The full programme for the 2022 edition of the Busan International Film Festival is out and there are a lot of Japanese films, some of which are mainstream titles that have hit multiplexes, some of which are familiar from other fall festivals.
Here’s a glimpse at the line-up:
Gala Presentation
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…
Icons
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, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani,
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) and London in October. It won the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Award at Venice.
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…
Jiseok
月 「Tsuki」
Release Date: October 13th, 2023
Duration: 144 mins.
Director: Yuya Ishii
Writer: Yuya Ishii (Screenplay), Yo Henmi (Original Novel)
Starring: Rie Miyazawa, Hayato Isomura, Eri Nagai, Hirota Otsuka, Hideyuki Kasahara, Yuka Itaya, Joe Odagiri, Fumi Nikaido,
Yuya Ishii, director of The Great Passage, The Tokyo Night Sky is Always the Densest Shade of Blue and Sawako Decides, has adapted a novel of the same title and that novel was inspired by a real-life murder case. The film stars Rie Miyazawa (Twilight Samurai) Joe Odagiri (Mushishi), Hayato Isomura (Offbeat Cops), and Fumi Nikaido (Himizu).
Synopsis: Yoko was once famous for being a writer but she settled down with her husband and is now a non-celebrity. Taking on care work for severely disabled people at a facility deep in the woods, she meets fellow staff members including Yoko, an aspiring writer, and Satokun, an artist. She also meets patients, including Ki-chan, who lies motionless in bed in a room with no light. Yoko gets closer to various people but then she witnesses patients being abused and Satoru begins to reveal a much darker side to his nature…
市子 「Ichiko」
Release Date: December 08th, 2023
Duration: 125 mins.
Director: Akihiro Toda
Writer: Akihiro Toda, Naho Kamimura (Screenplay),
Starring: Hana Sugisaki, Ryuya Wakaba, Yuki Morinaga, Yuki Kura, Ruka Ishikawa, Shohei Uno,
A selection of great performers like Ryuya Wakaba (Over the Town), Shohei Uno, and Ruka Ishikawa (colorless).
Synopsis: Ichiko and Yoshinori have been together for three years. That seems long enough to get to know someone and so Yoshinori proposes to Ichiko. She disappears. Yoshinori finds himself discovering that he never knew Ichiko at all after a detective visits him and reveals more. Yoshinori begins to track down Ichiko through the people she knew and he uncovers a shocking past.
A Window on Asian Cinema
キリエのうた 「Kirie no Uta 」
Release Date: October 13th, 2023
Duration: 178 mins.
Director: Shunji Iwai
Writer: Shunji Iwai (Screenplay),
Starring: Aina the End, Hokuto Matsumura, Haru Kuroki, Suzu Hirose, Nijiro Murakami, Megumi Okina, Miyoko Asada, Yuya Matsuura, Yosuke Egichi,
This work is based on a novel by Shunji Iwai (The Bride of Rip Van Winkle), a filmmaker who had a massive impact in Korea when the country opened up its theatrical market to Japanese movies in the 90s.
Synopsis: One evening, at the south exit of Shinjuku Station, a young singer-songwriter named Kyrie begins singing and playing her guitar. Her singing attracts the attention of pedestrians and she earns a lot of money. One such pedestrian is an old friend from high school. The two share a history linked to their time at school in Sendai, the crossed emotions they share with each other and the people around them, and also the Great East Japan Earthquake. A tapestry involving all of these people emerges from Kyrie’s song.
波紋 「Hamon」
Duration: 120 mins.
Director: Naoko Ogigami
Writer: Naoko Ogigami (Screenplay),
Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Ken Mitsuishi, Hayato Isomura, Tamae Ando, Noriko Eguchi, Akira Emoto, Midoriko Kimura,
Naoko Ogigami (Close-Knit) is one of Japan’s more famous filmmakers and she has a great humanist streak to her works. The cast she has assembled for this one is incredible and they are anchored by Mariko Tsutsui in the lead role. She is easily one of Japan’s best actors!
Synopsis: Yoriko Sudo (Mariko Tsutsui) is interested in a cult religion called “Midorimono-kai” and she spends her days in prayer and study groups when not caring for her elderly father, moody son Takuya (Hayato Isomura), and Osamu, her loafer of a husband (Ken Mitsuishi). When Osamu disappears, Yoriko becomes heavily invested in the cult. When he returns more than ten years later and seeking help for his cancer, more trouble follows as Takuya brings his girlfriend home with intentions to marry her and she gets harassed by customers at her part-time job. Yoriko goes all in on the cult as she tries to deal with her mounting anger!
One Second Ahead, One Second Behind
1秒先の彼 「Ichibyou Saki no Kare」
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita
Writer: Kankuro Kudo (Screenplay), Chen Yu-hsun (Original Film)
Starring: Masaki Okada, Kaya Kiyohara, Rion Fukumuro, Yuki Katayama, Kiyo Matsumoto, Aki Hano, YosiYosi Arakawa, Shima Ise,
This is a remake of Taiwanese film called My Missing Valentine (2020). It comes from Nobuhiro Yamashita (The Drudgery Train), a journeyman director at this point.
Synopsis: Hajime works at a post office in Kyoto and is faster than others. He has always been this way. In contrast, a street musician named Reika is slower than others. Her voice makes Hajime fall in love. The two arrange to go to a fireworks display for a date but when Hajime wakes up, he has lost a day. Reika can explain more about the missing day.
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,
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…
すべての夜を思いだす 「Subete no Yoru o Omoidasu」
Release Date: N/A
Duration: 116 mins.
Director: Yui Kiyohara
Writer: Yui Kiyohara (Screenplay),
Starring: Kumi Hyodo, Minami Oba, Ai Mikami. Guama Uchida. Tadashi Okuno, Mizuho Nojima,
Yui Kiyohara won Pia Film Festival 2017’s Grand Prize with the film Our House and took part in the anthology film Made in Yamato (2021). This is her latest work and it is getting a release in North America thanks to Kim Stim.
Synopsis: The film takes place in Tama New Town, a satellite city off the edge of Tokyo where newbuilds promote uniformity. We watch women living there over the course of a day. One is unemployed 44-year-old Chizu who discovers a postcard from an old friend and goes hunting for the address on the postcard. Another is 33-year-old gas company meter inspector Sanae. She spots Chizu in a predicament but soon gets involved in the rescue of a senile elderly man who has wandered off. Then there is 22-year-old university student Natsu who practices her dance steps while Chizu follows along at a distance. Natsu meets the mother of a childhood friend on the anniversary of his death and ends up with a roll of of undeveloped photographs.
彼方のうた 「Kanata no Uta 」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 84 mins.
Director: Kyoshi Sugita
Writer: Kyoshi Sugita (Screenplay),
Starring: An Ogawa, Yuko Nakamura, Hidekazu Mashima,
This work is the fourth feature directed by Kyoshi Sugita, following A Song I Remember, an absolute stunner of a drama, Follow the Light, and Haruhara-san’s Recorder.
Synopsis: Spurred by feelings of grief over the mother she lost while in school, Haru, a 25-year-old woman who works as a bookstore clerk, watches over two older people. Takeshi, 45, and Yukiko, 40. They are troubled souls and all three embark on a journey. Haru takes along a cassette tape and recorder left behind by her mother.
New Currents
夜が明けたら、いちばんに君に会いにいく 「Yoru ga Aketara Ichiban ni Kimi no Ai ni Iku」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 137 mins.
Director: Tatuya Mori
Writer: Toshimichi Saeki, Junichi Inoue, Haruhiko Arai (Screenplay),
Starring: Akira Emoto, Suidobashi Hakase, Masahiro Higashide,, Kom I., Arata Iura, Shinsuke Kato, Mai Kiryu, Yuya Matsuura, Rena Tanaka, Pierre Taki, Eita Nagayama,
Tatsuya Mori is famous as a documentarian who covered the Aum cult with A and A2. He works on his first drama with this film which is based on the true story of itinerant Japanese peddlers brutally killed by villagers of Fukuda in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.
There is an all-star cast with Arata Iura, Masahiro Higashide, Pierre Taki, singer Kom I., and Rena Tanaka, and Eita Nagayama.
This film is released on the 100th anniversary of the earthquake.
Synopsis: The year is 1923 and we are taken to Fukuda village, Chiba Prefecture. It is the hometown of Tomokazu Sawada, a recent returnee , along his wife Shizuko, from Gyeongseong (now Seoul). While in Korea, Sawada was an eyewitness to the massacres committed by the Japanese army and he will see something similar occur in Japan following a major earthquake that strikes the Kanto region on September 01st. In the days that follow rumours of crimes push people to attack outsiders. On September 6, a group of 15 peddlers from Kagawa, are travelling through when an argument with a ferryman on the Tone River leads to a confrontation and a massacre.
霧の淵 「Kiri no Fuchi 」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 83 mins.
Director: Akira Yamamoto
Writer: Daichi Murase (Screenplay), Mizu Sahara (Original Manga)
Starring: Ai Hashimoto, Taiga Nakano, Mai Kiryu
Synopsis: N/A
Open Cinema
リボルバー・リリー 「Riboruba- Riri-」
Release Date: August 11th, 2023
Duration: 139 mins.
Director: Isao Yukisada
Writer: Isao Yukisada, Tatsuo Kobayashi (Screenplay), Kyo Nagaura (Original Short Story)
Starring: Haruka Ayase, Hiroki Hasegawa, Jinsei Hamura, Jiro Sato, Sadao Abe, Renji Ishibashi, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Itsuji Itao, Etsushi Toyokawa,
Isao Yukisada of Parade (2010) and Crying Out Love, in the Centre of the World (2004) fame has taken on Kyo Nagaura’s hardboiled action suspense story set in the Taisho era. The film has a fine cast led by Haruka Ayase (Our Little Sister – 2015) and Hiroki Hasegawa (Love & Peace – 2015).
Synopsis: It is 1924 and the Taisho era is drawing to a close. In a small bar in Tokyo’s Hanamachi district is the owner, Yuri, a former spy who was involved in the deaths of 57 people over a period of three years, mostly in East Asia. One day, Yuri meets a boy named Shinta. His family was murdered and he is on the run because he holds a key to missing money drawn from the Imperial Japanese Army. Shinta asks Yuri for help and the two find themselves hunted by the army’s elite troops.
Special Screening
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 103 mins.
Director: Neo Sora
Writer: N/A
Starring: Ryuichi Sakamoto
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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.
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