The 34th Tokyo Student Film Festival runs from August 18th to August 20th in Shibuya Eurolive. 21 films will be on offer plus a guest talk by Joe Odagiri. These films are split into three programmes, features, animation, and shorts from a new generation of filmmakers.
Here are details on the films with information pulled from the festival site. Click on the links to find out more about the films and filmmakers who have given comments on the background of their films (highly recommended!).
Live-Action Features
花心 ファーシン 「Kashin Fashin」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Miku Yasumoto
Writer: Miku Yasumoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Mitsuki Moriyama, Shima Izutsu, Shuuto, Junya Kudo, Riku Tanaka, Ryo Yanagi,
Miku Yasumoto became interested in film after receiving a camera from her grandfather. While studying at the Department of Film Production at Kyoto University of the Arts, she directed short, medium, and feature films. Her first film, the short Ukabu Katsumuri was screened at Japan Film Fest Hamburg and she featured at last year’s Tokyo Student Film Festival. This is her third film as a director.
Synopsis: A young man helps his photographer grandfather with his photo exhibition. Just as he takes an interest in photography, the old man passes away and his grandfather’s words about photography “sucking the soul out of you,” haunt him. This is when the young man meets Rei, his grandfather’s muse, and she volunteers to have her pictures taken…
夢うつつ 「Yume Utsutsu」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 78 mins.
Director: Ayumu Yuasa
Writer: N/A
Starring: Kota Baba, Mayuko Ogawa, Sayaka Shindo
Yuasa first studied film under film director Makoto Shinozaki at Rikkyo University’s Department of Moving Image and Physical Education and began making films. He is currently, he is studying under Atsuhiko Suwa and Akihiko Shiota at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts.
Synopsis: Upon hearing that a friend from his high school days has passed away, a photographer visits a mutual friend and the two take a trip down memory lane to places where the three of them once spent time together.
完璧な若い女性 「Kanpekina Wakai Josei」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 66 mins.
Director: Ryuhei Watanabe
Writer: Ryuhei Watanabe (Screenplay),
Starring: Shotaro Otomo, Haru Takeuchi, Kichisuke Arai, Haruki Kawashima, Yumiko Tanaka,
Watanabe comes from a family that owns an omelette shop. An early interest in Showa-era films and music led to him enrolling in the Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University and organizing independent film festivals and producing films.
Synopsis: A film inspired by Showa-era music, the songs of Perfect Young Lady are the score to a three-day journey over summer in Shizuoka in a story full of encounters, reunions, and partings, all in search of the “perfect young lady”.
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 51 mins.
Director: Maru Takagi
Writer: Taichi Akihabara (Screenplay),
Starring: Keisuke Ninomiya, Taiga Masuya, Nachi Shirata, Riko Onodera, Natsune Kato, Taichi Akihabara,
Takagi is currently enrolled in the Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University and makes music videos. This is his first film as a director.
Synopsis: Sanada is a man with bandaged fists in a town where rock-paper-scissors-paper and fists decide everything. His trauma over his pet mosquito being squashed makes him impulsively punch a girl.
Petto Botoru Roketto ga Tondara Owari
ペットボトルロケットが飛んだら終わり 「Petto Botoru Roketto ga Tondara Owari」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 42 mins.
Director: Riku Kawamura
Writer: Riku Kawamura (Screenplay),
Starring: Riku Tanaka, Hana Morita, Hiroyuki Seki, Hiroki Ishikura, Yuna,
Kawamura comes Chiba Prefecture and has worked as both an assistant director and director.
Synopsis: A college student becomes interested in making a PET-bottle rocket but as he looks at his fellow students, a feeling pointlessness overtakes him. That is, until a young woman named Hana passes by.
Animation
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 4 mins.
Director: Solami Habu
Writer: Solami Habu (Screenplay),
Starring: Riku Tanaka, Hana Morita, Hiroyuki Seki, Hiroki Ishikura, Yuna,
Habu is a graduate of Musashino Art University’s Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences.
Synopsis: A young girl is left in charge of looking after her house, one summer day.
いずみのこえ 「Izumi no Koe」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 4 mins.
Director: Saki Haruo
Writer: Saki Haruo (Screenplay),
Starring: Saki Araki,
Haruo is a graduate from Musashino Art University, Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts. She majored in animation and studied background effects in animation.
Synopsis: A young woman enduring a traumatic situation finds relief through breathing.
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 9 mins.
Director: Xu Yuan
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Originally from Shanghai, Xu graduated from the Department of Visual Design, East China Normal University in June 2017, and completed his BFA in Graphic Design, Department of Design, Tama Art University in March 2023.
Synopsis: A short animation on love that becomes completely selfish.
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 6 mins.
Director: Rin Ikebe
Writer: Rin Ikebe (Screenplay),
Starring: Akino Nakamura, Ryutaro Mitani, aoaoao, Arima Sato, Rin Ikebe,
Rin Ikebe studied at Fujino Steiner Academy for 12 years and was influenced by Ghibli animation to enter Tokyo Zokei University’s Animation Major Area in 2019. 520 is her graduation project. In 2023, he joined an animation filming studio.
Synopsis: A tale of a parent, a girl, and a boy whose pride prevents them from giving and receiving gifts.
La nuit des illusions〜meisou no yoru〜
La nuit des illusions〜迷走の夜〜 「La nuit des illusions〜meisou no yoru〜」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 6 mins.
Director: Zhang Yu-xuan
Writer: Zhang Yu-xuan (Screenplay),
Starring: Hinata Akagi (Narrator)
Originally from Guangzhou, China, Zhang entered Tokyo Zokei University in 2019, and majored in Animation.
Synopsis: One rainy night, a woman swamped by people carrying umbrellas encounters an illusion on a street corner where everyone passes by…
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 8 mins.
Director: Liu Ming-cheng
Writer: Liu Ming-cheng (Screenplay),
Starring: Hinata Akagi (Narrator)
Liu graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology, Faculty of Arts, majoring in animation, and enrolled in Musashino Art University, Graduate School of Conceptual Art and Design, taking a Course of Image Photography in 2023.
Synopsis: A work about possession, exclusivity, and a chain of endless desire for more.
アトミックウォー 大腸篇 「Atomikku- Daichou-hen」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 6 mins.
Director: Ruito Sugawara
Writer: Ruito Sugawara (Screenplay),
Starring: Ruito Sugawara, Kaito Iida, Satoshi Miyauchi,
Sugawara belongs to Maybee, Saitama University’s visual image research society. Making this film involved Saitama University Monster Research Group.
Synopsis: Dawn of the Fungi…
来世 ユニコーンの首筋後ろのホクロになりたい 「Raise yuniko-n no Kubisuji Ushiro no Hokuro ni Naritai」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 10 mins.
Director: Liu Yu-chen
Writer: Marina Kikuchi, Liu Yu-chen (Screenplay), Mizu Sahara (Original Manga)
Starring: Kana Kuroki, higoAkari, Yuki Kura, Hiroki Komatsu, Amane Oda, Liu Yu-chen,
Liu is a graduate of China Communication University’s Department of Animation in 2019, and completed her graduate studies in Animation at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2023.
Synopsis: Three fans on their way to the final live show of their favourite idols, THE PARADISE, find themselves trapped in a lift. They try to pass the time by telling stories but then they get smartphone notifications…
Live-Action Shorts
万年幻想曲 「Mannen Gensoukyoku」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 28 mins.
Director: Haruka Ito
Writer: Akane Morisada (Screenplay),
Starring: Otoha Yamamoto, Aoba Ueda, Mayu Ozawa, Tetsu Teraoka, Reiko Nakamachi,
Ito entered Musashino University, where she was a member of the Visual Production and Expression Seminar from her sophomore year. After working on a film as a camera operator, she made her directorial debut with Reborn.
Synopsis: The main character is the daughter of a psychological counsellor. Her mother is often too busy for her and her latest work is treating her friend, an aspiring pianist. However, she feels that it is more than work when she sees her mother and friend acting like a real parent and child and on the rare occasion of her mother taking her out, it is to her friend’s piano competition…
おじいちゃんの茶碗 「Ojiichan no Chawan」
Release Date: 2022
Duration: 31 mins.
Director: Sana Hirano
Writer: Sana Hirano (Screenplay),
Starring: Eita Murayama, Takaaki Matsushima, Yuri Osawa, Miu Shiraki,
Hirano has been creating photographic works since high school. She enrolled in Nagoya Gakugei University’s School of Media Arts and Sciences’ Department of Imaging and Media Studies in 2018 and began making films there. Grandpa’s Bowl was her graduation project and based on experiences she has had.
平野沙菜監督『おじいちゃんの茶碗』に出演させていただきました
去年の夏、暑かったなァ～
https://t.co/6YwGx1P3Lt
— ふ じ こ (@shimaosw) January 18, 2022
去年の夏、暑かったなァ～
Synopsis: Takeru has spent the last two years living in his grandfather Shukichi’s house due to his parents’ divorce. When Takeru breaks his grandfather Shukichi’s treasured teacup, it presages soul searching from Takeru, Shukichi and Takeru’s older sister Maho as to what the “shape of a family” is.
いうなれば、⻩昏 「Iunareba, Tasogare」
Release Date: 2022
Duration: 23 mins.
Director: Sayaka Daigon
Writer: Sayaka Daigon (Screenplay),
Starring: Yo Momose, Tetsushi Endo, Shiho Nakazawa,
Daigon studied filmmaking at the Film School of Tokyo and ENBU Seminar. Iunareba, Tasogare is his debut.
Synopsis: After killing his father, Kazuhito runs away from home and ends up in a tenement house where he meets Kagura, a woman who wants to escape from the curse of her mother. What will become of them?
Kioku to Zanshin Regret of a Stone Tape
記憶と残心 「Kioku to Zanshin」
Release Date: 2022
Duration: 18 mins.
Director: Kota Matsuda
Writer: Kota Matsuda (Screenplay),
Starring: Yo Momose, Mao, Kenta Ishida, Shiho Nakazawa, Tatsunori Kawashima,
After graduating from high school, Matsuda moved to Tokyo to study at a film school and participated in films and commercials as an assistant cinematographer while still in school. He is currently attending the Film School of Tokyo which is where he made this film.
Synopsis: Yuki is a high school student who can see ghosts. She meets one on her way to school.
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 24 mins.
Director: Kyouichi Nakayama
Writer: Kyouichi Nakayama (Screenplay),
Starring: Tsutomu Okamoto, Tomokazu Ikenaga, Yuka Konishi,
Nakayama studied at the Department of Imaging Arts and Sciences at Musashino Art University.
Synopsis: Rei Yuasa begins to feel a sense of discomfort in her life and meets people and memories that draw him to a river and a strange world…
タピオカ学入門 「Tapioka Gaku Nyuumon」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 27 mins.
Director: Mariko Hynes
Writer: Mariko Hynes (Screenplay),
Starring: Reina Wagai, Satoshi Tsunoda, Kazuko Yuki, Kika Inukai,
Hynes was a member of her high school operetta club and has gone on to become a filmmaker with a number of shorts and medium length films, one of which won the Grand Prix and the Audience Award at the 35th Waseda Film Festival.
Synopsis: A film about how food influences our thinking. Take a lesson with Professor Kurimoto and try to understand his chaotic stories that reveal an important truth.
浮いてる二人 「Uiteru Futari」
Release Date: 2022
Duration: 13 mins.
Director: Yuuki Nakai
Writer: Yuuki Nakai (Screenplay),
Starring: Satsuki Fujita, Riko Suzuki, Daichi Watanabe,
Nakai attended an art school while still in high school and then went on to university where she made indie films. She is a graduate of the Fine Arts Department of the Faculty of Education.
Synopsis: “Sachi” is a university student and she meets “Obake” who has been floating around the university campus for a long time but has never been noticed by anyone. They spend time together floating and their adventures are told by a number of photographs – 1,500!
ディス・イヤーズ・モデル 「Disu Iya-zu Moderu」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 28 mins.
Director: Kenta Sekishita
Writer: Kenta Sekishita (Screenplay),
Starring: Iwazazki, Natsumi Kusayanagi, Yoo Shin K., Hiroko Ogisa, Seiichi Saito,
Sekeshita graduated from Waseda University in 2022. He is a member of the ENBU Seminar’s Film Director Course for the 2022 academic year.
Synopsis: A guy named Nishida meets Nogi, a former classmate from his college film club, and the two end up making a film with a group of others and this self-reflexive film within a film is influenced by the French classic The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
Here is past coverage of the event:
Tokyo Student Film Festival 2022