Japanese Film Festival 2023 Program Booklet

SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER 2023

CANBERRA 30 SEP - 15 OCT

PERTH 16 - 22 OCT

BRISBANE 6 - 22 OCT

MELBOURNE 23 OCT - 5 NOV

SYDNEY 23 - 31 OCT

#jffau2023 japanesefilmfestival.net

The Japan Foundation, Sydney acknowledges and pays respect to Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, upon whose Country the Japanese Film Festival Australia is held.

Welcome to the 27th Japanese Film Festival (JFF) in Australia!

It has never been a more exciting time to engage in the world of cinema. With greater demand for diverse stories told through film in recent years, moviegoers are spoilt for choice when it comes to experiencing interesting narratives on the big screen. Once again, we can’t wait to offer audiences across Australia the chance to come together and celebrate Japanese culture through film.

This year, our program tells stories that honour our unbreakable bond with the past. From tales of overcoming loss through art to stories that explore longstanding traditions, JFF 2023 reminds us of the importance of looking to one’s past, in order to grow and push forward in the present.

When you join us at the cinema this year, you might encounter a young fishmonger who suddenly inherits big money and along with it, a costly dilemma. You may even meet two quarrelling brothers at odds over the future of their family’s bathhouse, or a team of scientists attempting to solve a dreadful mystery rooted in old shamanic rites. Featuring the latest box office hits in addition to a selection of 35mm prints from New Wave cinema pioneer Kō Nakahira, this year’s lineup is sure to evoke nostalgia in Japanese cinema lovers, while also introducing new ideas and perspectives.

The JFF is presented by The Japan Foundation, Sydney and tours five major cities across Australia.

Thank you to our faithful audiences, generous sponsors and amazing volunteers for 27 years of celebrating Japanese cinema!

JFF Programmers

Midori Aoyama

Chiara Pallini

Angie Ngie

Assisted by

Manisay Oudomvilay

Maira Wilkie

Presented by The Japan Foundation, Sydney

Presented By

Major Partners

Government Partners

Cultural Partners

Venue Partner

SPECIAL SERIES: KŌ NAKAHIRA

22 Danger’s Where The Money Is! 危いことなら銭になる

22 Flora on the Sand

23 Milkman Frankie

23 Mud Spattered Purity 泥だらけの純情

24 Only On Mondays 月曜日のユカ

24 Temptation

25 The Black Gambler

25 The Hunter’s Diary 猟人日記

26 Juvenile Jungle

Director: Tetsu Maeda

2023 DCP 120 mins

UNCL: All ages (mild violence and reference to suicide)

A little fish in a deep sea of debt

Naive and pure-hearted Koshirō̄ has only ever wanted to become like his father, the maker of the best salted salmon in the Nibuyama Domain. The last thing he expected to thwart his dream was the discovery of his true identity as the illegitimate child of the Feudal Lord Ikkosai. Ikkosai’s sudden decision to retire from his political duties to the peace of his traditional teahouse is not only bizarre, but mildly suspicious…until Koshirō discovers he’s inherited not only an entire Domain, but a staggering debt with bloodcurdling consequences! Featuring a star-studded cast, this wildly entertaining film is director Maeda’s latest comical adventure into the melodrama of Japanese feudalism.

©2023 “WE’RE BROKE, MY LORD!” Film Partners COMEDY

We’re Broke, My Lord! 大名倒産

A Man

Director: Kei Ishikawa

2022 DCP 121 mins

UNCL: 15+ (strong themes of death, suicide, mild coarse language, mild violence, mild sexual references). Content warning: Discriminatory language and behaviours

Does the truth really set you free?

Over four blissful years, Rie and her son shared a loving new life with her second husband, Daisuke. His sudden accidental death brings not only grief, but an unnerving discovery for the widow: the man she thought she knew was posing under someone else’s identity. In a startling dual narrative, the mystery around Mr. X unfolds beneath the hands of Kido, the attorney handling the case. Prefaced by René Magritte’s surrealist painting Not to be Reproduced, this thoughtprovoking film is a vital addition to a growing genre of Japanese cinema that interrogates fragile morals permeating contemporary society.

One-sided love has never felt so good!

Director: Takehiko Shinjō

2023 DCP 99 mins

UNCL: All ages (mild kisses, mild coarse language)

Maaya Kisaragi is in her second year of high school, and has just been completely rejected by her crush. Heartbroken and mortified, she vows out loud to “never confess to someone ever again”… only to realise later that her high school’s heartthrob Chigira Sui is within earshot! Upon hearing Maaya’s weeping, Chigira proposes a strange solution to heal her heartbreak – that she pretends to have a crush on him instead. When Chigira starts treating Maaya sweetly, it isn’t hard for her to keep up pretences in this strictly onesided love game… but as the pair grow closer, Maaya’s feelings for Chigira become undeniable. What will become of their “pretend crush” now?

AND YET, YOU ARE SO SWEET なのに、千輝くんが甘すぎる。

©2022 “A Man” Film Partners

©2023 “AND YET, YOU ARE SO SWEET” Film Partners ©AK/K

MYSTERY ROMANCE

BRAVE: GUNJO SENKI

ブレイブ -群青戦記-

Director: Motohiro Katsuyuki

2021 DCP 115 mins

UNCL: 18+ (strong violence and gore, mild kissing, mild verbal reference to rape)

Will present-day highschoolers have what it takes to face the biggest battle of Japanese history?

When a lightning bolt strikes an elite sports school, day-to-day club activities are drastically interrupted by a samurai army wreaking havoc on the campus. Kyūdō club member and history geek Aoi soon realises that the entire school has travelled back in time to the gruesome Sengoku Period; precisely before the famous Battle of Okehazama, featuring none other than Lord Oda Nobunaga himself! Thanks to his familiarity with the battle’s tactics and encouragement from his childhood friend Haruka, Aoi is chosen to become the leader of a rescue mission against the clock to save his abducted friends, just in time to return to the present.

©2021 BGFP ©Masaki Kasahara/ SHUEISHA FANTASY

SPECIAL EVENT

Post-Film Talk

Kitano Blue

Melbourne

The Kino | Saturday 28 October

Screening: 15:30 - 16:50

Talk Event: 16:50 - 17:20

Professor Sean Redmond (Deakin University) will explore Kitano’s films through the lens of colour and how it has been used to convey emotions and character relationships, while advancing storylines. Professor Redmond will also connect Kitano’s use of colour to painting and art - the way they add fine grain detail to the passing of time and the silence of space.

Citizen Kitano

Director: Yves Montmayeur

2020 DCP 73 mins

UNCL: 15+ (strong violence, themes of suicide, mild nudity, moderate coarse language)

The larger-than-life personality behind the icon

Explosive and unpredictable to the extreme, Kitano’s immense lifetime of work has cultivated his legendary image among cult audiences across the globe. An icon of Japanese cinema, Kitano’s boundary-pushing directorial success is famously shadowed by his highly popular comedy personality ‘Beat Takeshi’ on Japanese television. Composed of exclusive interviews and archival footage with significant figures such as Akira Kurosawa and David Bowie, this dynamic documentary presents a stark portrait of what led to Kitano’s fruition into an artist obsessed with gunning self-expression and the darker truths of the Japanese condition.

Father of the Milky Way Railroad

銀河鉄道の父

Director: Izuru Narushima

2023 DCP 128 mins

UNCL: All ages (moderate themes of illness, dementia and death, mild coarse language)

The story of one of Japan’s most beloved authors and the father who always believed in him

Directed by Izuru Narushima, this powerful biopic details the life of legendary poet and novelist Kenji Miyazawa, one of Japan’s most beloved children’s authors. As the eldest son of Masajirō, a wealthy pawnbroker, Kenji was raised with the expectation that he would one day inherit the family business. However, the free-spirited Kenji is determined to walk his own path in life, and takes it upon himself to pursue agricultural studies, synthetic gemstones and other eccentric ventures, despite his father’s bewilderment. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, this incredible story depicts the power of family and unconditional love that endures through times of hardship.

Lucky Door Prize: Your chance to win a Sakeshop prize in Brisbane, Perth and Canberra! See film schedule for dates

©2022 “Father of the Milky Way Railroad” FILM PARTNERS

DRAMA

Yokaipedia

GHOSTBOOK おばけずかん

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

2022 DCP 113 mins

UNCL: All ages (mild supernatural themes, death themes, mild violence)

When there’s a will, there’s a wish

After making wishes at a local shrine, Itsuki, Taichi and Sonny are visited by a ghost-like sprite during the night, who tells them about a mysterious Ghost Book that can grant any wish their hearts desire. But when the boys visit a second-hand bookstore in search of the book, chaos ensues as they are transported to an alternate universe inhabited by monsters! Not far behind is their schoolteacher Hayama (Yui Aragaki), who’s been dragged into the mayhem. The group soon realises they have a mission: they must capture the monsters in the Ghost Book before time runs out. Can they change destiny and return home before it’s too late?

Manic Monday takes on a whole new meaning!

MONDAYS: See you “this” week!

MONDAYS このタイムループ、

上司に気づかせないと終わらない

Director: Ryō Takebayashi

2022 DCP 82 mins

UNCL: All ages (mild reference to suicide)

Working overnight with colleagues, a head injury from a traffic accident, constant sleepiness on the job and a bird slamming itself into the office window... on top of a pressing deadline at her advertising job, Yoshikawa is having the worst week ever. As if her headache wasn’t bad enough, her coworkers Endō̄ and Murata are going mad and claim the entire office is stuck in a time loop... but after a few rounds of reliving the same mundane Monday, Yoshikawa soon realises they’re telling the truth. Now the teammates must work together, enlighten their oblivious colleagues and find a way to end this endless Monday!

© 2022 “GHOSTBOOK” Film Partners

FANTASY

Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom

金の国水の国

Director: Kotono Watanabe

2023 DCP 117 mins

UNCL: All ages (mild war themes, violence, mild nudity, mild sexual reference)

Cats and dogs, deserts and trees: will these kingdoms ever get along?

Glistening with gold and water beneath the same sun, Alhamit and Baikari are two warring kingdoms that have come to a diplomatic agreement: Alhamit will gift their most beautiful woman and Baikari their cleverest man, to wed the nations into peace. But apparently they are too stubborn to even honour such a simple deal, and trouble sparks when a dog and cat arrive in place of the promised bride and groom! In a strange twist of fate however, Princess Sarah of Alhamit and Naranbayar of Baikari meet in the forest by chance, without realising who the other is…

©Nao Iwamoto / Shogakukan ©2023“Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom” Film Partners

Director: Yasujirō̄ Tanaka

2023 DCP 97 mins

UNCL: All ages (very mild violence, mild themes of death and discrimination, mild coarse language, very mild verbal reference to sexual assault)

Three queens on the road trip of a lifetime!

Drag queen and owner of a gay bar in Tokyo’s vibrant Shinjuku, Natchan carried her gender identity to the grave and hid it from everyone outside her community – including her own mother. Left to mourn are her family of queens, now faced with an unforeseen reality: they have no clue of her address, origin, or legal family. Virgin, Morilyn and Zubuko find themselves bickering their way on the road to Natchan’s funeral in a remote town in the mountains, determined to keep their identities from posthumously exposing her. Grappling with an all-too-common reality of the LGBT+ closet in Japan, this wildly hilarious film is a heartfelt road trip into reckoning with loss and acceptance.

Lucky Door Prize: Chance to win a Choya prize in Sydney and Melbourne! See film schedule for dates.

Natchan’s Little Secret ひみつのなっちゃん。

Yudo: The Way of the Bath

湯道

Director: Masayuki Suzuki

2023 DCP

UNCL: 15+ All ages (mild themes, mild nudity, mild coarse language, mild violence)

Content warning: Themes that may be considered offensive to some viewers

The bathhouse: where dreams are steamed to perfection

In a room where famously everyone is stark naked, heat is bound to rise!

Written by Kundō Koyama of Oscarwinning film Departures, Yudo: The Way of the Bath subtly humours the Japanese reverence of ritual. Centred around a provincial Showaera bathhouse named ‘Marukin Hot Springs’, the film weaves between narratives of its eccentric customer base while its fate is determined by conflicting brothers in charge, Shirō and Gorō. From the prim and pretentious onsen critic to the retiring postman obsessed with perfecting his Zen bathing ritual, this endlessly charming film orchestrates an amusing commentary on meaning amidst cultural upheaval and change.

©2023 YUDO Film Partners

SPECIAL EVENT

Post-Film Talk

Takashi Shimizu’s Archaeology of Millennial Japanese Horror: Immersion in J-Horror’s folkloric pasts and techno-futures

Melbourne

The Kino | Sunday 29 October

Screening: 15:30 - 17:20

Talk Event: 17:20 - 17:50

Takashi Shimizu’s latest film Immersion sees one of the founding fathers of millennial J-Horror riff on the genre in self-aware ways. Dr Jessica Balanzategui (RMIT University) will discuss how the film’s VR-powered spectral curse refracts how J-Horror’s distinctive melange of traditional haunts and techno-horrors has progressed since the launch of Shimizu’s influential Ju-on: The Grudge at the cusp of the 21st century.

Immersion

Director: Takashi Shimizu

2023 DCP 108 mins

UNCL: 15+ (supernatural horror, mature themes, moderate gore, sexual violence)

The looming curse of an old grudge dyes an island in red.

Neuroscientist Tomohiko Kataoka (Daigo Nishihata) relocates to a secluded island to join ‘Shinsekai’, a research team studying the connections between virtual reality technology and neuroscience. However, things take a dark turn when the team’s VR duplicate of the island flags an eerie glitch in the shape of a mysterious woman in red. When violent drowning deaths start to occur, the island’s deeply rooted shamanic superstitions seem to be the only key to uncovering a terrifying curse claiming lives from beneath the ocean surface.

© 2023 IMMERSION Production Committee

HORROR

Post-Film Talk

Teasing Out Literary and Folkloric Traditions in The Forbidden Play

Brisbane

Palace Barracks | Saturday 21 October

Screening: 14:30 - 16:20

Talk Event: 16:20 - 16:50

Dr Lucy Fraser (The University of Queensland) will discuss some of the literary and folkloric sources of the film’s hauntings and supernatural figures, including the long hair so often seen on ghostly women, and explore how the film evokes these traditions through the lens of current social issues in Japan concerning gender, family, and religion.

The Forbidden Play

禁じられた遊び

Director: Hideo Nakata

2023 DCP 110 mins

UNCL: 15+ (strong supernatural horror and death themes, mild theme of bullying, strong gore, moderate violence, moderate coarse language)

An unforgiving poison stains the world of the living.

When beloved wife and mother Miyuki passes away, her little son Haruto buries one of her fingers in the backyard she cherished dearly, hoping to bring her back to life. As father Naoto watches Haruto chant a resurrection spell, he can hardly bear to tell him there’s no way to bring his mother back. But little does Naoto know, as Haruto repeats his chants daily, something evil is pulsing underground... How could Miyuki ever rest in peace when Naoto turned his back on a family promise? A playful mixture of Hollywood and J-horror tropes, this film is the latest from Hideo Nakata, the director of Ring (1998).

©2023 “The Forbidden Play” Film Partners

HORROR

Single8

Director: Kazuya Konaka

2023 DCP 113 mins

UNCL: All ages (very mild verbal reference to body touching)

An homage to filmmaking steeped in nostalgia

Praised by leading directors Hirokazu Kore-eda and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Single8 is a charmingly naturalistic film that follows the leaps and dives of a group of high schoolers in 70s Japan as they endeavour to make an ambitious home movie. Inspired by the revolutionary special effects of Star Wars, Hiroshi is coerced into having another crack at filmmaking after his debut flop Claws; a mountain bear spin-off of Spielberg’s Jaws. A fascinating visitation of the lengths that impassioned youth went to in a time before digital video editing software existed, Single8 unpretentiously reflects on the challenges of creative process and experimentation.

We Made a Beautiful Bouquet

花束みたいな恋をした

Director: Nobuhiro Doi

2021 DCP 124 mins

UNCL: All ages (mild coarse language, sexual references, mature themes)

Petals of young love on an upstream current

The last train at midnight leaves a group of stragglers stranded at the station, who opt for a bar rather than paying for a taxi home. Among them are twenty-two-yearolds Mugi and Kinu, whose curiosity for one another is fated to have a lasting and more intricate outcome than initially expected. Caught in the period of youth when many enter the gruelling Japanese workforce, the pair live under the pressure of maintaining an income without compromising their creative passions. Patient and bittersweet, this romance chronicles the fleeting lifespan of love, as Mugi and Kinu reckon with the hard realities of societal life imposing on their relationship and senses of self.

© 2021 “We Made a Beautiful Bouquet” Film Partners DRAMA

ROMANCE

Live Sumi-e Performance

Sydney

Palace Norton | Saturday 28 October

Screening: 14:30 - 16:20

Performance: 16:30 - 17:00

Artist Tomoko Oka creates sumi-e and Japanese calligraphy, in both traditional forms and in her own unique style, including abstract artworks using Japanese ink. As well as showing in exhibitions, her works have featured in high profile restaurants, branding and marketing campaigns for clients including Opera Australia and Japan Airlines.

The artist will create sumi-e art inspired by traditional Japanese motifs and the live performance will be projected onto the cinema screen.

The Lines That Define Me 線は、僕を描く

Director: Nori Koizumi

2022 DCP 106 mins

UNCL: : All ages (mild themes of death)

“Sumi-e will give you the strength to live”

After witnessing Sōsuke’s first intimate encounter with a sumi-e painting, ink-painting master Kozan Shinoda spontaneously invites him to become his pupil and introduces him to the delicate, emotional power of bleeding ink. Overcome by the recent loss of his family , the chance gradually offers Sōsuke a new path by which to ruminate on the dichotomising beauty of nature and ritualise his grief and selfexpression.

©Hiromasa Togami / KODANSHA ©2022“The Lines that Define Me” FILM PARTNERS

Stunningly captured, the tempo of the strokes and their delivery invigorate the sumi-e performances, offering a window into the traditional intergenerational sensibilities of Japanese artistic disciplines.

KŌ NAKAHIRA: A NEW WAVE ON THE SHORES OF JAPANESE CINEMA

JFF Special Series returns to cinemas in 2023 and proudly presents the work of filmmaker Kō Nakahira (1926-1978), a pioneering figure in post-war Japanese cinema.

Nakahira began his career as an assistant director at Shochiku Studio, where he worked alongside prominent directors including the likes of Akira Kurosawa and Yūzō Kawashima. Later on Nakahira would move to Nikkatsu, where he made his directorial debut with Juvenile Jungle (1956). The film became an immediate cultural phenomenon that not only stirred controversy in Japan, but also became an important reference point for the international New Wave movement. Over his prolific twenty-year career, Nakahira’s subsequent experimentation across genres, narrative styles and cinematic forms culminated in over forty features that opened a new era in Japanese film.

Famous for making enemies of film critics with his straight talk, Nakahira was an outspoken stylist who prioritised a film’s visuals over the story itself. Often dubbed “the technique man” by his peers, Nakahira’s films reveal a diverse cinematography dedicated to freedom of form, as well as content that pushed the boundaries of mainstream cinema at the time. Nakahira’s works shine a light on stifling conventions and restrictive attitudes towards sex in Japan’s post-war society, with a focus on characters who struggle to find purpose in a modern world they are still adapting to.

This Australia-first retrospective showcases a wide-ranging selection of films produced during Nakahira’s Nikkatsu period, during which he shot successive films with impressive speed. From stylish erotic thrillers to slapstick comedies, psychological melodramas and hardboiled action films, the program demonstrates Nakahira’s versatility across genres, a trait that would set him apart as one of the early transnational directors of the post-war era.

This free Special Series program is part of the Japanese Film Festival 2023 presented by The Japan Foundation, Sydney and made possible by The Japan Foundation Film Library.

© 1956 Nikkatsu

Danger’s Where The Money Is!

危いことなら銭になる

Director: Kō Nakahira

1962 35mm 82 mins

UNCL: 15+ (strong violence and moderate gore, mild themes, mild coarse language, erotic dancing and verbal reference to sex)

Can this riotous bunch of misfits pull off the perfect heist?

Hoping to counterfeit billions in one hot night of pursuit, three petty criminals will need more than their wits to outsmart the big boss and his ring of armed thugs – for instance, a fistful of the formidable lady Tomoko! Soon everyone is fighting over Japan’s best counterfeiter, trailed hysterically by his senile, cash-savvy wife. In a hilarious series of twists and east-meets-west humour, Nakahira delivers the money in style… but to whom? Starring the infamous king of crime cinema Joe Shishido, Danger’s Where The Money Is! presents an outstanding example of Nakahira’s directorial versatility as a true master of timing.

Possession: A troubled man’s free fall into surreal meanderings of identity

Flora on the Sand

砂の上の植物群

Director: Kō Nakahira

1964 35mm 94 mins

UNCL: 15+ (strong sexual references, moderate sexual violence, mature themes, mild nudity, mild infrequent coarse language)

Drawing from Paul Klee’s painting of the same name, Flora on the Sand premises with a strange imagining: Devoured by jealousy, a dying man swears to make his wife the weapon capable of destroying her future lover. Following the sexual exploits of the haunted protagonist Ichirō, Nakahira dawns onto an era of leaking taboos – zealously foreshadowing Japan’s famed genre of ‘pink’ films. Swimming with artistic and daring themes, the film inhabits the dark recesses of a man’s psychological Pandora’s box as he dissolves into an ever-increasing Oedipus-like complex.

© 1962 Nikkatsu

© 1964 Nikkatsu

SPECIAL SERIES SPECIAL SERIES

Milkman Frankie

牛乳屋フランキー

Director: Kō Nakahira

1956 35mm 83 mins

UNCL: All ages

Content warning: Depiction of Native Americans may be offensive to some viewers

A simple-minded milkman’s adventures as he navigates the big smoke!

Raised earnestly by his feudal grandfather in the countryside of Chōshū, Milkman

Frankie is astonished by the strangers he encounters upon his arrival in Tokyo. Frankie possesses a unique combination of clumsiness and undying dedication reminiscent of bushidō samurai code. Committed to providing good service, he devotes his innovative imagination to saving a milk delivery business from bankruptcy – despite the evermodernising Bulldog Milkmen poaching their customer base.

A slapstick caricature ingeniously disguised within fine-tuned classic Japanese humour, Milkman Frankie thoroughly quenches a country’s implicit thirst for satire in the wake of post-war rapid industrialisation.

Mud Spattered Purity

泥だらけの純情

Director: Kō Nakahira

1963 35mm 90 mins

UNCL: 15+ (strong violence and sexual violence, mature themes, coarse language, mild verbal and visual reference to drugs)

An urban battlefield: Young love caught in the crosshairs of underground Tokyo

A lowly member of the Tsukada Gang, Jirō’s failed drug run is the first event to seriously test his devotion to his yakuza family. With nothing to sacrifice but his autonomy, he seems ready and willing –until a chance meeting with Mami throws things out of order. Though she is the daughter of a wealthy diplomat, the two strike up an unlikely friendship that quickly spirals towards dreams of an unattainable life together. Set against a strikingly chaotic underground Tokyo, Nakahira mirrors a national dichotomy of the times: The violent underbelly rippling beneath Japan’s progress in establishing itself amongst a globalising world.

© 1956 Nikkatsu

© 1963 Nikkatsu SPECIAL SERIES

SPECIAL SERIES

Temptation

誘惑

Only On Mondays

月曜日のユカ

Director: Kō Nakahira

1964 35mm 93 mins

UNCL: 15+ (moderate sexual references, mild themes, mild coarse language) Content warning: Racial slurs and behaviour

Eighteen, bright and beautiful, Yuka’s life is funded by her sugar daddy and entertained by her younger lover Osamu. Yuka sees her sole purpose in life to be at the dedicated servitude of men. Is this pure girlish naivety, or a culturally skewed concept thriving in the unstable post-war years? Presenting the coquettish Yuka as a fascinating anti-heroine, Only On Mondays plays a remarkable game of gender interrogations and is one of Nakahira’s few films to be known internationally. Saturated with New Wave style, this thought-provoking film is a startling portrait of a sexually assertive woman roughing a rapidly changing socio-political climate.

Director: Kō Nakahira

1957 35mm 92 mins

UNCL: All ages (mild themes and very mild sexual references)

Romantic musings in the heat of post-war Tokyo

“Sex is life, art is money!” is the teasing declaration tossed into view, instantly marking a bohemian divide between Hideko and her bemused father Shō̄kichi. A fastidious member of an avant-garde collective of young artists, Hideko operates with practical innovation to coerce Shōkichi into hosting an art exhibition for them in the new gallery above his business. But his mind is thoroughly in the clouds, brooding over romantic reminiscences…much like everybody else! Masterfully veiled by an early form of romantic comedy, Temptation invites a charming exploration of changing ideas around sex and art in the alluring heat of post-war Tokyo.

“…to love is to give your best; to give your best is to make a man happy”

© 1964 Nikkatsu

© 1957 Nikkatsu SPECIAL SERIES

SPECIAL SERIES

The Black Gambler

黒い賭博師

Director: Kō Nakahira

1965 35mm 86 mins

UNCL: 15+ (moderate violence and sexual references, theme of gambling)

Has this smooth-talking dealer finally met his match?

A regular Japanese crime star, Akira Kobayashi rolls smoothly onto the gravel of Tokyo’s gambling dens as the skilled and gentlemanly stranger Kō̄ji Himuro. Mistrusts and deceptions creep into a perilous ring around his unbeatable left-hand deal, as he unwittingly tempts a trail of rivalries. Little does he know that a deadly international gambling syndicate is on its way to Tokyo. Released alongside Nikkatsu’s immensely popular churn out of 60s crime, The Black Gambler casts a wide-eyed lens on Japan’s globalising condition, and brilliantly captures Nakahira’s swift and comprehensive style in full colour film.

Combing the silhouetted streets of Tokyo: a labyrinthian film noir

The Hunter’s Diary

猟人日記

Director: Kō Nakahira

1964 35mm 123 mins

UNCL: 15+ (strong sex scenes, moderate nudity, moderate mature themes)

When a young woman he once seduced is reported dead by suicide, Ichirō Honda assumes the incident to be a pure coincidence with no correlation to his past contact with her. But with the sinister death of another past ‘prey’, a paralysing fear possesses him on his late-night escapades shadowing women. As death trails innocent lives behind him, Ichirō, in a seemingly bizarre twist of events, turns from stalker into the one being stalked. With mystery crime underpinnings that take us into the shady bars and underground bathhouses of a city awake by night, The Hunter’s Diary swings expansively towards Japan’s post-war cinematic obsession with film noir.

© 1965 Nikkatsu

© 1964 Nikkatsu SPECIAL SERIES

SPECIAL SERIES

Post-Film Talk

Crazed Juveniles: 1950s and the Birth of the Japanese Jazz Movie

Melbourne

ACMI | Saturday 4 November

Screening: 15:30 - 17:00

Talk: 17:00 - 17:30

Dr Stephen Gaunson (RMIT University) will discuss Juvenile Jungle and its significant influence as a film of the taiyōzoku (‘Sun Tribe Generation’) genre. The discussion will also cover the contextual importance of music in the film and how it represents international cultural influx.

Kō Nakahira: Adventures of a Nikkatsu Journeyman

Sydney

The Chauvel | Wednesday 25 October

Screening: 18:00 - 19:30

Talk: 19:30 - 20:00

Dr Russell Edwards will discuss how Juvenile Jungle established Nakahira’s technical merit and thematically daring approach, but also eclipsed his other, equally intriguing films, many of which never received global release.

Juvenile Jungle

Director: Kō Nakahira

1956 35mm 85 mins

UNCL: 15+ (moderate visual and verbal sexual references, violence and themes)

An idyllic summer agitating the waters of traditional Japanese cinema

Bathed in an endless summer of gambling, boating and drinking with their rebellious friends, brothers Haruji and Natsuhisa seem set up for another indulgent vacation by the seaside. A chance meeting with Eri has Haruji smitten with first love, and it looks like his quiet nature has won her over. But the explosive, directionless energy of those around him are about to rampage his experience of love and brotherhood, in an unforgettable blaze off Nakahira’s silver screen. Based on the novel Crazed Fruit by Shintarō Ishihara, the film was an immediate cultural phenomenon that inspired a new genre of taiyōzoku (‘Sun Tribe Generation’) films and internationally propelled the New Wave movement.

VENUES, DATES AND BOOKING INFORMATION

Canberra

30 September –15 October

Palace Electric

2 Phillip Law Street

Canberra ACT

Box office open

11am-8pm (02) 6222 4900

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia

McCoy Circuit

Acton ACT

Box office open

10am-4pm

Saturday & Sunday (02) 6248 2000

Perth 16 October –22 October

Palace Raine Square

300 Murray Street

Perth WA

Box office open 11am-8pm (08) 6165 4960

Brisbane

6 October –22 October

Palace Barracks

61 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane QLD

Box office open

11am-8pm (07) 3367 1356

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

Whale Mall

South Brisbane QLD

Walk-ins only

10am-5pm Visit qagoma.qld.gov.au

Melbourne 23 October – 5 November

The Kino

45 Collins Street

Melbourne VIC

Box office open

11am-8pm (03) 9650 2100

Palace Balwyn 231 Whitehorse Rd

Balwyn VIC Box office open

11am-8pm (03) 9817 1277

Sydney 23 October – 31 October

Palace Norton Street 99 Norton Street

Leichhardt NSW

Box office open

11am-8pm (02) 9564 5620

Ticket Prices

Palace Central 28 Broadway

Chippendale NSW

Box office open

11am-8pm (02) 9190 2290

Adult $20

Concession $18

JPF & Palace Members1 $16

Group Bookings (10+) 2 $16

ACMI

Federation Square

Flinders Street

Melbourne VIC

Box office open

10am-5pm (03) 8663 2200

Palace Verona 17 Oxford Street

Paddington NSW

Box office open

11am-8pm (02) 9360 6099

1 Excludes Opening Film and Special Events. All tickets must be purchased in one transaction.

2 Excludes Opening Film and Special Events. All tickets must be purchased in one transaction. Visit the Palace Cinema website for further details.

The Chauvel 249 Oxford Street

Paddington NSW

Box office open

11am-8pm (02) 9361 5398

Online japanesefilmfestival.net

(Booking fees apply)

Box Office

Please call the box office first to confirm if tickets are on sale

Festival Enquiries

The Japan Foundation, Sydney (02) 8239 0055 | jffau@jpf.go.jp

SCHEDULE Canberra 30 September – 15 October

Palace Electric

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA)

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net

Perth 16 – 22 October Palace Raine Square

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net

Brisbane 6 – 22 October

Palace Barracks

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net

Melbourne 23 October – 5 November

The Kino

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net

Palace Balwyn

See you “this” week!

このタイムループ、 上司に気づかせないと終わらない

27 Oct Fri 20:30

Forbidden Play 禁じられた遊び Horror

28 Oct Sat 12:00 AND YET, YOU ARE SO SWEET なのに、千輝くんが甘すぎる。 Romance

28 Oct Sat 14:30 The Lines That Define Me 線は、僕を描く Drama

28 Oct Sat 17:00 We Made a Beautiful Bouquet 花束みたいな恋をした Romance

28 Oct Sat 20:30 BRAVE: GUNJO SENKI ブレイブ -群青戦記- Fantasy

29 Oct Sun 12:00 Gold Kingdom and Water Kingdom 金の国水の国

29 Oct Sun 14:30

MONDAYS: See you “this” week! MONDAYS このタイムループ、 上司に気づかせないと終わらない Comedy

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net

Sydney 23 – 31 October

Palace Norton Street

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net

Palace Verona

The Chauvel

OPENING Special Event Includes Lucky Door Prize All films will have English subtitles. Schedules may be subject to change. For the most updated schedule, visit japanesefilmfestival.net