“PASSION has a low-fi, hangout feel, flush with the youthful indie energy and forgivable pretensions of an artist who believes that filmmaking matters. Hamaguchi was still a student but already finding his voice.”
—The New York Times

“Modern cinema is defined by writer-directors whose movies reconsider the relationship between images and spoken language; the prolific young Japanese filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi … finds original responses to the challenge.”
—The New Yorker

“PASSION already finds [Ryûsuke Hamaguchi] to be a superb orchestrator of moods and tones.”
—Slant Magazine

Before becoming the Oscar®-winning director of DRIVE MY CAR, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi was a filmmaking student at Tokyo University of the Arts. In his thesis film, Hamaguchi explores the coils of contemporary romance in Japan. Never before released in the States, PASSION reveals a burgeoning director exploring the themes and machinations which still interest him today.