A Girl Missing

Directed by Koji Fukada
Film Movement
2019
112 Minutes
Japan, France
Japanese
Thriller, Drama, Asian
NR
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Koji Fukada's followup to the critically-acclaimed HARMONIUM (also available from Film Movement), A GIRL MISSING “is a satisfying slow-burn drama expertly told” (Screen Daily). Ichiko is a private home-nurse who has worked for the elder matriarch of the Oishos for years and regards them as her own family. Ichiko's quiet, routine life is shattered when a young member of the Oishos clan is kidnapped. When it is revealed that the kidnapper is none other than Ichiko’s nephew, her life begins to unravel in this taut thriller from one of Japan’s current cinematic masters.

Cast

  • Mariko Tsutsui
  • Mikako Ichikawa
  • Sôsuke Ikematsu
DVD Features

Making-of Featurette

BONUS SHORT FILM
Love Comes Later
Directed by Sonejuhi Sinha
United States, India
English Language
10 minutes

An unexpected discovery forces an undocumented motel employee to make a life changing decision.

Discs: 1

  • Highest Rating
    "A deft and absorbing multi-pronged tale about a kind, hard-working woman whose life becomes a morass of collateral damage, A Girl Missing is a satisfying slow-burn drama expertly told."
    Lisa Nesselson, Screen Daily
  • Highest Rating
    "Reuniting with his Harmonium (2016) lead Mariko Tsutsui, Fukada creates another emotionally palpable tale about perspective. Expertly acted and with a dual-pronged narrative as equally well choreographed...."
    Nicholas Bell, Ion Cinema
  • Highest Rating
    "Much like his Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize winner, A Girl Missing unspools as a revenge drama homing in on people paying a price for their kindness, a tale of family disequilibrium with Mariko Tsutsui–already seen in Harmonium–serving as a magnetic lead."
    Leonardo Goi, The Film Stage
  • Highest Rating
    "[Koji Fukada] gives his actors space to create wordless moments that speak eloquently."
    Mark Schilling, Japan Times
  • Highest Rating
    "Fukada’s film is mad but wildly engrossing, imagining a cruel world where unrequited love plus time makes for a fatal sum."
    Elena Lazic, Cinema Scope
  • Highest Rating
    "After his wonderful hits “Hospitalite” and “Harmonium”, Japanese award-winning filmmaker Kôji Fukada returns to the family-crisis field with this sensitive, perceptive, yet bizarre modern take on the power of defamatory words. [T]he film is a gripping, shocking dramatic thriller, a satisfying and unique observation on two dysfunctional families, with an unforgettable, controversial performance by Mariko Tsutsui."
    Roger Costa, Brazilian Press
  • Highest Rating
    "One of the film’s many pleasures lies in Fukada’s specific rhythms of the mysteries of storytelling, offering little clues along the way but keeping more of a focus on his lead character and her emotional wavelength."
    Jordan Raup, The Film Stage
  • Highest Rating
    "There’s no denying the seductive powers of A Girl Missing, which gestures at the rot beneath the surface of politesse in the way Japanese society deals with criminality and taboo. "
    Beatrice Loayza, AV Club
  • Highest Rating
    "Lead Mariko Tsutsui (also of Harmonium) is haunted here, delivering a performance that's affecting even when we're in the dark about what her character is thinking. "
    John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
  • Highest Rating
    "[A] steadily absorbing crime thriller with at least two satisfying twists. "
    Kent Turner, Film-Forward
  • Highest Rating
    "Fukada has delivered another subtle, startling and demanding drama about lives upended in a country that rarely gives us any hint this sort of thing happens, a film built on stoic performances that give up their reserve when the worst kind of pressure is applied."
    Roger Moore, Movie Nation

Awards & Recognition

Nominated
Golden Leopard
Locarno Film Festival
Nominated
Gold Hugo
Chicago Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
Toronto Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
New York Film Festival

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