Hirokazu Koreeda
Celebrating the master of contemporary Japanese cinema and his diverse, beautiful and human stories.
In 2018, Hirokazu Koreeda won the Cannes Palme d’Or for Shoplifters, capping a quarter-century career in feature filmmaking that has made him the most critically acclaimed and among the most widely distributed of contemporary Japanese live-action directors.In the last decade, Koreeda’s cinema has gone from strength to strength. With his films now virtually guaranteed critical acclaim, commercial success and international attention, he’s been able to direct more frequently. He continues to explore fresh territory, as in courtroom drama The Third Murder, but his central subject remains the Japanese family. In this, Koreeda seems ever more the heir to Ozu, and increasingly he works, like Ozu, with a company of regular actors – most notably the late Kirin Kiki – who enact variations on a set of key themes, helping to imbue his work with a specific and personal flavour.
