VIFF 2026 | Ryûsuke Hamaguchi Reacts 'All of a Sudden'

"Are healthy people truly alive?"

Neon / Elevation Pictures

VIFF 2026—Celebrated Japanese auteur Ryûsuke Hamaguchi makes his French-language debut in the monumentally affecting care home dramedy, All of a Sudden (aka Soudain or Suddenly Feeling Unwell). Woven with thoughtful critiques and dissections of late-stage capitalism, the process of experimental theatre, caring for the elderly, and, of course, smoking cigarettes, the French-Japanese film is a moving treatise on treating everyone with the care and attention they deserve in a consumer-driven world.

Starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto as a suburban Paris nursing home director and theatre artist, they have a best friend meet-cute and start a short but strong and meaningful bond over their shared experiences and common interests. What follows is a series of Before Sunrise conversations about philosophies of  life and death on the streets of Paris, inside the care home, and a scenic mountaintop village in Kyoto.

Across its generous three-and-a-half-hour runtime, Hamaguchi gives a series of engaging lectures and discussions about treating everyone and every problem humanely. Co-written by Léa Le Dimna and loosely based on the non-fiction book of letters, You and I – The Illness Suddenly Get Worse, exchanged by philosopher Makiko Miyano, who was dying of cancer, and medical anthropologist Maho Isono, the film's material is a sophisticated yet digestible morsel of hopeful human interactions when facing death and dying every single day.

Hamaguchi has done it again. All of a Sudden is an absolutely remarkable piece of art, cinema, and study of the humanities. It's a tender and thoughtful exploration of our real-world problems concerning how aging, sickness, democracy, and free markets are clashing to slowly make all our lives worse and how we can possibly slow down its catastrophic effects. Beyond that, it's one of the most purely human stories of life and living put to screen in a while. C'est incroyable!

All of a Sudden screened at the 2026 Vancouver International Film Festival as part of the Special Presentations series at the Vancouver Playhouse.


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