Look Back Review: Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Adaptation Draws Rich and Dazzling Textures

Hirokazu Koreeda has built an international career on delicate, humanist observations of children and family dynamics. With his Venice Film Festival competition entry, Look Back, the arthouse filmmaker turns his lens toward the world of manga creation for only the third time in his career, choosing a single-volume story created by Chainsaw Man mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto. While a faithful anime adaptation of the same material was released in 2024, Koreeda’s live-action version brings a distinct cinematic texture, soft colors, and a grounded, relational approach to the material.

Venice Film Festival Premiere and Production Background

The film debuted in competition at the Venice International Film Festival just three months after the director unveiled Sheep in the Box at Cannes. For Koreeda, the project emerged during a period of professional uncertainty. The book provided a light in the midst of a pandemic-necessitated slump when movie theaters had closed and the filmmaker felt as though his creative work was being negated by the external world.

Encountering the original manga pushed the director to reexamine his own artistic motivations. To convey my gratitude towards the person that wrote it, as an answer of sorts, I decided to make a film — because I am a filmmaker, Koreeda explained regarding his decision to adapt the story. Unlike Fujimoto’s action works, Look Back offered a scale and intimacy that felt manageable for live-action interpretation, prompting the director to carefully study the tactile sounds of drawing tools and the workflow of professional artists.

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Adapting Fujimoto’s Story of Rivalry and Artistry

The narrative centers on two elementary school students living in a small rural town whose lives intersect through drawing. Amusingly puffed up Fujino enjoys widespread praise for the four-panel strips she publishes in the school newspaper. Her confidence takes a severe hit, however, when her teacher decides to run artwork by Kyomoto, a reclusive classmate who suffers from extreme social anxiety and has stopped attending school.

“Kyomoto’s mangas make Fujino’s look kinda average.”

Classmate, via The Hollywood Reporter

Stung by the remark and driven by a sudden surge of fierce competition, Fujino studies art manuals with intense dedication. Despite her efforts, she eventually confronts the reality that Kyomoto possesses superior artistic talent, leading her to temporarily abandon her sketchpads in favor of regular childhood activities like karate and ice cream outings. The dynamic shifts entirely when Fujino graduates to middle school and visits her former rival’s home to deliver a diploma.

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From Elementary School Rivals to Professional Collaborators

That initial face-to-face meeting dispels all lingering resentment. Upon realizing that the visitor at her door is Fujino, Kyomoto rushes out of her room, stammering her admiration and addressing her former rival as Fujino-sensei. The two girls quickly become inseparable, sharing a bedroom workspace where Fujino handles character creation and Kyomoto builds out detailed background environments.

By the time they reach age 17, the duo secures a publishing deal with a young manga editor, releasing a string of successful one-shot stories under the shared nom de plume Kyo Fujino. But their partnership faces a sudden fracture when Kyomoto decides to attend art school in another town to build independence, generating sharp words and a painful separation between the friends.

Live-Action Style and Casting Choices

Koreeda collaborated with cinematographer Senzo Ueno to capture the essence of ink and paintbrush imagery through soft lighting and tactile textures, occasionally shifting into stylized animation when the narrative calls for it. To achieve authenticity in the drawing scenes, the production hired an instructor for the four young actors, assigning weekly homework to ensure their hand movements resembled those of real students attending an actual manga school.

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The cinematic adaptation also softens the characters compared to their illustrated counterparts. While Fujino appears brash and arrogant in the printed pages and the 2024 anime, live-action actor Furi Nanase portrays a quieter, more restrained competitor. Koreeda adjusted the internal monologues of the original source text into externalized dialogues and physical actions to maintain a naturalistic sense of reality.

The ensemble cast features Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada portraying the protagonists in their early school years, with Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita stepping in for the older versions of the characters as the narrative spans roughly a decade.