Presented by Sydney’s The Japan Foundation, The Japanese Film Festival (JFF) will for the 19th year take its dynamic and hugely popular film festival across the country until December.
An established calendar event, the JFF started in 1997 with three free film screenings by former Festival Director, Masafumi Konomi, and is now the largest Japanese film festival in the world.
Last year saw 31,800 people take part in the festival Australia-wide, where it showcased a vast variety of cinematic delights, from classics to newly released films currently screening in Japan.
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The opening night film in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney, 'Bakuman' tells the story of Moritaka Mashiro (Takeru Sato); a talented manga artist who is drifting through life trying to avoid his fate, after having witnessed his manga artist uncle work himself to death.
Moritaka is determined to avoid the path his uncle walked until one day, class genius and aspiring manga writer, Akito (Ryunosuke Kamiki) asks Moritaka if he wants team up as manga artists.
The pair work tirelessly day and night to realise their dream of creating a manga series for the Shonen Jump Weekly – a considerable milestone for any manga artist, but with no shortage of up-and-coming rivals, only time will tell if they will reach their goals.
Japan’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming 88th Academy Awards, '100 Yen Love' will close the festival in all cities. This is an indie film that will entertain and break hearts in equal measure. Ichiko is a 32-year-old woman who still lives with her parents, doesn’t have a real job and one of the few joys in her dreary life is watching Yuji train at a boxing gym close by.
An encounter between the two sets off a chain of events that leads to Ichiko’s metamorphosis and the audience is taken on an intriguing tale of an awkward woman and her awkward love affair.
Best Film and Best Director Award Winner at the 2014 Japan Film Professional Awards, Ando’s impressive performance won her Best Actress at the 2014 Junpo Awards and Blue Ribbon Awards.
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Other highlights of the festival include 'Little Forest – Winter/Spring' (リトル・フォレスト 冬春編) which is a delightful film about self-discovery through reconnecting with nature and living the simple life. Based on a manga by Daisuke Igarashi, the film celebrates the simple country life and is directed by Junichi Mori, winner of the Sundance/NHK Best filmmakers Award 2000.
'Miss Hokusai' (百日紅 ~Miss HOKUSAI~) tells the tale of master printmaker Hokusai, who was incredibly famous for his art and who had an equally artistically gifted and utterly outspoken daughter. This wonderful animated film scooped three awards at the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, including the Satoshi Kon Award for best animated feature film, the Sequences Award for best Asian feature film and the Gold Audience Award for best animated feature film.
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And what would a Japanese film festival be without a classic samurai tale, with this year’s 'A Samurai Chronicle' (蜩ノ記) telling the tale of a samurai who leads by example, not only in life, but also in death and features performances by award-winning actors Koji Yakusho, Junichi Okada, and Maki Horikita.
JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL DATES
3-25 Oct – Sydney14-18 Oct – Canberra
21-25 Oct – Brisbane
28 Oct - 1 Nov – Perth
29 Oct - 8 Nov – Fremantle
30 Oct - 8 Nov – Adelaide
1-15 Nov – Sydney
6-15 Nov – Parramatta
26 Nov - 6 Dec – Melbourne
