TIFF25: “Renoir” Captures Loss and Growing Up
This review was originally published on Film Obsessive.
In 2022, writer/director Chie Hayakawa’s debut feature film, Plan 75 premiered at the Cannes Film Festival where it received the Caméra d’Or — Mention Spéciale. Earlier this year, Hayakawa returned to the Cannes Festival with her latest film, Renoir and now she brings it to the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival for its North American premiere. Much like Plan 75, Renoir beautifully and gently captures a life in transition. Where Plan 75 focused on the elderly population of Japan, Renoir looks at young people, one child in particular. These are two groups of people who are often thought of as lesser because they don’t contribute to society in the way people tend to value. Renoir is a love letter to the ever-confusing transition from childhood to adolescence.
Fuki’s (Yui Suzuki) father is dying. It’s the late 1980s, Fuki is eleven years old living in Japan and the world as she knows it is fundamentally changing. Her father (Lily Franky) has a terminal illness that has confined him to the hospital. Fuki often visits with her mother (Hikari Ishida), but her mom’s focus is often elsewhere. With her husband’s illness, she is now the sole breadwinner for her family and the stress of her job weighs heavily on her. Renoir takes place during the summer between school years where Fuki has nothing but time.
Courtesy of TIFF
Renoir is one of those films that isn’t necessarily building toward some huge conclusion. There’s no mystery to solve here other than the ever-elusive mystery of life. Hayakawa immerses us into the world of an eleven-year-old who is desperate to make sense of the world around her that frightens her, excites her, and confuses her. The looming death of her father manifests in the stories she writes at school where she ponders what life would be like as an orphan. With her father in the hospital and her mother working, Fuki is left alone to her own devices. She’s trying to master magic tricks and will enlist the participation of her friends and tutor to practice. These little moments are endearingly odd, reminiscent of the viewer’s own weird hobbies they picked up as a kid to cope with the things happening to them that they don’t understand.
One of Fuki’s attempts to entertain herself is by calling a dating agency. At first, she just listens to the personal voicemail ads of people looking for companionship, but eventually, as her father’s illness worsens, her fascination in this dating agency intensifies. Fuki leaves a voicemail of her own which results in an older man taking an interest in her. The audience knows what this man’s intentions are, but to Fuki, she’s desperate for any adult to pay attention to her. To listen to her, focus on her wants and needs. Renoir is about connection and what comes of it, the good, bad, inappropriate, and wholesome.
courtesy of TIFF
The film’s title comes from French Impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s painting, Irène Cahen d’Anvers. It’s a commissioned piece of a young girl. She sits on the ground with green foliage behind her, wearing a pretty dress, and her long hair is pinned with a blue bow. It’s regarded as one of Renoir’s best works and a reproduction is featured in the film. The painting captures a young girl who exists as two things at once. She is both a child and portrayed as someone beyond her years. It’s the essence of Fuki and Renoir, a child who wants to grow up, but still has a few years to go.
Set in the late 1980s, Renoir also touches on the growing American influence on Japanese society. Fuki’s mom is signed up for a work training that was brought in from the States and she often takes Fuki to an American themed diner. This growing influence mirrors the worldliness that Fuki is trying to cultivate. Yet, as much as Fuki is desperate to grow up, the cruel reality is that you can’t speed up or slow down time. We are forced to live through the monotonous days as quickly or slowly as the best ones. It’s because of this that nostalgia has such a pull on all of us. Renoir creates nostalgia for the moments Fuki is living through in a way that asks the audience to remember their own thorny adolescence as it is unperceptively shifting toward adulthood.
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