Niki Caro 

New Zealand
 

Caro's adaptation of the original Peter Wells story stars Yuri Kanagawa as Sayo, who has eloped with her lover, Keiji, played by Eugene Nomura, to New Zealand, escaping Keiji's interfering, disapproving mother. 
 

On their idyllic honeymoon, they are free to express their intense and passionate love and desire for each other. Then tragedy strikes when Keiji is drowned. Sayo, conforming to old custom, returns to live with her selfish mother-in-law. Alone and grieving, overwhelmed by her memory of Keiji and their love, Sayo makes a decision that will affect her life forever.
"I was drawn to it as a very strong story," says Caro. "It's such a girl's story, so female. It fascinates me and not just because it's my first feature. The story is bigger than that. Even when we finished, I was thinking about the characters."

Caro says she enjoys the coupling of intimacy with the epic nature of the travel through New Zealand. "There's so much that's intimate going on versus the landscape."

Caro was 28 when she wrote the script, the same age as Sayo. "I thought I'd do this for me and for her, and I'll forget that she's Japanese because the actress will take care of that bit. This is a love story and I wanted to let the actors be honest. But it's surprising how similar we are."

Caro discovered that it was only in the last few years that she's seen films "that talk to me about what it's like to be a woman. The emotional terrain is enormous – they can be so rich and so dark. It gives me total joy to talk about the female experience of being in love and losing that and trying to get it back." Andrew L. Urban