Japanese Director Yuichiro Sakashita Delivers Social Satire in Blonde

With Blonde , premiering this week in the Tokyo International Film Festival’s main competition, rising 38-year-old director Yuichiro Sakashita delivers a sharp, quietly damning satire of conformity in Japan’s education system. The film centers on a meek junior-high teacher (popular singer-turned-actor Takanori Iwata) whose life unravels when his students stage a “blonde-hair protest” against the school’s highly restrictive and outdated rules — and social media rapidly morphs the modest revolt into a nationwide spectacle.

Blending comedy and social commentary, Blonde builds upon Sakashita’s well-received 2022 political farce The Sunday Runoff , taking aim at the growing gulf between the social mores of Japan’s oldest and youngest generations — and the apathy that’s all too common a