Performance Introduction

Lights, Camera, Action!
A dance performance and a film production witnessed simultaneously.
Eight years after the moving experience of KISS & CRY, the long-awaited second work COLD BLOOD finally arrives in Japan!

Belgium’s two geniuses—choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey and film director Jaco Van Dormael—return with another extraordinary creation. Their miraculous hybrid of stage art and cinema, KISS & CRY, achieved an unprecedented long run worldwide and had its legendary one-night-only Japan premiere in Kochi in 2017. Its companion piece, COLD BLOOD, will once again have its exclusive Japan premiere in Kochi.

The protagonists are the performers’ hands. In a darkened theatre, guided by a voice that lulls the audience into reverie, fingers dance across miniature sets, quietly giving rise to “Seven Stories of Death.” At the very last moment of life, what surfaces is one single, unexpected memory: the feel of silky skin, an afternoon scented with vanilla, the sound of shears cutting wool… These seemingly trivial yet ultimate memories come alive with an intensity beyond imagination.

Life’s subtleties as captured by the “camera” projected on a giant screen, and the shifting world perceived through the audience’s “eyes”—an innovative staging where cinema and theatre intersect vividly depicts the delicate in-between of life’s joys and sorrows.

The Japanese voiceover narration is once again performed by Lily Franky, whose work in KISS & CRY was highly acclaimed. With De Mey and Van Dormael weaving humor and lyricism, this jewel of a stage piece celebrates life through death. Experience it in the theatre.

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Profiles

Michèle Anne De Mey
Born in Brussels in 1959. Choreographer and dancer. She studied dance at Mudra, the school founded by Maurice Béjart, and co-created Fase (1982) with Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Adriana Borriello, and Fumiyo Ikeda, leading to the founding of the company ROSAS. In 1989 she founded her own company, Astragales, gaining wide attention with Symphonia Eroica. From 2005 for ten years she served as joint artistic director of Charleroi Danses, the only choreographic center in Wallonia, together with her brother Thierry De Mey (filmmaker/composer), choreographer Pierre Droulers, and Vincent Thirion. Known for her finely tuned synchrony with music, narrative qualities, and choreography exploring the subconscious, she is also committed to nurturing young artists and has fostered many of the next generation.

Jaco Van Dormael
Born in Ixelles in 1957. Film director and stage director. After childhood in Germany, he studied film in Brussels and Paris. His debut Toto the Hero (1991) won the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He went on to make The Eighth Day (1996), Mr. Nobody (2009), and The Brand New Testament (2015). With his poetic, fantastical visual style depicting the comedy and tragedy of life, his small but exceptional body of work is regarded as consisting only of masterpieces. He has also directed opera and created comics. His collaborations with Michèle Anne De Mey, KISS & CRY (2011) and COLD BLOOD (2015), became international hits running for years around the world. He is currently working on a new film, The Magician of Auschwitz.

Lily Franky
Born in Fukuoka in 1963. Illustrator, designer, writer, photographer, songwriter, actor—he works across multiple fields. His first novel Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad (2006) won the Japan Booksellers’ Award, while his picture book Oden-kun was adapted into an animated series. On film, he won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best New Actor for All Around Us (2008, dir. Ryosuke Hashiguchi), and the Japan Academy Prize for Best Supporting Actor for Like Father, Like Son (2013, dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda), which also won him the Outstanding Supporting Actor Award alongside The Devil’s Path (2013, dir. Takashi Shiraishi). At the 71st Cannes Film Festival, he starred in Shoplifters (2018, dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda), which won the Palme d’Or. Recent films include Cottontail (2024, dir. Patrick Dickinson), Renoir(2025, dir. Chie Hayakawa), and Harbin (2025, dir. Woo Min-ho).

Shoko Kashiwagi
Translator of film and English literature. Formerly active in theatre before moving into translation. She translates across diverse fields—film (subtitles and dubbing), books, picture books, plays. Major works include Breaking Bad (subtitles), Maria (dubbing), Macbeth (dubbing). She has also translated and supervised many National Theatre Live productions screened in cinemas in Japan, including Dr. Strangelove. She also translated the narration for KISS & CRY.

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Cast & Staff

Original Idea by
Michèle Anne De Mey, Jaco Van Dormael & le collectif Kiss & Cry

Texts
Thomas Gunzig

In Collective Creation with
Grégory Grosjean, Thomas Gunzig, Julien Lambert, Sylvie Olivé, Nicolas Olivier

With the Participation of
Thomas Beni, Gladys Brookfield-Hampson, Boris Cekevda, Gabriella Iacono, Aurélie Leporcq, Bruno Olivier, Stefano Serra

Co-Producers
Charleroi Danses (BE), la Fondation Mons 2015 (BE), KVS (BE), Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg (LUX), le Printemps des comédiens (FR), Torino Danza (IT), Canadian Stage (CA), Théâtre de Carouge (CH), Théâtre des Célestins (FR), La Comète Scène Nationale de Châlons-en-Champagne (FR)

Japan Tour By
Michèle-Anne De Mey, Harry Cleven, Julien Lambert, Aurélie Leporcq, Yann Hoogstoel, Boris Cekevda, Ivan Hernandez, Pierre-Antoine Martin, Nora Alberdi Perez, Denis Robert, Benjamin Dandoy, Gladys Brookfield-Hampson

Local Staff By
ZAK (ST-ROBO), So Ozaki, Kotaro Konishi, Kenichi Eguchi, Ken Hirata, Takemura Design & Planning, Call Inc., Greenroom

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Related Program: Kinema M × The Museum of Art, Kochi

To commemorate the Japan premiere of COLD BLOOD, a special screening of two films by director Jaco Van Dormael has been scheduled!

Dates｜October 3 (Fri) – October 9 (Thu)
① The Brand New Testament (2015, PG12) 10:00–12:05
② Toto the Hero (1991) 12:15–14:05
※ On October 5 (Sun), audiences can attend both the screening and the performance consecutively!

Venue｜Kinema M (1-13-8 Obiyamachi, Kochi City) TEL. 088-824-8381
Tickets (per screening)｜General ¥2,000 / University & Vocational Students ¥1,500 / Seniors ¥1,300, etc.

Special Offers

• Show your COLD BLOOD ticket at Kinema M and receive a discount of ¥500 (General/University/Vocational Students) or ¥300 (Seniors) off the regular ticket price. (Not combinable with other discounts)

• Show your Kinema M ticket at the COLD BLOOD performance reception and receive a complimentary program booklet from the 2017 KISS & CRY performance.

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Film Summaries

The Brand New Testament (2015)
A smash hit across Europe, nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
“Happy Future, Incoming!”—What is the ultimate “brand new testament” sent by God?
God lives with his family in an apartment in Brussels, idly controlling the world with his computer. One day, his 10-year-old daughter Ea, wishing for humans to live free of fate, hacks into her father’s computer and sends emails to people telling them their remaining lifespans—chaos ensues! Ea embarks on a journey to save the world, and along the way, her quirky little miracles unexpectedly resolve people’s troubles: a salaryman follows birds to the Arctic, a hitman falls in love with an immortal woman, a housewife falls in love with a gorilla… each discovers their reason to live. But when Ea meets Willy, whose death is imminent—what will be the [happiest] email ever sent from God’s computer to humankind?

Toto the Hero (1991)
An immortal classic. Winner of the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Thomas, who spent his childhood waiting for his father’s return alongside his beloved sister Alice, dreamed of becoming the detective “Toto the Hero.” Now living in a nursing home, Thomas is convinced that, during a fire at the maternity ward, he was switched at birth with his wealthy neighbor Alfred Kant, and that all his happiness was stolen from him. His mind floods with memories: dreaming of being TV detective Toto, seeing Alice set fire to the Kant house and vanish into the flames… Years later, as a young man, he falls in love with a woman who resembles Alice—leading to a passionate, dramatic life story.