SHORT SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL & ASIA 2020 AUTUMN

English-subbed Japanese films are sprinkled throughout the 7 programs, starting with the Award Winning Shorts Program 1, which features an array of winners of the Official Competition sections supported by Sony.

This is Tokyo
Ben Suzuki /0:16:15/Japan/Drama/2020

The Cinematic Tokyo Competition winner was Ben Suzuki, for This Is Tokyo. Singaporean actress Jeanette Aw plays the president of a Singaporean company and Kento (Win Morisaki of Ready Player One) is the lower-rung employee of a Japanese company seeking a tie-up with her firm. Tasked with ushering President Kwang around Tokyo on several postcard-perfect days, Kento fully commits to the job, and his giddy practice session with a youth rugby team helps the president make her decision about the business venture.

Tapioca Diary
Takashi Okado & Jon Cox/0:19:19/Japan/drama/2019

In Program 2, look for Hikari TV Award-winner Tapioca Diary, by Takashi Okado (director) and Jon Cox (scriptwriter and DP). The cross-cultural film follows “Takashi” on his study abroad in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where he falls for a noodle-stall girl named Fen and discovers not only the joys of friendship and love that were missing from his life in Japan, but also the hurdle of candidly conveying his feelings.

West End Girls
Hiroki Kataoka/0:25:00/Japan/drama/2020

This program also features the Japan Competition Audience Award West End Girls, by Hiroki Kataoka. It’s a cross-cultural drama about Sally, a Japanese woman, and Kanja, an Asian woman, who begin live-streaming in Tokyo, and become fierce creative competitors.

The Interrogation: “I love Hatsukaichi-city!”
Hatsukaichi-city /0:01:30/Japan/Tourism, promotion/2019

Program 3 features the short-short-short winner of the Visual Tourism Award, the Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner’s Award, The Interrogation: “I love Hatsukaichi-city!” Taking hard-boiled cop thrillers as its starting point, it cleverly promotes the smallish town in Hiroshima Prefecture that houses the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Itsukushima Shrine.

Birdland
Takeshi Kogahara/0:20:00/Japan/drama/2019

Acclaimed commercials director Takeshi Kogahara’s moving Birdland, winner of the Governor of Tokyo Award for Best Short, making him eligible for the 93rd Academy Awards, depicts a bedridden old man whose only interaction with the outside world is through his bedroom window... as well as through his cherished memories, which come beautifully alive one winter night.

Story of Shahryar
Daishi Kato/0:15:52/Japan/drama/2020

In Program 5, look for the 5th Book Shorts Award Winner, Daishi Kato’s Story of Shahryar, starring the inimitable Mitsuru Fukikoshi (The Mole Song, A Girl Missing) in a modern adaptation of “One Thousand and One Nights.” The actor plays Mamoru (akin to the folk stories’ King Shahryar), whose wife has an affair, leading him to live alone and begin relying on escorts to assuage his loneliness. One call girl, Mizuki, becomes his Scheherazade and her tales influence the course of his life.

Future is MINE - AINU MY VOICE -
Daichi Tomida/0:19:32/Japan/Non-Fiction/2020

In the Special Screenings section, two documentaries are worth seeking out: Daichi Tomida’s inspirational Future Is Mine — Ainu My Voice focuses on Rie Kawano, an Ainu woman who comes to realize, after having a baby, that she wants to devote her adult life to helping make the dreams of her ancestors come true. Due to Japan’s policy of forced assimilation, Kawano struggled with her identity until college, which she attended on a scholarship created to support the indigenous people of Japan. Intent on carving out a career as a traditional singer, she journeys to Florida, where she meets with members of the Seminole Tribe of Native Americans, who have built a community that includes a school where children are taught the Creek language and culture. The visit is life-changing, and Kawano’s song about it is sure to require extra tissues.

Colors of Life
Goro Ushijima/0:13:51/Japan/Documentary/2014

Colors of Life, by Goro Ushijima, is a documentary about Fukumi and Yoko Shimura, a mother and daughter whose lifework is to preserve the art of Japanese textiles, which is rightly considered a national treasure.

English-subbed Japanese films are sprinkled throughout the 7 programs, starting with the Award Winning Shorts Program 1, which features an array of winners of the Official Competition sections supported by Sony.

This is Tokyo
Ben Suzuki /0:16:15/Japan/Drama/2020

The Cinematic Tokyo Competition winner was Ben Suzuki, for This Is Tokyo. Singaporean actress Jeanette Aw plays the president of a Singaporean company and Kento (Win Morisaki of Ready Player One) is the lower-rung employee of a Japanese company seeking a tie-up with her firm. Tasked with ushering President Kwang around Tokyo on several postcard-perfect days, Kento fully commits to the job, and his giddy practice session with a youth rugby team helps the president make her decision about the business venture.

Tapioca Diary
Takashi Okado & Jon Cox/0:19:19/Japan/drama/2019

In Program 2, look for Hikari TV Award-winner Tapioca Diary, by Takashi Okado (director) and Jon Cox (scriptwriter and DP). The cross-cultural film follows “Takashi” on his study abroad in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where he falls for a noodle-stall girl named Fen and discovers not only the joys of friendship and love that were missing from his life in Japan, but also the hurdle of candidly conveying his feelings.

West End Girls
Hiroki Kataoka/0:25:00/Japan/drama/2020

This program also features the Japan Competition Audience Award West End Girls, by Hiroki Kataoka. It’s a cross-cultural drama about Sally, a Japanese woman, and Kanja, an Asian woman, who begin live-streaming in Tokyo, and become fierce creative competitors.

The Interrogation: “I love Hatsukaichi-city!”
Hatsukaichi-city /0:01:30/Japan/Tourism, promotion/2019

Program 3 features the short-short-short winner of the Visual Tourism Award, the Japan Tourism Agency Commissioner’s Award, The Interrogation: “I love Hatsukaichi-city!” Taking hard-boiled cop thrillers as its starting point, it cleverly promotes the smallish town in Hiroshima Prefecture that houses the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Itsukushima Shrine.

Birdland
Takeshi Kogahara/0:20:00/Japan/drama/2019

Acclaimed commercials director Takeshi Kogahara’s moving Birdland, winner of the Governor of Tokyo Award for Best Short, making him eligible for the 93rd Academy Awards, depicts a bedridden old man whose only interaction with the outside world is through his bedroom window... as well as through his cherished memories, which come beautifully alive one winter night.

Story of Shahryar
Daishi Kato/0:15:52/Japan/drama/2020

In Program 5, look for the 5th Book Shorts Award Winner, Daishi Kato’s Story of Shahryar, starring the inimitable Mitsuru Fukikoshi (The Mole Song, A Girl Missing) in a modern adaptation of “One Thousand and One Nights.” The actor plays Mamoru (akin to the folk stories’ King Shahryar), whose wife has an affair, leading him to live alone and begin relying on escorts to assuage his loneliness. One call girl, Mizuki, becomes his Scheherazade and her tales influence the course of his life.

Future is MINE - AINU MY VOICE -
Daichi Tomida/0:19:32/Japan/Non-Fiction/2020

In the Special Screenings section, two documentaries are worth seeking out: Daichi Tomida’s inspirational Future Is Mine — Ainu My Voice focuses on Rie Kawano, an Ainu woman who comes to realize, after having a baby, that she wants to devote her adult life to helping make the dreams of her ancestors come true. Due to Japan’s policy of forced assimilation, Kawano struggled with her identity until college, which she attended on a scholarship created to support the indigenous people of Japan. Intent on carving out a career as a traditional singer, she journeys to Florida, where she meets with members of the Seminole Tribe of Native Americans, who have built a community that includes a school where children are taught the Creek language and culture. The visit is life-changing, and Kawano’s song about it is sure to require extra tissues.

Colors of Life
Goro Ushijima/0:13:51/Japan/Documentary/2014

Colors of Life, by Goro Ushijima, is a documentary about Fukumi and Yoko Shimura, a mother and daughter whose lifework is to preserve the art of Japanese textiles, which is rightly considered a national treasure.