"A Growing Sense of Freedom": Sho Miyake on Two Seasons, Two Strangers

Two Seasons, Two Strangers is a diptych adaptation of two Yoshiharu Tsuge stories, “A View of the Seaside” and “Mister Ben of the Igloo.” The film is realized through the eyes of screenwriter Li, first shown trying to write before the narrative shifts into her movie. Her film follows two young people whose lives intersect at an island resort. Near the climax, the story cuts to a classroom where Li and the director conduct a Q&A. Li struggles with her writing, leaves for travel inspiration, and heads to a snowy town with little planning and high expectations. She ends up at a dilapidated inn run by the brusque Benzo.

"Two Seasons, Two Strangers—which won the Golden Leopard at last year's Locarno Film Festival, and more recently played Lincoln Center and MoMA's New Directors/New Films—is a diptych adaptation of two stories by cult manga figure Yoshiharu Tsuge, “A View of the Seaside” and “Mister Ben of the Igloo.” Miyake realizes these works through the eyes of screenwriter Li (Shim Eun-kyung), whom we first see trying to put pen to paper before we slip into the world of her movie, which follows two young people as their lives intersect at an island resort."

"Right as the film climaxes, we cut to a classroom, where Li and the film's director conduct a Q&A. Struggling with her writing, Li departs for her own travel inspiration, heading for a snowy town with little planning and high expectations and winding up at a dilapidated inn run by the brusque Benzo (Shinichi Tsutsumi)."

"With a delicate mise-en-scène, at once recalling Tsuge's comics as well as the singular staging of Ozu, Miyake elegantly crafts a breezy film to watch that is endl"

Read at Filmmaker Magazine