Following on from releasing info on the outline of this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022 and confirming that there will be in-person screenings and online screenings, many of which will be available to international audiences, the organisers have detailed the Opening and Closing films that will be screened in cinemas in Osaka. Details below!
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Opening Film
The opening film of the 17th Osaka Asian Film Festival will be Yanagawa and it will have its Japanese Premiere on March 10 at Umeda Burg 7.
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漫长的告白
Release Date: 2021
Duration: 112 mins.
Director: Zhang Lu
Writer: Zhang Lu (Script),
Starring: Ni Ni, Zhang Luyi, Xin Baiqing, Sosuke Ikematsu, Ryoko Nakano, Ninon,
Yanagawa is ZHANG’s first Chinese-language film in 11 years since Dooman River (2010), after a career mainly based in Korea. It had its world premiere screening at Busan and was the opening films for the Pingyao International Film Festival. It will be released theatrically in Japan in 2022.
The Chinese cast are led by Zhang Luyi, lead in The Devotion of Suspect X (2017), Xin Baiqing, who appeared The Eight Hundred (2020), and Ni Ni, who appeared in ZHANG Yimou’s war film The Flowers of War (2011). The Japanese cast includes Sosuke Ikematsu, the lead in Shinya Tsukamoto’s Killing (2018) and last year’s OAFF closing film The Asian Angel (2021), and veteran actress Ryoko Nakano, who shot to fame with her turn in the Ken Takakura action-thriller Manhunt (1976).
Synopsis: This is the story about two brothers with very different personalities but a shared love interest. Introspective younger brother LI Dong (ZHANG Luyi) has received terrible news: stage four cancer. Without telling his fiery older brother LI Chun (XIN Baiqing), LI Dong suggests the two leave Beijing and take a trip to Yanagawa, the “Venice of Japan.” His reason for going there is LIU Chuan (NI Ni), the woman the two brothers both loved 20 years previously before she disappeared. They never really stopped loving her and so the beautiful locale of Yanagawa becomes the landscape that draws out their shared memories, loneliness, and vague hopes for a future that is never promised.
Closing Film
Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022 will close with Miss Osaka, the second film from globe-trotting Danish director Daniel Dencik.
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ミス大阪 「Misu Oosaka」
Release Date: 2021
Duration: 112 mins.
Director: Daniel Dencik
Writer: Daniel Dencik, Sara Isabella Jønsson Vedde (Script),
Starring: Victoria Carmen Sonne, Mirai Moriyama, Junko Abe, Nagisa Morimoto, Kaho Minami, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard,
Danish director Daniel Dencik has an academic background in Philosophy and Film Editing and has split his work between film and literature. His debut documentary Moon Rider won the Reel Talent Award at the CphDox – Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival 2012 while Tal R: The Virgin won a Danish Academy Award 2014 for best short documentary. His debut narrative feature Gold Coast (2015) was shot on location in Ghana and Burkina Faso, and Miss Osaka, his second feature film, was shot in Norway and Osaka.
Taking the lead role is Danish actress Victoria Carmen Sonne, a young talent whose performances have gained her notice across Europe. She has won two prestigious Bodil Awards, her first for Best Supporting Actress in 2017 for In the Blood and her second for Best Actress in 2019 for her role in “Holiday”. She is joined by Mikkel Boe Følsgaard who made an immediate impact on the film world with his debut role in A Royal Affair which won him the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival. Acting alongside them are award-winning Japanese stars such as Mirai Moriyama, an actor, artist, and dancer active in many areas whose credits include Crying Out Love in the Center of the World, The Horse Thieves, and The Drudgery Train, Junko Abe, an actress whose performance in Still the Water earned her the Best Actress Award at the Sakhalin International Film Festival, and Kaho Minami, a veteran talent whose credits include Angel Dust and Oh Lucy!.
Synopsis: Ines (Victoria Carmen Sonne) is a shy woman in search of a purpose. She finds one when, while tagging along on her boyfriend’s business trip to Norway, she meets Maria (Nagisa Morimoto), a mysterious and sensuous woman from Osaka whose polar-opposite personality draws Ines into a fast friendship. What starts out as fun forays into the Norwegian wilderness becomes a juncture of profound change for Ines after Maria disappears and the aimless young woman daringly seizes Maria’s passport, plane ticket, and clothes and heads to Japan to start a new life under the guise of the missing woman. A business card bearing the name of a hostess club, ‘Miss Osaka’, leads Ines into a profession where fantasies can be cast and new identities easily conjured but Ines finds Maria’s past casts a shadow she cannot quite escape as an enigmatic and potentially dangerous man named Shigeru (Mirai Moriyama) comes to Miss Osaka in search of his old flame…
Just to reiterate previous info. The physical portion of the festival will take place from in cinemas around Osaka from March 10 to 20 as it graces screens at the traditional venues Umeda Burg 7, Cine Libre Umeda, ABC Hall and the National Museum of Art, Osaka.
There will be online screenings featuring Japanese indie films and many of these film will be available to international viewers. This part runs from March 3 to 21 via the festivals online portal, OSAKA ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE where people can stream them.
As mentioned on the site, many of the films have been screened at the OAFF in the past and now is the perfect time to reintroduce to the world. For many titles, this will be their online debut and, once again, many available to a worldwide audience!!!
So far, only one film has been announced and it is this year’s opening film for the streaming portal.
<Online Opening Film>
Torso Image may be NSFW.
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トルソ 「Toruso」
Release Date: July 10th, 2010
Duration: 104 mins.
Director: Yutaka Yamazaki
Writer: Yutaka Yamazaki, Yuki Sato (Script),
Starring: Makiko Watanabe, Sakura Ando, Sola Aoi, Arata Iura, Renji Ishibashi, Miyako Yamaguchi,
This is the first film planned, directed, co-written, and more by Yutaka Yamazaki, a veteran cameraman and cinematographer for Japanese TV documentaries and films. His work as cinematographer stretches from Naomi Kawase (Still the Water, Shara) to Miwa Nishikawa (The Long Excuse) but it can most often be seen in Hirokazu’s Kore-eda’s films stretching from After Life, to Distance, Nobody Knows, Still Walking, I Wish, and After the Storm. His film covers themes of love and sexuality and is said to be show with an eye for “sensitive and detailed images captures an element of the female mentality.”
Sounds intriguing and he has the style!
A must-look aspect of the film are the leading ladies as, playing the film’s half-sisters are leading actresses Makiko Watanabe (Love Exposure, Still the Water) and Sakura Ando (Shoplifters, 100 Yen Love). They are supported by a stellar cast. Trailer and story below!
Synopsis: Hiroko (Makiko Watanabe) is an office lady who has an aversion to people. She is quite content with leading solitary life, her only companion being her “Torso,” a limbless inflatable male doll which she treats like a real boyfriend. In contrast, there is her free-spirited half-sister Mina (Sakura Ando), who lives life as if she is in pursuit of human warmth. Fed up with her boyfriend’s violence and infidelity, Mina comes knocking on Hiroko’s door and begins a cohabitation with Hiroko and her Torso which sets off a heart-breaking tale that reveals their deep sorrow and anxiety over the course of a summer.
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Check out more details on the official festival website and check back with me as I will be covering the event!