Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2015: #56. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Journey to the Shore

Journey to the Shore

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa// Writer: Takashi Ujita, Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is most revered for his genre work, including the fantastically chilling Cure (1997) and perhaps his most well known work, Pulse (2001). Kurosawa prizes a philosophical angle sometimes, generally lending his films compelling depth and a memorable strangeness, such as Charisma (1999), where a disgraced detective becomes embroiled over the fate of an eponymous tree. A step away from genre in 2008 was met with critical success in Tokyo Sonata (2008), plus a television miniseries in 2012, Penance, which just made its way to US platforms this past autumn. His 2015 release, Journey to the Shore (formerly titled La femme de la plaque) is an adaptation of a Kazumi Yumoto novel and toplines a pair of Japanese stars Tadanobu Asano and Eri Fukatsu, the latter playing a woman whose husband returns home after mysteriously disappearing for three years. The pair embark on a trip to visit all the people who helped him during his voyage. Kiyoshi recently revealed he would be making a French language debut later in 2015, set to star Tahar Rahim called The Past (which we hope gets a title change to distance it from the 2013 Asghar Farhadi film), so the coming year promises to be a lucrative one for the master filmmaker.

Cast: Tadanobu Asano, Eri Fukatsu

Production Co.: Les Productions Balthazar, Film-in-Evolution.

U.S. Distributor: Rights available

Release Date: While Kurosawa’s break from genre snagged him a Cannes premiere with 2008’s Tokyo Sonata, his 2013 titles went to Locarno (the underrated Real) and Rome (Seventh Code, which snagged Best Director). Cannes doesn’t seem to favor the director’s genre efforts, but this sounds like something right at home in Director’s Fortnight.

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