35TH TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
TIFF Expands Lineup and Venues in Fully Physical Return
Venue(s): Hibiya-Yurakucho-Ginza areaOctober 24 (Mon) - November 2 (Wed), 2022 Details: https://2022.tiff-jp.net/en/schedule/
Language: Japanese (and other languages) with English (and Japanese) subtitles
Official website: 2022.tiff-jp.net/en/
Theater website: 2022.tiff-jp.net/en/access/
Tariff: Various; See the online ticket site.
Advance tickets: https://2022.tiff-jp.net/en/ticket/ If sold out online, the box office has day-of sales
Talk event: Many in person — check TIFF’s website for all the details.
Title: 第35回東京国際映画祭 (Dai 35 Kai Tokyo Kokusai Eigasai)
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is settling very nicely into its newish home at the center of cinema-land, with expanded venues and events in the Yurakucho-Hibiya-Marunouchi-Ginza area, an increased international presence, and the revival of its once vaunted Kurosawa Akira Award. In his second year at the creative helm, Programming Director Shozo Ichiyama is rolling out over 100 films across nine main sections, as well as co-hosting a 30th anniversary tribute to beloved Malaysian auteur Tsai Ming-Liang with the festival he founded and led, Tokyo FILMeX. TIFF screenings will all be held physically, with strict Covid-19 safety measures in place, from October 24 – November 2.
As always, the complete lineup is subtitled in English. There will be ample Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and stars (with English interpretation available), and a range of talk events concerning the current and future state of global filmmaking (mostly without English interpretation). We urge you to explore the full lineup, since there are many, many non-Japanese films not to be missed — although you’ll be hard-pressed to find tickets for hot titles like Noah Baumbach’s White Noise or Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling.
Opening film
FRAGMENTS OF THE LAST WILL
Fragments of the Last Will, ラーゲリより愛を込めて
Director: Takahisa Zeze, 134min
©2022“Fragments of the Last Will”Film Partners ©1989 SHIMIZU Kyoko
This year’s Opening and Closing films are also hot tickets: The Kazunari Ninomiya starrer Fragments of the Last Will, a fact-based melodrama about a Japanese POW stuck in a Siberian gulag, and the Bill Nighy-starring Living, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Ikiru, about a mid-level functionary with a fatal disease, who makes the very utmost of his final months. The “re-imagining” is set in post-WWII Britain, and the script was written by Nobel Prizewinner Kazuo Ishiguro.
Closing film
LIVING
Living, 生きる
Director: Oliver Hermanus, 103min
©Number 9 Films Living Limited
Competition
An international jury led by creative genius Julie Taymor (The Lion King) will be selecting winners from among the International Competition lineup, which includes 15 films, 8 of them world premieres, selected from among 1,695 submissions from 42 countries and regions. An unprecedent three of the titles are from Japan: by the window by Rikiya Imaizumi, Egoist by Daishi Matsunaga, and Mountain Woman by Takeshi Fukunaga.
BY THE WINDOW
by the window, 窓辺にて
Director: Rikiya Imaizumi, 143min
©2022 "by the window " Film Partners
Imaizumi is a TIFF mainstay and was last seen in TIFF competition with Just Only Love (2019). In his 17th feature (!!), by the window, former SMAP megastar Goro Inagaki plays a writer whose busy editor wife is cheating on him (and just when he was feeling guilty about keeping his best friend’s affair from the man’s wife!). This sends him on a ruminative journey with a 17-year-old literary award winner — but does not go at all where one fears it may.
EGOIST
Egoist, エゴイスト
Director: Daishi Matsunaga, 120min
©Makoto Takayama, Shogakukan/TokyoTheatres Co.,Inc.,NIKKATSU CORPORATION,RIGHTS CUBE Inc.,ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Daishi Matsunaga returns to TIFF with his first Competition film, Egoist, based on Makoto Takayama’s autobiographical novel. A profoundly moving story of romantic and maternal love, it features two major stars, Ryohei Suzuki and Hio Miyazawa, in explicit sex scenes. Despite tugging at the heartstrings, it completely manages to sidestep melodrama, and offers a beautifully humanist depiction of LGBTQ relationships.
MOUNTAIN WOMAN
Mountain Woman, 山女
Director: Takeshi Fukunaga, 100min
©YAMAONNA FILM COMMITTEE
Takeshi Fukunaga, who lived in New York for many years and directed his 2015 debut Out of My Hand there, makes his TIFF debut with Mountain Woman, based on a Japanese folk tale. Set in the late 18th century in the shadows of Mt. Hayachine, Tohoku, it tells the story of Rin (Anna Yamada), whose village is suffering from a famine. Forced to take the fall for her father (Masatoshi Nagase), she journeys into the shadows and enters the domain of the spirits.
Asian Future
TIFF’s Asian Future is a 10-film competitive section that features work from up-and-coming Asian directors, and there are two Japanese films this year, both world premieres.
I AI
i ai
Director: MahiTo The People, 118min
©2022 i ai FILM PARTNERS
Do not miss the unusual debut i ai by MahiTo The People. The filmmaker is a longtime musician, novelist and antiwar demonstration organizer, and his film focuses on a freeter who meets a charismatic musician (played by Mirai Moriyama) who prompts him to start playing music himself. But when he’s found his calling, things take an unexpected turn.
Gala Selection
There are also Japanese films in the Gala Selection, which premieres the latest films ahead of their Japanese releases.
Of the five titles, an astounding three are by director Ryuichi Hiroki (Vibrator). Perhaps the most interesting is his sometimes candy-colored adaptation of a controversial novel by Minato Kanae (Confessions), Motherhood. It stars a terrific Erika Toda and Mei Nagano as a mother and daughter who do not see eye to eye about anything, least of all the latter’s death. Told in a cleverly intricate she said/she said format, the intense drama of love and hate rakes just about every character through the coals.
MOTHERHOOD
Motherhood, 母性
Director: Ryuichi Hiroki, 116min
©2022 “MOTHERHOOD” FILM PARTNERS
Nippon Cinema Now
The Nippon Cinema Now section, inaugurated last year to replace the previous Japanese Cinema Splash and Japan Now sections, features 9 films that have already been released, as well as upcoming releases. Among the most highly recommended films in the section are:
I AM A COMEDIAN
I AM A COMEDIAN, アイ アム ア コメディアン
Director: Fumiari Hyuga, 108min
©Hyuga Fumiari
I Am a Comedian, the latest documentary by Fumiari Hyuga (Tokyo Kurds), follows a popular Japanese comedian named Daisuke Murato, who began losing gigs due to the overtly political content of his routines. He once appeared on hundreds of TV shows, but is gradually banished altogether, labeled a troublemaker. The film follows him as he tries to get back on track. It received the Special Jury Prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival and is sure to be widely shown.
LIGHTNING OVER THE BEYOND
Lightning Over the Beyond, 彼方の閃光
Director: Yoshihiro Hanno, 169min
©2022 Lightning Over the Beyond Film Partners
Acclaimed composer-turned-director Yoshihiro Hanno’s Lightning Over the Beyond, kept closely under wraps, is sure to be as sumptuous and unique as his first two films, A Woman Wavering in the Rain and Paradise Next. Shot in Okinawa and Nagasaki in mostly black and white, the film focuses on war — its past, present and future — as well as on the roots of cinema, and contains LGBTQ themes. Hanno’s cast includes fan favorite Shogen (Gensan Punch), Sonny Chiba’s younger son, Gordon Maeda (Tokyo Revengers), Hiroyuki Ikeuchi and Masaya Kato.
IN HER ROOM
In Her Room, ひとりぼっちじゃない
Director: Chihiro Ito, 136min
©In Her Room Film Partners
In Her Room, Chihiro Ito’s feature directing debut, is based on her own novel. Ito is a successful screenwriter, having penned the scripts for Isao Yukisada’s megahit tearjerker Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (he is credited as her producer here), Spring Snow and Sky Crawlers, among others. Here, she tells the story of an awkward young dentist who meets a mysterious woman who seems to be toying with his affections.
The Nippon Cinema Now Director in Focus, co-organized by the National Film Archive, features two early works by filmmaker Shinji Aoyama (1964-2022), an acclaimed indie icon who served on last year’s TIFF jury. If you haven’t seen his masterpiece Eureka (2000) recently, here’s your chance to remind yourself of its power.
For fans of anime, and we know you are legion, the Japanese Animation Section will feature the usual recent releases of, like Hiroyasu Ishida’s Drifting Home and Tomoyuki Kurokawa’s Break of Dawn, but we’re most anticipating the Animation and Tokyo symposia, in which a range of creators will examine how anime has depicted Tokyo and how it’s changed from the 1980's to 2010's.
Finally, if you’re looking for something a bit more old-school, look no further than the Japanese Classics section, which this year features such highlights as the 4K digitally remastered Typhoon Club (1985, Shinji Somai) and The Guard from Underground (1992, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) — but beware, they are sadly not English subbed.
Koji Fukada
Another Japan-related highlight of the festival is the revival, after 14 years, of TIFF’s Kurosawa Akira Award, which honors the renowned auteur’s legacy and ongoing influence. The award is presented to filmmakers who are making extraordinary contributions to world cinema and are expected to help define the film industry’s future. This year, the award is being presented to two filmmakers: Alejandro Iñárritu, whose latest film Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, is Mexico’s Academy Awards submission and will play in Tokyo’s Gala selection; and TIFF stalwart Koji Fukada, for a filmmaking career that includes Love Life and Harmonium but also recognizes his contributions to the film industry as a whole. For years, Fukada has led the Independent Cinema Guild, which he cofounded, to help nurture and educate emerging filmmakers. During the depths of the Covid pandemic, he helped rescue arthouse theaters through a crowdfunding initiative. He is also leading a much-needed anti-harassment (power and sexual) effort within the film industry
Teruyo Nogami
©TIFF 2015
In tandem with the Kurosawa Akira Award, TIFF’s lifetime achievement award will go to longtime Kurosawa collaborator Teruyo Nogami. Behind every great man is a great woman, and Nogami stood by him from Rashomon in 1950 all the way to his final film, Madadayo in 1993. This award is long overdue.
TIFF theaters in Hibiya, Yurakucho, Ginza
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is settling very nicely into its newish home at the center of cinema-land, with expanded venues and events in the Yurakucho-Hibiya-Marunouchi-Ginza area, an increased international presence, and the revival of its once vaunted Kurosawa Akira Award. In his second year at the creative helm, Programming Director Shozo Ichiyama is rolling out over 100 films across nine main sections, as well as co-hosting a 30th anniversary tribute to beloved Malaysian auteur Tsai Ming-Liang with the festival he founded and led, Tokyo FILMeX. TIFF screenings will all be held physically, with strict Covid-19 safety measures in place, from October 24 – November 2.
As always, the complete lineup is subtitled in English. There will be ample Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and stars (with English interpretation available), and a range of talk events concerning the current and future state of global filmmaking (mostly without English interpretation). We urge you to explore the full lineup, since there are many, many non-Japanese films not to be missed — although you’ll be hard-pressed to find tickets for hot titles like Noah Baumbach’s White Noise or Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling.
Opening film
FRAGMENTS OF THE LAST WILL
Fragments of the Last Will, ラーゲリより愛を込めて
Director: Takahisa Zeze, 134min
©2022“Fragments of the Last Will”Film Partners ©1989 SHIMIZU Kyoko
This year’s Opening and Closing films are also hot tickets: The Kazunari Ninomiya starrer Fragments of the Last Will, a fact-based melodrama about a Japanese POW stuck in a Siberian gulag, and the Bill Nighy-starring Living, a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece Ikiru, about a mid-level functionary with a fatal disease, who makes the very utmost of his final months. The “re-imagining” is set in post-WWII Britain, and the script was written by Nobel Prizewinner Kazuo Ishiguro.
Closing film
LIVING
Living, 生きる
Director: Oliver Hermanus, 103min
©Number 9 Films Living Limited
Competition
An international jury led by creative genius Julie Taymor (The Lion King) will be selecting winners from among the International Competition lineup, which includes 15 films, 8 of them world premieres, selected from among 1,695 submissions from 42 countries and regions. An unprecedent three of the titles are from Japan: by the window by Rikiya Imaizumi, Egoist by Daishi Matsunaga, and Mountain Woman by Takeshi Fukunaga.
BY THE WINDOW
by the window, 窓辺にて
Director: Rikiya Imaizumi, 143min
©2022 "by the window " Film Partners
Imaizumi is a TIFF mainstay and was last seen in TIFF competition with Just Only Love (2019). In his 17th feature (!!), by the window, former SMAP megastar Goro Inagaki plays a writer whose busy editor wife is cheating on him (and just when he was feeling guilty about keeping his best friend’s affair from the man’s wife!). This sends him on a ruminative journey with a 17-year-old literary award winner — but does not go at all where one fears it may.
EGOIST
Egoist, エゴイスト
Director: Daishi Matsunaga, 120min
©Makoto Takayama, Shogakukan/TokyoTheatres Co.,Inc.,NIKKATSU CORPORATION,RIGHTS CUBE Inc.,ROBOT COMMUNICATIONS INC.
Daishi Matsunaga returns to TIFF with his first Competition film, Egoist, based on Makoto Takayama’s autobiographical novel. A profoundly moving story of romantic and maternal love, it features two major stars, Ryohei Suzuki and Hio Miyazawa, in explicit sex scenes. Despite tugging at the heartstrings, it completely manages to sidestep melodrama, and offers a beautifully humanist depiction of LGBTQ relationships.
MOUNTAIN WOMAN
Mountain Woman, 山女
Director: Takeshi Fukunaga, 100min
©YAMAONNA FILM COMMITTEE
Takeshi Fukunaga, who lived in New York for many years and directed his 2015 debut Out of My Hand there, makes his TIFF debut with Mountain Woman, based on a Japanese folk tale. Set in the late 18th century in the shadows of Mt. Hayachine, Tohoku, it tells the story of Rin (Anna Yamada), whose village is suffering from a famine. Forced to take the fall for her father (Masatoshi Nagase), she journeys into the shadows and enters the domain of the spirits.
Asian Future
TIFF’s Asian Future is a 10-film competitive section that features work from up-and-coming Asian directors, and there are two Japanese films this year, both world premieres.
I AI
i ai
Director: MahiTo The People, 118min
©2022 i ai FILM PARTNERS
Do not miss the unusual debut i ai by MahiTo The People. The filmmaker is a longtime musician, novelist and antiwar demonstration organizer, and his film focuses on a freeter who meets a charismatic musician (played by Mirai Moriyama) who prompts him to start playing music himself. But when he’s found his calling, things take an unexpected turn.
Gala Selection
There are also Japanese films in the Gala Selection, which premieres the latest films ahead of their Japanese releases.
Of the five titles, an astounding three are by director Ryuichi Hiroki (Vibrator). Perhaps the most interesting is his sometimes candy-colored adaptation of a controversial novel by Minato Kanae (Confessions), Motherhood. It stars a terrific Erika Toda and Mei Nagano as a mother and daughter who do not see eye to eye about anything, least of all the latter’s death. Told in a cleverly intricate she said/she said format, the intense drama of love and hate rakes just about every character through the coals.
MOTHERHOOD
Motherhood, 母性
Director: Ryuichi Hiroki, 116min
©2022 “MOTHERHOOD” FILM PARTNERS
Nippon Cinema Now
The Nippon Cinema Now section, inaugurated last year to replace the previous Japanese Cinema Splash and Japan Now sections, features 9 films that have already been released, as well as upcoming releases. Among the most highly recommended films in the section are:
I AM A COMEDIAN
I AM A COMEDIAN, アイ アム ア コメディアン
Director: Fumiari Hyuga, 108min
©Hyuga Fumiari
I Am a Comedian, the latest documentary by Fumiari Hyuga (Tokyo Kurds), follows a popular Japanese comedian named Daisuke Murato, who began losing gigs due to the overtly political content of his routines. He once appeared on hundreds of TV shows, but is gradually banished altogether, labeled a troublemaker. The film follows him as he tries to get back on track. It received the Special Jury Prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival and is sure to be widely shown.
LIGHTNING OVER THE BEYOND
Lightning Over the Beyond, 彼方の閃光
Director: Yoshihiro Hanno, 169min
©2022 Lightning Over the Beyond Film Partners
Acclaimed composer-turned-director Yoshihiro Hanno’s Lightning Over the Beyond, kept closely under wraps, is sure to be as sumptuous and unique as his first two films, A Woman Wavering in the Rain and Paradise Next. Shot in Okinawa and Nagasaki in mostly black and white, the film focuses on war — its past, present and future — as well as on the roots of cinema, and contains LGBTQ themes. Hanno’s cast includes fan favorite Shogen (Gensan Punch), Sonny Chiba’s younger son, Gordon Maeda (Tokyo Revengers), Hiroyuki Ikeuchi and Masaya Kato.
IN HER ROOM
In Her Room, ひとりぼっちじゃない
Director: Chihiro Ito, 136min
©In Her Room Film Partners
In Her Room, Chihiro Ito’s feature directing debut, is based on her own novel. Ito is a successful screenwriter, having penned the scripts for Isao Yukisada’s megahit tearjerker Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (he is credited as her producer here), Spring Snow and Sky Crawlers, among others. Here, she tells the story of an awkward young dentist who meets a mysterious woman who seems to be toying with his affections.
The Nippon Cinema Now Director in Focus, co-organized by the National Film Archive, features two early works by filmmaker Shinji Aoyama (1964-2022), an acclaimed indie icon who served on last year’s TIFF jury. If you haven’t seen his masterpiece Eureka (2000) recently, here’s your chance to remind yourself of its power.
For fans of anime, and we know you are legion, the Japanese Animation Section will feature the usual recent releases of, like Hiroyasu Ishida’s Drifting Home and Tomoyuki Kurokawa’s Break of Dawn, but we’re most anticipating the Animation and Tokyo symposia, in which a range of creators will examine how anime has depicted Tokyo and how it’s changed from the 1980's to 2010's.
Finally, if you’re looking for something a bit more old-school, look no further than the Japanese Classics section, which this year features such highlights as the 4K digitally remastered Typhoon Club (1985, Shinji Somai) and The Guard from Underground (1992, Kiyoshi Kurosawa) — but beware, they are sadly not English subbed.
Koji Fukada
Another Japan-related highlight of the festival is the revival, after 14 years, of TIFF’s Kurosawa Akira Award, which honors the renowned auteur’s legacy and ongoing influence. The award is presented to filmmakers who are making extraordinary contributions to world cinema and are expected to help define the film industry’s future. This year, the award is being presented to two filmmakers: Alejandro Iñárritu, whose latest film Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, is Mexico’s Academy Awards submission and will play in Tokyo’s Gala selection; and TIFF stalwart Koji Fukada, for a filmmaking career that includes Love Life and Harmonium but also recognizes his contributions to the film industry as a whole. For years, Fukada has led the Independent Cinema Guild, which he cofounded, to help nurture and educate emerging filmmakers. During the depths of the Covid pandemic, he helped rescue arthouse theaters through a crowdfunding initiative. He is also leading a much-needed anti-harassment (power and sexual) effort within the film industry
Teruyo Nogami
©TIFF 2015
In tandem with the Kurosawa Akira Award, TIFF’s lifetime achievement award will go to longtime Kurosawa collaborator Teruyo Nogami. Behind every great man is a great woman, and Nogami stood by him from Rashomon in 1950 all the way to his final film, Madadayo in 1993. This award is long overdue.
TIFF theaters in Hibiya, Yurakucho, Ginza
Please be sure to check with the theater before going.