Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the Oscar-nominated director of Drive My Car, is preparing to shoot his first film outside of Asia — a Paris-set feature titled All of the Sudden. The project will star Virginie Efira (Benedetta) and Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine) as part of a stylish female lead duo, and signals Hamaguchi’s continued rise on the global cinematic stage.
The screenplay, co-written with French collaborator Léa Le Dimna, draws loose inspiration from Youn and I – The Illness Suddenly Gets Worse, a poignant collection of real-life letters exchanged between authors Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono. While plot details remain under wraps, the film is expected to explore intimate emotional terrain, something Hamaguchi has long made his signature — from the long silences of Happy Hour to the aching restraint of Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
Currently in Paris in pre-production, Hamaguchi joins a growing number of international filmmakers — including Asghar Farhadi, Richard Linklater, and Paul Verhoeven — drawn to France’s filmmaker-friendly ecosystem of grants and tax incentives.
For the director, whose recent Evil Does Not Exist proved he’s just as compelling in rural minimalism as in urban melancholy, this marks an intriguing new direction.
