Cannes Review: Brand New Landscape is an Embodied Estrangement Drama from a Fresh Perspective

When confronted with the past, do you drive away or turn back to face it? Siblings Ren (Kurosaki Kodai, in his first lead role) and Emi (Mai Kiryu) have been estranged from their father (Ken’ichi Endô) for the ten years since he chose a new work opportunity in Tokyo. Ren, now a florist, notices a […] The post Cannes Review: Brand New Landscape is an Embodied Estrangement Drama from a Fresh Perspective first appeared on The Film Stage.

May 18, 2025 - 21:35

When confronted with the past, do you drive away or turn back to face it? Siblings Ren (Kurosaki Kodai, in his first lead role) and Emi (Mai Kiryu) have been estranged from their father (Ken’ichi Endô) for the ten years since he chose a new work opportunity in Tokyo. Ren, now a florist, notices a familiar name on the neighboring workstation’s order card. Propelled by emotion, not logic, he takes on the delivery himself, arriving to discover his father staring back at him through the floor-to-ceiling window of a major exhibition. Clutching the arrangement tight to his chest, there’s a heavy burden to carry.

A feature debut that feels intuitive in its emotional beats, 26-year-old Yuiga Danzuka’s Brand New Landscape takes a snapshot approach to his characters and their lives both together and apart. Danzuka knows how to frame shots to wrenchingly evoke how plate-shifting some moments can feel in our lives. A slight canted angle across the corner of a balcony as a father walks out for good; a Haneke-esque staticity to domestic spaces captured in wide; tight hallways with a single occupant; a window through which the spectator sees the protagonist’s reflection, his father, and themselves. It’s a remarkably embodied film, deeply affecting––finding cinematic language for the complex pain of estrangement just as last year’s I Saw The TV Glow achieved for dysphoria.

An easier, more conventional film might filter events through the son’s perspective, but Brand New Landscape tackles its topic with the wisdom and tact of someone who’s had the time and sensitivity to reflect empathically. Sister Emi prefers not to look back, ignoring her fiancé’s red flags so as to maintain momentum. Father Hajime leads a redevelopment project, starting afresh with the land just as he has with his family. Mother Yumiko is absent in this tapestry, yet her presence is felt in unexpected ways. Danzuka grants his performers a freedom and looseness in their emotional expression that lends this film a relatable naturalism. Largely operating at a restrained simmer, they’ll cry openly and unexpectedly at points while finding themselves unable to at others.

Then there’s the title Brand New Landscape––multitudinous, versatile. It demonstrates change and reminds us that time cannot be rewound. It speaks to the new lives each family member is building and the ever-shifting nature of the spaces they inhabit and the people with whom they move through them. It also calls to the fresh generation of Japanese filmmaking talent, making moves to announce themselves domestically and internationally. Yuiga Danzuka is the youngest Japanese director to play Directors’ Fortnight, following in the footsteps of last year’s Yoko Yamanaka (then 27) and her film Desert of Namibia. They’re interesting to consider in parallel: both are caustically direct challenges to patriarchy, their young protagonists and filmmakers boldly forging their own paths and perspectives in the city.

The film’s aesthetic is striking, clinical in a way that accentuates the feel of its Tokyo cityscapes, with an architect’s eye for detail and function. Surface similarities to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s later explorations of isolated individuals are no accident––cinematographer Kôichi Furuya shot last year’s Chime––but let’s not conflate: this is a true original.

Brand New Landscape triumphs in unpretentiously encapsulating personal trajectories; it taps into something universal. Fragmented as our lives would be in the wake of familial reconfiguration, Danzuka’s debut shattered me into pieces and served a poignant reminder that we can always rebuild.

Brand New Landscape premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

The post Cannes Review: Brand New Landscape is an Embodied Estrangement Drama from a Fresh Perspective first appeared on The Film Stage.