Sightlines · reception
How Look Back was received
2026 · Hirokazu Kore-eda · Look Back on Sightlines
The arc
Kore-eda premiered it in competition at Venice in September 2026 to a split but mostly warm press, with The Film Stage hailing one of his best films while Screen Daily and TheWrap pushed back, and it settled at a 76 on Metacritic; it opened in Japan and Taiwan on September 11 in 358 theaters, debuting at number 5 in Japan with ¥144 million (about $933,500) from 96,605 admissions in its opening weekend, ahead of a GKIDS US release starting December 30.
What’s debated
The sharpest fight is live action versus Oshiyama's 2024 anime: TheWrap and JustWatch's Mariona Borrull argue Kore-eda's naturalism cannot match the hour-long anime's compression and whimsy, while The Film Stage and Discussing Film take the film on its own terms as a radiant story of friendship and creation.
Its footprint
The afterlife is the comparison piece: anime-versus-live-action breakdowns were circulating within weeks, and Little White Lies singled out its one rotoscoped anime sequence (directed by Yoko Kuno) as a sudden interruption full of reality-shattering wonder. It also became a referendum on Kore-eda's recent run, which Little White Lies described as swinging between hits and misses since the 2018 Palme d'Or.
Where it stands
Too early for a verdict, but it left Venice with five collateral awards (including SIGNIS and the Fanheart3 special mention), Natsuki Deguchi took Best New Actress at the Tama Film Awards, and critics are already sorting it into the top or bottom tier of post-Palme Kore-eda.
Did you know? Kore-eda shot on 35mm Kodak Vision3 film from February to November 2025 in Tatsuki Fujimoto's actual hometown of Nikaho, Akita, with about 300 local extras, and had his four leads train in manga drawing for months; he insisted on film because it forces everyone on set to focus on the moment rather than fix things in post.
Named by the director
- Nobody Knows (2004) — Kore-eda said Fujimoto's desperate resolve in the manga reminded him of Nobody Knows, a project he felt he had no choice but to make.