The Embassy of Japan, Japan Foundation and National Museum of the Romanian Peasant invites the public at this year’s edition of the Japanese Film Festival, held from November 25 to November 27, 2016 in Bucharest.
The host of the event is the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant and screenings will be performed at the Horia Bernea Studio (3 Monetariei Street).
The access is free for all screenings!
The five movies of this year’s edition of the Japanese Film Festival aim to present to the public in Bucharest several successful productions of the Japanese cinematography of today. The selection includes features circumscribed to the “food cinema” theme. The movies are signed by known film directors of the young generation, such as Naoki Segi, Keisuke Toyoshima, Masaki Hamamoto, Keisuke Yoshida and Yukiko Mishima.
The first two movies in the program are subtitled in Romanian, while the rest of the screenings are subtitled in English.
For further details about this event, please access:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1731218220532079/?active_tab=discussion
PROGRAM
November 25, at 19.00
Karaage USA
Japan/2014/95 min/subtitle in Romanian
Directed by: Naoki Segi
Casting: Ai Takahashi, Ken Kaitou
There are countless stores specialized in selling Karaage (Japanese-style fried chicken) in the city of Usa, prefecture of Oita, the city being also called “United States of Karaage”. After five years of absence, Ayane returns to Usa together with Shirley, a mulatto girl who is the daughter of the man with whom Ayane fled. Her relatives are surprised to see her again, and her father, Kosule, is reluctant to take her back. Ayane’s family holds a Karaage store, but the number of clients has decreased recently. Tomoya, a childhood friend, secretly in love with Ayane, advices her to take over her father’s business, but she refuses. Meanwhile, a new store opened under the franchise of an American brand specialized in fried chicken, manages to become very popular, representing a threat for the local products. After Kosuke has a heart attack, being hospitalized, Ayane experiences various recipes in order to improve the fried chicken sold by her family. All this time, a mysterious American arrives in Usa…
November 26, at 18.00
Eyelid of the Sea (Umi no Futa)
Japan/2015/84 min/subtitled in Romanian
Directed by: Keisuke Toyoshima
Casting: Akkiko Kikuchi, Azusa Mine
The movie is an adaptation of the successful novel of the Japanese writer Banana Yoshimoto.
Mari craves for the small town located at the seaside, where she was born, and she gives up the job she has in Tokyo to return to the native lands of the Shizuoka prefecture. She opens there a small store in which she is selling her favorite desert – ice flakes with syrup. One day she met Hajime, a young girl with complicated emotional problems, and she takes her under her wing. Hajime was wounded in a fire and the scars of the burns confess the traumas she had in the past. The two women are trying to leave the past behind, looking for a new start in a lifeless city…
November 26, at 20.000
Purple Sky (Akane zora)
Japan/2007/120 min/subtitled in English
Directed by: Masaki Hamamoto
Casting: Masaaki Uchino, Miki Nakatani, Renji Ishibashi
The action takes place at the middle of the 18th Century, in the Edo age, focusing on the history of a traditional Japanese product – tofu, and on its recipe: Edomae momen-dofu (hard tofu) and Kamigata-dofu (soft tofu), prepared by Eikichi and Ofumi. They are to young people, he is from Kyo (Kyoto) and she is from Edo (Tokyo) who married each other and open a tofu store together, naming it “Kyo-ya”, in Fukagawa. In the beginning, Eikichi’s tofu doesn’t have a great success, but by Ofumi’s efforts and due to her joyful nature, their store reaches to have more and more clients. They are blessed with three children: Eitaro, Goro and Okimi and they live in happiness taking care of their small business…
November 27, at 14.00
The Silver Teaspoon (Gin no saji)
Japan/2014/111 min/subtitled in English
Directed by: Keisuke Yoshida
Casting: Kento Nakajima, Alice Hirose, Tomohiro Ichikawa
The hero of the movie, Yuugo Hachiken, is a teenager who grew up in the city and who renounces to the city life in order to enroll at a high school having agriculture profile in Hokkaido, hoping that he will have more free time and he will find relaxation in the middle of the nature. But shortly he realizes that life in the countryside, agricultural works and taking care of animals aren’t as simple as he thought in the past. Unlike his colleagues who have already made future planes, Yuugo is tormented by the adolescent questions and anxiety, without knowing which way he will choose in life… The movie is an adaptation of the known comic series Gin no Saji, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa.
November 27, at 17.000
The Tear of the Grapes (Budo no namida)
Japan/2014/117 min/subtitled in English
Directed by: Yukiko Mishima
Casting: Yo Oizumi, Yuko Ando, Shota Sometani
It’s the end of the summer and an endless vine is spreads before the viewer. Ao, left home since a long time ago for having a musical career against his family’s will, came back at his parents’ home more than five years, being ill. Now he planted vine starting from a puny offshoot put in the ground by his father. He tries to cultivate Pinot Noir, but things don’t go as he wishes. Roku, his brother, who was only a child when Ao left, took over the field and the farm of the family after their father’s death. In the evening, the two brothers use to eat together the food prepared by Roku, and Ao is captivated by the mysteries of wine production. They live a quiet life along with their dog, Babette. But one evening, a mysterious women in a red dress appears…
