While attending the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival, Ben was able to interview director Pen-Ek Rataunaruang and lead actress Bella Boonsang for their film Morte Cucina.

Morte Cucina follows Sao as she takes an unconventional path toward revenge against a man who has wronged her.

Listen in to hear about Ratanaruang’s candid thoughts on his approach to filmmaking, Boonsang’s initial trepidation and determination to tackling this tricky role, and Ratanaruang’s evolving working relationship with the film’s DP, Christopher Doyle (their third feature film collaboration!).

Special thanks to the TIFF team for arranging the interview!

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Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:22 Inspiration for the film

04:30 Bella’s reaction to the script

06:23 Casting Bella Boonsang

09:45 Cinematography with Chris Doyle

13:15 The movie is made on set

17:30 What is love?

22:17 Outro

Armed with a press pass and the Japanese language level of a 3 year old, Ben took to the cinemas of Tokyo during the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival. Ben’s coverage spans a varied 17 films over 10 days of the festival: buzzy and fresh Japanese films (Bring Him Down to a Portable Size; The Last Blossom; All Greens…) international film festival darlings (Lost Land; Palestine 36…), and a handful of exciting restorations (Demon Pond, Love Massacre…).

And if you haven’t listened to Ben’s interviews from during the festival, what are you waiting for?

114. Sato and Sato (2025): Interview with Director Amano Chihiro

116. Morte Cucina (2025): Interview with Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Bella Boonsang (forthcoming!)

Other Links:

Chloe Zhao x Hirokazu Koreeda

ようこそto our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:04:23 TIFF38 Press Experience

00:08:55 Demon Pond (1979) dir. Masahiro Shinoda

00:14:28 Pale Flower (1964) dir. Masahiro Shinoda

00:17:55 Floating Clouds (1955) dir. Mikio Naruse

00:23:32 Love Massacre (1981) dir. Patrick Tam

00:29:01 April Story (1998) dir. April Story

00:32:58 3.11 disaster sidebar

00:36:10 Blonde (2025) dir. Yûichirô Sakashita

00:39:35 Sato and Sato (2025) dir. Chihiro Amano

00:43:41 All Greens (2025) dir. Takashi Koyama

00:47:40 The Last Blossom (2025) dir. Baku Kinoshita

00:52:35 Lost Land (2025) dir. Akio Fujimoto

00:58:30 Echoes of the Orient (2025) dir. Yang Liping

01:00:55 Labyrinth (2025) dir. Shoji Kawamori

01:03:46 Bring Him Down to a Portable Size (2025) dir. Ryota Nakano

01:07:18 Morte Cucina (2025) dir. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

01:12:45 Palestine 36 (2025) dir. Annemarie Jacir

01:20:16 The Mastermind (2025) dir. Kelly Reichardt

01:24:23 Hamnet (2025) dir. Chloé Zhao

01:32:55 Wrap-up

While attending the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival, Ben was able to interview director Chihiro Amano for her film Sato and Sato.

Sato and Sato covers the 15 year span of a relationship as it slowly unravels, covering marriage, parenting, and the ways relationships morph over time. In our short interview, we talk about changing gender dynamics as depicted in Amano’s film, how she worked with her cast to create the characters and relationship, and find a little resonance with other Deep Cut director Chantal Akerman.

Special thanks to the festival team for arranging the interview and guiding me around the festival, and to the provided interpreter, Ninomiya Yukako.

Get hitched at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:44 Interview: Same last names

03:50 Working with the cast

07:47 Women’s empowerment

09:49 Spoiler

10:40 Male insecurity

12:44 What is love?

13:56 Outro