Tokyo FILMeX 2023 runs from November 19th to November 26th.
The venues chosen are Yurakacho Asahi Hall (Nov 22nd – Nov 26th) and Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (Nov 19th – Nov 26th.
There will be a pre-event called TOKYO FILMeX 2023 Filmmakers’ Homecoming which runs from Nov 3rd – Nov 13th at the Human Trust Cinema Shibuya.
Tokyo FILMeX will screen some of the eye-catching titles from the autumn festival run and some brand new ones featuring rising stars of indie cinema.
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Competition Film
熱のあとに 「Netsu no ato ni 」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 83 mins.
Director: Akira Yamamoto
Writer: Lee Na-won (Screenplay),
Starring: Ai Hashimoto, Taiga Nakano, Mai Kiryu
This one played at Busan 2023.
Synopsis: Sanae has spent six years in prison after attempting to murder her boyfriend. Even though he still influences her, she decides to marry a forestry worker named Kenta. When the wife of Sanae’s ex-boyfriend shows up, Sanae and Kenta’s relationship becomes difficult…
Special Screenings
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 74 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, Evil Does Not Exist (which has been at every major autumn festival so far) and Gift and both are the result of a collaboration with musician Eiko Ishibashi (composer on Drive My Car). Gift will be shown with a live music score provided by Ishibashi at the Tokyo FILMeX special screening to provide music!
Synopsis: Evil Does Not Exist and Gift both originate from a collaboration that Ishibashi initiated when she asked Hamaguchi to make a music video for a live performance and it came to fruition while the two were working on Evil Does Not Exist. While Gift is the shorter of the two, it features a similar story to Evil Does Not Exist, just with intertitles and in place of dialogue and exposition. It sounds like we’re going back to the era of silent films and this film is meant to be seen with a live performance provided by musicians.
Made in Japan
広島を上演する 「Hiroshima o Jouen suru」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 133 mins.
Director: Akihiro Mima, Saki Yamada, Natsuka Kusano, Mikihiro Endo
Writer: N/A (Screenplay),
Starring: N/A
This is an omnibus film production which comes from the Marebito Theater Company. They have created works set in cities that have undergone unprecedented experiences in order to reconstitute the past and present. Their method is to send artists to cities for an extended period of time and write/make plays/films that delve into the daily lives of people to take audiences beyond the tragic headlines. Former projects include “Performing Nagasaki” (2013-16) and “Performing Fukushima” (2016-18).
There are four indie directors, each of whom has had works screened at festivals such as Osaka Asian Film Festival. Natsuka Kusano (Domains, Antonym) and Mikihiro Endo (Promises) are the ones I am familiar with. Kusano’s entry, Till the End of the Dream played at the Marseille International Film Festival.
Synopsis: The four stories, with the theme of Hiroshima as an A-bombed city, include one of a woman who lives with her partner in an apartment in Hiroshima and regularly meets with her friend by the river where they write poems together. Another story features a woman who was exposed to radiation in utero about 1 km from the bomb’s hypocenter when the atomic bomb was dropped tells her story to the camera as herself, her mother, and the narrator of a life. Another story has a woman who has just lost someone important try to go about her daily life. Then there is the story of a theatre company’s rehearsal of a play about Hiroshima and a young man who participates in the rehearsal as sound staff and collects sounds from outdoor areas.
They Give Me a Day I Will Never Forget
うってつけの日 「Uttetsuke no Hi」
Release Date: 2023
Duration: 69 mins.
Director: Kanshi Iwasaki
Writer: N/A (Screenplay),
Starring: N/A
This is Takeshi Iwasaki debut feature. He studied directing under Kunitoshi Manda at the Film School of Tokyo and has worked on productions of a number of recently released indie films made by people like Daisuke Miyazaki (PLASTIC, MADE IN YAMATO, #MITO YAMANE).
Synopsis: Koto is a freelance sound designer. She meets her ex-boyfriend Shoichi at an airport when he temporarily returns from the Philippines. Despite temporarily staying together at the apartment they shared, their relationship isn’t rekindled and Koto continues with her daily life…
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. It features a Japanese cast. It is Nicole Midori Woodford’s debut feature film and is described as having “superb cinematography by the masterful Hideo Urata… [and] the film’s supernatural depiction of ghosts and the souls of the dead coexisting with the world of the living is also highly effective.” The film premiered in the New Directors Competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Synopsis: Ami is a 13-year-old girl with the powers of an empath. Thus, she is able to see the dead. She often dreams of her mother, who disappeared some years prior, and when she discovers tapes and letters belonging to her, she goes on a journey in search of her mother which leads her from Singapore to Japan, up to the Tohoku region, all in the company of her uncle, a cab driver. This delivers Ami into a tragedy from her family past…
Moving [4K Digitally Restored Version]
お引越し 「Ohikkoshi」
Running Time: 124 mins.
Release Date: March 23rd, 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,
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.
This was screened at the Venice International Film Festival 2023. Also on the cinema circuit is Somai’s Typhoon Club, which was recently remastered.
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?
Past Coverage