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Hamaguchi, who is currently in Paris preparing for the movie, penned the script with Léa Le Dimna, loosely inspired by a collection of real-life exchanged letters published in the book “You and I – The Illness Suddenly Get Worse,” by Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono.

In the book […] a philosopher and an anthropologist are exchanging letters discussing their thoughts on chance and risk, and their relationship develops into something more personal when the philosopher’s health suddenly deteriorates.

“Death becomes a subject they discuss and exchange a lot about, and gradually, it becomes an encounter between two souls,” says Hamaguchi, who ultimately decided to transpose the story in France, and turn the epistolary relationship into a real one between two women, a Japanese theater director and French director of a nursing home.

zedz wrote: Sun Aug 16, 2026 10:51 pm All of a Sudden (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2026)
Yes, it’s talky. Yes, it features intelligent characters exchanging abstract ideas. Have you not seen any other Hamaguchi films? People that complain about such things apparently don’t understand that this is a film about an intellectual crush (as is, in its own funny way, Liebniz): all these characters want is to stay up all night talking, exchanging ideas and honing their own intellect on the whetstone of another’s. If you’ve never experienced that kind of relationship: 1) I feel sorry for you; 2) I don’t know if you’ll ever understand this film. Of course, being a Ryusuke Hamaguchi film, it’s also about so much more: theatre and life, the sustaining of micro-communities, how to apply abstract notions to real world situations. Enchanting and uplifting while also being tough and formally rigorous.