Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda brings beloved manga tale of friendship to Venice
September 9, 2026 at 07:30 JST
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Director Hirokazu Kore-eda and cast members Aju Makita, Natsuki Deguchi, Rokka Okada and Furi Nanase pose on the red carpet during arrivals for the screening of the movie “Look Back” in competition, at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Sep. 7. (Reuters)
VENICE–Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda said a chance encounter with a manga about friendship, ambition and loss inspired him to make “Look Back,” the first live-action adaptation of a work by bestselling author Tatsuki Fujimoto.
Premiering at the Venice Film Festival on Monday, “Look Back” follows two schoolgirls brought together by a shared passion for drawing manga, only for fate to send them in different directions as they enter adulthood.
Kore-eda, whose films “Shoplifters,” “Like Father, Like Son” and “Nobody Knows” won awards at Cannes, said he picked up Fujimoto’s 2021 manga by chance during the COVID pandemic and found solace in it during a difficult period.
“When I met Mr. Fujimoto, I first wanted to express my gratitude and thank him for creating such a manga,” he told reporters in Venice, speaking through a translator.
“Since I’m a director, the natural next step, if I truly wanted to show my appreciation in a tangible way, was to turn it into a film,” he added.
Manga, Japan’s distinctive form of comic books and graphic novels, has evolved into a multibillion-dollar global industry, producing stories across virtually every genre and spawning successful film, television and animation adaptations.
“It used to be said that you didn’t grow up properly if you only read manga, but the perception has changed,” he said. “We now live in a world where we read manga like classical literature.”
Kore-eda said he became fascinated by the creative process behind manga and sought to capture that on screen through the evolving relationship of the two protagonists.
“A key theme for me was the changing sounds of the pen itself,” he said, describing how tentative scratches gradually become confident strokes as the young artists mature, before giving way to the soft tapping of a digital pen.
Actors Natsuki Deguchi, Aju Makita, Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada spent months learning to draw manga before filming began, with some of their work appearing in the final movie.
“The hardest part was definitely practising drawing manga,” said Nanase, who plays the younger Fujino. “I hadn’t really grasped just how tough making manga is. It’s genuinely difficult,” she added.
“Look Back” is one of 21 films competing for Venice’s Golden Lion award, which will be presented on Saturday.
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