Cannes 2025| Brand New Landscape Review: Yuiga Danzuka바카라�s Arresting Debut Probes Loss In A Changing City

Hajime (Ken바카라�ichi Endô) often clashes with his wife Yumiko (Haruka Igawa) over his persistent absence in the family. He바카라�s barely around with their kids, the 12-year-old son Ren and 18-year-old daughter Emi. He keeps citing work, the need to frequently go abroad so he can build a successful career. Yumiko insists she doesn바카라�t want them to be richer than they are. Even on the trip that opens the film바카라�the three days he바카라�s promised he바카라�d be with them바카라�he now informs his wife he has to leave. The camera frames her, face turned away from Hajime, gaze downcast. 바카라�Surviving in architecture is not easy,바카라� he pleads. She once had a job, she should understand, he adds. Defeated, worn-out with his excuses, she allows him to leave the next morning. Even that doesn바카라�t resolve it for him. He asks if he could go away that night itself, after kids go to bed.

It's the final nail. It바카라�s implied that Yumiko dies by suicide that weekend itself. Cut to 10 and a half years later. Ren (Kodai Kurosaki) works as a florist, delivering fancy orchids to high-end clients. Emi (Mai Kiryu) is caught in knots over her relationship with her fiancé. Danzuka, only 26, displays calm maturity in refracting the tale through ever-tilting perspectives. The storytelling is measured, the framing composed and tranquil. Spare notes of music seldom accentuate this lean, angular drama.

By turns light, limber and piercing, Brand New Landscape could well have taken the oft-trodden routes. Danzuka makes a great case for the art of telling바카라�the 바카라�how바카라� of it that supersedes possibly familiar contents of the tale itself. Along with his cinematographer Koichi Furuya, Danzuka trains you to look through unexpected slants at a prism of emotionally delicate territory. Ellipsis is key, as are Danzuka바카라�s searching, pensive observations on a Tokyo-in-churn. There바카라�s a complete fray between the father and the children. He himself confesses he바카라�s long-lost rights over them when he left them and went abroad right after Yumiko바카라�s third death anniversary. He says his kids are things of his past, but undercurrents of guilt streak through his new relationships. Neither does he seem to have learnt from his mistakes, still always sunk in work, heedless to everything and everyone else. In a faintly hopeful, achingly tender performance, Endô is immense; he바카라�s a man lost in the past despite his insistence against it.

Emi talks of her brother as 바카라�always being on the go바카라�. She says she doesn바카라�t care at all about her father, has no desire in catching up with him and rebuilding ties. But it바카라�s intensely clear her wounds are still fresh. Her demonstration of disinterest masks bitterness and grief that haven바카라�t been processed. It haunts every decision she makes, specially how she looks at things with her fiancé. She바카라�s moving in with him but there바카라�s a gnawing feeling from a single scene alone with him that this might be headed for disaster. Emi is averting deep-set waves of loss, which only pushes her into a slough of rushed choices. She does have a crease of doubts but represses it. She바카라�s displeased with Ren바카라�s efforts at wanting to regroup with her father in some way.

One of the film바카라�s best scenes arrives when Ren meets his father for the first time in many years. The latter is back in Tokyo overseeing a new project. The father is now a major landscape architect. Ren had noticed him at his firm where he has a delivery. The first time their glances collide, the father and son don바카라�t come closer. The next time, as the two stand face to face, it바카라�s a moment that assembles its power in Kurosaki바카라�s quick-flitting expressions. After a spell of silence바카라�not really knowing what he could say without being hurtful and cold바카라�all the father asks is whether the son has money. Kurosaki바카라�s mien darts from amusement to pure disgust and rage. 바카라�You don바카라�t get it,바카라� Ren finally erupts, a façade of civility blown apart.

In latter stretches, Danzuga pulls a breathtaking sleight-of-hand, a magical twist just casually dropping on a mundane dinner. Something crashes from the ceiling. No one in the restaurant but the family takes notice. It바카라�s a clever harking of a wildly unexpected person who joins them at the table. To reveal more would be to spoil the scene바카라�s singular awe.

Brand New Landscape navigates the city as central to characters and vice versa. There바카라�s the young wrestling with alienation, fast-accelerating change, the old denying responsibility. At his firm, Hajime confronts unease when he takes on a redevelopment project that바카라�s said to displace the poor and render them homeless. Hajime asserts he needs projects like this to pay salaries. The authorities can manage the rehabilitation. He skirts any onus. It's a state of flux wherein Danzuga바카라�s characters seek to mine meaning, a vulnerable anchor. Brand New Landscape distils emotional tussle in measured strokes, each tiny gesture rich with the unsaid. It바카라�s immeasurably moving바카라�a soft embrace of a film.

Brand New Landscape premiered in Directors바카라� Fortnight at Cannes 2025.