The Vancouver International Film Festival 2023 runs from September 28th to October 08th and the line-up looks great. There are a grip of Japanese feature films which will be screened. I’m also throwing in two Korean films that have been winning awards and plaudits – potential festival attendees will want to watch these!
Here’s the round-up of Japanese films.
Undercurrent 
アンダーカレント 「Anda-karento」
Release Date: October 06th, 2023
Duration: 144 mins.
Director: Rikiya Imaizumi
Writer: Rikiya Imaizumi, Kaori Sawai (Screenplay), Tetsuya Toyoda (Original Manga)
Starring: Yoko Maki, Arata Iura, Lily Franky, Noriko Eguchi, Eita Nagayama, Rio Uchida, Kumi Nakamura,
Rikiya Imaizumi (Just Only Love?, Over the Town) has adapted Tetsuya Toyoda’s same-named manga, a work praised for its rich characterisation and emotions.
Synopsis: Kanae reopens her family’s bathhouse to the public following the disappearance of her husband, Satoru. A mysterious man named Hori appears looking for work and ends up getting a position as a live-in employee. A bond forms between the two and Kanae recovers something of a peaceful life, just as a smelly private detective named Yamazaki investigates Satoru.
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…
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 year.
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…
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, Toronto and at San Sebastian (all 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…
バカ塗りの娘 「Bakanuri no Musume」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 118 mins.
Director: Keiko Tsuruoka
Writer: Keiko Tsuruoka, Kensaku Kojima, (Screenplay), Miyuki Takamori (Original Novel)
Starring: Mayu Hotta, Kaoru Kobayashi, Reiko Kataoka, Hana Kino, Yoneko Matsukane, Toshiya Miyata, Yutaka Odagiri, Ryota Bando,
This sounds like a mix of Haruka’s Pottery and Ito due to setting, protagonist, and ceramics.
Synopsis: Since graduating from a local high school, Aoki Miyako has struggled to find a path in life. She works at a supermarket to help her family but what she enjoys is helping her father and his Tsugaru lacquerware workshop, located in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. It has been a family-run business for generations, but he has lost his inspiration as the industry has gone into decline and this precipitated Aoki’s family falling apart. Her passion is Tsugaru lacquerware and through pursuing that, she can overcome various issues.
In the International Shorts: Relational Baggage section is Pisko the Crab Child Is in Love (蟹から生まれたピスコの恋, Dir: Makoto Nagahisa, 17 mins.)
Here’s my coverage of Vancouver from previous years: