Directing

Naomi Kawase

Born May 30, 1969 · Nara, Japan (age 57)

Naomi Kawase (河瀨直美 Kawase Naomi, born May 30, 1969) is a Japanese film director. She graduated from Visual Arts Osaka in 1989. Many of her works have been documentaries, including Embracing, about her search for the father who abandoned her as a child, and Katatsumori, about the grandmother who raised her. Aside from being a filmmaker, she is the founder and Executive Director for the Nara Interna…

Known For

Sweet Bean

Sweet Bean · 2015

The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.

Still the Water

Still the Water · 2014

Still the Water

MovieDramaRomance

On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his birth, Kyoko must come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness.

True Mothers

True Mothers · 2020

After suffering through a long and unsuccessful series of fertility treatments, Satoko and her husband Kiyokazu make the decision to adopt a child. Six years after adopting a boy they named Asato, Satoko has quit her job to concentrate fully on her husband and son. The family lives a peaceful existence until the arrival of a stranger.

Radiance

Radiance · 2017

MovieRomanceDrama

The story follows the social intercourse between a cameraman, Masaya, with a visual impairment, and Misako who disconnects from the world.

Love & Pop

Love & Pop · 1998

Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.

Yakushima's Illusion

Yakushima's Illusion · 2025

Yakushima's Illusion

Corry, a French coordinator of pediatric heart transplants is sent to Japan where organ donation remains taboo. As she fights to save a young boy, her partner Jin, a photographer from Yakushima, suddenly vanishes.

Vision

Centres on Jeanne, a journalist tracking a mysterious rare herb that appears only once every 997 years.

The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard

The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard · 2026

The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard

MovieDramaFantasy

When a girl raised by wolves is found in the woods, she is subjected to a series of tests and examinations in a lab. After two environmentalists free her because they see her as a potential saviour of the world, she must learn to stand on her own two feet and make her own choices

Filmography

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Sweet Bean

Sweet Bean · 2015

The master of a dorayaki pastry store hires a 76-year-old woman whose talents attract customers from all over. But she's hiding a troubling secret. Life's joys are found in the little details, and no matter what may be weighing you down, everyone loves a good pastry.

Director

Still the Water

Still the Water · 2014

Still the Water

MovieDramaRomance

On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his birth, Kyoko must come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness.

Director

True Mothers

True Mothers · 2020

After suffering through a long and unsuccessful series of fertility treatments, Satoko and her husband Kiyokazu make the decision to adopt a child. Six years after adopting a boy they named Asato, Satoko has quit her job to concentrate fully on her husband and son. The family lives a peaceful existence until the arrival of a stranger.

Director

Radiance

Radiance · 2017

MovieRomanceDrama

The story follows the social intercourse between a cameraman, Masaya, with a visual impairment, and Misako who disconnects from the world.

Director

Love & Pop

Love & Pop · 1998

Tokyo schoolgirl Hiromi and her friends engage in a practice known as enjo kosai, or "compensated dating", where older men pay young girls for dates. Hiromi plunges deeper into this world to raise money for an expensive ring.

Woman speaking to Hiromi (voice)

Yakushima's Illusion

Yakushima's Illusion · 2025

Yakushima's Illusion

Corry, a French coordinator of pediatric heart transplants is sent to Japan where organ donation remains taboo. As she fights to save a young boy, her partner Jin, a photographer from Yakushima, suddenly vanishes.

Director

Vision

Centres on Jeanne, a journalist tracking a mysterious rare herb that appears only once every 997 years.

Director

The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard

The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard · 2026

The Wolf, the Fox, and the Leopard

MovieDramaFantasy

When a girl raised by wolves is found in the woods, she is subjected to a series of tests and examinations in a lab. After two environmentalists free her because they see her as a potential saviour of the world, she must learn to stand on her own two feet and make her own choices

Tanaka

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero · 2011

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero

MovieDramaComedy

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.

Director

It Stopped Raining

It Stopped Raining · 2020

It Stopped Raining

MovieDramaRomance

A young bioarchaeologist Yukisuke is attracted to a girl Koyomi, who runs a small stand of taiyaki pastry that he often buys. Koyomi is hospitalized, however, by a car accident on a rainy day after they go out together, and wakes up with short term memory loss, where she cannot remember anything beyond the present day. Yukisuke tries to live close to her as before but the lack of collective memory starts to stagger him.

Koyomi's Mother

The Mourning Forest

The Mourning Forest · 2007

The Mourning Forest

A young woman working at a retirement home takes an elderly man living there on an excursion into the countryside, but the two wind up stranded in the titular forest.

Director

Emergency Exit

Emergency Exit · 2025

It tells how 14 characters travel in a mysterious vehicle that they cannot easily get out of. Along the way, they fabricate about their identity and travel through unreal landscapes on a journey between life and death, sleep and wakefulness. According to the synopsis, "a tragicomedy with no certainties".

Suzaku

Depicts the life of a family in a remote Japanese timber village. Family head Tahara Kozo lives with his mother Sachiko, wife Yasuyo, nephew Eisuke and young daughter Michiru. Economic recession and failed development plans cause tragedy in the family.

Director

Shara

The Aso family live in the old town of Nara. One Day, Kei, one of the Aso's twin boys suddenly disappears. Five years later seventeen-year old Shun, the remaining twin, is an art student. He now has to move forward with his life, together with his childhood friend, Yu.

Writer

Cinema Fighters

Cinema Fighters · 2018

Cinema Fighters

Six stories based on six songs, the first project of Cinema Fighters.

Director

The Nikaidos' Fall

The Nikaidos' Fall · 2019

The Nikaidos' Fall

After losing his son, Tatsuya is anguished by the danger of his ancient family line coming to an end. His mother Haru urges him to embark on a loveless second marriage, and meanwhile he secretly hopes that his daughter Yoshiko will marry a husband willing to adopt the Nikaido name and follow in his footsteps.

Executive Producer

3.11 A Sense of Home Films

3.11 A Sense of Home Films · 2011

3.11 A Sense of Home Films

MovieAnimationDrama

In memory of the Japanese earthquake on 3.11, each director presents a 3 minute and 11 second short film in tribute to those who were lost that day.

Director

Nanayo

Saiko travels to Thailand but she jumps out of the cab after knowing the driver's intentions. However, her life changes after she meets Greg.

Director

Tracing Her Shadow

Tracing Her Shadow · 2021

Tracing Her Shadow

An old Chinese woman visits Japan to find her missing daughter whom she adopted in post-WWII China. Her granddaughter and a retired Japanese policeman join her search.

Executive Producer

Destroy Vicious

Destroy Vicious · 2011

Destroy Vicious

MovieCrimeDrama

Shining Besides Funny Moon

Shining Besides Funny Moon · 2013

Shining Besides Funny Moon

A sexy mystery movie where a dominatrix and a detective get to the bottom of a string of suicides.

Rien ne s'efface

Rien ne s'efface · 2008

Rien ne s'efface

MovieDocumentary

elle-même

A Midsummer's Fantasia

A Midsummer's Fantasia · 2015

A Midsummer's Fantasia

MovieRomanceDrama

Reality and fantasy melds as a Korean documentary film director attempts to capture life in the small town of Gojo, Japan.

Producer

The Moon

The Moon · 2018

In the form of a fiction, Naomi Kawase delivers a self-portrait which is also a re-crossing of her earlier films. The old city of Nara, the first capital of Japan where Naomi Kawase is from and where she still lives, opens up a reverie where past, present and future meet. In its winding streets mingle the "Haré" of days of celebration and ceremony and the "Ké" of everyday life.

Director

Homemade

Homemade · 2020

SeriesDramaDocumentary

Acclaimed filmmakers from around the world channel their creativity during COVID-19 isolation with this diverse, genre-spanning collection of short films.

Director

What Kento Nakajima Wants to Know About Movies Now

What Kento Nakajima Wants to Know About Movies Now · 2021

What Kento Nakajima Wants to Know About Movies Now

A "movie" that is a mirror of the times. At the forefront of the movie, there are "important things" to know now ... Kento Nakajima learns about such "movie now" through interviews and on-site interviews.