Wim Wenders’ Japan-Set Good Days Has Patrons Circling in Cannes

Wim Wenders’ “Good Days” is a scorching property in Cannes, and it’s but to even premiere.

A number of patrons are at present circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from grasp filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competitors on Thursday. Sources inform Selection that events to date embody Utopia, MUBI, Magnolia, Sideshow and Janus Movies and Sony Footage Classics.

Wenders’ “Good Days” follows Tokyo rest room cleaner Hirayama, who appears content material together with his easy life. Exterior of his on a regular basis routine, he enjoys his ardour for books and, particularly, for music. Over the course of the movie, a sequence of sudden encounters progressively reveal extra of his previous.

“Memoirs of a Geisha” star Koji Yakusho — whom some critics have tipped as a contender for Cannes’ greatest actor prize on Saturday — leads the forged as Hirayama. He additionally co-starred in “Babel,” a movie that was honored by the Cannes Movie Competition and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.

Wenders, who can also be at Cannes with a documentary on German artist Anselm Kiefer, beforehand revealed that “Good Days” makes use of solely supply music to convey Hirayama’s favourite songs. The title “Good Days” is itself a reference to the basic Lou Reed tune “Good Day,” and it’s understood the movie options songs by the likes of Van Morrison, Otis Redding and Patti Smith.

Given the pic’s musical bent, a U.S. frontrunner may emerge in Utopia, which has been carving out a reputation for itself in music-centric films, and could also be a superb match. The distributor, arrange by filmmaker and musician Robert Schwartzman, purchased rock doc “Meet Me within the Lavatory” final 12 months, and is at present in submit on a movie about British Invasion band “The Zombies.”

One other robust chief is indie distributor and streamer MUBI, which in early 2022 purchased The Match Manufacturing unit, the German gross sales agent purchasing the movie, although the 2 corporations have at all times claimed a church-and-state arrange. Sony Footage Classics additionally has latest kind for edgy tales set in Asia — the corporate purchased Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” final 12 months forward of its Cannes world premiere.

Selection understands that Match Manufacturing unit, which is promoting the movie, warned potential patrons early on that the gross sales course of may take time. The film has Japanese financiers (producers embody Tokyo’s Grasp Thoughts and Spoon, alongside Wenders Pictures) which have requested detailed distribution shows from patrons forward of constructing any selections.

The gross sales market is lastly heating up in Cannes, the place it’s been deathly quiet all week — Netflix swooped for Todd Haynes’ buzzy “Could December” for $11 million, whereas Neon picked up French director Justine Triet’s Hitchcockian courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall.” It’s clear that patrons are being further cautious resulting from making an attempt financial circumstances. A sluggish U.S. specialty market can also be prompting extra vigilance across the sorts of flicks which can be acquired, with patrons looking out for titles with built-in hooks, conceits or star energy that may translate on the massive display screen.

Wenders’ worldwide breakthrough got here with “The American Good friend” (1977), an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel. Since then, he has been honored with numerous awards at festivals around the globe, together with the Golden Lion at Venice for “The State of Issues” (1982); the Palme d’Or at Cannes and a BAFTA for “Paris, Texas” (1984); the director’s prize in Cannes for “Wings of Want” (1987); and the Silver Bear for “The Million Greenback Lodge” (2000) at Berlin.

His documentary movies “Buena Vista Social Membership” (1999), “Pina” (2011), and “The Salt of the Earth” (2014) have all been nominated for an Oscar.