Ryusuke Hamaguchi COLLECTION

With Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s latest film All of a Sudden arriving in UK cinemas following its premiere at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto received the Best Actress Award, there is no better time to revisit the work of one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary filmmakers.

Across an acclaimed and remarkably varied body of work, Hamaguchi continually explores how people connect, communicate and confront the truth. His films are drawn to the transformative potential of conversation and chance encounters, often finding moments of profound change in seemingly ordinary exchanges. Through these encounters, his characters often come to see themselves and others in a different light.

His international recognition grew with Happy Hour (2015), which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, followed by Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2021. The same year, Drive My Car won the Screenplay Prize at Cannes before going on to win the Academy Award® and BAFTA for Best International Feature Film. In 2023, Evil Does Not Exist won the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Discover three films from the Modern Films collection, offering an introduction to the breadth of Hamaguchi’s work.