Hiroyuki Sanada has been honing his acting skills for over fifty years, having started when he was six years old. He landed his first role opposite the celebrated Japanese actor and martial artist Sonny Chiba in Game of Chance. Since then, the Tokyo-born actor, 63, has barely decelerated.
Hiroyuki Sanada in Shōgun (Credit: FX)
That being said, we cannot overlook the brilliant performance he gave in Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks’ Shōgun. As Lord Yoshii Toranaga, he practically steals every scene of the FX series. Unfortunately, the 10-episode series is over, but he has starred in a number of similar flicks that are well worth your time.
Nevertheless, Sanada’s résumé includes a number of stellar but lesser-known roles. Rest assured, if you enjoy his portrayal of Lord Toranaga, here are three must-see films starring the talented actor that will satisfy your craving for more of his compelling performances.
1. The Twilight Samurai...
Hiroyuki Sanada in Shōgun (Credit: FX)
That being said, we cannot overlook the brilliant performance he gave in Rachel Kondo & Justin Marks’ Shōgun. As Lord Yoshii Toranaga, he practically steals every scene of the FX series. Unfortunately, the 10-episode series is over, but he has starred in a number of similar flicks that are well worth your time.
Nevertheless, Sanada’s résumé includes a number of stellar but lesser-known roles. Rest assured, if you enjoy his portrayal of Lord Toranaga, here are three must-see films starring the talented actor that will satisfy your craving for more of his compelling performances.
1. The Twilight Samurai...
- 5/11/2024
- by Siddhika Prajapati
- FandomWire
Black Forest Films, the multi-award winning team behind My Cherry Pie (2022), The Viper’s Hex (2018) and Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla (2014), and Mad Alice Productions have unveiled the first images and synopsis for their upcoming feature film, An American Masquerade.
Two failing actors and a porn star. A car full of contraband. One hell of a road trip…
Scott Mifune (Yoji Yamada) and Lenny Bulger (Dylan Heath) are two failed actors attempting to eke out an existence in Portland, Oregon. Between smoking weed and embarrassing auditions, their dreams of moving back to Hollywood are seemingly dying. That is until a change of luck finds them with an opportunity to make a large sum of money to transport drugs to LA. En route, they defend a porn starlet, Indiana Union (Elissa Dowling), from her violent manager and she joins them on their journey. Along the way, the trio meet a wild array of criminals,...
Two failing actors and a porn star. A car full of contraband. One hell of a road trip…
Scott Mifune (Yoji Yamada) and Lenny Bulger (Dylan Heath) are two failed actors attempting to eke out an existence in Portland, Oregon. Between smoking weed and embarrassing auditions, their dreams of moving back to Hollywood are seemingly dying. That is until a change of luck finds them with an opportunity to make a large sum of money to transport drugs to LA. En route, they defend a porn starlet, Indiana Union (Elissa Dowling), from her violent manager and she joins them on their journey. Along the way, the trio meet a wild array of criminals,...
- 5/3/2024
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre's 13th annual Toronto Japanese Film Festival will be held from June 6th to 20th at the Jccc's Kobayashi Hall. The festival has now grown into one of the largest film events of its kind in the world and is recognized by the Japanese film industry as a vital conduit for bringing Japanese film to the world.
TorontoJFF is programmed to reflect the rich diversity of the world 4th largest film industry and the 2024 edition will feature 24 films including the International Premieres of Kosai Sekine's mystery drama Stay Mum「かくしごと 」starring Anne Watanabe and Eiji Okuda and Toshiyuki Teruya's heartwarming Okinawa-based comedy Kanasando「かなさんどー 」. The festival is also very proud to present the World Premiere of Alice Il Shin's Landscapes Of Home 「故郷の風景」 from producer Eiko Kawabe Brown. The film is an investigation of Japanese Canadian struggle from a new perspective redefining...
TorontoJFF is programmed to reflect the rich diversity of the world 4th largest film industry and the 2024 edition will feature 24 films including the International Premieres of Kosai Sekine's mystery drama Stay Mum「かくしごと 」starring Anne Watanabe and Eiji Okuda and Toshiyuki Teruya's heartwarming Okinawa-based comedy Kanasando「かなさんどー 」. The festival is also very proud to present the World Premiere of Alice Il Shin's Landscapes Of Home 「故郷の風景」 from producer Eiko Kawabe Brown. The film is an investigation of Japanese Canadian struggle from a new perspective redefining...
- 4/26/2024
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre’s 13th annual Toronto Japanese Film Festival will be held from June 6th to 20th at the Jccc’s Kobayashi Hall. The festival has now grown into one of the largest film events of its kind in the world and is recognized by the Japanese film industry as a vital conduit for bringing Japanese film to the world.
Tjff is programmed to reflect the rich diversity of the world 4th largest film industry and the 2024 edition will feature 24 films including the International Premiere of Kosai Sekine’s mystery drama Stay Mum「かくしごと 」starring Anne Watanabe and Eiji Okuda.
North American Premieres include Hayato Kawai’s comic retelling of the 47 Ronin story Don’T Lose Your Head!「身代わり忠臣蔵 」, Sho Miyake’s gentle tale of friendship amid mental-health struggles, All The Long Nights「夜明けのすべて 」, Yoshiyuki Kishi’s winner of the Audience Award and Best Director at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival,...
Tjff is programmed to reflect the rich diversity of the world 4th largest film industry and the 2024 edition will feature 24 films including the International Premiere of Kosai Sekine’s mystery drama Stay Mum「かくしごと 」starring Anne Watanabe and Eiji Okuda.
North American Premieres include Hayato Kawai’s comic retelling of the 47 Ronin story Don’T Lose Your Head!「身代わり忠臣蔵 」, Sho Miyake’s gentle tale of friendship amid mental-health struggles, All The Long Nights「夜明けのすべて 」, Yoshiyuki Kishi’s winner of the Audience Award and Best Director at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival,...
- 4/18/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 47th edition of its awards ceremony on March 8, 2024. The nominees are selected by the Nippon Academy-Sho Association of industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2023 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas.
Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).
The full list of winners is described below.
Picture of the Year
Monster
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
September 1923
Perfect Days
Animation of the Year
Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...
Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards and leading with 12 nominations, Toho Studios' and Takashi Yamazaki's kaiju cinema masterpiece “Godzilla Minus One” takes top honours winning Picture of the Year and a slew of technical awards. Sakura Ando cements her place as one of Japan's top actresses securing both awards for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (for “Monster”) as well as Supporting Role (for “Godzilla Minus One”).
The full list of winners is described below.
Picture of the Year
Monster
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
September 1923
Perfect Days
Animation of the Year
Kitaro Tanjo – GeGeGe no...
- 3/12/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
The Skip City International D-Cinema Festival 2024 will celebrate its 21st edition from July 13th (Sat) to 21st (Sun), 2024 for 9 days at Skip City, which is an integrated institution for digital cinema production.
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 31st, 2024 (Wed) – March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival remains committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now calling for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director's 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
All nominated films in competition categories are eligible for the Festival Organizers awards.
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 31st, 2024 (Wed) – March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival remains committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now calling for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director's 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
All nominated films in competition categories are eligible for the Festival Organizers awards.
- 2/2/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
The 66th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards, presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, has announced its winners on January 24, 2024. The nominees are selected from movies released in 2023. The trifecta wins for “Godzilla Minus One” come as no surprise, sweeping the Best Film, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories. Yuya Ishii picks up the Best Director award for both his movies “The Moon” and “Masked Hearts”.
Best Film
Masked Hearts
Ichiko
Egoist
Monster
The Dry Spell
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
(Ab)normal Desire
The Moon
One Last Bloom
Perfect Days
Bad Lands
September 1923
Do Unto Others
As Long as We Both Shall Live
Best Director
Yuya Ishii – The Moon, Masked Hearts
Hirokazu Koreeda – Monster
Daishi Matsunaga – Egoist
Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One
Yoji Yamada – Mom, Is That You?!
Best Actor
Goro Inagaki – (Ab)normal Desire
Ryunosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One, We're Broke, My Lord!
Best Film
Masked Hearts
Ichiko
Egoist
Monster
The Dry Spell
Godzilla Minus One
Mom, Is That You?!
(Ab)normal Desire
The Moon
One Last Bloom
Perfect Days
Bad Lands
September 1923
Do Unto Others
As Long as We Both Shall Live
Best Director
Yuya Ishii – The Moon, Masked Hearts
Hirokazu Koreeda – Monster
Daishi Matsunaga – Egoist
Takashi Yamazaki – Godzilla Minus One
Yoji Yamada – Mom, Is That You?!
Best Actor
Goro Inagaki – (Ab)normal Desire
Ryunosuke Kamiki – Godzilla Minus One, We're Broke, My Lord!
- 1/25/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Following a generation of organizational drift, the Tokyo International Film Festival has charted a course towards greater global influence under the ambitious leadership of current chairman Hiroyasu Ando. A career diplomat for Japan’s Foreign Service, Ando took the helm of the Tokyo festival in mid-2019 and quickly set about remaking the event, changing its location, shaking up the programming ranks, recruiting arthouse star Hirokazu Kore-eda to program a seminar series and adding more glamor to the after-dark parties and filmmaker fetes. A lot of that revitalization went unseen by the international film community, however, thanks to the long interregnum of the pandemic. In 2023, the Tokyo festival’s renewed outlook will be harder to miss.
“Now that the coronavirus disaster is fully over, we were able to make further progress in moving forward and upgrading our festival,” Ando tells The Hollywood Reporter.
To leverage Japan’s strengths and boost the...
“Now that the coronavirus disaster is fully over, we were able to make further progress in moving forward and upgrading our festival,” Ando tells The Hollywood Reporter.
To leverage Japan’s strengths and boost the...
- 10/23/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Tokyo International Film Festival undertook a series of bold changes in 2020 to enhance its international reach, including a location change and major shakeups across staffing and programming. For the global film community, however, much of the overhaul went unfelt due to the travel restrictions of the pandemic. The Tokyo festival’s chairman, Hiroyasu Ando, emphasized at a press conference in the Japanese capital Wednesday that the event “aims to take a bigger leap” this year with its upcoming 36th edition, making good on its ambitions for a transformation.
“We’re really focussing on international interaction,” Ando said, noting that the festival would welcome some 600 overseas guests this year, including filmmakers, jury members and industry professionals, a major uptick from the 104 international industry VIPs who attended in 2022.
The Tokyo International Film Festival will open Oct. 23 with a gala screening of acclaimed German auteur Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days, which...
“We’re really focussing on international interaction,” Ando said, noting that the festival would welcome some 600 overseas guests this year, including filmmakers, jury members and industry professionals, a major uptick from the 104 international industry VIPs who attended in 2022.
The Tokyo International Film Festival will open Oct. 23 with a gala screening of acclaimed German auteur Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days, which...
- 9/27/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Previous recipients include Steven Spielberg, Yoji Yamada and Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is to honour Chinese filmmaker Gu Xiaogang and Indonesian director Mouly Surya with the Kurosawa Akira Award at its upcoming 36th edition, which runs October 23 to November 1.
The award, which was revived last year after an absence of 14 years, is presented to filmmakers who have “made waves in cinema” and are expected to help guide the industry’s future. A ceremony to present the awards will be held at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel on October 31.
Director Gu broke through with internationally acclaimed debut Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains,...
Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is to honour Chinese filmmaker Gu Xiaogang and Indonesian director Mouly Surya with the Kurosawa Akira Award at its upcoming 36th edition, which runs October 23 to November 1.
The award, which was revived last year after an absence of 14 years, is presented to filmmakers who have “made waves in cinema” and are expected to help guide the industry’s future. A ceremony to present the awards will be held at Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel on October 31.
Director Gu broke through with internationally acclaimed debut Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains,...
- 9/25/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The Tokyo International Film Festival revealed Monday that China’s Xiaogang Gu and Indonesia’s Mouly Surya will jointly receive the festival’s prestigious world cinema honor, the Kurosawa Akira Award, at the upcoming 36th edition of the event.
The award, which until last year had been on a 14-year hiatus, is presented to “filmmakers who have made waves in cinema and are expected to help guide the industry’s future.” The prize has been previously awarded to film luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Yoji Yamada and Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien. Last year’s recipients were Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu and Japan’s own Koji Fukada.
The 2023 honorees were chosen by a selection committee including director Yoji Yamada, veteran actress Fumi Dan, casting director and producer Yoko Narahashi, film critic Saburo Kawamoto and Tokyo Festival’s programming director Shozo Ichiyama.
Hailing from southern China, Gu’s debut feature,...
The award, which until last year had been on a 14-year hiatus, is presented to “filmmakers who have made waves in cinema and are expected to help guide the industry’s future.” The prize has been previously awarded to film luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Yoji Yamada and Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien. Last year’s recipients were Mexican auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu and Japan’s own Koji Fukada.
The 2023 honorees were chosen by a selection committee including director Yoji Yamada, veteran actress Fumi Dan, casting director and producer Yoko Narahashi, film critic Saburo Kawamoto and Tokyo Festival’s programming director Shozo Ichiyama.
Hailing from southern China, Gu’s debut feature,...
- 9/25/2023
- by Abid Rahman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Further winners included Spanish documentary ‘Muyeres’.
Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Japanese drama Yoko scored a hat-trick of prizes at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s (Siff) Golden Goblet Awards including best film.
The film’s Japanese lead Rinko Kikuchi was named best actress for her performance of Yoko, a 42-year-old single woman who embarks on long journey to her hometown after the death of her estranged father. The film also won the best screenplay prize.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Kikuchi previously received an Oscar nomination for 2006’s Babel and worked with director Kumakiri on Hole In The Sky...
Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Japanese drama Yoko scored a hat-trick of prizes at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s (Siff) Golden Goblet Awards including best film.
The film’s Japanese lead Rinko Kikuchi was named best actress for her performance of Yoko, a 42-year-old single woman who embarks on long journey to her hometown after the death of her estranged father. The film also won the best screenplay prize.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Kikuchi previously received an Oscar nomination for 2006’s Babel and worked with director Kumakiri on Hole In The Sky...
- 6/19/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
Further winners included Spanish documentary ‘Muyeres’.
Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Japanese drama Yoko scored a hat-trick of prizes at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s (Siff) Golden Goblet Awards including best film.
The film’s Japanese lead Rinko Kikuchi was named best actress for her performance of Yoko, a 42-year-old single woman who embarks on long journey to her hometown after the death of her estranged father. The film also won the best screenplay prize.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Kikuchi previously received an Oscar nomination for 2006’s Babel and worked with director Kumakiri on Hole In The Sky...
Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Japanese drama Yoko scored a hat-trick of prizes at the Shanghai International Film Festival’s (Siff) Golden Goblet Awards including best film.
The film’s Japanese lead Rinko Kikuchi was named best actress for her performance of Yoko, a 42-year-old single woman who embarks on long journey to her hometown after the death of her estranged father. The film also won the best screenplay prize.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Kikuchi previously received an Oscar nomination for 2006’s Babel and worked with director Kumakiri on Hole In The Sky...
- 6/19/2023
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
The Shanghai International Film Festival, China’s most prestigious movie industry event, kicks off its 30th-anniversary edition Friday night. It will be the first version of the festival that’s easily accessible to the global film community since 2019, after the past three editions were either canceled or rendered difficult to attend by strict Covid-19 travel restrictions at the time.
This year, film stars from at home and afar will descend on China’s commercial capital to celebrate the ongoing comeback of China’s movie business. Jason Statham will lend some Hollywood star power to the proceedings when he walks the red carpet for the festival’s opening ceremony Friday night in promotion of his upcoming Warner Bros. blockbuster sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, which opens Aug. 4 and co-stars Chinese leading man Wu Jing. European film legend, Jerzy Skolimowski of Poland — who wrote Roman Polansky’s landmark Knife in the Water...
This year, film stars from at home and afar will descend on China’s commercial capital to celebrate the ongoing comeback of China’s movie business. Jason Statham will lend some Hollywood star power to the proceedings when he walks the red carpet for the festival’s opening ceremony Friday night in promotion of his upcoming Warner Bros. blockbuster sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, which opens Aug. 4 and co-stars Chinese leading man Wu Jing. European film legend, Jerzy Skolimowski of Poland — who wrote Roman Polansky’s landmark Knife in the Water...
- 6/9/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski and Mathew Scott
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Shanghai International Film Festival (Siff) has unveiled the major competition selections for its 25th edition (June 9-18), which will be the first to be held in a fully physical format with international guests since before the pandemic.
The festival’s Golden Goblet Awards comprises five sections – Main Competition, Asian New Talent, Animation Film, Documentary Film and Short Film. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in the Shanghai Grand Theater on June 17.
Siff’s main competition will screen 12 films, including Mom, Is That You?!, from Japanese veteran filmmaker Yoji Yamada; European titles including Muyeres, from Spanish director Marta Lallana, and The Chapel, from Belgium’s Dominique Deruddere; Indian director Haobam Paban Kumar’s Joseph’s Son; and three Chinese titles – Liu Jiayin’s All Ears, Johnathan Li’s Dust To Dust and Chen Shizhong’s Good Autumn, Mommy.
Poland’s Jerzy Skolimowski is heading the jury for the main competition,...
The festival’s Golden Goblet Awards comprises five sections – Main Competition, Asian New Talent, Animation Film, Documentary Film and Short Film. Winners will be announced at a ceremony in the Shanghai Grand Theater on June 17.
Siff’s main competition will screen 12 films, including Mom, Is That You?!, from Japanese veteran filmmaker Yoji Yamada; European titles including Muyeres, from Spanish director Marta Lallana, and The Chapel, from Belgium’s Dominique Deruddere; Indian director Haobam Paban Kumar’s Joseph’s Son; and three Chinese titles – Liu Jiayin’s All Ears, Johnathan Li’s Dust To Dust and Chen Shizhong’s Good Autumn, Mommy.
Poland’s Jerzy Skolimowski is heading the jury for the main competition,...
- 5/29/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
The story of the forty-seven ronin of Ako avenging their fallen master is a significant historical event in Japanese history that has practically gone down as a legend. The events that transpired have frequently been retold in media, most notably in literature through the fictionalized accounts known as “Chushingura.” In addition, many retellings of the vengeful retainers' plot for revenge have been depicted in traditional theater and in cinema. Filmmakers that have directed their depictions include Kenji Mizoguchi, Kunio Watanabe, and Hiroshi Inagaki. Of the countless cinematic renditions, one of the more underrated and unique is Kon Ichikawa's “47 Ronin.”
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Director Kon Ichikawa, who had directed a fair share of period pieces beforehand like “An Actor's Revenge” and “The Wanderers,” had expressed interest in adapting “Chushingura” for quite some time. He was finally given the opportunity towards the approaching end of his career.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Director Kon Ichikawa, who had directed a fair share of period pieces beforehand like “An Actor's Revenge” and “The Wanderers,” had expressed interest in adapting “Chushingura” for quite some time. He was finally given the opportunity towards the approaching end of his career.
- 5/4/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
The pioneering Far East Film Festival (Feff), held annually in the picturesque Northern Italian city of Udine, continued making history with its 25th-anniversary edition this year. At the closing ceremony on Sunday, Malaysian drama Abang Adik, written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Jin Ong, achieved a clean sweep of the highest prizes, marking the first time that a film from the Southeast Asian nation took top honors at the specialty festival.
Abang Adik won Feff’s first-place Golden Mulberry audience award, as well as the Black Dragon critics’ prize and the White Mulberry Award for best first feature. Ong is a veteran figure of the Malaysian entertainment industry, having worked in the music business and film and TV production for many years (he’s produced well-received films like Shuttle Life, 2017; and Miss Andy, 2020; among others), but Abang Adik is his first film as a writer and director. The movie...
Abang Adik won Feff’s first-place Golden Mulberry audience award, as well as the Black Dragon critics’ prize and the White Mulberry Award for best first feature. Ong is a veteran figure of the Malaysian entertainment industry, having worked in the music business and film and TV production for many years (he’s produced well-received films like Shuttle Life, 2017; and Miss Andy, 2020; among others), but Abang Adik is his first film as a writer and director. The movie...
- 5/1/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In Plan 75, Japan suffers two existential crises: the very real economic and societal strains of its aging population and, worse yet, a severe loss of empathy. It’s set in an alternative present where older people are at best ostracised from society; at worst they’re targets of violent hate crimes. Grasping for a solution, or perhaps eyeing a nefarious opportunity, the government introduces a voluntary euthanasia program.
The director of this engrossing, chilling, depressingly plausible dystopia is Chie Hayakawa, a first-time filmmaker from Tokyo who got a special mention from Rossy de Palma’s Un Certain Regard jury in Cannes last summer. Expanding on her 2018 short of the same name, Plan 75 is both compelling and overstuffed. Hayakawa splits her story into four perspectives, though I’d wager any two might have done the trick. The best protagonist is Michi (Chieko Baisho), a seemingly single and childless woman of 81 who,...
The director of this engrossing, chilling, depressingly plausible dystopia is Chie Hayakawa, a first-time filmmaker from Tokyo who got a special mention from Rossy de Palma’s Un Certain Regard jury in Cannes last summer. Expanding on her 2018 short of the same name, Plan 75 is both compelling and overstuffed. Hayakawa splits her story into four perspectives, though I’d wager any two might have done the trick. The best protagonist is Michi (Chieko Baisho), a seemingly single and childless woman of 81 who,...
- 4/21/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Italy’s Far East Film Festival unveiled a power-packed lineup Wednesday for its 25th anniversary edition. The largest cinema event in Europe specializing in popular moviemaking from Asia, Feff will open April 21 with an inspired double bill, He Shuming’s hit Korea-Singapore co-production Ajoomma followed by first-time Taiwanese director Kai Ko’s black comedy Bad Education. And on April 29, the curtain will come down on the festival with the Italy premiere of legendary Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s latest blockbuster, Full River Red. Between those dates, the festival will screen 78 Asian films from 14 countries, including nine world premieres.
The organizers of Feff, founded in 1999 in the picturesque northern Italian city of Udine by festival pioneers Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, say the 2023 selection “aims to showcase the immense complexity of Asia more than ever before.” The lineup indeed presents a compelling snapshot of a wildly diverse content’s commercial cinema in flux.
The organizers of Feff, founded in 1999 in the picturesque northern Italian city of Udine by festival pioneers Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche, say the 2023 selection “aims to showcase the immense complexity of Asia more than ever before.” The lineup indeed presents a compelling snapshot of a wildly diverse content’s commercial cinema in flux.
- 4/6/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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