movies
‘Nagi Notes’ Review: Koji Fukada’s Gentle Study of Art and Fellowship
Nagi Notes, writer-director Koji Fukada’s latest, offers a thoughtfully modulated tribute to the communal coziness, haphazard beauty and organic shape of rural life in contemporary Japan. That all comes filtered through the eyes of two creative women, sculptor Yoriko (Takako Matsu) and her latest model Yuri (Shizuka Ishibashi), an architect from Tokyo, who reconnect at Yoriko’s place in the Japanese hinterlands. (Yuri used to be married to Yoriko’s brother.)
At the same time, through storylines that explore LGBTQ+ identity with a frankness that’s rare in Japanese cinema, this inclusive drama doesn’t sugarcoat how stifling, even soul-crushing, villages like the titular town of Nagi can be when traditional values are practically synonymous with menacing conformity. Think Brokeback Mountain meets La Belle Noiseuse but with both lesbians and gays and a more hopeful ending.
Nagi Notes
The Bottom Line
Insightful and beautifully made, if not very exciting.
Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)
Cast: Takako Matsu, Shizuka Ishibashi, Ken’ichi Matsuyama, Waku Kawaguchi, Kiyora Fujiwara, Sawako Fujima, Long Mizuma, Suhkye Shin
Director/screenwriter: Koji Fukada
1 hour 50 minutes
Cumulatively, it makes for an exportable slice of festival-friendly arthouse humanism that’s easy to consume but perhaps almost as easy to forget, less interesting than Fukada’s unsettling breakthrough Harmonium, which played Cannes Un Certain Regard strand in 2016, or his melancholy, elegantly structured exploration of grief, Love Life, a Venice competitor from 2022.
The titular town is a serene speck of a place in the west of Japan, near a mountain also called Nagi, a beautiful but raggedy landscape that patchworks swathes of virgin forest, farmed fields and twinkling solar panels. Around 5,000 people reside in the town, give or take the shifting sub-population of soldiers from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces who ship in and out for noisy munitions drills in the mountains nearby. The inconvenience of that military presence has brought certain compensations from the government, such as a strikingly modern, geometric contemporary art museum (Nagi MOCA) that draws visitors not put off by the arduous journey required to get there. (The town isn’t serviced by the national railway.) As one character observes, travelling to Nagi from Tokyo takes longer than it would to go abroad.
Yoriko Endo, an unmarried woman in her early 40s or so, grew up in Nagi and went away to attend art school but came back to live on the family farm. Her brother Masato, seen only as a sculpture but never in the flesh, should have been the one to take over their family’s business according to the custom of primogeniture, which favors the eldest male child. But Masato went off to become an architect, married Yuri and went to live in Taiwan, so Yoriko is the one who’s taken over the family farmhouse and a large barn that she’s had converted into a rustic studio. In the mornings, she milks her neighbors’ cows and then spends the rest of her time working on her art.
Fukada’s attention to the artistic process here is one of the film’s great delights, and congruent with his interest, seen in his other films, in how people get things done, be it cooking, social work, pop stardom or car mechanics. Yoriko mostly makes wooden portraits of people she knows (the finished sculptures seen here are credited to Ami Yoshida), pieces hand-carved from blocks of wood donated to her by local forestry workers. But before she can pick up a chisel, she makes copious sketches of her subjects, and then maquettes made from clay, all of which require the subject to sit in the studio for hours chatting with Yoriko while she works. The better she gets to know someone, the better the final product. Crucially, Yoriko sees her process as a three-way collaboration between herself, the subject and the material, especially the wood — an approach that couldn’t be more different from the (mostly male) great artist-genius stereotype usually peddled in films. Indeed, one might even say that Nagi itself — its landscape, its people, its history — also informs and shapes Yoriko’s work as well.
As a trained architect, Yuri can appreciate her former sister-in-law’s painstaking technique. It’s clear that the two women liked one another back when Yuri was married to Masato, even if they weren’t close. Now that their legal bond as family has been dissolved, they have a chance to reimagine their relationship as intellectual equals, exploring their common interest in aesthetics, and their common experience as female practitioners in fields dominated by men. Without making a big song and dance about it, Fukada and co. quietly point out how the still dominant patriarchy of Japan warps things in all kinds of ways.
There are two teenage boys in the film, Haruki (Waku Kawaguchi) and Keita (Kiyora Fuiwara), whose inchoate erotic feelings for one another, a love that can still barely say its name in provincial Japan, forms a subplot here. At one point, Keita asks Yuri if she and Yoriko are lovers (they’re not); it’s as if he finds it easier to imagine that’s the nature of their relationship rather than that they might just be friends. And yet, Keita’s clearly picked up on something that no one has ever told him: that Yoriko is actually gay and was once deeply in love with Haruki’s mother Sanae (Sawako Fujima), who died years ago but still haunts Yoriko’s imagination.
Fukada stealthily shades in these subtleties of feeling into the story with exacting skill, creating a drama that touches on social issues but never feels issues-driven. The characters themselves are always at the forefront, and it’s obvious that Yoriko’s philosophy about the collaborative nature of her art applies equally well to Fukada’s cinematic practice. He may have written the words and devised the plot, but the film’s spirit only comes alive through the collaboration of the actors (the cast is excellent throughout), the craftspeople and the technicians.
It’s such a seamless, harmoniously composed work, effortlessly edited and elegantly shot, that it’s almost too easy to just drift along with it, like floating down a river on a canoe, letting its currents take control. This isn’t a grabby, attention seeker of a film, but a quiet, watchful sort of movie that whispers its secrets sotto voce.
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SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from Tuesday night’s episode of Dancing with the Stars.
It’s another exciting night in the ballroom as 13 contestants are still eyeing the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy during Week 3 of Dancing with the Stars.
Last week, the judges reinforced just how tough they are going to be this season, once again declining to score anyone above a 7. Still, three couples — Jenna and Val, Ezra and Daniella, and Amber and Pasha — walked away tied for the top of the leaderboard with 21 points. We also said goodbye to Alan Bersten and chef Giada De Laurentiis.
Week 3 is Yacht Rock night, so the remaining couples are performing to hits from artists including Fleetwood Mac, The Doobie Brothers, and Luther Vandross.
Here is how the night went.
Olympian Amber Glenn with Pasha Pashkov danced a Foxtrot to “Hold the Line” by Toto. SCORE: 24
Actress Julia Stiles with Ezra Sosa danced a salsa to “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. SCORE: 19
Late-night sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez with Whitney Carson danced a Foxtrot to “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes. SCORE: 15
Actress Tatyana Ali with Jan Ravnik performed a Quickstep to “Maneater” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. SCORE: 21
Actor Harry Shum Jr. with Jenna Johnson performed a jive to “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Daryl Hall & John Oates. SCORE: 24
Musician Taylor Hanson with Britt Stewart danced a Foxtrot to “What a Fool Believes” by The Doobie Brothers. SCORE: 18
Reality star Maura Higgins with Mark Ballas danced a Quickstep to “Turn Your Love Around” by George Benson. SCORE: 22
Reality star Ciara Miller with Brandon Armstrong performed a Cha Cha to “Never Too Much” by Luther Vandross. SCORE: 18
Savannah Bananas midfielder Jackson Olson with Emma Slater performed a paso doble to “Easy Lover” by Philip Bailey and Phil Collins. SCORE: 18
Comedian and podcaster Connor Wood with Rylee Arnold danced a Foxtrot to “Everywhere” by Fleetwood Mac. SCORE: 20
Actress Jenna Dewan with Val Chmerkovskiy danced a samba to “Africa” by Toto. SCORE: 21
Reality star Tyler Cameron with Sharna Burgess danced a jive to “Still the One” by Orleans. SCORE: 17
Paralympian Ezra Frech with Daniella Karagach danced a Foxtrot to “Just the Two of Us” by Grover Washington Jr. featuring Bill Withers. SCORE: 21
Who goes home?
The competition is now down to 12 as Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart were sent home. Next week is all about Mariah Carey, so the couples will perform a variety of the pop superstar’s biggest hits.
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Another hockey book adaptation has entered the chat.
Netflix is currently building out its cast for the series adaptation of Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book that kicks off the Maple Hill series. This in addition to their show The Sticks that is also currently in the works.
For everything we know about Netflix’s Icebreaker book adaptation so far, read on.
When will Netflix’s Icebreaker series adaptation come out?
A release date has not yet been set. The show has begun to assemble its cast.
Who will lead the Icebreaker show at Netflix?
Daisy Jelley (Poser, How To Have Sex) will portray Anastasia “Stassie” Allen, and Connor Simos (Subversion) will portray Nate Hawkins in the college hockey drama series.
Who else is in the cast of Netflix’s Icebreaker adaptation?
Gabriel Tierney (Rivals, Enola Holmes 2), Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana), newcomer and professional athlete Peter Berry, Chaneil Kular (Best of the Best, Sex Education), Devin Craig (Sex Lives of College Girls, Maize) and Aidan Shaw (We Were Liars, Heated Rivalry, Finding Her Edge) have joined the ensemble cast.
Tierney will play Aaron; Cravalho will portray Lola; Berry is Robbie; Kular will play JJ; Craig will portray Henry and Shaw is Russ.
What is Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker book about?
Stassie is a transfer athlete gunning for Olympic gold. Nate is the campus star chasing the NHL. When an accident forces their teams to share one rink, Anastasia Allen and Nate Hawkins collide—and discipline gives way to obsession, because the only thing more dangerous than wanting to win is wanting each other.
Who else is behind Netflix’s Icebreaker series?
Jade Halley Bartlett (Road House, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Miller’s Girl) created and executive produced the series. Amanda Lasher (Gossip Girl, The Bold Type, Togetherness) serves as showrunner, writer and excutive producer. Grace also executive produces along with Alex Cooper, Matt Kaplan and Mina Lefevre for Cooper’s Unwell Productions.
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One of the biggest executive questions about Paramount following its pending acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — who will lead streaming — may have been answered.
Cindy Holland is leaving Paramount where she was Chairman of Direct-To-Consumer since the Skydance-Paramount merger having served as an advisor to Skydance CEO David Ellison prior to that. She announced her departure in a company memo, which you can read below.
The move leaves HBO’s Casey Bloys as the likely streaming head of the combined Paramount-WBD.
“Cindy is one of the most exceptional executives in our industry — a force of nature whose impact on Paramount over the past year has been significant,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said. “Under her leadership, P+ reached new heights, Pluto TV underwent its most significant transformation in a decade, and we strengthened our content and sports portfolio – all while the business exceeded the ambitious goals we set. Just as importantly, she built an exceptional team and a strong foundation for the future. Cindy has been a trusted partner to me and so many others, and I couldn’t be more grateful for her leadership, her relentless drive and everything she’s done for our company.”
Here is Holland’s memo:
When I joined David’s team in January 2025, we proceeded to set three goals: i) advise on the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, ii) integrate and transform Paramount+ & revive Pluto TV, and iii) build an unparalleled team in this industry. In just over 12 months, I’m proud to say we accomplished all three and it’s been a joy to work closely with all of you.
Together with the Product team, we drove significant strategic and organizational change across DTC — building a new foundation for growth on both services, while investing in greater depth and breadth of programming and delivering strong revenue, profit, and subscriber growth for the division.
As David readies for the next phase of his vision, we’ve discussed my role and the future of the combined businesses. David is optimizing for HBO stability as we move into this next chapter, and I fully support that. I know this team has the leadership and expertise to manage through the transition and the next phase of the company, and to this end today will mark my last day here.
As I reflect on my time here and all that we’ve built together in this short time, what stands out most to me is this team. I have never been more proud of a group of people. What we’ve accomplished together is remarkable — landing quarter after quarter while navigating extraordinary uncertainty and change with resilience, focus and ambition. We grew Paramount+ to an all-time subscriber high, delivered the best retention in the service’s history, and drove double-digit growth in both engagement and revenue. We built an extraordinary content pipeline, greenlighting more than 40 new and returning series and setting all-time records with Landman, the most-watched series in Paramount+ history, and Dutton Ranch, the service’s biggest original series debut ever. We transformed live sports into a powerful streaming growth engine, securing landmark agreements with UFC and Zuffa Boxing and expanding our WNBA and UEFA Champions League rights – with UFC Freedom 250 becoming the largest-ever audience for an exclusive live event on Paramount+ and UFC 329 setting a new platform record for peak concurrent streams for an exclusive live event. And we undertook Pluto TV’s biggest product transformation in a decade, dramatically increasing registered viewing and VOD consumption while delivering strong financial performance across the business. These are extraordinary accomplishments – but what makes me proudest is how we achieved them: together, with an unwavering commitment to our audiences, our creative partners and one another.
I joined Paramount because I believe in these businesses, and because I believe wholeheartedly that the combination of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery serves the best interests of artists and audiences worldwide. I’m looking forward to seeing what you all accomplish together in this next, momentous chapter.
Cindy
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