Carried by a moving Romain Duris, A Missing Part tells the story of a father's fight to find his daughter in Japan, where shared custody is not the norm. A story inspired by very real events, to be discovered now in the cinema.
A powerful cast
Every day, Jay travels around Tokyo in his taxi looking for his daughter, Lily. Separated for 9 years, he was never able to obtain custody. Just as he has stopped hoping to see her again and is preparing to return to France, Lily gets into his taxi…
For A Missing Part, his third feature film, Guillaume Senez collaborates again with the brilliant Romain Duris (L'Auberge Espagne, Le Règne animal), main character in his previous film, Nos Batailles, which was notably nominated twice for the César in 2019.
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Alongside the famous actor, the brilliant Judith Chemla (D'argent et de sang) plays Jessica, a mother in the middle of a divorce fighting to have shared custody of her little boy. Finally, Lily, Jay's daughter, is played with talent by the young actress Mei Cirne-Masuki.
A story based on real events
During a trip with Romain Duris to accompany the Japanese release of his previous film, Guillaume Senez discovered the subject of childcare in Japan through the testimony of expatriates. From these stories of parents struggling to see their children again after a separation arises the promise of a story.
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After hearing echoes of these sole custody phenomena, the filmmaker and actor contacted affected people such as Vincent Fichot, who went on a hunger strike during the 2012 Tokyo Olympics in the hope of being able to see his son and daughter again. By accompanying the latter in demonstrations against child kidnapping, Guillaume Senez discovered that this phenomenon concerns as many Japanese as foreigners and as many men as women.
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Although the Japanese Parliament recently passed a law to establish shared custody, the Japanese police rarely intervene in family matters for cultural reasons, notably due to conservative positions regarding marriage. However, there are 150,000 “children kidnapped” each year by one of the two parents in Japan and, according to a survey, around 60% of the Japanese population would like things to change.
Talk about the difference without judging it
“I wondered how to “confront” today’s viewer.”, explains the filmmaker. “The idea here is not to take the viewer by the hand or to think for them, but to convey an emotion to them. If he is touched in an underground way, if he questions his feelings, then the film will only be stronger.”
A Missing Part is indeed a touching film in which different cultures confront and mingle. The characters are not reduced to a Manichean duality: they are complex, each has their faults and a dark side, which makes them particularly human.
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Jessica is a character with a strong temperament, who blends in with difficulty in a country where discretion is king. This clash of cultures highlights the loneliness that she and Jay can experience, and more broadly emigrants going through the same problem in Japan. Furthermore, Jessica reflects what Jay may have experienced years earlier, and the two form a duo that is both funny and moving despite this terrible ordeal.
A fascinating treatment of a moving topical subject, A Missing Part can be seen in theaters now.
