Whether you are at all times trying ahead to the discharge of a brand new Japanese movie or you do not know a lot about movies from the Land of the Rising Sun, the annual Autumn Japanese Film Festival on the Jerusalem Cinematheque from January twenty second to thirty first gives a window into the wealthy and evolving world of up to date Japanese cinema.
For the previous decade, Akino has been one of many capital’s most anticipated cultural occasions. This yr, the exhibition will characteristic works by established authors and rising expertise.
The pageant is sponsored by the Embassy of Japan in Israel and the Israel-Japan Information and Culture Center.
Aki-no is providing a four-ticket bundle that additionally consists of admission to a lecture on conventional codes of conduct and fashionable Japanese society to be held on February 15 on the Japan Cultural Center on the Botanical Garden campus in Jerusalem.
Highlights of this yr’s lineup
The opening movie can be “Trial of Love” by director Koji Fukada, who received the Cannes Film Festival Award for the film “Harmonium.” Love on Trial explores the pressures of superstar and private freedom by means of the story of an up-and-coming J-Pop star caught in the midst of a media storm.
Directed by Takashi Miike, one among Japan’s most beloved administrators, Siam is a tense courtroom story and psychological thriller that explores allegations towards a trainer.
Professor Nissim Otmazgin from the Department of Asian Studies on the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will give a lecture in Hebrew concerning the movie Tokyo Taxi and focus on broader themes in Japanese society and movie. A remake of the French movie “Madeline’s Driver” directed by Yoji Yamada. The movie depicts the journey of life in Japan between an aged girl and a younger taxi driver, who bond as they drive by means of the town.
Animation followers will discover a lot to admire in director Mamoru Hosoda’s newest movie, Scarlet, which has earned a fame for its mix of heartfelt storytelling and beautiful visuals. Inspired by Hamlet, this fantasy-flavored story interweaves themes of betrayal, reconciliation, and therapeutic.
Directed by Satoko Yokohama, Serendipity by the Sea is a lyrical movie that captures the sluggish magic of childhood summers spent in a small coastal city. Based on a well-liked manga, this piece seems to be on the world from the attitude of an impressionable baby who meets a gaggle of visiting artists.
The program additionally consists of Yuiga Danzuka’s transferring household drama, Brand New Landscape, which explores the results of long-term parental separation on grownup kids and appears on the altering character of Tokyo as household ties unravel in fashionable society.
Mipo Oh’s “How Dare You” is a romantic comedy for younger adults that tells the story of a schoolchild whose environmental activism results in sudden development.
Directed by Yuya Ishii, The Real You is a science fiction movie set within the close to future through which a manufacturing facility employee’s life is shattered when his mom elects to die. Using know-how that reconstructs folks from digital traces, he brings her again to digital area the place she confronts disturbing truths about reminiscence and ethics.
Yasuko, a Song of Past Days, directed by Yoshitaro Negishi, is a interval drama depicting a love triangle between a poet, an actress, and a critic in Japan within the early twentieth century, and is a type of Japanese model of Francois Truffaut’s masterpiece Jules and Jim, which was set in France on the identical time. Blue Boy Trial, directed by Yoshiyoshi Iizuka, is a courtroom drama that grapples with social change and gender identification within the early ’60s.
Director Shingo Ota’s “Numakage Community Pool” is a documentary concerning the final summer season of a beloved neighborhood pool that’s scheduled to be demolished. Directed by Sho Miyake, Two Seasons, Two Strangers is a movie based mostly on Yoshiharu Tsuge’s story about two {couples} who meet in numerous seasons.
Ryota Nakano’s Bring Him Down to a Portable Size is the story of a girl who learns some superb secrets and techniques after the loss of life of her brother, a well-known however tough novelist. Toshizo Fujiwara’s “Adoration” depicts the world of a restaurant that employs troubled younger folks.
Expanding affect of Japanese movies in Israel
“It is debatable whether or not Japanese cinema, one of many world’s 5 largest movie industries, has extra attraction to Western audiences, or whether or not it’s exactly Western audiences who’re adapting and transferring nearer to the formal type of end-of-the-world cinema,” Loni Mahadev Levin, CEO of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and curator of the pageant, mentioned in an announcement.
“But in any case, there’s a rising presence of Japanese movies on this planet’s most prestigious movie festivals and even in worldwide industrial cinemas. This is definitely the case in Israel, the place Japanese movies are attracting native audiences.”
“Many of the Japanese administrators whose masterpieces we are going to display this yr, corresponding to Koji Fukada, Takashi Miike, Mif Oh, and Mamoru Hosoda, have discovered followers eagerly awaiting their subsequent movies.”
For extra details about the pageant, go to jer-cin.org.il/en/foyer/aki-no-japanese-film-festival-2026.