A Pale View of Hills

2025 2h 3m JA

🙌

7.5

BANGER

★7.5TMDB · 19

DramaHistory

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Dual timelines explore a Japanese widow's memories spanning post-war Nagasaki in 1950s and England during 1980s Cold War era, unraveling secrets that intertwine her past and present experiences across borders.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

Suzu Hirose
Etsuko (1950s)
Fumi Nikaido
Sachiko
Yoh Yoshida
Etsuko (1980s)
Camilla Aiko
Niki
Kouhei Matsushita
Jiro Ogata
Tomokazu Miura
Seiji Ogata
Rie Shibata
Fujiwara
Daichi Watanabe
Shigeo Matsuda

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Kei Ishikawa
Writers: Kei Ishikawa
Languages: English, Japanese
Countries: Japan, United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released last year.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Japanese.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: Japan, United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Kei Ishikawa, shot by Piotr Niemyjski. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Paweł Mykietyn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Kei Ishikawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Suzu Hirose and Fumi Nikaido and Yoh Yoshida carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt33253688 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Kei Ishikawa directs. Piotr Niemyjski behind the camera. Paweł Mykietyn scores. Kei Ishikawa cuts. Produced in Japan, United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore. Dialogue in English, Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released last year.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Japanese.
3International production across 4 countries: Japan, United Kingdom, Poland, Singapore.
4Directed by Kei Ishikawa, shot by Piotr Niemyjski. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Paweł Mykietyn. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Kei Ishikawa shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Suzu Hirose and Fumi Nikaido and Yoh Yoshida carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt33253688 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 19 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Piotr Niemyjski
Original score: Paweł Mykietyn
Editing: Kei Ishikawa
Production design: Adam Marshall
Costume design: Matthew Price
Makeup / hair: Mutsuki Sakai
Runtime: 123 min · 2h 3m
Status: Released
Original language: JA
IMDB: A Pale View of Hills (2025)

Also by

Kei Ishikawa

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2026-03-19
★ 6/10
Set in two different timelines and in two different countries, this tells us of the reminiscences of “Etsuko” who emigrated from Nagasaki to the UK with her husband and young daughter. Time has marched on, her husband is now dead and as she is about to sell her bungalow, their aspiring journalist daughter “Niki” (Camilla Aiko) arrives to help her pack. She also announces that she has been commissioned to write a story based on her mother’s memoirs. Initially quite reluctant, she (Yō Yishida) begins to tell of her younger self (Suzu Hirose) and her life in post-war Japan where she is married and expecting a baby. Her husband “Jiro” (Kôhei Matsushita) is a very traditional young man who expects his wife to conform to traditional values - she even ties his shoelaces for him, but she is a bit more adventurous than that - especially after his school teaching father “Ogata” (Tomokazu Miura) comes to stay and she also meets “Sachiko” (Fumi Nikaidô) who is preparing to emigrate to the USA with her cat-loving daughter who becomes more pivotal to the story as it develops. The one thing that I found this seriously lacked was enough in-depth characterisation of the latter day “Etsuko”. In many ways she has the most to say, to reveal even, but this film rather reduces her to little more than a narrator of her life in the 1950s before they left their homeland. Clearly she has at least one secret, and as we progress there are some clues as to what that might be, but I felt we spent a little too long on the admittedly gorgeous look of the film and not enough on substantiating the narrative itself. That doesn't just apply to her, but the storyline of the conflicted “Ogato” who clearly had a role of some significance during the war is also a little too neglected. I have not read Kazuo Ishiguro’s original text so I’m not sure if these characters were so undercooked on the page, but here I felt oddly prurient as her story unfolded. Somehow this just didn’t ever find it’s groove and though I did quite enjoy watching it, I left the cinema feeling a little flat.

Production companies