37TH TOKYO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
TIFF Showcases Record Number of Premieres
Venue(s): Hibiya-Yurakucho-Ginza areaOctober 28 (Mon) - November 6 (Wed), 2023 Details: https://2024.tiff-jp.net/en/schedule/
Language: Japanese (and other languages) with English (and Japanese) subtitles
Official website: 2024.tiff-jp.net/en/
Theater website: 2024.tiff-jp.net/en/access/
Theater website: 2024.tiff-jp.net/en/schedule/list/
Tariff: Various; See the online ticket site. Tickets go on sale October 19, 2024.
Advance tickets: https://2024.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37回東京国際映画祭 (Dai 37 Kai Tokyo Kokusai Eigasai)
The 37th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) celebrates cinema with a 207-film lineup from all corners of the globe, with screenings held at venues in the Yurakucho-Hibiya-Marunouchi-Ginza area for 10 days (October 28 - November 6). Japanese highlights include the festival’s Opening Film, 11 Rebels, a spirited jidaigeki in the vein of Seven Samurai and 13 Assassins; a 100th anniversary tribute to Yasuzo Masumura, with 4K remasters of three masterworks; and a special lineup of works by avant-garde filmmaker Kiju Yoshida (Eros + Massacre). As always, TIFF’s complete lineup is subtitled in English, with only a handful of exceptions.
There will be ample Q&A sessions with the filmmakers and stars (with English interpretation usually available — be sure to raise your hand if they ask, “Does anyone need English?”), and a range of talk events and other special gatherings with invited guests.
Here's a brief overview of the Japanese films in the festival — but we urge you to explore the full lineup, since there are many, many non-Japanese films not to be missed.
Opening film
11 REBELS, 十一人の賊軍
Director: Kazuya Shiraishi
World Premiere
155 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan
©2024・11RFP
This year’s Opening Film is the world premiere of Kazuya Shiraishi’s 11 Rebels, a jidaigeki epic based on an unproduced story from legendary scriptwriter Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honor and Humanity). Reminiscent of Seven Samurai and 13 Assassins, the action-heavy film takes place in Niigata, as the new Satsuma-Choshu allied army wages a war against the pro-Tokugawa army. Pulling 10 prisoners from jail and ordering them — along with their minder — to defend a fortress from the Imperial army, the domain leader forces the ragtag group to fight for the reward of freedom, if they can stay alive. While Takayuki Yamada is the film’s top-billed star, it’s Taiga Nakano’s performance that will stick with you long after the lights go up.
Competition films
For the first time, the 15-film Competition section, selected from among 2,023 submissions from 114 countries and regions, is comprised solely of world premieres. As Programming Director Shozo Ichiyama told the press when unveiling the lineup, “We don’t think about striking a balance between countries and regions, we just simply select the most interesting films… [prioritizing those] with new discoveries and things we haven’t seen before.”
There are once again three Japanese films in the section this year: She Taught Me Serendipity from Akiko Ohku, whose Tremble All You Want won the TIFF audience award in 2017; Teki Cometh from Daihachi Yoshida, whose Pale Moon won the same award in 2014; and Lust in the Rain, a Japan-Taiwan co-production from Shinzo Katayama, whose controversial Siblings of the Cape won the top prize at the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in 2018.
SHE TAUGHT ME SERENDIPITY,
今日の空が一番好き, とまだ言えない僕は
Director: Akiko Ohku
World Premiere
127 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan
©2025 "She Taught Me Serendipity" Film Partners
She Taught Me Serendipity is Ohku’s adaptation of a romance novel written by a famous comedian, and features her first male protagonist, Toru (Riku Hagiwara). A university student who works in a bathhouse part time, Toru is captivated by the sight of an attractive young woman slurping soba noodles, Hana (heralded young actress Yuumi Kawai of Plan 75 and Desert of Namibia). As the two discover serendipitous points of agreement, he ignores another attractive young woman (Aoi Ito) who cleans the bathhouse with him. But just as his relationship with Hana takes off, a shocking event occurs that changes not only the course of their courtship, but the entire atmosphere of the film — reminding us why Ohku’s way with words is so memorable.
TEKI COMETH, 敵
Director: Daihachi Yoshida
World Premiere
108 min, Black & White, Japanese with English subtitles, 2023, Japan
©1998 Yasutaka Tsutsui / Shinchosha ©2023 TEKINOMIKATA
Teki Cometh is based on the eponymous novel by literary giant Yasutaka Tsutsui (Paprika, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), and follows a widowed, retired French literature professor (a marvelous Kyozo Nagatsuka ) who is counting the years — and his savings — until the inevitable comes. Still active as a lecturer and columnist and more than capable of taking care of himself, he’s alarmed to receive an email out of the blue that warns, “The enemy is coming, from the north.” He trashes it immediately, but ominous events begin to occur.
LUST IN THE RAIN, 雨の中の慾情
Director: Shinzo Katayama
World Premiere
132 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan/Taiwan
©2024 “LUST IN THE RAIN” Film Committee
A Japan-Taiwan co-production, Katayama’s Lust in the Rain is based on the surreal original novel by Yoshiharu Tsuge. The director, known also for Missing and Gannibal, depicts a unique love triangle about a struggling manga artist, a self-proclaimed novelist and a recently divorced woman who begin living together as they assemble a PR magazine (bet you didn’t see that one coming!).
Asian Future
BLACK OX, 黒の牛
Director: Tetsuichiro Tsuta, Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
World Premiere
114 min, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan/Taiwan/USA
©NIKO NIKO FILM / MOOLIN FILMS / CINEMA INUTILE / CINERIC CREATIVE / FOURIER FILMS
In TIFF’s 10-film Asian Future section, where works are also eligible for awards, there are two Japanese films: one is Japan-Taiwan co-production Black Ox, a journey of Zen “nothingness” with a man and an ox, shot on luminous 35mm monochrome stock by Tetsuichiro Tsuta (The Tale of Iya), and starring Lee Kang-sheng and Min Tanaka.
MISSING CHILD VIDEOTAPE,
ミッシング・チャイルド・ビデオテープ
Director: Ryota Kondo
World Premiere
104 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan
©2024 “Missing Child Videotape” Film Partners
Ryota Kondo’s terrifying feature debut, Missing Child Videotape, is based on the director’s Grand Prizewinner of the same name (a short version) at the 2022 Japan Horror Film Awards. With horrormeister Takashi Shimizu as the producer, Kondo crafts a suitably contemporary update to the scary-videotape genre that’s sure to give you J-horror shivers.
Nippon Cinema Now
RAVENS, レイブンズ
Director: Mark Gill
Asian Premiere
116 min, Color, Japanese, English with English subtitles, 2024
France/Japan/Spain/Belgium
©Vestapol, Ark Entertainment, Minded Factory, Katsize Films, The Y House Films
The 12-film Nippon Cinema Now section, presenting recent Japanese films that have been deemed worthy of international recognition, comprises five world premieres, including Underground by documentary director Oda Kaori, winner of the Pia Film Festival’s Oshima Prize in 2020, and two titles by directors who previously won the Amazon PrimeVideo Take One Award for short films at TIFF, Or Utopia by Kim Yunsoo and Ashes by Yang Liping. British arthouse director Mark Gill’s hotly anticipated take on legendary photographer Masahisa Fukase (played by Shogun’s Tadanobu Asano), Ravens, also receives its Asian premiere.
AINU PURI, アイヌプリ
Director/Producer: Takeshi Fukunaga
Japanese Premiere
86 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan/USA
©2024 Takeshi Fukunaga/AINU PURI Production Committee
The new documentary from Takeshi Fukunaga (Mountain Woman), Ainu Puri grew out of his film Ainu Mosir, but focuses on a real family and their lives as Ainu, living with modern conveniences but hunting, fishing and performing in ways that honor long-held traditions and beliefs.
Nippon Cinema Now Director in Focus
YU IRIE SPECIAL FEATURE, 入江監督特集
The Nippon Cinema Now Director in Focus this year is Yu Irie, who debuted in 2009 with 8000 Miles: SR Saitama’s Rapper, and has since moved effortlessly between low-budget indie films and big studio productions, like the upcoming Muromachi Outsiders. The festival will be showcasing five Irie films, including the 8000 Miles trilogy, the dystopian (and very prescient) The Sun (2016), about a virus that separates the haves from the have-nots, and his 2024 hit A Girl Named Ann, based on a real-life character (played by the amazing Yuumi Kawai) who is rescued from a desperate life by a crusading cop (Jiro Sato), who has alarming issues of his own.
A GIRL NAMED ANN, アンのすべて
Director/Producer: Yu Irie
114 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024,
Japan
©2024 "A Girl Named Ann" Film Partners
Gala Selection
Among the Japanese films in the 15-film Gala Selection is Eric Khoo’s Japan-set Catherine Deneuve starrer, Spirit World; the film version of Yutaka Matsushige’s enduringly popular The Solitary Gourmet, which the star also wrote and directed.
SPIRIT WORLD
Director: Eric Khoo
93 min, Color,
Japanese, French with English and Japanese subtitles, 2024
Japan/Singapore/France
©m.i.movies ©Zhao Wei Films ©WildOrangeArtists ©KNOCKONWOOD Inc.
THE SOLITARY GOURMET, 劇場版 孤独のグルメ
Director: Yutaka Matsushige
Japanese Premiere
110 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan
©2025 TV TOKYO, TOHO, Nikkei Inc., zazous, ZEROME, MONDO co.,ltd., Kyodo Television, BS TV TOKYO, FUSOSHA, PONY CANYON INC., TV OSAKA, TV-Setouchi Broadcasting Co.,Ltd., TVh, TVQ KYUSHU BROADCASTING
Also exciting is the world premiere of Orang Ikan, a Singapore-Indonesia-Japan-UK co-production from Indonesian director Mike Wiluan (who co-produced Dev Patel’s MonkeyMan), about a Japanese soldier (Dean Fujioka) and a British POW (Callum Woodhouse) who are stranded on a deserted island in the Pacific in 1942, where they discover that they are not alone.
Orang Ikan, オラン・イカン
Director: Mike Wiluan
Japanese Premiere, 83 min, Color
English, Japanese with English and Japanese subtitles, 2024
Singapore/Indonesia/Japan/UK
©SC Films International
SUNSET SUNRISE, サンセット・サンライズ
Director: Yoshiyuki Kishi
World Premiere
139 min, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan
©Shuhei Nire/KODANSHA Ⓒ2024“Sunset Sunrise”Film Partners
Also world premiering is Sunset Sunrise from Yoshiyuki Kishi, whose (Ab)normal Desire played in Competition at last year’s TIFF, earning Kishi a Best Director trophy and the film an Audience Award. A mostly charming dramedy about a young man (Masaki Suda) who heads to Sanriku, Fukuoka when Covid hits, after renting an empty house from which to telework, the new film is also a mouthwatering advertisement for the area’s copious and beleaguered fish varieties, its sake and its lovely vistas. And bonus — it offers a solution to Japan’s akiya (abandoned house) problem.
Animation
The 37th TIFF will highlight the latest animated Japanese titles along with prominent works from overseas in the Animation section. This year’s nine-film lineup includes Annecy winners (and perhaps future Oscar winners) from overseas, as well as the world premiere of a “cyberlove suspense” story from popular manga artist Gensho Yasuda, Make A Girl.
GHOST CAT ANZU, 化け猫あんずちゃん
Director: Yoko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita
95 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles, 2024, Japan/France
©2024 Takashi Imashiro, Kodansha/“Ghost Cat ANZU” Production Committee.
We also recommend that you catch the very odd Ghost Cat Anzu, co-directed by Yoko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, which made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. Based on a popular manga, it follows a young girl whose irresponsible widowed father dumps her in rural Japan with her grandfather, a priest. There, she forms an unlikely friendship with a supernatural cat guardian who drinks, pees in public and plays pachinko, but also manages to teach the young girl a thing or two.
Women’s Empowerment
ADABANA, 徒花
Director: Sayaka Kai
94 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles
2023, Japan/France
©2024 ADABANA FILM PARTNERS / DISSIDENZ
Finally, in the brand new Women’s Empowerment section, co-hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Govenment, there are seven films by female directors, including the sci-fi drama Adabana by Sayaka Kai. The hushed film stars Arata Iura as a terminally ill man preparing a clone to take over, with Kiko Mizuhara as a caregiver at the facility.
DOCTOR-X THE MOVIE, 劇場版ドクターX
Director: Naomi Tamura
128 min, Color, Japanese with English subtitles
2023, Japan/France
©2024 “Doctor-X the movie” film partners
Doctor-X: The Movie, essentially a 2-hour episode of the ultra-popular, 7-season TV series, is included in the section not because it’s directed by a woman (the male director is Naoki Tamura), but because it features a female lead (Ryoko Yonekura) who is both a miraculously skilled surgeon, but also sexy as all get-out when we wants to be.
TIFF theaters in Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area
Please be sure to check with the theater before going.