Watch FREE Eiga Sai 2016
We know how much you enjoyed last year's festival. So, The Japan Foundation, Manila brings you Eiga Sai Japanese Film Festival 2016 packed with extra punch! This time, Eiga Sai partners with Cinemalaya for its much-awaited annual filmfest. Kicking off the event is the screening of Kakekomi followed by a roster of outstanding Japanese films such as Chronicle Of My Mother, The Emperor in August, Ken and Kazu, August in Tokyo, The Great Passage, The Little House, Pale Moon, Crossroads, The Boy and the Beast, Flying Colors, and Our Little Sisters. Like in the previous celebrations, all films will be shown with English subtitles. Go to the screening venues on the scheduled movie dates at least a couple of hours before the screening starts to guarantee your seats. Watch as many Japanese films as you can for FREE!
Synopsis:
Kakekomi
- A warm-hearted period film based on “Tokeiji Hanadayori,” a novel by playwright Inoue Yasushi. Set at an actual “divorce temple” in Kamakura, it follows the efforts of a male protagonist who assists a group of women attempting to exit their marriages and make a new start in life. Its director is Harada Masato. In 1841, novice doctor and playwright Shinjiro (Oizumi Yo) lives rent-free at an inn that takes in women seeking divorces. One day, two women run into his life: Jogo (Toda Erika), a foundry worker with burns on her face, and O-Gin (Mitsushima Hikari), a courtesan with an injured leg. Shinjiro continues to get caught up in a whirlwind of events, like being threatened by Sanpachi (Jun Hashimoto), the yakuza boss bursting into Kashiwaya looking for his woman, and dragged into the pregnancy hullabaloo of Yuki (Misuzu Kano) who is a kakekomi woman at Tokeiji. All the while, Mizuno’s Reforms have gotten harsher and his right-hand man, Torii (Yukiya Kitamura), is plotting to send a mole into Tokeiji to bring it down.
- A film adaptation of the autobiographical novel “Chronicle of My Mother” by Inoue Yasushi, one of Japan’s greatest literary talents, this family drama about the aging and death of a parent. It won the Special Grand Prix of the Jury at the 2011 Montreal World Film Festival. Kosaku (Yakusho Koji) was separated from his parents at an early age to be raised elsewhere and has grown up believing that he was abandoned by his mother. As an adult, he is still unable to move past this feeling; but when his now senile mother recites a certain poem, her true intentions come to light
- An adaptation of Hando Kazutoshi’s non-fiction novel “Nihon no Ichiban Nagai Hi: Ketteiban,” it reveals the anguish and deliberations of the Japanese who put their lives on the line to end the Pacific War and achieve peace. In April of 1945, as the Pacific War enters its final phase, Japan’s Prime Minister Suzuki Kantaro (Yamazaki Tsutomu) forms a new cabinet. Anami Korechika (Yakusho Koji), a trusted subject of Emperor Showa (Motoki Masahiro), is appointed Minister of War and makes his case for a final battle on Japanese shores.
- A drama depicting the conflict between friends who deal with drugs, Director Shoji Hiroshi made the feature film based on his short “Ken and Kazu,” which was screened in four countries including the 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam. Ken (Kato Shinsuke) and Kazu (Maiguma Katsuya) are partners in crime who use a car repair shop as their front for dealing stimulants. Ken tries to make a clean break after his girlfriend Saki (Iijima Shuna) gets pregnant, but Kazu has a secret
- “August in Tokyo” portrays the dynamics of people trying to co-exist in nature and in the city. Even though two individuals may be insignificant in the context of a society, one life meets another and they move forward. The film is directed by Nakagawa Ryutaro, one of the leading young up-and-coming filmmakers in Japan and an established poet. Screened in the Japanese Cinema Splash Category at the 2014 Tokyo International Film Festival. This film presents a parallel story of a man and a woman living in the suburb of Tokyo. In a corner of the city, a man named Natsuo lives as a yakuza and a woman named Natsuki works part-time. Although they rarely think about their families, they attempt to reunite with them. Brother and sister, father and daughter; the distance between them begins to shrink, but…
- “The Great Passage” is a drama about the passion of an editor who struggles to create a dictionary, as depicted over a fifteen-year period. Directed by Ishii Yuya, recipient of the Edward Yang New Talent Award for best new director at the Asian Film Awards in 2008, this film is based on 2012 Honya Taisho (bookseller award) winner Miura Shion’s novel of the same name. It represented Japan at the 86th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Publishing house salesman Majime (Matsuda Ryuhei) has an earnestness about him that sets him apart from his peers but he has a discerning sensibility when it comes to language, which lands him in the dictionary editorial department. He ends up editing “The Great Passage,” a huge dictionary with 240,000 entries.
- Master filmmaker Yamada Yoji adapts Nakajima Kyoko’s eponymous novel that won the 143rd Naoki Prize. Set against the backdrop of the “Showa Modern” period (1926 to 1945), it presents a full and mysterious account of a scandalous romance. Kuroki Haru’s performance was recognized with the award of a Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival. In 1936 in the suburbs of Tokyo, Taki (Kuroki), a maid working for the Hirai family, deeply admires Tokiko (Matsu Takako), the beautiful lady of the house. As war approaches, Tokiko’s relationship with a man named Itakura (Yoshioka Hidetaka) comes under suspicion. After much agonizing, Taki makes a fateful decision.
- An adaptation of popular author Kakuta Mitsuyo’s eponymous novel “The Kirishima Thing” by director Yoshida Daihachi, it depicts the downfall of a housewife who falls head over heels in love and into a life of crime. Miyazawa Rie convincingly plays the protagonist who plummets toward her own destruction. Wakaba Bank contract employee Rika (Miyazawa) meets university student Kota (Ikematsu Sosuke) at a client’s home. Unknown to her husband Masafumi (Tanabe Seiichi), she engages in secret rendezvous with Kota, and begins to embezzle money from her clients’ accounts to buy expensive cosmetics and pay off Kota’s debt.
- Sawada (Kuroki Keiji) works as an assistant cameraman until he joins the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers. At the training camp, he frequently breaks the rules, causing trouble and opposes Kazunari Hamura (Watanabe Masaru). Luckily, a fellow trainee named Shiho (Okamoto Tao) was there to play the mediator between the two. When they were dispatched to the Philippines, Sawada met a boy named Noel and his older sister Angela (Gosiengfiao Alodia) in Baguio. He witnessed their life and struggles prompting him to appreciate their struggles. Eight years later, Sawada finds himself with Hamura in the Tohoku region where the great earthquake and tsunami occurred.
- A feature-length animated film based on an original screenplay, created by Studio Chizu and Hosoda Mamoru, director of “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time,” “SUMMER WARS,” and “Wolf Children.” One day, a boy (voice: Miyazaki Aoi) meets a beast named Kumatetsu (voice: Yakusho Koji), and becomes his disciple out of a desire to grow stronger. He is given the new name “Kyuta,” and the two enter a strange arrangement that involves living and training together. They gradually create a strong bond equal to that of a true father-son relationship.
- A film adaptation of the nonfiction bestseller with 650,000 copies sold, it depicts the struggles of an airhead girl with bleached-out hair at the bottom of her class who strives to pass the entrance exam for the prestigious Keio University. Directed by Doi Nobuhiro of “Be With You” and “Hanamizuki.” Kudo Sayaka (Arimura Kasumi), who attends an all-girl’s high school in Nagoya, enrolls in a cram school at her mother’s behest. Sayaka is indifferent to her studies, ranks at the bottom of her class, and has the academic skills of a fourth grader, but she joins forces with her teacher Tsubota (Ito Atsushi) and tries to pass the extraordinarily competitive entrance exam for Keio University.
- Three sisters – Sachi (Ayase Haruka), Yoshino (Nagasawa Masami) and Chika (Kaho) – live together in an old large house in the city of Kamakura. When their father – absent from the family home for the last 15 years – dies, they travel to the countryside for his funeral, and meet their shy teenage half-sister for the first time. Bonding quickly with the orphaned Suzu (Hirose Suzu), they invite her to live with them. Suzu eagerly agrees, and a new life of joyful discovery begins for the four siblings…
- Log on to jfmo.org.ph to view the screening schedule
- Go to the screening venues on the scheduled movie dates at least two (2) hours before the screening time to guarantee your seat
- All films will be shown with English subtitles
- Watch and enjoy as many films as you can!
- Shang Cineplex Cinema 2, Shangri-la Plaza, EDSA, Mandaluyong City
- July 7
- Kakekomi - 7:30PM
- July 8
- The Great Passage - 1PM
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 4PM
- The Little House - 7PM
- July 9
- The Boy and The Beast- 1PM
- August in Tokyo - 4PM
- Kakekomi - 7PM
- July 10
- Our Little Sister - 1PM
- Flying Colors - 4PM
- Pale Moon - 7PM
- July 11
- The Great Passage - 1PM
- Crossroads - 4PM
- The Little House - 7PM
- July 12
- The Boy and The Beast - 1:PM
- The Great Passage - 4PM
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 7PM
- July 13
- Crossroads - 1PM
- The Little House - 4PM
- Flying Colors - 7PM
- July 14
- The Boy and The Beast - 1PM
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 4PM
- Pale Moon - 7PM
- July 15
- Kakekomi - 1PM
- The Little House - 4PM
- Crossroads - 7PM
- July 16
- The Boy and The Beast - 1PM
- Our Little Sister - 4PM
- Kakekomi - 7PM
- July 17
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 1PM
- Flying Colors - 4PM
- Pale Moon - 7PM
- Cultural Center Of The Philippines, Roxas Blvd, Pasay City
- July 8
- The Emperor in August - 7PM
- August 6
- Ken and Kazu - 6:15PM
- August 9
- August in Tokyo - 9PM
- August 10
- Ken and Kazu - 3:30PM
- August 12
- August in Tokyo - 3:30PM
- UP Film Institute, UP-Diliman, Quezon City
- August 17
- Flying Colors - 1PM
- Out Little Sister - 4PM
- The Great Passage - 7PM
- August 18
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 1PM
- Crossroads - 4PM
- August in Tokyo - 7PM
- August 19
- The Boy and The Beast - 1PM
- Kakekomi - 4PM
- Ken and Kazu - 7PM
- August 20
- The Boy and The Beast - 1PM
- The Little House - 4PM
- Pale Moon - 7PM
- Abreeza Mall, Cinema, Ayala, Davao City
- July 22
- The Great Passage - 1PM
- The Little House - 4PM
- Kakekomi - 7PM
- July 23
- Flying Colors - 1PM
- Out Little Sister - 4PM
- Pale Moon- 7PM
- July 24
- The Boy and The Beast - 1PM
- Flying Colors - 4PM
- The Great Passage - 7PM
- FDCP Cinematheque, Davao City
- July 26
- Crossroads - 5:30PM
- July 27
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 5:30PM
- July 28
- August In Tokyo - 5:30PM
- July 29
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 5:30PM
- July 30
- August In Tokyo - 3:30PM
- Crossroads - 5:30PM
- SM Baguio Cinema, Baguio City
- August 11
- Flying Colors - 7PM
- August 12
- The Great Passage - 1:30PM
- The Little House - 4:30PM
- Pale Moon - 7:30PM
- August 13
- The Boy and The Beast - 1:30PM
- Kakekomi - 4:30PM
- Our Little Sister - 7:30PM
- August 14
- The Boy and The Beast - 1:30PM
- August in Tokyo - 4:30PM
- The Great Passage - 7:30PM
- FDCP Cinematheque Baguio, Baguio City
- August 15
- Chronicle Of My Mother - 2:30PM
- Crossroads - 5:30PM
- Ayala Center Cebu Cinema, Cebu City
- August 17
- The Little House- 7PM
- August 18
- Pale Moon - 7PM
- August 19
- August In Tokyo - 7PM
- August 20
- The Boy and The Beast - 4PM
- Kakekomi - 7PM
- August 21
- Flying Colors - 4PM
- Our LIttle Sister- 7PM
- FREE Japanese Films (with English subtitles)
- Watch FREE films!
- None
