Don’t make your 2024 movie theater list until you see this sweet nugget from Japan

what are you talking about

On the island of Hokkaido, winter is hockey season for the boys. Takuya, on the other hand, is more captivated by Sakura from Tokyo, who imitates the followers of figure skating. He clumsily tries to follow suit so well that Sakura’s coach, impressed by his efforts, decides to train them as a duet for an upcoming competition… In winter, their harmony breaks despite their differences. But the first snow will melt and spring will come, for sure.

You are my sunshine (famous tune)

If you find the Christmas holidays anything but relaxing (and you won’t be the only one who thinks so), My Sunshine is for you. With its calmness and serenity, it will play the role of an enchanted intermediary. Or snowy, as a great white coat covers the landscapes of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, the scene of Hiroshi Okuyama’s second feature film after Jesus, released in our cinemas in 2019.

A film that was already far from Japan’s main metropolises and talked about childhood and education. The one that Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), the protagonist of My Sunshine, tries to match, the one who finds himself more attracted to the lightness of the figure skating that Sakura (Kiara Nakanishi) does than the brutality of ice hockey, which they are meant for as boys during the winter. .

If this story resonates on screen, it’s undoubtedly because it breathes real life, starting with the director’s attraction to figure skating: “I used to exercise in elementary school”– he says in the press conference. “I just followed my older sister who was trying to be an athlete, but strangely it never seemed difficult. I remember seeing girls who were great at skating, just like Takuya, the main character, and I told myself that I wanted to dance. Like her.”

But this is not the only personal element that the director put into the story: “The experience led me to imagine that the hero was suffering from drooling. Although I never said much about it in public, I had a form of tic as a child that caused me to involuntarily clear my throat at the time, hoping that my classmates would leave me alone instead of imitating me or acting weird. Nicknames I wish Takuya had a best friend who never spoke on your own. Fight and don’t worry about it.”

Memories that began to turn into a movie thanks to the hit: “I discovered Humbert Humbert’s song ‘My Sunshine’ and after listening to it every day, the story I had to shoot came to life. I met at the same time. Susuke Ikematsu And I was sure that if I could capture the charm of this actor on screen, I could make a film.”

word “charm” Undoubtedly one of the most apt to describe My Sunshine, which, like Jolly Jolly, also released on December 25, gives us the impression of having a sweet moment in a bubble. Even a snow globe. Which makes its release date very appropriate when, like the Christmas holidays, the story has an ending heralded by the coming spring, and will effectively bring an end to the winter activities that bring Takuya and Sakura together.

“If someone explains the whole story and all the emotions to me, I can’t tell”

But everything is done softly, modestly and with the desire to convey this story in pictures, not words, so that everyone can relate to it in their own way: “When there’s an element of emptiness intentionally, it’s because it pushes me to try to understand the film, to interpret it by filling in the gaps with my own thoughts, until I come and say, ‘This is the film for that.’ Me!’ If you tell me the whole story and all the emotions, I can’t handle it.”

A trap that My Sunshine manages to beautifully avoid, all the better to invite us into its coffin. And you’d do well not to make your list of the best cinema of 2024 until you’ve seen this film, which, after captivating the Un Certain Regard section at the last Cannes Film Festival, will do the same in our cinemas.