Renoir (2025) Movie Review: Esoteric & Memorable

Renoir 2025 Yui Suzuki — *Renoir* (2025) with Yui Suzuki.

Renoir (2025) movie review summary: Inspired by events in her own childhood, Chie Hayakawa’s surrealistic coming-of-age drama is both esoteric and memorable. Yui Suzuki stars as its deceptively easygoing central character. Also in the cast: Lily Franky and Hikari Ishida.

Renoir (2025) Movie Review: Chie Hayakawa’s unconventional coming-of-age drama is a welcome addition to the genre

Writer-director Chie Hayakawa’s exquisitely shot sophomore feature Renoir is neither about the painter nor his filmmaking son. Instead, this real-life-inspired, 1987 Tokyo-set drama follows a quirky, sensitive 11-year-old girl named Fuki (Yui Suzuki), as she copes with a terminally ill father (Lily Franky) and an over-taxed mother (Hikari Ishida), while encountering various adults who, dealing with their own issues, show little concern for the child.

Putting her own graceful, thoughtful stamp on the coming-of-age genre, Hayakawa reimagines her childhood through the eyes of her big-screen avatar, using a surrealistic approach to the narrative that crashes into what we perceive as reality. The end result are few answers, whether for the young protagonist or the audience. It’s life.

Renoir is also an introduction to grief, offering an unsentimental look at a child navigating both life and impending death on her own terms. For instance, Fuki is in a rush to grow up, even though she lacks the emotional maturity to process what’s happening around her, often ignoring others’ needs as children tend to do. Besides, the filmmaker makes it clear that the girl’s agreeable and placid demeanor masks her inner turmoil and the desire to simply make everything stop.

Fragments of the past

Chie Hayakawa’s unhurried pacing and fragmented storytelling – Renoir weaves Fuki’s daydreams and memories into the storyline – may not appeal to everyone. Still, her style is appropriate for a film that, like a memory from childhood, hinges on events that may never have happened. Or that may have happened exactly as they were seared into its protagonist’s youthful mind.

And thus Renoir ushers Hayakawa into the ranks of filmmakers – e.g., François Truffaut, Hayao Miyazaki, Federico Fellini – who’ve confronted their childhoods through film. As mentioned further up, Hayakawa does so in a manner that is gracefully and thoughtfully her own.

The Renoir connection

As for the film’s title, it does refer to impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (whose son was filmmaker Jean Renoir).

In the 1980s, various forms of “Western” art influenced Japanese artists, who then blended traditional local aesthetics with contemporary foreign techniques, creating a unique fusion that challenged cultural norms and artistic conventions both in Japan and abroad.

Hayakawa drew inspiration from how people back in those days displayed impressionist replicas, including those of Renoir’s artworks, to build a visual and narrative palette for her film.

Personal preoccupation

Lastly, let’s not forget Chie Hayakawa’s debut feature, Plan 75, which received a Special Mention in the 2022 Cannes Film Festival’s Caméra d’Or competition. Set in a near-future Japan where the government offers citizens aged 75 and up free euthanasia, Plan 75 centers on an older woman (Chieko Baisho) as she slowly comes to terms with her mortality.

Superficially, Renoir and Plan 75 are focused on very different characters and circumstances. Yet both titles have at their core a key preoccupation of the filmmaker: The inevitability of death.

Renoir (2025) cast & crew
Original Title: Runowaru
Direction & Screenplay: Chie Hayakawa
Cast:
Yui Suzuki … Fuki Okita
Lily Franky … Keiji Okita, Fuki’s Father
Hikari Ishida … Utako Okita, Fuki’s Mother
Yumi Kawai … Kuriko Kita
Ayumu Nakajima … Toru Omaezaki
Ryota Bando … Kaoru Hamano
Keiko Morikawa … Aya Hamano
Jeffrey Rowe … Jerry the Mentalist
Cinematography: Hideho Urata
Film Editing: Anne Klotz
Music: Rémi Boubal
Production Design: Keiko Mitsumatsu
Producers: Keisuke Konishi, Eiko Mizuno Gray, Jason Gray, Christophe Bruncher & Fran Borgia
Running Time: 116m
Countries: Japan | France | Singapore | The Philippines | Indonesia