Hirokazu Kore-eda Reveals Why He Made Look Back

Hirokazu Kore-eda has brought a deeply personal connection to his latest film, Look Back, to the 2026 Venice Film Festival, where the live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed manga is competing for the Golden Lion.

The Japanese filmmaker is best known for intimate stories about family, childhood, friendship and the complicated ways people form emotional bonds. With Look Back, however, Kore-eda enters the world of manga through a story that combines artistic ambition with friendship, grief and the lasting power of creative work.

The film marks a significant step for the director. It is the first live-action adaptation of one of Fujimoto’s works and follows the successful 2024 animated version of Look Back. Reuters reported that Kore-eda discovered Fujimoto’s manga during the COVID-19 pandemic and was moved by its emotional intensity. RReuters

Rather than treating the material simply as another adaptation, Kore-eda approached the project as an opportunity to express his gratitude to the manga’s creator.

Hirokazu Kore-eda Found Inspiration in Look Back

Kore-eda’s connection with Look Back began when he encountered Fujimoto’s 2021 one-shot manga.

The story follows two young girls, Ayumu Fujino and Kyomoto, who are brought together through their shared passion for drawing manga. Their relationship begins with a mixture of rivalry and admiration before developing into a profound friendship.

As the girls grow older, their creative journeys change. Their ambitions, personal circumstances and emotional experiences gradually reshape the relationship that began through drawing.

For Kore-eda, that combination of creativity and human connection proved especially powerful.

The director has explained that when he met Fujimoto, one of his first impulses was to thank him for creating the manga. He eventually realized that filmmaking was the most natural way for him to express that gratitude. RReuters

That decision resulted in one of the more intriguing films in Venice’s 2026 competition.

Why Hirokazu Kore-eda Chose a Manga Adaptation

At first glance, Look Back may appear to be an unusual project for Kore-eda.

His reputation was built largely through original dramas that observe ordinary people and complicated relationships with remarkable patience. Films such as Shoplifters, Nobody Knows and Like Father, Like Son have established him as one of contemporary Japanese cinema’s most important humanist filmmakers.

Yet the emotional foundation of Look Back is familiar territory.

The film is ultimately about people discovering one another through a shared experience. Manga becomes the language through which Fujino and Kyomoto communicate, compete and eventually understand each other.

That makes the adaptation particularly compatible with Kore-eda’s filmmaking philosophy.

Rather than relying only on the spectacle associated with manga adaptations, he focuses on the emotional life underneath the drawings.

The result is a story about creativity that is also a story about connection.

Look Back Explores Friendship Through Art

At the center of the film are Fujino and Kyomoto.

Fujino is confident, outgoing and proud of her ability to draw. Kyomoto, by contrast, is more isolated but possesses exceptional artistic talent.

Their differences initially create tension.

Fujino is forced to confront the fact that another young artist may possess abilities that challenge her own sense of superiority. Instead of destroying their relationship, that tension eventually becomes part of what drives both characters forward.

Together, they discover that creating manga can be more than an individual pursuit.

It can become a way of communicating.

It can also become a way of processing difficult emotions.

This is where Kore-eda’s sensibilities become particularly apparent. The director has repeatedly explored how relationships can transform people without necessarily following conventional dramatic structures.

Look Back gives him another opportunity to examine that process.

The Sound of Drawing Became Important to Kore-eda

One of the most distinctive ideas Kore-eda brought to the film concerns something surprisingly simple: the sound of a pen.

The filmmaker told reporters in Venice that he became fascinated by how the sound of drawing changes as an artist develops. Early, uncertain marks gradually become more confident. Eventually, traditional drawing gives way to digital tools and a different kind of sound. RReuters

That detail became a metaphor for the characters’ development.

At the beginning, drawing reflects uncertainty.

As Fujino and Kyomoto grow, their movements become more confident. Their relationship with their craft changes alongside their relationship with each other.

The sound design therefore becomes part of the storytelling.

Instead of treating manga purely as something to be photographed or recreated visually, Kore-eda uses the physical process of making it to communicate the passage of time.

That approach gives the live-action film its own cinematic identity.

The Young Actors Had to Learn Manga Drawing

The performers also faced an unusual challenge before filming began.

Natsuki Deguchi, Aju Makita, Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada all had to spend months learning how to draw manga.

That preparation was important because the characters’ artistic abilities are not simply background details. Drawing is central to their identities and to the story itself.

Nanase, who portrays the younger Fujino, described manga drawing as one of the hardest aspects of the production. She said the experience made her realize how difficult the process of creating manga actually is. RReuters

Some of the artwork created by the actors was ultimately incorporated into the finished movie.

That decision adds another layer of authenticity to the production.

The actors were not merely pretending to draw. They had to understand the physical discipline involved in producing manga and make the movements believable on screen.

Hirokazu Kore-eda Brings a Humanist Touch to Manga

Kore-eda has long been associated with stories about people who are connected by circumstances rather than conventional family structures.

That interest carries naturally into Look Back.

Fujino and Kyomoto are not simply friends. They become collaborators, competitors and emotional anchors for one another.

Their relationship changes as they mature, and the film uses their creative partnership to examine how people influence each other’s lives.

That focus is one reason the project has attracted attention at Venice.

Reuters described Look Back as a story of friendship, ambition and loss, noting that the film follows the girls from their school years toward adulthood. RReuters

The story’s emotional trajectory is therefore broader than the world of manga.

It asks what happens when a relationship changes the course of someone’s creative life.

Look Back Is Competing at Venice 2026

The film arrived at a particularly important stage of Kore-eda’s career.

Look Back is competing in the main competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, alongside films from major international filmmakers. Reuters reported that 21 films are competing for the festival’s Golden Lion. RReuters+1

The 2026 Venice lineup includes filmmakers such as Werner Herzog, Martin McDonagh, Lee Chang-dong and Nanni Moretti, placing Kore-eda’s adaptation within a highly competitive international field.

Venice remains one of the world’s most influential film festivals, particularly for films seeking critical attention and awards-season momentum.

The festival’s 2026 edition runs through September 12, with Maggie Gyllenhaal serving as president of the main competition jury. RReuters

For Look Back, the festival premiere provides an important opportunity to introduce Kore-eda’s interpretation of Fujimoto’s material to an international audience.

The Film Follows a Successful Anime Adaptation

Kore-eda’s movie is not the first screen version of Look Back.

Fujimoto’s manga was previously adapted into an animated feature in 2024. That version introduced the story to a much wider audience and helped establish Look Back as one of the creator’s most emotionally powerful works.

The live-action film therefore faces a unique challenge.

Many viewers already know the story.

Some will also arrive with strong expectations based on the anime.

Kore-eda has chosen not to radically reinvent the material. Instead, reporting from Venice indicates that the film remains closely connected to Fujimoto’s original story while using live-action performances and cinematic techniques to explore its emotional world. VVulture

That faithfulness may ultimately be one of the film’s greatest strengths.

Rather than competing directly with animation, the live-action version can concentrate on elements that become especially powerful when performed by human actors.

Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Story Fits Kore-eda’s Cinema

Fujimoto is best known internationally as the creator of Chainsaw Man, a manga franchise recognized for its unusual combination of action, horror, humor and emotional vulnerability.

Look Back represents a much smaller and more intimate story.

There are no elaborate supernatural battles at its center.

Instead, the drama comes from two young people trying to understand their abilities, their ambitions and each other.

That simplicity appears to have been a major attraction for Kore-eda.

The filmmaker has said that he felt the emotional force of Fujimoto’s work when he first read it. The experience came during the pandemic, a period when many people were confronting isolation and uncertainty. RReuters

The themes of Look Back consequently carry an additional resonance.

The story is about finding another person through creativity at a time when the outside world can feel distant.

A Changing View of Manga

Kore-eda has also reflected on how attitudes toward manga have changed in Japan.

For generations, manga was sometimes dismissed as entertainment primarily associated with children. That perception has shifted dramatically.

Today, manga is a major cultural and commercial force in Japan and has become increasingly influential around the world.

Its stories have inspired animated films, television series, live-action movies and international franchises.

Kore-eda sees this evolution as significant.

He has suggested that manga can now be approached with the same seriousness once reserved for more traditional literary forms. RReuters

That changing cultural status makes his decision to adapt Fujimoto particularly interesting.

One of Japan’s most acclaimed auteurs is taking a manga story and treating its artistic process as serious cinematic material.

Look Back Continues Kore-eda’s Exploration of Young People

Although Look Back is different from many of Kore-eda’s previous films in form, it continues one of his most recognizable interests: young people trying to understand the world around them.

From Nobody Knows to Monster, Kore-eda has repeatedly approached childhood and adolescence without reducing young characters to simple symbols.

His films often allow children to possess complicated emotions, contradictions and independent perspectives.

Look Back gives him another opportunity to work from that viewpoint.

Fujino and Kyomoto are ambitious but vulnerable. They are talented but uncertain. Their friendship can be supportive and competitive at the same time.

Those contradictions are what make their relationship feel human.

What Makes Look Back Different

The biggest difference is the role of artistic creation.

In many coming-of-age stories, a character’s talent exists primarily to establish personality.

In Look Back, creating art is itself part of the narrative.

The audience watches the characters draw, improve and experiment.

Their changing techniques become visible evidence of time passing.

The film can therefore tell its story through gestures and sounds as much as dialogue.

That approach is especially suited to Kore-eda’s understated style.

Instead of constantly explaining what the characters feel, the film can allow viewers to observe how their behavior changes.

A drawing can communicate jealousy.

A completed page can represent achievement.

A blank sheet can suggest uncertainty.

The creative process becomes a form of dialogue.

Why Look Back Matters for Kore-eda

The project represents more than a genre experiment.

It demonstrates that Kore-eda is willing to continue changing his approach while maintaining the emotional interests that have defined his career.

Earlier in 2026, he presented Sheep in the Box at Cannes, another project that moved into unfamiliar territory by examining technology, grief and the possibility of artificial beings replacing lost loved ones. Venice now offers a second major festival appearance for the director in the same year. FFolha de S.Paulo

That makes 2026 an unusually active period for Kore-eda.

With Look Back, he returns to a smaller-scale emotional story while working from an established manga property.

The combination could broaden his audience without sacrificing his distinctive perspective.

The Future of Look Back

Following its Venice premiere, attention will turn to the film’s wider release.

The movie is expected to introduce Fujimoto’s story to viewers who may never have encountered the manga or its previous animated adaptation.

For existing fans, the question will be whether Kore-eda’s live-action interpretation adds something meaningful to a story they already know.

Early reactions suggest that the answer may be yes.

The film has been praised for its visual approach, its treatment of friendship and its attention to the physical process of drawing. Other critics have noted that its more abstract elements may divide audiences. VVulture+1

That mixture of familiarity and experimentation could make Look Back one of the more interesting titles in Venice’s 2026 competition.

Hirokazu Kore-eda Looks Back Through a New Lens

Ultimately, Look Back is a natural extension of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s fascination with human relationships.

The setting may be the world of manga, but the central questions are universal.

How does another person change our ambitions?

What happens when friendship becomes intertwined with creative identity?

And how can art preserve something that would otherwise disappear?

Kore-eda found those questions in Fujimoto’s manga and chose to translate them into cinema.

His decision has produced a film that connects two major Japanese artistic traditions: the intimate humanist drama and modern manga storytelling.

At Venice, Look Back now stands as both an adaptation and a statement about the continuing possibilities of Japanese cinema.

For Kore-eda, the project began with a simple feeling of gratitude toward a story that moved him.

It has ended with a film that asks audiences to consider why people create art in the first place — and what remains after the people who created it are gone.

That may be the most powerful idea at the heart of Look Back.

Suggested External Links

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• The Hollywood Reporter — source interview
• Reuters — Hirokazu Kore-eda brings Look Back to Venice
• Reuters — Venice Film Festival 2026 preview

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