Tokyo International Film Festival: Love and Death in Japanese Cinema

By Esteban Lopez

Utterly disappointed at not being able to watch Kill and The Clone Returns from the Homeland from the Japanese Eyes Section, I settled for Love Fight (Rabu Faito) from the Special Screenings section. Director Izuru Narushima tells the story of a troubled, and somewhat clumsy first love between Kento Hayashi and Kie Kitano. Love Fight includes two concurrent love stories melding into one. The film packs somewhat of a girly punch and throws in a couple of fight gags, but it is a distilled version of the most painful love story ever.  That award goes to the 1995 film Tokyo Fist by Shinya Tsukamoto which follows a similar storyline of pain and love. Whereas Narushima only gleams the surface of boxing, Tsukamoto doesn`t pull any punches on how visceral boxing can be and how painful an unrequited love is.  Every scene is filled with stark images of boxers clobbering one another and portrays the pangs of an unrequited love by means of sadism and masochism (a bit extreme, but the message comes across). That was by far the most painful love story I`ve ever witnessed. Sure, I can understand that the two main protagonists of Love Fight are teenagers, but adolescence is never as cut and dry as this film; there was more grey area that could have been explored. A sugary pop version of Tokyo Fist.

At the far side of the spectrum comes My Grandma (Boku no Obaachan); the overly sentimental story of a young boy and his grandma. And as a given, you can be fairly certain that any movie with Grandparent in the title signals an imminent death. The question being; at what point in the movie will it happen and what sort of emotional punch will it have on the audience when it does? The main draw of the movie was Kin Sugai who plays the grandmother and who has been acting for 57 years, mostly in minor roles for Akira Kurosawa and Naruse Mikio films, but who has never nabbed a starring role. This film changed all that, and earned her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest actress to get first starring role. Throughout the film, there were plenty of tear jerking moments and by the end, I wanted nothing more than to go home and spend some quality time with my family,`who knows how much time I have left with them?` Indeed, a heart warming family film.

Boku no Obaachan

Tokyo International Film Festival, Final Day: Tulpan Wins the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix

(The award winners of the 21st Tokyo International Film Festival. The director of Tulpan, Sergey Dvortsevoy is in the middle of the front row, flanked by actors Samal Yeslyamova on his left and Askhat Kuchinchirekov on his right.)

 By Sachiko Shiota

While I was busy watching films and not getting around to writing about them, the film festival was gradually winding down. The closing ceremony was held today, and myriad awards handed out. There was the expected oh-why-did-I-not-watch-that (I particularly regretted having missed out on seeing Félicité Wouassi, who won Best Actress for With a Little Help from Myself), the huh-what award (Vincent Cassel took home Best Actor for the flashy but empty biopic Public Enemy Number One Part One and Part Two), and the joy of a film that I had adored being recognized with an award.

Tokyo International Film Festival, Day Five: Jerzy Skolimowski’s Return to Film Form

by Sachiko Shiota

(director Jerzy Skolimowski)

Halfway through the press conference for director Jerzy Skolimowski’s Four Nights with Anna, a fellow Polishman journalist declared, “You are an institution in Poland.” The journalist lamented that perhaps Japanese audiences were not fully aware of what the poet/director/actor/painter represented for the Polish people. He was right. Of the twenty-plus films he has directed, written, or acted in, only a handful are available in Japan and few can be readily accessed. Fans of Roman Polanski may recognize him as the co-writer of the screenplay for Knife in the Water, but much less is known about his own politically charged works in a career that has spanned four decades.

Tokyo International Film Festival, Day Four: The Russia-Cuba Connection in Ocean

By Sachiko Shiota

Day four of the festival began for me with a press conference for the Russian-Cuban film, Ocean. Director Mikhail Kosyrev-Nesterov and lead actor Jorge Luis Castro were slated to attend, but for unexplained reasons the director turned up alone. The film follows Joel, a young man from a coastal village in Cuba, as he leaves his home and heads to Havana after a failed romance.

Tokyo International Film Festival, Day Three: Can’t Win ‘em All

by Sachiko Shiota

There is no better feeling than walking into the theater, sitting down to watch a film you know absolutely nothing of apart from the title, and being blown away, either slowly or instantly, by what is unfolding on the screen in front of you. I still remember my favorite from last year, Sztuczki (Tricks), and hope year, Andrezj Jakimowski’s that one day it is released in Japan. Meanwhile, Sergey Dvortsevoy’s Tulpan, set in Khazkhastan, is my favorite so far at this year’s festival.

Tokyo International Film Festival – Day 3: Asian films~The good, the bad and the ugly

21st TIFF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Esteban Lopez

Watching three movies back to back in one day is no easy feat by any means. But today, I was determined to eke in as many as I could.

Tokyo International Film Festival, Day Two: The Mechanics of Movie Promotion

By Sachiko Shiota

On the second day of the Tokyo International Film Festival, due to bad timing and bad organization, I found myself unable to attend a single screening. Deploring my situation, I nonetheless kept busy, hopping from press conferences to Q&A sessions. While I felt guilty covering films that I either had no interest in seeing or would not be able to see, I got to witness firsthand the mechanics of promoting films.

First up was a pre-screening event for The Other Boleyn Girl. A visit to Tokyo by co-stars Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson would have brought the house down; alas, director Justin Chadwick turned up solo.

Tokyo International Film Festival – Day 2: French Cinema still Avant Garde

By Esteban Lopez

 I managed to get into a screening at the last minute of the French film Aide-toi et le ciel t`e aidera (With a little help from myself) by acclaimed director Francois Depreyon. And knowing that French cinema has always been known to be avant garde, I was happy to learn that this film was no exception. From the opening scenes, the pace of the movie was kinetic, almost frantic in the cramped apartment Sonia (Felicite Wouassi) shares with her husband and four children. Quick shots, evocative of MTV music videos allow only small glimpses of Sonia, and her family members in the opening scenes.

A Brief Taste of the 21st Annual Tokyo International Film Festival

By Sachiko Shiota

Ever wonder how writers are able to comment on films playing at Sundance or Cannes before the festival has even kicked off? It’s no secret that a large amount of it is hype, or information culled from press releases. It wasn’t until I was able to obtain a press pass to a film festival last year that I found out members of the press have a secret perk: pre-festival, invitation-only screenings.

It is in this way that I am able to write about a handful of the films in competition at the 21st Tokyo International Film Festival, held from Saturday, October 18th to Sunday, October 26th. For the uninitiated, it is the largest film festival in Japan, featuring 300 films selected from around the world. The festival is held in two venues: Roppongi Hills cinemas in Roppongi, a sleek business district, and Bunkamura cinemas in Shibuya, a grimier part of Tokyo that attracts a younger crowd. The filmmakers and the cast frequently turn up to promote their films, participating in Q&A sessions that frequently provoke thoughtful questions from the audience.

What is it with gays on Japanese TV?

By Esteban Lopez

 

I rarely ever watch Japanese TV. In all honesty it`s hard for me to follow. I`ll be watching some TV show and it`ll end abruptly and I`ll be sitting there scratching my head. “What just happened? Is it over?” I like to think there might be something of an attention deficit disorder among Japanese viewers because I can`t switch over to a different topic like that; without some closure.

 

But when I do sit and watch TV, I`m more than entertained by the outrageous commercials; they`re very brief and straight to the point. And there is hardly any dialogue so it`s pretty easy to understand what`s going on.