ROUNDUP: FEFF 2016
Asian Specialty Fest Highlights 11 New Japanese Titles
Cinema is a window to other cultures. Whoever said it first, Udine proves it to be right. Located north of Venice and south of the Alps, this small town in Italy organizes the annual Far East Film Festival (FEFF). As a passionate supporter of exclusively Asian cinema, the festival’s 18th edition, held from April 22 - 30, 2016, introduced 72 films, including 5 world premieres, from 10 Asian countries and territories. Whether commercial or independent films, the program of the largest European festival on Asian cinema means a great deal to the Japanese film industry, which makes pictures that tend not to garner enough international attention.
With the help of Mark Schilling, a longtime FEFF consultant/programmer, 11 diverse contemporary Japanese films made the cut and were featured in the Competition section: studio hits included Hitoshi One’s Bakuman (2015), Nobuhiro Doi’s Flying Colors (2015) and Yoshihiro Nakamura’s The Inerasable (2016); indie titles included Eiji Uchida’s Lowlife Love (2016) and Yuki Tanada’s Round Trip Heart (2015). The Competition also included new features by auteurs: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Creepy (2016) and Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s Three Stories of Love (2015). There were three world premieres, as well: Keisuke Yoshida’s R-rated thriller with V6 star Go Morita, Hime-Anole (2016), a hilarious love comedy with the dumbest delusions, Masato Hijikata’s The Kodai Family (2016), and Keisuke Toyoshima’s Maniac Hero (2016), a Japanese version of Kick-Ass. Among these recent hits, an Italian favorite seemed to be Shuichi Okita’s Mohican Comes Home (2016). With the presence of the director and his star, Ryuhei Matsuda, this family-drama with a punk spirit received a third-place Audience Award, as well as the Black Dragon Award, chosen by critics.
Fortunately, contemporary titles are not the only interest for FEFF. Ten hidden gems of Japanese sci-fi were excavated by Schilling in an alluring retrospective titled Beyond Godzilla: Alternative Futures and Fantasies in Japanese Cinema, which gave European cinephiles a rare opportunity to be beguiled by Japanese genre films. Four out of the 10 features — Mysterians (1957), Matango (1963), Invasion of the Astro Monster (1965) and Latitude Zero (1969) — were from Ishiro Honda, who famously directed the original Godzilla (1954). As Godzilla is the monstrous metaphor of Japanese nuclear issues, ethereal sci-fi elements — the invasion of mysterious aliens or the metamorphosis of living mushrooms — were employed to alarm audiences about looming social concerns. Speaking of nuclear power, FEFF also screened Matteo Gagliardi’s Fukushima: A Nuclear Story (2015) out of competition, a documentary on the poignant investigation of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns by Italian journalist Pio d’Emilia. All these films can serve as intellectual preparation for Toho’s Godzilla Resurgence, coming to Japanese cinemas in late July, to ruminate on how they bring this overtly sensitive issue to the screen.
In addition to Kihachi Okamoto’s Blue Christmas (1978) and Shusuke Kaneko’s Gamera 3: Incomplete Struggle (1999), another four slots were dedicated to legendary filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi. His consistent devotion to idol films, of which several were screened Udine — House (1977), School in the Crosshairs (1981), Exchange Students (1982) and The Girl who Leapt Through Time (1983) — are often appreciated in terms of his creative madness and analogue techniques. However, Obayashi, as part of the generation that experienced World War II, is not ignorant of political implications either. House is seemingly a sexist idol movie in which spectators can “enjoy” young girls being almost raped by a piano, but sexual expressions matter because the film presents the revengeful soul of a virgin woman from the war, in which humans revealed hideous sides of themselves. “Technological equipment, including cameras, was invented as weapons,” Obayashi said during the interview. “So we have to think of a way to use them for peace.”
On April 25, Obayashi’s House, his first feature, was unspooled at the Teatro Nuovo, and welcomed with exhilarating laughs and dazzling excitement. Before the screening, Obayashi received FEFF’s Golden Mulberry Lifetime Achievement Award for his massive influence and imaginative spirit of filmmaking. Coincidentally, April 25 was also Liberation Day in Italy. “At the parade, I walked a little bit with an old lady shoulder to shoulder. I couldn’t just stand by and watch. I wanted to walk together,” Obayashi said with sincerity. “As an old guy who had also experienced the war, I shed some tears, feeling very happy to enjoy peaceful days. There were a lot of children as well, who have no war experiences. I want to fulfill my duty so that they won’t ever experience war.”
Apart from film screenings, FEFF also offered magnificent opportunities to enrich the film industry. Focus Asia, a 3-day assembly with screenings, panels and meetings, strengthened the collaborations between European and Asian markets. Ten producers gathered with feature projects, including Taro Imai from Harakiri Films for Marijuana Family, for the 8th edition of Ties That Bind, at which they could develop their plans and extend networks. Also, FEFF generously organized the 2nd edition of Campus, inviting young journalists, 5 from Europe and 5 from Asia (including one Japanese this year, myself), to offer first-hand experience of the festival, and submit us to the terror of deadlines.
Having said all this, the discreet charm of FEFF lies not merely in its contributions to the industry, but also in its bona fide enthusiasm to introduce diverse cultures at Udine. During the festival, approximately 100 events (more than screenings!) were held throughout the city: a stirring Far East Cosplay Contest, Martial Arts Performances (including kendo, sword fighting and Ip Man!), a number of workshops — ikebana, origami, haiku, shodo, bonsai and shibari (the Japanese aesthetic of tying up humans; “[R]opes will be provided,” they said), among many others — and the Far East Market in which Asian commodities are lined up along with purchasable works by artists and designers. Notably, curated by Denis Viva, The Casa Cavazzini Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art presented a special exhibition of Paradoxa – Japanese Art Today, which introduced, for the first time in Italy, current Japanese art by Manya Kato, Yuuki Matsumura, Takahiro Iwasaki, Taro Izumi and Taturo Atzu (aka Tatzu Nishi). More conceptual than viscerally aesthetic, simple but twisted artworks by contemporary Japanese artists play with everyday objects, transforming the ordinary into disorder and error. One of Kato’s works presents a book with bookmarks on every page; when everything is important, what is important?
Rather than simply becoming a temporary shopping mall for European distributors to purchase Asian products, FEFF raises a spectacular example of how film festivals are capable of functioning as a cultural window, favorably collaborating with local businesses. It is commonplace to name film festivals according to their geographical nature, but FEFF is the most site-specific of them all. Supported by the townspeople and 150 enthusiastic volunteers, Asian and European filmdom is invited to a fine little Italian town, where visitors can stray into local shops and take it easy in a cozy café, interacting with amiable locals. Not all films will have the auspicious destiny to become a memorable masterpiece, but all were equally bestowed with the opportunity for viewers to glimpse other worlds, with the endorsement of this outstanding festival.
By Kenta Kato
Kenta Kato is a Tokyo-based writer, film critic and festival programmer, currently working on a Master’s degree in Film Studies at Waseda University.