by James Fletcher
Set to kick off in Canberra on October 28, before its final run in Sydney in early December, the JFF is celebrating not only a return to cinemas for its loyal attendees on its 25th anniversary, but a new partnership that will see the Festival align with Palace Cinemas in what is seen as a synergy for the two organisations.
“Basically, we wanted to streamline our process,” explains Susan Bui, one this year’s programmers who has been curating the Japanese Film Festival during the recent pandemic.
“In the past, we’d been working with a lot of venues, we worked with Event Cinemas, we worked with Hoyts, and we’ve worked with cultural institutions for the Special Series program as well. It was a lot of communication back and forth, which left a lot of room for error.
“Palace Cinemas themselves have a really great reputation for featuring foreign cinema. They present a lot of their own film festivals. And they have their own programming team as well. It was a no brainer in that sense to collaborate with Palace Cinemas.
“And with covid restrictions changing the cinema experience based on spacing, it also made sense to go with Palace. Their cinemas are less cramped and the overall experience of going to the cinema, in that sense, is quite a bit nicer.”
And with covid sidelining audiences in 2020 due to rolling lockdowns, the anticipation of returning to cinemas, albeit under strict safety protocols, has been an endgame for the Festival from the outset.
“From the very get-go it was going to be in cinemas. And we would only cancel if we weren’t allowed to go ahead. It was stressful, especially during the middle of Sydney’s lockdown, and then Melbourne went into lockdown, then Canberra went into lockdown…
“I spoke to other festivals, and they were saying, ‘we’re surprised you guys are still going ahead?’ and my response was usually ‘I’m surprised too. But we’re going to hold out until the very end.’
“Maybe we were a little bit riskier? But there was no plan to take it online. Though we do have as part of this program, a very small online series of around five films, during November, which we will present for free alongside the in-cinema program.”
With the full program now available online, the roster for 2021 sees a strong return of the festival’s popular pop-culture infused line-up with a number of manga adaptations headlining, including action-comedy sequel The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill, the supernatural mystery thriller The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window and the twisted rom-com Liar x Liar starring Nana Mori from 2019’s Weathering With You.
Another popular aspect of the JFF are the rich, often complex period dramas, and this year’s offerings continue to deliver, with the delectable culinary drama Mio’s Cookbook, and the biographical edo-period set Hokusai, based on the life of the celebrated ukiyo-e artist, featuring a star-studded supporting cast.
However, with one of the festival’s leading programmers at our disposal, we would be remiss not to ask Susan Bui herself if she has a favourite film in this year’s cinematic slate. “My personal favourite is Under the Open Sky [above],” she reveals a little sheepishly, having called out a favourite child among many; “Kōji Yakusho, is one of my favourite actors. I think he’s such a versatile actor.
“The film itself is about an ex-yakuza who’s been in jail for 13 years and it looks at people like him, recently released from incarceration and how they try to assimilate back into society. It is a serious topic, and it looks at Japanese society and how there aren’t many systems in place for people like that. And outside of him trying to assimilate into society, he’s also looking for his long-lost mother and connecting back to his foundation. That would be hands down my favourite film of the program.”
The 25th Japanese Film Festival begins October 28 in Canberra, traveling through Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney until December 5.
For the full program, schedule, and ticket sales visit www.japanesefilmfestival.net
