Thanks to a film fan on Twitter, I got the heads up on this year’s Chicago International Film Festival which will screen films from October 11 to 22. It features a selection of the biggest Japanese titles of the year plus a short film.
Here’s what is programmed (click on the title to be taken to the corresponding festival page):
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.
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.
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 work by 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), London, and Vancouver.
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…
There is a Japanese-American co-production called Before Anyone Else, a 20-minute short directed by Tetsuya Mariko (Destruction Babies, From Miyamoto to You) about two small-time thieves who find an abandoned car with a child inside.
