In the spirit of Ed Wood and Notting Hill comes director Kenichi Ugana’s I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn. Playing at Fantasia Film Festival 2025.
There is something altogether Ed Wood-like about the way this delightfully deranged ode to underground DIY filmmaking is both a love story and a love letter to the art of filmmaking. Writer/director Kenichi Ugana’s I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn is one of the most refreshing takes on filmmaking and love in recent memory.
Super Star Japanese actor Shina (Ui Mihara) is in New York City to visit her boyfriend Ren (Katsunari Nakagawa). In need of some downtime, as acting and promotion of her work has taken its toll. An unexpected series of events leaves her in a city she does not know, whose primary language she does not speak, and, most importantly, without her phone. This sets in motion a series of events that put her into the orbit of ultra low-budget filmmaker Jack (Esteven Munoz) and his ragtag film crew working for Crummy Pictures, making $1000 movies for producer Rusty Fresterson (Larry Fessenden).
I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn is a wonderfully low-stakes comedy that’s high on charm. Ugana’s film is refreshing in that it shows people making the art they want to make on their terms. The infectious nature of creating that art and how it energizes people, not for the sake of making money, but for the sake of creation. Shina and Jack are cosmically put together by chance, and they bounce off one another in the way that great collaborators do. So much so, the film’s biggest joke is that the language barrier is not a barrier at all because of how in sync they become. Part of what makes the film special is the chemistry between stars Ui Mihara and Esteven Munoz. Between Mihara’s often deadpan delivery and Munoz’s manic excitement, there’ a middle ground where the two meet during their scenes that’s magic.
The film does not lean into any forced, manufactured drama, though there is a certain amount of tension that comes with the premise. Rest assured that Ugana’s script never falters into those sorts of conventions at any time. The film, even in its final act, always remains the kind of easy-going charmer that exudes a confidence that most rom-coms with studio budgets could dream of mustering. I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn delivers both the romance (in the traditional form and romance of movie making) and comedy (see the former statement about romance), with the confidence of a blockbuster.
Please stick around for the credits for a joyous post-credit sequence and a perfect end credit that shows director Kenichi Ugana understands the specific world of filmmaking he’s just made his film about.