Japanese Film Festival: Film Reviews

Details: By Myjanne Jensen; Oct 30

Myjanne is a big believer in not forgetting one's roots and is therefore super proud to continue to contribute to scenestr (formerly known as Scene Magazine) where she began her journalism career 15 years ago. Myjanne is passionate about artistic expression in all its shapes and forms and believes the arts are essential to us surviving and thriving in this life. When writing for scenestr, Myjanne can be found covering everything from film festivals, to opera, album reviews, comedy shows, artist profiles and more.

30 October 2015

One word alone can accurately describe the films featured at this year’s Japanese Film Festival and that word is ‘intense’.

Intense beauty, intense gore-factor, intense drama- basically intense everything- the Japanese have definitely delivered the goods, making the 2015 JFF both titillating and absolutely entertaining viewing.

The Big Bee

An intense action thriller, ‘The Big Bee’ is a story about the hijacking of the Japanese defence force’s latest investment in a super helicopter, namely The Big Bee.

What starts out as a hijacking posed as a terrorist attack on Japan (the terrorist is threatening to drop the helicopter on a new nuclear power plant ‘Shinyo’) the story eventually unravels into a number of plot twists and action-packed sequences.

With several stories on the run, the main and most obvious message behind this film is the topic of nuclear energy and the potential dangers it poses for Japan. Being a country poor on natural resources, nuclear energy has always been a popular and cheaper option for the Japanese government, albeit not without controversy, with the most recent example of the 2011 tsunami and earthquake that struck the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Another underlying theme inherently embedded throughout the film – and in Japanese culture in general – is the idea of its people ‘dying for their fatherland’ and the notion that being Japanese ultimately means doing anything and everything for one’s country.

Other typical themes also appear such as the story of the 'overworked father' who is never present in his child’s life and the disconnect that exists in families everywhere due to pressure from society and the government to work hard.

All in all, a very engaging and somewhat controversial film (in terms of its questioning the status quo) that will keep you hanging on the edge of your seat.

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Little Forest

Quite an abstract, yet beautiful film, ‘Little Forest’ almost resembles something more of a documentary representing the rich culture of food of Japan and the beauty of country life than a feature film telling the story of a young girl trying to find her way in life.

Aesthetically pleasing, ‘Little Forest’ runs for approximately one hour and takes the viewer through the various seasons of life in Japan and the different foods that follow those seasons, as well as exploring the simplicity and rewards of living off the land.

The film travels back and forth between Ichiko talking about her childhood and the life she shared with her stoic, single mum in their small town of Komori and all the fantastic food that her mum used to cook, to which Ichiko now cooks in her honour.

In addition to all the food making and harvesting, 'Little Forest' explores the concept of friendships and the various experiences that Ichiko has had since originally leaving Komori and how she has come full circle in her journey.

Again, with this film being so unconventional, it was quite hard to distinguish an actual concrete meaning behind it all, but if anything, one thing that stood out was the idea that sometimes finding your place in the world sometimes actually takes losing yourself before realising what you really need is right back where it all began.

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At Home

‘At Home’ is a film that pulls right at the heart-strings, with the opening scene so confronting you can’t help but question whether or not to continue watching. Fortunately, ‘At Home’ quickly changes pace and switches to a scene of a seemingly idyllic Japanese family, consisting of a doting mum, a hard-working father and their three, adorable kids.

The picture perfect family appears to embody everything that Japanese society epitomises as the ‘ultimate nuclear family’ and it isn’t until the scene progresses that things truly reveal themselves for what they really are – a family caught-up in crime.

It’s easy to put your judgement glasses on once you learn of the crimes that this family appears to so easily engage in, but as the film slowly peels away at the layers of each individual and how they came to live such a life, you start to have empathy and an understanding of how they (and people in general) get caught up in this way of life.

‘At Home’ is a story of surviving despite all odds and that family isn’t always necessarily the people tied to you by blood, but rather those people who stick by you unconditionally and stand up for you when no one else will.

A very different insight into the darker side of Japanese society, this film is fantastic and a definite stand-out of the festival.

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100 Yen Love

Ichiko is a no-hoper, lazy 30-something with no ambition or drive in life. With a very low self esteem like her father, Ichiko lives at home scabbing off her family and doing nothing but eating junk food and playing video games with her nephew, while her mother and sister slave away running the family take away shop.

The only thing that seems to peak some kind of interest for Ichiko is a man, Yuji, who she often sees boxing at her local gym.

After a punch-up with her sister, Ichiko decides to finally leave the family home to fend for herself and finds a job at a local convenience store where she comes across a number of interesting characters.

One such character is that of her boxing love interest, Yuji, whom her colleagues have aptly named 'Banana Man' due to all of the bananas he buys from them.

Yuji and Ichiko end up going on a few dates and thus begins Ichiko’s emancipation and her journey of self-love and sourcing her inner-strength.

Japan’s official entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming 88th Academy Awards, 100 YEN LOVE is a top film which received the Best Film and Best Director Award at the 2014 Japan Film Professional Awards, as well as Best Actress at the 2014 Junpo Awards and Blue Ribbon Awards.

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Highlights

Other great films at this year’s JFF include: 'Miss Hokusai' (百日紅 ~Miss HOKUSAI~) the tale of Master printmaker Hokusai, a famous Edo Japanese artist and his equally gifted and utterly outspoken daughter; as well as 'TAG', an incredibly gripping, gruesome film, that belies the famous Japanese shock-factor, with a tinge of sexual undertones.