In celebration of film

ONE OF ASIA’S biggest movie celebrations, the Tokyo International Film Festival wrapped last Saturday having treated 63,700 cinephiles to 207 works from around the world, among them two Thai titles.
Bryan Singer, president of the jury, awarded the Tokyo Grand Prix to the Brazilian film “Nise: Heart of Madness” by Roberto Berliner, a former documentary maker turned feature film director. Gloria Pires, who portrays Nise da Silveira, a crusading doctor in a Rio psychiatric hospital, also won Best Actress.
Kheiron, the French comedian turned director received the Special Jury Prize for “All Three of Us”, which tells the story of his own father, a political activist in Iran. Best Director Award went to Mustafa Kara, the Turkish director whose “Cold of Kalander” had its world premiere in the festival.
Roland Moller and Louis Hoffman won Best Actor for the war drama “Land of Mine”, while Degena Yun from China won the Japan Foundation Asia Centre’s Spirit of Asia Award and Hiroshi Shoji picked up Best Picture Award in the Japanese Cinema Splash section for his film “Ken and Kazu”.
It was a good year for Thai cinema in Tokyo with Kongdej Jaturanrasmee’s film “Snap” showing in the main competition and Pimpaka Towira’s “The Island Funeral” bringing home top prize in the Asian Future competition, the first Thai film to win an award in the festival. While “Snap” came home empty handed, Yoshi Yatabe, the programme director, was full of praise for what he called “a beautiful film”.
“Kongdej is one of the most creative Thai directors. He changes his filmmaking style every time. Not only it is a love story, but in the background, we can see the political situation of the country which adds another layer of meaning to the film,” Yatabe said.
This year’s event featured many interesting programmes, among them Crosscut Asia, the special project supported by the Japan Foundation under which a showcase of Asian films on specific themes are to be presented every year until 2020. This year, Crosscut Asia focused on Philippines cinema, screening five works of Brillante Mendoza, including his latest “Trap”, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
“The team from the festival came to the Philippines last year to discuss the programme. I didn’t expect the level of audience anticipation though. Usually, the audience leaves right after the screening but this time almost all of them stayed for the Q&A. The interaction between me and the audience was great. They really wanted to know about the film and my filmmaking process,” said a delighted Mendoza.
“We have wanted to feature the Philippines cinema for many years. There are many active young and independent filmmakers coming up through the ranks so it’s a good opportunity to show Philippines films”, said Kenji Ishizaka, programming director of the Asian Future and Crosscut Asia sections.
“There are many ways to come up with the selection. We can show commercial films or focus on only independent films, The time I decided to focus on the works of Brillante Mendoza and independent filmmakers. I hope to introduce Asian films to the Japanese market and use this programme as a platform to extend the quality of Asian film to the world.”
Other highlights of the festival included a screening of the restored 4K version of Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran”, which opened the festival in 1985. Another Kurosawa film, 1945’s“They Who Step on the Tiger’s Tail” was also screened at the Kabukiza theatre along with by a special Kabuki performance by Kataoka Ainosuke, one of the country’s leading performers.
Yasushi Shiina, the director general of the Tokyo International Film Festival, is working to turn the event into a more international showcase.
 “I want the festival to be known by more people. Today we have many more theatres and this has boosted audience numbers. I want the festival to become a major platform for exchanges among people in the industry. And I want more people from abroad to come to Japan during festival time. My dream is see stars and directors from all over the world hanging around here”, Shiina said.