“Yoroï,” a fantasy tale starring famed rapper-turned-actor Aurélien Cotentin aka Orelsan, is the latest example of the cultural bridges that Cinefrance Studios has built between France and Japan.
Under the impulse of its co-founder David Gauquié, who recently completed his 38th trip to Japan, the Paris-based company has become a favorite partner for celebrated Japanese filmmakers aspiring to make atypical movies in France. The banner previously co-produced Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2024 thriller “Serpent’s Path,” a remake of his own 1998 film of the same name; and recently completed the Paris shoot of “All of a Sudden,” directed by “Drive My Car”‘s Oscar-winning helmer Ryusuke Hamaguchi with Virginie Efira (“Benedetta”) and Tao Okamoto (“The Wolverine”). The film shot for 8 weeks in the French capital, followed by a week in Kyoto. Cinefrance Studios also produced Japanese master Naomi Kawase’s latest film “Yakushima’s Illusion” headlined by Vicky Krieps. It world premiered at Locarno and will be released in Japan in February.
The banner’s pipeline of prestige films in development includes the next project by Hirokazu Kore-eda, who won Cannes’ Palme d’Or with “Shoplifters” in 2018; and Daigo Matsui’s next project, a romantic comedy pitched a twist on “Lost in Translation,” revolving around a Japanese star of Kabuki and a French woman — who will be played by a famed French actor.
“Yoroï” marked a different kind of collaboration for Cinefrance Studios as it involved a French talent seeking a project set in Japan. Orelsan’s hot profile as France’s biggest music artist helped Cinefrance Studios to get Sony Pictures on board for the ambitious movie. The studio handles worldwide rights and released it this week in France and Belgium.
Shot for the most part in Japan over the course of three months, Yoroi stars Cotentin as himself — a famous French musician who grows tired of the limelight and decides to move to Japan with his pregnant wife Nanako (Clara Choï) after touring the world with Civilisation which turned out to be France’s best-selling album in 2021 and 2022. Nestled in the Japanese countryside, Cotentin stumbles upon a samurai armor that awakens strange creatures.
JOHN HOADE
In a wide-ranging interview at their Paris office, Gauquié and producer Renan Artukmaç (who joined Cinefrance Studios) two years ago, said the creative affinity between France and Japan spans art, cinema, and theater, and has inspired by French artists and intellectuals, including Le Corbusier, Roland Barthes, Victor Hugo and Charles Perriand over past centuries. Even today, some of Paris’ biggest theaters are holding Kabuki residencies and performances, says Gauquié. Conversely, French plays are popular in Japan, for instance Florian Zeller’s shows which are sold out at major Japanese theaters.
Japanese directors also hold French cinema in high esteem, Gauquié said, citing Hamaguchi who stunned him with his “enormous knowledge of French films,” including the Nouvelle Vague classics, “sometimes better than many French people.”
In the case of “Yoroï,” Cinefrance Studios fully developed the project with Cotentin, who came up with the idea for the film and co-wrote the manga-inspired script with filmmaker David Tomaszewski.
Gauquié and Artukmaç say their work on “Yoroï” illustrates Cinefrance Studios’ commitment to immersive, on-the-ground development, even if it means incurring development costs before securing full financing. The banner was ultimately able to attract big backers for the €15-million project. Besides Sony Pictures, “Yoroï” was boarded by Prime Video France which previously streamed Orelsan’s biopic documentary series, “Don’t ever show this to anyone,” which was directed by his brother Clément Cotentin and topped viewing charts on the platform.
“When developing a project with a Japanese partner in France, or with a French partner in Japan, we strive for authenticity, and that’s why we plan trips even before we have co-producers and funding in place,” says Gauquié, adding that the banner took a similar risk with a pair of films that shot in Taiwan, Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea” and Regis Wargnier’s “La reparation.”
On “Yoroï,” Gauquié says location scouting started eight months before filming. “We travelled 4,000 kilometers in ten days, by plane, train and minivan,” says the producer, who ended up staying about 20 more days on the ground “to get to know Japan, get to know the scenery, get to know the places and everything.” The film ended up being shot in the countryside in Osaka, three hours away from Tokyo during the cherry blossom season. Since the local crew was Japanese, it required Cinefrance Studios to hire interpreters who specialize in cinema in facilitate the interactions between the French and Japanese on set. Cinefrance Studios, which has opened a Japanese office, also tapped Toho Tombo Pictures, a well established production services company whose credits include “Bullet Train” and “Tokyo Vice,” to work on “Yoroï.”
The immersive development approach was used for Hamaguchi who traveled to France multiple times before starting to film “All of a Sudden” to workshop material with local actors, among other things. Matsui, meanwhile, came to France in March for the first time and was introduced to a French talent, French location managers and locations to spark his inspiration while he writes the script, Gauquié explains. “Japanese people filming in France are not doing ‘Emily in Paris,’ so that requires a lot of preparation and meetings,” he points out.
Cinefrance Studios also developed Kawase’s “Yakushima’s Illusion” from scratch, “right here in this office, to turn it into a film,” says Gauquié. “We didn’t produce it with a Japanese studio, we made with her and she’s the Japanese producer of the project,” he continues. He was introduced to Kawase through her French agent.
Artukmaç says the company has gained traction with Japanese filmmaker because they are able to secure significant budgets with European co-production partners (in the absence of a French-Japan co-production treaty), soft money and international sales (which they now handle), but they’re also “making films in a controlled economy that allows you to make films that are truly profitable at the box office.” “We don’t make €40 million films that don’t generate anything,” he says. The other draw is France’s vast pool of talent, many of whom are eager to work with Japanese filmmakers. Hamaguchi, for instance, was able to cast Efira, a major star in France, while Kawase enlisted Krieps and Kurosawa cast Mathieu Amalric and Damien Bonnard.
French distributors and TV channels also have an appetite for movies by prestigious Japanese directors. As such, “All of a Sudden,” which is going into post-production, has already secured financing from a long list of partners, including Canal+ and Arte, Eurimage and Diaphana.
“I’m still stoked that Hamaguchi trusted us enough to say, ‘My next film after winning an Oscar will be made with these French producers in France,” Gauquié says, “because it’s always a big leap of faith for any director, but especially so for a Japanese filmmaker of that caliber, to trust producers overseas to organize the shoot and the crew he’ll work with on a daily basis.”
