title refers to a mechanism by which puppets’ mouths are opened to reveal frightening sets of teeth. In the story, a puppet becomes possessed with the vengeful spirit of a young woman, wreaking havoc in Japan’s Edo era.

“Japanese horror films are typically frightening on a psychological level, but this one is designed to scare you on a physical level,” said Kurimoto, who compares it to other puppet horror films like M3gan and Child’s Play.

Producer is Ryohei Tsutsui, whose credits include Kaori Oda’s Tokyo and Berlinale selection Underground, for Trixta.

In addition, VIPO is also supporting three emerging producers from Japan at the ACFM’s Producer Hub, including Shoko Hashimoto (I Still Want to See Dreams), Shoko Miyamori (All Greens) and Yusaku Emoto (Super Happy Forever).

VIPO has also brought three documentary filmmakers to the market, including Ema Ryan Yamazaki of Cineric Creative, whose Instruments Of A Beating Heart was nominated for a best documentary shot Oscar in 2025; Emi Ueyama of Article Films (Sky, Wind, Stars and Island) and Kyoko Takenaka of Hydroblast (Numakage Public Pool) for talk sessions at Doc Square.