With his highly perceptive attention to character, director Kôji Fukada creates an explosive family drama with Harmonium, capturing the collapse of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family. Life for Toshio (Kanji Furutachi), his wife Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and their young daughter Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa) is interrupted when Toshio hires the mysterious Mr. Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano), an old acquaintance who has just been released from prison. Harmonium captivated critics and audiences alike during the 69th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.

“A deserving winner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Koji Fukada’s meticulous slow-burn thriller is an impressive feat of screenwriting, directing, and acting….Not many filmmakers would be able to pull off Fukada’s bolder cinematic conceits (a symbolic use of the color red, an unexpected leap-forward in time, an abrupt and daringly ambiguous ending) but every such decision seems pressed to the service of illustrating a karmic cycle of crime, punishment, and redemption that feels firmly rooted in believable character psychology and a realistic social milieu. This haunting film is one of the great Japanese exports of recent years.” – Michael Gloversmith, White City Cinema