The Japanese Film Festival 2015 Booking Information

Home , A Letter to Momo, Chizuru Ikewaki, Daihachi Yoshida, Emi Takei, Enrai, Guilty of Romance

APRIL 2015 WWW.JFF.IE WELCOME TO THE JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL 2015

This year’s seventh edition of the Japanese Film BOOKING Festival marks the continuation of the very INFORMATION successful collaboration between the Embassy of Japan and access›cinema, with the support of the Ireland Japan Association and the Japan VENUE INFORMATION Foundation. Screenings will be held in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, and we are CORK UCD Student Centre Cinema pleased to announce that this year's Japanese Film Gate Cinema Student Centre, Belfield Festival has been expanded to include Sligo and North Main Street, Cork. Campus, Dublin 4. Dundalk, giving audiences throughout Ireland the T: (021) 427 9595 T: (01) 716 3810 chance to see Japanese films. www.corkcinemas.com www.ucd.ie/studentcentre/ This year's programme of 18 films is as varied ucdcinema as ever: highlights include Uzumasa Limelight, Triskel Christchurch a moving portrait of an elderly actor of samurai Tobin Street, Cork. Dublin City University roles facing redundancy as he is eclipsed by T: (021) 427 2022 Henry Grattan Building, DCU younger actors, and the unconventional and www.triskelartscentre.ie Campus, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. brilliantly acted love story The Light Shines Only (no advance bookings, tickets There, Japan’s official submission to the 2015 DUNDALK available only on door) Academy Awards. Audiences can also look An Táin Arts Centre forward to Tokyo Tribe, a gangsta-rap musical set T: (042) 933 2332 SLIGO amidst the warring gangs of a stylised version of www.antain.ie Sligo Institute of Technology Tokyo, already tipped to be a future cult classic Room B1201 (no advance of Japanese cinema. The Japanese Film Festival GALWAY bookings, tickets available would not be complete without a classic. This EYE Cinema Galway only on door) year’s is the highly influential Kwaidan from T: (091) 780 078 1965, a selection of four Japanese ghost stories www.eyecinema.ie WATERFORD by Lafcadio Hearn, the Irish-Greek writer known Garter Lane Arts Centre as Koizumi Yakumo in Japan where he lived for LIMERICK O’Connell Street, Waterford. many years – not to be missed if you are a fan University of Limerick T: 051 855 038 of scary movies. The Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Kemmy Business School www.garterlane.ie Gardens in Tramore, Co. Waterford are scheduled (no advance bookings, tickets to open this summer. available only on door) ADVANCE BOOKING AND As always, we hope to introduce more Japanese TICKET PRICES: films to audiences in Ireland through future DUBLIN → www.jff.ie events, and your comments and suggestions are Light House Cinema → See individual venues for always welcome. Market Square, detailed ticket prices. Smithfield, Dublin 7. → Concession available for Enjoy & Arigato! T: (01) 872 8006 students, unemployed Embassy of Japan & access>CINEMA www.lighthousecinema.ie and OAP. → Ayumi Sakamoto’s FIPRESCI prize-winning →A bittersweet quirky comedy debut is a powerful and haunting thriller about the loveable Fuku-chan, who is reminiscent of Michael Haneke’s work. too shy to speak to women.

FORMA FUKU-CHAN OF FUKUFUKU FLATS FORMA

Back at school, Ayako and Yukari past tensions remain buried? Thirty-two-year-old Tatsuo Fukuda, to fall in love all over again even used to be friends. Ten years later, Shot in a muted palette of greys, nickname “Fuku-chan” (Miyuki though she was responsible for the Ayako is an office manager, while blacks and beiges in perfect tandem Oshima), is a painter who lives in traumatizing incident that led to Yukari has a menial job on a with the colourless lives of its a run-down apartment complex his fear of women. construction site. A chance meeting protagonists, Ayumi Sakamoto’s called Fukufuku Flats. He spends — Hawaii International Film rekindles their friendship, with striking debut has a keen grasp his days working up a sweat Festival 2014 Ayako even offering Yukari a job of friendship’s grey areas and painting buildings, his nights at her company. Yet once they are linguistic cadences. As Ayumi and mediating disputes between the “An engaging bittersweet comedy colleagues, Ayako is quick to belittle Yukari’s relationship grows ever other denizens of Fukufuku Flats, pleasure, Fujita Yosuke’s Fuku-chan her supposed friend, undermining more complicated, so too does and his days off flying handmade Of FukuFuku Flats is a low-budget her at every turn while carefully the film itself, gradually leaving kites down by the riverside. film that makes the most of the preventing her aggression from its linear beginnings behind until Fuku-chan is a popular guy comedy talents of its leads with its becoming overt. As Yukari herself very little remains certain. A who treats everyone equally and mixture of slapstick humour and puts it, there’s something strange slow-burning thriller whose long, with kindness, but romance is his pathos working delightfully.” going on here. Were they really rigorously composed shots demand Achilles heel. When Chiho (his first — Screen Daily such good friends back then? How closer scrutiny: never disregard the love from junior high school) turns do teenage animosities play out in unspoken and the unseen. up twenty years later, he begins the world of work? How long can — Berlin Film Festival 2014

AYUMI SAKAMOTO (born 1981) worked documentaries and installation films. YOSUKE FUJITA (born 1963) began theatre company Otona Keikaku, before as a camera, lighting and director’s Forma is her debut feature film. making films at university, and first making his feature film debut with the assistant on films by Shinya Tsukamoto came to attention in 1987 with his Super audience favourite Fine, Totally Fine (08). and has directed music videos, 8 film A Terrible Tiger which won the His other films include Saba (09) and Grand Prize at the Turin Film Festival. He Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats (14). worked for a period with the comedy → A musical comedy, based loosely →Seven years in the making, Hiroyuki Okiura’s on ‘My Fair Lady’, and set in the second feature is a sensitive, beautiful, world of geisha. handmade animated story.

LADY MAIKO A LETTER TO MOMO

Haruko, a rosy-cheeked bumpkin, dialects, she turns her away. Maiko From anime master Hiroyuki to cause more chaos than good. arrives in Kyoto’s Shimohachiken must master the more refined Okiura (director of Jin-Roh and — Melbourne International Film district one momentous night. Her Kyoto dialect, of which Haruko is animator for Ghost in the Shell, Festival 2012 objective is to meet Momoharu totally ignorant. Akira) comes a touching, fantastical As gorgeous as Momo is (Tomoko Tabata), the only Her rescuer is Professor Kyono tale of a young girl’s grief and the to behold, the film's sensitive maiko (apprentice geisha) at the (Hiroki Hasegawa), a chaya regular three mischievous spirits sent to portrayal of a teenager dealing with Bansuraku chaya (teahouse). and professor of linguistics, who look after her. grief proves its most compelling Momoharu’s blog, with its laments sees the girl as an interesting object After the death of her father, element… With its complex about the lack of new blood in the of study. Thus begins Haruko’s Momo and her mother move characterizations and multiple geisha world (Momoharu herself maiko apprenticeship. from Tokyo to the remote island storylines, (Momo) rivals mature has been a maiko for an unseemly — Mark Schilling, The Japan Times of Shio. Here, Momo is haunted live-action drama. decade), has inspired Haruko by the discovery of an unfinished — Variety to apply at the chaya. But when “Gorgeously appointed and letter her father was writing to her the elderly proprietress, Chiharu exuberantly choreographed, this – and plagued by the presence of Winner: Grand Prize (Sumiko Fuji), discovers that the ensemble drama is a visual treat.” three heaven-sent goblins whose New York International Children girl speaks an incomprehensible — Variety bumbling efforts to protect her tend Film Festival 2012 mix of back-country Kagoshima (far south) and Tsugaru (far north)

MASAYUKI SUO (born 1956) started his Sumo Don’t (92). His other film credits HIROYUKI OKIURA (born 1966) started and Ghost in the Shell (95). In 1999 he film career as an assistant director before include Shall We Dance? (95), I Just his professional career at the age of 16 made his directing debut with Jin-Roh, finding acclaim as the screenwriter and Didn’t Do It (06) and The Terminal Trust without having received any academic written by Mamoru Oshii. A Letter to director of the award-winning Sumo Do, (12). Lady Maiko is his latest film. training. His innate talent for animation Momo is his long-awaited second film. led him to work on classics like Akira (88) → Japan’s official submission to the 2015 Oscars’ →A rare chance to see Takahata’s Best Foreign Language category is a dark but classic film on the big screen and stunningly beautiful exploration into humanity. in glorious 35mm.

THE LIGHT SHINES ONLY THERE ONLY YESTERDAY

In the grittiest fringes of Hokkaido, with unforeseen consequences. Isao Takahata’s Only Yesterday is than capable of treating serious a port town in a permanent Portraying love and grace with a gentle but poignant tale about subjects. Here he covers feminism, polluted haze, the traumatized down and dirty realism, Mipo O a 27-year-old Tokyo office worker the effect of market reforms on Tatsuo spends his days drifting solidifies her reputation as one of who embarks on a voyage of self- agriculture and inevitable loss of aimlessly and his nights drinking to Japan’s most promising directors. discovery while on holiday in the tradition, as well as adolescent oblivion. At a smoke-filled pachinko — Palm Springs International Film countryside. Flitting effortlessly concerns like boys, periods and bar, he meets Takuji, a brash blond Festival 2015 between the protagonist’s 1960s fashion. teen parolee, who impulsively childhood and 1980s present, both Lingering, light-dappled pastoral invites him to the seaside hovel he Winner: Best Director the animation and the plot are a lot shots give us plenty of time to take shares with his bedridden father, Montreal World Film Festival, 2014 less fantastical than in the works of in the delicately-rendered Japanese careworn mother and world-weary Takahata’s Ghibli co-founder Hayao landscapes, while intimate older sister Chinatsu. Miyazaki, but are none the less domestic scenes are captured with As Tatsuo and Chinatsu enchanting. carefully-constructed, Yasujiro Ozu- take tentative steps towards a As in his masterful animated war like framing. A wistful score by relationship, finding a ray of light film, Grave of the Fireflies, Takahata composer Katsu Hoshi completes in this hopeless world, the happy once again proves – albeit less the nostalgic mood. go lucky Takuji latches on to Tatsuo bleakly – that animation is more — Film 4.com

MIPO O (born 1977) studied at Osaka feature directorial debut in 2006 with ISAO TAKAHATA (born 1935) graduated colleague of Miyazaki Hayao and has University of Arts and began her The Sakais Happiness, which earned her from the University of Tokyo with a directed films including Grave of the filmmaking career by working for five the Sundance/NHK Filmmakers’ Award. degree in French literature before joining Fireflies (88), Only Yesterday (91), Pom- years as a screenplay editor for the She followed that with Here Comes Toei Animation Company. He co-founded Poko (94), My Neighbors the Yamadas director Nobuhiko Obayashi. After a The Bride, My Mom! in 2010. The Light Studio Ghibli in 1985 with long-term (99), and The Tale of Princess Kaguya (14). couple of short films, she made her Shines Only There is her third feature. → A mild-mannered bank official is corrupted →The hilarious sequel to 2012’s surprise time- by greed in this timely morality tale. travelling box office smash, Thermae Romae.

PALE MOON THERMAE ROMAE II

What tempts anyone from the are regarded with a sneaking Thanks to architect Lucius, the Having won the heart of audiences, straight and narrow? Daihachi admiration in a country that prides designer of thermal baths whose the colourful characters from Yoshida’s award-winning drama itself on conformity and keeping up creations appeased the Roman Mari Yamazaki’s hit manga series follows bank employee Rika (Rie appearances. people, Emperor Hadrianus has Thermae Romae are back in all their Miyazawa) as she casts aside An intriguing morality tale with put an end to his expansionist glory! Carried by a faithful cohort respectability to get what she really, a knock-out performance from Rie policies and found peace with his of experienced actors, Thermae really wants from life. Trading on Miyazawa. neighbours. However, the Senate Romae II doesn’t simply coast on the trust she has developed with — Glasgow Film Festival 2015 has every intention of putting world the success of its predecessor – it her elderly clients, Rika starts to domination back on the Roman surpasses it. Funnier, more grandiose embezzle large sums of money and Winner: Best Actress & Audience Empire’s agenda, and is plotting to and irreverent, this second journey has soon acquired a toy boy lover Award, Tokyo International Film seize power. It’s at the Coliseum from Ancient Rome to modern Japan and a taste for the high life. This Festival, 2014 that it maintains barbarity in the care of director Hideaki Takeuchi is cannot end well but her actions heart of its people, staging bloody frankly spectacular, making the best gladiator fights that are, much to of studio sets (a 50-metre Coliseum the chagrin of Lucius, met with replica!) as well as the beauty of thunderous applause. Moreover, Japanese locales. he is tasked with building baths for — Fantasia International Film the wounded combatants. Looking Festival 2014 for inspiration, he takes a dip… DAIHACHI YOSHIDA (born 1963) has Critics’ Week of the 60th Cannes worked as a commercial director for International Film Festival and won over eighteen years directing music the award for best new director at the videos, television drams and short 29th Yokohama Film Festival. His films HIDEKI TAKEUCHI (born 1966) has feature films Nodame Cantabile: The films. His first feature film, Funuke include The Wonderful World of Captain worked mainly as a television director Movie I (09), Nodame Cantabile: The Show Some Love, You Losers (07), Kuhio (09), Permanent Nobara (10.) making numerous dramas for Fuji TV Movie II (10), Thermae Romae (12) and was officially invited to International since 1996. He has also directed the Thermae Romae II (14). → Following the blockbuster success of the first Rurouni Kenshin installment come the long-awaited sequels: Kyoto Inferno and The Legend Ends.

RUROUNI KENSHIN: KYOTO INFERNO RUROUNI KENSHIN: THE LEGEND ENDS

At the request of the new Rurouni Kenshin – Kyoto Inferno Following on from the Rurouni nation is out for Kenshin’s head. government, Kenshin journeys is the first of two sequels that Kenshin – Kyoto Inferno cliff-hanger, In a final epic showdown, does to the old capital of Kyoto where follow the original Rurouni Kenshin Kenshin awakes to find himself Kenshin have what it takes to unrest is brewing. Awaiting him blockbuster. In Japan, Kyoto Inferno with his Master, Seijuro Hiko. defeat Shishio, or is Shishio’s sheer there is a man so formidable that hit cinemas just a month before Unable to defeat Shishio, he begs insanity just too much to handle? he was once allowed to inherit the The Legend Ends (the third and final Seijuro to teach him the ultimate — Japanese Film Festival very mantle Kenshin renounced: instalment), an unusual release technique that will vanquish Australia 2014 that of sanctioned assassin. And timeline that shows these last two Shishio and his evil plans once and as Kenshin discovers, this crazed films are best enjoyed back-to-back. for all. But to succeed, Kenshin menace possesses skills that may — Japanese Film Festival must learn how to unlock the be more than a match for his own. Australia 2014 power within. Meanwhile, Shishio has the entire government wrapped around his fingers, and the entire

KEISHI OTOMO (born 1966) graduated many TV series including The Vulture from the faculty of Law in Keio (09) and Ryomaden (10). In 2011, he University, and joined the Japan left NHK to set up his own production Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) in 1990. company. His films include Platinum In 1997, he went to study in Hollywood Data (13) and the popular Rurouni to learn script writing and film directing. Kenshin trilogy (12 – 14). He returned two years later and directed → The smash-hit anime that asks →Japan's enfant terrible is back with yet another if androids and humans can live as equals. film unlike anything you've ever seen before: a yakuza/street-gang/hip-hop musical epic.

TIME OF EVE TOKYO TRIBE

Covering territory explored by Blade in her activity log: “Are you enjoying In a futuristic, alternate-world experimental film Emperor Tomato Runner and I, Robot (with frequent the Time of Eve?” Investigating with Tokyo, the city is made up of ghetto Ketchup, John Carpenter’s Escape allusions to Asimov’s Three Laws his buddy Masaki, they discover slums and nightclub playgrounds from New York, Julien Temple’s Sex of Robotics), Time of Eve is an an enigmatic underground café, where gangs of wayward youth Pistols documentaries, the final exquisitely drawn, sci-fi allegory a robot safe-zone, where androids rule the streets. The city is carved showdown from Scarface and, of that probes questions of artificial and humans interact as equals – in up into 'hoods, and the crossing of course, West Side Story. Set to a intelligence while flirting with the apparent violation of guidelines territorial lines quickly leads to riots score of bangin’ beats and bizarre moral and personal implications of set by the all-powerful Robot and rumbles. On the turf ruled by rap lyrics, Tokyo Tribe will leave you human-robot romance. Ethics Committee. Inside the café the savage yakuza Big Buppa, the beat-boxing for more. It is the future and household distinctions between human and simmering tension is about to boil — Toronto International Film androids are becoming common. android are blurred and both seem to over into all-out war. Festival 2014 Completely lifelike and indistin- reveal layers of emotional complexity With Tokyo Tribe, Sono has Sono’s film is a loud and vibrant guishable from humans, androids not apparent in the outside world. crafted a cinematic melting pot of assault on the senses, sometimes are programmed to serve with — New York International Film madness referencing everything crass, often violent, and always able devotion – so it is no wonder that Festival 2011 from Walter Hill’s The Warriors and to take you completely by surprise. Rikuo begins to have unsettling Streets of Fire to Shûji Terayama’s — BFI London Film Festival 2014 feelings towards his android Sammy, With thanks to All The Anime legendary feelings heightened when he www.alltheanime.com discovers a curious phrase recorded

YASUHIRO YOSHIURA (born 1980) winning the Original Video Animations SION SONO (born 1961) began making Cold Fish (10), Guilty of Romance (11), began making animations as a student, prize at the 2010 Tokyo Anime Awards. 8mm films while attending Hosei University. Himizu (11), The Land of Hope (12) and releasing his first DVD animation, Pale An enthusiastic participant in all phases His feature films include Suicide Club (01), Why Don't You Play in Hell? (13). Tokyo Cocoon, in 2006. His six-part Time of of the production process, he is a bright Strange Circus (05), Love Exposure (08), Tribe (14) is his latest feature. Eve series was an internet hit in 2009, new star in the anime firmament. which won the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlin, → A moving drama about the men →An underachieving teen tries his hand who featured in the golden age of at forestry in this coming-of-age Japanese samurai films. comedy drama.

UZUMASA LIMELIGHT WOOD JOB! WOOD JOB!

A moving, nostalgic portrait of spectacular death on screen. Now Yuki Hirano (Shota Sometani), an civilization, convenience stores the men behind the golden age of an elderly man, Kamiyama lives ordinary 18-year-old high school and mobile phone coverage. chanbara (sword-fighting dramas very modestly but has earned graduate, fails his university There, he meets Iida (Hideaki and films), Uzumasa Limelight immense respect from his peers, entrance exams. Finding himself Ito), a combination of mountain goes behind the scenes of the some of them movie stars. When without a job or anything much boy scout, dreamboat, handyman distinctive film genre for which the studio where he works decides in the way of career prospects, he and wildman. Alongside Iida, Japan is famous. to discontinue its chanbara abruptly decides to leave the city life Yuki learns and grows to love the A professional extra named productions, Kamiyama finds behind, prompted by a brochure Thoreau-like lifestyle in the woods Kamiyama (real-life kirare-yaku himself at a loss. with a dishy girl on the cover and he finds himself embracing Seizo Fukumoto) has devoted 50 Hope arrives in the form of (Masami Nagasawa) that advertises the dream of forging a fresh green years of his life as a kirare-yaku in a young girl named Satsuki, a one-year forestry program. life – and finding the girl from the sword-fighting movies produced at who soon becomes Kamiyama's He winds up in Kamusari, a brochure. Kyoto's Uzumasa Studios. A master disciple. Will the art of dying by the backwater village nestled deep — Japan Cuts Festival 2014 of the art, he lives to die – or more sword live on? in the mountains, far beyond exactly “to be cut” – and show a — The New York Festival of beautiful, Contemporary Japanese Cinema 2014

KEN OCHIAI (born 1983) made his first American Film Institute with a Master SHINOBU YAGUCHI (born 1967) studied for comedy films that usually focus on film at age 12. He left Tokyo after high of Fine Arts in Directing. His directorial graphic design at the Tokyo University coming of age stories or aspects of school to pursue a filmmaking career in debut was Tiger Mask (13) based on a of Art and Design. He directed his first contemporary Japanese life. His films the USA, graduating from the University of Japanese manga series and produced by feature film, Down the Drain, in 1993. include Waterboys (01), Swing Girls (04), Southern California’s School of Cinematic Toshiaki Nakazawa (Departures). Uzumasa Since then he has become best known Happy Flight (08) and Wood Job! (14). Arts with a BA in Production and the Limelight is his second feature. DUBLIN FILM CRITICS SPECIAL CIRCLE AT THE JAPANESE JAPAN FOUNDATION EVENTS FILM FESTIVAL 2015 DISCOVERY

Established in 2006, The Dublin Film The Japanese Film Festival is delighted to Critics Circle offers the country’s full- present screenings of four award-winning time professional movie reviewers an Japanese ﬁlms from the Japan Foundation opportunity to pool opinions on recent Film Library which have been chosen for releases, consider movie heritage and their diverse representation of past and whinge about each other’s shortcomings. present Japan. The highlight is the classic This year, for the third time, a jury horror ﬁlm KWAIDAN (1965), nominated representing the DFCC including for Best Foreign Language Film at the members Daniel Anderson (Clickonline. 1966 Academy Awards and winner of com), Tara Brady (Irish Times), Brogen the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Hayes (movies.ie) and Nicola Timmins Film Festival. (Average Film Reviews) will name their selections for Best Film and Best Anime at The 7th Japanese Film Festival. → A special ticket price applies to these screenings. GUEST SPEAKERS TARA BRADY writes for The Irish Times and is chairperson of The Dublin Film Critics Circle. Tara will introduce the Dublin screening of Kwaidan on Thursday April 23rd.

JONATHAN CLEMENTS is the author of Anime: A History and the co-author of The Anime Encyclopedia: A Century of Japanese Animation. Jonathan will be with us in Dublin between Saturday April 18th and Sunday April 19th to introduce the anime ﬁlms. → A rare archive screening of the classic →This heart-warming ﬁlm about 1965 Japanese ghost story in luminous 35mm. following your dreams is also a love letter to Japan’s train system.

KWAIDAN RAILWAYS RAILWAYS 49

A swordsman is soon sorry to of abstraction and cool distance hangs A movie about realising your Exactly the same age as the have left his devoted first wife. over every chapter and adds to the dream before it’s too late, Railways character he plays, veteran Kiichi A woodcutter meets a snow witch. viewer’s sense of unease. Kobayashi’s is also a love letter to the simple Nakai turns in an effortless A blind musician sings for the interest in the supernatural is never life and the romantic attraction of performance as the workaholic royal court. Faces appear in a cup about jump-scares. It is, rather, old rural train services. Yoshinari father who decides it’s time to of tea. Working from a quartet of guided by a keen sense of mortality. Nishikori directs with an utter indulge himself a little, and he's Lafcadio Hearn's atmospheric folk A welcome dusting down of a simplicity, free of any heart-tugging well supported by Yuika Motokariyu tales, director Kobayashi fashioned criminally overlooked masterpiece. or rose-tinted spectacles. The flat (Swing Girls) as his initially grouchy a spectacular and uncanny — Tara Brady, The Irish Times landscape of Shimane prefecture, daughter and a host of older anthology film. with the trains rattling along by character actors. The absence of Lavish costumes and Takemitsu's Film critic Tara Brady will introduce the sea, is naturally caught by music until the very last minutes seductively spooky score enhance the the Kwaidan screening at the Light Hiroo Yanagida’s clean widescreen also helps Railways to avoid being sumptuous visuals. A strange sense House Cinema photography, and hardly anything the rote Japanese heart-warmer – apart from minor dramas it could so easily have become. involving the protagonist’s dying — Film Business Asia mother – is allowed to disturb MASAKI KOBAYASHI’S (born 1916) Seppuku, arguably his masterpiece, the film's pleasant, sunny tenor. early career at Shochiku Studios was deconstructed the myths associated with interrupted when he was drafted into bushido; it won the Special Jury Prize at the army and sent to Manchuria. Years Cannes in 1963. He won again with the YOSHINARI NISHIKORI (born 1962) for You (99), The White Ship (02), Miracle spent in a POW camp intensified his spooky Kwaidan in 1965. Kobayashi may began acting in high school and initially Banana (05), Un, Nan? (08), Railways (10) already pacifist tendencies. His second be a harder sell for western viewers than, harboured ambitions to direct for the stage. and Konshin (12). His ability of capturing feature, Thick Walled Rooms, a drama say, Kenji Mizoguchi, but he demands His wrote and directed his first film Bugs everyday-life atmosphere with delicate concerning war criminals, was delayed to be mentioned in the same breath as in 1996. He has also directed Will Be There images has been highly acclaimed. for four years for fear of offending Kurosawa. American authorities. The controversial →A recession-hit town beats the blues by →A life-affirming depiction of a woman’s reinstating their tug of war competition, relationship with her brilliant but self-destructive only this time with female participants. writer husband in post-war Tokyo.

TUG OF WAR! VILLON’S WIFE

In a bid to save his city from a insists women from a threatened An all-star cast enacts a story, husband. To pay off his debts, she recession, the mayor of Oita city en- local catering co-operative take part distilled from seven of acclaimed starts working at a pub, where she lists Chiaki Nishikawa (Mao Inoue) if he is to consider saving their novelist Dazai Osamu’s works, in wins the favor of Okada, a young from the city’s public relations factory. this literary drama released on the fan of Otani’s, and the lawyer Tsuji, department to run a campaign to Inspired by a true story, Tug of 100th anniversary of the birth of whom she had a crush on in the stimulate the local economy and War! is the “heart-warming tale” of the novelist. Set in the chaotic post past. But Otani surges with jealousy bring vibrancy back to the town. how seven ordinary women band war period, the film explores the at the sight of the newly confident A one-time Olympic sport, together to try and revitalise their tumultuous relationship between a and popular Sachi. Struggling with tug-of-war was once beloved in local community, forming firm hard-drinking, promiscuous writer his writing as well, he attempts a to Oita, where a male team had much friendships along the way. and his beautiful, upstanding, and change his life in a dramatic way. success (the city in the past was — Mark Adams, Screen International devoted wife. For Villon’s Wife, Negishi won won the tug-of-war world champi- While raising a young son, the best director award at the 33rd onship three times). But the mayor Sachi, the wife of the popular writer Montreal World Film Festival. Otani, struggles to contain the — Festival Japan 2012, Canadian damage wrought by her profligate Film Institute

NOBUO MIZUTA (born 1958) joined NTV (14). He made his feature film debut in KICHITARO NEGISHI (born 1950) started Best Director award. His other films in 1981 working initially as producer on 2006 with Hanada Shonenshi the Movie: working at the Nikkatsu studio in 1978. include What the Snow Brings (05), Dog TV dramas. He has directed many TV Spirits and the Secret Tunnel. His other In 1981 he made his feature film debut in a Sidecar (07) and Villon’s Wife (09). shows including Mother (10), Tokkan films include Maiko Haaaan!!! (07) and proper with Enrai, which won many (12), Woman (13) and Mosaic Japan The Apology King (13). prizes including a Mainichi Blue Ribbon SCHEDULE CORK DUBLIN THE GATE CINEMA LIGHT HOUSE CINEMA Mon April 13 Thermae Romae II 18:45 Wed April 15 Thermae Romae II 21:15 Tue April 14 Uzumasa Limelight 18:45 Thu April 16 Pale Moon 18:00 Wed April 15 Lady Maiko 18:45 Lady Maiko 21:00 Thu April 16 The Light Shines Only There 18:45 Fri April 17 Uzumasa Limelight 18:00 Fri April 17 Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno 15:45 Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno 20:15 Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends 18:45 Tokyo Tribe 22:50 Tokyo Tribe 23.30 Sat April 18 Wood Job! 11:00 Sat April 18 Pale Moon 18:45 The Light Shines Only There 13:15 Time of Eve 23:30 A Letter to Momo 15:30 Only Yesterday 18:00 TRISKEL CHRISTCHURCH Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends 20:15 Sun April 19 A Letter to Momo 18:00 Sun April 19 Time of Eve 16:00 Mon April 20 Wood Job! 18:00 Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats 18:15 Tue April 21 Forma 18:00 Forma 20:15 Wed April 22 Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats 18:00 Mon April 20 Railways 18:00 Tue April 21 Tug of War 18:00 GALWAY Wed April 22 Villon’s Wife 18:00 EYE CINEMA Thu April 23 Kwaidan 18:00 Sun April 12 Thermae Romae II 19:00 The Light Shines Only There 21:00 UCD STUDENT CENTRE CINEMA Mon April 13 Wood Job! 19:00 Thu April 16 Tokyo Tribe 20.30 Tue April 14 Pale Moon 19:00 Wed April 15 Lady Maiko 19:00 DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY Thu April 16 A Letter to Momo 19:00 Mon April 13 A Letter to Momo 18:15

LIMERICK WATERFORD UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK GARTER LANE ARTS CENTRE Wed April 8 A Letter to Momo 18:00 Thu April 16 A Letter to Momo 19:30 Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats 20:00 Fri April 17 Uzumasa Limelight 19:30 Sat April 18 Kwaidan 19:30 DUNDALK AN TÁIN ARTS CENTRE SLIGO Sat April 18 A Letter to Momo 18:00 SLIGO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Uzumasa Limelight 20:30 Thu April 9 A Letter to Momo 12:30 Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats 18:00 PLEASE NOTE: → All ﬁlms are in Japanese with English subtitles EXPERIENCE JAPAN

Established in January 2010, Experience Japan aims to celebrate, share and promote Japan as well as Japanese-Irish culture and heritage in Dublin and throughout Ireland. It marks the longstanding historical and warm relations which exist between our countries and peoples. Experience Japan is proud to be associated with the 7th Japanese Film Festival.

Experience Japan events have their highlight during Hanami when a day-long festival is held in the beautiful parkland surrounds of Farmleigh. Hanami or ‘ﬂower viewing’ is the renowned Japanese custom of enjoying the beauty of sakura or ‘cherry blossoms’ in spring. Crowds of family and friends come together for outdoor parties to welcome the new season and celebrate the beauty of nature.

This year, Experience Japan's main festival day will be held on Sunday 12th April at Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park. Events will include martial arts, taiko drum performances, origami and craft workshops and Cosplay fashions framed with traditional Kimono displays. Activities are family-oriented and mostly free of charge.

For more information see: www.experiencejapan.ie WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING FOR THEIR SUPPORT

→ FOR FURTHER DETAILS PLEASE SEE WWW.JFF.IE