Can’t stand waiting until the end of the year for your fix of new Japanese cinema? The Japanese Film Festival in Australia has announced a new off-season program called JFF Fringe 2018, which features four contemporary Japanese films to be screened once only over the period of 30 May – 29 August 2018 at Sydney’s Event Cinemas George St and Event Cinemas Brisbane City Myer Centre. Four films will form the backbone of the program as we eagerly await another season of JFF goodness.
The beautifully hand-drawn animation IN THIS CORNER OF THE WORLD is a realistic and moving film that won the Japan Academy Prize 2017 for Best Animation. An animated war film where the conflict is kept in the background, allowing a moving microscopic view of how it impacts people on the fringes. Aesthetically beautiful, it uses lead character Suzu’s artist eye to give an impressionistic view of events. Comparable to Studio Ghibli’s best. In our review, we concluded that it was “a gorgeously drawn testament to the endurance of hope in adversity.”
Lightening the mood is the live-action gag-comedy GINTAMA (銀魂), set in an alternate universe where feudal Japan is occupied by aliens. You may have caught this briefly in cinemas earlier this year, especially if you love the anime/manga that it is based on. Gintoki Sakata (Shun Oguri) is an outlaw samurai, and together with Shinpachi (Masaki Suda) and the beautiful Kaguya (Kanna Hashimoto), they have a series of encounters and fight people. It’s not that complex. Definitely one to see in preparation for the forthcoming Gintama 2!
Present meets past in the Australian premiere of HONNOUJI HOTEL (本能寺ホテル), an entertaining period film with a fantasy twist from the director of Princess Toyotomi and Hero. Mayuko, a young woman who lacks direction in life, checks into a mysterious hotel in Kyoto. The unlikely combination of a music box, a local sweet and the hotel elevator transports her back in time where she meets the infamous warlord Nobunaga Oda and his young page.
A sold-out film at JFF 2016, THE LONG EXCUSE (永い言い訳) is an introspective family drama exploring realistic human connections.
Tickets on sale at participating Event Cinemas box offices and online. Don’t miss out on this chance to catch-up with some of the most popular Japanese films of the last few years in an actual cinema. The chance doesn’t come along that often in Australia.
