It has been a very good year for Japanese cinema — and Cannes is where the country has come to prove it. In the main competition, buzz has been building around three of Japan’s previous Cannes heroes. Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters, 2018) returns with Sheep in the Box; Ryûsuke Hamaguchi — best screenplay winner in 2021 for Drive My Car — presents his French co-production All of a Sudden; and Koji Fukada, who took the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2016 for Harmonium, competes with Nagi Notes. All three films explore questions of family and friendship. Japan is also looking ahead. On May 15, the Japan Goes to Cannes night at the Marché du Film will present five in-production projects that speak to the strength and diversity of contemporary Japanese cinema. Among them is Kore-eda’s next film, Look Back — currently in postproduction — which traces the 13-year friendship between two girls who bond over a love of manga. It will be the director’s first manga adaptation, and the story of how he …