Ring Wandering
Sosuke, a young aspiring manga artist in Tokyo, struggles with his current work about a battle between a hunter and a wolf. One day, he discovers an animal skull at a construction site, unearthing forgotten memories buried deep under the collective consciousness of the megacity. With gorgeous cinematography and a meditative atmosphere, Masakazu Kaneko’s sophomore feature skillfully guides us through a touching narrative of our connection with the lost generation, the pain of the past, and a deep spiritual reverence for what we’ve lost to a modern era.
( 103 min. )
English and Spanish subtitles available / Subtítulos en inglés y español
Available Worldwide excluding Asia
▷About the Filmmaker - Learn more about the director Masakazu Kaneko
▷Send Message to the Filmmaker - Share your thoughts of the film!
Director's Note
I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan's capital. During the 2020 Olympics construction boom, Tokyo transformed with more buildings and concrete than ever before, as if the city's past had also been repeatedly covered over. It’s believed that over 100,000 lives lost in the 1945 Tokyo Bombings still linger underground. Japan's late 19th-century modernization, aiming to rival the West, significantly impacted its long-lasting healthy ecosystem, leading to the extinction of the Japanese wolf, once the alpha predator. Today, as global conflicts escalate and wars are happening again, our society progresses, often ignoring the past. Yet, I think the memories of the past are not something that would easily disappear, but are layered beneath the land, one upon another, not be obscured. Living in the fast-paced 2020s, where values shift and many things are consumed, replaced, and forgotten so rapidly, I sought to capture intangible entities like the land's memories and what once existed there in the form of narrative film. The extinct Japanese wolf symbolizes what's disappeared from the sight of Japanese society. In the film, our protagonist Sosuke unearths a relic in modern Tokyo, transporting him to the world of the people who once lived on the same land, teaching him a value of life. Through this journey, I hope it gives you a moment to pause and reflect, even briefly, on lives and memories buried somewhere in the world.
Masakazu Kaneko’s RING WANDERING brings the Japanese past into full colour, making it seem so real you can carry it on your back, you can joke with it, have dinner with it. It’s a tender, personal and quiet way of understanding our histories. ... The well-designed settings do a great job of guiding the audience through very different time periods and aesthetics, spanning more than a century. The night scenes, in particular, have an atmosphere so mysterious there seems to be an air of magic. The end result is like a beautiful dream, suspended in time.
Read full articleIn the vast plethora of similar looking Japanese indie films, it is a true pleasure to watch one that manages to stray away from the norm in a way that works, with “Ring Wandering” being an exceptional movie, both in terms of context and presentation.
Read full articleBonus Content
DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY [Exclusively available with rental/purchase]
12mThe director Masakazu Kaneko discusses what the climax scenes mean to the film and how it was created, and shares his inspiration for the film from being born and raised in Tokyo.
"RING WANDERING" MOOD BOARD [Exclusively available with rental/purchase]
13mThe director Kaneko prepared 50 visuals before the film’s production. Watch those visuals alongside the actual scenes in the film. He made them initially to pitch the project, then to communicate visuals with his crew in preparation of the film.