Oscar-winning Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi has warned that modern social systems are systematically eroding human love, speaking during a visit to Mexico City.
The acclaimed director addressed the challenges facing human connection in an interview with news agency EFE before receiving the prestigious Filmoteca Medal from the National Autonomous University of Mexico on Tuesday, as his latest feature film, Soudain, campaigns for Academy Award consideration.
Hamaguchi admitted that he understands love less and less as time passes, arguing that modern life has stripped away the necessary conditions for people to genuinely care for one another. He described the situation as a systematic wear and tear driven by contemporary societal structures that actively wear down mutual interest, asking how anyone can love another person if curiosity and care for others are no longer cultivated. The director emphasised that the failure belongs to the system itself rather than to individual people.
Hamaguchi has spent more than two decades examining contingency, coincidence, and interpersonal relationships on screen. The filmmaker earned international acclaim after winning the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film in 2022 for Drive My Car, his three-hour adaptation of a short story by Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami that wove in rehearsals of Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya. The 2021 drama collected four Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture and Best Director, establishing Hamaguchi as one of the leading auteur voices of his generation.
His visit to the Mexican capital included receiving the Filmoteca Medal from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, commonly known as UNAM. Established in 1910 and ranking among the largest universities in Latin America, UNAM operates one of the most significant film preservation archives in the Spanish-speaking world through its Filmoteca department, which awards the medal to honour filmmakers and actors who make enduring contributions to world cinema.
A systemic breakdown of human connection
Hamaguchi channelled his growing concerns about modern alienation into Soudain, also titled All of a Sudden, which represents Japan in the race for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. The director explained that the production prompted a fundamental shift in how he approaches storytelling. Rather than attempting to champion or romanticise love on screen, he resolved that his work must now lay bare the economic and social circumstances that render love impossible, asserting that only by identifying those barriers can society begin to redevelop genuine affection.
The story drew inspiration from the published epistolary exchange between anthropologist Maho Isono and philosopher Makiko Miyano, who was undergoing treatment for cancer. Their written correspondence examined human mortality and incorporated the philosophical writings of poet and thinker Shuzo Kuki, who lived from 1888 to 1941. Hamaguchi noted his deep admiration for Kuki, whose early twentieth-century philosophical works analysed the role of chance, destiny, and unexpected encounters in human relationships.
Hamaguchi adapted the non-fiction exchange into a fictional narrative spanning three hours. Belgian-French actress Virginie Efira plays an interpretation of Isono named Marie-Lou Fontaine, who directs a nursing home known as El Jardin de la Libertad, or The Garden of Freedom. Her character crosses paths with theatre director Mari Morisaki, portrayed by Japanese actress Tao Okamoto. Although the original book contained no visual material, Hamaguchi built the care facility into a central setting where two women from distinct cultural backgrounds form a bond around the principles of dignified care and human warmth in the shadow of physical decline.
The nursing home depicted in the film operates under Humanitude, a specialised caregiving methodology created in France to uphold the dignity of individuals living with severe physical or cognitive dependencies. Hamaguchi observed that attentiveness, tenderness, and patient care function as a crucial form of resistance against the pressures of modern capitalism. Throughout the film, the central characters challenge and critique economic structures that treat people as commodities, demonstrating how daily acts of empathy can protect mental and emotional health.
Multilingual productions and international projects
Soudain marks a major turning point in Hamaguchi's filmmaking career, representing his first time shooting outside Japan and working primarily in the French language. Filmed on location across Paris and Kyoto, the screenplay was co-written by French-Japanese screenwriter Lea Le Dimna. Working across linguistic boundaries builds on Hamaguchi's signature techniques, seen previously when he directed an international multilingual cast in Drive My Car.
Following his positive experience in France, the director stated that he intends to travel more frequently and immerse himself in multilingual storytelling. Hamaguchi expressed strong enthusiasm for the Spanish language, revealing that he is actively considering directing a Spanish-language movie. He explained that any such development would take place within a Spanish-speaking country, recalling that his first trip to Mexico ten years earlier left a lasting creative impression on him.
After dedicating five full years to the creation of Soudain, Hamaguchi indicated that his next creative steps might involve smaller productions. The director of the critically lauded 2023 drama Evil Does Not Exist, which captured the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, said he is contemplating shorter formats comparable to the episodic vignettes seen in his 2021 anthology Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which earned the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Academy Award predictions and theatrical release
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is scheduled to announce the official nominations for the upcoming Academy Awards on January 21, 2027. Early predictions published by American entertainment magazine Variety place Soudain in seventh position in the race for Best International Feature Film, leaving it two spots short of the five coveted nomination slots. Variety currently projects the production La bola negra as the frontrunner in first place.
Hamaguchi remains philosophical about awards recognition. He said it is an immense honour simply to form part of the history of motion pictures and to represent a small drop within cinema tradition, adding that it still feels completely surreal to look back on his Oscar victory in 2022.
Following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France and subsequent presentations across various Mexican film festivals, Soudain will begin its commercial theatrical run in Mexico on February 11. The film will be distributed nationwide by Mexican independent distributor El Inicio Cine.
