What if one life could contain a hundred different lives? Ryuya Suzuki’s Jinsei follows an unnamed man from bullied schoolboy to aspiring J-pop idol, outcast, leader and oracle, with each new chapter bringing a new name – and a whole new reality. What begins as an intimate coming-of-age story soon hurtles into something much stranger: social satire, revenge drama, dystopian sci-fi and existential fever dream.
And then there’s the animation. Suzuki wrote, directed, drew, edited and scored the entire 93-minute film himself, completing this wildly ambitious debut in just 18 months. The result is raw, lo-fi and gloriously unpredictable – a handmade universe that can veer from tenderness to violence, pop culture absurdity to cosmic speculation without warning.
Forget everything you think you know about Japanese animation. Jinsei is an exhilarating one-man trip through fame, identity, catastrophe and the strange business of being alive. Come for the J-pop, stay for the apocalypse—and see where Suzuki takes you next.
JINSEI – Ryuya Suzuki, JAPAN
From birth to death, we collect names – some affectionate, some cruel – as we navigate the strange journey of life. Against a backdrop of war, exploitation, ageing and loss, one unlikely protagonist rises to the top in this bittersweet portrait of a life shaped by the world around us.
2025 93’00 min
Ryuya Suzuki
Born in 1994 in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from the Film & Media Department at Tohoku University of Art and Design, Suzuki initially aspired to become a live-action film director but found himself working as a manager at an oyster bar in Kabukicho, Tokyo. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he began teaching himself animation, resulting in two acclaimed independent short films – Mahoraba and Lawless Love – which went on to receive numerous awards at domestic indie film festivals. In 2022, his omnibus collection Ryuya Suzuki Short Films: Three Men was released theatrically. His feature-length animation debut, Jinsei, was entirely hand-drawn by Suzuki alone at his family home in Sendai, funded through crowdfunding. It is a true one-person achievement. As well as writing and directing Jinsei, Suzuki also composed the music and sound design and is the film’s editor.
Our Funding Partners
With Special Thanks to The Elf Factory, official sponsor of LIAF 2026.
With Special Thanks to the Arts Council England
Event supported by Film Hub London, managed by Film London. Proud to be a partner of the BFI Film Audience Network, funded by the National Lottery.
Venue
Opened in March 2022, The Garden Cinema screens repertory seasons and new releases from around the world. Being truly independent, they choose films that are worth seeing, films you’d be happy to see more than once. Films of all genres that are true to life, well made, that left us feeling better or wiser for having seen them. For more information about The Garden Cinema and how to get there, find out more.
The Garden Cinema
