Coming Soon

Renoir

Directed by Chie Hayakawa
Film Movement
2025
118 Minutes
Japan, France, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Qatar
Japanese
Drama, Asian, Coming of Age
Not Rated

Suburban Tokyo, 1987. 11-year-old Fuki’s father, Keiji, is battling a terminal illness, and in and out of hospital. Her mother, Utako, is constantly stressed out from caring for Keiji while holding down a full-time job. Left alone with her rich imagination, Fuki becomes fascinated by telepathy and falls ever deeper into her own fantasy world…

Director & Cast

  • Director: Chie Hayakawa
  • Starring: Yui Suzuki
  • Starring: Lily Franky
  • Starring: Hikari Ishida
  • Starring: Ayumu Nakajima
  • Starring: Yuumi Kawai
  • Starring: Ryota Bando

Where to Watch

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "Chie Hayakawa's Renoir is a beautiful film, a quiet and measured exploration of grief, family, and the ties that bind us together."
    Therese Lacson, Collider
  • "Renoir rewards patience with fragmented narratives and surrealist touches. Part of the reason Renoir, despite its modesty, hits emotionally is because of Suzuki’s compelling performance. The newcomer has a wide-eyed, penetrating stare that at once communicates the reality of Fuki’s innocence and the depth of her curiosity."
    Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter
  • "[A]n elegant, thoughtful piece of filmmaking that digs into the guilt and confusion that underpins a child’s struggle to process death."
    Wendy Ide, Screen International
  • "Renoir is a coming-of-age story that will be familiar to fans of Hirokazu Kore-eda, but there’s little (if any) of his sentimentality here. Hayakawa’s gaze is as consistent as it is observant, presenting the joys and perils of a formative summer in equal light. The result is a rich and gradually rewarding bildungsroman...."
    Rory O'Connor, The Film Stage
  • "Yui Suzuki leads the film effortlessly, she delivers a quietly powerful performance that the audience cares about deeply."
    Ben Rolph, AwardsWatch
  • "Similar to Yasujirō Ozu—Hayakawa often utilizes the same type of classical framing employed by the old master—this is a film that steps to a delicate rhythm whose echo isn’t heard until the very end."
    Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com
  • "It’s a tender, loose and slightly whimsical tale."
    Dave Calhoun, Time Out
  • "Hayakawa draws from her personal experiences to craft a deliberately paced, nostalgic story that warmly touches upon universal themes of grief, childhood imagination, and the bonds of family from this life and beyond."
    Jack Hewitt, Next Best Picture
  • "[S]weetly reticent.... What distinguishes Hayakawa’s approach is a principled refusal of the obvious; she doesn’t strain to make Fuki relatable, or diagnose her, or problematize her occasional flights of fantasy."
    Justin Chang, The New Yorker
  • "Renoir... has the power to touch and then to haunt us."
    Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline Hollywood
  • "“Renoir” — with its faint traces of sentiment, and complete absence of sentimentality — delicately articulates the girl’s inner child in a way that allows us to feel it expand across the season."
    David Ehrlich, IndieWire
  • "Yui Suzuki communicates the wide range of Fuki’s life, Yui’s energy and charm powering the film. Hayakawa’s honest, at times appropriately unsettling, inclusion of liberty and danger, risk and safety, depicts universal childhood in an authentic manner that invites the audience to recall vivid memories as a complement to Fuki’s experiences."
    Diane Carson, AWJF
  • "With a soft charm, soothing, intelligent and mesmerising, it demonstrates with great yet non-ostentation mastery all the potential of its director."
    Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
  • ""Renoir" glows with a youthful beauty and light."
    Mark Schilling, Japan Times
  • "Renoir is a quiet and tender exploration of the shape-shifting nature of grief, and a child’s bottomless repertoire of ways to navigate it."
    Selina Sondermann, The Upcoming
Nominated
Palme d'Or
Cannes Film Festival
Official Selection
Shanghai Int'l. Film Festival

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Toronto Int'l Film Festival Toronto ON September 4, 2025