{"id":36719,"date":"2014-11-08T08:22:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-08T12:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=36719"},"modified":"2014-11-08T08:24:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-08T12:24:43","slug":"jq-magazine-the-18th-japanese-film-festival-more-films-more-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2014\/11\/08\/jq-magazine-the-18th-japanese-film-festival-more-films-more-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"JQ Magazine: The 18th Japanese Film Festival \u2014 More Films, More Countries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"18th<\/a>

The 18th Japanese Film Festival. Better than any other Japanese Film Festival in the Northern Hemisphere except Japan. (Courtesy of JFF)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Eden Law<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(<\/em><\/strong>Fukushima-ken<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, 2010-11) for\u00a0<\/em>JQ\u00a0magazine<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0Taking full and outrageous advantage of being a JETAA member, Eden returns again this year to watch and review the\u00a018th Japanese Film Festival<\/a>, now covering both Australia and New Zealand, with more films than ever. It\u2019s so big that both himself and\u00a0Rafael Villadiego<\/a>\u00a0(Nagasaki-ken<\/a>, 2010-13) will shoulder the burden of covering this, the biggest and best method of (legally) watching Japanese films outside of Nippon.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The 18th Japanese Film Festival continues in Auckland (6-12 Nov), Sydney (13-23rd Nov) and Melbourne (27 Nov-7 Dec).<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The 18th Japanese Film Festival became a pan-Oceanic film festival this year with the inclusion of New Zealand, making it the largest Japanese film festival in the world. The program includes over 60 films, some of which have barely just made it to the movie theatres in Japan, such as\u00a0Samurai of the Dead<\/em>, Japan\u2019s action-packed foray into zombie lore, mixed with the historical legend of the Shinsengumi. And speaking of a connection to that famed group, the guaranteed draw card would be the\u00a0Rurouni Kenshin<\/em>\u00a0trilogy, shown in their complete collection for the first time. The live-action adaptation of the manga and anime series about the itinerant samurai hero with a bloody past screened to sold-out venues in some cities.<\/p>\n

However, there are other notables this year as well, such as the award-winning\u00a0Pecoross\u2019 Mother and Her Days<\/em>, called the best film of 2013 by domestic Japanese film magazines. Watching a parent deal with dementia is not exactly feel-good movie material, but audiences have responded positively to its poignant and lighthearted treatment of the subject, which is based on the best-selling autobiographical manga of the same name. In a less lighthearted tone, Kiyoshi Sasabe returns with two films, one of which is\u00a0Tokyo Refugees<\/em>, based on the novel\u00a0Tokyo Nanmin<\/em>\u00a0by Tetsuzo Fukuzawa, and explores the world of the homeless in Tokyo through the life of one character whose life spirals out of control.<\/p>\n

No festival like this would be complete without anime entries, and this year sees strong entries from two different generations: from the master Osamu Tezuka (he of\u00a0Astro Boy<\/em>\u00a0fame) comes the second\u00a0Buddha<\/em>\u00a0film in the ongoing adaptation of his epic, 10-year work on the story of Siddharta; and from the brash new generation (with an assist from\u00a0Akira<\/em>\u00a0creator Katsuhiro Otomo), an anthology of four shorts called\u00a0Short Peace<\/em>, billed as \u201creclaiming anime for grown-ups.\u201d Studio Ghibli\u2019s\u00a0The Tale of the Princess Kaguya<\/em>\u00a0(read\u00a0JQ<\/strong>\u2019s review\u00a0here<\/a>) is also showing, although in smaller cities, probably to avoid conflict with the Studio Ghibli mini-festival that overlaps with this event in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The festival is also showing repeats, such as the documentary\u00a0The God of Ramen<\/em>, the biography of the master of Japan\u2019s traditional fast food whose culinary skills draws a long queue of devotees; and the\u00a0Thermae Romae<\/em>\u00a0films, featuring Hiroshi Abe and his equally popular castmates, Oiled Pec 1 and 2 and all of Abe\u2019s abs. And also returning (but not exactly as a repeat) is the next installment in the\u00a0Ju-On<\/em>\u00a0franchise, which, much like its demonic star, refuses to go away.<\/p>\n

Enough introductory paragraphing\u2014let\u2019s cherry-pick our way through the other films!<\/p>\n

Playing (Un)happy families<\/strong><\/p>\n

A strong familial theme runs through a number of dramatic films this year. Yuya Ishii, director of last year\u2019s festival comi-drama hit\u00a0The Great Passage<\/em>\u00a0returns with the more sombre\u00a0Our Family<\/em>, in which a distant and fractious family are forced together to deal with their mother\u2019s terminal cancer and each other. The death of parental units seems to be a common plot device in Japanese dramas recently, compelling their estranged children to embark on journeys (as in\u00a0My Little Sweet Pea<\/em>, in which Mugiko\u2019s pilgrimage to her estranged late mother\u2019s home village becomes a journey of reconciliation); to scale new heights of personal development (figuratively and literally in the case of\u00a0Climbing to Spring<\/em>, where a stockbroker son returns to the mountain region of his childhood after his father\u2019s death and attempts to complete his father\u2019s dream); and to, uh, go back in time to meet the parents for the first time and to perform in their magic act (A Bolt From the Blue<\/em>). The latter film was a domestic hit this year, watched by over 130,000 people who flocked to watch this heartwarming tearjerker in the first two days after release. On a lighter note,\u00a0Three Sisters<\/em>\u00a0is about a family rallying together to save their traditional confectionary shop against the threat of modern supermarkets\u2026and is also about love and marriage because the title mentions three sisters, not retail business and how to stay relevant in a modernised economy.<\/p>\n

In non-family-based films, the historical drama\u00a0The Vancouver Asahi<\/em>, about the real-life immigrant Japanese baseball team in pre-WWII Vancouver, is your classic underdog story. On the other side of the Pacific,\u00a0The Eternal Zero<\/em>\u00a0explores the life and motivation of a kamikaze pilot, which drew controversy and accusations of revisionist history and glorification of war, but did not prevent its popularity with domestic audiences, earning \u00a56.98 billion after seven weeks.<\/p>\n

Fights, Camera, Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cult action erupts like a bloody, explodey fighty thing in both of Sion Sono\u2019s entries this year. The first is\u00a0Tokyo Tribe<\/em>, which bears some superficial resemblance to that other classic\u00a0The Warriors<\/em>, about rival yakuza tribes where subtlety is the first casualty and excitement widdles on its corpse. Based on the title alone, the second film,\u00a0Why Don\u2019t You Play in Hell?<\/em>, promises to up the ante (if possible) and sees a group of hapless filmmakers being forced to make the ultimate action film in the middle of a yakuza gang war, because why not?<\/p>\n

The sequel to a past festival entry is\u00a0Eight Rangers 2<\/em>, a superhero action film where the heroes look like a cross between the Wiggles and the Power Rangers, and appears solely to be a film vehicle for the J-pop boy band Kanjani Eight (ironically now a seven-member group). More live-action adaptations of anime abound with\u00a0Kiki\u2019s Delivery Service<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Lupin the Third<\/em>, and it will be interesting to see whether, in the latter, the actors can pull off the garish costume colours of the beloved classic.<\/p>\n

The thriller genre makes its appearance with\u00a0Snow White Murder Case<\/em>, a very modern crime mystery about a murder that seems to play out on social media. A genre-defying film that has been called one of the most compelling crime thrillers to come out of Japan in recent years,\u00a0Pale Moon<\/em>\u2014which will debut in Sydney just a day it premieres in Japan\u2014is about an unappreciated office worker who, on impulse, breaks the rules to achieve the fortune and life that she has always dreamed of, but as always, with these things come dark consequences.<\/p>\n

Special Guests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Melbourne snags the lion\u2019s share of the budget for this year\u2019s special guest appearances: Director Keishi Otomo will helm a Q&A for all the\u00a0Rurouni Kenshin<\/em>\u00a0films, while director Kazuki Watanabe and actor Yuki Himura will attend the world premiere of\u00a0Samurai of the Dead<\/em>. Director Kiyoshi Sasabe and actor Seishiro Nishida will conduct a Q&A for\u00a0Three Sisters<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Tokyo Refugees<\/em>. In Sydney, the opening night movie\u00a0Lady Maiko<\/em>, described as a musical Japanese version of\u00a0My Fair Lady<\/em>, will be director Masayuki Suo and Japan\u2019s answer to Jennifer Lawrence (but in a much younger, diminutive form), actress\u00a0Mone Kamishiraishi.<\/p>\n

All This and More\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every year, the Japanese Film Festival Down Under just keeps getting bigger and bigger, and better and better. Not mentioned is the free film program, which shows black and white classics from Japanese cinemas. It\u2019s impossible to cover all films in this year\u2019s program in this article, and there are others that are no less deserving of attention. We\u2019ll endeavour to cover the best of the best in the next coming weeks, so stay tuned!<\/p>\n

For a complete list of schedules and screenings, visit\u00a0http:\/\/japanesefilmfestival.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By\u00a0Eden Law\u00a0(Fukushima-ken, 2010-11) for\u00a0JQ\u00a0magazine.\u00a0Taking full and outrageous advantage of being a JETAA member, Eden returns again this year to watch and review the\u00a018th Japanese Film Festival, now covering both Australia and New Zealand, with more films than ever. It\u2019s so big that both himself and\u00a0Rafael Villadiego\u00a0(Nagasaki-ken, 2010-13) will shoulder the burden of covering this, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[53,263,291],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-film","category-jq-magazine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-9yf","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36719"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36723,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36719\/revisions\/36723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}