Japanese Director Sho Miyake Debuts Two Intimate Films in the United States

Acclaimed Japanese director Sho Miyake arrived in the United States for the theatrical launch of *Two Seasons, Two Strangers*. His earlier feature *Small, Slow But Steady*—a portrait of deaf boxer Keiko (Yukino Kishii) coping with personal loss—has been screened at New Directors/New Films in New York and is now available on demand. The film’s layered, film-within-film structure earned Miyake the Golden Leopard at Locarno, while *Small, Slow But Steady* is noted for a meticulously composed dust-filled boxing-gym shot.

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Miyake describes his protagonists as “characters that have a sense of discomfort that slowly starts to distance them from society.” Both films examine low-stakes personal struggles that feel high-stakes, probing questions such as why people tell stories, paint pictures, or make films. *Two Seasons, Two Strangers* follows screenwriter Li (Shim Eun-kyung) as she writes a script, while interweaving narratives drawn from Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga *A View of the Seaside* and *Mr. Ben and His Igloo*. He also asks why we are alive and why we create art, framing low-stakes dilemmas as entry points to larger human concerns.

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Miyake’s first two features were shot on 35 mm film; *Two Seasons, Two Strangers* was captured digitally because ocean and sub-zero locations made film too risky, and digital “as long as nothing is moving within the scene, it really truly just looks like a photograph,” preserving the stillness of manga. He cites Buster Keaton’s *Sherlock Jr.* as the primary inspiration for the film-within-film structure, while also acknowledging the influence of Hong Sang-soo and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Digital capture preserves manga stillness and allowed safe filming of ocean scenes in sub-zero conditions.

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Speaking through a translator, Miyake linked his filmmaking to incremental change, noting that “*Small, Slow But Steady* reflects not only my approach to filmmaking, but also how I see that the world might change.” He described his writing routine as a walk to find “a really pleasant street” before settling at a quiet desk. He said he does not consider AI in his work, indicating no impact on his process.

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• “I like these characters that have a sense of discomfort that slowly starts to distance them from society,” — Sho Miyake, Director

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• “The shot is always going to be moving, but with digital, as long as nothing is moving within the scene, it really truly just looks like a photograph.” — Sho Miyake

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• “I don’t think about it at all.” — Sho Miyake

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*Two Seasons, Two Strangers* opens in U.S. theaters this week. Miyake also hinted at a forthcoming project centered on a protagonist whose actions prioritize communal well-being over personal ambition, suggesting a thematic shift toward community-focused narratives.

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