It’s the time of year when the Japanese Film Festival in Australia rolls around again, this year for the twentieth time!
The hardworking JFF crew have released their festival dates for all six cities, plus their initial slate of films, with more info to come as we get closer to the dates. The schedule looks like this:
- Canberra: 14-23 Oct
- Adelaide: 21-30 Oct
- Brisbane: 26-30 Oct
- Perth: 2-6 Nov
- Sydney: 17-27 Nov
- Melbourne: 24 Nov-4 Dec
The initial crop of films they’ve listed on the JFF website includes 24 features, from two-part karuta competition drama Chihayafuru (based on the manga series) to rom-com Wolf Girl and Black Prince. Also in the list are Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest mystery pic Creepy, which I imagine does what it says on the tin.
Chihayafuru Part I
As well as the mainstream screenings, there is an excellent series of eight free classics programmed, showing in Sydney (at the Art Gallery) and Melbourne (at ACMI). This year the spotlight is on independent directors Tadashi Imai and Kaneto Shindo — the films are:
A Story from Echigo (1964, 16mm)
Blue Mountains (1949, 35mm)
Blue Mountains 2 (1949, 35mm)
Bushido: Samurai Saga (1963, 35mm)
Children of Hiroshima (1952, 35mm)
Mother (1963, 35mm)
Onibaba (1964, 35mm)
Yuki–Snow Fairy (1981, 16mm, animated)
More details on the festival can be found at the JFF website, or their Facebook page!