Eiga Sai, Japanese Film Festival 2010@Ayala Center Cebu
by SineBuano ~ July 6th, 2010. Filed under: SineBuano Guides, SineBuano News & Announcements. In celebration of the Philippines–Japan Friendship Month, the Consular Office in Cebu with the Japanese Association of Cebu and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Cebu proudly presents the much-awaited “Eigasai 2010” a Japanese Contemporary Film Festival at Ayala Center Cebu Cinema 4 this August 3 to 8, 2010*.
Now on its 12th year, “Eigasai,” which literally means ‘film festival’, aims to bolster further the diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Japan by continuously providing an opportunity for Filipinos to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Japanese arts and culture explored in this medium.
This year’s offering brings together eight contemporary films*.
All films will be shown with English subtitles. Admission is free.
Tokyo, 1959. Would-be writer Ryunosuke Chagawa (Hidetaka Yoshioka) is still living across the street from Norifumi Suzuki (Shinichi Tsutsumi) and his auto repair shop, though now he shares his home with Junnosuke (Kenta Suga), an orphan he’s taken under his wing at the urging of pretty Hiromi (Koyuki), who continues to manage a nearby tavern.
At Suzuki Auto, where Norifumi Suzuki and his wife Tomoe (Yakushimaru Hiroko) live, Mutsuko (Maki Horikita), the apprentice female auto mechanic, is still staying with the Suzukis manage enough to stand on her own and she’s becomes the object of affections of Takeo (Yosuke Asari), a downbeat young man who is studying cooking. Then the Suzukis gain a new family member – their relatives’ daughter whom they are going to look after.
Junnosuke’s biological father Kawabuchi, comes to Chagawa to take back his son. In order to keep Junnosuke with him, the father imposes conditions upon Chagawa to give the boy a decent life. To secure a stable life and also prove himself to Hiromi, he starts writing again to win the Akutagawa award, a once abandoned hope.
A sequel to ALWAYS – Sunset on Third Street (Always Sancho-me no Yuhi), Director and screenwriter Takashi Yamazaki returns to the nostalgic world of Tokyo in the Fifties recreating the street scenes of the Showa era particularly the Nihombashi and Haneda airport built in those days. The film was nominated in almost every major category at the 2008 JapanAcademy Awards, and Yoshioka Hidetaka picked up his second best-actor win for the role of Chagawa.
(1 hour, 46 minutes)
It’s early spring and still chilly when Taeko a stressed out career woman leaves her stressed out life in the city for a vacation on a small island in the south of Japan. There is no sightseeing spot on the island and people come here to “twilight”. Taeko along with her very large suitcase stays at “Hamada”, which is run by Yuji (Mitsuishi Ken).
Expecting to be left alone, she’s put off when the hotel’s proprietor, Yuji, sits down to eat with her. She’s even more
disgruntled when Sakura, a mysterious woman who every year comes from somewhere in the early spring, takes the liberty of entering her room to wake her up! But seeking haven at another hotel proves absurd, and Taeko awkwardly returns to her unconventional hosts.
There is also this intriguing exercise called “merci taiso”, which the residents on the island do as part of their daily routine but only during spring. Taeko is bewildered but begin to yield to their pace as she spends more time in the island.
Megane was nominated forthe Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Manfred Salzgeber Award at the
Berlin International Film Festival in 2008.
(1 hour, 58 minutes)
Based on a 2006 novel by Tendo Arata, who went on to win the 2009 Naoki Prize, The Bandage club is about Wara, a high school student, looks cheerful, but conceals darkness deep in her mind.
On a sudden impulse, she nearly climbs over a fence of the hospital rooftop, when an unacquainted boy, called Dino (Yagira Yuya) persuades her otherwise. Concerned about troubled Wara, Dino proposes fixing the wounds by tying Wara’s bandage to the rooftop fence.
Wara feels comforted by this act, and comes up with an idea to for “Hotai Club” (Bandage Club).
The film is noteworthy for being completely shot on location in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, and the word-of-mouth excitement among teenagers surrounding fi lm’s release, including screenings at major karaoke establishments.
The story also was released as a manga in 2007.
(1 hour, 59 minutes)
From Academy Award-winning director Takita Yojiro (Departures, 2008) comes the film story of Harada Takumi (Hayashi Kento) who has moved to a country town in Okayama for his sickly younger brother. He is an extraordinarily talented baseball pitcher, but has been unable to pitch to his satisfaction as he couldn’t trust the catcher. Nagakura Go (Yamada Kenta), a catcher at a children’s baseball team in Okayama, is eager to form a “battery” duo with Takumi. Their battery looked like doing well, however, the diff erences in technique become apparent when they join junior high school, and Takumi suggests disbanding the battery.
(1 hour, 54 minutes)
The film’s portrays the faint hope that is generated by the interaction between adults who have not recovered from the trauma suffered when they were 14 years old. Fukatsu Ryo stabbed a teacher who treated her as an arsonist, in a fit of rage when she was 14. As an adult, she is forced to see a psychiatrist as she still traumatized by the incident.
One day Fukatsu is reunited with Sugino who happens to be the teacher to one of Fukatsu’s pupils. Sugino is also burdened with psychological scars which were verbally inflicted upon him when he was 14 and he gave up playing his favorite piano as a result.
Both Fukatsu and Sugino reached adulthood without recovering from their trauma, but they begin facing their issues from the past and finding hope to live by keeping company with the 14-year olds who are living in the present at the same time being trouble just as they are.
I Just Didn’t Do It (Soredemo boku wa yatte nai, 2007) directed by Suo Masayuki
(2 hours, 23 minutes)
A young man, Kaneko Teppei is falsely accused of molesting a high-school girl on a train. He is arrested and forced to sign a statement that is not his own words and goes through endless court sessions to fight for his freedom.
Teppei had been working as a freeter, or part-time worker, and was on his way to an interview; he was jacket got caught in the door. He struggled to free it, and apologized to the woman next to him when he bumped her.
From out of the crowd a young woman’s voice cried out, but he didn’t understand what it meant. They were escorted to the station master’s office, followed by a woman who wanted to vouch for his innocence; the station employee, however, shut the door in the woman’s face.
His lawyer, Hamada Akira encourages him to settle the matter out of court. If he chooses to fight the charges, he will be held for three weeks just for the investigation, and if he is prosecuted, the case will take up to a year in court.
The trial begins on a positive note wherein the courtroom is packed with friends of Teppei’s, who successfully puts a dent in the police investigation. The judge appears inclined to find Teppei not guilty. At that point in the trial, however, a new judge is assigned to the case, one far more skeptical of Teppei’s claims of innocence.
The film is an indictment of Japan’s troublesome, labyrinthine legal system, in which defendants are coerced into signing confessions and criminal cases go on for years, this was Japan’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards for 2007.
(1 hour, 37 minutes)
Juri (Narumi Riko), is an elementary school girl, loses sight of her true self, while acting out a false self in order to play along with her friends.
One day, Kanako, a classmate who used to the popular girl but has been bullied lately, tells Juri that the girl she is now is not her true self, and Juri sympathizes. The two become high school students without a chance to talk to each other.
Having heard that Kanako has moved to Yamanashi, her new school, Juri starts sending her e-mail stories, using a diff erent name about a fictitious girl with tips to be popular with others. Kanako then copies the girl in the story and becomes popular but start feeling puzzled at herself. Juri is also in anguish over losing a sense of herself.
How to Become Myself is considered unique as it deals with the problem of how to fit in almost exclusively on a psychological or ethical level depicting the universal emotion of an adolescent girl.
TOKYO TOWER Mom & Me, and Sometimes Dad (Tokyo tawaa Okan to boku to tokidoki oton, 2007) directed by Matsuoka Joji.
(2 hours, 22 minutes)
The film alternates between the past, in which the central character, Masaya, narrates his life story, and the present, in which Masaya watches his mother die of cancer in the hospital.
Masaya is a small boy when his parents split up, after his mother “Okan” (“mother” in southern Japan) tires of his father “Oton” (“father”) returning home drunk. Okan takes him to her hometown, Chikuho. Visiting his father is more of an adventure; his father films him with his home camera, and Masaya is left alone in a dressing room with cabaret girls who tease him.
When he goes off to Tokyo for art school, Masaya picks up many of his father’s habits: drinking, smoking, casual sex, gambling.
His mother begins running a restaurant to support him when it becomes clear that he is going to work up a debt that he ultimately can’t afford, and he plays mahjong into the night; at one point in the game, he sees himself as a boy seated across from him. From that point on, he starts to grow up, and when it is clear his mother’s health is failing, he has her come to Tokyo to live with him.
*Film line-ups and Schedules are subject to changes.
Now on its 12th year, “Eigasai,” which literally means ‘film festival’, aims to bolster further the diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Japan by continuously providing an opportunity for Filipinos to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Japanese arts and culture explored in this medium.
This year’s offering brings together eight contemporary films*.
All films will be shown with English subtitles. Admission is free.
3rd August 2010 Tuesday 7:00pm
Always Sunset on Third Street 2, (2 hours, 26 minutes)At Suzuki Auto, where Norifumi Suzuki and his wife Tomoe (Yakushimaru Hiroko) live, Mutsuko (Maki Horikita), the apprentice female auto mechanic, is still staying with the Suzukis manage enough to stand on her own and she’s becomes the object of affections of Takeo (Yosuke Asari), a downbeat young man who is studying cooking. Then the Suzukis gain a new family member – their relatives’ daughter whom they are going to look after.
Junnosuke’s biological father Kawabuchi, comes to Chagawa to take back his son. In order to keep Junnosuke with him, the father imposes conditions upon Chagawa to give the boy a decent life. To secure a stable life and also prove himself to Hiromi, he starts writing again to win the Akutagawa award, a once abandoned hope.
A sequel to ALWAYS – Sunset on Third Street (Always Sancho-me no Yuhi), Director and screenwriter Takashi Yamazaki returns to the nostalgic world of Tokyo in the Fifties recreating the street scenes of the Showa era particularly the Nihombashi and Haneda airport built in those days. The film was nominated in almost every major category at the 2008 JapanAcademy Awards, and Yoshioka Hidetaka picked up his second best-actor win for the role of Chagawa.
4th August 2010 Wednesday 7:00pm
Glasses (Megane, 2007) directed by Ogigami Naoko(1 hour, 46 minutes)
Expecting to be left alone, she’s put off when the hotel’s proprietor, Yuji, sits down to eat with her. She’s even more
disgruntled when Sakura, a mysterious woman who every year comes from somewhere in the early spring, takes the liberty of entering her room to wake her up! But seeking haven at another hotel proves absurd, and Taeko awkwardly returns to her unconventional hosts.
There is also this intriguing exercise called “merci taiso”, which the residents on the island do as part of their daily routine but only during spring. Taeko is bewildered but begin to yield to their pace as she spends more time in the island.
Megane was nominated forthe Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Manfred Salzgeber Award at the
Berlin International Film Festival in 2008.
5th August 2010 Thursday 7:00pm
The Bandage Club (Houtai kurabu, 2007) directed by Tsutsumi Yukihiko(1 hour, 58 minutes)
On a sudden impulse, she nearly climbs over a fence of the hospital rooftop, when an unacquainted boy, called Dino (Yagira Yuya) persuades her otherwise. Concerned about troubled Wara, Dino proposes fixing the wounds by tying Wara’s bandage to the rooftop fence.
Wara feels comforted by this act, and comes up with an idea to for “Hotai Club” (Bandage Club).
The film is noteworthy for being completely shot on location in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, and the word-of-mouth excitement among teenagers surrounding fi lm’s release, including screenings at major karaoke establishments.
The story also was released as a manga in 2007.
6th August 2010 Friday 7:00pm
The Battery Future in Our Hands (Batterii, 2007) directed by Takita Yojiro(1 hour, 59 minutes)
From Academy Award-winning director Takita Yojiro (Departures, 2008) comes the film story of Harada Takumi (Hayashi Kento) who has moved to a country town in Okayama for his sickly younger brother. 7th August 2010 Saturday 4:00pm
Fourteen (Juyon-sai, 2007) directed by Hirosue Hiromasa(1 hour, 54 minutes)
One day Fukatsu is reunited with Sugino who happens to be the teacher to one of Fukatsu’s pupils. Sugino is also burdened with psychological scars which were verbally inflicted upon him when he was 14 and he gave up playing his favorite piano as a result.
Both Fukatsu and Sugino reached adulthood without recovering from their trauma, but they begin facing their issues from the past and finding hope to live by keeping company with the 14-year olds who are living in the present at the same time being trouble just as they are.
7th August 2010 Saturday 7:00pm
(2 hours, 23 minutes)
Teppei had been working as a freeter, or part-time worker, and was on his way to an interview; he was jacket got caught in the door. He struggled to free it, and apologized to the woman next to him when he bumped her.
From out of the crowd a young woman’s voice cried out, but he didn’t understand what it meant. They were escorted to the station master’s office, followed by a woman who wanted to vouch for his innocence; the station employee, however, shut the door in the woman’s face.
His lawyer, Hamada Akira encourages him to settle the matter out of court. If he chooses to fight the charges, he will be held for three weeks just for the investigation, and if he is prosecuted, the case will take up to a year in court.
The trial begins on a positive note wherein the courtroom is packed with friends of Teppei’s, who successfully puts a dent in the police investigation. The judge appears inclined to find Teppei not guilty. At that point in the trial, however, a new judge is assigned to the case, one far more skeptical of Teppei’s claims of innocence.
The film is an indictment of Japan’s troublesome, labyrinthine legal system, in which defendants are coerced into signing confessions and criminal cases go on for years, this was Japan’s official submission for Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards for 2007.
8th August 2010 Sunday 4:00pm
How to Become Myself (Ashita no watashi no tsukurikata, 2007) directed by Ichikawa Jun(1 hour, 37 minutes)
One day, Kanako, a classmate who used to the popular girl but has been bullied lately, tells Juri that the girl she is now is not her true self, and Juri sympathizes. The two become high school students without a chance to talk to each other.
Having heard that Kanako has moved to Yamanashi, her new school, Juri starts sending her e-mail stories, using a diff erent name about a fictitious girl with tips to be popular with others. Kanako then copies the girl in the story and becomes popular but start feeling puzzled at herself. Juri is also in anguish over losing a sense of herself.
How to Become Myself is considered unique as it deals with the problem of how to fit in almost exclusively on a psychological or ethical level depicting the universal emotion of an adolescent girl.
8th August 2010 Sunday 7:00pm
(2 hours, 22 minutes)
Masaya is a small boy when his parents split up, after his mother “Okan” (“mother” in southern Japan) tires of his father “Oton” (“father”) returning home drunk. Okan takes him to her hometown, Chikuho. Visiting his father is more of an adventure; his father films him with his home camera, and Masaya is left alone in a dressing room with cabaret girls who tease him.
When he goes off to Tokyo for art school, Masaya picks up many of his father’s habits: drinking, smoking, casual sex, gambling.
His mother begins running a restaurant to support him when it becomes clear that he is going to work up a debt that he ultimately can’t afford, and he plays mahjong into the night; at one point in the game, he sees himself as a boy seated across from him. From that point on, he starts to grow up, and when it is clear his mother’s health is failing, he has her come to Tokyo to live with him.
*Film line-ups and Schedules are subject to changes.
Reference : sinebuano.com
