Naomi Kawase returns with ‘Seven Nights’

A year and a half after winning the Grand prix at Cannes with what can only be described as a filmgasm for critics, “The Mourning Forest”, Naomi Kawase will attempt to follow up that massive success with Seven Nights (Nana yo Machi); a relatively simple story about a woman who gets lost in Thailand and ends up “finding herself” through the art of traditional Thai massage.

The trailer is pretty self-explanatory but the basic premise is that the woman named Ayako (… or Saiko?), played by Kyoko Hasegawa (Love Never to End, The Sword of Alexander), has a some sort of miscommunication with her taxi driver while in Thailand and ends up getting dropped off with a Thai woman and a French tourist (Grégoire Colin). Over the course of her 7 nights stuck there she gradually makes the transition from a stressed-out ball of rage to completely mellow and friendly, largely due to the therapeutic effect of Thai massage, but also because of her relationship with Colin’s character.

In an attempt to keep interactions realistic as possible Kawase didn’t tell any of the actors the full story ahead of time, instead choosing to give them notes only for each day of shooting as the production went along.

Here’s the trailer:

“Nana yo Machi” will premiere at Cinema Rise in Shibuya with an eventual road show to follow.

Official website
Naomi Kawase’s English-language blog

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Tags: kyoko hasegawa, naomi kawase, thailand