Japanese director Kei Ishikawa's delicate period drama, Pale hillswas born out of conversation and shared admiration.

"A producer asked me if I was interested in making a kazuo ishiguro novel," the director recalled. "Like many Japanese filmmakers, I always admire Ishiguro - but it was daunting and we would start from scratch. At that time, the rights weren't even protected. It was just passion." Ishikawa said he was willing to pursue the pursuit, Pale hillsIshiguro made his debut in 1982, as it was one of only two novels the author has in Japan and is still not adapted on screen. “(Broadcasting Corporation NHK) made a version Artists in the Floating Worldanother Japanese novel by him, we heard that our various Japanese directors (such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa) had considered the faint scenery of adapting to the hills, but for some reason it didn’t solve it,” Ishikawa recalls. So we decided to pursue it ourselves.”

Ishiguro responded to their inquiry, saying he was satisfied with the prospect because they had always wanted a younger generation of Japanese filmmakers to try to adapt to his debut novel, as intergenerational historical inheritance is key to its theme. What followed was a very cooperative adaptation process, and Ishiguro both granted rights and joined the production of executive producers.

"I'm lucky," Ishikawa said. "He just finished writing the script Living (Oliver Hermanus ikiru), so he participated in the process with the mentality of a filmmaker. He gave me a detailed description of the script.

“The wet meditation of memory, trauma and historical inheritance has been passed down from continents and generations, Pale hillspremiered in Cannes on TK. It follows the adaptation of Ishikawa's mysterious thriller, a novel by Japanese writer Keiichiro Hirano, A manThis is a strong comment at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.

The new film traces memories of Etsuko, a Japanese woman living in England in 1982, reflecting on her early life in Nagasaki after the war. In her eldest daughter’s suicide, she begins to tell her memories of her previous life in Japan, involving a friendship with a mysterious woman named Sachiko who dreams of immigrating to the United States with her youngest daughter. But, as Etsuko's born daughter Niki says, her mother raises questions, and the contradictions in the narrative (played as lengthy flashbacks on the screen) begin to appear. Who remembers who? What hides these memories? During development, Ishikawa traveled to London to sit down with Ishiguro for a long conversation about the script, which was what he called the experience. “He told me what he thought in the novel, nothing and how it went.

Despite close cooperation, ishiguro restored the focus of Ishichuan space during the post-production process. "He doesn't want to give notes during editing," the director said. "He thinks the ultimate vision should come from a film producer who is worried that his investment might bring too much weight. But his position on that has really affected some of the other producers, which confirms that my vision should be respected. It's a tough time for me, and it's a tough time for me, and it's a big help to me."

Ishikawa's vision finds subtle power in what is left unsaid. The Nagasaki scene in the 1950s was plagued by the aftershocks and trauma of the war, although atomic bombing was never directly portrayed. "For many Japanese filmmakers, one day you feel you need to face this legacy," Ishikawa said. "It's difficult. Our generations have been removed, and those with first-hand memories are continuing. But we still inherit the past. This is where Ishiguro's use of unreliable narrators has become so meaningful. It's not just a literary means, it's a way to acknowledge memory and historical ambiguity."

Pale hills Exploring history as a personal myth, memory breaks down, shaping an influential but profoundly vague narrative. "There is a line in the movie where the daughter says, 'I probably don't know everything about you and your time,'" Ishikawa notes. "That's the feeling I want to evoke. Even if we can't fully understand the past, we can try to inherit something essential from it."

The film's photography was rendered with a painting frame by Polish DP Piotr Niemyjski, deliberately evoking the aesthetics of Japanese post-war great men, such as Ozu and Naruse, and Ishiguro is particularly considered to be an influence on the works of this period. The film’s troubling score was written by Polish Paweł Mykietyn (Ishikawa studied filmmaking at the Polish National Film School, while the Polish independence flag lava film co-produced a faint view of the hills).

Ishikawa has two bold biases from the novel: In the 1980s, the perspective of the framework shifted to Nicky in England, the film opened and closed with the first single of the British post-punk band New Order, “The Ceremony” from 1981.

"There are few Japanese films using this kind of music, but I want to be bold and it feels right," Ishikawa said. "The 1980s were the golden age of music. The 'ritual' touched on the subject of mortality and desire. The mood and the title itself fit well." The film also benefited from what Ishikawa said of his dreams. Cannes veteran Suzu Hirose (Hirokazu Kore-Eda's Our sister) plays the young Etsuko with a glowing vulnerability, while Yoh Yoshida (Desperate Sunflower) depicts an older version of the character with mysterious gravity. Sachiko's Fumi Nikaido brings the same piercing appeal she showed in the popular FX series shōgunand veteran tomokazu miura (house,,,,, The perfect day) A quiet performance was delivered when Etsuko's father was a former wartime educator and propagandist who worked to gain a place in Japan's rapidly changing postwar era.

“He is a character like Ishiguro,” said Ikawa of his father. “Some people suggest cutting his scenes because he is not essential to the main narrative, but I don’t want to do that. Ishiguro once told me that he can’t fully explore his father’s figure. Pale viewso he brought that character into A ruin of a day. It fascinates me - the idea that characters can live in the novel. Even though he had a problematic past, my father still felt deeply sympathy and I couldn't stop thinking about him. That's Ishiguro magic. ”