EXCLUSIVE: Kôji Fukada makes his Cannes Competition debut this month with Nagi Notes and Deadline can reveal a first clip.

The film, which will kick off the competition screenings on the first Wednesday, stars Takako Matsu as Yoriko, an artist living in rural Nagi, nursing the wounds of a failed love affair she cannot bear to mourn.

Friend and former sister-in-law Yuri (Shizuka Ishibashi) travels from Tokyo to visit. Like Yoriko, the recently separated architect is at a crossroads in her life. Yuri’s brief escape from the city settles into a quiet confrontation of loss and probing for the two women in bucolic Nagi. 

Fukada says “the initial spark” for the film was the Nagi Museum of Contemporary Art (Nagi MOCA) in Japan‘s southern Okayama Prefecture which is known for its rural landscapes and lifestyles.

“I was first drawn to the idea of filming a story where diverse people intersect within that architecture designed by Arata Isozaki, a structure that stands out in the peaceful landscape like a sudden estrangement effect (Verfremdungseffekt),” he explains.

“Gradually, my interest expanded ‘outside’ the museum walls. As I engaged with the local community over eight years of field research, I encountered various motifs: the contrast between urban and rural life, the tension between art and daily existence, and the deep-seated structures of patriarchy and gender.”

“Ultimately, however, I found myself returning to a theme central to my work: the problem of human solitude. While cinema often demands unique or grand conflicts, I believe the mere acts of being born and dying are, in themselves, profound conflicts and mysteries. Truly, there is no greater reason to make a film than to simply turn the camera toward those fundamental truths.”

Fukada was first in Cannes Official Selection in 2016 with Harmonium which played in Un Certain Regard and won the strand’s Jury Prize.

His 2020 film The Real Thing was a recipient of the festival’s Covid-19 label which was introduced after it was cancelled due to the pandemic, while he first returned physically to the festival in 2025 with Love on Trial which played in Cannes Premiere.

Mk2 films handles sales on new film Nagi Notes.