It’s a grey day in Osaka and pretty cold but I’m staying indoors for most of it since I am cleaning video game consoles. Anyway, The Rotterdam International Film Festival starts later this month and it features a plethora films from Japan that range from the familiar to the new, plus there’s some interesting little shorts. It’s a programme packed with Japanese films but actually using the website to find them was irritating due to the search options, the way information was hidden and the overall look. I’m not a fan. I searched for it so you don’t have to.

Enough of my whining, there are many great films on offer from Roman Porno to yakuza comedy and this is another great year for Rotterdam.

Here’s what’s on offer (click on the titles to be taken to pages with more information):

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Haruneko      

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はるねこ 「Haruneko」

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director:  Sora Hokimoto

Writer: Sora Hokimoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Yota Kawase, Lily, Min Tanaka, Ryuto Iwata, Keisuke Yamamoto,

Website IMDB

One of the most frustrating things about my time in Japan (and there have been few frustrations) has been my lack of Japanese practice and my lack of movie-watching. I just haven’t done much of either and there’s so many great things going on that I am missing out on such as this film which came out in December and was screened in Tokyo when I was still there. I’m now in Osaka and I haven’t watched it but people in Rotterdam are getting the chance to see it. The film looks great, genuinely interesting and beautiful based on what is shown in the trailer.

It’s produced by Shinji Aoyama (Eureka) and it is the debut film of Sora Hokimoto. It’s described as a “feverish musical dream that recalls Shuji Terayama” so if you have seen Grass Labyrinth you kind of get an idea of what this will be like. I really want to see it. Let me know what its like. Maybe I can pick it up on DVD/Blu-ray if it gets released.

Synopsis from the festival site: Deep in a forest is a café run by The Manager, an elderly woman and a boy called Haru. The café is a refuge for everyone who wants to die. People go there and are taken by The Manager to a misty place deep in the woods, where they gradually disappear and are transformed into sound waves.

Who exactly these people are is left largely to our imagination, although brief bursts from their pasts are shown during a strange magic lantern show, which is always concluded by a musical act – including a children’s choir and pop band wearing white cat masks. Because, as the film decrees: “All that is left for us is to sing and dance.”

Roman Porno and Roman Porno Reboot

The original Roman Porno series was a slate of films produced by Nikkatsu that feature the same genesis; inspired by the rise of pink fims, Nikkatsu gave directors a small budget and tight shooting schedules, and freedom to make a film about what they want so long as they came with plenty of sexy softcore scenes. These films saved the studio from bankruptcy at a time when people were drawn away from movie screens by television and they were the first rung on the movie ladder for many directors. I’ve only reviewed one, A Woman Called Abe Sada. The director of that film is represented here with an earlier one from his career. Here’s more information about the latest films from Nikkatsu.

The Roman Porno series is back and Rotterdam screens an original and its spiritual successor.

Night of the Felines   Image may be NSFW.
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牝猫たちの夜 「Mesunekotachi no yoru」

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director:  Noboru Tanaka

Writer: Akira Nakano (Screenplay),

Starring: Tomoko Katsura, Ken Yoshizawa, Hidemi Hara, Keiko Maki, Akemi Yamaguchi, Tatsuya Hamaguchi,

IMDB

Synopsis: The sex lives of a variety of people, from yakuza to salarymen, in Tokyo are seen through the eyes of three sex workers in a bathhouse who experience fleeting relationships and different emotions.

Dawn of the Felines   Image may be NSFW.
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牝猫たち 「Mesuneko Tachi」

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director:  Kazuya Shiraishi

Writer: Kazuya Shiraishi (Screenplay),

Starring: Juri Ihata, Satsuki Maue, Michie, Takuma Otoo, Tomohiro Kaku, Hideaki Murata,

Website IMDB

Having lived in Ikebukuro, I recognise some of the locations shown in the images and the trailer so it’s pretty exciting. The director is less interesting to me. Kazuya Shiraishi worked on The Devil’s Path and Twisted Justice.

Synopsis: Masako, Yui, and Rie are three prostitutes who service all sorts of people from hikikomori to widowers. Through their eyes we see a variety of men from Tokyo and how prostitution has changed from the first film to this with the impact of the internet in what turns into character studies of the women.

After the Storm   

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海よりもまだ深く 「Umi yori mo mada fukaku」

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda (Original Story, Screenplay)

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sosuke Ikematsu, Yoko Maki, Satomi Kobayashi, Isao Hashizume, Taiyo Yoshizawa

IMDB   Website

Hirokazu Koreeda (Kiseki) is one of the most consistently brilliant storytellers in modern Japanese cinema. His last film, Our Little Sister (2015) proved very popular and earned a worldwide release and followed up the also equally adored Like Father, Like Son.

Synopsis from IMDB: Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay child support. After the death of his father, his ageing mother (Kirin Kiki) and beautiful ex-wife (Yoko Maki) seem to be moving on with their lives. Renewing contact with his initially distrusting family, Ryota struggles to take back control of his existence and to find a lasting place in the life of his young son (Taiyo Yoshizawa) – until a stormy summer night offers them a chance to truly bond again.

Suffering of Ninko       

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仁光の受難 「Ninko no junan」

Running Time: 70 mins.

Director: Niwatsukino Norihiro

Writer: Niwatsukino Norihiro (Screenplay)

Starring: Masato Tsujioka, Miho Wakabayashi, Hideta Iwahashi, Yukino Arimoto, Tomoko Harazaki, Kyoko Kudo,

IMDB  Website

This is the debut movie of Norihiro Niwatsukino and it premiered at last year’s Vancouver international Film Festival before moving on to Tokyo FILMeX. It’s billed as a hilarious take on ancient Japanese history with many comedic and visual surprises.

Synopsis:  Ninko is a virtuous Buddhist monk in ancient Japan. Because of his holy vows, he suffers something many men would love – he’s irresistible to many women (and some men). In order to “purify” himself and learn how to rebuff sexual advances, he goes on a journey during which he meets a samurai named Kanzo and hears of a village decimated by the rapacious mountain goddess Yama-onna, who kills men to absorb their energy. Ninko sees defeating her as part as part of his quest.

Harmonium      Image may be NSFW.
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深田晃司　「Fuchi ni Tatsu」

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada

Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Tadanobu Asano, Kanji Furutachi, Taiga, Takahiro Miura, Momone Shinokawa,

IMDB   Website

Koji Fukada’s stars Kanji Furutachi (au revoir l’ete, The Woodsman & the Rain) and the awesome Tadanobu Asano (Watashi no Otoko, Vital, Bright Future, Survive Style 5+).This is a psychological mystery where audiences try to understand the characters.

Synopsis from IMDB: Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) and Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and their daughter Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa) live a quiet life which is disrupted when Toshio hires old-friend Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) to work in his workshop. This old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio’s family life with a threat of violence but Toshio owes Yasaka a large debt.

Japanese Girls Never Die  

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アズミ・ハルコは行方不 「Azumi Haruko wa yukue fumei」

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Daigo Matsui

Writer: Mariko Yamauchi (Original Novel), Misaki Setoyama (Screenplay)

Starring: Yu Aoi, Mitsuki Takahata, Shono Hayama, Taiga, Kanon Hanakage, Ryo Kase, Motoki Ochiai, Tomiyuki Kunihiro, Akiko Kikuchi,

IMDB Website

This was the hot ticket at the Tokyo International Film Festival, a couple of months ago and the reviews at Variety and The Japan Times paint a compelling film full of Japanese pop-culture tropes and cultural criticism about the position of women in society. It was directed by Daigo Matsui (How Selfish I Am!).

Synopsis: Cryptic graffiti, featuring information from a missing person poster, begin to appear all over a suburban town. Haruko Azumi is the subject and she has gone missing. Her dissapperance goes viral across the news and social media. After the disappearance of Haruko, a mysterious group of high school girls begins attacking men at random. These two incidents overlap. Are they connected? Witness scenes from the lives of Japanese girls.

A Bride for Rip Van Winkle   

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リップヴァンウィンクルノ花嫁  「Rippu van winkuru no hanayome 」　

Running Time: 180 mins.

Release Date: March 26th, 2016

Director: Shunji Iwai

Writer: Shunji Iwai (Screenplay/Novel),

Starring:  Haru Kuroki, Gou Ayano, Cocco, Soko Wada, Nana Natsume, Hideko Hara,

Website   IMDB

Shunji Iwai has made many films across many genres but many of them deal with loneliness and this one is little different as it details the situation of a painfully shy teacher who finds her life becomes intertwined with actors who people hire to play family and friends. It was a great character piece which I reviewed on VCinema.

Synopsis from the Festival Site: Nanami is an introverted teacher with a sweet voice. On her blog, she writes under a pseudonym about how she met Tetsuya in her hometown of Tokyo with one mouse click. Later she will marry and then divorce him. While setting the table in preparation for the wedding, it becomes obvious that Nanami has a small family. Ashamed, she hires the actor Yukimasu and his colleagues to fill the empty chairs during the ceremony.

Later these scenes are repeated, but then with Nanami herself acting the part of a relative. After this, the question keeps returning: are the people in Nanami’s life (only) playing a role? This is a metaphor for today’s Japan, where on the internet you can temporarily assume a more exuberant role. In this moving mystery story with surprising turns, Nanami ends up in the role of a maid servant in the house of the actress Mashiro, with whom she builds a special bond in their joint battle against loneliness.

The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio  

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土竜の唄 香港狂騒曲 「Mogura no Uta Hong Kong Kyousoukyoku」

Running Time: 128 mins.

Director:  Takashi Miike

Writer: Tomma Ikuta, Eita, Riisa Naka, Tsubasa Honda, Nanao, Shinichi Tsutsumi Yusuke Kamiji,

Website IMDB

I remember being sat in a cinema in Urawa talking to a friend while the trailer for this played on a loop. I wasn’t particularly interested in the first one and the sequel looked dire but the reviews for it have been pretty good as seen in this one from Variety.

Synopsis: Reiji is back for a second film and finds himself re-infiltrating the yakuza gang from the first movie and acting as a bodyguard for the boss and his sexy wife and daughter. Reiji has to watch his rampant libido but he also has to watch out for the police who think he has turned traitor and a girlfriend who suspects he’s not being faithful. Worse still are the Chinese syndicate trying to take over the gang’s territory. Reiji will find his priorities split as he heads to Hong Kong for a showdown.

Fake   

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Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Tatsuya Mori

Writer: N/A

Starring: Mamoru Samuragochi

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: A couple of years ago the deaf musician and composer Mamoru Samuragochi made the headlines when it was revealed that he wasn’t as deaf as he claimed after a series of articles drew doubts about his deafness and it was revealed that a man named Takashi Aragaki had served as a ghost writer for 18 years. This documentary looks at the man at the centre of the uproar and how he dealt with the press coverage. Here’s a fascinating article on the Japan Times website in which the director talks about the film.

Ascent    Image may be NSFW.
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Running Time: 80 mins.

Director:  Fiona Tan

Writer: Fiona Tan

Starring: Hiroki Hasegawa

Website IMDB

Mount Fuji is stunning and I passed it three times in the space of two days. I got some great pictures. Always get a window seat and sit on the right side of a shinkansen when travelling to Osaka/Kyoto/Atami. Trailer on Cineuropa

Synopsis from the Festival Site: Behind grey shreds of mist in fairytale landscapes, we keep seeing Mount Fuji, the Japanese volcano with its great symbolic significance, in ordinary family snapshots. All the shots in Ascent are real, but the story is fictional. After History’s Future, Fiona Tan again investigates the possibilities of film. Here the departure point is a montage of thousands of photos of the volcano, collected from sources ranging from the Izu Photo Museum to amateur photographers. On the expressive soundtrack, we hear the voices of fictional protagonists.

Thousands of miles from Japan, an English woman receives a package with the photos and notes of her dead Japanese partner. His account of his conquest of Mount Fuji evokes a stream of thoughts and associations. The higher he gets, the broader the perspective of this reflection on photography and film, reminiscence and mourning, eternal change, the essence of cherry blossoms and how some things can best be seen from afar.

Short Films:

XÉNOGÉNÈSE (1981, 7 mins. Dir: Akihiko Morishita), is an experimental film that, according to the festival website, focuses on the duality of its medium. The director takes the lead role as a man dressed in shirt and tie walking around what appears to be a junkyard. Then, the director adds scratches to the surface of the image and employs “tactics of trompe-l’œil to comically allude to the circular nature of human life and, in its function as the artist’s self-portrait, gently mocks the home movie genre.”

REPLY; REPEAT REPEATED; DELETE; FAVORITE FAVORITED (2014, 5 mins. Dir: Rieko Ouchi) From the festival site: An illustration of an internet landscape in which typical images of sex and violence flash across the screen. Junk emails and banners stretched end-to-end across websites are like the bill-boarded roadsides of the internet. The irritation is skilfully depicted in this animated work.

Delete Beach (2016, 7 mins. Dir: Phil Collins) The British artist Phil Collins collaborated with the anime creatives at Studio 4°C to create this sci-fi tale where a schoolgirl joins an anti-capitalist resistance group in a society in which carbon-based energy is illegal.

Conversation with a Cactus (2017, 45 mins. Dirs: Elise Florenty, Marcel Turkowsky) Synopsis from the festival site (because it’s too good a story for me to mangle up with a rewrite): In the 1970s, the Hashimoto husband-and-wife team tried to teach a cactus the Japanese alphabet, using a lie detector to turn the plant’s reactions into sound and thereby give it a voice. The goal was to use plants as potential witnesses in murder investigations. Elise Florenty and Marcel Türkowsky were granted access to the archive and were the first to translate the experiments into English. Mr Hashimoto, a former Fuji director, contributed to the development of the Giant LED and Neon Panel technology.

Technology and cultural traditions combine throughout the film, such as in the fictional story set in Tokyo’s suburbs, an environment known for its animist traditions, ultra-technology and the ‘politics of silence’. The film is an airy, dreamy exploration of the self and the other, of myth and history, truth and lies, in relation to the Hashimoto experiment.

Birds (2016, 07 mins. Dir: Koji Fukada)

Starring: Minako Inoue, Kaneko Takenori, Yuko Kibiki ,

Koji Fukada is on a hot streak as a director with his last two feature films getting international tours of film festivals and winning awards and his back catalogue being picked up. He’s back with a new short film about a man confronting his wife about her lover. Don’t worry, it’s billed as a comedy.

This screens before Harmonium

Oral History (2015, 30 mins. Dir: Meiro Koizumi)

Website

This video installation involves the artist Meiro Koizumi asking people on the streets of Japan, “What happened in and around Japan between 1900 and 1945? Please tell us in as much detail as possible.” To help get honest answers, he shot the mouth of every respondent who spoke in an extreme close up to preserve anonymity and save people from embarrassment, thus allowing them to give a range of answers that vary from insightful to the ignorant. The idea behind the installation is to brings to bear a nation torn in how to reconcile with their own imperialist past as people reveal what the artist calls “the image of void in the collective memory.”

To quote the festival site some more, “what is revealed is at best willful ignorance and at worst clouded judgements based on a distrust of facts. As post-truth politics appears to be taking over the world, Koizumi’s work is a timely reminder of the importance of memory in bringing together a nation no matter how painful it is to remember.”

Norio Imai Short Films

Norio Imai was born in Osaka in 1946 and has grown to become an artist whose works cover a range of mediums from painting to printmaking, sculpture to photography and films. His works tend to be monochromatic and minimalist with white space being his avourite subject sine it allows him to analyse notions of modernity in Japan by creating works about collapse, mutation, and absence, and dissonance. This is the first international showcase of his work.

Time in Square (1984, 9 mins.)

Pizza Time (1983, 10 mins.)

On Air (1980, 6 mins.)

Floor (1972, 3 mins)

That’s it for this year and it’s another great selection of films. I normally say that I wish I could be at the festival but I’m currently in Osaka and I’m helping out at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. I’m looking forward to it!

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The Glasgow Film Festival takes place from February 15^th to the 26^th and features lots of classics and contemporary titles. The big focus is on Toshiro Mifune and so you can see some of his greatest roles which also means some of Akira Kurosawa’s greatest films. There’s plenty for the mainstream crowd to like in that mix of period drama and action and there’s more in the contemporary titles which span genres from psychological to science fiction and there’s even an anime thrown in.

Here are the Japanese films on the programme:

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Harmonium   Image may be NSFW.
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深田晃司　「Fuchi ni Tatsu」

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada

Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Tadanobu Asano, Kanji Furutachi, Taiga, Takahiro Miura, Momone Shinokawa,

IMDB   Website

Koji Fukada’s stars Kanji Furutachi (au revoir l’ete, The Woodsman & the Rain) and the awesome Tadanobu Asano (Watashi no Otoko, Vital, Bright Future, Survive Style 5+). This is a psychological mystery where audiences try to understand the characters.

Synopsis from IMDB: Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) and Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and their daughter Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa) live a quiet life which is disrupted when Toshio hires old-friend Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) to work in his workshop. This old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio’s family life with a threat of violence but Toshio owes Yasaka a large debt.

A Silent Voice   

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声の形 「Koe no Katachi」　

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Naoko Yamada

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay), Yoshitoki Ooima (Original Manga)

Starring:  Miyu Irino (Shouya Ishida/Mayu Matsuoka), Saori Hayami (Shouko Nishimiya), Aoi Yuuki (Yuzuru Nishimiya),

Website MAL ANN

Since arriving in Japan I have been out of the loop when it comes to anime and so the only thing I know is that Kimi no na wa. has been the massive hit (because most people I speak to have seen it or want to see it). This one looks far more interesting, a slice-of-life about a bully who tries to redeem himself by asking for forgiveness from his target, a girl who is deaf. This comes from Kyoto Animation (watch Hyouka, an awesome TV anime, to get to know them) and it’s directed by Naoko Yamada, one of the most promising female directors going.

Synopsis from the festival site: Shoko, a young Deaf student, transfers to a new school where she is bullied by Shoya for her hearing impairment. While Shoya originally leads the class in bullying Shoko, the class soon turn on him for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other again, but Shoya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shoko once more to atone for his sins – but is it already too late?

Shin Godzilla   

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シンゴジラ 「Shin Gojira」

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi,

Writer: Hideaki Anno (Screenplay),

Starring: Hiroki Hasegawa, Satomi Ishihara, Kimiko Yo, Takumi Saito, Yutaka Takenouchi, Ren Ohsugi, Akira Emoto, Kengo Kora, Jun Kunimura, Pierre Taki, Ken Mitsuishi,

IMDB

Synopsis from the Festival Site:   Godzilla, the King of the Monsters, is back for a record-breaking box office reboot of Toho’s kaiju classic. In present-day Japan, an unexplained seismic event has occurred off the coast of Shinagawa, causing destructive effects all the way to the capital. Ministers scramble to figure out what’s going on but only cabinet secretary Rando Yaguchi (and the audience) knows the truth: Godzilla has majestically returned with fire-breathing, building-stomping ambitions for Tokyo once more. Cue epic disaster and frenzy as the undisputed master of monsters wreaks fabulous havoc again.

Toshiro Mifune Strand at Glasgow

Mifune: The Last Samurai   Image may be NSFW.
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Running Time: 80 mins.

Director: Stuart Galbraith IV, Steven Okazaki

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Haruo Nakajima, Martin Scorses, Steven Spielberg, Keanu Reeves, Koji Yakusho, Shiro Mifune,

IMDB

Synopsis: Keanu Reeves narrates a documentary about one of the most famous, if not the most famous Japanese actor in the history of cinema: Toshiro Mifune. People who have watched him in Yojimbo and Throne of Blood will attest that he is a massive screen presence and we get to see what made him special through archive footage as well as enjoying the reminisces of collaborators and fans inspired by the man. The story starts with his childhood through his military service and his career as an actor.

Stray Dog   Image may be NSFW.
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野良犬 「Nora no inu」

Release Date: October 17th, 1949 (Japan)

Running Time: 122 mins.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Ryuzo Kikushima (Screenplay),

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Isao Kimura, Keiko Awaji, Reisaburo Yamamoto,

IMDB

Synopsis:   The story takes place in Tokyo during a brutal heatwave, A rookie detective named Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) is travelling on a crowded city bus when a pickpocket lifts his gun. He has to scour the bustling streets of downtown Tokyo for clues, aided by a seasoned section chief (Takashi Shimura). As Murakami gets closer to recovering the pistol, however, the distinction between himself and the criminal who stole it starts to become less and less clear. Stray Dog plunges deep into the anxiety and moral ambiguity of immediate postwar Japan with Kurosawa’s masterful visual flair.

Yojimbo   

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用心棒 「Yojinbo」

Running Time: 106 mins.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Ryuzo Kikushima (Screenplay),

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoko Tsukasa, Isuzu Yamada, Seizaburo Kawazu, Takashi Shimura,

IMDB

Synopsis from the Festival Site:   Toshirô Mifune won the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival for his towering performance in this Kurosawa classic that directly influenced the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone. Mifune is Sanjuro, an itinerant samurai who lets the flashing blade of his sword do all his talking. Arriving in a sleepy backwater town torn apart by conflict, he finds himself courted by two warring clans in need of his services. However, Sanjuro has his own code of honour and his own agenda. A pitch perfect combination of furious action sequences, deliciously dark humour and charismatic star power.

Sanjuro   

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椿三十郎 「Tsubaki Sanjuro」

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Ryuzo Kikushima, Hideo Oguni (Screenplay),

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Isao Kimura, Keiko Awaji, Reisaburo Yamamoto,

IMDB

Synopsis from the Festival Site:   Sanjuro rides again in this thrilling, fast-paced sequel to Yojimbo. Toshirô Mifune’s cynical, battle-weary warrior returns to become a reluctant mentor to a group of nine dangerously naive young samurai fighting a corrupt official. The strong, silent Sanjuro tries to instill some wisdom in his gullible disciples in a jocular adventure that gleefully upends the solemn conventions of a typical samurai tale. But wisdom comes at a price and the gory final duel proves that there are times when only a fight to the death will resolve matters.

Rashomon   

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羅生門 「Rashomon」

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto (Screenplay), Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Original Novel)

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Masayuki Mori, Minoru Chiaki, Noriko Honma, Daisuke Katp.

IMDB

Synopsis from the Festival Site:   The truth is in the eye of the beholder in Rashômon, a landmark work from Akira Kurosawa. What really happened at the storm-tossed Rashômon Gate? We know that a man died and a woman was raped but where does the guilt lie and how can justice be served? Toshirô Mifune’s vicious bandit Tajômaru claims the killing resulted from a fair fight and the woman welcomed his attentions. Others offer different, contradictory accounts of the events. A gripping piece of storytelling whose groundbreaking use of multiple perspectives continues to influence filmmakers today.

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七人の侍 「Shichinin no Samurai」

Running Time: 207 mins.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Shinobu Hashimoto, Hideo Oguni (Screenplay),

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Yukiko Shimazaki, Keiko Tsushima, Minoru Chiaki, Katamari Fujiwara,

IMDB

Synopsis from the Festival Site:   Finding someone to defend the poor and downtrodden is the universal theme that makes Kurosawa’s monumental epic as timely as ever. In 16th century Japan, farmers are under threat from marauding bandits. One village decides to buy protection and put their faith in a samurai warrior who assembles a select group to fortify the village and prepare for attack. A spellbinding cinema classic, in which superb action sequences are underpinned by the intensity of our emotional attachment to the magnificent seven willing to fight and die for a cause. A genre-defining film that begs to be seen on a cinema screen.

That’s a pretty neat line-up at Glasgow. I hope audiences like the films.

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The organisers behind Osaka Asian Film Festival have started the slow trickle of information about what films will be screened and the events that will take place before and during its run from March 03^rd until March 12^th. The festival will have entered its 12^th year of existence with this edition and it looks set to be bigger and better than ever with many pre-festival events and a selection of films that will undoubtedly entertain and enthral people from Osaka and beyond.

In terms of films, the Osaka Asian Film Festival is one of the most exciting entertainment events in Japan because it is the premier place to watch many high-quality Asian films and home-grown movies. This includes a strong showing of local indie productions and local directors who get the chance to showcase their works to a diverse and dedicated audience of cinephiles as well as a general audience. As someone who loves Japanese films, this sounds great because Osaka has emerged as one of the focal points of interesting film making in Japan thanks to Osaka University of the Arts producing talented directors and groups like Cineastes Organisation Osaka (CO2). This is the ideal place to witness emerging talent.

The event aims to do more than just screen films as it acts as a chance for locals to showcase the city to the world by inviting a global audience into the city to watch a plethora of films while also connecting people in the creative and cultural industries from across Asia in one place and across a series of events from workshops to talks and even a book fare, all of which will help develop Osaka and cinema.

Here’s what has been announced so far:

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Opening Film

MRS K   Image may be NSFW.
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Running Time: 96 mins.

Director:  Yuhang Ho

Writer: Yuhang Ho, Wai-Keung Chan (Screenplay),

Starring: Kara Hui, Simon Yam, Wu Bai, Li Xuan Siow,

IMDB

Talk about opening with a bang! Osaka is a city full of energy and grit and this film certainly has it with legendary Hong Kong action star Kara Hui (Rigor Mortis, At the End of Daybreak) and Simon Yam (Fulltime Killer, The Thieves) are foes in this explosive film that seems to reference Tarantino and play on Kara Hui’s action woman back-catalogue, something she developed from the days of The Shaw Brothers to now. The reviews on The Hollywood Reporter and Screen Daily assure me that this will be a crowd-pleasing action film and those who grew up with Hong Kong films of the ‘70s and ‘80s will totally be in love with this.

Synopsis: Mrs K (Kara Wai) is a housewife who lives in a quiet suburban neighborhood with her husband, a doctor (Wu Bai), and her teenage daughter (Siow Li Xuan). She seems like a harmless middle class woman until confronted with danger, something that appears in the form of a corrupt cop (Tony Liu) whose arrival at her home is an unwelcome appearance she sees off. This is just the start of a series of violent events linked to Mrs K’s past which is all revealed when Mrs K’s daughter is kidnapped by a deadly figure from her past (Simon Yam). To save her daughter, Mrs K will have to shed her clean-cut housewife image and reveal her deadly self…

Closing Film

Parks    

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パークス 「Pa-kusu」

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director:  Natsuki Seta

Writer: Natsuki Seta (Screenplay),

Starring: Ai Hashimoto, Mei Nagano, Shota Sometani, Shiro Sano, Reiya Masaki, Ryu Morioka, Shizuka Ishibashi,

Website IMDB

Parks was created to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Inokashira Park, a cool area between Kichijoji and Mitaka and it features a zoo, lovely grounds to walk through, and the totally awesome Ghibli Museum. I’ve walked through the park a couple of times, the best being shown around the Kichijoji area by a friend last November when we talked about various things and stopped off at landmarks.

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Back to the film, back to the film!

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The film has been written and directed by Natsuki Seta, an Osaka-born female director who made a name for herself with her 2011 debut commercial feature, A Liar and a Broken Girl. She was supported by the Osaka Asian Film Festival early in her career when her film A Letter from Elsewhere was programmed. This feature stars Ai Hashimoto (The Kirishima Thing, The World of Kanako), Shota Sometani (Himizu, As the Gods Will), and Mei Nagano (Rurouni Kenshin) so it’s sure to have great acting. No trailer but plenty of images. Shota Sometani was one of the leads in her film A Liar and a Broken Girl.

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Synopsis from the festival site: University student Jun (Ai Hashimoto), living near Inokashira Park, has a visit from a high school girl, Haru (Mei Nagano). They search for Haru’s late father’s ex-girlfriend, who sent a letter to the father. However, they find the ex-girlfriend’s grandson Tokio (Shota Sometani) and he says the woman has passed away. Tokio finds a roll of reel-to-reel tape in his grandmother’s belongings, a recording of a love song that Haru’s father made. Due to tape damage, they can’t listen to the full song, so the three try to recreate the missing parts to complete the song.

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Welcome Party:

OAFF will hold a welcome Party for our guests, sponsors/supporters.

Date: March 9 (Thu) Venue: Osaka City Central Public Hall

Symposiums/Talk Events

A number of symposiums and talk events, featuring participating filmmakers, will be held during the festival.

OAFF Poster Exhibition

We will exhibit posters of selected films from OAFF 2017 and past festivals in various venues.

Venue: THE (COMMON) PLACE (Osaka)

Dates: February 13 (Mon) – February 18 (Sat)

Venues: Gallery Metro Shinsaibashi, Osaka subway Shinsaibashi station yard

Gallery Metro Nagahoribashi, Osaka subway Nagahoribashi station yard

Dates: February 13 (Mon) – March 12 (Sun)

Venue: Osaka City Hall (Yodoyabashi)

Dates: February 21 (Tue) – March 10 (Fri)

Asian Book Fair

In collaboration with the mega bookstore MARUZEN & JUNKUDO Umeda, OAFF 2017 holds an Asian Book Fair.

Dates: January 28 (Sat) – March 31 (Fri)

Venue: MARUZEN & JUNKUDO Umeda, 5F Art Book section

Cooperation: MARUZEN & JUNKUDO Umeda

Pre-events: Film Seminars

We hold special seminars, including Asian film seminars by the OAFF programming director Sozo Teruoka, and a seminar on film subtitling. We also cooperate with several universities to broaden the supporter base for moving image culture.

<Asian film seminars>

Dates: September 25, 2016 – February 2, 2017 Venue: Osaka International House Foundation

<Film subtitling seminar>

Date: November 7, 2016 Venue: Osaka University, Minoh Campus

Dates:

March 3 (Fri) – 12 (Sun), 2017 (Pre-events are held before the festival.)

Venues:

Umeda Burg 7 (March 3-12),

ABC Hall (March 8-12),

Cine Libre Umeda (March 4-12),

Hankyu Umeda Hall (March 6-10), and others.

More information about the program is available here.

The beginning of the year is always a busy one when it comes to film festivals since Rotterdam and Berlin showcase their programmes and start screening things. Add the Osaka Asian Film Festival to that list because it goes live in March. Last year, I wrote about the festival and was enthusiastic about the support for local film makers but this year, for the first time in my life, I am in the city of Osaka and I am helping out at the festival in a variety of roles. It’s quite an honour to get this chance. During this time, I hope to watch and review films but my primary focus is on ensuring that the festival is a success. To that end, here’s some information to help let people know what’s going to happen. Keep following my blog and V-Cinema to find out more about what will happen during the festival.

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This year’s edition of the Berlin International Film Festival takes place from February 09th until the 19th and it features three really interesting directors in the shape of Naoko Ogigami and SABU and Yuya Ishii, all of whom brings their latest films. It’s a nice mix of drama and action from these three. Yuya Ishii is growing as a director and Naoko Ogigami is always one to watch. There is a classic special effects movie and a classic anime and so there’s lots for audiences to take in. It’s another good year for Japanese films in Berlin and SABU’s is really exciting because it looks like one of those great crime films from the ‘90s that used to get ranked out by the likes of Takashi Miike and it is a Japanese-Hong Kong co-production.

Let’s take a gander at the films:Image may be NSFW.
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Yozora ha itsu demo saikou mitsudo no aoiro da    Image may be NSFW.
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夜空はいつでも最高密度の青色だ　「Yozora wa Itsudemo Saiko Mitsudo no Aoiro da」   

Running Time: 108 mins.

Director: Yuya Ishii

Writer: Yuya Ishii (Screenplay), Tahi Saihate (Original Poet)

Starring: Shizuka Ishibashi, Sosuke Ikematsu, Ryo Sato, Takahiro Miura, Mikako Ichikawa, Ryuhei Matsuda, Paul Magsalin, Tetsushi Tanaka,

Website   IMDB  

Yuya Ishii was one of the first directors I started tracking on my blog thanks to his films getting UK releases thanks to the bravery and good taste of Third Window Films. Sawako Decides (2010), Mitsuko Delivers (2012), and The Great Passage (2013). He has gone from indie kid to award-winning adaptations and kept a certain level of quality in his incisive look at human nature, regardless of genre and who the stars are. Here, he works with newbie actors like Shizuka Ishibashi and Ryo Sato. He pairs them up with the more experienced Sosuke Ikematsu (How Selfish I Am!), Mikako Ichikawa (Rent-a-neko), Tetsushi Tanaka (Exte, One Missed Call, Quirky Guys and Gals, Cure), and Ryuhei Matsuda (Nightmare Detective, My Little Sweet Pea) who was the lead in The Great Passage. The actors all portray characters caught up in the brutal world of Tokyo, alienated, stressed, failing to cope and looking for relief from the everyday grind. It is shot with “lightness,” “enchanting visual ideas,” and “candour.” It’s only 108 minutes as well, so it shouldn’t drag. I’m definitely interested in this one.

Synopsis from the Festival Site: Mika (Shizuka Ishibashi) works as a nurse by day; by night she entertains covetous men at a girls’ bar. Shinji (Sosuke Ikematsu) is blind in one eye and ekes out a living as a construction worker. Young and grown-up at the same time, they both lead a lonely existence, but somehow their paths keep miraculously crossing under the Tokyo sky. Can loneliness be experienced together?

MR LONG 

ミスター・ロン 「Misuta- Ron」   

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: SABU

Writer: SABU

Starring: Chen Chang, Sho Aoyagi, Yiti Yao, Runyin Bai, Masashi Arifuku, Taro Suwa, Tetsuko Okusa, Shiiko Utagawa, Yusuke Fukuchi, Tetsuya Chiba,

When you mention the director SABU to me, I immediately think of his acting role in Ichi the Killer (2001) and the recently reviewed Don’t Look Up  (1996). I actually have some of the films he has directed but I have not reviewed them yet which is a shame because I’d like to talk more about his work which strings together crime tales like Dangan Runner and Monday with sentimental comedies like Usagi Drop. He’s versatile and a great director and this one is exciting since he’s working with Jet Tone/BLK 2 pictures, Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai’s outfit. This one is described as, “Seamlessly stringing together the rugged vernacular of gangster films with the tender moments of a burgeoning love story, his new work combines perfectly choreographed outbreaks of violence with contemplative cooking scenes and surprising moments of slapstick comedy.”

It looks a heck of a lot more interesting than the average release and it seems that SABU has found a new home in Berlin since he premieres his films there.

No trailer but here’s an image. You can watch a clip on the festival page.

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Synopsis from the Festival Site: Professional hitman Long takes on an assignment in Japan. When things go awry, he has to flee. Badly injured, he takes refuge in a deserted part of a small town. A young boy brings him water and clothing. Long installs himself in one of the dilapidated houses where he prepares simple meals for the eight-year-old Jun. Jun’s mother Lily is a drug addict and, like Long, comes from Taiwan. The news of Long’s tasty cooking quickly spreads throughout the neighbourhood, and Long’s neighbours organise a mobile food stall for him. Soon, people are queuing up for Long’s noodle soup. Lily manages to kick her habit with Long’s help and, for a while, it looks as though this could mark the beginning of a new life for this community which fate has thrown together.

Three Lights 

三つの光　　「Mittsu no Hikari 」   

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Kohki Yoshida

Writer: Kohki Yoshida (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryo Ikeda, Hiroshi Suzuki, Kazuha Komiya, Emi Maki, Natsumi Ishibashi, Takenori Goto, Yumi Torigoe, Satoshi Morishita, Ryuzo Tanaka,

This is an unknown. Little information and few images save what is found on the Berlin International Film Festival site. Normal channels of information (IMDB, Eiga.com, JFDB) turned up nothing and yet Kohki Yoshida has works to his name and I’ve written about them before. This is his fourth feature and it’s an exciting premiere. Lots of unknown elements despite the experience of cast and crew. The story is another one about broken people in Tokyo and it sounds enticing if the festival site is anything to go by:

“….Kohki Yoshida precisely dissects the mechanisms of creative energy: personal frustrations, vanities, egotism. He asks why the joint creative process is linked to such pain. With elegance and keen perception, Mittsu no hikari shows how harm can lead to ambition – and ambition to harm.”

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Synopsis from the Festival Site: Aoi is a young nursery school teacher whose fiancé leaves her. Her friend Michiko works in a call centre and has ‘lots of free time, but little freedom’. She no longer interacts with her husband, aside from the occasional sad blow job. Then there’s her attractive tennis teacher Masaki, with whom she’s having an affair that’s conducted when they’re pulled up in parking lots. And finally there’s his friend K., a self-proclaimed genius with authoritarian tendencies. Four people in the vast city of Tokyo united by their love of music. Fate brings them together in a remote abandoned warehouse to work on experimental sounds in an improvised recording studio. Yet the important thing is not the piece itself but the path they take to get there, which means working on one’s psychological issues in creative fashion, even as they generate friction with those of the others.

Close Knit   Image may be NSFW.
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彼らが本気で編むときは、　　「Karera ga Honki de Amu toki wa」   

Running Time: 127 mins.

Director: Naoko Ogigami

Writer: Naoko Ogigami (Screenplay),

Starring: Rinka Kakihara, Toma Ikuta, Kenta Kiritani, Mimura, Eiko Koike, Mugi Kadowaki, Lily, Kaito Komie, Shuji Kashiwabara, Misako Tanako,

Website   IMDB  

Naoko Ogigami is one of Japan’s interesting female directors, quietly working away making good films one after the other. She has international recognition but I might have missed her if two friends of mine hadn’t recommended her works, Yoshino’s Barber Shop (2004), Kamome Diner (2006) and Glasses (2007). The only one that I have reviewed is Rent-a-Cat (2012) and I adored it so I’m looking forward to seeing what she has to offer with this one which takes a look at gender roles, family norms and alternative family units. It all centres on a transsexual bonding with her step-daughter, so to speak.

Synopsis from the Festival Site:  Eleven-year-old Tomo is pretty much left to her own devices. Unwashed dishes are piling up in the sink and supermarket onigiri are all there is to eat again. Tomo’s single mother usually comes home late, and drunk. When she leaves her daughter for good one day the girl has to rely on help from her uncle, who takes in Tomo to live with him and his girlfriend Rinko. At their first meeting Tomo is flabbergasted to discover that Rinko is a transsexual. Rinko immediately sets about taking care of Tomo; not only does she lovingly prepare meals but she also succeeds in creating a new home for the girl. But before long cracks appear in their perfect nest.

The Retrospective strand of the festival is a showcase of science fiction films that show an imperfect future. The themes run heavy on somewhat dystopian views of human society and all present interesting questions about how we live now and how we will live in the future. Read through the information and it becomes clear that many of these films foretold or tapped into nascent fears and trends like social media, paranoia, pollution, police brutality, over-population, and corporate greed to such an amazing degree that it’s worth re-watching them again to see how right the writers’, directors’, and other creatives were and if there are any answers to be found.

In this programme lie three Japanese films and a whole host of classic British/American sci-fi including classics like Blade Runner and Alien, two examples of why Ridley Scott is a great director, and classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There’s also the Kathryn Bigelow film Strange Days, which I have a soft spot for. There are a couple of notable anime omissions such as Akira and Paprika but it’s still a mighty fine retrospective, especially when one considers that there are two obscure Japanese films from years gone by.

Ghost in the Shell   

攻殻機動隊 　「Koukaku Kidoutai」   

Release Date: November 18th, 1995

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Writer: Kazunori Ito (Screenplay), Shiro Masamune (Original Creator)

Starring: Atsuko Tanaka (Motoko Kusanagi), Akio Ohtsuka (Bateau), Tamio Ohki (Daisuke Aramaki), Kouchi Yamadera (Togusa),

Website    ANN    MAL

The 1995 classic Ghost in the Shell is brought back to big screens yet again because it never gets old. Director Mamoru Oshii is arguably one of anime’s greatest voices and this is one of his greatest films. I say this because it is now being adapted into a big-budget Hollywood movie and it has the sort of cultural cachet that doesn’t often get applied to anime not directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Ghost in the Shell (GitS) was and still is a trend-setter, inspiring a wave of ‘90s films tat dabbled in the same sorts of stories that looked deeply at the philosophical and existential questions that might be raised in a highly technological future where humanity and technology begin to merge. Few films ask as many deep questions or present them in such a memorable way and as a result, Ghost in the Shell is highly regarded by cineastes. With gorgeous visuals and moody music from the great composer Kenji Kawai (Patlabor, Ringu), you owe it to yourself to see it on a big screen. Manga Entertainment provide the copy.

Synopsis: The story is set in the year 2029. The world has come through a brutal world war and science has advanced by leaps and bounds giving humanity the choice to prolong life and reduce suffering with the use of sophisticated cybernetics. With all of humanity linked into one system of minds and personalities known as ghosts, the biggest threat to civilization is the cyber terrorists capable of hijacking people’s bodies and memories. Public Security Section 9 of Newport City (a fictional setting inspired by Hong Kong) helps police people with cybernetic modifications. They are a diverse team of AI, cyborgs and unmodified humans who must investigate cases of corruption and terrorism. Their leader on the field is Major Motoko Kusanagi. She has full-body prosthetics, owing to a childhood accident. In this film, her loyal squadmates Batou and information specialist Ishikawa have been assigned an important task: to investigate a hacker known only as “The Puppetmaster” who “ghost hacks” other people’s minds and manipulates them. When the security team captures him, a rival government agency also lays claim to the body in which the Puppet Master was operating. To trace its origins, Kusanagi “dives into” the other shell and their two personalities merge …

Hyakunengo no aruhi   

百年後の或る日  　「Hyakunengo no aruhi」   

Running Time: 11 mins.

Director/Writer/Animator: Shigeji Ogino

IMDB  

Shigeji Ogino (1899 – 1991) is unknown to me but according to the festival site he was “Japan’s leading amateur filmmaker” and made more than 400 films between 1929 and 1976. Hyakunen-go no aruhi was made in 1933 and features a scenes that predict the precise timing of the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific. The film is delivered via a montage of animation and live-action footage and the director “appears in one short scene, wielding his narrow-gauge Pathé camera.” There are also other sci-fi things included such as robots and rockets. Ogino is not wholly unknown as the IMDB filmography attests and his work has been resurfacing in various places like this festival. No trailer but here’s an image.

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Synopsis from the festival site: In 1942, shortly after the start of a new World War, the filmmaker-as-soldier is killed by a bomb. In the year 2032, one of his descendants brings his spirit back to Earth. Tokyo, as nameless “Central City”, has become a megacity. The time traveller is deeply impressed by the technological progress that is proudly on display, so he agrees to take part in a trip to Mars. But on the trip, the instruments suddenly go haywire. Because the spirit of a deceased person is on board, the missiles choose their own target …

Uchuujin Tokyo ni arawaru / Warning from Space    Image may be NSFW.
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宇宙人東京に現わる 　「Uchuujin Tokyo ni arawaru」   

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Koji Shima

Writer: Hideo Oguni (Screenplay), Gentaro Nakajima (Original Creator)

Starring: Toyomi Karita, Keizo Kawasaki, Isao Yamagata, Shozo Nanbu, Bontaro Miyake,

Wikipedia  

The success of Godzilla (1954) sparked a trend amongst Japanese film studios for monster movies. They invariably feature the theme of atomic weapons but in this the weapons can be used for good to save humanity from Earth suffering a collision with another planet (another common theme of the time). The only question stopping that from happening is whether humans will come to use them and to do that, they must overcome their fear of strange-looking aliens designed by the artist Taro Okamoto. Wikipedia has been a goldmine of information for this movie but be careful, the plot is spoiled in the first paragraph!

According to the site, it did pretty badly in Japan despite it being the first colour sci0fi film. Not only that, but it has fallen into the public domain so finding a copy online is easy. Be careful because it leads from one B-movie to the next such as War of the Insects, a Japanese title that addresses American racism as well as giant bugs.

No trailer, just an image.

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Synopsis: Aliens from the planet Paira travel to Earth to warn humanity of the imminent danger of planet R. It is a fiery planet that is on a collision course with the Earth. To prevent all life from being extinguished, they ask humanity to use A and H bombs to destroy planet R. Unfortunately, the aliens are huge starfish-like creatures. Will humanity listen to these visitors or will there message be understood too late?

Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon (Dir: Tominari Nishikawa, 10 mins.)

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Director Tomonari Nishikawa filmed a series of bridges that span the Yahagi River, his home prefecture, at different times of the day: morning and evening. The exposure of the morning and evening shots were subtly altered and the results will be presented in this film.

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The full line-up for the 2017 Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) was revealed earlier today and for the 12th edition of OAFF., the number of selected films has reached an impressive 58 in total, including 16 films in Competition.

There will be films from 19 countries and regions, including China, Hong Kong, Korea, the USA, and Japan, will be screened and out of that selection there will be 16 world premieres, 4 international premieres and 1 Asian premiere. The festival takes place from March 03^rd (Fri) until March 12^th (Sun).

As mentioned in my post announcing the opening and closing films, this festival will be the place to watch many of the latest and greatest titles from across Asia as well as plenty of home-grown films.

There’s a strong showing from Hong Kong with an interesting father and son appearance for Eric and Derek Tsang. Both are actors with the former being of the same generation with and a collaborator of Jackie Chan, taking a leading role in an indie film called Mad World (2016), a film looking at the pressures of working-class society in Hong Kong as well as mental health. The latter is also a popular actor (see The Thieves) but he has moved into directing with the award-winning Soul Mates (2016), a film about the bond between two female best friends. It looks a lot like the Shunji Iwai classic Hana and Alice (2014) thanks to it two leading ladies who put in strong performances that critics raved about. Also putting in a strong performance is the lead actor in I Am Not Madame Bovary, Fan BingBing, who takes on the lead role of a woman swindled and dragged through the mud by her ex-husband and desperately trying to clear her name. It, like Mad World, is a bit political in its analysis of Chinese culture.

The Japanese film selection has a nice range of films focusing on females with Daisuke Miyazawa’s Yamato (California) taking a sideways look at US-Japan relations through the friendship between a Japanese and a half-Japanese half-American girl, both of whom like Hip Hop. Miyazawa has form in the industry having worked as an assistant director with Kiyoshi Kurosawa on Tokyo Sonata (2008). There’s also Natsuki Seta, an Osaka girl who is making a successful return home with her latest film, Parks (2017), a film that stars super-famous actors Ai Hashimoto and Shota Sometani. At the other end of the scale is Koji Segawa, whose film Tamayura Mariko (2016) is pure indie strangeness as it’s a story told from the increasingly twisted POV of the titular Mariko, a woman on the edge of breaking (or possibly already well over it) due to suspected infidelities committed by her husband.

There are many interesting films from around the world including lots that feature social-commentary and plenty of beautiful cinematography. I’m thinking specifically of the slightly politics slightly supernatural film Birdshot (2016). There are also some documentaries included that provide an insight into people smuggling from the perspective of a tough-as-nails North Korean woman.

Here’s the line-up. I will make this post a sticky and update it with information as it is released:

Films: [WP]: World Premiere [IP]: International Premiere [AP]:Asia Premiere

Opening and Closing Films

Opening: MRS K Dir: HO Yuhang (何宇恆)/2016/Malaysia, Hong Kong

Closing: PARKS [PARKS パークス] Dir: SETA Natsuki/2017/ Japan [WP]

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Competition Section

This section will present 16 films chosen from films completed on or after 1st October 2015 and unreleased in Japan. The international jurors will choose the winners of the Grand Prix and Most Promising Talent Award.

1. 10,000 MILES [一萬公里的約定] Dir: Simon HUNG/2016/Taiwan

2. 29+1 Dir: Kearen PANG/2016/Hong Kong[AP]

3. 77 HEARTBREAKS [原諒他77次] Dir: Herman YAU/2017/Hong Kong [WP]

4. BLISS Dir: Jerrold TAROG/2017/Philippines [WP]

5. BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK [DAO KHANONG] Dir: Anocha SUWICHAKORNPONG/2016/Thailand, Netherlands, France, Qatar

6. COME, TOGETHER Dir: SHIN Dong-il/2016/Korea [IP]

7. INTERCHANGE Dir: Dain ISKANDAR SAID/2016/Malaysia, Indonesia

8. KITA KITA [I SEE YOU] Dir: Sigrid Andrea P. BERNARDO/2017/Philippines [WP]

9. MAD WORLD [一念無明] Dir: WONG Chun/2016/Hong Kong

10. ONE DAY Dir: Banjong PISANTHANAKUN/2016/Thailand

11. REVELATIONS Dir: Vijay JAYAPAL/2016/India

12. SISTERHOOD [骨妹] Dir: Tracy CHOI/2016/Macao, Hong Kong [IP]

13. SOMETHING IN BLUE [呼吸正常] Dir: LI Yunbo/2016/China

14. SOUL MATE [七月與安生] Dir: Derek TSANG/2016/Hong Kong, China

15. TISAY Dir:Borgy TORRE/2016/Philippines [IP]

16.YAMATO (CALIFORNIA) [大和（カリフォルニア)] Dir: MIYAZAKI Daisuke/2016/Japan, USA, Netherlands, Taiwan

Special Screenings

1. 52HZ, I LOVE YOU Dir: WEI Te-Sheng/2017/Taiwan

2.AFTER SPRING, THE TAMAKI FAMILY… Dir: HUANG Yin-Yu/2016/Taiwan, Japan

3. HEMA HEMA: SING ME A SONG WHILE I WAIT Dir: Khyentse NORBU/2016/ Bhutan, Hong Kong

4. I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY [我不是潘金蓮] Dir: FENG Xiaogang/2016/China

5. MRS. B, A NORTH KOREAN WOMAN [Madame B., histoire d’une Nord-Coréenne] Dir: YUN Jero/2016/France, Korea

6. PARKS Also to be screened as Closing Film

7. SORI: VOICE FROM THE HEART Dir: LEE Ho-Jae/2016/Korea

Special Programs

In & Out of Work: Looking at Asia through the Prism of Employment

This program will reveal the true face of Asian societies and people through films that depict their labours.

1. APOCALYPSE CHILD Dir: Mario CORNEJO/2015/Philippines

2. JAGAT (BRUTAL) Dir: Shanjhey Kumar PERUMAL/2015/Malaysia

3. MY STUPID BOSS Dir: Upi/2016/Indonesia, Malaysia

4. PING PANG [ ピンパン] Dir: TANAKA Yoichi/2016/Japan

5. THE REFUGEE [亡命記] Dir: NOMURA Yoshitaro/1955/Japan

6. SUMMER NIGHT Dir: LEE Ji-won/2016/Korea

New Action! Southeast Asia

This special program features new movements in film bringing action to art films to heat up Southeast Asian Cinema.

1. BAKA BUKAS (MAYBE TOMORROW) Dir: Samantha LEE/2016/Philippines

2. BIRDSHOT Dir: Mikhail RED/2016/Philippines, Qatar

3. A GIFT Dir: Chayanop BOONPRAKOB, Jira MALIGOOL, Nithiwat THARATORN, Kriangkrai VACHIRATAMPORN/2016/Thailand

4. GOODBYE MR LOSER [令伯特煩悩] Dir: Adrian Kean Kok TEH(/2017/Malaysia [WP]

5. MRS K Also to be screened as the Opening Film

6. PATINTERO: THE LEGEND OF MENG THE LOSER Dir: Mihk VERGARA/2016/ Philippines

7. SAVING SALLY Dir: Avid LIONGOREN/2016/Philippines, France[IP]

8. SINGING IN GRAVEYARDS Dir: Bradley LIEW/2016/Malaysia, Philippines

9. SUDDENLY TWENTY Dir: Araya SURIHARN/2016/Thailand

10. TAM CAM: THE UNTOLD STORY [Tam Cam: Chuyen Chua Ke] Dir: NGO Thanh Van/2016/Vietnam

11. A YELLOW BIRD Dir: K RAJAGOPAL/2016/Singapore, France

Special Focus on Hong Kong 2017

This program will present Hong Kong films by a new generation of filmmakers in cooperation with Hong Kong Special Administration Region Economic and Trade Office Tokyo.

1. HUSBAND KILLERS [女士復仇] Dir: Fire LEE (火火)/2017/Hong Kong[WP]

2. 29+1 Also to be screened as a Competition film

3. 77 HEARTBREAKS [原諒他77次] Also to be screened as a Competition film

4. MAD WORLD [一念無明] Also to be screened as a Competition film/HONG KONG NIGHT Screening

5. SISTERHOOD [骨妹] Also to be screened as a Competition film

6. SOUL MATE [七月與安生] Also to be screened as a Competition film

130th Anniversary of Thailand-Japan Diplomatic Relations: Thai Film Promotion

To celebrate the 130th Anniversary, this program will focus on Thai films including the masterpiece DUAY KLAW (THE SEED)(1987).

1. DUAY KLAW (THE SEED) Dir: Bundit RITTAKOL/1987/Thailand

2. BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK Also to be screened as a Competition film

3. A GIFT Also to be screened as a [New Action! South East Asia] film

4. ONE DAY Also to be screened as a Competition film/THAI NIGHT Screening

5. SUDDENLY TWENTY Also to be screened as a [New Action! South East Asia] film

Indie Forum

This program will present 12 films by new innovative and challenging Japanese talents including 3 CO2 (Cineastes Organization Osaka) supported films. The JAPAN CUTS AWARD will be presented by Japan Society to the selected film from this section.

1. DYNAMITE WOLF [おっさんのケーフェイ] Dir: TANIGUCHI Kohei/2017/Japan/13th CO2 Grant-recipient Film [WP]

2. HIZUME [蹄] Dir: KIMURA Asagi/2017/Japan/13th CO2 Grant-recipient Film [WP]

3. VISUALIZED HEARTS [可視化する心たち] Dir: IGARASHI Akiko/2017/Japan /13th CO2 Grant-recipient Film [WP]

4. BAMY [バーミー] Dir: TANAKA Jun/2016/Japan [WP]

5. BREATHLESS LOVERS [息ぎれの恋人たち] Dir: SHIMIZU Shumpei/2017/Japan/Supported by Housen Cultural Foundation [WP]

6. GOOD-BYE [さよならも出来ない] Dir: MATSUNO Izumi/2016/Japan

7. HER MOTHER Dir: SATO Yoshinori/2016/Japan

8. I WANT TO BE LOVED [海の底からモナムール ] /Besoin d’ amour] Dir: Ronan GIRRE/2017/Japan, France

9. LOVE AND GOODBYE AND HAWAII [恋とさよならとハワイ] Dir: MATSUMURA Shingo/2017/Japan [WP]

10. PING PANG [ピンパン] Also to be screened as a [In & Out of Work: Looking at Asia through the Prism of Employment］film

11. POETRY ANGEL [ポエトリーエンジェル] Dir: IIZUKA Toshimitsu/2016/Japan

12.TAMAYURA MARIKO [たまゆらのマリ子] Dir: SEGAWA Koji/ 2016/ Japan

Supported Program

Housen Cultural Foundation: Support for film study and production

Based in Osaka, the Housen Cultural Foundation supports film study and production in graduate schools. This program will show the films supported by the Housen Cultural Foundation. One of the films has been selected to be screened in the Indie Forum section.

1. COOPERATION AND COMMUNITY [績（う）みの村] Dir: IKEDA Keishiro/2015/Japan [WP]

2. ICARUS AND THE SON [イカロスと息子] Dir: SANADA Kohei/2015/Japan

3. PROMISES [子供たち] Dir: ENDO Mikihiro/2015/Japan [WP]

4. BRIGHT NIGHT [レンコーンの夜] Dir: KONNO Yasumasa/2016/Japan [WP]

5. SWEETEST TRUTH [スイーテスト・トゥルース] Dir: Evdoxia KYROPOULOU/2015/Japan, Greece [WP]

This list will be updated with more information as and when I get it. I hope to add reviews to the blog and then update the list as well so if you’re a fan of Asian films, you might want to check back every so often.

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I’m currently working for a film festival in Japan but I’m still trying to report on Japanese film events in the UK such as this one which is a bit late (thank you to the Japan Foundation for sending the email):

The Japan Foundation is pleased to partner with Modern Culture once again for the event Japan Now. Join us for this very special screening as part of Japan Now, with filmmaker Momoko Ando here in London to introduce the UK Premiere of her film 0.5mm alongside curator and filmmaker Jasper Sharp. 

For further details of how to book tickets, please visit:  https://www.bl.uk/events/momoko-ando-film-screening

Here’s the trailer:

0.5mm    

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0.5ミリ 「0.5 miri」

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 196 mins

Director: Momoko Ando

Writer: Momoko Ando (Screenplay)

Starring: Sakura Ando, Junkichi Orimoto, Toshio Sakata, Masahiko Tsugawa, Akira Emoto.

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Sawa, a home helper for a middle class family with an elderly infirm grandfather, is forced to stretch her morals to keep her job. As a result, she finds herself broke and out on the street. She survives her first night by striking up an ambiguous friendship with a kindly old man, gaining access to a portion of the immense wealth held by Japan’s aging population. She continues with similar encounters, and while these begin as scams or revenge on rampant sexism, they ultimately become vulnerable intergenerational exchanges.

In 0.5mm, Ando offers a darkly funny take on Japanese society, and a beautifully crafted journey through Japan’s embattled sexual landscape, confronting ageing, class and patriarchy.

Date and Location:

British Library Knowledge Centre

Saturday 25 February, 6:30pm

Tickets: £7

Momoko Ando will also be taking part in a panel discussion earlier in the day:

11.05 – 12.15 Session One: Japan: Outside Influences (Chair: Christopher Harding) Yoko Tawada and Momoko Ando Japan is often seen as an insular country, with little inward migration, and this session features artists from a range of genres whose work takes its cue from ‘internationalism’ and outside influence. Yoko Tawada is one of Japan’s best known novelists in the West, and has lived most of her adult life in Berlin. Memoirs Of A Polar Bear, is her newly published novel. Momoko Ando is a filmmaker whose work includes Kakera: A Piece Of Our Life and 0.5mm. She is currently based in Tokyo.

For more information, check out the British Library’s site.

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Following on from my last post about Momoko Ando presenting 0.5mm at a special screening, here’s a recent announcement sent out by the Japan Foundation regarding a new Japan Now talk:

The Japan Foundation is delighted partner with Foyles and Modern Culture for this
special talk by author Hiromi Kawakami as part of Japan Now 2017

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Hiromi Kawakami has been a long standing favourite of Foyles customers and booksellers alike. Perfectly constructed, poetic and moving, Strange Weather in Tokyo was the first of Kawakami’s novels to be published in English, introducing readers to the dreamlike state of her writing.

Nakano Thrift Shop is similar in its delicate and funny portrayal of Japanese life. Exploring the mystery that lurks in the ordinary, her second novel traces the seemingly imperceptible threads that weave together a community and the knots that bind us to one another.

Now in 2017 Pushkin Press will be publishing the highly surreal short story collection, Record of a Night too Brief – an anthology set to once again captivate its English readers.

Join us for a night of conversation with one of Japan’s most popular contemporary novelists.

Venue: The Auditorium at Foyles, Level 6, 107 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DT

Tickets are priced at £8 (or £5 for Foyles members). To purchase tickets, please visit the Foyles website

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The organisers behind Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) released the full programme of every film that will be screened during its run from March 03^rd until March 12^th last week and it’s an impressive line-up.

The beginning of the year is always a busy one when it comes to international film festivals since Rotterdam and Berlin showcase their programmes and start screening things that will filter to the rest of the world at some point. Add the Osaka Asian Film Festival to that list because it is establishing itself as a platform for Asian filmmakers. This year demonstrates why it has a growing international reputation since there are many world and international premieres and a lot of filmmakers are going to attend the festival to talk about their work. On top of writing my usual previews for the aforementioned festival, I am working for Osaka as well.

Full disclosure, I am at the festival in the capacity as a writer, helping out with the event and watching some of the films. I will attempt to review as many as possible but for now, I’ll give previews.

I’m very excited to bring these previews to you not least because I wrote the synopses for each of them and I got a chance to watch some of the films already and the amount of talent I have seen is impressive. As a person based in the West, sometimes it’s difficult to see what the rest of the world produces in terms of cinema so this is a real education for me. The titles from the Philippines and Thailand have been really impressive and show local film industries that are producing daring and interesting works.

Here’s what has been programmed for the opening, closing and competition films. There is mention of guests but to get the full information about which screening they are attending, please visit the Event Page, the Guest Page or one of my earlier announcements. To find out more about each of the films, please click on the titles/links to be taken to the festival site. I have also included links to IMDB and the film’s websites where possible.

Here’s what’s going to be screened (the entire list I made into a sticky post on the main page of this site will be updated with some of this information):

Opening Film

MRS K   Image may be NSFW.
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Running Time: 96 mins.

Director:  Yuhang Ho

Writer: Yuhang Ho, Wai-Keung Chan (Screenplay),

Starring: Kara Hui, Simon Yam, Wu Bai, Li Xuan Siow,

IMDB

Legendary Hong Kong action star Kara Hui (Rigor Mortis, At the End of Daybreak) and Simon Yam (Fulltime Killer, The Thieves) are foes in this explosive film that seems to reference Tarantino and play on Kara Hui’s action woman back-catalogue, something she developed from the days of The Shaw Brothers to now. The reviews on The Hollywood Reporter and Screen Daily assure me that this will be a crowd-pleasing action film and those who grew up with Hong Kong films of the ‘70s and ‘80s will totally be in love with this.

Kara Wai and director Yuhang Ho will be in Osaka for a talk and to act as a judge for the competition respectively. Kara Wai is also the recipient of the Asia Star Award.

Synopsis: Mrs K (Kara Wai) is a housewife who lives in a quiet suburban neighborhood with her husband, a doctor (Wu Bai), and her teenage daughter (Siow Li Xuan). She seems like a harmless middle class woman until confronted with danger, something that appears in the form of a corrupt cop (Tony Liu) whose arrival at her home is an unwelcome appearance especially since he talks about her past and a possible connection to a legendary casino heist in Macau. She sees him off but this is just the start of a series of violent events linked to Mrs K’s past which is slowly revealed when Mrs K’s daughter is kidnapped by a mysterious figure from her past (Simon Yam). To save her daughter, Mrs K will have to shed her clean-cut housewife image and reveal her deadly self…

Closing Film

Parks    

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パークス 「Pa-kusu」

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director:  Natsuki Seta

Writer: Natsuki Seta (Screenplay),

Starring: Ai Hashimoto, Mei Nagano, Shota Sometani, Shiro Sano, Reiya Masaki, Ryu Morioka, Shizuka Ishibashi,

Website IMDB

“Parks” was created to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Inokashira Park, a cool area between Kichijoji and Mitaka and it features a zoo, lovely grounds to walk through, and the totally awesome Ghibli Museum.

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The film has been written and directed by Natsuki Seta, an Osaka-born female director who made a name for herself with her 2011 debut commercial feature, “A Liar and a Broken Girl.” She was supported by the Osaka Asian Film Festival early in her career when her film “A Letter from Elsewhere” was programmed. This feature stars Ai Hashimoto (The Kirishima Thing, The World of Kanako), Shota Sometani (Himizu, As the Gods Will), and Mei Nagano (Rurouni Kenshin) so it’s sure to have great acting. Shota Sometani was one of the leads in her film “A Liar and a Broken Girl.”

Synopsis from the festival site: University student Jun (Ai Hashimoto), lives near Inokashira Park. Her days are quiet until she has a visit from a high school girl named Haru (Mei Nagano) who has a request: they search for Haru’s late father’s ex-girlfriend, who sent a letter to the father. However, they find the ex-girlfriend’s grandson Tokio (Shota Sometani) and he says the woman has passed away. Tokio finds a roll of reel-to-reel tape in his grandmother’s belongings, a recording of a love song that Haru’s father made. Due to the tape being damaged, they can’t listen to the full song, so the three try to recreate the missing parts to complete the song.

COMPETITION

This section will present 16 films chosen from works completed on or after 1st October 2015 and unreleased in Japan. The international jurors will choose the winners of the Grand Prix and Most Promising Talent Award.

I have seen some of the titles here and I have been impressed by the range of stories and the level of filmmaking skill on offer. After having researched and written the director biographies for the physical catalgue, it’s exciting to see and report that many directors are still fresh to the game and yet display such confidence and skill.

10,000 MILES  [一萬公里的約定]     Image may be NSFW.
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Taiwan

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Simon Hung

Writer: Ruby Chen, Simon Hung (Screenplay),

Starring: Sean Huang, Megan Lai, Darren Wang, Jack Noseworthy

IMDB

Director Simon Hung will be in Osaka for the film.

Synopsis: Kevin is a driven and dedicated high school student from a rough neighborhood in Taipei. Marathon running is his dream. He wants to join the school track team in which his older brother is the star but when he fails during a tryout all seems lost. Enter the team’s assistant coach, Ellie, who sees his potential and trains him on the side. The training is harsh but through it the two discover love. However, as they get closer shock incidents, illnesses and injuries affect Kevin and his family and separate him from Ellie. Only conquering the famous 10,000 Mile Silk Road Ultramarathon can save the day but can his dream of running rescue his relatives and rekindle his romance with Ellie?

“10,000 Miles” is loosely based on the life of the famous Taiwanese ultra marathon runner, Kevin Lin, who ran along the Silk Road in 2007. He joined the film as co-producer and reportedly subjected the actors to tough training.

29+1

Hong Kong

Running Time: 105 mins.

Director: Kearen Pang

Writer: Kearen Pang (Screenplay/Original Stage Play),

Starring: Chrissie Chau, Elaine Jin, Eric Kot, Joyce Cheng, Jan Lamb, Ben Yeung, Babyjohn Choi,

IMDB

Director Kearen Pang has a formidable career as an award-winning stage and screen actress and she adapted her hit one-woman stage play “29+1” into a feature film. It’s a solid drama and she will be in Osaka to talk about it.

Synopsis: Christy is a typical city girl born and raised in Hong Kong. She is a month away from turning 30 and has to cope with some of the same struggles shared by women her age: the stress of work, ageing and annoying parents, and a seemingly stable yet stagnant romance. The prospect of this pressure being her future is depressing but fate (and losing her apartment) makes her connect with Joyce, a woman who has never been in love and works in a dead-end job. Despite this, Joyce is relentlessly optimistic and has made the bold decision to pack up her bags and follow her childhood dreams of travelling. Christy moves temporarily into Joyce’s home and through exploring Joyce’s diary, learns more about Joyce’s life and finally makes big decisions about her own.

“29+1” is a glossy story that should appeal to a wide audience due to its universal themes about growing older and facing different responsibilities.

77 HEARTBREAKS [原諒他77次]

Hong Kong

Running Time: 97 mins.

Director: Herman Yau

Writer: Erica Li (screenplay), Li Min (Original Novel),

Starring: Charlene Choi, Pakho Chau, Michelle Wai, Candy Lo, Kara Hui, Anthony Wong, Yumiko Cheng,

Website

Herman Yau will be attending some screenings of this film.

Synopsis: When Adam and Eva, sweethearts since law school, break up after ten years, Adam thinks their split was caused by one trivial incident. What he doesn’t realise is that Eva has forgiven him for 77 mistakes!

It began when Adam changed professions to start a Thai boxing gym and gradually became indifferent to Eva. Seemingly petty matters, like forgetting she hates raisin cookies, became the catalyst for her to move out and leave him. Despondent, Adam has a drunken tryst with his student, Mandy, but after discovering Eva’s private journal entitled “77 Heartbreaks”, he learns of his many errors. The title refers to the philosophy that “forgiving someone 7 times isn’t enough; 70 x 7 times is too much; so go ahead and forgive 77 times!” Reading it revives Adam’s love for Eva, but what can he do to win her back and what secret is contained in the journal’s torn-out last page?

BLISS

Philippines

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Jerrold Tarog

Writer: N/A

Starring: Iza Calzado, Ian Veneracion, Tj Trinidad, Adrienne Vergara, Michael De Mesa

Jerrold Tarog has a multi-hyphenate career as director, writer, composer, and more and he has gone on to win awards in all of those field as his films have toured the international festival circuit. He will be in Osaka to discuss his career more when this film screens.

Synopsis: Jane Ciego started acting in showbiz at a young age. Now in her 30’s, she decides to produce her own film to win some respect in the industry. But things do not go as planned and an accident on location cripples her. Jane wakes up unable to walk and trapped in her own home, a large house filled with strange sounds and people who may want to harm her. She is looked over by her cold husband Carlo and a sadistic nurse named Lilibeth, and then there is Rose, a nurse wanted by authorities for sexually molesting a patient. She mysteriously enters Jane’s life and soon begins affecting her dreams as much as her waking life. Jane’s sanity begins to crumble as the horrors pile up in a symphony of blood, tears and madness. What was supposed to be a simple dream for Jane soon becomes an endless nightmare.

BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK [DAO KHANONG]     Image may be NSFW.
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Thailand, Netherlands, France, Qatar

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Anocha Suwichakornpong

Writer: Anocha Suwichakornpong (Screenplay)

Starring: Arak Amornsupasiri, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Achtara Suwan, Visra Vichit-Vadakan

IMDB Website

The director will be attending a screening.

Synopsis: A film director and her muse who was a student activist in the 1970’s, a waitress who keeps changing jobs, an actor and an actress, all live loosely connected to each other by almost invisible threads. The narrative sheds its skin several times to reveal layer upon layer of the complexities that make up the characters’ lives.

“By the Time it Gets Dark” examines whether artists can relate to grim events from the past through a film-within-a-film premise. The military-led massacre of student demonstrators at a university in Bangkok in 1976 serves as the subject for a film the characters are involved in. As the filming takes place, audiences are asked to question whether people can truly understand the historical trauma of what happened through viewing philosophical passages of action made up of increasingly surreal and beautiful images juxtaposing a peaceful and prosperous present with those brutal events of the past and the ghosts that remain.

COME, TOGETHER

South Korea 

Running Time: 122 mins.

Director: Shin Dong-il

Writer: Han Ji-soo, Shin Dong-il (Screenplay)

Starring: Im Hyeong-gook, Lee Hye-eun, Chae Bin, Kim Je-rok, Han Kyung-hyun,

IMDB Website

Synopsis: A family struggling to succeed in Korea’s culture of fierce competition finds that the pressure to win may corrupt them as the morals of the three are tested. Beom-gu, a middle-aged engineer, somehow loses his sense of smell and then suddenly loses his job and, as a result, his sense of self. Left with nothing to do but stay at home all day, he visits a troublesome neighbour to complain about the noise and finds a strange character who drags him into a strange situation. His wife Mi-young sells credit cards in a dog-eat-dog environment. Driven to win a trip to Thailand, Mi-young risks doing illegal sales to beat her rivals but her situation only gets worse. Their daughter Han-na has applied for Korea’s top university but has been rejected and stuck on a waiting list. It is two days before the deadline and there is only one person ahead of her on the list. Anxious, she contacts and meets a girl who is already accepted to the department that Han-na applied for…

INTERCHANGE   Image may be NSFW.
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Malaysia, Indonesia

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: Dain Iskandar Said

Writer: Redza Minhat, Dain Said, Nandita Solomon, June Tan, (Screenplay)

Starring: Nicholas Saputra, Iedil Putra, Shaheizy Sam, Prisia Nasution, Alvin Wong,

IMDB

Dain Iskandar Said will be at the festival to talk about the film.

Synopsis: A series of bizarre and gruesome murders rocks a Malaysian city as corpses drained of blood and left dangling about in a net of their own veins start showing up along with mysterious old photographs. Police detective Man is baffled and needs help and so he turns to a reclusive friend named Adam, a former a forensics photographer who burned out and quit his job. Adam spends his days taking pictures of his neighbours but his seemingly innocuous pastime turns into a dark vision. Through his photographic lenses, he spies Iva, an attractive young woman from Borneo, a new tenant in the opposite apartment. Adam finds himself falling in love with her as he becomes entangled in mystery, murder and mayhem. As Adam is drawn further into Iva’s tribal world and Man digs deeper into his investigation, they discover the city’s mystical underbelly of shamans and supernatural beings and a century-old superstition come to life.

KITA KITA [I SEE YOU] 

Philippines

Running Time: 93 mins.

Director: Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo

Writer: N/A (Screenplay)

Starring: Alessandra de Rossi, Empoy Marquez,

Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo finished filming this around the time I arrived in Japan. She had an eventful time in Hokkaido so it will be interesting attending her talks for the different screenings.

Synopsis: Lea and Tonyo are two Filipinos living in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Lea is a Velo taxi tour guide. She suffers an accident which leads to her being affected by temporary blindness. Her blindness, if not cured in a few weeks, could become permanent. Tonyo is also a Filipino who lives right across from Lea. Lea tries her best to ignore him at first because she is scared of not seeing him. But Tonyo is persistent and is determined to be her friend, using humour and kindness to make a connection. With every effort that he makes the two gradually become closer. In an ironic way, becoming blind allows Lea to see the true character of Tonyo.

This story is about perception and about how sometimes we can’t see the real story behind a person. As Lea’s story ends, we will see Tonyo’s story begin.

MAD WORLD [一念無明]    Image may be NSFW.
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Hong Kong

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: Wong Chun

Writer: Florence Chan (Chor Hang Chan) (Screenplay)

Starring: Eric Tsang, Shawn Yue, Elaine Jin, Charmaine Fong,

IMDB

Director Wong Chun and writer Florence Chan will be at the screening.

Synopsis: he film begins with an old man picking up his son from a mental hospital. The father is a trucker who regularly drives to China. He has long been absent as a father but now he has custody of his son, a former financial analyst suffering from severe bipolar disorder. The father must take his son home and help his child manage his problems. Both men are in deep remorse for the accident that caused the death of the mother. Their history fuels the tension and anxiety that boils as they stay with each other in a tiny subdivided flat. As time passes, they realise the pain between one another is not the only confrontation that awaits them; they must face the cruel and unjust world that they are living in.

Hong Kong stars Eric Tsang and Shawn Yue take the lead in a daring indie drama that looks at the pressures of life in the city’s poorest and bleakest environment and asks how strong people need to be in order to change.

ONE DAY    Image may be NSFW.
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Thailand

Running Time: 135 mins.

Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun

Writer: Chantavit Dhanasevi, Nontra Kumwong, Banjong Pisanthanakun (Screenplay)

Starring: Chantavit Dhanasevi, Nittha Jirayungyurn, Theerapat Sajakul, Prim Bulakul, Kaz Sawamura, Yuta Takimoto, Kureha Sakaguchi, Haruka Takase,

IMDB

Director Banjong Pisanthanakun and cast members Chantavit Dhanasevi, Nittha Jirayungyurn will attend a screening

Synopsis: Denchai is a geeky 30-year-old IT officer whose existence is only acknowledged when his colleagues, who often forget his name, need tech support. His world is flipped upside down when he goes to fix a printer for a new girl in the marketing department named Nui. She gets his name correct, making him feel valued once again and from that moment, Denchai falls head over heels for Nui, but only admires her secretly from afar, since he knows that Nui is out of his league.

Things take a strange turn while they are on a company outing in Hokkaido. Denchai makes a wish at the resort’s landmark Lucky ‘N Love Bell for Nui to be his girl for just one day. He may get his chance after she suffers an accident and is diagnosed with TGA, a rare temporary memory loss disorder which lasts for just one day. Denchai decides to tell Nui a lie: he is her boyfriend and they had plans to travel around Hokkaido together. Ethics aside, will Denchai get his dream girl, if only for just one day?

REVELATIONS 

India

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Vijay Jayapal

Writer: Vijay Jayapal (Screenplay)

Starring: Chetan Kadambi, Lakshmi Priyaa Chandramouli, Anantharaman Karthik, Arpita Banerjee,

IMDB

Vijay Jayapal will be attending the festival to talk about this, his debut feature-film. After a career making shorts, PSAs and ads, he has made an impressive entrance into the world of full-length filmmaking (it’s expertly shot and the script unfolds well) so it will be interesting hearing what he has to say.

Synopsis: A young Tamil woman living in Calcutta named Shobha grapples with unknown tensions in her four-year-long marriage with her often absent journalist husband Sekhar. She develops a complex relationship with her new neighbours, a sick mother and her middle-aged son, a Tamil man named Manohar. After offering to take care of his mother, Shobha and Manohar become closer but she discovers he has a mysterious past preventing their romance. As this takes place, Sekhar is reporting on the local rock scene with a rookie journalist named Divya. She is an uninhibited and sophisticated Bengali girl who knows how seductive she can be and Sekhar finds himself lost in her charms. As the tensions mount, the four find their relationships soon begin to unravel.

Set in the fascinating city of Kolkata, a place rich with culture and nature, the film explores themes such as guilt and redemption, desires and sexuality in the context of an Indian marriage.

SISTERHOOD [骨妹]

Macao, Hong Kong 

Running Time: 97 mins.

Director: Tracy Choi

Writer: Au Kin-yee (Screenplay)

Starring: Gigi Leung, Fish Liew, Jennifer Yu, Lee Lee-jen,

IMDB

Director Tracy Choi and the actresses Jennifer Yu and Fish Liew will be attending a screening.

Synopsis: In a small town somewhere in Taiwan lives Sei, a woman in her late-thirties. She moved from Macau to Taiwan 15 years ago with her husband but finds herself drawn back when she discovers her best friend in Macau, Ling, has just passed away. Sei recalls her younger days with Ling in the 1990’s. It was Ling who got Sei her first job at a massage parlour and invited Sei to live at her home. Their friendship deepened when Ling discovered she was pregnant and with the arrival of Ling’s baby boy, Lok Lok, the three became a family. But as the date of Macau’s handover to China neared, Ling fell in love with a restaurant owner and on the eve of the handover, the two women fought and then parted ways. Things have changed in Macau, including people, as Sei discovers when she re-unites with Lok Lok, who has grown up and reveals that Ling has kept a promise to Sei she never knew…

SOMETHING IN BLUE [呼吸正常]    Image may be NSFW.
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China

Running Time: 107 mins.

Director: Li Yunbo

Writer: Li Yunbo (Screenplay)

Starring: Zhang Xingchao, Ye Ruihong, Zhou Jiaheng, Li Hui,

IMDB

“Something in Blue” is a niche film. When I watched it, I was immediately reminded of the films of Korean director Hong Sang-Soo, as it looks at the vagaries of human relationships in a series of sketches of everyday life, uses repetition a little, and has a naturalistic air to its setting and acting. There is no definite plot, this is just a slice-of-life and it is also a breath of fresh air in Chinese cinema. This is the first Chinese film that I have seen which is anywhere close to Mumblecore or anything that isn’t flashy and over-theatrical. It takes place in Guangzhou and I must admit that it was a great advertisement for the city because lots of areas looked fascinating. Producers Li Yang, Zeng Yiqing, and director Li Yunbo will be in Osaka to give a talk at the festival.

Synopsis: Four twenty-something guys in Guangzhou live with their love and dreams, ease and bewilderment as they go about their everyday lives. Watching them on screen is like seeing them enter the movie from their own lives, dragging their friends, family and compatriots with them, before they go back to their lives at the end of proceedings. The film allows them to act as themselves on screen and so we see them in their natural environment, opening up a new perspective on living in a Chinese city.

SOUL MATE [七月與安生]    Image may be NSFW.
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Hong Kong, China

Running Time: 110 mins.

Director: Derek Tsang

Writer: Wing-Sum Lam, Yuan Li, Nan Wu, Yimeng Xu (Screenplay)

Starring: Dongyu Zhou, Sichun Ma, Toby Lee, Gang Cai, Ping Li,

IMDB

Synopsis: July and Ansheng are both 13 when they meet in high school and become best friends fast despite having differing personalities. July is calm like water while Ansheng is a fiery ball of passion. They become inseparable. As fate would have it, at the age of 18, they fall in love with the same man, Jia-ming. Because of their different values and lifestyles, they are destined to arrive at two completely different endings but they will never completely lose their bond…

Based on a short story by the writer Qing Shan, this tale of two BFFs falling for the same guy has drawn comparisons to the Shunji Iwai’s masterpiece “Hana and Alice” (2004) but its sensitively told story does enough to make it different. It features two award-winning performances from lead actresses Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun who make this coming of age drama a touching journey to behold.

TISAY   Image may be NSFW.
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Philippines

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Borgy Torre

Writer: N/A (Screenplay)

Starring: JC de Vera, Nathalie Hart, Joel Torre, Angelina Mailes, Kanapi, Isabel Granada,

IMDB

Director Borgy Torre and producer Katrina Veloso will be attending the festival.

Synopsis: Tisay is a beautiful woman who works as a middle woman for a gambling kingpin. He fixes games of semi-pro basketball and she collects bets from blue collar workers, sometimes using sex to get things done. She finds it impossible to be so cold to her next mark, Simon, a talented basketball player who can make it into the professional leagues if he keeps playing. Simon, a good-natured and idealistic person, falls in love with Tisay but has to deal with a world filled with shams, crime and violence if he wants to stay with her but it is Tisay who has to make the choice to escape her background.

YAMATO (CALIFORNIA)   Image may be NSFW.
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大和（カリフォルニア) 「Yamato (Karifuorunia」

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director:  Daisuke Miyazaki

Writer: Daisuke Miyazaki (Screenplay),