Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscription film services with its DVD-of-the-Month Film Club, Film Movement is now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. In 2015, Film Movement launched the reissue label Film Movement Classics featuring new restorations released theatrically as well as on home video, with an emphasis on films by auteur directors such as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway and Takeshi Kitano.

An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction, and a chance encounter with the past. Propelled by coincidence and imagination, and guided by love’s gentle current, Oscar-winning director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) presents an enchanting triptych that spins mundane encounters into a world of infinite possibilities. In Episode 1: Magic (or Something Less Assuring), a young woman is startled when she realizes that her best friend’s new flame might just be her ex; in Episode 2: Door Wide Open, a disgruntled student plots to trick his college professor, using his friend-with-benefits as bait; and in Episode 3: Once Again, a girl’s college reunion leads to an unanticipated run-in with an old friend, and awakens feelings long since forgotten. Playfully inspired by life’s tiny miracles, and bound together by memory, regret, deception, and fate, Hamaguchi leaves no stone unturned in his quest to chart the ever-deepening mysteries of the all-too-human heart.

directed by: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
starring: Kotone Furukawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Hyunri, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Katsuki Mori, Shouma Kai, Fusako Urabe, Aoba Kawai
2021 / 121 min / 16:9/1.78:1 / Japanese 5.1 surround & 2.0 stereo

Additional info:

• Region A Blu-ray
• Interview with Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi
• Short Film: The Chicken
  • Directed by Neo Sora
  • USA, 14 minutes
  • English and Japanese with English subtitles
    
  • Hiro, a young Japanese immigrant in New York City, faces a complex dilemma when he can’t bring himself to butcher the live chicken he bought for dinner.