Category Archives: #tiffjp

#tiffjp, Tokyo International Film Festival

Japanese Girls Never Die and Snow Woman selected for the 29th Tokyo International Festival Competition Section

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The 29th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is just around the corner!
TIFF is pleased to announce that two Japanese films, Japanese Girls Never Die and Snow Woman have been selected for the 29th TIFF Competition section.

 

Japanese Girls Never Die (Photo credit: © 2016 Japanese Girls Never Die Film Partners)
Snow Woman (Photo credit: ©Snow Woman Film Partners)

 

This year, a total of 1,502 titles from 98 countries and regions were submitted to TIFF.
A total of 16 films will be shown in the competition section at the 29th TIFF, to be held October 25 (Tue) – November 3 (Thu). The full lineup of the competition section will be announced at the press conference on September 26 (Mon), 2016.

 

(Source: http://www.2015.tiff-jp.net)

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29th Tokyo International Film Festival Announces Lineup for Director in Focus: Shunji IWAI in Japan Now Section

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The 29th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is pleased to announce the full lineup of films to be featured in the Japan Now Director in Focus: Shunji Iwai section.

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After his recent explorations into filmmaking in Hollywood and feature-length animation, Iwai returned this year with the much-talked-about A Bride for Rip Van Winkle. As he continues to move forward into the third decade of his career, this is a perfect time to look back at Iwai’s prolific body of work, and much-deserved international reputation.

 

Shunji Iwai
Shunji Iwai’s directing career began in 1988 with commercials, music videos and TV dramas, soon earning him acclaim for his cinematic style and vision, which came to be known as the “Iwai Aesthetic.” In 1995, he scored a huge hit across Asia with Love Letter and in 1996, PiCNiC won him a second consecutive award in the Forum section of the Berlin Film Festival, bringing him to even greater international attention. Swallowtail Butterfly (96) blazed a new trail in movie and music collaboration, and All About Lily Chou-Chou (01) won awards at Berlin and Shanghai. Other major works include Hana and Alice (04), a segment in the omnibus film New York, I Love You (09) and his first English-language film, Vampire (12), which played in competition at Sundance and in the Berlin Panorama section. Iwai’s first feature-length animated film, The Case of Hana & Alice, was invited to the 2015 Annecy Animation Festival. His latest film, A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (16), was released in Hong Kong and Taiwan prior to domestic release in Japan.
Kohei Ando, TIFF Japan Now Programming Advisor, comments:
“Shunji Iwai is a rare director who renders fable-like tales of contemporary Japanese youth and paints memory, time, space and society with his distinctive visual style. Fireworks, Should We See it from the Side or the Bottom? was a monumental early work that brought him critical praise and a Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award. His first feature-length film, Love Letter, a masterpiece that begins when a letter is delivered to the wrong person, it won many festival awards and continues to have a strong following among Asian and international fans. Swallowtail Butterfly is a groundbreaking work, the first to depict an era when the Japanese yen is the strongest currency in the world. Iwai’s English-language debut, Vampire, is a love story set against the world’s end. And as his latest film, A Bride for Rip Van Winkle, is a sumptuous hide-and-seek story that evokes Shuji Terayama’s poetic style. This year’s director focus takes us into the mesmerizing, unforgettable world of Shunji Iwai.”

Japan Now Section: 

Created to showcase outstanding Japanese films from recent and upcoming months, Japan Now displays the diversity of Japanese film, and unique facets of Japanese culture, as well as providing a multifaceted look inside Japan today. The section highlights the work of a Director in Focus, as well as outstanding work by other directors, with subtitled screenings of films to boost their recognition overseas.

(Source: http://2016.tiff-jp.net)

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TIFF Showcases American Classics from UCLA Film & Television Archive

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The 29th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is pleased to announce this year’s special program, “Film Treasures from UCLA Film & Television Archive,” which will screen rare restorations from UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Following the “Film Treasures from the Museum of Modern Art” program in 2014 and “Orson Welles: The Known and the Unknown” program in 2015, TIFF will present yet another Special Program featuring American classics. This year we have partnered with the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles, located right next to Hollywood and known for its many world-renowned film alumni. The UCLA Film & Television Archive will bring to Tokyo the restored My Darling Clementine (1946) by John Ford, The Connection (1961) by Shirley Clarke and other American classics dating from the silent era up to the 1980s.

Tentatively scheduled for October 25 (Tue) through November 6 (Sun)
The venue will be closed on Monday, October 31.
Venue: National Film Center Cinema 1

Hosted by: Tokyo International Film Festival/ National Film Center, the National Museum of Modern Art,Tokyo/ Motion Picture Association/ Japan and International Motion Picture Copyright Association
Screen Shot 2016-09-03 at 10.00.37 PM

MY DARLING CLEMENTINE

©1946 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. Renewed
©1974 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE: 35mm restored “special version” print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation and American Movie Classics.”

Screen Shot 2016-09-03 at 10.01.49 PM

THE CONNECTION

Courtesy of Milestone Films
THE CONNECTION: 35mm restored print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation.
(Source: http://2016.tiff-jp.net)
#tiffjp, Tokyo International Film Festival

Japanese indie drama ‘Ken and Kazu’ depicts the wages of dealing drugs

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Post by Larry Gleeson

By:

Call it timely coincidence.

The indie crime drama, “Ken and Kazu,” one of the highlights of the 2016 Eiga Sai, the annual Japanese film festival mounted by Japan Foundation Manila, brings to mind the spate of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug pushers that followed Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of war on drugs.

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A story about drug dealers—that breed of people our chief executive is most allergic to—the film was screened Saturday night (Aug. 6) at a packed Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), during the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

Film creator Hiroshi Shoji and line producer Yumi Honda flew to Manila to grace the event. They were also guests of honor at the Cinemalaya opening on Friday (Aug. 5).This year’s alliance between Eiga Sai and Cinemalaya not only allows a crossover of films  between the two festivals but has also introduced Japanese guest filmmakers to a larger audience.

In a one-on-one interview with Inquirer Lifestyle at Hotel Jen on Roxas Boulevard, Shoji said he intended for the film to go against the grain and develop a narrative that did not need bombastic or complicated elements. Such practices, he explained, were a recent trend in Japan whose filmmakers want to deliver shock or surprise.

He echoed the concern of veteran director-screenwriter Masato Harada, this year’s Eiga Sai’s first guest filmmaker, about the dearth of original material that actually gets the green light for production.

A graduate of Tokyo Film Center School of Arts, the 30-year-old Shoji wrote, produced, directed and edited “Ken and Kazu,” based on the short film he made in 2011 of the same title. He has had 10 short films, some of which have attracted the attention of Japanese film fests/award-giving bodies.

At the 2015 Tokyo International Film Festival, the full-length version won the Japanese Cinema Splash division’s Best Picture Award, a prestigious honor that comes with a cash prize of one million yen bestowed on Japanese indie films.

Shoji landed a distributor in Japan afterward, allowing “Ken and Kazu” regular screenings in a Tokyo cinema. He and Honda, who also interprets for him, have been touring the festival circuit to gain exposure for the film outside their country. Critics have praised Shoji’s work for its gritty depiction of gun-less violence and brutality,as well as for strong character development and acting chemistry.

The titular characters initially come off as just a pair of deceitful lowlifes who serve the yakuza. Yet, behind the thuggery and meth-pimping, Ken and Kazu are complex human beings—one hoping to provide for his lover and unborn child, the other seeking better care for a mom who suffers from dementia.

Here’s a tragic tale that finds a way to flesh out the humanity even in the worst possible kind of individuals—a stark contrast to the state of our nation, where “cardboard justice” is meted out even unto those who have yet to be proven guilty.