Japanese director Naomi Kawase has been accused of physically assaulting an employee in both 2015 and 2019. The Japanese magazine Shukan Bunshun revealed according to The Hollywood Reporter that the filmmaker caused an employee to look swollen by hitting him.
Kawase, who has already won several major awards during her career at the Cannes Film Festival and was also a member of the jury, would be on the set of the film in 2019. True Mothers kicked an assistant director in the stomach.
The assistant would have touched her to make her aware that something had gone wrong with a shot, after which she yelled at him and used violence. The film crew resigned after the incident. Kawase wrote in a response to the article on her website that the incident has been dealt with internally.
The magazine also subsequently revealed a 2015 incident where an employee at Kawase’s company office was attacked by her. She would have knocked a man to the ground and dealt even more blows when he was already on the ground. Other employees are said to have fled the office during the incident. When they returned, the employee’s face was visibly swollen. The employee, who immediately resigned, confirms in the Japanese magazine that the incident took place, but does not want to say anything more about it.
Of documentary Tokyo 2020 Side A van Kawase on last summer’s Olympics premiered in Japan last week. The film achieved disappointing visitor numbers. It is not clear whether this has to do with the controversy surrounding the director. A second part of the documentary should be released next year.
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