43rd PIA FILM FESTIVAL
Cinema Stalwart Gets a Tribute
Venue(s): National Film Archive of JapanSept. 11 (Sat) to Sept. 25 (Sat), 2021; Sept. 19, 2021 (Sun) 12:30 39 screening with Kei Ishikawa talk
Official website: pff.jp/43rd/
Theater website: www.nfaj.go.jp/english/visit/information_map/
Tariff: General:￥1,000 to 1,500 / Collleage students: ￥500 to 700: https://pff.jp/43rd/tickets.html
Advance tickets: https://pff.jp/43rd/tickets.html
Talk event: Many talk events after screenings
Title: 第43回 PFF (Dai 43 Kai PFF)
The Pia Film Festival (PFF), Japan’s most important festival of discovery, will mark its 43rd year with a lineup of 18 competition films by new directors, the premiere of the PFF Scholarship film, a section devoted to one of Thailand’s hottest directors, and a special tribute to director Yoshimitsu Morita (1950-2011), in what would have been his 70th year.
Perhaps best known outside Japan for his 1983 The Family Game, starring Yusaku Matsuda as an unforgettable tutor, Morita was acclaimed for his social satires and his unquenchably experimental spirit, as well as his refusal to stick to one style or genre. PFF will be screening four of the director’s early features, one of them with English subtitles, as well as a selection of his early works on 8mm.
Morita’s relationship with PFF began with his 8mm independent film Drive in Chigasaki (1978), and it’s thus fitting that there will be a pre-festival event, in collaboration with beloved arthouse theater Eurospace, Dramatic Document Report '78-'79, highlighting Morita's earliest works.
The features, which will all be screened on 35mm, will each be followed by a discussion with a filmmaker who admires Morita: Masanori Tominaga will discuss Deaths in Tokimeki (1984); Daigo Matsui, Main Theme (1984); Shuichi Okita, And Then (1985). Kei Ishikawa and screenwriter Kosuke Mukai will together discuss Keiho (1999), the film that will be English subbed.
A dark courtroom psychodrama that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, Keiho stars Kyoka Suzuki (who won Best Actress at the Blue Ribbon Awards for the performance), Shinichi Tsutsumi, Kirin Kiki and Ittoku Kishibe. Tsutsumi plays a stage actor who allegedly kills a man and his wife, who is 5 months pregnant. Although he quickly confesses to the crime, he also claims amnesia about the incident. His lawyer (Kiki) soon discovers that he is both a mild-mannered gent and a stark-raving lunatic.
Article 39 (the literal translation of this movie's title) of Japanese law, defendants who are deemed mentally insane cannot be held for their crimes. The court shrink is more than willing to label Shibata as crazy but his assistant Kafuka Ogawa (Kyoka Suzuki) is less convinced. With her father offing himself before her eyes and her mother's descent into obsessive compulsion, Kafuka has an intimate understanding of mental illness. She believes that the actor is in fact acting to beat his murder rap.
The film’s original title makes reference to Article 39 of Japan’s Criminal Code, which states that acts of insanity are not punishable by law; it takes the court-appointed psychiatrist’s assistant (Suzuki) to point out just what may be going on.
The festival is also screening the world premiere of PFF Scholarship film Let Me Hear It Barefoot by Riho Kudo, who won the Grand Prize with Orphan’s Blues in 2018, and the Closing Film, Pretenders by Izuru Kumasaka, as well as a selection of films by Thai stalwart Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Happy Old Year).
Audiences flock to Pia to discover the Next Big Thing and to vote on the all-important Audience Award. Unfortunately, the competition films are still shown English subs-free: the selection of 18 titles of varying lengths, chosen from nearly 500 films submitted, is so up-to-the-minute that there isn’t enough time to get them subtitled beforehand
This year’s all-star PFF Jury includes actor Sosuke Ikematsu (The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue), writer-director Rikiya Imaizumi (Sad Tea), director Yukiko Sode (Aristocrats) and screenwriter Ryo Takada (You’re Not Normal, Either).
National Film Archive Japan
The Pia Film Festival (PFF), Japan’s most important festival of discovery, will mark its 43rd year with a lineup of 18 competition films by new directors, the premiere of the PFF Scholarship film, a section devoted to one of Thailand’s hottest directors, and a special tribute to director Yoshimitsu Morita (1950-2011), in what would have been his 70th year.
Perhaps best known outside Japan for his 1983 The Family Game, starring Yusaku Matsuda as an unforgettable tutor, Morita was acclaimed for his social satires and his unquenchably experimental spirit, as well as his refusal to stick to one style or genre. PFF will be screening four of the director’s early features, one of them with English subtitles, as well as a selection of his early works on 8mm.
Morita’s relationship with PFF began with his 8mm independent film Drive in Chigasaki (1978), and it’s thus fitting that there will be a pre-festival event, in collaboration with beloved arthouse theater Eurospace, Dramatic Document Report '78-'79, highlighting Morita's earliest works.
The features, which will all be screened on 35mm, will each be followed by a discussion with a filmmaker who admires Morita: Masanori Tominaga will discuss Deaths in Tokimeki (1984); Daigo Matsui, Main Theme (1984); Shuichi Okita, And Then (1985). Kei Ishikawa and screenwriter Kosuke Mukai will together discuss Keiho (1999), the film that will be English subbed.
A dark courtroom psychodrama that premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, Keiho stars Kyoka Suzuki (who won Best Actress at the Blue Ribbon Awards for the performance), Shinichi Tsutsumi, Kirin Kiki and Ittoku Kishibe. Tsutsumi plays a stage actor who allegedly kills a man and his wife, who is 5 months pregnant. Although he quickly confesses to the crime, he also claims amnesia about the incident. His lawyer (Kiki) soon discovers that he is both a mild-mannered gent and a stark-raving lunatic.
Article 39 (the literal translation of this movie's title) of Japanese law, defendants who are deemed mentally insane cannot be held for their crimes. The court shrink is more than willing to label Shibata as crazy but his assistant Kafuka Ogawa (Kyoka Suzuki) is less convinced. With her father offing himself before her eyes and her mother's descent into obsessive compulsion, Kafuka has an intimate understanding of mental illness. She believes that the actor is in fact acting to beat his murder rap.
The film’s original title makes reference to Article 39 of Japan’s Criminal Code, which states that acts of insanity are not punishable by law; it takes the court-appointed psychiatrist’s assistant (Suzuki) to point out just what may be going on.
The festival is also screening the world premiere of PFF Scholarship film Let Me Hear It Barefoot by Riho Kudo, who won the Grand Prize with Orphan’s Blues in 2018, and the Closing Film, Pretenders by Izuru Kumasaka, as well as a selection of films by Thai stalwart Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Happy Old Year).
Audiences flock to Pia to discover the Next Big Thing and to vote on the all-important Audience Award. Unfortunately, the competition films are still shown English subs-free: the selection of 18 titles of varying lengths, chosen from nearly 500 films submitted, is so up-to-the-minute that there isn’t enough time to get them subtitled beforehand
This year’s all-star PFF Jury includes actor Sosuke Ikematsu (The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue), writer-director Rikiya Imaizumi (Sad Tea), director Yukiko Sode (Aristocrats) and screenwriter Ryo Takada (You’re Not Normal, Either).
National Film Archive Japan
Please be sure to check with the theater before going.