Two Cigarettes, Three Nights Enters Tokyo Competition — SkimNews
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- Two Cigarettes, Three Nights is a competition entry at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, adapted from Chihaya Akane’s 2014 novel and starring Matsuoka Mayu as picture-book illustrator Kanna.
- Kanna has grown tired of her live-in boyfriend and has only a physical relationship with a cynical married lover, while Haseo returns after a seven-year gap as her platonic confidant and a drug-company salesman.
- Mishima Yukiko filmed in Kyoto, Hiroshima and Toyama Prefecture, using riverbank and railroad-track walks to animate Sawai Kaori’s talky script while avoiding stereotypical views of Kyoto and Hiroshima.
- Ozu Yasujiro influenced Mishima’s side-by-side framing and long takes; she says his method of revealing a grand narrative through small personal moments helped the film open from Kanna’s private viewpoint to the wider world.
- Matsuoka Mayu and Narita Ryo were cast for their comic timing to sustain long dialogue scenes, even as Mishima made the film more intimate and complex than its sex-comedy setup and left the ending open to interpretation.
- The Male Friend is the film’s Japanese title, but Mishima says its focus gradually shifts to what Kanna comes to understand about herself and the world through her time with Haseo.
- Kanna completes a painting shaped by three eventful days with Haseo, and Mishima says her realization in Hiroshima becomes the message viewers receive in the final painting.
Why it matters: For festival audiences, the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival entry goes beyond infidelity drama: after a seven-year gap, Kanna spends three days with Haseo, gains perspective on herself and the world and creates a final painting after a Hiroshima realization. Mishima’s Ozu-inspired staging makes that change visible in movement and framing, not only dialogue.
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