Japanese writer-director Miyake Sho‘s “Two Seasons, Two Strangers” is currently screening in competition at the Busan International Film Festival, following his Locarno Golden Leopard win, offering audiences an adaptation that weaves together two separate manga by legendary artist Tsuge Yoshiharu.
Drawing from Tsuge’s 1967 and 1968 short stories, the film follows a screenwriter named Lee (played by Korean actress Shim Eun-kyung) as she embarks on contrasting seasonal journeys — a summer encounter at a seaside town and a winter retreat to a remote mountain lodge.
“One day the image came to me, as if it were a poster with summer and winter landscapes placed side by side,” Miyake tells Variety. “By presenting two contrasting seasons, I felt that our senses could be refreshed, unexpected surprises might emerge, and together they could create a richer cinematic experience.”
The project, which began development in 2020 during the pandemic, emerged from the director’s own desire to travel. However, Miyake initially struggled with adapting Tsuge’s manga aesthetic. “The more I read Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga, the more I felt its expression was so refined that I doubted whether I could approach the essence of cinematic expression in the same way,” he admits.
The breakthrough came when Miyake decided to cast Shim Eun-kyung and reimagine the central character as a screenwriter. “When Sim Eun-kyung speaks in Japanese and when she speaks in her native language, she appears to me as slightly different people,” the director notes. “In each language, a subtle new facet of her seems to emerge. I wanted to capture both.”
This linguistic duality reflects the film’s broader themes of displacement and creative struggle. Like the protagonist Lee, Miyake describes himself as someone who doesn’t feel “particularly skilled at creating stories entirely from nothing,” preferring instead to adapt existing material through critical engagement.
The production’s ambitious scope required extensive location scouting. For the summer sequences, originally set in Chiba in Tsuge’s manga, Miyake selected Kozushima island for its timeless cliffs. The winter scenes were filmed in Yamagata’s Shonai region using an open studio, allowing the crew to “capture the uncontrollable aspects of nature while ensuring crew safety.”
Working again with longtime cinematographer Tsukinaga Yuta, Miyake aimed to create “an experience” rather than deliver a specific message. “What each audience member feels on this cinematic journey is left open to their own sensibilities,” he says. “I hope that before and after watching the film, viewers’ perception — the way they see and hear the world — might change.”
The film also features veteran actor Tsutsumi Shinichi, whose character delivers a key line about balancing comedy and sadness in storytelling. “It’s not enjoyable if it’s all comedy,” the character observes. “I think a good work is how well it depicts human sadness.”
“In practice, I focus more on the comedic aspects — capturing humor and a sense of happiness,” he adds, comparing his approach to Nina Simone’s song “O-o-h Child” — “a brightness that seems to embrace human sadness.”
Looking ahead, the director cites Aoyama Shinji as a key influence, particularly admiring his “sincere and dedicated approach to the history of cinema.” While Miyake remains uncertain about his personal mission as a filmmaker, he’s clear about cinema’s role: “I don’t know if there is a mission only I can fulfill, but I do believe there is a mission that only cinema can fulfill. I want to pursue that.”
The filmmaker is currently developing his next project, which he describes as tackling “a subject that I haven’t really addressed directly before.” He offers one piece of advice for aspiring filmmakers: “Keep thinking about what cannot or should not be done in film, and from there, explore what can be done. Also, never forget that film is a collaborative art.”