For Yukiko Sode, the challenge wasn’t pressure – it was pleasure. Adapting Mieko Kawakami’s introspective novel “All the Lovers in the Night” for the screen meant externalizing a protagonist’s inner world, a task the director describes not as burden but as sustained creative exploration.
“It was certainly a challenge to find a way to externalize the protagonist’s first-person introspection from the novel. But if anything, what stayed with me was the enjoyment of the process – continually exploring how to shape and articulate it cinematically,” Sode says.
The film premieres in Un Certain Regard at Cannes this month, arriving at a moment when Japan serves as the Marché du Film’s Country of Honor. For Sode, the timing carries dual significance.
“I am deeply honored that the film has been selected for Un Certain Regard in a year when Japanese cinema is in the spotlight. More than that, however, I value the opportunity for the film’s strength to be tested – how far it can reach across borders and cultures,” she says.
Kawakami’s novel centers on Fuyuko, a freelance proofreader whose solitary routine shifts after meeting Mitsutsuka, a physics teacher. The screen version stars Yukino Kishii opposite Tadanobu Asano, a pairing Sode pursued with specific intent.
