Known for his character-driven storytelling, Two Seasons, Two Strangers, the latest feature from Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake, is a contemplative drama that bridges two parallel narratives across summer and winter.
It is based on the manga short stories A View of the Seaside and Mr. Ben and His Igloo by Yoshiharu Tsuge.
Shim Eun-kyung stars as a solitary screenwriter, alongside Yuumi Kawai and Mansaku Takada, weaving together moments of connection between strangers whose lives intersect in subtle, emotionally resonant ways.
Two Seasons, Two Strangers made its world premiere in competition at the Locarno Film Festival 2025, where it won the prestigious Golden Leopard, the festival’s top prize.
It went on to screen at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the Busan International Film Festival, the São Paulo International Film Festival, and the upcoming 2026 New Directors/New Films in New York City.
Following the festival run, the film opens in U.S. cinemas starting in New York City at the Metrograph on April 24, with a limited expansion to follow, and in Canada on June 19.
Based on two mangas by Yoshiharu Tsuge, who rose to underground celebrity thanks to his surrealist tales published in the pages of the bastion of Japanese avant-garde cartooning, Garo, Miyake’s bifurcated live-action feature observes (and draws parallels and contrasts from) a summertime meet-cute between Nagisa and Natsuo (Yuumi Kawai and Mansaku Takada) and a snowbound winter encounter between screenwriter Li and innkeeper Benzo (Shim Eun-kyung and Shinichi Tsutsumi).
Writing for BFI Sight and Sound, critic Jessica Kiang described the film as “an elegant, sensitive celebration of introverts.” The review noted, “But Two Strangers, Two Seasons is still very much a Miyake film, unfolding in a playful but deeply felt register that is perhaps more melancomedy than tragicomedy, but that delivers the rare satisfaction of watching modest, thoughtful people find just what they need in the last place they’d expect it: in the small, slow, steady corners of the world which is where, Miyake Sho will convince you, all of life actually happens.”
Watch the official trailer for Two Seasons, Two Strangers above.
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