Saito's 'Yellow Chrysanthemum' targets Asian buyers at Tokyo market

The production team for 'Yellow Chrysanthemum' is seeking to close its final financing gap at the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market. The debut feature from director André Hayato Saito is one of the projects presented at the event, which runs as part of TIFFCOM. The market serves as the content marketplace attached to the Tokyo International Film Festival.

The film’s development has spanned several years. It moved from initial concept to a pre-production stage after completing specific industry programs. The project won the TorinoFilmLab Production Award during its participation in TorinoFilmLab. It was also selected for the Focus Copro section at the Cannes Film Festival. These milestones occurred before the team arrived in Tokyo to present the project to industry professionals.

The story follows Erika, a 16-year-old third-generation Japanese-Brazilian living in São Paulo. The narrative takes place in July 2014 while Brazil hosts the World Cup. Erika feels like an outsider and rejects her family's cultural roots. This rejection stems from an incident when she was seven years old. Her cousin Yam disappeared during a traditional festival in the Liberdade neighborhood. Her mother was watching the children at the time. The family has maintained a guilty silence regarding Yam's absence ever since.

The plot shifts when Erika befriends Bianca, a Black classmate grieving the recent death of her mother. Bianca is open about her sorrow. As the two women grow closer, Erika's suppressed feelings resurface. Her family can no longer avoid confronting the absence of Yam. Saito stated that the story draws on his own childhood experiences.

"I vividly remember being a little boy, sitting in the bathroom with my father, when I suddenly asked him where we go after we die. He paused for a moment and answered with a long and profound silence," Saito said. He noted that growing up in a Japanese-Brazilian household taught him that family silence can express love and respect while concealing pain. His earlier short films explore grief, memory, identity, and life between two cultures.

One of these shorts, 'Amarela,' also follows a Japanese-Brazilian teenager named Erika who rejects family traditions. That story unfolds across the length of a World Cup final between Brazil and France. The short competed for the Palme d'Or for short films at Cannes in 2024. It was shortlisted for the live-action short Oscar at the 98th Academy Awards. It won best live-action short at Brazil's Grande Otelo Awards. It is part of a trilogy that includes 'Kokoro to Kokoro' and 'Vento Dourado,' all made with São Paulo-based MyMama Entertainment.

Saito said he does not want to offer easy answers or a conventional sense of closure. He hopes audiences will recognize aspects of their own families in Erika's journey. The goal is to prompt reflection on things that remain unspoken in their own lives. The film is a co-production involving Brazil, Japan, Germany, and France.

The team plans to shoot a key sequence at a traditional Japanese Toro Nagashi ceremony in Brazil in November. Producer Mayra Faour Auad, founder of MyMama Entertainment, has more than 20 production credits, most of them international co-productions. She produced 'Amarela.' MyMama is developing the feature with One Two Films, Loaded Films, and Blue Monday.

In Tokyo, Faour Auad said the team hopes to meet producers, distributors, and sales agents who can take the film to audiences across Asia. Given the film's Japanese-Brazilian roots, finding an audience in Japan has particular meaning for the team. Saito is also developing his second feature, 'Little Faults,' which earned a place in Turin's Boost IT Lab this year. That project follows an aging Japanese-Brazilian woman living in Japan who begins committing minor offenses, hoping to end up in prison where she believes she might finally be cared for.