Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda has discussed his new film "Look Back," a live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's popular manga, which premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The tender coming-of-age drama, Koreeda's 18th feature and his second release this year after "Sheep in the Box," marks a return to the gentle, humanist style for which the Palme d'Or-winning director is best known, and features striking performances from two young actresses.

The film follows Fujino (Furi Nanase) and Kyomoto (Rokka Okada), two schoolgirls whose rivalry over their drawing talents grows into a manga-making partnership, tracing their friendship, professional success and eventual falling-out over 13 years, with adult versions of the characters later played by Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita. Shot over a full year in Japan's Tohoku region, Koreeda told The Hollywood Reporter he discovered the manga by chance in a Tokyo bookshop during the pandemic and was so moved that it reignited his own creative drive, prompting him to adapt it as faithfully as possible for the screen.