RULES OF LIVING

Learning to Rewrite the Rules that Bind Us

Venue(s): Shinjuku Piccadilly and many others across the country. Check the bottom of this page.
From September 19 (Fri), 2025 to October 9 (Thu), 2025
Language: Japanese, English with English, Japanese subtitles
Official website: r-living.jp/
Theater website: www.smt-cinema.com/sp/site/shinjuku/
Trailer: https://r-living.jp/#trailer

Talk event: Stage greeting events at Shinjuku Piccadilly on September 20

Title: ルール・オブ・リビング　“わたし”の生き方・再起動 (RULES OF LIVING　Watashi no Ikikata Saikido)
Director: Greg Dale (グレッグ・デール)
Duration: 109 mins

Tokyo Filmgoer is always happy to hear about the release of films set in Japan but created by international production teams, and Rules of Living is a perfect example. A romantic dramedy about an unusual mid-life relationship between a Japanese divorcée and an American backpacker, it highlights how cultural differences can actually open people up to new possibilities, no matter their age or social position. The bilingual film is now screening with both English and Japanese subtitles at Shinjuku Piccadilly and in theaters across Japan, and is sure to prompt giggles of recognition from international audiences (and from Japanese, too).

The writer-director (and star), Greg Dale, is a Japan-based New Yorker who’s been active in theater, TV and film for several decades, and the producer, Jeffrey Rowe, is a filmmaker and actor based between Japan and Canada. They first began working on what became Dale’s directorial debut during the Covid pandemic, and after a successful festival run last year, are finally opening it in Japan.

Rules of Living stars the always great Kaho Minami as Mikuko Abe, a career woman who’s living alone in spatial luxury after her divorce and her mother’s move into hospice care. She’s stuck in a job she doesn’t love and a relationship with an elite businessman (Kippei Shiina) that gives her no real pleasure; and she can’t get her irresponsible daughter (Sumire), who’s backpacking around the world, to listen to her.

When Vincent (Dale), an American who has met said daughter overseas, shows up on her doorstep and asks to stay “just for 3 months,” she’d like nothing to do with him. But he has money for rent, so Mikuko reluctantly agrees to let him stay in a spare room. After weeks of often hilarious miscommunications, the oddball roommates begin to start talking about themselves. As they navigate cultural differences and discuss societal expectations, each begins to make discoveries that eventually help them find a new sense of purpose.

Shinjuku Piccadilly

Japan-wide opening schedule

From Sept. 19 (Fri), 2025
Tokyo
Shinjuku Piccadilly
MOVIX Kameari
AEON Cinema Itabashi
AEON Cinema Hinode
Hokkaido
Satsugeki
AEON Cinema Ebetsu
AEON Cinema Kushiro
Miyagi
MOVIX Sendai
AEON Cinema Natori
Yamagata
AEON Cinema Tendo
Ibaraki
AEON Cinema Moriya
Tochigi
MOVIX Utsunomiya
Gunma
MOVIX Isesaki
AEON Cinema Takasaki
Saitama
MOVIX Saitama
AEON Cinema Kasukabe
Kanagawa
AEON Cinema Kohoku New Town
Ishikawa
AEON Cinema Hakusan
Aichi
Midland Square Cinema
MOVIX Miyoshi
AEON Cinema Okazaki
Kyoto
MOVIX Kyoto
Osaka
Namba Parks Cinema
MOVIX Sakai
Wakayama
AEON Cinema Wakayama
Hiroshima
MOVIX Hiroshima Station
Kumamoto
Kumamoto Piccadilly

From Sept. 26 (Fri), 2025
Tokyo
Hall Mixa

From Oct. 3 (Fri), 2025
Chiba
Cinema Sunshine Yūkarigaoka
Okinawa
Cinema Rycom

From Oct. 17 (Fri), 2025
Okinawa
Cinema Palette