TOKYO FILMeX 2023
Six Japanese Gems and a Dozen More from Overseas
Dai 24 Kai TOKYO FILMeX
第24回 東京フィルメックス
All Japanese films are with English subtitles
Venue: Yurakucho Asahi Hall, Human Trust Yurakucho | Nov. 19 (Sun) – Nov. 26 (Sun), 2023. details: https://filmex.jp/2023/screeningschedule2023
Official website:
filmex.jp/2023en/
Theater website:
filmex.jp/2023en/map
Tariff:
General: ￥1,900, Under 25: ￥1,300.
Advance tickets: From Nov. 4 (Sat) 10:00 am. General: ￥1,400, Under 25: ¥1,000. Go to https://filmex.jp/2023/ticket2023; Human Trust Shibuya: From Nov. 1, Go to the theater site, https://ttcg.jp/human_shibuya/
Talk event: Visit official site for details: https://filmex.jp/2023en/guest
This year’s 24th Tokyo FILMeX runs later than usual, from November 19 – 26, at their longtime home, Yurakucho Asahi Hall (Nov. 22 - 26) as well as at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho (Nov. 19 - 26). The local favorite of cinephiles, the festival features a meticulously curated lineup of 19 films, including Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Gift, the origin of his Venice Silver Lion-winning Evil Does Not Exist, with a live performance by his collaborator on both films, Eiko Ishibashi.
All films in the lineup will screen with English subtitles, and many filmmakers will be on hand for Q&A sessions. Here’s the lowdown on the Japanese titles — but as always, we encourage you to see as many titles as you can.
Competition Films
This year’s FILMeX Competition comprises 8 new films by emerging filmmakers in Asia, including several that have already scooped up prizes at prestigious festivals and been submitted for Oscar consideration.
Acclaimed Chinese documentarian Wang Bing (Youth) will preside over the international jury, which also includes Thai filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong (Come Here), and Taiwanese programmer and producer Kuo Ming-Jung. The panel will award the Grand Prize (¥700,000) and the Special Jury Prize (¥300,000) on the festival’s penultimate night. There will also be an Audience Award chosen from across all sections, and a Student Jury Prize.
After the Fever / 熱のあとに
After the Fever / 熱のあとに
Director: Akira Yamamoto / 山本英
Japan / 2023 / 127 min
The Japanese entry in Competition is the sophomore feature of Akira Yamamoto (Whisper in a Small Voice). The film had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival, where the post-screening Q&A went on much longer than planned, and newfound fans lined up to talk with the director afterward.
After the Fever tells the unusual story of a woman, Sanae (Ai Hashimoto) who went to jail for trying to kill her lover to “keep love alive.” After release, she meets Kenta (Taiga Nakano), a forestry worker who knows her history but accepts her despite of it. Neither is looking for marriage, but they wind up bonded and set about restoring a huge old house in the woods. One day, Sanae meets a friendly new neighbor, Adachi (Mai Kiryu) and begins working for her at an orchard. But the woman is not forthcoming about her past and her presence begins to disrupt the relationship between Kenta and Sanae.
For Ai Hashimoto fans, the film is (apparently) catnip. For those of us who aren’t as smitten, there are many other pleasures, including the performances of Nakano and Kiryu, who are superlative in difficult roles, the often unexpected machinations of the plot, and the beautiful cinematography.
Special Screenings
GIFT
GIFT
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi / 濱口竜介
Music and Performance: Eiko Ishibashi / 石橋英子
Japan / 2023 / 74 min
Renowned musician-composer Eiko Ishibashi first collaborated with director Ryusuke Hamaguchi on Oscar winner Drive My Car, so when she approached him about creating a video story to accompany one of her life performances, he gladly complied. But during location scouting sessions near the musician’s home, Hamaguchi realized he would like to create more than images at the same time. That “more than” became the feature-length film Evil Does Not Exist, which is currently winning awards and acclaim at international festivals (and won’t be released in Japan until spring 2024).
Meanwhile, the “origin” film, Gift, premiered in Belgium, and the collaborators will now present it at FILMeX, accompanying a special live performance by Ishibashi. Gift uses intertitles for necessary dialogue and explanations, in the style of silent films. Thus, as the festival puts it, “The most cutting-edge musician and filmmaker of our time have coincidentally collaborated on the oldest form of cinema, the silent film.”
Made in Japan
The Made in Japan section, created in 2022, features three films by emerging filmmakers and one beloved classic, making its Japan premiere in a 4K digitally restored version.
Last Shadow of the First Light
Last Shadow of the First Light
Director: Nicole Midori Woodford
Singapore, Japan, Slovenia, Philippines, Indonesia /
2023 / 108min
A “mystical road trip for the senses,” Nicole Midori Woodford’s feature debut is an international coproduction shot in both Singapore (the director’s home) and Japan (the home of her ancestors). The supernatural drama stars Mihaya Shirata as Ami, a teen with a special connection to the spiritual world who lives with her father in Singapore. Her Japanese mother returned to Japan after the Tohoku Earthquake in 2011 and disappeared, presumed dead.
But Ami frequently dreams about her and is convinced that she’s still alive. After discovering items that underscore her conviction, Ami heads for Japan to retrace her mother’s footsteps and solve the mystery. There, Ami hooks up with her uncle (acclaimed actor Masatoshi Nagase), a Tokyo taxi driver and pachinko obsessive who knows her mother's last known whereabouts but isn’t inclined to believe in anything spiritual. Until…
Last Shadow at First Light premiered in the New Directors Competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival and was nominated at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSAs) for best screenplay and best new performer (by newcomer Shirata). As it continues its festival journey before a Japan release next year, it’s sure to pick further honors.
MOVING [4K Digitally Restored Version] / お引越し
MOVING [4K Digitally Restored Version] / お引越し
Director: Shinji Somai / 相米慎二
Japan / 1993 / 124 min
This year, marking the 30th anniversary of its release, Shinji Somai’s acclaimed Moving was digitally restored in 4K resolution from the original 35mm negative film, and premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Best Restored Film Award. The film had screened in the 1993 Cannes Un Certain Regard section, immediately solidifying Somai’s reputation as a master chronicler of Japanese youth. He would go on to direct cult favorites Typhoon Club and Sailor Suit and Machine Gun, among others, before dying far too young in 2001.
International audiences in Tokyo will finally be treated to an English-subbed version of Moving at FILMeX. The film charts the emotional growth of a young girl whose parents are about to divorce. When her father leaves their Kyoto home and her mother, Nazuna (Junko Sakurada) starts becoming far more strict, energetic sixth-grader Lenko starts plotting ways to prevent the inevitable, to take control of her own future… and thereby discovers herself.
Performing Hiroshima / 広島を上演する
Performing Hiroshima / 広島を上演する
Directors: Akihiro Mima, Saki Yamada, Natsuka Kusano, Mikihiro Endo /
三間旭浩、山田 咲、草野なつか、遠藤幹大
Japan / 2023 / 133 min
An omnibus film produced by the Malevito-no-kai theater company, this is part of a long-term project that also resulted in Performing Nagasaki (2013-16) and Performing Fukushima (2016-18). The shorts include To the Window with No Signs, about a woman living with her partner in Hiroshima City who meets regularly with a friend by the river to co-write poetry; Performing Hiroshima with Hiroe-san, depicts the story of a woman who was exposed to radiation in utero when the atomic bomb was dropped, with the actual subject narrating the story; Until the End of the Dream depicts a woman who has just lost someone important to her dealing with her loss; and Wherever It May Be, which follows a theater company's rehearsal of a play about Hiroshima, as well as a young sound recordist who collects sounds in the open air.
They give me a day I will never forget / うってつけの日
They give me a day I will never forget / うってつけの日
Director: Kanshi Iwasaki / 岩﨑敢志
Japan / 2023 / 69 min
The debut feature of Takeshi Iwasaki, who studied under FILMeX favorite Kunitoshi Manda and worked as an assistant director and sound recordist on films by Daisuke Miyazaki and Kore Kiyohara, They Give Me Day I Will Never Forget follows a couple whose lives have gone separate ways. Koto (an excellent Yukino Murakami), a freelance sound designer, meets her ex, Shoichi, at the airport when he temporarily returns from the Philippines, but the two do not reunite. Instead, they go about their lives as usual, and viewers are treated to a story in which nothing dramatic occurs. As with many Japanese films that revel in the mundane, Iwasaki focuses on daily observances that provide insights into today’s society.
Yurakucho Asahi Hall
Please be sure to check with the theater before going.