A Japanese Poetic Rite of Passage, With Help From a French Impressionist

Fans of Impressionist painting who settle down to watch Chie Hayakawa’s sophomore feature, “Renoir,” may wonder what, exactly, Pierre Auguste Renoir has to do with a wandering if often poetic coming-of-age tale. But there it is, a good chunk of the way into the picture: A reproduction of Renoir’s “Little Irène” (c. 1880) purchased by our 11-year old heroine, Fuki Okita (Yui Suzuki), as a talisman for her ailing father, Keiji (Lily Franky).Cinemagoers may recognize Mr. Franky as a mainstay in the films of Hirokazu Kore-eda, particularly for his role as a patriarch hobbled by circumstance in “Shoplifters” (2018). Keiji’s wife, Utako, is portrayed by Hikari Ishida, an actress who has been working steadily since she was all of 13-years old. These veterans of Japanese film and television do excellent work in Ms. Hayakawa’s film, but they have their thunder stolen by Ms. Suzuki. The rookie turns in a performance of obdurate and unremitting intensity.Ms. Hayakawa’s 2022 debut, “Plan 75,” concerned the opposite end of the human chronological spectrum, being a dystopian fantasy about a government program that encourages seniors to voluntarily put themselves up for euthanasia. That film racked up impressive notices, not least a Caméra d’Or, a prize doled out by the Cannes Film Festival. Did “Plan 75” exhibit, pace the committee, “qualities [that] emphasize the need to encourage the director to undertake a second film?” The glitches in that picture’s narrative rhythm were readily apparent, but the resounding answer to the question turned out to be a firm absolument.The narrative rhythm of “Renoir” is also glitchy, but the story it tells is inherently peripatetic being the catch-as-catch-can impressions of a young life in formation. As with the science fiction milieu of “Plan 75,” Ms. Hayakawa’s new movie skirts the fantastic. Fuki’s imaginative life sometimes takes concrete form. Early in the film we witness her murder at the hands of a strangler which is then revealed to be a story written as a school assignment. A parent-teacher conference is consequently arranged. The adults are concerned. Fuki is non-plussed.When she comes upon an English-language television show featuring Jerry the Mentalist (Jeffrey Rowe) an abiding interest in mind-reading begins. Ms. Hayakawa has fun with the retro nature of what is clearly an antiquated program and it’s worth noting that “Renoir” takes place in the bygone days of 1987. But the magician’s hocus-pocus is, for Fuki, serious business. She enlists mom and some school friends for experiments in telepathy. Childhood is, it’s worth recalling, a mysterious time.Chief among those mysteries is the adult world. A father’s illness and a mother’s frustration are readily experienced, if only haltingly processed. When Fuki discovers a video tape belonging to Keiji that is a grainy compilation of crying babies, she is taken aback; as are we. Other aspects of Fuki’s life are more evident to the viewer even as they escape her judgement. We understand the transience of new friends who leave us at the behest of their parents just as we intuit the danger of meeting a stranger culled from a dating hotline.“Renoir” is a gentle and lyrical film, an evident step up in prowess for Ms. Hayakawa as both screenwriter and director, and an auspicious debut by Ms. Suzuki. As an actress it is her job to hold together moments in time that are as consequential as they are fleeting, and she does so with a stony-faced elan. At the rare moments in which the plotline tends toward the convenient or the sentimental, Ms. Suzuki is there to right the course. Place this film in the company of Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows,” Shinji Sōmai’s “Moving,” and Georgi M. Unkovski’s “DJ Ahmet,” and enjoy.

A Japanese Poetic Rite of Passage, With Help From a French Impressionist

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