From Asahi Shimbun by By HAJIME SUGITA, January 9, 2026
An award-winning film about Fumiko Kaneko (1903-1926), a Japanese anarchist who died in prison, will be released nationwide on Feb. 28 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her death.
“Kaneko Fumiko” won the Best Director prize in the feature category and four other accolades at the New York International Film Awards in September.
The movie was directed by Sachi Hamano, 77, who battled gender discrimination in her career that includes more than 300 flicks, including porn.
“I single-mindedly thought about resurrecting Fumiko, who picked a fight with a nation alone, in modern times,” she said.
Kaneko was born in Yokohama and grew up with no family registration, according to “Kaneko Fumiko: Jiko, Tennoseikokka, Chosenjin” (Fumiko Kaneko: Self, imperial state and Koreans) written by Shoji Yamada, a professor emeritus at Rikkyo University, and released by Kageshobo Publishing Co.
Abandoned by her parents, Kaneko was taken in by a family in the Korean Peninsula where a relative lived.
After witnessing Japan’s brutal colonial rule and the Korean independence movement, Kaneko began to fundamentally criticize the Japanese state.
After she returned to Japan, she was accused of plotting to throw a bomb at the crown prince.
Kaneko was sentenced to death on charges of treason along with Pak Yol, whom she was living with.
However, she had not obtained a bomb, and her plan was unfeasible.
An imperial pardon commuted her sentence to life imprisonment, but she killed herself in a prison in Tochigi Prefecture at the age of 23.
Kaneko was an anarchist who opposed the imperial system and argued that all humans were equal.
The film depicts the 121 days leading up to her death, based on notes she wrote in prison, “tanka” poems and trial records.
The director herself has also been struggling for equality.
After graduating from high school, Hamano moved to Tokyo to become a movie director. But production companies only accepted men with college degrees, she said.
Some men even laughed at her “foolish” ambitions.
Hamano landed a job as an assistant director in the porn film industry but was still targeted by bullies and harassment.
She started wearing her signature sunglasses, which she calls a “shield to protect herself.”
And when she went to local areas to shoot scenes, she slept with a kitchen knife under her pillow for protection.
“I couldn’t understand why women were discriminated against to this degree,” Hamano recalled.
Driven by anger, she continued her career and became a director at age 23.
She was once told that audiences would be turned off by a female name showing up in the credit roll.
So, she removed the “ko” from her real name “Sachiko.” Calling herself Sachi as a director made her name sound masculine.
Instead of portraying women as “doormats,” the director opted to show self-reliant women, even in porn movies.
Hamano even received a complaint from a producer for depicting a female protagonist who acts at her own initiative to take off her clothes.
Her regular movies in recent years include “In Search of a Lost Writer: Wandering in the World of the Seventh Sense,” which features a fabled female writer.
“Lily Festival,” which focuses on the sexuality of older people, won the semi-grand prix award and other prizes at the Torino International Women’s Film Festival.
Asked why she chose Kaneko as the subject of her latest film, Hamano said: “Fumiko voiced objections against unreasonable things and fought with all her strength. Things are nonsense right now when (politicians) even evade responsibility for war. I want to throw a bomb called Fumiko into this day and age.”
Hamano doesn’t embrace anarchism.
But she said: “Fumiko argued that all people were equal by the sole virtue of being human. I want to say, ‘Resist authority and don’t remain silent.’”
“Kaneko Fumiko” will be released at the Eurospace theater in Tokyo’s Shibuya district before opening at Kyoto Cinema in Kyoto, Cine Nouveau in Osaka and elsewhere.
Comments
Sweet. The movie Anarchist…
anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/13/2026 - 11:46
Sweet. The movie Anarchist from Colony left me disappointed on a few fronts. Hopefully this one will do her justive
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