{
  "id": 27906,
  "title": "Director Hamaguchi Ryūsuke Explores Boundaries, Connections in “All of a Sudden”",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/07/31/director-hamaguchi-ryusuke-explores-boundaries-connections-in-all-of",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-07-31T21:00:02.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Nippon.com",
    "slug": "nippon-com",
    "url": "https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/c030330/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Films often depict chance encounters that spark dramatic action. Director Hamaguchi Ryūsuke finds the concept of unexpected meetings particularly compelling for storytelling. His film All of a Sudden follows two women who encounter each other and form an intense bond, serving as the central climax of the movie's first half. The film is presented in French as Soudain.\n\nIn All of a Sudden, the protagonists are two women whose ordinary meeting transforms into a profound connection. Virginie Efira and Okamoto Tao starred as the two women, winning the Best Actress award at the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The film draws inspiration from the book Kyū ni guai ga waruku naru (A Sudden Turn for the Worse), which consists of 20 letters exchanged by two women over a three-month period in 2019. The book's title appears early in the correspondence, with one woman questioning how an uncertain future might limit her experiences.\n\nThe film's characters, Marie-Lou and Mari, are based on the two women in the book. Marie-Lou, a Frenchwoman, operates a seniors' home in France with a progressive approach, while Mari is a Japanese playwright who once studied philosophy in France. The two women first meet by chance in a Paris park, where Mari is handing out flyers for her play. A few days later, they cross paths again at the theater. As they converse throughout the night, they form a deep connection, with Mari revealing he could suddenly become ill. Marie-Lou accepts the reality of Mari's situation, recognizing that life's events are often sudden and life-altering.\n\nThe film, which runs for 3 hours and 16 minutes, explores themes of boundaries and connections. Hamaguchi's films often focus on the limitations between people, such as the divide between caregivers and those being cared for. The movie delves into these boundaries, including those between doctor and patient, nurse and social worker, the healthy and the ill, the elderly and the young, the able-bodied and the disabled, the self and the other, life and death. However, the film's purpose is not to simply explain these contrasts but to examine the complexities of these relationships and the ways individuals navigate them.",
  "summary": "All of a Sudden, the latest film by Japanese director Hamaguchi Ryūsuke, recounts encounters between two women. A look at how this Cannes-recognized film, loosely inspired by correspondence between two real-life individuals, fits into Hamaguchi’s oeuvre.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}