''Sidonie in Japan'' () is a 2023

romantic drama film Romance films involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion (emotion), passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their ...

co-written and directed by Élise Girard and starring

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With 16 nominations and two win ...

Tsuyoshi Ihara is a Japanese actor, martial artist, and writer of Korean descent. Biography Ihara, a third-generation Zainichi Korean by birth, was born on November 6, 1963, in Kitakyūshū as Yun Yu-gu () to second-generation Zainichi Koreans and grew up i ...

and

August Diehl August Diehl (; born 4 January 1976) is a German actor, primarily known to international audiences for playing Gestapo major Dieter Hellstrom in Quentin Tarantino's ''Inglourious Basterds'' (2009) and Michael "Mike" Krause, Evelyn Salt's husband, ...

. It premiered at the

80th Venice International Film Festival The 80th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2023, at Venice Lido in Italy. Alberto Barbera, Venice's artistic director, acknowledged that the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike was likely to impact the festival ...

on 1 September 2023.

Premise

Established French writer Sidonie Perceval mourns her late husband, Antoine, while traveling to Japan for a reedition of her first book. While there, she begins an affair with her mysterious Japanese publisher, Kenzo, while the ghost of her husband begins appearing.

Cast

as Sidonie *

as Kenzo Mizoguchi *

as Antoine

Production

Girard drew inspiration for the film from her first trip to Japan that she made to promote her 2011 film ''Belleville-Tokyo''. The film is a co-production of France, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. It is one of the last works of co-writer

Sophie Fillières Sophie Fillières (20 November 1964 – 31 July 2023) was a French film director and screenwriter who wrote for more than fifteen film and television productions from 1991 on. Fillières died on 31 July 2023, at the age of 58, after ending the ...

, who died two months before its premiere.

Release

''Sidonie in Japan'' had its world premiere in the ''

Giornate degli Autori The Giornate degli Autori (; 'Authors' Days') or simply the Giornate, formerly also known in English as Venice Days, is an independent section of Venice Film Festival. Anac and 100autori are engaged to support and promote the Giornate. It was fou ...

'' (Venice Days) section of the

on 1 September 2023. The film was released theatrically in France on 3 April 2024 by Art House Films and in Germany on 11 July 2024 by Majestic Filmverleih.

Reception

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2023 films 2023 romantic drama films 2020s French films 2020s French-language films 2020s German films 2020s Japanese films 2020s Japanese-language films Films about writers French romantic drama films French-language German films French-language romantic drama films French-language Swiss films German romantic drama films Japanese romantic drama films Swiss romantic drama films Films with screenplays by Sophie Fillières