2023 PIA FILM FESTIVAL
New Films and Classic Masterpieces
Venue(s): National Film Archive of JapanSept. 9 (Sat) to 23 (Sat), 2023
Language: 2 classic films are with English subtitles: Sept. 19, 2023 (Tue) 2:00 PM
Official website: pff.jp/en/
Theater website: pff.jp/45th/
Tariff: General:￥1,000 to 1,500 / College students: ￥700
Advance tickets: https://pff.jp/45th/tickets.html
Talk event: Many Japanee talk events after screenings
Title: 第45回 PFF (Dai 45 Kai PFF)
The Pia Film Festival (PFF), Japan’s most important festival of discovery, marks its 45th year with a lineup of 22 competition films by emerging directors based in Japan, selected from 557 submissions, as well as screenings of many other films, including four by French great Arnaud Desplechin. Audiences flock to Pia to discover the Next Big Thing and to vote on the all-important Audience Award.
Unfortunately, the competition films are so up-to-the-minute that there isn’t enough time to get them subtitled beforehand. But this year, there are two classic films, by Hiroshi Shimizu and Sadao Yamanaka, with English subs. The festival is showcasing the films as part of a tribute to Yasujiro Ozu on his 120th anniversary.
Hiroshi Shimizu and Sadao Yamanaka
September 19, 2023 (Tue) 2:00 PM
Hiroshi Shimizu
・Mr. Thank You/有りがたうさん*
・Tomorrow There Will Be Fine Weather/明日は日本晴れ
Sadao Yamanaka
・Humanity And Paper Balloons/人情紙風船*
*: Japanese with English subtitles
Hiroshi Shimizu/清水宏
Hiroshi Shimizu, a contemporary and lifelong friend of Yasujiro Ozu’s after the two met at Shochiku Kamata Studio (and the screenwriter of Ozu's early films I Graduated, But... and Walk Cheerfully), is perhaps best known for his celebrated early silents, like Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933). In 1936, he directed the dramedy Mr. Thank You, based on a short story by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata. At the time, he had begun taking advantage of new technology to shoot on location, as well as employing nonprofessional actors.
The film, which feels surprisingly modern, tells the story of the eponymous driver (Ken Uehara), who’s earned his nickname due to the civility with which he treats other drivers and the passengers who join him on the Depression-era journey via narrow mountain roads from Izu to Tokyo. During one journey, set amidst beautiful scenery that is long vanished, Mr. Thank You rescues a young woman who is destined to be sold in Tokyo, among other interactions.
Mr. Thank You/有りがたうさん
1936 / B&W / 78 min / 35mm film
Japanese with English Subtitles
Director: Shimizu Hiroshi / Original Story: Kawabata Yasunari
Cast: Ken Uehara, Michiko Kuwano, Mayumi Tsukiji, Kaoru Futaba, Setsuko Shinobu
Sadao Yamanaka/山中貞雄
Another director who was celebrated by Yasujiro Ozu (and countless others), was Sadao Yamanaka. Although he directed 26 films in his much-too-brief life, only three of Yamanaka’s works survive in nearly complete form. PFF is highlighting the best known of these, the masterpiece Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937). It was sadly his final film, since he was drafted and died during WWII.
Yamanaka had begun working for Nikkatsu after making films for other companies, and with this film, he was working for the second time with the Japanese theater troupe Zenshin-za: (the first was on The Village Tattooed Man, 1935). The Japanese title translates as “Article 39,” which is the clause in the Japanese Criminal Code stating that defendants who are deemed mentally insane cannot be held responsible for their crimes.
Humanity and Paper Balloons is set in feudal Japan during the 18th century, and depicts the struggles of Matajuro Unno, a masterless samurai, and his neighbor Shinza, a hairdresser who also runs an illicit gambling den. Unno, who lives with his wife next door, struggles to find work with his father's former master, stalking him constantly. Unno's wife supports him by making Japanese paper balloons but their situation inevitably deteriorates, and tragedy is just around the corner.
Humanity And Paper Balloons/人情紙風船
1937 / B&W / 86 min / 35mm film
Japanese with English Subtitles
Director: Sadao Yamanaka
Cast: Kawarazaki Chojuro, Nakamura Wanemon, Nakamura Tsuruzo, Yamagishi Shizue, Kiridate Noboru
National Film Archive Japan
The Pia Film Festival (PFF), Japan’s most important festival of discovery, marks its 45th year with a lineup of 22 competition films by emerging directors based in Japan, selected from 557 submissions, as well as screenings of many other films, including four by French great Arnaud Desplechin. Audiences flock to Pia to discover the Next Big Thing and to vote on the all-important Audience Award.
Unfortunately, the competition films are so up-to-the-minute that there isn’t enough time to get them subtitled beforehand. But this year, there are two classic films, by Hiroshi Shimizu and Sadao Yamanaka, with English subs. The festival is showcasing the films as part of a tribute to Yasujiro Ozu on his 120th anniversary.
Hiroshi Shimizu and Sadao Yamanaka
September 19, 2023 (Tue) 2:00 PM
Hiroshi Shimizu
・Mr. Thank You/有りがたうさん*
・Tomorrow There Will Be Fine Weather/明日は日本晴れ
Sadao Yamanaka
・Humanity And Paper Balloons/人情紙風船*
*: Japanese with English subtitles
Hiroshi Shimizu/清水宏
Hiroshi Shimizu, a contemporary and lifelong friend of Yasujiro Ozu’s after the two met at Shochiku Kamata Studio (and the screenwriter of Ozu's early films I Graduated, But... and Walk Cheerfully), is perhaps best known for his celebrated early silents, like Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933). In 1936, he directed the dramedy Mr. Thank You, based on a short story by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata. At the time, he had begun taking advantage of new technology to shoot on location, as well as employing nonprofessional actors.
The film, which feels surprisingly modern, tells the story of the eponymous driver (Ken Uehara), who’s earned his nickname due to the civility with which he treats other drivers and the passengers who join him on the Depression-era journey via narrow mountain roads from Izu to Tokyo. During one journey, set amidst beautiful scenery that is long vanished, Mr. Thank You rescues a young woman who is destined to be sold in Tokyo, among other interactions.
Mr. Thank You/有りがたうさん
1936 / B&W / 78 min / 35mm film
Japanese with English Subtitles
Director: Shimizu Hiroshi / Original Story: Kawabata Yasunari
Cast: Ken Uehara, Michiko Kuwano, Mayumi Tsukiji, Kaoru Futaba, Setsuko Shinobu
Sadao Yamanaka/山中貞雄
Another director who was celebrated by Yasujiro Ozu (and countless others), was Sadao Yamanaka. Although he directed 26 films in his much-too-brief life, only three of Yamanaka’s works survive in nearly complete form. PFF is highlighting the best known of these, the masterpiece Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937). It was sadly his final film, since he was drafted and died during WWII.
Yamanaka had begun working for Nikkatsu after making films for other companies, and with this film, he was working for the second time with the Japanese theater troupe Zenshin-za: (the first was on The Village Tattooed Man, 1935). The Japanese title translates as “Article 39,” which is the clause in the Japanese Criminal Code stating that defendants who are deemed mentally insane cannot be held responsible for their crimes.
Humanity and Paper Balloons is set in feudal Japan during the 18th century, and depicts the struggles of Matajuro Unno, a masterless samurai, and his neighbor Shinza, a hairdresser who also runs an illicit gambling den. Unno, who lives with his wife next door, struggles to find work with his father's former master, stalking him constantly. Unno's wife supports him by making Japanese paper balloons but their situation inevitably deteriorates, and tragedy is just around the corner.
Humanity And Paper Balloons/人情紙風船
1937 / B&W / 86 min / 35mm film
Japanese with English Subtitles
Director: Sadao Yamanaka
Cast: Kawarazaki Chojuro, Nakamura Wanemon, Nakamura Tsuruzo, Yamagishi Shizue, Kiridate Noboru
National Film Archive Japan
Please be sure to check with the theater before going.