An adorable little Japanese boy plays with his parents at the playground, plants a tree in their front yard and snuggles in bed reading The Little Prince. All appears sweet and natural until bedtime, when instead of slipping beneath the covers, he takes a seat on his charging station and powers down, a small button on the back of his night emitting an eerie blue glow.

So begins the first official trailer (see it below) for Japanese arthouse star Hirokazu Kore-eda ‘s latest feature, Sheep in the Box . The film premiered in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — where Kore-eda won the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters in 2018 — and it will open in New York and Los Angeles on July 24, before rolling out nationwide over the weeks that follow.

Koreeda’s 17th feature unfolds in a Japan a half-step into the future, where drones deliver everything, the cars are all electric and generative AI has reached into the most intimate corners of family life.…