Masayume
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Theatrical Screenings
Kinomuzeum
Kinomuzeum
Online Availability
Additional Materials
Film description
Following the death of her mother and her own experience of illness, director and choreographer Nao Yoshigai withdraws from everyday life to a Zen temple, seeking to regain her balance amid psychological crisis and grief. Turning the camera on herself, she records the most fundamental human activities: eating, sleeping, breathing and meditating. As she tunes into the rhythm of her own body, the first signs of healing begin to emerge – clarity and a sense of release gradually return to body and mind, even as life around her carries on as normal.
Yoshigai first experienced the Buddhist retreat herself, then returned with a camera to recreate what she had experienced on her spiritual journey. The result is Masayume – a Japanese title meaning “a dream that comes true in reality”. Indeed, Masayume resembles a dream rendered in a vlog-like aesthetic. Blending documentary and fiction, Yoshigai creates a singular stream of consciousness that moves seamlessly between observations of everyday life, home videos and photography, playful animation and performance art. In doing so, the director finds her own form for the process of healing: a deeply personal, intermedial choreography of image, body and memory.
text:
Łukasz Mańkowski
Nao Yoshigai
Born in 1987, Japanese filmmaker, dancer and choreographer. She studied dance at Japan Women’s College of Physical Education and filmmaking at Tokyo University of the Arts. Her work explores corporeality and the sensory perception of the body, bringing cinema together with dance and performance art. She also directs music videos and works as an actress. Her documentaries have been screened at festivals in Rotterdam and Cannes. Her feature-length debut, Masayume (screened at the 20th edition of Five Flavours), premiered in the Forum section of the Berlin International Film Festival.
2015 hottamaru・days (kr. m.)
2017 Breathing House (kr. dokument)
2018 Stories floating on the wind (kr. dokument)
2018 The Pear and the Fang (kr. m.)
2018 Grand Bouquet (kr. m.)
2021 Shari (dokument)
2026 Masayume (dokument hybrydowy)
Festival guests
Nao Yoshigai
film director


