22nd New York Asian Film Festival

Jul 14-30, 2023

FilmsGuestsTalks & EventsSchedule & Tickets

Photo: ©Makoto Takayama, Shogakukan/TokyoTheatres Co.,Inc.,NIKKATSU CORPORATION,RIGHTS CUBE Inc.,ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS INC.

New York Premiere

Egoist

エゴイスト

A poignant story of love, loss, self-sacrifice and discovery, Daishi Matsunaga’s heralded new film is inspired by the seminal semi-autobiographical novel by Makoto Takayama. The first Japanese production with both an LGBTQ+ inclusive director and an intimacy choreographer, Egoist features two of Japan’s biggest movie stars in very compromising positions. Suffused with delicacy and naturalism, the film completely sidesteps melodrama in its beautifully humanist depiction of gay and maternal relationships. Ryohei Suzuki (HK: Hentai Kamen, Last of the Wolves) nearly sparkles with elegance, taste and personal charm as the protagonist, Kosuke. A wealthy magazine editor with a close circle of artistic, bon vivant friends, Kosuke is surprised when he falls for his new personal trainer, Ryuta (Hio Miyazawa). A financially strapped high-school dropout, Ryuta juggles a number of jobs to support his doting single mother. And then the unthinkable happens.

Directors: Daishi Matsunaga, Daishi Matsunaga
Screenwriter: Daishi Matsunaga
Cast: Ryohei Suzuki, Hio Miyazawa
Languages: Japanese with English subtitles
2023; 120 min.

SCHEDULE:

Saturday July 15, 8:30pm
Film at Lincoln Center

Intro & Q&A with director Daishi Matsunaga and Rising Star Asia Awardee Ryohei Suzuki.

Daishi Matsunaga
松永大司

After beginning his career as an actor, Daishi Matsunaga earned international attention for his 2011 documentary Pyuupiru 2001-2008. In 2015, his first theatrically released fiction feature, Pieta in the Toilet, received numerous domestic awards, including the Directors Guild of Japan’s New Directors Award, and was also in competition at the Jeonju International Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. He has continued to direct documentaries, as well as to participate in the Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2018 omnibus project, and to direct an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s “Hanalei Bay” that played in competition at the 2019 Sofia International Film Festival and the Hawaii International Film Festival. Egoist world premiered at the 2022 Tokyo International Film Festival, was invited to many overseas festivals, took home a Best Supporting Actor Award at the 2023 Asian Film Awards, and will be theatrically released in North America by Strand Releasing.

Screen International Rising Star Asia Award
Ryohei Suzuki
鈴木亮平

Ryohei Suzuki made his acting debut in 2006, receiving his first film role in 2007’s Sanjuro. He achieved superstardom in Japan on NHK’s asadora morning serial Hanako and Anne in 2014, and earned recognition in Asia for roles in popular series like the recent Tokyo MER: Mobile Emergency Room. He first received international attention for his role in HK: Forbidden Super Hero (NYAFF 2013), followed by My Love Story!! (2015), Tokyo Tribe (NYAFF 2015), Mumon: The Land of Stealth (2017) and One Night (NYAFF 2019). His performance in Last of the Wolves ( NYAFF 2021) won him Best Supporting Actor accolades at the Japan Academy Prize, among many others. He was nominated for a Best Actor Award at the AFA Awards for Egoist (2022). He has also appeared in Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai (2021), The Mole Song: Final (2021) and Tokyo MER: Mobile Emergency Room The Movie (2023).