A fan of foreign film festivals, I am always on the look-out for their presence here in Cebu. After the French Film Festival in June, August presents the 2011 Eiga Sai - Japanese Film Festival. Taking place on August 2-7, 2011 in Ayala Center Cebu (Cinema 4), here are the following reels to look forward to. Feel free to join me in the excitement :)
August 2 (Tuesday) 7pm
The Chef of South Polar (125 mins)
Synopsis: A heart-warming comedy based on the famous essay written by a chef who went to the South Pole in 1997. The film depicts with humor the hilarious and touching story about a meal and the South Pole experienced by an 8 men research team dispatched at Dome Fuji Station in Antarctica. The station is 1,000km away from the Antarctic coast, wherein neither animals nor viruses to survive. Mr. Nishimura is a chef of the team. He misses his family in Japan, but he always tries to make a delicious meal everyday to make the research team members happy. But, without being able to procure fresh supplies, maintaining variety in the daily menu is a Herculean task. The team is comprised of a Captain who is addicted much to ramen, the Doctor, Moto-san who he himself tries to train to participate in a triathlon event when he returns back to Japan, and the other young support members wherein Nishimura had to push himself to a great length to keep the table filled with delectable meals. Several unique characters have to live together for one and a half years. How would life be in the South Pole?
August 3 (Wednesday) 7pm
Climber’s High (145 mins)
Synopsis: The film was based on the Japanese bestseller novel by Hideo Yokoyama who was inspired by actual events and took him 17 years to complete. It is a story of a press reporter who finds the meaning of life through his experiences of news reporting and mountain climbing. On August 12, 1985, a jumbo jet crashed; out of the 524 passengers, there were only 4 survivors, making the incident the biggest single-plane tragedy in the world. The local press reporters are tossed about by the waves of facts and rumors. While overwhelmed by the magnitude of the accident, Yuuki, in charge of this crash report at a local newspaper, faces a string of decisionmaking moments. How should a man do his work and survive in a corporate hierarchy? What do family and friends mean to him? An intriguing story, which keeps the audience on the edge of tension and reality.
August 4 (Thursday) 7pm
Yunagi City, Sakura Country (118 mins)
Hiroshima and Tokyo, 1958-2007
Synopsis: The film was based on a manga comic by Fumiyo Kono, portraying the tragedy that the atomic bomb carries beyond generations depicting the viewpoint of two women in two-frame stories, one from the past and the other from the present day. Thirteen years after the bombing
incident in Hiroshima. Hirano Minami feels happiness when her colleague, Uchikoshi expresses his love for her. However, the incident has brought her sickness resulting from her exposure to atomic bomb and the pain of that emotional scar also returns. Nanami (Rena Tanaka), the leading female character in the contemporary part of the film, is the daughter of Minami’s brother, Asahi (Masaaki Sakai), who had evacuated to Ibaraki Prefecture when Hiroshima was bombed. Nanami, an ordinary 28-year-old, follows her father who travels to Hiroshima secretly had no idea about her dad’s past or the existence of her late aunts. Through her father’s conduct, she finds out what the family has been carrying as well as her aunt Minami’s haunting experience. This prompts Nanami to reflect on the ensuing devastation experienced by the Hiroshima people and their descendants in contemporary time and the value of peace.
August 5 (Friday) 7pm
Villon’s Wife (114 mins)
Synopsis: An all-star cast enacts a story distilled from seven of Dazai Osamu’s works, in a literary drama released on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the novelist. The relationship between a hard-drinking, promiscuous writer and his beautiful, upstanding, and devoted wife brings the various forms of love between men and women into relief. While raising a young son, Sachi(Matsu Takako), the wife of the popular writer Otani (Asano Tadanobu), struggles to contain the damage wrought by her profligate husband. To pay off his debts, she starts working at a pub, where she wins the favor of Okada (Tsumabuki Satoshi), a young fan of Otani’s, and the lawyer Tsuji (Tsutsumi Shinichi), who she had a crush on in the past. But Otani surges with jealousy at the sight of the newly confident and popular Sachi. Struggling with his writing as well, he attempts a love-suicide with his lover Akiko (Hirosue Ryoko).
August 6 (Saturday) 1:30pm
The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones (139 mins) 1:30 PM
Synopsis: “If no one tries, there will never be a path.”
In 1907, a band of men challenged Japan’s last unconquered mountain, in order to complete a map of their nation. Mt. Tsurugidake, located in Tateyama mountain range in the Northern Alps in Toyama Prefecture, stands 2999m above sea level, and is renowned as a difficult mountain. Since the beginning of historical records, it has been designated as the “God” for those engaged in mountain Asceticism-Shamanism and sometimes referred as “Needle Mountain” or “Mountain of Death” for its inaccessibility. Shibasaki, renowned for his skills as a surveyor, is suddenly called to General Headquarters of the army, where he receives orders to conquer Mt. Tsurugidake, the last uncharted region of Japan. At the time, the survey unit, attached to General Headquarters, was in the process of charting Japan and had already created maps after triangulation of numerous mountain peaks. The unit has climbed almost all the mountains in the country with the exception of Tsurugidake, climbing of which was prohibited for religious reasons. Moreover, shortly after its inauguration, the Japan Alpine Club was already planning to tackle Tsurugidake and the survey unit could not be seen to lose out to a civilian organization. After receiving his orders, Shibasaki tackles the challenge of reaching the peak of Tsurugidake together with Chojiro, a local guide of good character familiar with the Tsurugidake area. Can they achieve the daunting task of crossing the precipitous mountain range and planting the survey records?
August 6 (Saturday) 4:30pm
Summer Days with Coo (1:38 mins)
Setting: Edo-period and present-day suburban Tokyo; Tono and Kamaishi in Iwate Prefecture, Okinawa
Synopsis: Coo is a kappa, a tiny amphibious creature with a dish-shaped skull. He lives in a swamp near Edo, the former name of Tokyo. There are rumors that the humans plan to drain the swamp for their own purposes, and Coo’s father confronts a human samurai on the road one night to beg him to reconsider the plan. He brings the samurai a fish as a present, but the samurai is afraid of him and cuts him to pieces. Coo runs away, but just then an earthquake strikes and Coo falls into a crevice, where he is buried alive. Hundreds of years later, Uehara Koichi finds Coo’s dried body which looks like an unusual looking stone in a riverbed, and brings it home. When he washes the stone, a kappa (legendary water-based creature) comes out of the stone. Coo regains his strength and starts living with the Uehara family. Coo and the family dog Ossan (“old man”) are able to communicate telepathically, and Ossan tells Coo about his own life; word about Coo has spread like wildfire. Finally, when there is no other option but to satisfy the masses, Yasuo agrees to bring Coo onto a daytime talk show. A scholar named Shimizu Sumio appears with them. Shimizu has long theorized that kappa really exists, and he has an extraordinary reason for doing so; the severed arm of a kappa has been passed down in his family from generation to generation. Coo recognizes it as his own father’s arm; Shimizu’s samurai ancestor killed Coo’s father. Traumatized, Coo shatters the looming television cameras. He runs through the studio until he is picked up by Ossan, who carries him outside and down the street. They are hit by a passing car, sending Coo flying and fatally injuring Ossan. Coo uses his telekinetic power to explode a vulture hovering over Ossan’s body, and begins to climb Tokyo Tower with his father’s arm in his mouth. Coo considers suicide, but the sudden appearance of a dark dragonshaped cloud convinces him that it is not his time yet. After he returns to the Ueharas’ home, Coo receives a letter from one of his own kind inviting him to come and live with him. Coo decides to accept the offer. Although Coo and Koichi are separated physically, the strong bond between the two remains.
August 6 (Saturday) 7:30pm
One Million Yen Girl (121 mins)
Synopsis: The film story focuses on 21 year old Suzuko who gets into trouble with her coworkers from part time job and ends up in jail. Coming out of the jail, living with her parents seems like no longer an option. She takes on a various job: cleaning office, delivering newspapers, and saves up a million yen to embark on a journey. She finds herself in a seaside resort and starts working as a part-time staff at a guest house. A local boy falls for her, but she has promised herself to leave for another town once she saves up a million yen. To this aim, Suzuko works as hard as possible and saves the money. As she moves from town to town, she touches upon people’s kindness, and gradually matures. At a regional town, Suzuko meets Nakajima, her coworker at a gardening shop and a college student who is gentle and sweet. They fall in love. But when Nakajima hears of Suzuko’s rule to skip town once she saves up a million yen, a chasm begins to grow deeper.
August 7 (Sunday) 1:30pm
Your Friend (125 mins)
Synopsis: Nakahara, a writer visits a free school in a small city for his research on children who have problem such as school refusal. At the school, he meets Emi, a volunteering college student who has lame leg. Emi is called “Ms. Puffy” by the children because she always takes pictures of clouds. Interested in this girl, Nakahara asks her to be interviewed, but in vain. However, Emi has gradually changed her mind towards Nakahara when he comes to the school many times and evokes sympathetic responses from the children. Then she answers his questions and tells him about her own childhood. When she was a 5th grade pupil, Emi suffered a car accident. Since then, she made barrier from her surroundings. On the other hand, Yuka was in delicate health and set someone off from her peers too. Emi became friends with Yuka and they nurtured a precious friendship. The two girls were left out in the cold but they spent peaceful and happy days together away from bullying classmates. At the present day, having made an intense relationship with Yuka, Emi encourages gently the children who are suffering from their own weakness. Gradually the story of loss she experienced and which brought her such gentleness is revealed.
August 7 (Sunday) 4:30pm
Summer Days with Coo (1:38 mins)
August 7 (Sunday) 7:30pm
Feel the Wind (133 mins)
Synopsis: Based on the work of the same title by Naoki Prize winning novelist Miura Shion, this film portrays a makeshift group of ten athletes from a fledgling track club as they aim for the Hakone Ekiden (relay marathon)—a dream event for long distance student runners. Kakeru (Hayashi Kento), a super talented runner in high school who nevertheless quit the sports world to attend the up-and-coming Kansei University, finds himself being manipulated by the school running captain, fourth year student Haiji (Koide Keisuke), to move into the dormitory for the members of the running team. Already living there are such characters as manga freak Prince(Nakamura Yuichi), Musa (Dante Carver) who is an African exchange student with no experience in track and field, and chainsmoker Nico-chan (Kawamura Yosuke), who failed a year of school. Although they are all amateur runners who are only living there due to affordable housing, Haiji plans to enroll them in the Hakone Ekiden.
