The Five Flavours Film Festival 2023 takes place in Warsaw, Poland, from November 15th to the 21st and there is an in-cinema and online component to the programme (check each of the listings on the festival site).
The full programme was announced on October 26th. This post covers the Japanese films. There are a few non-Japanese that I’d like to briefly highlight – Hail to Hell – director Lim Oh-jeong will be at the fest – from South Korea, A Light Never Goes Out, and, especially, the films of King Hu.
The King Hu films have are an absolute must-see (I recently talked about them on the Heroic Purgatory podcast) with Dragon Inn, A Touch of Zen, Raining in the Mountain, Legend of the Mountain, Come Drink With Me all being bangers. There’s also Wheel of Life. These films have been digitally restored over the last decade and now the festival is presenting them to viewers online.
Here are the Japanese films:
COMPETITION
こちらあみ子 「Kochira Amiko」
Duration: 104 mins.
Director: Yusuke Morii
Writer: Yusuke Mori (Script), Natsuko Imamura (Original Manga),
Starring: Kana Osawa, Arata Iura, Machiko Ono, Yuji Ozeki, Eiko Kuroki,
This will be screened in cinemas and online.
Synopsis: This is the story of Amiko, a fifth grader living in Hiroshima, whose pure-hearted and high-spirited character offers her resilience in the face of tragedy and the ire and indifference of others. Her persona soon influences those around her even if they resist.
Asian Cinerama
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!
湯道 「Yudo」
Release Date: February 23rd, 2023
Duration: 126 mins.
Director: Masayuki Suzuki
Writer: Kundo Koyama (Screenplay),
Starring: Toma Ikuta, Kanna Hashimoto, Gaku Hamada, Keiko Toda, Susumu Terajima, Eiji Wentz, Takashi Sasano, Akira Emoto, Mari Natsuki,
This is based on a screenplay from Kundo Koyama (Departures) and stars Toma Ikuta (Close-Knit).
Synopsis: Yudo. The way of the onsen. Shiro Miura leaves his job as an architect and returns to his hometown to close the onsen run by his late father and use the land to build apartments. His younger brother Goro Miura, who has run the place since their father passed away, is none to pleased but all conflict gets put to the side when Goro is injured in an accident. Shiro begins working their and starts to meet the regular customers and learn about them as well as the way of the onsen.
リバー、流れないでよ 「Riba-, Nagarenaide yo」
Release Date: June 23rd, 2023
Duration: 86 mins.
Director: Junta Yamaguchi
Writer: Makoto Ueda (Screenplay), Makoto Ueda (Original Work)
Starring: Riko Fujitani, Yuuki Torigoe, Munenori Nagano, Takashi Sumita, Yoshifumi Sakai,
This is the second film from theatre company “Europe Kikaku,” the guys who came up with Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes. It is about a group of people staying at an inn near a shrine who realise that they are stuck in a two-minute time loop.
Synopsis: Mikoto works as a waitress at a ryokan named Fujiya in Kibune, Kyoto. She realises that time is repeating and they keep their memories and so they work together to find the cause of the time loop.
Poetics of the ethereal – the films of Chihiro Ito at 17th Five Flavours
There are two films in this section and they are going to be screened both online and in cinemas and they will have an introduction by Chihiro Ito, one of the most exciting voices in Japanese cinema to have emerged over the last year!
She will be at the festival to present her films.
Chihiro Ito is a veteran screenwriter who actually began her film career as art department staff in charge of props. That changed when she met Isao Yukisada who invited her to write a screenplay for his film Seventh Anniversary (2003). That was the start of a writing career that has included screenplays for Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (2004) and Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers (2008). Recently, she has worked under the pen name Anne Horizumi on Yukisada’s films Narratage (2017) and The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (2020). In 2022, she debuted as a director with In Her Room, which was produced by Yukisada and played in the Nippon Cinema Now section at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Side by Side is her second film.
ひとりぼっちじゃない 「Hitori Bocchi Janai」
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 135 mins.
Director: Chihiro Ito
Writer: Chihiro Ito (Screenplay/Original Novel),
Starring: Fumika Baba, Satoru Iguchi, Yuumi Kawai, Hirobumi Watanabe, Kazuyuki Aijima,
This is veteran screenwriter Chihiro (Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World) Ito’s debut film. It premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year. I’ve leapfrogged it and already watched her sophomore feature which played at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. Anyway, I thought that this film was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC – review – and was honoured with an interview with Chihiro Ito where she went into the background of this film and the one that follows!!!
Synopsis: Miyako is a mysterious woman who runs an aroma store and lives in a room more akin to a forest glen than a Marie Kondo minimalist abode. Susume is a dentist who is in love with her. He visits Miyako, always trying to get closer to the woman who seems to know something about him that even he doesn’t know,. Then Miyako’s friend Yoko gets involved…
サイド バイ サイド 隣にいる人 「Saido Bai Saido Tonari ni Iru Hito」
Release Date: April 14th, 2023
Duration: 130 mins.
Director: Chihiro Ito
Writer: Chihiro Ito (Screenplay),
Starring: Kentaro Sakaguchi, Asuka Saito, Kodai Asaka, Ameri Isomura, Mikako Ichikawa,
This one had its world premiere at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023, which is how I saw it and wrote about it. A dream-like and pleasant experience, it forms an interesting counterpoint to In Her Room. Here’s my review of this film.
This will be screened in the competition section.
Synopsis: Miyama (Kentaro Sakaguchi) is a mysterious young man with the ability to sense the thoughts of other people. These thoughts sometimes take the form of a spirit that haunts Miyama. With this power, he can detect and heal people suffering from physical ailments and emotional traumas. He does this while living a quiet life with his girlfriend Shiori (Mikako Ichikawa), a nurse, and her daughter Mimi (Ameri Isomura). While locals accept him, the mystery of his background lingers and it all comes out when he confronts the thoughts of Kusaka (Kodai Asaka), who was his junior in high school, now working as a musician in Tokyo. Miyama’s meeting with Kusaka reunites him with his ex-girlfriend Riko (Asuka Saito), a woman who is part of the past that he ran away from.
Past Coverage