Story perspectives

Fukada Warns AI, Premieres “Nagi Notes” Competing for Palme

5/15/2026

Summary

Fukada Warns AI

At Cannes, director Koji Fukada warned that AI-driven shortcuts could undermine artistic self-expression.
He premiered his rural-Japan drama Nagi Notes, about a Tokyo architect and her former sister-in-law making a sculpture.
The film stars Shizuka Ishibashi as Yuri, Takako Matsu as Yoriko, and competes with 21 titles for the Palme d’Or on May 23.
Fukada said he hopes in 10, 20 or 30 years audience questions about on-screen homosexual relationships will disappear.

Summary

Fukada Captures Storm

The third act pivots to storm-driven melodrama with animal chases, splitting viewers.
Fukada’s camera records Yoriko’s sculpting from sketches and clay maquettes to wooden busts.
Patrons use a museum installation as a cellphone-photo backdrop, showing disengagement.
Yuri, a former Taiwan resident, learned Hokkien and sings a full song in the dialect.
Critics label the piece quietly feminist because only women decide the town’s fate.

Summary

Fukada Secures Roca

Nagi Notes earned a 4/5-star rating and is a Franco-Japanese co-production.
It adapts Hirata’s 1994 play Tokyo Notes, keeping two characters and dropping the museum setting.
War looms in the story, with TV coverage of Ukraine and nearby military drills affecting villagers.
MK2 Films secured Fukada’s next film Roca, based on My Neighbors the Yamadas, about a teenage fado singer and a yakuza daughter whose diverging choices strain their bond.

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Fukada Warns AI

At Cannes, director Koji Fukada warned that AI-driven shortcuts could undermine artistic self-expression.
He premiered his rural-Japan drama Nagi Notes, about a Tokyo architect and her former sister-in-law making a sculpture.
The film stars Shizuka Ishibashi as Yuri, Takako Matsu as Yoriko, and competes with 21 titles for the Palme d’Or on May 23.
Fukada said he hopes in 10, 20 or 30 years audience questions about on-screen homosexual relationships will disappear.

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