A new Japanese-Taiwanese co-production is seeking funding at the Tokyo Gap Financing Market, bringing together voices across borders to tell an intimate story set in Tokyo’s LGBTQ+ hub.
Directed by Natsuki Seta and produced by Twenty First City in collaboration with Taiwan’s Volos Film Co., “Polaris” takes place on a winter’s night at a bar on Ni-chome. Based on Li Qinmei’s novel The Night of the Shining North Star, the film centers on women of different ages, nationalities, and sexualities who gather at the titular shop under soft blue light to share drinks, laughter, and snippets of life. As their stories intersect like stars in a constellation, the film explores themes of self-identity and human connection before the women part at dawn.
For Seta, this project represents a meditation on authenticity and understanding. “This film is a reflection on what it means to be yourself and how difficult it is to understand each other,” says the director. “It’s also about how we define our sense of self. It’s also about how we categorize ourselves and others, or choose not to categorize them. And it’s also about how we can begin to rethink what we once thought was ‘normal.’ ”
This work faced unique challenges in adapting Lee Kotomi’s original work, which consists of seven interconnected short stories spanning different times and locations. “One of the big challenges was finding a way to weave them into one movie,” Seta points out. The team conducted extensive research and interviews in Japan and Taiwan to inform the exploration of sexuality and gender issues central to the story.
For producer Shoichiro Kawashima, Polaris marks an important departure for Twenty First City, which has served as a local production partner for Hollywood and European shoots in Japan since the 1990s. “This is the first time we’ve developed a film project ourselves from scratch,” Kawashima says. The company gained momentum through its participation in the Taiwan Creative Content Fest.
“This is a cross-border story with characters from different nationalities,” Kawashima explains of his goals for the Tokyo market. “We want this film to resonate widely, so we want to receive feedback from as many people as possible. It would be ideal to meet a partner who shares our vision and will support us towards the completion of the project.”
Production is aiming to begin filming in the winter of 2026, with Seta and screenwriter Kyoko Inukai continuing to develop the script. The team is actively pursuing investors, distribution partners and global sales, with casting expected to begin later this year.
Director Seta’s interests extend beyond this project to exploring how small moments can change the way we view everyday life and society, with a particular focus on the complexity of human understanding, a theme central to “Polaris” itself.
