Japanese Films at the Venice International Film Festival 2023 (August 30th to September 09th)

The Venice International Film Festival is going to take place from August 30th to September 09th. There are films from a lot of big names, both past and present, at the fest and so there’s something of interest for all cineastes.

Competition

Being in this section means that Hamaguchi is up for the Golden Lion award.

Evil Does Not Exist

悪は存在しない　「Aku wa Sonzai Shinai」

Release Date: 2024

Duration: 106 mins.

Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Writer: Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Screenplay),

Starring: Hitoshi Omika Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani, Happy Hour

IMDB

Ryusuke Hamaguchi has two films out this year, this one and Gift. Both have their roots in a collaboration with musician Eiko Ishibashi (composer on Drive My Car). Gift features a live music score that is performed by Ishibashi. Evil Does Not Exist is more of a straight narrative, it appears. It features cinematographer Yoshio Kitagawa – Happy Hour, The Sound of Waves, Intimacies, and the Joy of Man’s Desiring.

Synopsis: Takumi and his daughter Hana live quiet lives in a village near Tokyo. When news is announced that a big tourist attraction in the form of a glamping site will be built near Takumi’s house, life begins to change.

Out of Competition

RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS

Release Date: 2024

Duration: 103 mins.

Director: Neo Sora

Writer: N/A

Starring: Ryuichi Sakamoto

IMDB

Synopsis: In March 2023, Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away after his struggle against cancer. During this struggle, performing in concerts was hard but he gave his all in one final performance where it is just him and his piano.

Orizzonti

Hokage (Shadow of Fire)

ほかげ　「Hokage」

Release Date: November 25th, 2023

Duration: 95 mins.

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Writer: Shinya Tsukamoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Shuri, Ouga Tsukao, Hiroki Kono, Go Riju, Tatsushi Omori, Mirai Moriyama,

Website IMDB

Shinya Tsukamoto (Tokyo Fist, Vital) gives audiences a tale of broken people in the black markets of post-war Japan. It stars Shuri (Love at Least), Mirai Moriyama (The Drudgery Train), and Hiroki Kono, director of the Pia Film Festival Grand Prix award-winning film J005311.

Synopsis: As Japan rebuilds itself from the ruins of war, one person, a woman living alone in a half-burnt pub, looks after a boy who lost his family in an air raid. The two survive by stealing food from the black market…

Venice Classics

There are two Japanese films in the Venice Classics section.

Moving

お引越し 「Ohikkoshi」

Running Time: 124 mins.

Release Date: March 23^rd, 1993

Director: Shinji Somai

Writer: Satoshi Okonogi, Satoko Okudera (Screenplay), Hiko Tanaka (Original Novel)

Starring: Tomoko Tabata, Junko Sakurada, Kiichi Nakai, Mariko Sudo, Taro Tanaka, Ippei Shigeyama, Nagiko Tono, Konami Nakai,

IMDB

Shinji Somai was one of the biggest directors in Japan in the 1980s and 90s and made around 13 films before his death in 2001. Despite the popularity of his films, he was lesser known in the West until he netted his biggest festival spot in 1993 when Moving Ohikkoshi was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. Nearly a decade ago, he was the subject of a revival in interest thanks to retrospectives at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Nippon Connection and some of his films getting screened at various Japan Foundation events but despite that, his works are still hard to find on DVD and Blu-Ray. That is changing as Third Window Films is going to put out the 4K remaster of Typhoon Club on home video.

Moving/Ohikkoshi is one of his most popular and deals with one of his most utilised stories, that of a dislocated adolescents and the turbulent emotions they feel. It features sensitive writing and direction that allows the child actors to really get into their roles.

The film has a winning performance from child actor Tomoko Tabata who has grown into a fine leading lady with performances in films like The Cowards Who Look to the Sky. Screenwriter Satoko Okudera’s first noted work on a screenplay came with this film. She has subsequently become known for her collaborations with anime director Mamoru Hosoda on The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and The Wolf Children. She also wrote the screenplay for Permanent Nobara.

Synopsis: Renko is in the sixth grade when her parents decide to separate. Initially she is happy about the situation, not having had any idea that they might divorce, and enjoys the fact that she now has two homes. She begins feeling uneasy when her mother tries to draw up a ‘contract’ for their life together, which asserts their independence from her father while he cannot provide any satisfactory answers about why they divorced. Renko also becomes concerned about what will happen at school if her classmates find out, given that they already tease another girl whose parents have divorced. Renko’s boyfriend at school, Minoru, draws up a sure-fire plan to bring her parents back together but will it work?

There Was a Father

父ありき「Chichi Ariki」

Release Date: April 01st, 1942

Duration: 92 mins.

Director: Yasujiro Ozi

Writer: Yasujiro Ozu, Tadao Ikeda, Takao Yanai (Screenplay),

Starring: Chishu Ryu, Shuji Sano, Haruhiko Tsugawa, Shin Saburi, Mitsuko Mito,

IMDB

This is the latest in a series of restorations of Ozu’s works in a year when he is getting major retrospectives around the world. Cannes had two. Called Ozu 120, it commemorates both the 120th anniversary of the director’s birth and the 60th anniversary of his death and features films presented in both 4K restorations and 35mm prints.

Synopsis: A widowed mathematics teacher named Shuhei Horikawa tries his hardest to raise his ten-year-old son Ryohei, who studies in the same school. A tragedy on a school trip makes Shuhei retire and further prompts him to send his son to a school far away while he works in Tokyo to make money for his son’s education. Years later, Ryohei has become a school teacher and father and son struggle to connect.