It’s been a year of new projects in untapped fields for old Japanese film icons. First, renowned 75-year-old cinematographer Masaki Tamura directed his first feature ever, Drive-in Gamo (see August 22 issue’s Eiga), and now, the long-retired, legendary NHK TV director Shoichiro Sasaki comes forth with his first theatrical release. Sasaki is a highly influential TV auteur who’s picked up a variety of international prizes for his works, including the Prix Italia Grand Prix, an RAI Award, the Monte-Carlo Television Festival Golden Nymph and the Golden Prague Best Director Award. He inspired some of the most highly regarded Japanese filmmakers working today, including Hirokazu Koreeda and Naomi Kawase. This work—part drama, part documentary and part experimental—uses ordinary people with no acting experience. Minyon (or Minyoung, playing herself) is a university student in Seoul, passionate about sound and writing a novel called The Law of Harmonics. She becomes obsessed with a photo of Sueko, a Japanese friend of her grandmother, and comes to Tokyo to try to investigate it. She meets an old Japanese university friend who’s now a journalist who reports on shady characters and seems to be in danger. After meeting a host of surreal people, Minyon’s identity is transposed to Sueko’s and she finds herself living in World War II-era Japan. Constantly shifting between Korean, Japanese and music, the film is challenging, inventive and arresting. This is a must-see for those with a taste for the avant-garde. English title: Harmonics Minyoung. (140 min)