His films are inspired by the avant-garde stylings of Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas, but Suwa Nobuhiro's low-key, semi-improvisational working methods more frequently invite comparisons with those of Mike Leigh or John Cassavettes. For his second feature film, the 38-year-old director goes further into he ground covered by his 1997 debut, 2/Duo, using a simple story about an ordinary couple in Tokyo to explore the subtle shifts in modern-day relationships and the ways in which men and women inter-relate.

Aki (Watanabe Makiko) is a twentysomething designer who lives with her divorced older lover Tetsuro (Miura Tomokazu).

They live a peaceful, slightly detached life together, but this informal arrangement is up-ended when Tetsuro's wife is injured in an accident and his eight-year-old son comes to stay. Aki is furious that she hasn't been consulted about this imposition, and though she comes to accept the arrangement she soon finds the stresses of surrogate motherhood getting her down.

Beginning with a skeletal three-page treatment, Nobuhiro spent a great deal of time working with his actors, encouraging them to improvise the slightest details in order to help them get to grips with their characters. "We never rehearsed with the intention of mapping out each scene," says Nobuhiro. "Rehearsals served more to deepen our understanding of character. For example, we went over how and when the couple first met, and we enacted the time when the woman first came to the man's house. We did these exercises knowing that such details would not appear in the film. The plot developed naturally in this way."

Although no lines of dialogue were ever scripted, Nobuhiro was able to guide his actors towards the issues he wanted to cover. "Within the Japanese family, between spouses, or within the intimate realm of lovers - in other words at the nuclear level - there are rifts which mirror the 'larger' contradictions of Japanese politics, history and society as a whole," he explains.

"This is true of my personal life. My family life is led within a larger societal context of contradiction. In making these films, I have chosen to speak about issues which I experience and struggle with every day."
Steve Grayson