Tag: Nippon Connection 2024

Nippon Connection, the largest showcase for Japanese cinema anywhere in the world, returns with another fantastic selection of new and classic films screening in Frankfurt from 28th May 2nd June. This year’s Nippon Rising Star Award will go to Kotone Furukawa whose films Best Wishes for All, Secret:A Hidden Score, and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy will also be screening.

NIPPON CINEMA

• (Ab)normal Desire – drama directed by Yoshiyuki Kishi following those who feel their desires place them at odds with mainstream society.
• 18×2 Beyond Youthful Days – nostalgic drama from Michihito Fujii in which a man travels to Japan from Taiwan in search of the woman he worked with in a karaoke bar 18 years previously.
• All The Long Nights – gentle drama from Sho Miyake in which a pair of co-workers bond over their respective difficulties in the workplace.
• Best Wishes To All – a visit to her grandparents’ home forces a young woman to reckon with the price of “happiness” in Yuta Shimotsu’s eerie indie horror. Review.
• Dreaming In Between – latest from Ryutaro Ninomiya (One Day You Will Reach the Sea) in which a medical issue unknown to those around him causes changes in a teacher’s behaviour.
• Fly Me To The Saitama -FROM BIWA LAKE WITH LOVE – long-awaited sequel to the surreal 2019 comedy.
• From The End Of The World – charged with the responsibility of saving the world, a teenage girl wonders if she should in Kazuaki Kiriya’s pre-apocalyptic drama. Review.
• God Seeks In Return – genre mashup from Keisuke Yoshida in which a YouTuber seeking fame teams up with an events manager.
• Ichiko – psychological thriller from Akihiro Toda (The Name) revolving around a woman’s absence.
• KUBI – Nobunaga-themed jidaigeki from Takeshi Kitano.
• Kyrie – musical drama from Shunji Iwai.
• Let’s Go Karaoke! – musicial comedy from Nobuhiro Yamashita in which a teenage boy is forced to help a yakuza win a karaoke competition.
• missing – heartrending drama in which the parents of a missing little girl turn to the media for help.
• Penalty Loop – sci-fi drama in which a man becomes trapped in a time loop after taking revenge for his girlfriend’s murder.
• PERFECT DAYS – laidback drama from Wim Wenders revolving around a man who cleans toilets for a living.
• Ripples – A middle-aged woman becomes a devotee of a strange cult in order to restore order to her life in Naoko Ogigami’s quirky dramedy. Review.
• Secret: A Hidden Score – remake of the Taiwanese tragic romance.
• Takano Tofu – A sudden brush with mortality convinces an ageing tofu maker to marry off his middle-aged daughter in Mitsuhiro Mihara’s charming dramedy. Review.
• Die Tänzerin (The Dancing Girl) – 1989 German-Japanese co-produced adaptation of Mori Ogai’s The Dancing Girl. Screening in original German version.
• Die Tochter des Samurai – 1937 German co-production in which the son of a samurai family returns home changed after studying in Germany.
• We’re Millennials. Got A Problem?: The Movie – comedy from Nobuo Mizuta (The Apology King) in which a slacker son’s family sake business, not to mention his marriage, is on the rocks.
• Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy – a series of chance meetings and a healthy dose of fantasy lead a collection of wounded souls towards a kind of liberation in Hamaguchi’s whimsical triptych. Review.
• The Yin Yang Master Zero – fantasy film set in the Heian era in which a magic student and nobleman team up to investigate a conspiracy.
• YOKO – an isolated woman begins to rediscover herself while hitchhiking to her estranged father’s funeral in Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s quietly moving road movie. Review.

NIPPON ANIMATION

• BLUE GIANT – a passionate jazz musician’s intensity wins over new converts to a dying art in Yuzuru Tachikawa’s transcendental animation. Review.
• The Concierge – charming animation following a young woman who works in a department store catering to animals thought to be extinct.
• Little Nemo – Abenteuer im Schlummerland – classic 1989 animation in which a little boy travels to slumberland to rescue King Morpheus. Screening in in the German dubbed version.
• PHOENIX: Reminiscence Of Flower – visually stunning adaptation of an episode from Tezuka’s Phoenix in which a young couple want to start a new life together only for one to die and the other transported to a distant future.
• Sumikkogurashi: The Patched-Up Toy Factory In The Woods – latest in the charming series of animated adventures for the much loved San-X characters.
• Totto-Chan: The Little Girl At The Window – poignant animation in which a young girl is sent to a progressive school on the eve of the war.
• The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes – a pair of teenagers search for a way out of their mutual anxieties while exploring a mysterious tunnel in Tomohisa Taguchi’s animated sci-fi romance. Review.

NIPPON VISIONS

• ABYSS – drama from Ren Sudo in which a man develops a relationship with a guy from his brother’s funeral.
• Alien’s Daydream – surreal comedy in which a reporter investigates alien abductions in the local area.
• Belonging – indie drama from Kahori Higashi in which the deceased are reincarnated as inanimate objects.
• Hijacked Youth – Dare To Stop Us 2 – sequel to the 2018 drama set in Nagoya in 1983 as Koji Wakamatsu decides to open a cinema.
• HOYAMAN – he tranquil island life of a pair of brothers is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious woman in Teruaki Shoji’s quirky comedy. Review.
• Inch Forward – an indie filmmaker experiences various setbacks while trying to complete her latest film in Su Yu-Chun’s cheerful dramedy. Review.
• LONESOME VACATION – roadtrip drama in which a rockabilly private eye is tasked with investigating his the former lover of his girlfriend’s father.
• Psychic Vision: Jaganrei – classic horror from 1988 in which it’s discovered the author of a hit pop song has been dead for several years.
• PushPause – a small hotel becomes a refuge for those “struggling with the everyday” in Ryoma Kosasa’s heartwarming drama. Review.
• Qualia – bitter family drama in which a chicken farmer’s wife faces constant humiliation.
• SEPTEMBER 1923 – drama revolving around the pogrom against Koreans in the wake of the 1923 Kanto earthquake.
• Visitors –Complete Edition– – drama set during the outbreak of a demon plague.

NIPPON DOCS

• Arirang Rhapsody – documentary from Korean-Japanese filmmaker Kim Sungwoong (My Aniversaries) focussing on those who were forcibly relocated to Japan during the colonial era.
• AUM: The Cult At The End Of The World – documentary focussing on the rise of the Aum Shinrikyo cult.
• FROM OKINAWA WITH LOVE – documentary focussing on photographer Mao Ishikawa worked in the bars frequented by GIs in Okinawa in the 1970s.
• HAPPY SANDWICH – documentary following a chef who sets off across Okinawa in search of the perfect sandwich.
• Johatsu – Into Thin Air – documentary exploring the phenomenon of people voluntarily going missing.
• Predator: The Secret Scandal Of J-Pop – BBC documentary exploring the rumours of sexual abuse surrounding the late pop mogul Johnny Kitagawa.
• SHUNGA: The Lost Japanese Erotica – documentary exploring the pornographic artwork from the Edo era.
• The J-Horror Virus – documentary focussing on the horror films of the 1990s.
• The Making Of A Japanese – documentary focussing on a primary school over a year.
• This Magic Moment – documentary focussing Japan’s mini theatres.
• What Should We Have Done? – personal documentary exploring the indifference of the filmmaker’s family to his sister’s untreated schizophrenia.

NIPPON RETRO

• The Bad Sleep Well – Akira Kurosawa’s 1960 Shakespearean revenge tale. Review.
• The Black Test Car – Yasuzo Masumura’s tale of corporate espionage.
• Dragnet Girl – classic 1930s crime drama from Yasujiro Ozu.
• Pale Flower – Masahiro Shinoda’s nihilistic New Wave 1964 crime drama.
• Stakeout – Yoshitaro Nomura’s 1958 noir classic in which a policeman’s marital dilemma is played out by the melancholy suspect he is sent to surveil.
• Take Aim At The Police Van – early Seijun Suzuki film in which a prison warden uncovers a network of corruption.
• Youth Of The Beast – a stranger in town provokes a gang war in Seijun Suzuki’s 1963 crime drama.

Nippon Connection takes place in Frankfurt, Germany from 28th May to 2nd June. Tickets are available now via the official website where you can also find full details on all the films as well as timetabling information. Unless otherwise stated, films screen in Japanese with English subtitles. You can keep up with all the latest information by following the festival on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Flickr, and Instagram.