Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro is back at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025, this time with Kei Ishikawa's adaptation of his debut novel, 'A Pale View of Hills.' The film is part of the 'Un Certain Regard' selection at the 78th annual festival, which runs from May 13 to May 24, 2025.
Ishikawa's film offers a unique perspective on Ishiguro's work, shifting the focus to the younger daughter and exploring memories of Nagasaki after the elder daughter's suicide. The film revisits the memory of post-war Nagasaki through the perspectives of women. Ishiguro appreciates Ishikawa's fresh interpretation, noting the film's explicitness about the atomic bomb, a detail absent in his novel.
Kei Ishikawa stated that the film needed to be made while there were still members of Japan's World War II generation alive to share their stories. The film stars Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaido, and Yō Yoshida. It had its world premiere on May 15, 2025.