From Fuchi ni Tatsu (Harmonium) to Nagi Notes: a look back at Kōji Fukada’s journey at Cannes

Since he was first selected at the 69th Festival de Cannes, Kōji Fukada has established himself as a deeply personal filmmaker with this domestic drama, for which he was awarded the Un Certain Regard Prize by the President of the Jury, Swiss actress Marthe Keller. Harmonium features an ex-convict who gradually meddles in a seemingly stable family unit, causing it to collapse. The Japanese filmmaker introduces a vague sense of discord where the dilemma between desire and guilt becomes increasingly palpable.

Honki no shirushi (The Real Thing), a two-part cinematic version of the 10-part series that was released in Japan in 2019, is a true emotional saga. The film is about a lover’s obsession that begins when an ordinary young man meets a woman whose clutches he cannot escape. It was selected in Competition during the 73rd edition of the Festival de Cannes, which was cancelled because of the pandemic, and received the Cannes Label 2020.

In 2025, Kōji Fukada returned in the Official Selection with a more political film. Screened at Cannes Première and released in theatres on March 25, 2026, Love on Trial tells the story of how a pop star finds herself before the court because of her choice to fall in love. Behind this seemingly absurd idea, the film questions the commercialization of feelings and focuses on the contradictions of a codified society.

For his debut in Competition, Kōji Fukada presents a delicate chronicle set in rural Japan that reflects another of his films released in 2013: Hotori no Sakuko (Au revoir l’été), a summer story with Rohmerian influences.

Adapted from the play Tōkyō Notes by Oriza Hirata, which was itself inspired by Yasujirō Ozu’s Voyage à Tokyo, the plot in Nagi Notes is transposed to a small mountain village in western Japan.

In Nagi, far from the bustle of the city, the film follows a divorced architect who visits her former sister-in-law, who has become a sculptor. As she agrees to pose for her, what should have been a short stay becomes a suspended experience. As gestures are repeated, and moments of silence become heavier, a buried past gradually reemerges. Here Kōji Fukada lets time — and emotions — settle.