The fantasy story “Yoroi”, starring the famous rapper-turned-actor Aurélien Cotentin, aka Oresin, is the latest example of the cultural bridge that CineFrance Studios has built between France and Japan.
Driven by co-founder David Gauquier, who recently completed his 38th visit to Japan, the Paris-based company has become a favorite partner for prominent Japanese filmmakers who want to make atypical films in France. The banner previously co-produced the 2024 thriller Serpent’s Path, a remake of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1998 film of the same name. And he recently completed filming in Paris for “All of a Sudden,” directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the Oscar-winning director of “Drive My Car,” with Virginie Efira (“Benedetta”) and Tao Okamoto (“The Wolverine”). The film was shot for eight weeks in the French capital, followed by a week in Kyoto. CineFrance Studios also produced Japanese master Naomi Kawase’s latest film, Yakushima Fantasy, headlined by Vicki Krieps. It had its world premiere in Locarno and will be released in Japan in February.
Banner’s pipeline of premium films in development includes the next film from director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or in 2018 for “Shoplifters.” Daigo Matsui’s next project will be a romantic comedy with a twist on Lost in Translation, revolving around a Japanese Kabuki star and a French woman played by a famous French actor.
“Yoroï” was a different kind of collaboration for CineFrance studios in that it involved French talent who were exploring projects set in Japan. Thanks to Orersin’s attention as France’s biggest musical artist, CineFrance Studios was able to bring Sony Pictures on board with this ambitious film. The studio controls worldwide rights to the film, which opened in France and Belgium this week.
The film, which was shot mostly in Japan over three months, stars Kotentin as himself. Cotentin, a famous French musician, is tired of being in the spotlight and decides to move to Japan with his pregnant wife Nanako (Clara Choi) after touring the world with Civilization, which became France’s best-selling album in 2021 and 2022. Nestled in the Japanese countryside, Kotentin comes across a samurai armor that awakens strange creatures.
john hoard
In a wide-ranging interview in their Paris office two years ago, Gauquier and producer Renan Artukmak, who joined CineFrance Studios, said France and Japan’s creative affinity spans art, film and theater, and that they have been inspired by French artists and intellectuals over the past several centuries, including Le Corbusier, Roland Barthes, Victor Hugo and Charles Perriand. Gauquier said some of Paris’s biggest theaters still host Kabuki residencies and performances. Conversely, French plays are also popular in Japan, with Florian Zeller’s shows, for example, selling out major theaters in Japan.
Gauquier said Japanese directors also appreciate French films, citing Hamaguchi, who was amazed by his “immense knowledge of French cinema,” including Nouvelle Vague masterpieces, “sometimes even better than many French people.”
In the case of “Yoroi,” CineFrance Studios fully developed the project with Cotentin, who came up with the idea for the film and co-wrote the comic-book-inspired script with filmmaker David Tomaszewski.
Gauquié and Artukmaç say the work on “Yoroï” demonstrates CineFrance Studios’ commitment to immersive, on-site development, even if it means incurring development costs before securing full funding. The banner was ultimately able to gather major backers for the €15 million project. In addition to Sony Pictures, “Yoroï” is also part of Prime Video France, which previously streamed Orelsin’s biographical documentary series “Never Show It to Anyone,” which was directed by his brother Clément Cotentin and topped the platform’s viewing charts.
“When we develop a project in France with a Japanese partner, or in Japan with a French partner, we look for authenticity. That’s why we plan the trip even before co-producers and financing are in place,” Gauquier said, adding that the banner took similar risks for two films shot in Taiwan: “Black Tea” directed by Abderrahmane Sissako and “La reparation” directed by Régis Warnier.
For “Yoroï,” Gauquier says he began location scouting eight months before filming. “We traveled 4,000 kilometers in 10 days by plane, train, and minivan,” says the producer, but in the end they stayed for about 20 more days “to get to know Japan, to get to know the scenery, to get to know the places and everything.” The film was ultimately shot in rural Osaka, three hours outside of Tokyo, during cherry blossom season. Because the local staff were Japanese, CineFrance Studio needed to hire an interpreter specializing in film to facilitate interaction between French and Japanese people on set. CineFrance Studio, which has opened a branch in Japan, also asked Toho Tombo Eiga, a long-established production service company whose credits include “Cho Tokkyu” and “Tokyo Vice,” to produce “Yoroi.”
The immersive development approach was used by Hamaguchi, who traveled to France multiple times to workshop material with local actors before starting filming All of a Sudden. Meanwhile, Matsui visited France for the first time in March, where he was introduced to French talent, French location managers, and filming locations, and Gauquier explained that he was inspired while writing the script. “The Japanese people filming in France aren’t doing ‘Emily in Paris,’ so it requires a lot of preparation and meetings,” he points out.
CineFrance Studios also developed director Kawase’s “Fantasy of Yakushima” from scratch “in this office to make it into a movie,” Gauquier said. “We didn’t create this work with a Japanese studio. We created it with her, and she is the Japanese producer of this project,” he continues. I was introduced to Mr. Kawase through a French agent.
Altukmak said the company is gaining attention among Japanese filmmakers because it is able to secure big budgets with European co-production partners (in the absence of a Japan-French co-production agreement), soft money and international sales (which they are currently handling), but also because it “makes films under a controlled economy, so it makes films that really do well at the box office.” “We don’t make 40 million euro films that don’t produce anything,” he says. Another attraction is France’s vast pool of talent, many of whom are keen to work with Japanese filmmakers. For example, Hamaguchi was able to cast the French megastar Efira, while Kawase enlisted the help of Creeps and Kurosawa cast Mathieu Amalric and Damien Bonnard.
French distributors and television stations also have a strong interest in films by prominent Japanese directors. As such, ‘All of a Sudden’, currently in post-production, has already secured funding from a number of partners including Canal+ and Arte, Eurimage and Diaphana.
“I’m still happy that Director Hamaguchi believed in us and said, ‘My next Oscar-winning film will be made in France with these French producers,'” says Gauquier. “Because it’s a huge leap for any director, especially a Japanese filmmaker at that level, to trust a foreign producer and trust the crew that they work with on set and every day.”
