Lily Franky and Fan Bingbing step out of their comfort zones entirely in Wayne Wang’s melodramatic, twisted yet whimsical portrait of seduction that aches for affection.
Lily Franky has long been director Koreeda-san’s muse — and for good reasons. Watch his performances closely, and you’ll see it — the range, the quiet power. Haven’t yet? Let the worry drift away. This TIFF’s Gala Presentations entry may be your next chance to witness what he carries into cinema.
Utsugi is old, and the stroke has taken his left side. Daily tasks slip from his grip, and even his body’s deeper desires have been dulled. He watches his daughter-in-law, Susu — she tends to take care of him with reluctance, yet something in the way she moves through the world draws him in. The space between them narrows. And Utsugi, helpless, falls into a spiral of affection that encircles him without end.
The moment that puzzles yet intrigues in the film most is where desire and suffering entwine — seeking pleasure to drown out suffocation, and the union that always binds, carrying its own dangers. It speaks extensively of attraction, wherein morality dissolves and no action feels inherently wrong, for this may be Utsugi’s end-living zone. Attraction thus becomes his ultimate key. There are moments when Utsugi imagines vividly, living a dream-life while remaining idle in reality. Susu, meanwhile, is stuck in her own depression — but she uses Utsugi as a toy — whether it’s psychological or an attempt to escape her loss remains unclear. They begin spending time together, and jealousy or possessiveness creeps in. Each carries their own despair — loss of closeness, need for companionship. And this time, the opposites of age attract. They exist in this sequence, and it tears at the family — rifts, nuances, everything in between slowly.
Another highlight is Utsugi’s poetic narration that goes beyond imagination — it reaches into the empty spaces inside him, the voids his desire longs to fill. We watch him disappear into his diary, lost in its pages. Perhaps it is his bible, the thing he holds most sacred. The film asks — why does love blind us entirely? Where does love end and the forbidden begin? What separates perversion from flirtation? How do we know the difference? Can age be only a number, stripped of morality, when affection is involved? The film finds a quiet delight in the exchange of Mandarin and Japanese between Utsugi and Susu. When actress Fan Bingbing speaks Japanese, it feels like watching a dream unfold in another world — a collaboration that becomes something absolute in cinema.
Adapted from the novel by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Diary of a Mad Old Man presents a twisted and poetic portrait of affection, characterised by numerous layers and depths that examine how seduction is experimented with — whether mildly, whether it expands into broader territory, or whether it remains entirely tense. Director Wayne Wang takes these fragments of depression and loneliness, and eventually shapes them into something whimsical, something honest. The film pushes against normality with moments so full of desire they blur the edges of reality itself. Maybe this is Wang’s reply to Babygirl, or maybe the only thing that separates them is time, while the same current spins around them both, tuned to a single wavelength.
The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) runs September 10–20, 2026
