As night falls over the small town of Toyama, Japan, a man goes to the public bath to retrieve a forgotten item, but upon finding a valid entrance ticket, he decides to go in. With Oyu, writer/director Atsushi Hirai sensitively crafts a slow-burn film that surprises with its emotional potency.

A deeply effective yet incredibly subtle film, Oyu relies on minimal dialogue, allowing its visual language and lead performance to carry the emotional layers of the film to the screen. DP Benoit Pain’s cinematography is impressively immersive, inviting us inside the bathhouse, and moving around as if we were among its clients. Not only does it paint an accurate picture of its setting, with Hirai and editor Jehan Folqué unafraid to slow the pacing of the film, it also conveys the peaceful energy of the location. Paired with the bathhouse’s quiet stillness the film plunges us into a sense of serenity, without us even noticing it.

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After premiering at Cannes, Oyu went on to be screened at festivals worldwide.[/caption]

Despite the serene nature of Oyu, a certain melancholy is palpable through the screen. As the film remains very subtle and scarce in the backstory it gives us, it prompts the audience to project their own interpretations onto the protagonist’s experience, focusing on the emotional journey of the character rather than a factual one. The mundanity of his moves feels loaded with unspoken meaning, but that almost ritual-like experience also connects both him and us to something larger, enhancing the importance of the scene.

In the lead role, Okihiko Yoshizawa delivers a breathtakingly raw and powerful performance. He bears the grief of his character with captivating subtlety and depth, never forcing any emotions on the audience but allowing them to surface naturally. From his facial expressions, to the way he moves and touches things, his pain comes through gradually and builds the emotional tension of the film. The result is deeply moving, bringing some, or I should say most, of us to tears.

“I felt a profound sense of connection to others - even in solitude”

Discussing the inspiration for Oyu, Hirai shared with us that it came from the Japanese public bathhouse, Sentō. As like in many communal places, it brings people from different backgrounds, with different stories, together under one roof. “I felt a profound sense of connection to others - even in solitude”, the filmmaker revealed, adding, “that feeling was what I wanted to capture in this film”. A regular at Sentō, Hirai once randomly met an old acquaintance who had come to the bathhouse after finding a valid entrance ticket in his late mother’s belongings. That encounter became the factual core of Oyu's narrative, with the director admitting “that moment deeply moved me, and I felt compelled to turn that emotion into a film”.

Following its World Premiere at the 2023 edition of the Cannes Director’s Fortnight, Oyu went on to be selected at festivals all over the world, earning multiple awards at events such as Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Winterthur, and Palm Springs. Hirai is currently working on a new sci-fi project, still in its early stages of development, he is still unsure whether it will be a short or a feature.