This year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival runs from September 22nd to the 30th and they have announced their selection of films.
There are many Asian and Asian-related titles that are worth checking out:
Bén Trong vo Ken Vang / Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell Dir: Thiên An Pham
Xiao Yao You / Carefree Days Dir: Liang Ming
Past Lives Dir: Celine Song
What about the Japanese films?
君たちはどう生きるか 「Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka」
Release Date: July 14th, 2023
Duration: 125 mins
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Writer: Hayao Miyazaki (Screenplay)
Starring: Soma Santoki (Masato Maki), Aimyon (Himi), Kou Shibasaki (Kiriko), Takuya Kumura (Shoichi Maki), Masaki Suda (The Gray Heron), Jun Fubuki (Maid #2), Kaoru Kobayashi (Old Pelican),
Animation Production: Studio Ghibli
This is the first animated feature film directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 10 years since The Wind Rises.
The title uses Genzaburo Yoshino’s novel How Do You Live? as an inspiration for a story that also draws upon Miyazaki’s own youth/family history.
Synopsis: During the Second World War, young Masato Maki (Soma Santoki) suffers a heartbreaking family tragedy and moves to the countryside, where his father (Takuya Kimura) works for a family making planes for Japan’s military. Masato explores this new landscape and persistently encounters a grey heron and discovers an abandoned tower. This is the start of a his adventure…
霧の淵 「Kiri no Fuchi 」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 83 mins.
Director: Daichi Murase
Writer: Daichi Murase (Screenplay),
Starring: Shuri Miyake, Masaki Miura, Shinzo Hotta, Ami Sugihara, Shingo Nakayama, Iori Miyamoto, Shion Otomo, Asami Mizukawa,
Click to view slideshow.Synopsis: Ihika is a 12-year-old girl who comes from a family that has run an inn in a tiny hamlet in Nara Prefecture for generations. Her mother married into the family that ran the inn and she manages it with her father-in-law, Shige, while Ihika’s father is away. One day, Shige disappears and the inn’s survival is threatened…
霧の淵 「Kiri no Fuchi 」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Nicole Midori Woodford
Writer: Nicole Midori Woodford (Screenplay),
Starring: Masatoshi Nagase, Mariko Tsutsui, Peter Yu,
This is an international co-production from a Singaporean director and with a Japanese cast.
Synopsis: Ami is a 13-year-old girl with the powers of an empath. Able to see the dead, she goes on a journey in search of her mother. This leads her from Singapore to Japan and into a tragedy from her family past.
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
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.
This one played at Venice and it will play at San Sebastian (also in September).
Synopsis: Takumi and his daughter Hana live quiet lives in a village near Tokyo. The bucolic peace of the place is disrupted when land developers arrive with the announcement that they intend to build a big tourist attraction in the form of a glamping site for tourists to go camping. It will be built near Takumi’s house. The locals, sensing life beginning to change, offer resistance to the project while the land developers from the big city are determined to move forward and change the natural environment. Conflict ensues…
怪物 「Kaibutsu」
Release Date: June 02nd, 2023
Duration: 125 mins.
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Writer: Yuji Sakamoto (Screenplay),
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Starring: Sakura Ando, Eita Nagayama, Yuko Tanaka, Mitsuki Takahata, Soya Kurokawa, Akihiro Kakuta, Shido Nakamura,
Kore-eda won the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters back in 2018 and returned last year with his Korean-set drama Broker. Those were based on original scripts written by himself.
With Monster, he has gravitated to working with more mainstream names making big moves in the Japanese movie industry. The film is based on a screenplay by Yuji Sakamoto (We Made a Beautiful Bouquet, Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World) and the film is produced by powerhouse screenwriter, producer and director Genki Kawamura (A Hundred Flowers, If Cats Disappeared From the World, Villain). Music was composed by the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise) who sadly passed away earlier this yera.
The film ultimately took the Award for the Best Screenplay. It won another award but I consider revealing its name a bit of a spoiler.
Synopsis: The community of a small town with a large lake becomes the focus of the media as two children get into a fight at school and the conflicting claims draw attention from wider society. The people involved include a single mother and her son, a teacher, and others. None could guess how things would escalate as, during a stormy morning, the children disappear…
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 124 mins.
Director: Wim Wenders
Writer: Wim Wenders, Takuma Takasaki (Screenplay),
Starring: Koji Yakusho, Aoi Yamada, Min Tanaka, Arisa Nakano, Tokio Emoto, Yumi Asou,
Koji Yakusho (Cure, Charisma) won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2023 for his role in this film. He plays a toilet cleaner in Tokyo encountering various people in four vignettes that were brought to the screen after a 17-day shoot. While at Cannes, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or but ultimately won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the aforementioned Best Actor Award.
Synopsis: Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) lives in a small house full of plants and analogue technology in a quiet neighbourhood in Tokyo that is full of cafes and bookshops. He works as a cleaner of public toilets and his hobbies include music and photography. His life is scored to the music of the likes of The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed. Each day, he encounters different people and they all reveal some aspect of this quiet and unassuming man’s character.
Hiroshi Teshigahara Retrospective
The festival will screen all of the directors films.
