Yurina Kaneko’s Set to Direct Second Feature 'Where All Things Drowse'

Japanese filmmaker Yurina Kaneko, recognized for her distinct vision in the 2023 debut People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind, is currently developing her highly anticipated sophomore feature, Where All Things Drowse. This new project signifies an expansion of Kaneko’s ongoing fascination with non-human perspectives, the presence of ghosts, and the remnants of forgotten human culture.

Kaneko has rapidly established herself as one of the most distinctive young voices in Japanese cinema, building upon her earlier work with the shorts Projection (2018) and The Wandering Plants (2019). Her debut feature, People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind, screened internationally at festivals including Shanghai and Osaka, leading to her selection for the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ "Young Japanese Filmmakers Overseas Promotion Program," which brought her acclaim in Berlin.

Where All Things Drowse poses a striking central philosophical question: once humanity is gone, who, or what, will ultimately be the entity responsible for our collective forgetting? The film follows the character of Maka, a ghost who is born purely from fragments of residual memory. Maka wanders through a world now entirely overgrown with plant life, seeking a reason for their existence while attempting to imitate rituals once commonly practiced by humans.

Discussing the genesis of the project, Kaneko revealed that it began with a deeply personal impulse: "I wanted to see the world I could never see with my own eyes... After humanity’s end, will we all forget us? This strange question is exactly where our story begins.” The director further described the film as being envisioned as "a new cinematic language," with the explicit goal of placing the audience directly within the sensory perspective of non-human presences, such as stones and plants.

Technically, Where All Things Drowse will utilize live-action filmmaking that integrates modern visual effects (VFX) with analog techniques, including matte painting and miniatures. Kaneko plans to draw inspiration from traditional Japanese tokusatsu filmmaking. Night scenes will be lit primarily by natural sources, such as firelight, underscoring the director’s wish for audiences to “feel the wind, the soil, and the silence” of a post-human Earth.

Production notes confirm the film's origin in Kaneko’s award-winning proposal for the Tokyo FILMeX New Director Award in 2020, with its current revival marking a definitive step in her career trajectory. Where All Things Drowse has a completed script and is currently in the development stage, with the team actively seeking international partners.

As Kaneko eloquently summarized,

“We often live as if we are the center of everything. But this film imagines a world where supremacy has vanished. A world where life has no comparison, no competition—it simply is.”