Koreeda's 'Sheep in the Box' Subverts Cannes Expectations
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- Koreeda told IndieWire that audiences expected an "AI dystopian, controlled-by-robots story" and were surprised that "Sheep in the Box" doesn't end that way, with response generally skewing negative or 'surprised' at Cannes.
- The film follows a Kamakura couple — architect Otone (Ayase Haruka) and woodworker Kensuke (Daigo) — who adopt an AI humanoid replica of their late seven-year-old son Kakeru, who 'develops and grows faster than a human child.'
- Koreeda said the script was sparked by a news article about Chinese businesses using generative AI to resurrect the deceased, framing the film's central question as 'Who do the dead really belong to?' — a theme he has posed since his 1998 film 'After Life.'
- The 2026 Cannes Film Festival marked Japan as Country of Honor with nearly a dozen Japanese features and shorts, the first time in 25 years three Japanese directors — Hamaguchi, Fukada, and Koreeda — competed, with Hamaguchi's ~200-minute 'All of a Sudden' considered a Palme d'Or frontrunner.
- Koreeda noted that Fukada and Hamaguchi 'have received more support in France than they have in Japan,' adding that 'the Japanese film world needs to put some thought into how to support the next lot of talent coming through.'
- Child actor Rimu Kuwaki plays Kakeru without being directed to act like a robot — Koreeda said he framed the AI as a child and let the adults' discomfort emerge from their interaction with their own memory of the dead boy.
- Neon releases "Sheep in the Box" in theaters starting Friday, July 24, with the title drawn from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 'The Little Prince'.
Why it matters: Koreeda, four films deep into Cannes love after 'Shoplifters' won the Palme d'Or in 2018, uses a sci-fi AI premise as bait to ask age-old questions about grief and family — and quietly needles the Japanese film industry for failing to develop its next generation, noting Fukada and Hamaguchi have flourished under French support rather than at home.
