Ningen

Ningen (人間, meaning “human”) is a 2013 drama written and directed jointly by Çağla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti. A Japanese-Turkish-French co-production, the 104-minute feature is spoken mainly in Japanese with some Mandarin.

Its title and framework come from a Japanese folk tale in which a fox and a raccoon dog make a wager, take human form and set out to amass the greatest fortune — only to forget, in time, that any of it was ever a game. In the present-day strand, a company executive named Yoshino watches his firm slide towards collapse and can see no way out other than taking his own life; happiness, when it finally arrives, catches him entirely unprepared.

Masahiro Yoshino plays the lead, supported by Megumi Ayukawa as Madame Ayukawa, Xiao Mu Lee and Masako Wajima. Ningen screened in the Contemporary World Cinema strand of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.