Camera Japan
Festival 2014 / カメラジャパン・フェスティバル２０１４
2-5 October,
LantarenVenster, Rotterdam
6-9 October, De Melkweg, Amsterdam
10-12
October, Kriterion, Amsterdam
Check out the schedule for more details.
CAMERA JAPAN,
the Netherlands’ annual celebration of Japanese film and culture, is back for
its 9th year. The organisers have selected 43 films from
the past year’s bumper crop of Japanese films.
The films will be accompanied by lectures, exhibitions, live
performances, a Film Brunch, a Kids’ Day and, of course, a range of Japanese
delicacies for filmgoers to enjoy.
Most of the
films are Dutch premieres and many have been the recipients of awards both in
Japan and abroad. The thriller Forma
by debut female filmmaker Ayumi Sakamoto
received the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlinale in February. The lovely film The Tale of Iya by young director Tetsuichiro Tsuta won a Special Mention at the Tokyo International
Film Festival last year and went on to win prizes at Tromsø, Pan Asia, and Hong
Kong. Azuma Morisaki’s Pecoross’
Mother and Her Days has been very popular with both audiences and critics.
Many Japanese film critics named it the best film of 2013 and it went on to win
Best Film at the the Kinema Junpo Awards and the Nippon
Cinema Award for audience favourite at Nippon Connection 2014, among other
plaudits. Ken Ochiai’s nostalgic look back at the golden age of chanbara (sword-fighting dramas) Uzumasa Limelight recently won the
Cheval Noir prize at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal.
The festival
opens in Rotterdam on Thursday, October 2nd with Sang-il Lee’s jidaigeki remake of the Clint
Eastwood western Unforgiven. It stars Ken Watanabe as a former samurai on the run in the wilds of 19th
century Hokkaido. Under the heading of J-Dream, this year’s CAMERA JAPAN plans
to “[shine] its light on all that is weird, wondrous and fantastic. . . The theme programme is a wide and wild
selection of exploitation, action, horror, fantasy and science fiction.” The J-Dream programme includes 16 films such
as the intimate documentary Love Hotel by Phil Cox and Hikaru Toda, the Midnight
Madness winner Why Don’t You Play in
Hell? by Sion Sono, and the much
talked about The Apology King by Nobuo Mizuta, in which comedian Sadao Abe solves small and big problems
as a specialist in the traditional act of apologising.
I highly
recommend the animation programme, which features Katsuhiro Otomo’s award-winning Short
Peace (ショート・ピース, 2013) – read my reviews of Shuhei Morita’s Possessions
and Otomo’s Combustible
to learn more. There are also two
programmes of Geidai (Tokyo University of the Arts) animation – one for
kids (read about Mari Miyazawa’s
Twins
in the Bakery) and one is a must-see selection of their best
works by students. I have written
reviews for many of these films, so click on the film titles to learn more:
In A
Pig’s Eye, WADA Atsushi, Japan 2010, 11 min
A
Gum Boy, OKUDA Masaki, Japan 2010, 4 min
Writings Fly
Away, ORIKASA Ryo, Japan 2011, 14 min
A Wind Egg,
OKAWARA Ryo, Japan 2012, 11 min
Sunset
Flower Blooming, HU Yuanyuan, Japan 2012, 11 min
The
Sakuramoto Broom Workshop, TSUGEHATA Aya, Japan 2012, 10 min
Maze King, KIM Hakyun, Japan 2013, 7 min
It’s
Time For Supper, MURAMOTO Saki, Japan 2013, 9 min
00:08, KUBO
Yutaro, Japan 2014, 6 min
My Milk
Cup Cow, ZHU Yantong, Japan 2014, 11 min
Here is the
full line-up of films to be screened:
anime
Bayonetta:
Bloody Fate (ベヨネッタ ブラッディフェイト,
Fuminori KIZAKI, 2013)
Geidai
Animation Kids Selection
Geidai
Animation Best Selection
Roujin Z (老人Z, Hiroyuki KITAKUBO, 1991)
Short Peace
(ショート・ピース, Katsuhiro OTOMO, Shuhei MORITA, Hiroaki ANDO,
Hajime KATOKI, 2013) - read my reviews of Possessions
and Combustible
documentary
 |
| Tale of a Butcher Shop (ある精肉店のはなし, Aya HANABUSA, Japan, 2013) |
Beyond
Metabolism (Stefanie Gaus/Volker Sattel, Germany, 2014)
Get Action!!
(Junya KONDO, Japan, 2014)
Hybrid (MMAドキュメンタリー HYBRID, Japan, Daishi MATSUNAGA, 2013)
Love Hotel (Phil
COX / Hikaru TODA, UK/France, 2014)
Super local
hero (スーパーローカルヒーロー, Toshinori TANAKA, Japan, 2014)
Tale of a
Butcher Shop (ある精肉店のはなし, Aya HANABUSA, Japan, 2013)
feature film
 |
| Friendship (友達, Mikihiro ENDO, 2013) |
And the Mud
Ship Sails Away (そして泥船はゆく, Hirobumi WATANABE, 2013)
The Apology
King (謝罪の王様, Nobuo MIZUTA, 2013)
Broken
Pieces (こっぱみじん, Yuji TAJIRI, 2014)
Capturing
Dad (チチを撮りに, Ryota NAKANO, 2012)
The Crazy
tune for Maria (マリア狂騒曲, Kishu IZUCHI, 2013)
Dancing
Karate Kid (琉球バトルロワイアル, Tsukasa KISHIMOTO, 2013)
Danger Dolls
(少女は異世界で戦った, Shusuke KANEKO, 2014)
Forma (Ayumi
SAKAMOTO, 2013)
Friendship (友達, Mikihiro ENDO, 2013)
Fuku-chan of
Fukufuku Flats (福福荘の福ちゃん, Yosuke FUJITA, Japan/UK/Italy/Taiwan/Germany , 2014)
Greatful
Dead (グレイトフルデッド, Eiji UCHIDA, 2013)
High Kick
Angels (ハイキック・エンジェルス, Kazuhiro YOKOYAMA, 2014)
Jossy’s (女子ーズ, Yuichi FUKUDA, 2014)
Kanagawa
University of Fine Arts: Office of Film Research (神奈川芸術大学映像学科研究室, Yuichiro SAKASHITA, 2013)
Kept (ら, Maki MIZUI, 2013)
Kids Return:
The Reunion (キッズ・リターン 再会の時, Hiroshi SHIMIZU, 2013)
Leaving on the
15th Spring (旅立ちの島唄~十五の春~, Yasuhiro YOSHIDA, 2012)
The Little
House (小さいおうち, Yoji YAMADA, 2014)
Live (ライヴ, Noboru IGUCHI, 2014)
Ningen (Guillaume
GIOVANNETTI / Çağla ZENCIRCI, Japan/Turkey/France, 2013)
Pecoross'
mother and her days (ペコロスの母に会いに行く, Azuma MORISAKI, 2013)
Short Hope (ショートホープ, Masaki HORIGUCHI, 2014)
The Snow
White Murder Case (白ゆき姫殺人事件, Yoshihiro NAKAMURA, 2014)
Still the
Water (2つ目の窓, Naomi KAWASE, 2014)
The Tale of
Iya (祖谷物語 -おくのひと, Tetsuichiro TSUTA, 2013)
Unforgiven (許されざる者, Sang-Il LEE, 2013)
Uzumasa
Limelight (太秦ライムライト, Ken OCHIAI, 2013)
Why Don’t
You Play in Hell? (地獄でなぜ悪い, Sion SONO, 2013)
Zentai (ゼンタイ, Ryosuke HASHIGUCHI, 2013)
short film
Fantastic
Shorts
- The Lust of Angels, a take on 1960s
political exploitation films, Ninja
Theory (Extended Edition), a puppet animation about the daily life of
ninjas in a peaceful world, and At the
Last Stop Called Ghost Chimney, about a girl taking the on her last day of
school.
Keblujara (ケブルジャラ, 2013/14)
- 4
experimental shorts by Akihito NONOWE, Isao SANO, and Konoka TAKASHIRO
New
Directions in Japanese Cinema: NDJC shorts
Serori (Pedro
COLLANTES, The Netherlands/Spain/Japan, 2014)
Short Shorts
Film Festival (a selection from SSFF)
Catherine
Munroe Hotes 2014
