Guillaume Senez’s “A Missing Part” stands out in the confusing world of foreign film as a touching look at love’s toughest limits. The story takes place in Tokyo, a very complicated city, and is about a French expat named Jay (Romain Duris) who is stuck in the harsh Japanese custody laws and desperately wants to get back in touch with his daughter. Still, their connection is more like a memory than a real one.
Senez, known for telling complex stories, creates stories beyond typical stories about expatriates. This isn’t just another story about moving from one culture to another; it’s a deep reflection on parental love, governmental barriers, and the invisible threads that connect people’s lives across borders and laws.
People are very excited about the movie because it had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and is now playing at the Seville Film Festival. Produced by Versus Production and distributed around the world by Be For Films, “A Missing Part” is Senez and Duris’s second strong collaboration. They have previously worked together on projects that received great reviews.
The movie is more than just a custody battle; it looks like a highly human look at longing, resilience, and the lengths parents will go to stay connected. Senez turns a personal story into a general statement about the strength of love, making viewers think about what family ties are really about.
It shows systemic problems and emotional complexity without holding back, and “A Missing Part” takes the audience into a world where silence says volumes and hope persists against what seems like impossible odds.
Broken Bonds: Navigating Separation
Jay’s world is a well-organized shell of loneliness and quiet desperation. He is French and lives in Tokyo. He drives a taxi through the neon-lit streets of the city, and his whole life is just work and hunger. Jay hasn’t been able to see his daughter Lily in nine years because of the law. Lily was only three years old when her mother took her away, leaving Jay with only memories and a deep sense of loss.
His life takes an unexpected turn when he is given a fairly normal school run. A 12-year-old girl gets into his cab and might be the daughter he’s been looking for. Jay handles this possible meeting with heartbreaking subtlety, showing how well he can control his emotions. He doesn’t show himself right away; instead, he watches and gathers small pieces of possibility.
The story unfolds like a delicate origami paper, each carefully folded moment showing a new aspect of Jay’s difficult life. He meets Jessica, who is also from France and is fighting for control of her child. She becomes a reflection of his past problems. Through her honest desperation, we can see that Jay has already been through the system that erases parental ties on purpose, especially for parents not from the country.
Japanese law becomes an unnoticed bad guy in Jay’s story. With the “clean break” method of family separation, foreign parents like Jay can be cut off from their kids completely, making them pay alimony while not being able to see or talk to them in any meaningful way. Cultural and legal issues hamper his efforts to get back in touch with Lily, and every interaction is a minefield of possible rejection.
Jay’s quiet strength is what makes his story so interesting. He learns Japanese, gets used to Japanese culture, and keeps his daughter’s bedroom clean for nine years, making it a shrine to loss and hope. His character shows a deep love that can’t be taken away by law, along with a drive that burns beneath a surface that seems passive.
The movie’s ending doesn’t come from a big fight but from small, powerful moments of connection. With planned changes to the law in 2026 that promise joint custody, Jay’s story is no longer just about him; it’s also about parental rights, cultural displacement, and the human need to belong.
Emotional Landscapes: Performances that Resonate
Romain Duris turns Jay into a model of controlled emotional complexity. He walks a tightrope of controlled panic as a man who has been taken out of his daughter’s life over and over again but won’t give up. Every move seems planned, and every look carries the weight of nine years of unspoken desire.
Jay is an example of displacement because he is French and lives in Tokyo. He has learned Japanese, studied the subtleties of Japanese culture, and changed so much that he is almost invisible. Still, he feels like an outsider, a gaijin, managing a legal system that seems set up to keep him on the edges. Duris does a great job of capturing this tension; his character is resigned and filled with quiet purpose.
Lily by Mei Cirne-Masuki is a big surprise. At first, she is shy and unsure, but over time, she shows more emotional depth that changes the story. Her scenes with Duris are amazing. There are unspoken connections between them, like a lifetime of being apart, expressed through shy looks and awkward interactions.
In contrast to Jay’s story, Judith Chemla’s Jessica tells a different story. She shows the initial shock of a possible parental split; her anger and desperation are like Jay’s hard-won resignation. As they talk to each other, they start to think deeply about how unfair systems are. Jay shares his hard-won advice from years of dealing with bureaucratic heartbreak.
Keiko by Yumi Narita shows how complicated cultural relationships are. She’s not just a bad guy; societal norms and her fears shape her personality. Her opposition to Jay getting back in touch with Lily is protective and painful, showing how a mother deals with loss and control in a complex way.
The acts weave together to make a tapestry of how vulnerable people are. Each character feels deeply moved by their cultural, emotional, or family displacement. Not only are they facing the law, but they are also dealing with deep issues of identity, connection, and belonging.
Duris holds the movie together with an amazing level of subtlety. Watch how he turns a passion that could be awkward—keeping his daughter’s bedroom clean and quietly following her—into a heartbreaking display of parental love. His performance does not play with feelings; instead, it shows them with surgical accuracy.
The story that comes out is more than just a custody fight. It’s a deeply human look at how love can survive societal erasure, how connection can go beyond legal limits, and how hope can last even in the worst situations.
Boundaries of Belonging: Humanity Beyond Borders
At its heart, “A Missing Part” deeply reflects how people connect, shaped by the harsh realities of legal and cultural limits. The movie isn’t just about kid custody; it also shows how institutions can break up personal relationships, especially between people from different cultures.
The Japanese court system acts as an unseen enemy, using a “clean break” method to surgically cut off ties with parents. For foreign parents like Jay, this means having to pay alimony and being cut out of their children’s lives at the same time. The movie shows how the law can be used to hurt people emotionally by turning personal ties into business transactions.
Immigration isn’t just a change in where someone lives; it’s also a discussion of identity that goes on all the time. Assimilation is a hard thing to do, as Jay’s experience shows. Even though he learns Japanese and knows cultural differences, he still feels like an outsider. His efforts to fit in, like hiding his tattoo in the bathroom, show the constant small negotiations immigrants face daily.
Loneliness is like quiet music that runs through the story. Jay’s taxi becomes a metaphorical bubble that moves through Tokyo but is ultimately cut off. His interactions with Jessica and possible views of his daughter give him hope in a life that would otherwise be lonely. These moments show a truth that everyone knows: connecting with other people is not only desirable, it’s necessary for life.
The movie does a great job of turning normal immigrant stories on their heads. It doesn’t show a disadvantaged person from the Global South; instead, it focuses on a white European who is being left out of the system. This point of view makes people think about how they think about displacement and identity.
Ultimately, “A Missing Part” isn’t just about lawsuits or cultural differences. It’s a deeply humanist look at resilience—how love endures institutional indifference, hope endures systematic erasure, and connection can cross what seems like impossible obstacles.
The coming changes to the law in 2026 that will allow joint custody aren’t just a plot point; they’re a sign of hope that big changes can happen when people’s stories are finally heard.
Crafting Silence: The Art of Unspoken Narratives
Guillaume Senez’s arrangement of “A Missing Part” is masterful; he turns quiet into a story. He doesn’t like using melodramatic patterns when directing. Instead, he makes movies that say a lot with simple movements and well-planned emotional tension moments.
Improvising becomes an important part of telling a story. Senez tells his actors to be themselves in their roles, which lets the dialogue come up naturally. This method stands out with Romain Duris, who not only learned Japanese for the part but also started making up dialogue in the language on the spot, which gave Jay’s character more real cultural navigation.
The brilliant thing about the script is how subtly it is put together. Senez doesn’t use standard backstory techniques like flashbacks to build Jay’s story. Instead, she uses interactions that happen in the present. Conversations with Jessica, short meetings, and Jay’s daily routines slowly show how he feels. Each scene is a piece of a bigger emotional puzzle that lets viewers put together what he went through.
Senez chooses not to show Japan in a way that is too exotic, refusing the usual touristy images. We see Tokyo as a normal, real place that feels more like a person than a picture on a poster. This way of telling the story gives the story’s complicated emotions a solid base and makes cultural displacement feel real.
At emotional high points, the director’s reserve is at its strongest. Confrontational moments are short and to the point, and emotion is unnecessary. When Jay finally faces his ex-wife, the scene is filled with controlled anger. Every word of Duris’s performance shows years of pain she has been trying to hide.
Senez knows that small, everyday moments affect people’s emotions more than big, dramatic actions. The movie turns into a reflection on waiting, hoping, and surviving systemic apathy; it tells a story through what isn’t said.
Senez turns “A Missing Part” from a simple custody story into a deep look at human resilience by putting authenticity over spectacle.
Urban Shadows: Mapping Emotional Landscapes
Tokyo in “A Missing Part” isn’t a picture-postcard dream; it’s a real person who is complicated, sometimes uninterested, and always difficult. The cinematographer, Elin Kirschfink, turns the city into a psychological landscape. The neon-colored streets and dark cab interiors represent Jay’s inner world.
The visual method doesn’t use touristy clichés. No longer are there the usual views of pristine shrines or busy Shibuya crossings. Instead, we see small, almost suffocating urban settings that reflect how Jay keeps his feelings inside. His taxi turns into a mobile confessional—a bubble of loneliness moving through the city’s veins, with each shot carefully put together to show how disconnected he feels.
The movie’s visuals are mostly nightscapes. The blues, grays, and yellows aren’t very bright, creating a mood that is always sad. Street scenes are both crowded and empty, capturing the strange feeling of being alone in a city. Kirschfink’s camera doesn’t just watch; it takes on Jay’s point of view and turns ordinary places into emotional landscapes.
The photography tells the story. When Jay is with other people, the camera is tight and controlled, but when he is by himself, the frame is wider and more open, quietly showing how his mind is broken. Every choice of visuals feels like it was made on purpose; each frame makes an emotional statement about being moved, desire, and the invisible lines that separate people.
The movie does something amazing by not making Tokyo seem too exotic: it shows the city as a complicated ecosystem where people’s stories sometimes overlap and cross over. The result is a visual poem about feeling alone in the city, where every street corner can bring people together or break their hearts.
Sonic Echoes: Melodies of Displacement
The music in “A Missing Part” is more than just background noise; it becomes a story language that speaks to the emotional depths of Jay’s trip that aren’t said out loud. Olivier Marguerit’s music doesn’t just go with the story; it becomes a part of it, creating soundscapes that reflect Jay’s longing and disconnect.
French chanson songs are carefully placed throughout the movie to connect Jay’s past and present. These pieces of music sound like memories—weary and nostalgic, they remind us of the cultural roots he’s left behind. There is a sadness in each song that fits perfectly with the movie’s look at what it’s like to live abroad.
Marguerit’s original piece doesn’t use typical dramatic music. Instead, he creates simple landscapes with few piano notes and light electronic undercurrents that make you feel as lost as Jay. The music doesn’t swell dramatically at important emotional times. Instead, it builds a quiet, almost invisible tension.
The brilliant thing about the music is how restrained it is. Like Jay’s character, the music doesn’t make a scene—it just creeps in, adding emotional depth through hints rather than outright claims. Each note sounds like an emotional whisper about loss, hope, and the unseen links that connect people’s lives across cultures.
Resilience Unfolding: Mapping Heartache’s Terrain
Jay’s inner life is a great example of how to change quietly. What starts out as pure resignation—a cab driver moving through Tokyo like a ghost—develops into something more complex: a quiet, burning determination that won’t be put out by the government’s indifference.
His journey isn’t very exciting. It’s a tiny protest that’s shown through small movements. Keeping his daughter’s bedroom clean for nine years is an act of deep love; it becomes a shrine to hope that won’t fall apart. Each time they see possible views of Lily, they are not desperate but rather carefully navigating their feelings.
The movie is emotionally brilliant because it doesn’t go overboard. Being sad doesn’t mean you lost; it means you made it through. When Jay learns Japanese, follows cultural norms, and changes without losing who he is, he shows an amazing amount of inner strength. When he talks to Jessica, an expat facing systemic erasure, they have moments of unexpected solidarity.
There are times of humor amid deep sadness. A shared taxi ride, a quick smile, or a small cultural misunderstanding can become deep statements about how people are connected. The emotional arc doesn’t end with big, dramatic reveals but with quiet, powerful insights about how love endures.
What comes out is a complex picture of hope, not as a booming flame but as a pilot light that won’t go out. Jay’s journey shows us all how to keep our respect and connections when it seems like the system is meant to separate us.
The movie makes the point that mental survival isn’t about winning but about keeping going—about keeping your hope even when things look like they can’t be solved.
The Review
A Missing Part
"A Missing Part" is more than just a typical custody story; it also deeply reflects human connection, displacement, and strength. Guillaume Senez made a movie that says a lot with its silence, making a personal story into a universal look at how long love can last. Romain Duris gives a performance defining his career, turning a possible melodrama into a detailed character study of quiet determination. The film's strength is that it doesn't try to make things more exciting than they are. Instead, it shows the special in ordinary things, forcing viewers to rethink how they think about belonging, parenthood, and hope. The movie gives a truly honest look at navigating different cultures by rejecting stereotypical images of Tokyo and expat life. Its emotional depth, masterful cinematography, and restrained storytelling make it a truly moving movie experience that stays with you long after the credits roll.
PROS
- Exceptional lead performance by Romain Duris
- Nuanced portrayal of cultural displacement
- Authentic representation of Tokyo
- Subtle, non-melodramatic approach to emotional storytelling
- Masterful cinematography
- Complex exploration of legal and personal boundaries
- Minimal but powerful soundtrack
CONS
- Deliberately slow pacing
- Minimal dramatic action
- Challenging narrative for viewers expecting traditional storytelling
- Limited character development for supporting roles
- Requires patient viewing
