All the Lovers in the Night Hits Soft Aftershock

All the – Shot on 16mm and structured like a microscope on a single life at night, the Kawakami novel adaptation follows Fuyuko’s twilight walks and a chance meeting with Mitsutsuka—before memory and past trauma rearrange what feels possible.

Tokyo’s twilight never really stops moving—at least not in this film.. In “All the Lovers in the Night. ” Fuyuko (Yukino Kishii) spends her days correcting mistakes as if the world can be pinned down by attention alone.. Then night arrives. and she slips outside anyway. drawn to late-night walks when only “half the world remains.” The city’s artificial glow from vehicles and shops shimmers and flickers across her face as she strolls.

Shot on 16mm, the shifting grain doesn’t just look textured—it behaves like memory you can’t quite hold.. You can feel that sensation spreading across a pensive two-hour-plus feature. especially as Fuyuko’s routines take shape inside her home.. For long stretches. the film watches day turn to night with her lying on the floor in one room. sitting at her desk in the next. and then returning again.. Rain starts to pour through the open window. and she pulls off her trousers so droplets can fall onto her skin.

The novel at the center of it all is Mieko Kawakami’s “All the Lovers in the Night. ” selected for Un Certain Regard.. Kawakami is an internationally-bestselling Japanese writer whose earlier work includes “Breasts and Eggs” and “Heaven.” Her reputation is built on delicate writing that still refuses to be restrained. and the film leans into that same tension—quiet on the surface. with sharper edges lurking just off-frame.

Writer/director Yukiko Sode brings a clear fit for this material.. Sode. a rising female director. has previously made features including “Good Stripes” (2015) and “Aristocrats” (2020). both centered on women navigating shifting interpersonal and romantic relationships.. In this adaptation. she translates Kawakami’s first-person internal monologue into physical action—so Fuyuko’s private thoughts become something the camera can track. even when they don’t announce themselves.

The cast includes Misato Morita as Hijiri. Fuyuko’s point person. who wonders why Fuyuko never seems to leave her house.. Hijiri questions why she doesn’t have a boyfriend and doesn’t appear to pursue casual sex like she does—only for Fuyuko to reveal through her own habits that she does. in fact. go out.. The discrepancy isn’t played as a simple misunderstanding.. It’s part of what makes Fuyuko feel so hard to read: Kishii is compellingly. refreshingly unreadable. offering a character with a listless lack of concession to expectation or even to the audience.

It also lands as an opportunity—within Japanese cinema—for another kind of visibility.. The film’s approach feels like it’s joining a wider conversation. with praise given to other female Japanese directors who have recently received international spotlight. including “Namibia” director Yoko Yamanaka and Akiko Ohku (“She Taught Me Serendipity”).

Fuyuko’s isolation changes the moment she ventures out from solitude and meets Mitsutsuka.. He’s played by Tadanobu Asano and introduced as a reserved, soft-spoken physics lecturer.. There’s a quiet softness in the casting and performance: Mitsutsuka dresses plainly in a white shirt and carries a gentle smile.. Asano plays him in a subtler mode than his larger. better-known roles. and even with the character’s older age. there’s a boyish charm to his intellectual enthusiasm—especially when his uniform-like outfit makes him feel closer to a schoolboy than a school teacher.

Their shared interest is light.. Mitsutsuka sees the world through it. and Fuyuko responds—so when they meet again in bars and coffee shops. the film turns those encounters into a small reshaping of her life.. Fuyuko’s walks she loves become social.. The question keeps hovering underneath everything: is it just the walks she loves?

From there, Sode’s film becomes unpretentiously talky, buoyed by the breezy yet grounded chemistry between this unlikely pairing.. Their conversations about light, particles, and human connection are charming and often poignant.. But the film refuses to rush toward a payoff, stretching sequences out naturally until they risk stagnation.. That’s the tension the review can’t ignore: for some. it may feel boring; for others. it will land as emotionally resonant.. Either way, the film asks viewers to stop inspecting and to notice anomalies flicker across their vision.

Then Chopin enters.. When Mitsutsuka introduces Fuyuko to Chopin. the previously quiet film gains a soundtrack—an audible shift that feels like the first time the story lets itself ring out.. It doesn’t last untroubled.. Memory steps in, not politely.. The film flashes back without preamble to Fuyuko’s high school days. where she suffers a sexual assault from a friend.. The presentation is upsettingly matter-of-fact: sudden, and just out of frame.

Back in the present, Fuyuko’s feelings for Mitsutsuka begin to shift as she steps out into the light. The moment is startling because the film has kept her guardedness so intact. She hasn’t let anyone in until now—least of all the audience.

And yet the film’s slightness isn’t treated as a weakness.. The approach reads as deliberate, tied to the ephemerality of human connections and the way we feel about them.. In the final act, Fuyuko asks, “Is there nothing here?” and waves her hand through seemingly empty air.. Mitsutsuka replies, “Sure there is.”

Grade: B

“All the Lovers in the Night” premiered in Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Neon will release it in theaters.

All the Lovers in the Night Yukino Kishii Misato Morita Tadanobu Asano Yukiko Sode Mieko Kawakami Cannes 2026 Un Certain Regard 16mm film indie film review Neon release