Sabu's 'Arrested Memory' Lands at Venice and Toronto After Nearly Two Decades in the Making
Variety has exclusively unveiled the first trailer for Arrested Memory, the new film from Japanese director Sabu, ahead of its premiere at the Venice and Toronto film festivals (Variety). The film took nearly two decades to reach the screen, surviving stalled attempts to shoot in Germany, Korea, the United States and Japan before finally landing in Taiwan.
That long road appears to have changed the film for the better. Sabu told Variety the finished version carries more tension and a greater sense of poignancy than the version he first envisioned in 2007. He went through 58 versions in the edit and drew nearly 2,000 storyboarded shots before cameras rolled.
Arrested Memory is a dark comedic crime thriller about a police detective who loses his memory (Taipei Times). The protagonist, Lee, was originally conceived as a corrupt officer — a man who entered policing to protect people but succumbed to corruption over 20 years. Sabu reversed course. Two decades on, he decided it would be more interesting to show Lee as someone once trusted who gradually returns to his innocent, authentic self after the memory loss, rather than a straightforward "bad cop" (Variety).
Judo was added to express Lee's humanity, Sabu said — the idea that he protects people through actions rather than words. The director cast Ethan Juan, known for serious dramatic roles, and pushed him toward comedy. Juan's performance, Sabu said, added a poignancy to the character that had not been present on the page.
The film was shot in Taiwan with cast and crew drawn from Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong and France — a four-culture collaboration that Sabu said created a unique atmosphere and left him more interested in working across different countries and cultures. It is a 2026 Taiwan-Japan co-production, running 87 minutes in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Japanese, produced by LHB Films with producers Justine O and Roger Huang. Lucky Number acquired international rights to the film in May (Screen Daily).
The festival runway is set. Venice programmed Arrested Memory in its Venice Open — Out of Competition section, with screenings on 7 September at 22:00 in the Sala Grande and 8 September at 17:00 at the PalaBiennale (La Biennale di Venezia). Toronto follows with a North American premiere in the Midnight Madness section of its 51st edition, running 10–20 September (TIFF). The cast includes Ethan Juan, Hsieh Ying Xuan, Moon Lee, Shinichi Tsutsumi and Reika Kirishima.
Sabu — the professional name of Hiroyuki Tanaka, from Wakayama, Japan — made his directorial debut with 1996's Dangan Runner and built his reputation on genre-blending comedies including Postman Blues, Monday and Miss Zombie. He has also acted in numerous films, including Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer. For a film-maker whose career has moved between crime, comedy and the surreal, Arrested Memory adds another twist: a detective who forgets everything and, in forgetting, finds his way back.
