Two Seasons, Two Strangers

Directed and written by Shō Miyake, Two Seasons, Two Strangers won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. As the name suggests, the film is about two strangers meeting during two different seasons. In the first meeting, two wistful young people meet at the seaside in the rain and have quiet conversations about life. In the second part, a writer meets a lighthouse keeper in a snowy dale, where they are brought together by loneliness as they join forces for a trip to a pond.

In between the meetings Miyake and team reveal their cards. As the film rises from the top of the sea all the way to the edge of a cloud, you know you are in good hands.

Two Seasons, Two Strangers is an incredibly kind movie, but the kindness doesn’t spill out until the credits start rolling. It is an anti-drama that avoids conflict and understands the nature of shyness, a film that you want to sink into. At the same time it is a slow-burning adventure film for fans of Kelly Reichardt and Hong Sang-soo. The movie is calm but ambitious, like a relaxed trip home while someone you trust is driving. This one is for the (cine)romantics.

What the characters of the film don’t know but Miyake does and you are about to: you can only catch the carp by emptying the pond.

Jimi Rosling (translated by Johanna Järvinen)