''A Missing Part'' () is a 2024 Belgian-French

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by

Guillaume Senez Guillaume Senez (born 6 July 1978) is a Belgian film director and screenwriter. He studied at the National Institute of Radioelectricity and Cinematography (INRACI) in Brussels and graduated from there. He made his feature-length debut in 2015 wi ...

. It premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on 9 September 2024.

Premise

Having lost custody of his half-Japanese daughter after a divorce, a French taxi driver in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

spends his days looking for her. When she finally enters his taxi, she does not recognize him.

Cast

Romain Duris Romain Duris (; born 28 May 1974) is a French actor. He is known for his role in Cédric Klapisch's ''Spanish Apartment'' trilogy, which consists of '' L'Auberge Espagnole'' (2002), ''Russian Dolls'' (2005), and '' Chinese Puzzle'' (2013). He als ...

as Jay *

Judith Chemla Judith Chemla (; born 5 July 1985) is a French actress. Life and career In 2012, Chemla appeared in ''Camille Rewinds'', for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 38th César Awards. On 10 April 2020, during the coronaviru ...

as Jessica * Mei Cirne-Masuki as Lily * Tsuyu * Shungiku Uchida * Yumi Narita as Keiko *

Patrick Descamps Patrick Descamps (born 13 December 1956) is a Belgian actor and stage director. Theater Filmography Dubbing External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Descamps, Patrick 1956 births Living people People from Mons 20th-century Belgian male ...

Production

Director

was inspired to write the film after learning about post-divorce parental custody rights in Japan. To aid in their research, Senez and actor

met with three French nationals who had lost custody of their children due to Japanese law. Principal photography began in October 2023. Filming locations included

Sagami Bay lies south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, central Japan, contained within the scope of the Miura Peninsula, in Kanagawa, to the east, the Izu Peninsula, in Shizuoka Prefecture, to the west, and the Shōnan coastline to the north, while ...

, and

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of ...

Release

A clip from the film was released on 6 September 2024. The film premiered at the

on 9 September 2024. It received a theatrical release in France on 13 November 2024. The film closed the 40th Santa Barbara International Film Festival on 15 February 2025.

Reception

David Opie of ''

IndieWire IndieWire (sometimes stylized as indieWIRE or Indiewire) is a film industry and review website that was established in 1996. The site's focus was predominantly independent film, although its coverage has grown to "to include all aspects of Holl ...

'' gave the film a grade of B+, writing, "This often quiet, thoughtful story of a man who's incomplete reminds us to keep fighting for the part that's missing, whether that be striving for change or even just existing to fight another day." Louis Roberts of ''Loud and Clear Reviews'' rated the film four stars out of five and wrote, "...Serez's film raises questions that go beyond mere legislation, interrogating the attitudes that make up a country's social fabric. That he manages to achieve such ambitions without sacrificing the movie's intimacy speaks volumes about his craftsmanship." Aurore Engelen of

Cineuropa The MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe or simply Creative Europe MEDIA (formerly The MEDIA Programme of the European Union) is designed to support the European film and audiovisual industries. Budget The goal of programmers is to increase the ...

wrote, "Buoyed by a super-efficient screenplay, composed of little nothings which result in this impossible encounter, taking a chiaro-scuro path towards a resolution that's as luminous as it is doomed from the outset, ''A Missing Part'' explores both a father’s obsession and the irreconcilable otherness of a foreigner or stranger." Paul Enicola of ''The Asian Cut'' complimented Senez's direction in portraying a "deglamorized Tokyo...allowing the city to emerge as a character in its own right. And with the urban landscape mirroring Jay's estrangement and alienation, the film mphasizeshis growing sense of disconnect from a world that has always felt foreign to him."

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Missing Part, A 2020s Belgian films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films 2020s Japanese-language films 2024 drama films 2024 films 2024 multilingual films Belgian drama films Belgian multilingual films Films about father–daughter relationships Films about taxis Films produced by David Thion Films produced by Jacques-Henri Bronckart Films set in Tokyo Films shot in Kanagawa Prefecture Films shot in Tokyo French drama films French-language Belgian films French-language drama films French multilingual films Japan in non-Japanese culture Japanese-language drama films