ComingSoon can exclusively reveal the trailer for Akashi, the upcoming multilingual film starring Mayumi Yoshida and Shogun’s Hiro Kanagawa. The film debuted at the Vancouver International Film Festival and swept awards across numerous festivals.
Yoshida’s directorial debut will begin its theatrical run on November 13, 2026, with screenings at Vancouver’s VIFF Centre. It will then make its way to Toronto and other cities, distributed by KinoSmith. The film also won five awards at the Whistler Film Festival, including the coveted Borsos prize for Best Canadian Feature.
Akashi follows a multigenerational love story told across parallel timelines. Yoshia plays Kana, a struggling artist in Vancouver who returns to Tokyo for her grandmother’s funeral. As she reflects on a secret only she and her grandmother shared, she unexpectedly reconnects with an old love, Hiro.
The second storyline, set in the past, traces her grandfather’s decades-long secret affair. Throughout the course of the film, Kana confronts hidden family truths and begins to navigate the complexities of love, sacrifice, and the choices that shape a life between desire and duty.
Check out the Akashi trailer below.
What do we see in the Akashi trailer?
The Akashi trailer opens with Kana being welcomed by her family in Japan, who repeatedly remind her that she looks foreign to them. As she struggles to reconnect with her family, she learns of her grandmother’s passing.
Kana later reconnects with an old flame, Hiro, only to discover that he is now divorced. The trailer then shifts to a memory of her grandmother, who reveals that she knew about her husband’s infidelity.
While most of the trailer is in black and white, the final moments are shown in color, revealing the various characters that have left a mark on Kana.
Besides Yoshida and Kanagawa, Akashi also stars Hana Kino, Ryo Tajima, Chieko Matsubara, Kunio Murai, Shun Sugata, Bun Kimura, Sayaka Kunisada, and Jess McLeod. Tyler Hagan and Nach Dudsdeemaytha produce the film. Executive producers include Julie Waters, Evan Dyal, Mallory Schwartz, Kathleen Hepburn, and Justin Ambrosino, with Hiroko Oda of Flag Inc. serving as the executive in charge of production in Japan.
Yoshida previously appeared as the Crown Princess in The Man in the High Castle and has starred in Send the Rain and The Mother, alongside voice acting roles in various video games. She also served as an associate producer on the Apple TV+ series Sunny.
The film is distributed by Rabbit House in Japan, while Canoe Film handles international markets outside Japan and Canada. Akashi was produced by Musubi Arts and Experimental Forest Films in association with Watermark Media, with shooting taking place on location in Vancouver and Tokyo.
