I have to admit, I find a number of Naomi Kawase’s films repeating, too self-conscious and occasionally even pretentious, despite their more than evident visual prowess. “Radiance” however, achieves a rather unusual and also quite impressive accomplishment, of encompassing all the characteristics (both good and bad) that have shaped her career, including her own life experiences in cinema, and in the process becoming the quintessential Kawase film. As my friend Bastian Meiresonne mentioned, “An open manual on how to watch a Naomi Kawase movie, which is the most beautiful and the most pretentious thing an artist could do.”

Radiance is screening at Japan Cuts 2018

Misako is a young writer of audio description working for a company that produces soundtracks for visually impaired cinemagoers. Her work seems to be her passion, as, in the initially scenes, we watch her narrating everything that occurs in front of her eyes in a street she crosses.