JAPAN HOT TITLES
The Little House
Black Butler
Homeland
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Giovanni’s Island
Hot titles: Japan Japanese films to watch out for include a revenge thriller adapted from a hit manga, a drama about the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and a children’s classic. By Jason Gray
Kubota makes his fictional feature debut with Homeland (Ieji), which world premieres in Panorama. It tells the story of a young man (Kenichi Matsuyama) who left his family almost two decades earlier, only to reappear following the March 11 disaster. He returns to his now-irradiated, deserted hometown inside the exclusion zone and begins to work the land as a farmer as his broken family slowly reunites. Masaaki Uchino, Yuko Tanaka and Sakura Ando co-star. The film opens domestically on March 1.
Black Butler
under the prolific director, Shinya Tsukamoto.
Contact Bitters End
Dirs Keiichi Sato, Kentaro Otani
Contact Free Stone Productions miyuki.takamatsu@freestone.jp
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Buyers looking for stylised Japanese action may be interested in this adaptation of Yana Toboso’s hit manga, which has previously spawned TV animations, video games and a musical. Set in a Victorian England-like universe of the near future, the liveaction feature stars Hiro Mizushima as butler Sebastian Michaelis, who is at the beck and call of adolescent master Shiori Genpo (Ayame Gouriki). In a soul-selling bargain with the demonic Sebastian, Shiori relies on the butler’s impeccable service and deadly martial-arts ability to avenge a past family tragedy. Co-directed by Keiichi Sato and Kentaro Otani, whose previous features include brutal animated feature Ashura and the Nana films respectively, the film is currently a top 10 theatrical release in Japan. Contact Gaga Corporation
Giovanni’s Island Dir Mizuho Nishikubo Japanese animation house Production I.G is known for cult favourites, including the Ghost In The Shell franchise and Blood: The Last Vampire, while 2012’s A Letter To Momo garnered mainstream success around the globe. Mizuho Nishikubo’s Giovanni’s Island is also striving for universal appeal with a post-war tale of children from different cultures bonding on Russia’s Sakhalin Oblast. Nishikubo is a longtime key collaborator of animation master Mamoru Oshii, who wrote Nishikubo’s previous feature Musashi: The Dream Of The Last Samurai, which screened at Locarno and Sitges. Buyers can see Giovanni’s Island at EFM before it opens domestically in Japan through Warner Brothers on February 22.
intl@gaga.co.jp
Forma Dir Ayumi Sakamoto Ayumi Sakamoto’s debut feature grabbed the top domestic prize at October’s Tokyo festival, and was quickly snapped up by Berlin’s Forum for its international premiere. This quietly gripping drama depicts the gradually darkening relationship between two former high-school classmates who reunite by chance as young women but now view their shared past in very different ways. Newcomers Nagisa Umeno and Emiko Matsuoka leave a strong impression as the one-time friends, with veteran Ken Mitsuishi (Himizu) lending gravity to the proceedings. The suspenseful climax generates enough can’t-look-away moments to rival full-on genre films. Sakamoto apprenticed
■ 36 Screen International at Berlin February 6, 2014
Contact Production I.G, Francesco Prandoni francesco@ production-ig.co.jp
Homeland Dir Nao Kubota
Forma
As Japan continues to struggle with the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, film-makers are beginning to tackle the topic more directly. Award-winning, prolific documentary director Nao
info@bitters.co.jp
Dir Takashi Shimizu J-horror virtuoso Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge, Tormented) shifts gear with a live-action adaptation of Eiko Kadono’s 1985 bestselling novel Kiki’s Delivery Service. That book, which spawned five sequels, was famously adapted into a 1989 animated feature directed by Hayao Miyazaki. In this new version, newcomer Fuka Koshiba plays Kiki, a teenage budding witch who, along with her talking black cat, takes a job delivering baked goods on her magic broom. Tadanobu Asano appears as a veterinarian. Buyers can see the full film at market. Toei is handling sales outside Asia and distributing it locally on March 1. Contact Toei
international@toei.co.jp
The Little House Dir Yoji Yamada The 82-year old Yoji Yamada is back in Competition at the Berlinale with family drama The Little House (Chiisai Ouchi). Set against the backdrop of pre-war and wartime Japan — with some sequences in the present — Takako Matsu stars as a housewife who falls in love with her husband’s younger colleague. Newcomer Haru Kuroki has generated strong word of mouth for her performance as Matsu’s devoted young maid, who soon grows conflicted over her knowledge of the affair. Yamada has competed four times previously, with 2007’s Love And Honour opening the Panorama and About Her Brother closing the festival in 2010, the year the film-maker received a Berlinale Camera. s Contact Shochiku ibd@shochiku.co.jp ■