$0 Left to Fund 'Yellow Chrysanthemum' at Tokyo Market

The Tokyo Gap-Financing Market is currently hosting a slate of projects seeking final investment to complete production budgets.

Among the featured titles is 'Yellow Chrysanthemum,' the debut feature from Japanese-Brazilian director André Hayato Saito.

The film is set in São Paulo during July 2014, the month Brazil hosted the World Cup.

The narrative centers on Erika, a 16-year-old third-generation Japanese-Brazilian who views herself as an outsider in her own country and rejects her family’s cultural heritage.

This rejection stems from an incident in 2005, when Erika was seven years old.

During a traditional festival in the Liberdade neighborhood, her cousin and closest friend, Yam, disappeared while Erika’s mother watched the children.

The family has maintained a guilty silence regarding Yam’s absence for nine years.

The dynamic changes when Erika befriends Bianca, a Black classmate who is openly grieving the recent death of her mother.

Bianca’s openness forces Erika to confront her own suppressed emotions, compelling her family to address the unresolved loss of Yam.

Saito stated that the story draws on his own childhood experiences with silence in Japanese-Brazilian households.

“I vividly remember being a little boy, sitting in the bathroom with my father, when I suddenly asked him where we go after we die. He paused for a moment and answered with a long and profound silence,” Saito said.

He noted that this silence in his family often expressed love and respect while simultaneously concealing pain.', "Saito’s previous work includes the short film 'Amarela,' which also features a character named Erika and is set during a World Cup final between Brazil and France.', "That short film competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2024 and was shortlisted for the live-action short Oscar at the 98th Academy Awards.', "It also won best live-action short at Brazil’s Grande Otelo Awards.', "'Amarela' is part of a trilogy of shorts made with São Paulo-based MyMama Entertainment, alongside 'Kokoro to Kokoro' and 'Vento Dourado'.', "Saito described 'Yellow Chrysanthemum' as a continuation of that work, aiming to avoid easy answers or conventional closure.', "“I hope audiences will recognize something of their own families in Erika's journey, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, and reflect on the things that remain unspoken in their own lives,” Saito said.', "The project is a co-production involving Brazil, Japan, Germany, and France.',