As his parents’ marriage fractures and eventually collapses into divorce, high schooler Takeshi becomes increasingly obsessed with hunting for a mysterious ‘ball of fire’ rumored by a childhood friend. Using this quest to escape the quiet turmoil at home, Takeshi leaves his younger brother to shoulder the family’s emotional weight without realizing it. At just 24 years old, director Yaza Takenoshin demonstrates astonishing maturity and rigorous visual control. He deftly conveys the suffocating tension at home in a manner echoing Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Tokyo Sonata. Within neat, tightly ordered domestic spaces, Yaza exposes the inevitable fractures of human connection, where the facade of calm gives way to suppressed emotion. The search for the ball of fire offers less warmth than a fleeting spark against cool-toned isolation, yet the film’s spatial mastery and brilliantly executed finale signal a promising new talent to watch for the future.
Programme note by GU Pengyuan
Stills5
Screenings4
Sat, 10/10
15:3017:47
Busan Cinema Center Cinema 2
275Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Mon, 10/12
10:0011:52
CGV Centum City 3
493KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Tue, 10/13
16:1018:27
KOFIC Theater
635Guest Q&AKE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Wed, 10/14
18:3020:22
LOTTE CINEMA Centum City 3
691KE, Korean subtitles + English subtitles or English dialogue
Born in Tokyo in 2002. Yaza studied philosophy and film at Harvard University, graduating in 2026. During his first year of high school, he directed the documentary The Story of the Largest Kettle in Japan (2019), which dealt with the issue of nuclear power and won the Grand Prize at a national high school film festival in Japan. Hinotama: Ball of Fire is his first feature film.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
