Grief Drama Targets Tokyo Financing Market

“Yellow Chrysanthemum” is among the projects seeking funds at the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market. The film is the first feature from director André Hayato Saito, who is Japanese-Brazilian. It is set in São Paulo in July 2014. The World Cup was taking place in Brazil during that month.

The story follows Erika, a 16-year-old third-generation Japanese-Brazilian. She feels like an outsider in her country of birth. Erika rejects her family’s cultural roots. This attitude stems from an incident when she was seven years old. Her cousin Yam, who was her closest friend, vanished during a festival in the Liberdade neighborhood. Erika’s mother was supervising the children at the time. The family has maintained a guilty silence about the disappearance ever since.

A friendship with Bianca, a Black classmate, disrupts this silence. Bianca is mourning the recent death of her mother. She expresses her grief openly. As the two girls grow closer, Erika’s family can no longer avoid addressing Yam’s absence. The film is a co-production involving Brazil, Japan, Germany, and France. It is currently in pre-production after several years of development.

Saito drew on his own experiences growing up in a Japanese-Brazilian household. He noted that silence in his family often expressed love and respect. It also hid pain. He described the feature as a continuation of his short films, which dealt with grief, memory, and identity. One short, “Amarela,” followed a similar character named Erika. It competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2024. It was also shortlisted for an Oscar and won best live-action short at the Grande Otelo Awards.

The project won the TorinoFilmLab Production Award. It was also selected for Focus Copro at Cannes. The team plans to film a key sequence in November. This sequence will take place during a traditional Japanese Toro Nagashi ceremony in Brazil. Producer Mayra Faour Auad is the founder of MyMama Entertainment. She has more than 20 production credits, most of them international co-productions.

MyMama is developing the film with One Two Films, Loaded Films, and Blue Monday. Faour Auad stated that the team wants to close the financing gap. They also aim to connect with producers and distributors in Asia. Given the film’s roots, finding an audience in Japan has particular meaning for the team. The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market runs as part of TIFFCOM, which is attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Saito is also developing a second feature called “Little Faults.” This project earned a spot in Turin’s Boost IT Lab this year. The protagonist is an aging Japanese-Brazilian woman living in Japan. She begins committing minor offenses in the hope of going to prison. She believes she will be cared for and feel a sense of belonging in that environment.