LOOK BACK, adapted from manga creator Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed one-shot, is perhaps the author’s most personal—and arguably his finest—work. Beneath the spectacle and intensity that have come to define his shōnen manga, LOOK BACK reveals the deep humanity that has always been at its heart.

First adapted as an animated feature by Kiyotaka Oshiyama (animator on Fall Focus 2023’s THE BOY AND THE HERON), LOOK BACK has found its way to the hands of visionary auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda (MONSTER, Fall Focus 2023), whose humanist sensibilities make him a natural fit for telling Fujimoto’s story in a live-action format.

Fourth-grader Fujino (Furi Nanase) is admired for the comics she makes for her school newspaper. Her world is upended when asked to share the space with her reclusive classmate Kyomoto (Rokka Okada), whose stunning artwork is better than anything she can make. When the girls finally meet, Fujino discovers Kyomoto has been idolizing her from afar all along. Her one-sided rivalry abates, and the two are pulled into an all-consuming love of drawing that carries them into adulthood as aspiring manga artists. The adult Fujino (Natsuki Deguchi) and Kyomoto (Aju Makita) embark on a shared journey where the joys of artistic expression collide with the unpredictability of life.

Shot entirely on 35mm and unfolding across the four seasons, Kore-eda imbues the story with an emotional intensity, following its characters with the same tenderness that has defined his own cinema. What emerges is a meditation on the purpose of creation itself: perhaps the only answer to life’s brevity is to create—a drawing, a story, a memory, a piece of ourselves.

—Giovanna Fulvi, Toronto International Film Festival guide