Adapted from Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this accomplished Un Certain Regard entry co-stars Yukino Kishii as a solitary Tokyo copy editor whose tentative love affair unfolds against philosophical meditations on light and self-determination.
For a film preoccupied with the mechanics of light, Yukiko Sode’s All the Lovers in the Night unfolds mostly in shadow — in the muted glow of a Tokyo apartment window at sunrise or in empty city streets walked at midnight on a birthday no one else celebrates. Adapted from Mieko Kawakami’s celebrated novel, the Japanese filmmaker’s quietly transfixing fourth feature uses the halting rhythms of a first, awkward romance to pose expansive philosophical questions: how does the self become visible, and how much of what we feel is genuinely our own?
Premiering in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar, All the Lovers in the Night came to Sode by way of her producer, who handed her Kawakami’s book — her first encounter with this particular novel, despite being a longtime fan of the author’s work.
“My interpretation of the book was that it was about light,” Sode tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And of course, as a filmmaker, light being a motif was an irresistible challenge. How could I not make it?”
