The international spotlight on Ryûsuke Hamaguchi intensifies this season as his new feature All of a Sudden debuts at Cannes. For viewers outside the festival, there is a rare chance to revisit an earlier, darker corner of his work: the 2013 mini-feature Touching the Skin of Eeriness will screen in New York on May 19 at the Manhattan Center for Theatre Research as part of the Amnesiascope series. This presentation marks the film’s first New York appearance since 2019 and offers a glimpse of Hamaguchi experimenting with genre textures that later reappear in his features.
The New York screening comes while Japan enjoys an unusually strong presence in Cannes’ main competition. Three Japanese-directed films — Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, and Koji Fukada’s Nagi Notes — are all competing for the Palme d’Or, making it the first time in 25 years since 2001 that three Japanese films occupy the competition. Tickets for the New York event are already on sale, and organizers have shared a trailer and an official synopsis for viewers to preview.
Touching the Skin of Eeriness: a compact, unsettling experiment
Touching the Skin of Eeriness is a concise work in which Hamaguchi blends his theatrical sensibilities with elements of Japanese horror. The film follows Chihiro, who, after his father’s death, moves in with an older half-brother and pours unspoken emotions into modern dance under an intense teacher. As Chihiro’s partnership with a fellow dancer deepens, the choreography begins to mirror strange, increasingly ominous events in their town. The piece uses performance as both narrative engine and emotional barometer, turning movement into a site of unsettling revelation.
Origins, availability and significance
Made in 2013 and never given a theatrical or home-video release, the film functions as a kind of prequel to an unrealized larger project and remains unavailable on mainstream streaming platforms. The program notes highlight the involvement of prominent choreographer Osamu Jareo, whose presence anchors the film’s exploration of bodily expression. Watching this short now helps to trace thematic lines from Hamaguchi’s earlier work to later pieces such as Evil Does Not Exist and Drive My Car, where performance and interior life are central. For many viewers, this screening is a rare chance to witness Hamaguchi’s early, darker impulses in a communal setting.
Cannes context: Japan’s notable showing and competing titles
The Cannes International film festival, which is scheduled to begin on May 12, will feature the three Japanese competition films alongside an expanded lineup from around the world. Sheep in the Box, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s entry, is set in a near-future Japan and follows an architect and her husband as they welcome a humanoid robot modeled after their late son; the film will be released in Japan on May 29. Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden — a multinational co-production that centers on a nursing home manager in suburban Paris and a Japanese stage director confronting illness — will be shown in Japan on June 19. Koji Fukada’s Nagi Notes, marking his first competition berth at Cannes, follows a sculptor whose quiet life is unsettled by outside visitors and arrives in Japanese cinemas on September 25.
Wider festival placements and historical notes
Beyond the main competition, Yukiko Sode’s All the Lovers in the Night appears in Un Certain Regard, the section dedicated to films with distinctive styles. Meanwhile, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s period drama Kokurojo (The Samurai and the Prisoner) is included in the Cannes Premiere program and is due in Japan on June 19. The presence of multiple Japanese films in prominent sections recalls past milestones: Kore-eda won the Palme d’Or in 2018 for Shoplifters, and that same year Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II screened at the festival. Hamaguchi also previously competed with Drive My Car in 2026.
What this means for viewers and the industry
The dual news items — a rare New York screening of Hamaguchi’s early, genre-tinged short and Japan’s broad representation at Cannes — underscore how festival momentum and archival screenings can reshape attention around a director’s work. For audiences, the Manhattan showing is more than a nostalgia trip; it reveals a formative moment when Hamaguchi pushed into unsettling territory, employing choreography and psychological horror to probe identity and grief. For industry observers, three Japanese competition titles signal renewed international interest in Japan’s contemporary cinema and suggest that cross-cultural collaborations and auteur-driven projects remain vital on the festival circuit.
Whether you are tracking Hamaguchi’s trajectory from intimate experiments to internationally lauded features or following Japan’s bid for festival honors, these events offer concrete viewing opportunities and broader context. The New York screening on May 19 and the Cannes competition beginning May 12 present complementary ways to engage: one invites an up-close look at a hidden piece of a filmmaker’s past, the other showcases the current strength of Japanese cinema on the world stage.