Ishikawa Hiroshi Returns With His First Feature in 13 Years
Ishikawa Hiroshi, whose credits include “Tokyo.sora,” “Su-ki-da.” and “Petal Dance,” is back with his first feature in 13 years. The new film is “the blue we touch” (original title “Awo no Jo”), now in post-production for a 2027 release in Japan by Bitters End, which unveiled the project ahead of the Tokyo International Film Festival’s TIFFCOM market.
It is an ensemble drama centred on a pair of former friends, tracing what the film’s description calls the hard-to-name feelings that pass between people.
Ishikawa wrote, directed and edited it himself, having won awards as a commercials director before moving into features with “Tokyo.sora” in 2002; his work is known for its careful handling of colour and its feel for the mood of ordinary days.
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The casting detail worth stealing is Nao as Mitsu, 29, who does contract web design and wants a permanent job along with a chance to make work that connects with an audience — a specific, unglamorous predicament, which is exactly the register Ishikawa’s reputation trades in.
“Hard-to-name feelings” is a lovely brief and a risky one: it can be a delicate drama of glances, or two hours of adults declining to say the obvious thing. The difference is entirely in the execution, not the description.