Kawai Yumi met director Yamanaka Yoko during her high school years and handed her a letter saying, "To become an actress, please include me in your casting list someday." Six years later, the two met as director and lead actress in the film <Namibia's Desert> and stood together on the Cannes Film Festival stage. Their first collaborative film <Namibia's Desert> was invited to the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Directors' Fortnight and achieved the feat of winning the International Federation of Film Critics Award.
Just seven years ago, Kawai Yumi was an aspiring actress, and now she is literally a hot actress in Japan. Counting only the works released in Japan this year, there are four films, including <Renoir> set to be released in June. In Korea, after making an impression with the film <It's a Summer Film!>, she has consistently met Korean audiences with <Plan 75>, <Look Back>, <The Girl Doesn't Graduate>, and the current work <Namibia's Desert>. So far, Kawai Yumi has captured various faces of youth in her films. We looked into Kawai Yumi's characters.
<It's a Summer Film!>(2021)
Under the dazzling midsummer sun, the girls capture their dreams on camera. <It's a Summer Film!> follows the protagonist Barefoot (Ito Marika), who is obsessed with period dramas, as she makes her own samurai film with her best friends Kickboard (Kawai Yumi), Blue Hawaii (Inori Kirara), and the mysterious boy Rintaro (Kaneko Daichi). In this work, Kawai Yumi plays the character Kickboard, a reliable supporter of the protagonist Barefoot. She is quiet and shy, but acts with more responsibility than anyone else for her friend's dream. Kawai Yumi, selected through an audition, brought fresh energy to the film, enhancing the youthful freshness and adding charm to the movie.
<Look Back>(2023)
In terms of being a story about youth struggling to achieve deeply held dreams, <Look Back> is similar to <It's a Summer Film!>. In this movie, Kawai Yumi takes on the role of Barefoot from <It's a Summer Film!>. She plays the role of Fujino, a girl who dreams of becoming a manga artist and has absolute confidence in her talent. Fujino meets Kyomoto, a classmate who refuses to attend school and is a reclusive manga artist, and experiences jealousy, admiration, and the sorrow of loss in their shared dream. The story of the two girls growing while looking at each other's 'backs' at their desks is delicately and sometimes intensely captured with faint pencil lines. Based on the manga of the same name by Fujimoto Tatsuki, <Look Back> is also the first work where Kawai Yumi challenged herself with voice acting. Immersed in the various emotions Fujino encounters during her growth process, she even shed tears during recording.
<Namibia's Desert>(2024)
The origin of the name Namibia Desert, which is also the title of the film, is 'Nama', meaning a place of nothingness. The Namibia Desert, reminiscent of absolute loneliness, serves as a metaphor embodying the main character Kana's inner landscape. The film <Namibia's Desert> follows the precariously wavering daily life of Kana, a woman in her twenties who does not know what she wants in life. In this work, Kawai Yumi vividly expresses the emotional trajectory of a character that unpredictably changes, completely breaking away from the stereotypical emotional expressions often seen in youth films.
Kawai Yumi's Kana appears cool on the outside but harbors deep anxiety and deficiency within. She easily feels ennui with a lover she believes understands her and expresses unstable emotions and nervous anger in new romantic relationships. Kana's emotions erupt suddenly, and even she does not know the cause. Watching the 24-hour streaming video of the Namibia Desert repeatedly, Kana wanders as if searching for an oasis in a barren desert. Kawai Yumi densely portrays the chaos of a character who cannot find direction in the two important axes of life: work and love. Her desolate face captures the portrait of today's young generation living a life filled with deficiency and emptiness. Kawai Yumi won the Best Actress Award at the Japan Academy Awards for <Namibia's Desert>.
