Saito Kisin’s 'Kefi' Explores Grief Through Surrealism — SkimNews
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- Saito Kisin directed, wrote, shot, lit, and edited his debut feature 'Kefi', a surreal exploration of grief, taking on multiple roles to maintain creative control and trust in the filmmaking process
- 'Kefi' premiered in the Nippon Cinema Now section of the 2024 Tokyo International Film Festival, presenting a fragmented narrative through three sisters processing their estranged father’s death
- Saito Kisin revealed he did not feel sadness upon his father’s death in 2024, having had no contact for about a decade after his parents’ divorce, a sentiment mirrored in the emotional detachment of the film’s characters
- 'Kefi' blends absurd elements—including aliens, dinosaurs, and dream affairs—to convey numbness and complicated feelings around loss, departing from conventional grief narratives
- Saito Kisin initially planned four thematic short films on ethics, hypocrisy, discrimination, and life and death, later weaving them into a single feature influenced by his father’s passing
- Saito Kisin used varied visual styles—shifting between color and monochrome, handheld and steady camerawork—to reflect the sisters’ divergent lives, not for symbolic intent but to sustain audience engagement through experimentation
Why it matters: Saito’s hands-on, low-budget approach challenges the dominant image of Japanese cinema as defined by Ozu or Kurosawa, offering a personal, genre-defying alternative that reflects a younger generation’s voice—proving intimate, unconventional stories can emerge outside mainstream production systems and still reach international platforms like TIFF.
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