Chie Hayakawa’s Renoir is a complex and affecting drama, thanks in no small part to a moving lead performance from Yui Suzuki.
Writer & Director: Chie Hayakawa
Original Title: ルノワール
Genre: Coming of Age, Teen, Drama
Run Time: 120′
TIFF Screening: September 4-11, 2025
Release Date: TBA
Death seems to be a lingering thought in Chie Hayakawa’s mind, as her second feature, Renoir, follows in the footsteps of the heartbreaking Plan 75. That movie openly discussed a controversial practice with a clear message, inside a dystopian future where a rapidly aging population could voluntarily participate in an assisted suicide program to fend off the economic burden that its frail inhabitants cost. It was a stark feature directorial debut and it immediately established Hayakawa as a director to watch.
In that regard, Renoir is a more subdued, often meditative coming-of-age tale about a young girl reckoning with the imminent passing of his father, who is dying of a terminal illness.
Death stares at the 11-year-old Fuki (Yui Suzuki) in the face, but her mind can’t properly assimilate what’s about to happen. Adults try their best to protect their children from the horrors of life – notably, disease and death – so they can have a more joyful and carefree childhood as they learn to grow up and mature on their own terms. Eventually, they’ll realize that all things have an expiration date, including their own lives, but that comes much later than in their early childhood days, so they have a better understanding of what’s ahead.
In a way, the parts where Fuki attempts to understand what life will be without her father (Lily Franky) are Renoir’s most achingly moving – and devastating – parts. The film also hit close to home for me, as someone who recently lost a family member, and is still trying to figure out what this new chapter of life will be now that they’re gone. Like Fuki, I was “prepared” (in quotes, because none of us are fully prepared for anyone’s passing) in advance that the person in question would pass away imminently.
When someone moves on from this earth, we say to ourselves that “life must go on,” because we are still here and have some more to accomplish before we depart. Yet, it’s still hard to wake up every day and carry on, because the thought of death continuously lingers in the mind, even if you try hard to push it away. Whenever Renoir sits with Fuki and explores the protagonist’s complex feelings over the departure of her father, either in the remaining time she spends with him in the hospital or at home, or after his passing, the film is a masterpiece. Hayakawa’s direction is so assuredly strong, with cinematographer Hideho Urata crafting a lyrical, often poetic visual language to accompany its most dramatic notes.
There’s a touch (a minimal touch, really) of spirituality as Fuki looks at her father in the hospital, and a white sheet fills the screen, priming the audience that his time on this planet is more limited than the doctors think, despite his wife (Hikari Ishida) trying desperately hard to keep him alive through unproven alternative medicine treatments that, predictably, don’t work. Death is coming for them, much sooner than they want, and nothing can be done to slow it down or stop it.
It’s a complex film that requires a lot from the viewer in parsing through moments of unspoken rumination, either through Fuki or her mother, who is also coping with the incoming loss. Sadly, Hayakawa also meanders her story in a thousand different directions, especially in its second half, which makes some of its emotional beats much less impactful than they should. The focus should be on Fuki and her mom reckoning with the difficult thought that their lives won’t be the same anymore, and even if they move on and can overcome such a tragic event, his death will stay with them forever…
Such is life: a complicated, often punishing world that, whenever we think we are in control, reminds us of how fragile and finite our existence on this planet is. In a sense, Renoir does capture this efficiently, and Suzuki is utterly captivating as the young Fuki, who knows something in her life will change, but who doesn’t know how to express it, or even feel it. Perhaps it will come later down the line, as she begins to mature and understand what’s most precious about the time she has. We, of course, won’t see this, and the open-ended coda of Renoir does confusingly put the movie in a different direction than I expected, but there’s at least something worth thinking about here.
And as someone who recently lost a loved one, I found Renoir a profoundly moving piece of work, even if its jumbled second half prevents the movie from fully cementing itself as another central object in Hayakawa’s burgeoning filmography. That said, she is definitely a director to watch, and one who is poised to make her mark within contemporary Japanese cinema much sooner than later…
Renoir (2025): Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
While her father is about to pass away from a terminal illness, 11-year-old Fuki Okita is growing up in a world that will feel much different when her parental figure moves on from this world. She attempts to make sense of this incoming loss, while her mother is also struggling to come to terms with her husband’s imminent departure.
Pros:
- The film’s poetic visual language forces audiences to parse what its protagonists are thinking, without them uttering many words.
- Yui Suzuki is a revelation as Fuki, while the supporting cast is also equally strong.
- Chie Hayakawa reminds audiences that it’s good to think about death, healthy even, as we try to understand something that we can’t fully grasp, and may never be able to.
Cons:
- The movie meanders in its second half by introducing characters and plotlines that have nothing to do with the story at hand, creating a frequently jumbled structure that could be perceived as inaccessible.
- The film’s open-ended conclusion points its themes in a different direction than what precedes it, which makes for a dissatisfying coda on an otherwise compelling film.
Renoir (ルノワール) was screened at TIFF on September 4-11, 2025. will be released in US theatres on and in UK & Irish cinemas on
