Cannes 2025: Renoir movie review – Plan 75’s Chie Hayakawa considers amorality in Japan

4/5 stars

In Renoir, hardly anybody cries. Its eerily calm characters shed barely a tear even when caring for the dying, mourning the dead or struggling with their lifeless marriages.

Set in Japan in the 1980s and revolving around the life of a schoolgirl whose father lies dying in hospital from cancer, Renoir is an empathetic portrait of a child’s rite of passage in a society beset by very real moral dilemmas.

More importantly, Hayakawa offers a subtle, yet spot-on critique of the twisted social norms which would have made the inhuman scheme in Plan 75 a very distinct reality.

Premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Renoir is bolstered by Hayakawa’s sound screenplay and solid mise-en-scène, in which her characters’ frostiness is contrasted with the warm colour palettes of cluttered Japanese homes in summertime.