Okinawa Saudade Heads to Tokyo, Tracing Island Roots Through Dance
"Okinawa Saudade," directed by Matsubayashi Yoju, is screening at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival as part of its Nippon Cinema Now selection, Variety reported on 3 November 2026.
The film follows Yumi, a young dancer of Ryukyu Buyo, the classical dance of Okinawa, and Everton, a teacher of Eisa, the drum-led festival dance of the island, who works in Brazil. The two travel to Okinawa on an exchange trip to learn about the island's history and culture.
Matsubayashi's starting point goes back about ten years, to her time with a Brazilian community of Okinawan immigrants. She lived in Brazil for one year, in 2016. Variety reports that she built the film around a search for one's roots, told through dance.
Her interest in this history predates the new film. Her 2020 documentary "Okinawa/Santos" looked at the wartime forced relocation of Japanese Brazilians in the port city of Santos. According to Variety, about 60% of the Japanese immigrants forced out in that relocation were from Okinawa.
The story has a more recent chapter too. In July 2024, Brazil's Amnesty Commission formally apologised for the state's persecution of Japanese immigrants after World War II, Variety notes.
Some of the material behind the story sits in São Paulo. The Bunkyo, a cultural facility in the Liberdade district, keeps a library of immigrant documents in Portuguese and Japanese. Variety also points to Creative Eisa, the form of the dance performed in Brazil, which has been practised there for about 45 years.
The festival lists Matsubayashi as a tentative guest for a question-and-answer session after the screening, according to the Tokyo International Film Festival guest page.
For viewers in Tokyo, the screening is a chance to see a story that moves between two islands, and two cultures, through the movement of the body. The festival runs its Nippon Cinema Now selection alongside the wider programme, and that strand is where this film sits.
