Renoir (Japanese: ルノワール, Hepburn: Runowāru) is a 2025 coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Chie Hayakawa. Starring Yui Suzuki, Lily Franky, Hikari Ishida, and Ayumu Nakajima, the film follows the childhood of 11-year-old Fuki in late-1980s Tokyo.
The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2025, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. It was theatrically released in Japan on 20 June 2025 by Happinet Phantom Studios.
Contents
Premise
11-year-old Fuki navigates adolescence and family struggles in late-1980s Tokyo.
Cast
Yui Suzuki as Fuki Okita
Lily Franky as Keiji Okita, Fuki's father
Hikari Ishida as Utako Okita, Fuki's mother
Yuumi Kawai as Kuriko Kita
Ayumu Nakajima as Toru Omaezaki
Ryota Bando as Kaoru
Hana Hope as Kate
Jeffrey Rowe as Jerry
Production
Director Chie Hayakawa drew inspiration from her own childhood experience of having a father with cancer. She had wanted to make the film since her early 20s, but noted that it would have been "too dark" had she done so earlier. She intentionally set the film in 1987, during Japan's bubble economy, as she felt it paralleled current society. Newcomer Yui Suzuki, who plays Fuki, was the first actress Hayakawa saw for the role.
Principal photography took place in Japan from July to September 2024. Filming also took place in the Philippines in November 2024. Hayakawa used French sound recordists and boom operators during production.
Release
Goodfellas acquired the international sales rights to the film on 18 May 2024. A trailer was released on 11 April 2025. The film premiered at the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 2025. It was theatrically released in Japan on 20 June 2025. In September 2025, Film Movement acquired the film for distribution in North America.
It will compete in the International competition section of the 56th International Film Festival of India in November 2025.
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 50 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "A restrained meditation on grief, Renoir gradually accumulates a big emotional wallop thanks in large part to Yui Susuzki's guileless performance." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Wendy Ide of Screen Daily wrote that, while the film might leave questions for the viewer, she called it "an elegant, thoughtful piece of filmmaking that digs into the guilt and confusion that underpins a child’s struggle to process death". Stephanie Bunbury of Deadline commended the entire cast's performances, paying specific note to that of Yui Suzuki, who plays Fuki. She commended the "poignancy and precision of individual scenes" and wrote, "If this story doesn't coalesce as seamlessly as [Chie Hayakawa's] first film does, it still has the power to touch and then to haunt us." Jessica Kiang of Variety called the film "breezy but moving".