Now in its fifth year, Toronto’s Japanese Film Festival is back with another excellent selection of recent and classic cinema hits. Expanded to include a few extra guests and even more movies, the festival runs from 8th – 28th June and will also boast an appearance by one of Japan’s best loved actors, Joe Odagiri, who will introduce both Her Love Boils Bathwater and Over the Fence.
The festival kicks off with a screening of Fueled: A Man they Called Pirate, an adaptation of the novel by Naoki Hyakuta. Inspired by real events and directed by Eternal Zero‘s Takashi Yamazaki, A Man they Called Pirate is the story of one very determined Japanese oil man who is convinced his country’s future lies in oil rather than coal and commandeers an oil tanker to sail to Iran to prove his point.
Masaharu Fukuyama stars as a jaded paparazzo rediscovering his photojournalist mojo in Hitoshi One’s oddly moving satire of the gutter press, Scoop!. Review.
Romantic dreams so often turn to nightmares, but rarely with the blood soaked fury of Keisuke Yoshida’s Himeanole.
Ai Hashimoto and Aoi Miyazaki star as a mother and daughter cruelly separated by fate in Yasuhiro Yoshida’s family melodrama, Birthday Wishes.
Part one of Norihiro Koizumi’s Karuta themed drama Chihayafuru stars three of the best up and coming Japanese actors in Suzu Hirose, Mone Kamishiraishi, and Shuhei Nomura.
Part II will also screen at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in July.
A sequel to Samurai Hustle, Samurai Hustle Returns continues in the same vein as the hapless Edo era heroes finally get home only to see it under threat from unscrupulous lords.
Rudolf the Black Cat follows its titular kitty as he finds himself lost and homeless in Tokyo after venturing outside of his native Gifu.
Inspired by the hit TV show, Master is headed to the big screen in the Midnight Diner movie which sees him take in a mysterious young girl. Review.
The second Midnight Diner movie will also be screening at the Japanese Cultural Centre Toronto during July.
Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow stars Kenichi Matsuyama in a biopic of tragic shogi player Satoshi who gave everything in the name of the game. Review.
A highlight of this year’s programme, Tai Kato’s little seen and recently restored documentary The Ondekoza was filmed over a period of two years and follows the small group of musicians who went on to create the taiko drumming style which has become so popular overseas.
A big winner at this year’s Japan Academy Prize, Her Love Boils Bathwater is another heartwarming/rending family drama from Capturing Dad director Ryota Nakano and stars Rie Miyazawa as goodhearted woman suddenly struck by tragedy. Joe Odagiri will also be attending to present the film. Review.
One of two films recently released by Nobuhiro Yamashita, Over the Fence is the third in a series of film adaptations inspired by the beautifully bleak works of Hakodate native Yasushi Sato. Joe Odagiri will also be in attendance to present the film in which he plays a recently divorced man returning to his home town but failing to start over until he meets eccentric bar girl/zoo keeper Satoshi. Review.
Haruka Ayase stars in Honnouji Hotel – a classic example of the time slip movie in which she steps into a hotel elevator only to emerge at the 16th century court of Oda Nobunaga (Shinichi Tsutsumi)!
Comedian Yo Oizumi plays an aspiring mangaka with big dreams and possibly deluded hopes who finally discovers the power of his ordinariness during the zombie apocalypse in Shinsuke Sato’s blockbuster action/comedy I am a Hero. Review.
Yoji Yamada reunites with the cast of Tokyo Family and a few more old friends for another tale of humorous family drama, What a Wonderful Family. Review.
Japan’s housing estates were once symbols of post-war aspiration but now they’re largely deserted and home only to elderly residents prepared to put up with cramped conditions, no lifts, and basic amenities. Junji Sakamoto returns with a surreal comedy satirising everything from gossipy village mentality to alien invasion in the warmhearted if wistful Danchi (AKA The Projects). Review.
Two sisters return to their family home which is about to be torn down only to find a collection of recipes left behind by their late Taiwanese mother who died twenty years before in Mitsuhito Shiraha’s food/family drama, What’s for Dinner, Mom?
Godzilla is back and bigger than ever in Hideaki Anno & Shinji Higuchi’s Shin Godzilla.
Gukoroku: Traces of Sin begins in classic thriller territory as depressed reporter Tanaka immerses himself in the still unsolved brutal murder of an “ideal” family in an effort to distance himself from his sister’s incarceration for child neglect. As might be expected he discovers a far darker trail of social inequality and the damaging effects of elitism coupled with the legacy of childhood trauma. Review.
When all the power suddenly goes off, one ordinary family is forced to flee the city in search of life on the land but how do you cope with the apocalypse when you’re used to 24hr convenience and efficient public services? Hilariously, according to Shinobu Yaguchi’s latest comedy drama, Survival Family. Review.
Another in the long line of movies focussing on samurai who fight with things other than katana, The Flower and the Sword is set in the exciting world of flower arrangement!
A sequel to the hit TV Drama, Hirugao is an old fashioned romantic melodrama in which separated lovers are reunited only to find their love story threatened by forces outside of their control. Review.
Lee Sang-il adapts another Shuichi Yoshida novel for three interconnected tales of doubt and suspicion following an unsolved, brutal Tokyo murder in Rage.
Award winning animation In this Corner of the World centres on the life of a young woman of Hiroshima towards the end of the war.
The ninja aren’t up for Oda Nobunaga’s plans to create a peaceful Japan under his control so they’re up to all their secretive tricks in Yoshihiro Nakamura’s epic jidaigeki, Mumon, The Land of Stealth.
After the festival concludes, the Japanese Cultural Centre Toronto will also be screening part II of Chihayafuyu and Midnight Diner during July as well as upcoming anime Hirune Hime: Ancient and the Magic Tablet.
The festival runs at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto from 8th to 28th June, 2017 and you can find more details about all the films, guests, and events on the festival’s official website and keep up with all the latest news via their Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Times change so quickly. The “danchi” was a symbol of post-war aspiration and rising economic prosperity as it sought to give young professionals an affordable yet modern, convenient way of life. The term itself is a little hard to translate though loosely enough just means a housing estate but unlike “The Projects” (団地, Danchi) of the title, these are generally not areas of social housing or lower class neighbourhoods but a kind of vertical village which one should never need to leave (except to go to work) as they also include all the necessary amenities for everyday life from shops and supermarkets to bars and restaurants. Nevertheless, aspirations change across generations and what was once considered a dreamlike promise of futuristic convenience now seems run down and squalid. Cramped apartments with tiny rooms, washing machines on the balconies, no lifts – young people do not see these things as convenient and so the danchi is mostly home to the older generation, downsizers, or the down on their luck.
Taiwan and Japan have a complicated history, but in SABU’s latest slice of cross-cultural interplay each place becomes a kind of refuge from the other. Working largely in Mandarin and with Taiwanese star Chang Chen, SABU returns to a familiar story – the lonely hitman tempted by a normal family life filled with peace and simplicity only to have his dreams taken from him by the spectre of his past. Only this time it isn’t just his past but that of others too. Despite the melancholy air, Mr. Long (ミスター・ロン) is a testament to the power of simple human kindness but also a condemnation of underworld cruelty and its vicelike grip on all who enter its grasp.
Tsugumi Ohba and Takashi Obata’s Death Note manga has already spawned three live action films, an acclaimed TV anime, live action TV drama, musical, and various other forms of media becoming a worldwide phenomenon in the process. A return to cinema screens was therefore inevitable – Death Note: Light up the NEW World (デスノート Light up the NEW World) positions itself as the first in a possible new strand of the ongoing franchise, casting its net wider to embrace a new, global world. Directed by Shinsuke Sato – one of the foremost blockbuster directors in Japan responsible for Gantz, 
Parks are a common feature of modern city life – a stretch of green among the grey, but it’s important to remember that there has not always been such beautiful shared space set aside for public use. Natsuki Seta’s light and breezy youth comedy, Parks (PARKS パークス), was commissioned in celebration of the centenary of the Tokyo park where the majority of the action takes place, Inokashira. Mixing early Godardian whimsy with new wave voice over and the kind of innocent adventure not seen since the Kadokawa idol days, Parks is a sometimes melancholy, wistful tribute to a place where chance meetings can define lifetimes as well as to brief yet memorable summers spent with gone but not forgotten friends doing something which seems important but which in retrospect may be trivial.
Taiwanese dark comedy crime thriller 
Needing little introduction, 
Lee Sang-il reunites with Unforgiven’s Ken Watanabe and enlists an all star cast including, Kenichi Matsuyama, Aoi Miyazaki, Chizuru Ikewaki, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Go Ayano, Mirai Moriyama, and Suzu Hirose for 
Kiki Sugino brings a modern twist to the classic tale of the 
Kyoko Miyake’s documentary 
Takashi Miike never stops! 
Playing in the Night Moves section, Dante Lam’s 
A return to the classic Hong Kong horror comedies of the past, 
When tragedy strikes the one thing you ought to be able to rely on is your family, but when the tragedy occurs within that sacred space which exits between you what is to be done? Yosuke Takeuchi’s The Sower (種をまく人, Tane wo Maku Hito) attempts to provide an answer whilst putting one very ordinary, loving and forgiving family through a series of tests and tragedies. Lies, regret, and despair conspire to ruin the lives of four once happy people but even in the midst of such a shocking, unexpected event there is still time to turn towards the sun rather than continuing in the darkness.
The eagerly awaited live action adaptation of Hirohiko Araki’s much-loved manga, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable, is to make its world premiere at the 17th Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival.
Alan Lo’s Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight in which two slackers decide to do their civic duty by saving Hong Kong from the zombie apocalypse.
Yoshihiro Nishimura’s Meatball Machine Kudoku – the latest gore fest from this notorious director is a return to the world of 2005’s Meatball Machine in which a debt collector suffering with terminal cancer is infected by the alien necroborg virus and decides to get some revenge on a cruel and unforgiving world.
Alex Cheung’s 1983 Shaw Brothers comedy Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star will also play in the festival’s outdoor sci-fi retrospective strand, Laughing in Space. This wacky outing stars Cherie Chung as a suicidal young woman who is later raped by space aliens but encounters two also suicidal private investigators who embrace the chance to let the world know about the alien threat as their way out of a desperate situation. Yes, this is a comedy.
Tsui Hark’s A Chinese Feast features in a special selection of culinary films marking Neuchâtel’s nomination for the “City of Taste” 2017. Starring Leslie Cheung, A Chinese Feast is the classic Chinese New Year movie mixing food and fun for a feel good family comedy.
Towards the end of the 60s and faced with the same problems as any other studio of the day – namely declining receipts as cinema audiences embraced television, Nikkatsu decided to spice up their already racy youth orientated output with a steady stream of sex and violence. The Roman Porno line took a loftier approach to the “pink film” – mainstream softcore pornography played in dedicated cinemas and created to a specific formula, by putting the resources of a bigger studio behind it with greater production values and acting talent. 40 years on Roman Porno is back. Kazuya Shiraishi’s Dawn of the Felines (牝猫たち, Mesunekotachi) takes inspiration from Night of the Felines by the Roman Porno master Noboru Tanaka but where Tanaka’s film is a raucous comedy following the humorous adventures of its three working girl protagonists, Shiraishi’s is a much less joyous affair as he casts his three lonely heroines adrift in Tokyo’s red light district.
Learning to love Tokyo is a kind of suicide, according to the heroine of Yuya Ishii’s love/hate letter to the Japanese capital, The Tokyo Night Sky is Always the Densest Shade of Blue (夜空はいつでも最高密度の青色だ, Yozora wa Itsudemo Saiko Mitsudo no Aoiro da). This city is a mess of contradictions, a huge sprawling metropolis filled with the anonymous masses and at the same time so tiny you can find yourself running into the same people over and over again. Inspired by the poems of Tahi Saihate, The Tokyo Night Sky is at once a meditative contemplation of city life and an awkward love story between two lost souls who somehow find each other in its crowded backstreets.
Windows on Worlds 