Japanese Drifter’s Road Trip to Korea Drives Uchiyama Takuya’s ‘The Blue Breaks’ at Tokyo Gap-Financing Market

A man conceived through sperm donation, unsure of his place in the world, sets out on a journey to Korea in “The Blue Breaks,” an adaptation of Machiya Ryohei’s 2016 novel by Japanese filmmaker Uchiyama Takuya (“Numb”). The Japan-Italy co-production was among the projects at this year’s Tokyo Gap-Financing Market.

The protagonist, Shukichi, is a rootless part-time worker in his thirties living at Japan’s western edge. His sense of detachment grows when he discovers that his girlfriend, with whom he lives, has a son she no longer has custody of. A night spent with a solitary boxer of Korean descent then throws his sense of identity and sexuality into further confusion.

He later meets Toko, a young woman who is terminally ill but carries herself lightly, smoking and smiling despite the little time she has left. Her outlook gradually leaves its mark on him. Eventually Shukichi and the people around him travel to Korea together, where they reckon with one another’s lives and deaths.

Uchiyama, who has previously written his own screenplays from personal experience, said he felt drawn to the book in part because it was published in the year he started making films, and because Machiya wrote it at the age Uchiyama is now.

“Shukichi, the protagonist, struggles with the part of himself that never quite became ‘manly.’ I’ve also spent much of my life feeling uncomfortable with what society expects a man to be,” Uchiyama said.

He described the characters as people whose lives look very different from one another’s, and said Japan still expects everyone to be alike.

“Diversity isn’t something new. It’s always been there, even if we haven’t always acknowledged it,” Uchiyama said. “I wanted to approach these feelings with a sense of lightness, and to make a film about love that is unapologetically romantic.”

Japanese producer Satoh Naomi of Differentia is behind the project, with Parsifal Reparato of Italian company Antropica as co-producer. The team is working on the screenplay, casting and financing, with a shoot planned for 2027 and completion in 2028, and is targeting a premiere at an international festival.

Satoh said the two connected over a shared sense of not fitting the roles expected of them, whether in society at large or within the film business, and that films that resist categories can be hard to finance in Japan.

“When ‘Numb’ was selected for the Berlinale, it gave me real proof that Takuya’s work could resonate with audiences beyond Japan,” Satoh said.

In Tokyo, the producers made headway on the remaining financing and find international co-production partners, sales agents and distributors who could take the film beyond Japan and Italy.

Reparato said the film’s appeal lies in how it rethinks family and identity, and that Antropica, which has been active in Asia for years, including in Vietnam, sees the project as a way to deepen ties with Japanese cinema, helped by Italy and Japan’s bilateral co-production framework.

“At this historical moment, building bridges is more important than ever,” Reparato said.

Uchiyama has also wrapped shooting on a separate project, which is now moving into editing.

The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market ran as part of TIFFCOM, the content market attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival.