As someone trying to shine a light on Japanese and Asian cinema, I have always appreciated the scope and commitment of the Nippon Connection team to providing a stage for films and filmmakers, allowing people to access it via the screen and in talks with guests and in wider cultural activities that show off the many sides of Japan.
The festival takes place in Frankfurt am Main, from May 28 to June 2. There will be around 100 short and feature-length films and around 50 filmmakers from Japan at the festival, as well as workshops and more.
In previous years I had covered the festival with previews and a few reviews but stopped for various reasons a couple of years back. In 2024, I am doing better and was given the chance to cover the festival once again, beginning with an early glimpse of the festival programme and then a fuller preview of the films that will play. Now I bring to you an interview with the festival’s programmer Florian Höhr.
Thank you very much for this opportunity to interview you. There’s so much to cover!
This festival looks really exciting based on what I have read alone and attendees are in for a good time! The festival does a good job of balancing lot of veteran talents like Naoko Ogigami, Takeshi Kitano and Shunji Iwai with rising talents like Yoshiki Matsumoto, Kahori Higashi, Atsuro Shimoyashiro, Su Yu-chun, and others, which is where you come in as a programmer.
What drew you into the art of film and why Japanese film in particular?
I have had a great interest in narrative arts and therefore also in film since I was a child. At the same time, I also developed a fascination for Japan, which is certainly also due to the fact that I grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, when Japanese pop culture was increasingly finding its way into the mainstream in the West. Both passions finally came together when I discovered the films of Takeshi Kitano. Kitano’s films, which were so different from anything I’d seen before, were for me, as I’m sure for many others at the time, the starting point of my passion for Japanese cinema, which I later intensified when I began to study film studies.
What do you think the role of a programmer should be, especially for Nippon Connection, the world’s largest celebration of Japanese film?
As a curator, it is my task to put together a selection from a large number of films – around 600 new films are made in Japan every year – that gives a good impression of Japan’s current film industry. As a festival, we want to show all facets of Japanese cinema and enable our audience to see big box office hits as well as hidden gems. It is also important to us to select films that deal with socially relevant topics and to promote talented young filmmakers who are not recognised in the mainstream.
In putting together the film programme, I assume you work with a team. What criteria did you work with to narrow down the films for Nippon Cinema, a section bursting with big name directors with their most recent features?
The Nippon Cinema section is meant to include both popular entertainment films as well as arthouse films by renowned directors. Of course we look at which films are particularly popular in Japan, but I feel that not all Japanese blockbusters would necessarily appeal to an international audience because they often rely heavily on being based on popular novels, for example. Success in these cases is less due to the quality of the films and more because of the popularity of the source material. Since we want to present a very balanced selection of films, it’s advantageous for us to work as a team. This way, everyone’s own film taste influences the selection, and it’s not uncommon for a film to be loved by one member of the programming team and passionately hated by another. These are, in my view, usually the most interesting films.
And for Nippon Visions, this section is dedicated to showing new talents and there is a wealth of filmmakers emerging in Japan all of the time. Some films are graduation works from university, some are third features. Could you talk about the programming of this strand and how cultivating talent fits in?
The NIPPON VISIONS section is dedicated not only to the films of up-and-coming filmmakers but also to independent films, or quite simply, unconventional works. Junichi Inoue, who directed HIJACKED YOUTH – DARE TO STOP US 2, has been active in the film scene for a long time, but his film is anything but mainstream and also deals with the Japanese independent film scene. The great thing is that, throughout the history of Nippon Connection, one can always observe the developing careers of directors. For example, Akihiro Toda was already a guest in the VISIONS section in 2018 with his film THE NAME. This year, he fills a prime time slot in the CINEMA section with his film ICHIKO.
Also, why did Psychic Vision: Jaganrei get selected for Nippon Visions???
This year, we have the documentary THE J-HORROR VIRUS in our program, which is dedicated to the phenomenon of J-Horror. We thought it would be a good idea to also show an influential representative of the genre. With its then very original found-footage approach, the film from 1988 would have been an optimal candidate for the NIPPON VISIONS section, had the festival existed back then.
Japan is rich with documentaries and there are a number that fit the crossing borders theme in terms of the look at different communities in Japan and also the filmmakers raising subjects. Can you explain how you crafted the Nippon Docs strand of the festival?
The selection of documentary films was particularly difficult this year because there were so many excellent new documentaries that we couldn’t possibly include them all. Obviously the thematic focus on ‘Crossing Borders’ played an important role, as can surely be seen in the final selection. I think we have succeeded in compiling a well-balanced selection of films that address various aspects of Japanese culture, society, and history that are not very well known to the German audience. For example, THE MAKING OF A JAPANESE offers a fascinating insight into the Japanese school system, and AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD deals with the Aum cult, which is barely known here. Lighter films like the food documentary HAPPY SANDWICH alternate with very serious subjects, such as the family portrait WHAT SHOULD WE HAVE DONE?.
Nippon Retro’s draws upon Japan’s vast collection of noir films and fans will be thrilled to see Nomura represented as well as Masumura.
Usually we dedicate the retrospective either on a specific person’s work, like last year’s retrospective on the films of Keisuke Kinoshita, or a specific genre or theme. For this year we chose Japanese Film Noir as the topic as the retrospective, which aligns on this year’s thematic focus, which is called Although Film Noir is typically associated with American cinema, it was influenced by German Expressionism from the 1920s. Therefore, our retrospective features Japanese films that exhibit influences from both American and German cinema, making them a perfect fit for the Crossing Borders theme.
Kotone Furukawa made an immediate impact on me with Kamata Prelude and Over the Town (both 2020). Could you talk about her selection for the Rising Star Award and what made her the perfect candidate?
When selecting the winner of the Nippon Rising Star Award, various factors come into play: the person should be among the most talented young personalities in the current Japanese film scene, and this definitely applies to Kotone Furukawa. In her two new films, SECRET: A HIDDEN SCORE and BEST WISHES TO ALL, she demonstrates remarkable versatility and an impressive screen presence. Additionally, she should not be entirely unknown to the German audience. Since she plays an important role in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY, many German viewers have already seen her.
The selection of the award winner was preceded by extensive brainstorming, and in the end, Kotone Furukawa was our preferred candidate. We are very pleased that she has indeed accepted.
During the pandemic, there was a shift to hybrid models by some festivals, including Nippon Connection. Do you think online delivery will ever come back?
You never know when the next pandemic will start and we will have to organize an online festival again, but I really hope that it will be a long time before that happens. It was great that with our two online editions we were able to reach an international audience and significantly increase our reach. However, because the festival continues to grow and is organized mainly by a volunteer team, we cannot simultaneously run a full-fledged on-site festival and an online festival. Our focus is on showing films on-site and enabling the audience to engage with Japanese filmmakers at our festival.
If a person only has time to watch a single film from each of the sections, which titles would you suggest?
This is not an easy question to answer, as my personal favorite films are certainly different from those that might appeal to a broader audience. I try to find a compromise and mention films that I really like, but that also represent the section well:
ALL THE LONG NIGHTS in the NIPPON CINEMA section once again proves that Sho Miyake is one of the most talented Japanese filmmakers of his generation, telling a story about the friendship between two outsiders in a very sensitive manner.
ALIEN’S DAYDREAM by Yoshiki Matsumoto is both a debut and a wonderfully charming film with DIY aesthetics that perfectly represents what the NIPPON VISIONS section is all about. WHAT SHOULD WE HAVE DONE? by Tomoaki Fujino is a very personal and deeply moving piece in the NIPPON DOCS section, created with minimal resources and almost entirely single-handedly.
The NIPPON ANIMATION section is particularly strong for me this year. I was deeply captivated by TOTTO-CHAN: THE LITTLE GIRL BY THE WINDOW, which tells a touching (true) story about a childhood in the shadow of World War II and also impresses with very imaginatively animated dream sequences.
DRAGNET GIRL may be more of a precursor to Film Noir, but it is still a highlight of the NIPPON RETRO section, as it is not often that one has the opportunity to see an early work of Yasujiro Ozu with live piano accompaniment.
My thanks go out to Florian for his participation in this interview.
Nippon Connection runs from May 28 to June 02 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, from May 28 to June 2 and there will be around 100 short and feature-length films and around 50 filmmakers from Japan and much more on offer.
You can read more about the festival’s programme in an early preview and a fuller overview. Stay tuned for reviews in the coming days!