Malaysian film director Edmund Yeo on adapting Banana Yoshimoto’s Moonlight Shadow, his star actress Nana Komatsu, and censorship at home

Yeo’s film adaptation of Banana Yoshimoto’s story has been praised by the writer, who called it a ‘masterpiece of elegance’

The director talks about filming during the coronavirus pandemic, and how rising star Nana Komatsu was essential to the film’s success

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Hio Miyazawa (left) and Nana Komatsu in a still from Moonlight Shadow, by Edmund Yeo’s adaptation of a Japanese novella . Photo: Moonlight Shadow Production Committee

Published: 3:45pm, 4 Sep 2021Updated: 9:31am, 6 Sep 2021

The feature film adaptation of the celebrated novella Moonlight Shadow by landmark Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto, 33 years after the book’s publication, will screen in Japanese cinemas nationwide from September 10.

Yoshimoto herself posted about the film on her Instagram, saying that it “is a masterpiece of elegance”, and that “the director painstakingly portrayed beautiful parts of Japan’s landscape that even few Japanese can find”.

It is a real compliment for Moonlight Shadow’s visionary director, the Singapore-born Malaysian Edmund Yeo, who directed a fully Japanese cast led by 25-year-old rising star Nana Komatsu, who made her feature-film debut in Tetsuya Nakashima’s The World of Kanako (2014), and whose credits include an international debut in Martin Scorsese’s Japan-set Silence (2016).

Moonlight Shadow tells the story of a young woman, Satsuki (played by Komatsu), who recovers from the death of her boyfriend Hitoshi (Hio Miyazawa) while developing a friendship with his brother, Hiiragi (Himi Sato), whose girlfriend, Yumiko (Nana Nakahara), also died in the same car accident.

“Without Ms. Komatsu, it would have been impossible to make this film. Instead of acting, she truly became Satsuki,” said Yeo in a recent interview with the Post.

Malaysian film director Edmund Yeo on adapting Banana Yoshimoto’s Moonlight Shadow, his star actress Nana Komatsu, and censorship at home

Yeo’s film adaptation of Banana Yoshimoto’s story has been praised by the writer, who called it a ‘masterpiece of elegance’ The director talks about filming during the coronavirus pandemic, and how rising star Nana Komatsu was essential to the film’s success

Yeo’s film adaptation of Banana Yoshimoto’s story has been praised by the writer, who called it a ‘masterpiece of elegance’

The director talks about filming during the coronavirus pandemic, and how rising star Nana Komatsu was essential to the film’s success