Japanese Film Fest returns online

THE JAPANESE Film Festival (JFF) returns this year with a virtual edition, featuring 20 films depicting Japanese culture across different time periods.

The online film festival runs from Feb. 14 to 27 through its online website, .

In March last, the film festival was held in a mixed physical and online setup. This year it will be held purely online. Formerly known as Eiga Sai, the festival — which has iterations in other Southeast Asian countries, India, Russia, and Australia — was rebranded as the Japanese Film Festival.

According to the film festival’s website, the first online film festival, called JFF Plus: Online Festival 2020-2021, recorded more than 220,000 views from 20 countries worldwide.

“Films have intangible impacts on our society. We watch films to be entertained, to be educated, to escape from the humdrums of daily life, and to travel beyond space and time,” Ben Suzuki, director of the Japan Foundation Manila, said at an online press conference on Feb. 8.

Mr. Suzuki added that “films are a powerful vehicle for cultural exchange and bilateral relations” and “strengthen ties between Japan and the Philippines through moving images.”

“We are working to expand our activities to the world from both the physical and online perspectives,” JFF producer of Japan Foundation Tokyo Masafumi Konomi said, speaking through an interpreter.

This year’s film festival lineup includes Japanese drama, comedy, animation, thriller, documentaries, and classics.

The dramas are: Takafumi Hatano’s Ozland (2018); Yuichiro Hirakawa’s Until the Break of Dawn (2012); Yukiko Mishima’s Bread of Happiness (2012); Satoko Yokohama’s Ito (2021); Takeshi Furusawa’s ReLIFE (2017); Yukiko Sode’s Aristocrats (2021); Miwa Nishikawa’s Under the Open Sky (2021); Soushi Matsumoto’s It’s a Summer Film! (2021); Ryota Nakano’s Her Love Boils Bathwater (2016); Shuichi Okita’s The Chef of South Polar (2009); and Atsuhiro Yamada’s Awake (2020).

The documentaries are Takashi Innami’s The God of Ramen (2013), and Eiji Sakata’s SUMODO: The Successors of Samurai (2020). The animated films are Yasuhiro Yoshiura’s Time of EVE the Movie (2010); and Patema Inverted (2013). The period dramas are Isshin Inudo and Shinji Higuch’s The Floating Castle (2012); and Haruki Kadokawa’s Mio’s Cookbook (2020).

The other films are Hisashi Kimura’s thriller Masked Ward (2020); Shinobu Yaguchi’s comedy Happy Flight (2008); and Akira Kurosawa’s classic Rashomon (1950).

The films have subtitles in Arabic, Burmese, Central Khmer, English, German, Hungarian, Korean, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, and Vietnamese. Each film will be on view for 48 hours upon its premiere.

In addition to the film screenings, there will be online discussions under the heading “Let’s Talk about Japanese Films!” These will be available to interested participants even outside the Philippines. Joining the discussion are film professionals who will talk about the influences of Japanese cinema in the Philippines. The first online discussion, “Your Guide to Japanese Films,” will be held on Feb. 14, 2-4 p.m.; while the second discussion, “Inside the World of JFF 2022 Films,” will be on Feb. 22, 5-7 p.m.

Details on the films, and registration to the online discussions are available on the JFF+ portal website (). For more information, visit and Facebook. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman