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The full programme for the 2024 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, some of which are screening ahead of release in their home nation and two of which are an international co-production between Japan and France, one of which is set in Japan while the other is set in France.
Here’s a glimpse at the line-up:
Closing
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Eric Khoo
Writer: Edward Khoo (Screenplay),
Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Yutaka Takenouchi, Masaaki Sakai, Jun Fubuki
This is an international co-production involving companies from Singapore, Japan and France based on an original idea. The director is Eric Khoo (Tatsumi (2011) Ramen Teh (2018)) and the lead is French acting legend Catherine Deneuve.
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Synopsis: Yuzo was once a musician but is now a divorcee with a terminal illness. One bright spot is that he will soon see Claire, a world-renowned chanson singer whom he adores. However, he dies in the lead-up to the long-awaited concert. Strangely enough, Claire dies just after the concert. She is in pain herself, due to losing her dog, and in defiance of her belief that nothing exists after death, she finds her soul lingers on in this world which is how Yuzo can finally meet her. Together, despite the language barrier, the two find comfort in each others presence as they guide each other to some understanding of the big questions of life and death…
Gala
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クラウド 「Kuraudo」
Release Date: September 27th, 2024
Duration: 123 mins.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Masaki Suda, Kotone Furukawa, Masataka Kubota, Daiken Okudaira, Amane Okayama, Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, Maho Yamada, Tetsuya Chiba, Yutaka Matsushige,
Website Twitter: @cloudmovie2024 IMDB
This is the third Kurosawa film to get a release this year following on from Chime and a remake of Serpent’s Path (which plays in September at San Sebastian). It features a great cast, including Yutaka Matsushige, the antagonist in Kurosawa’s The Guard From Underground.
Synopsis: Yoshii is a factory worker who makes a bit on the side by reselling goods, an occupation he learned from Muraoka, a senior student at a technical college he want to. The reselling business gets so good that he turns down a promotion at the factory and expands his business but just as things start to look good, suspicious events begin to occur around Yoshii and he becomes the target of hatred on the internet that turns into a collective madness and a “hunting game”.
Serpent’s Path (2024) / Le chemin du serpent Image may be NSFW.
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蛇の道 「Hebi no Michi」
Release Date: June 14th, 2024
Duration: 116 mins.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hiroshi Takahashi (Screenplay),
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Ko Shibasaki, Damien Bonnard, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Munetaka Aoki,
Website Twitter: @Funnys_movie JFDB IMDB
Kiyoshi Kurosawa remakes his own film Serpent’s Path (1998) and sets it in Paris and casts French actors alongside Kou Shibasaki (who came to fame two years later with Battle Royale), who speaks French in her role.
Synopsis: A freelance journalist named Albert Bachelet seeks to avenge his 8-year-old daughter, who was brutally murdered. He is aided by a mysterious psychiatrist named Sayoko Niijima, who is willing to help him abduct people with connections to a shady organisation…
Jiseok
Aimitagai Image may be NSFW.
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アイミタガイ 「Aimitagai」
Release Date: November 01st, 2024
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Shogo Kusano
Writer: Masahide Ichii, Kiyoshi Sasabe, Shogo Kusano (Screenplay), Tei Chujo (Original Novel),
Starring: Haru Kuroki, Aoi Nakamura, Sawako Fujima, Mitsuko Kusabue, Tomorowo Taguchi, Jun Fubuki, Naomi Nishida, Tamae Ando,
Website Twitter: @aimitagai_movie
Haru Kuroki was brilliant in Okiku and the World and she is surrounded by an ace cast here for what looks like a quietly moving (potentially devastating!) drama about mourning and realising what a person is worth when they are gone.
Synopsis: Azusa and Kanami are best friends and what Azusa does to mourn Kanami after she dies in an unexpected accident is to send text messages to Kanami’s smartphone which her parents pick up on which leads them to visit the orphanage that their dead daughter cared about to see how their daughter’s good deeds shaped others lives, something which affects them, too…
ひとりたび 「Hitoritabi」
Release Date: 2025
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Yuho Ishibashi
Writer: Naho Kamimura (Screenplay),
Starring: Rei Okamoto, Kouki Osamura, Akane Sakanoe, Kanade Iwata, Airu Ishiyama, Nanami Hidaka, Mari Hamada,
The third feature film by Yuho Ishibashi, who I first encountered at Osaka Asian Film Festival with her debut feature, Sayounara (2018), and then her sophomore When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty (2022). This is her third film.
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Synopsis: Misaki departs Tokyo and returns to her hometown for the first time in a decade to visit family. This is when she learns that the boy she liked in middle school has died. Unable to forget the memory of their first conversation in the school library during a typhoon, Misaki visits the library again during another typhoon.
A Window on Asian Cinema
Super Happy Forever Image may be NSFW.
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Release Date: September 27th, 2024
Duration: 95 mins.
Director: Kohei Igarashi
Writer: Kohei Igarashi, Koichi Kudobera (Screenplay),
Starring: Hiroki Sano, Nairu Yamamoto, Yoshinori Miyata, Hoang Nhu Quynh,
Kohei Igarashi, director of Hold Your Breath Like Lover (2014), finds his latest work as the opener to the 2024 Venice Days (Giornate Degli Autori) programme. A story of a man dealing with grief at a holiday resort that looks as if it is told with subtlety and wryness, there is a review by Guy Lodge over at Variety that states something of our chances of seeing it:
This Gallic-Japanese co-production will burnish Igarashi’s reputation on the festival circuit, though it may be too low-key for theatrical distribution in many markets — its youthful slant and quiet formal simplicity make it a viable fit for specialist streaming platforms.
The most recognisable name from the cast is Nairu Yamamoto who appeared in two Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 titles: On a Boat and Inch Forward.
Synopsis: On August 19, 2023, childhood friends Sano and Miyata spend time in Atami at a seaside resort hotel that is scheduled to close soon. It is the place where Sano met and fell in love with his wife Nagi five years previously. In the intervening time, she died in her sleep and Sano has been consumed with grief. At the resort, Miyata, unable to see Sano’s obsession with memories of his wife, tries to help him out with a date and activities but Sano is consumed with searching for the red cap he gave to Nagi before the two left the resort.
Desert of Namibia Image may be NSFW.
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ナミビアの砂漠 「Namibia no Sabaku」
Release Date: September 06th, 2024
Duration: 137 mins.
Director: Yoko Yamanaka
Writer: Yoko Yamanaka (Screenplay),
Starring: Yuumi Kawai, Daichi Kaneko, Kanichiro, Yuzumi Shintani, Erika Karata,
Website Twitter: @namibia_movie IMDB
Yoko Yamanaka, director of the kooky and wonderful Amiko (2017), returns with her third feature, a coming-of-age drama that stars Yuumi Kawai (In Her Room, Plan 75, Sayonara, Girls.). In press notes, Kawai has stated that she “was a student when Amiko was released and that she wanted to become an actress after watching it. (source)
Kawai is joined by Daichi Kaneko (colorless), Kanichiro (Okiku and the World), Yuzumi Shintani (Blue Imagine) and Erika Karata (Asako I & II).
The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes International Film Festival earlier this year.
Synopsis: Yuumi Kawai plays the role of Kana, a 21-year-old woman with an energy that is on the verge of exploding. She thinks that her future is looking tedious since she does not know what she wants out of life and uses love as a way to pass the time. Even though her live-in boyfriend, Honda, tries to please her by looking after her needs, she takes up with a more flashy guy named Hayashi and begins to feel Honda’s presence as a burden…
The Colours Within Image may be NSFW.
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きみの色 「Kimi no Iro」
Release Date: August 30th, 2024
Duration: 100 mins
Director: Naoko Yamada
Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay),
Starring: Akari Takaishi (Kimi Sakunaga), Sayu Suzukawa (Totsuko Higurashi), Taisei Kido (Rui Kagehira), Aoi Yuuki (Shiho Nanakubo), Keiko Toda (Kimi’s Grandmother),
Animation Production: Science SARU
Website Twitter: @kiminoiro_movie ANN MAL
Director Naoko Yamada (A Silent Voice) is back with an this original animated film based on a screenplay by Reiko Yoshida (Violet Evergarden) and animated at Science Saru. Akari Takaishi of Baby Assassins and Perfect Nervous voices one of the characters.
Synopsis: Totsuko lives in Nagasaki City and can see people’s emotions as “colours”. She is careful not to darken the colours of her friends and family, and so she attends a mission school and tells lies to keep people happy. One day, Totsuko meets Kimi and Rui at an antique book store and finds two other sensitive souls, both of whom are trying to start a band. Totsuko joins them and soon feelings of friendship and even a hint of love emerge.
New Currents
金子差入店 「Kaneko Sashireten」
Release Date: 2025
Duration: 126 mins.
Director: Go Furukawa
Writer: Go Furukawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Ryuhei Maruyama, Yoko Maki, Kira Miura, Akira Terao, Toshie Negishi, Goro Kishitani,
Website Twitter: @kaneko_movie IMDB
Go Furukawa delivers an original film that looks at whether a person can truly reform who they are after committing a crime.
Synopsis: Kaneko has mastered his hair-trigger temper, the aspect of him that saw him become angry at family and even get imprisoned for violence. Following the support of his family, he left prison and was inspired to start up a commissary that provides items to people imprisoned like he once was in an attempt to lead a straight life. The spectre of violence emerges once again, however, when a young girl, his son’s friend, is found dead and he is caught up with involvement with the murderers mother…
The Height of the Coconut Trees
Release Date: 2025
Duration: 100 mins.
Director: Du Jie
Writer: Du Jie (Screenplay),
Starring: Minami Ohba, Soichiro Tanaka, Seita Shibuya, Mado Karasumori,
Du Jie, best known as a cinematographer on films like Mongolian Ping Pong (2005) and No Man’s Land (2013), emigrated to Japan three years ago. He makes his directorial debut with The Height of Coconut Trees.
Synopsis: This film tells a story blending past and present, reality and ghosts, all centred on two couples, one of a chef and his lover who works in a pet shop and to whom he gives a ring he finds in a fish, the other consisting of a woman who has committed suicide and her partner who acquired the inn in which she did the act. When the woman who received the ring visits the old inn alone, the owner suspects she might commit suicide and starts following her around…
Open Cinema
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化け猫あんずちゃん 「Bakeneko Anzu-chan」
Release Date: July 19th, 2024
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Yoko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita
Writer: Shinji Imaoka (Screenplay), Takashi Imashiro (Original Manga),
Starring: Mirai Moriyama (Anzu), Noa Goto (Karin), Image may be NSFW.
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Animation Production: Shin-Ei Animation, MIYU Productions
Website Twitter: @ghostcat_anzu ANN IMDB
Nobuhiro Yamashita (Hard-Core, The Drudgery Train) is co-directing with Yoko Kuno, who is making her directorial debut with this title. Her credits feature many animation production roles such as animation director of rotoscope on The Murder Case of Hana and Alice (2015) and animator/designer positions on various Crayon Shin-chan films. Anzu will combine 2D digital animation with rotoscope animation.
Shinji Imaoka (Reiko and the Dolphin (2020) interview with director Imaoka, Far Away, Further Away) adapted Takashi Imashiro’s manga into screenplay form.
In terms of cast, ghost cat Anzu is voiced by Mirai Moriyama, lead of The Drudgery Train, while Noa Goto voices Karin. Both actors had their movements and facial expressions captured in footage by the live-action team led by director Yamashita and this footage will serve as a reference for the rotoscoping, which will be handled by Shin-Ei Animation (responsible for Doraemon and Shin-chan films) and French studio Miyu Productions.
The film was featured at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and Annecy Animation Festival.
Synopsis: Karin is taken by her father to the family-run temple which is where she meets a cat named Anzu. He isn’t an ordinary cat. He lives like a human and speaks like a human and rides a moped around town and earns his keep as a part-time masseuse like a human. This jovial bipedal creature was found by Karin’s grandfather over 30 years ago and has a strong personality. Karin has a strong personality too, but after initial clashes…
The Solitary Gourmet Movie Image may be NSFW.
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劇映画 孤独のグルメ 「Gekieiga Kodoku no Gurume」
Release Date: January 10th, 2025
Duration: 110 mins.
Director: Yutaka Matsushige
Writer: Yutaka Matsushige, Yoshihiro Taguchi (Screenplay), Masayuki Qusumi, Jiro Taniguchi (Original Manga),
Starring: Yutaka Matsushige
Since making his debut as the scary sumo wrestling serial killer in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Guard from Underground (1992), Yutaka has carved out a career as a supporting actor in a huge variety of films.
One constant in his career is the long-running TV adaptation of the Solitary Gourmet manga wherein he plays a businessman visiting small real-life eateries to try out specialties. It was first broadcast on TV Tokyo in 2012 and reached its 10th season in 2023. I tapped out after two seasons but it has its charm for relaxing a viewer with its dry comedy and epicurean interests. Matsushige finally takes the show to the silver screen in a project that marks his debut as a feature film director.
Synopsis: Goro, a travelling salesman who enjoys delicious food in various restaurants across Japan, goes international when the daughter of an old friend asks him to track down his favourite soup before he dies. Goro goes abroad to France and South Korea in his search.
Wide Angle – Asian Short Film Competition
A Garden in Winter Jardin en Hiver
冬の庭 「Fuyu no niwa」
Release Date: November 01st, 2025
Duration: 31 mins.
Director: Eleonore Mahmoudian, Hiroshi Matsui
Writer: Eleonore Mahmoudian, Hiroshi Matsui (Screenplay),
Starring: Alexandra Boumekkib, Kaoru Iida, Morteza Mahmoudian, Lina Pasquiet, Alexis Matsui,
This international co-production between Japanese and French filmmakers is billed as a mystery/suspense/thriller film that comes from filmmaker/translator Eleonore Mahmoudian, who worked as AD to Eric Baudilaire on The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years Without Images (2011) and its sequel The Ugly One (2013), and critic/producer Hiroshi Matsui, who worked with Sho Miyake on his breakout films Playback (2012) and And Your Bird Can Sing (2020).
Synopsis: A woman named Alexandra finds a stranger starts building a shew in her garden. At first, she’s bothered, but then she starts helping with the shed for someone she has never met but still appreciates.
Wide Angle – Documentary Showcase
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Release Date: N/A
Duration: 102 mins.
Director: Shiori Ito
Writer: Shiori Ito, Ema Ryan Yamazaki
Starring: Shiori Ito,
This has shaped up to be the doc that, those in the know about the form, rate very highly. It won the inaugural Human Rights Award at CPH: DOX where the jury stated that the film…
“…offers unique insight into an individual fight for womens’ rights in a country, and a world, that stigmatizes and denies rights to the survivors of sexual assault.”
It features editing and writing work from Ema Ryan Yamazaki, a documentarian who has won awards for films like Koshien and The Making of a Japanese.
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Synopsis: In 2017, Shiori Ito was a trainee journalist meeting a powerful political journalist for a meal to discuss a job opportunity. During the meal she was drugged and later raped by the journalist. Despite filing a complaint with the police, they refused to investigate and the journalist used his political connections with Shinzo Abe to hinder the investigation. It wasn’t until 2019 that a court awarded Ito damages and it became a key moment in Japan as it shifted views on how rape and sexual assault are discussed while also kickstarting the #MeToo movement in the country. This documentary, based on her same-named bestselling journal, is a video diary that recorded her battle for justice. More on the case here.
Wide Angle – Documentary Competition
アイヌプリ 「Ainu Puri」
Release Date: December 14th, 2024
Duration: 81 mins.
Director: Takeshi Fukanaga
Writer: N/A
Starring: Shigeki Amanai, Aika Amanai, Motoki Amanai, Yoshiki Amanai, Ryutaro Hirasawa, Satoru Shindo, Fujiko Uchiyama,
Takeshi Fukunaga is a filmmaker based in Tokyo and New York and he came to prominence with second and third feature films, Ainu Mosir (2020) and Mountain Woman (2022) – interview. Recently, he directed episodes for the TV shows Tokyo Vice (2024) and Shogun.
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Synopsis: This documentary looks at the life of an Ainu family living in Shiranuka, Hokkaido. Viewers see the quotidian aspects of their lives and how Ainu culture are still alive in their actions. Sequences include father, Shige, go Marek fishing with his 10-year-old son Motoki. This involves using traditional rods, praying to the gods, and preparing the meal with the family.
Wide Angle – Short Film Showcase
あめだま 「Amedama」
Release Date: September 20th, 2024
Duration: 21 mins.
Director: Daisuke Nishio
Writer: Ichiro Takano (Screenplay), Baek Hee-na (Original Story),
Starring: Haruto Shima, Hiroshi Iwasaki, Kazuhiro Yamaji, Sakiko Uran, Ikkei Watanabe, Oi Kiko,
Animation Production: Toei Animation
This is based on Baek Hee-na, winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (the children’s book equivalent of a Nobel Laureate prize for literature) in 2020 for “Cloud Bread” and a popular writer. You can hear her words and see images from Amedama in this talk she took part in.
Synopsis: A loner named Dong Dong initially wanted to buy more marbles to play his solitary games with but he ended up getting magic sweets that lead to some startling developments.
Special Program in Focus – Teen Spirit, Teen Movie
HAPPYEND Image may be NSFW.
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Release Date: October 10th, 2024
Duration: 123 mins.
Director: Neo Sora
Writer: Neo Sora (Screenplay),
Starring: Yukito Hidaka, Hayato Kurihara, Makiko Watanabe, Shiro Sano, Ayumu Nakajima, Kilala Inori, Shina Peng, Pushim,
This one was previously screened earlier this month at Venice. Neo Sora has released a few documentaries about his father Ryuichi Sakamoto. His first fiction film was screened at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
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Synopsis: The world is about to change. Kou and Yuta are rambunctious best friends who live in a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake is ever present. Just before their high school graduation, they prank the principal of the school which leads him to install a surveillance system…
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水深ゼロメートルから 「Suishin Zero Me-toru Kara」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 87 mins.
Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita
Writer: Yukema Nakata (Screenplay),
Starring: Saki Hamao, Reia Nakayoshi, Mikuri Kiyoya, Sumire Hanaoka, Honami Sato,
Website Twitter: @suishin0m
Nobuhiro Yamashita (The Drudgery Train) brings a laidback drama/comedy based on a school play. It doesn’t have the acerbic wit or dark misanthropy of his other, earlier works but the summertime atmosphere and gentle conflicts play out like a low-key On the Edge of Their Seats.
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It is summer vacation but high schoolers Kokoro and Miku have been instructed by their PE teacher, Yamamoto, to clean the swimming pool. The pool has been drained of water and it is covered with sand from the baseball team’s field next door. Thus, under the blazing sun, they are meant to sweep the sand but distractions abound as Chizuru and Yui join them and stray in their path. Together, they initially discuss school life, love and makeup but it isn’t long before their worries begin to overflow and their thoughts intersect…
Swimming in a Sand Pool presents a coming-of-age drama laced with deadpan comedy that begins at the bottom of the pool. Its origins lie in an original work by the Tokushima City High School Drama Club making this the second film project based on a high school play following On the Edge of Their Seats (Dir: JOJO Hideo, OAFF2020).
World Premiere
Beyond Goodbye Image may be NSFW.
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さよならのつづき 「Sayonara no Tsuzuki」
Release Date: November 14th, 2024
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Hiroshi Kurosaki
Writer: Yoshikazu Okada (Screenplay),
Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Kentaro Sakaguchi, Toma Ikuta, Ayumi Ito, Issey Ogata, Kanji Furutachi, Yuri Nakamura,
Kasumi Arimura, memorable from Flying Colours and I Am a Hero (both 2015) and making the lazy writing of the drama We Made a Beautiful Bouquet (2021) palatable, and Kentaro Sakaguchi (The Last 10 Years (2022) and Side by Side (2023) and Toma Ikuta of Close-Knit (2017) for this 8-episode Netflix drama.
Synopsis: Set in Hokkaido, we follow a supernatural love story that begins when Saeko loses her boyfriend Yusuke in a traffic accident on the day he proposes to her and she is left struggling with the loss with only her work at a coffee company keeping her going. Kazumasa just happened to be the recipient of Yusuke’s heart in a transplant operation. After the op, he becomes obsessed with coffee, a change in attitude that strikes his wife Miki as odd since he never liked it. from. Fate strikes again as Saeko and Kazumasa meet on the same train and, after a conversation, a connection is formed…
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