Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi will visit Taiwan in July, marking his first trip to the country after bagging an Academy Award in 2022 for his movie "Drive My Car."
Hamaguchi is visiting Taiwan next month to attend the opening of a large-scale retrospective celebrating late Taiwanese director Edward Yang (楊德昌), the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI) said in a press release on Saturday.
The retrospective, which will kick off on July 22, features Yang's complete works at the TFAI and an exhibition documenting the award-winning filmmaker's creative process at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM).
Apart from the retrospective's opening events, Hamaguchi will also take part in a talk at the TFAM on July 23 to share his personal views on Yang's works, the TFAI said.
A graduate of the Tokyo University of the Arts, the 44-year-old director from the eastern Japanese prefecture of Kanagawa has been praised by the media as a rising star in the Japanese film industry, according to the national film institute.
On more than one occasion, Hamaguchi has expressed his admiration for Yang, who won multiple accolades before his death in 2007, including Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival in France in 2000 for "Yi Yi: A One and a Two," the institute said.
The institute added that Hamaguchi had taken inspiration from Yang's "A Brighter Summer Day" when working on his 2015 film "Happy Hour."
Meanwhile, the TFAI will hold special screenings dedicated to Hamaguchi from July 19-22 at the TFAI's base in New Taipei's Xinzhuang District following the director's visit to Taiwan.
During that period, the institute will show "Drive My Car," Hamaguchi's adaptation of renowned author Haruki Murakami's short story of the same title about loss and healing, and "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy," a three-part romantic drama that won Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2021.
Hamaguchi will take part in a brief Q&A session following the showing of "Passion" on July 19 and "Drive My Car" on July 20, as well as a talk after the screening of "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" on July 22, according to the institute.
