Now Showing May 12

In 2007, Japan’s Pia Film Festival – an organization that prides itself on helping to unearth new film making talent – awarded Yuya Ishii their Grand Prize for his work entitled ‘Bare-assed Japan’ – a work which went on to win Yuya both the Edward Yang New Talent Award at the 2008 Asian Film Awards (an award ceremony that could be viewed as Asia’s version of the Academy Awards) and praise from various film festivals worldwide. Two years later, this 26-year-old star director is once again stirring up excitement in the film industry, both inside and outside of Japan, with the release of his first mainstream film, ‘Sawako Decides’.

After five years spent living in Tokyo, Sawako – a young woman who is miserable at work, unlucky in love and generally feels that her life has become nothing more than a kind of ongoing ‘compromise’ – reluctantly decides to return to her hometown after her father, who runs a local freshwater clam processing plant, suddenly falls seriously ill.

Sawako – who had her reasons for leaving in the first place – is greeted with contempt by the local townspeople, who consider her to be nothing more than an ungrateful daughter who ran away from home. When it falls to Sawako to continue her father’s work at the plant, she is greeted with yet more hostility by the women working there part-time. Compounding her troubles further still is her boyfriend Kenichi, who, along with his daughter from a previous marriage, has followed her from Tokyo. Driven to the end of her tether, she decides, for the first time in her life of compromise, to confront her problems head on.

Playing the role of Sawako is up-and-coming Japanese actress Hikari Mitsushima, who, in line with the various awards she received for her role in Love Exposure in 2009, brings this modern-day young woman to life with yet another outstanding performance.

In an age where it’s often difficult for people to hold on to their hopes and dreams, by portraying various endearing characters of different ages and walks of life who endeavour to overcome their adversities the film is both a reminder of life’s loveable quirks and an ideal opportunity to give a little thought to our own lives and potential.

Sawako Decides

Japan, 2009
Japanese title: Kawa no Soko kara Konnichiwa
Opened: Sat May 1
Director: Yuya Ishii
Cast: Hikari Mitsushima, Masashi Endo, Kotaro Shiga, Ryo Iwamatsu
Distributor: Euro Space
Website: kawasoko.com/

Christopher Columbus, The Enigma

A film by Manoel de Oliveira (a director who’s over 100 years old) about a doctor and his wife who have spent a lifetime trying to discover the true identity of Christopher Columbus.

Portugal/France, 2007
Japanese title: Columbus, Eien no Umi
Original title: Cristóvão Colombo - O Enigma
Opened: Sat May 1
Director: Manoel de Oliveira
Cast: Ricardo Trêpa, Leonor Baldaque
Distributor: Alcine Terran
Website: www.alcine-terran.com/umi/

Little Tadpoles Search for Mother

A tribute to the opening of the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, this part of a set of screenings of animations that centre on works painted in ink. The main film in the collection is the beautifully crafted and well-renowned masterpiece ‘Little Tadpoles Search for Mother’.

China, 1960
Japanese title: Otamajakushi ga Kaasan wo Sagasu
Original title: 小蝌蚪找媽媽 (xiaokedou zhao mama)
Opened: Sat May 1
Director: Te Wei
Distributor: Wako/Guapa Guapo
Theatre: K's cinema www.ks-cinema.com/

Scope

A hard-hitting, emotional love story about a young sex offender who, after atoning for his sins, falls in love with a young lady who has a hearing impediment.

Japan, 2010
Opened: Sat May 1
Director, writer, editor: Atsushi Urabe
Cast: Koyuu Kanakura, Inori Imamura, Genta Morisaki
Distributor: Uplink
Website: www.film-scope.com/

King of Thorn

When placed in extreme circumstances, how will humans react? Created by the same team that brought us ‘Steamboy’ and ‘Freedom’, ‘King of Thorn’ is an animation set in the future and focuses on a group of people who awaken to a world full of monsters after being cryogenically frozen for an unknown period of time.

Japan, 2010
Opened: Sat May 1
Director/Writer: Kazuyoshi Katayama
Cast (voice): Kana Hanazawa, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Eri Sendai, Sayaka Ohara
Distributor: Kadokawa Pictures
Website: www.kingofthorn.net/en/ (English)

Zebraman: Vengeful Zebra City

A sequel to the 2004 production in which Shou Aikawa reprises his role as Zebraman to battle evil adversaries who are planning to take over the world. Set in Zebra City, approximately 25 years after the events that took place in the first film, this time there is also an interesting twist – Zebraman has lost his memory.

Japan, 2010
Opened: Sat May 1
Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Shou Aikawa, Riisa Naka, Tsuyoshi Abe, Masahiro Inoue
Distributor: Toei
Website: www.zeb2.jp/