Tokyo International Film Festival
Tokyo: How Softcore Erotica Sustained Japan’s Film Industry and Nurtured Some Leading Directors
Safe to say there isn’t another country bar Japan where a handful of top directors, including celebrated auteurs and an Oscar winner, learned their craft in adult films. Or perhaps even anywhere else in the world where that is imaginable. But when cinemagoing plunged in parallel with the penetration of television sets into homes in […]
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Tokyo: Producer Genki Kawamura Talks Directorial Debut, ‘Your Name’ Hollywood Remake
Producer, scriptwriter, best-selling author and now award-winning director Genki Kawamura is best known for his work on Makoto Shinkai’s 2016 anime megahit Your Name. Beginning his career at Toho, his talented was spotted early and he was trusted with producer duties on major projects at Japan’s biggest studio. In 2010, he worked on the Confessions, […]
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Tokyo: Programmer Shozo Ichiyama on Making Festival Bridge Between Japanese and Global Film Worlds
In his second year as programming director, industry veteran Shozo Ichiyama believes he has taken another step closer to realizing his vision for the Tokyo International Film Festival. A producer known for working with China’s Jia Zhangke, Japan’s Takeshi Kitano and Taiwan’s Hou Hsiao-hsien, Ichiyama is striving to make TIFF a gateway between the Japanese […]
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Tokyo: Director Takahisa Zeze Talks Historical Importance of Fest Opening Movie, Freedom of Low-Budget Filmmaking
Opening this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival is Takahisa Zeze’s war drama Fragments of the Last Will, a tragic but hopeful story from a little-known chapter of Russo-Japanese history. Based on the true story of Hatao Yamamoto (Kazunari Ninomiya), one of more than half a million Japanese soldiers taken to the Soviet Union after World […]
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‘Tokyo Vice’ Producer Alan Poul Talks Season 2, Why Japan’s Capital Is the “Most Difficult” City to Shoot
American director and producer Alan Poul is best known to the industry for his work on prestige HBO series like Six Feet Under, The Newsroom and Big Love, but his career began, improbably, on a soundstage on the west side of Tokyo, Japan. After graduating with a degree in Japanese language and literature from Yale […]
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‘Kaymak’ Review: Milcho Manchevski’s Sex-Charged Couples Dramedy Doesn’t Exactly Titillate
The latest film from the Macedonian director of the Oscar-nominated 'Before the Rain' made its world premiere in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
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‘Mountain Woman’ Review: A Japanese Girl Tries to Avoid Starving to Death in Somber Period Drama
Writer-director Takeshi Fukunaga ('Out of My Hand') premiered his latest feature, set in 18th-century Japan, at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
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Tokyo: Sally Amaki, Jon Kabira to Host 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Japan (Exclusive)
Anime specialty service Crunchyroll has selected the star hosts for its first-ever live awards show, which will be held early next year in Japan. Renowned voice actress Sally Amaki and veteran entertainer Jon Kabira will co-host the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards, the company said Tuesday at the Tokyo International Film Festival. “We share a deep […]
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Tokyo Film Fest Kicks Off With Return of Overseas Guests, Celebration of Local Talent and Ultraman
In a welcome return to normalcy, the Tokyo International Film Festival rolled out the full red carpet, all 541 feet of it, for the first time since 2019, once again welcoming guests from around the globe to a new venue for its opening ceremony on a brisk autumn evening in the Japanese capital. The COVID-19 […]
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Tokyo: Fest Chairman Hiroyasu Ando Aims Big as International Guests Return
Former diplomat Ando Hiroyasu has lofty goals as chairman of Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) and a vision of how to raise the profile of Japan’s premiere celebration of cinema. But with a realpolitik perspective perhaps partly forged in his four-decade diplomatic career, he is under no illusions as to the scale of the challenges […]
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Tokyo: Donnie Yen on Stepping Behind the Camera for His Martial Arts Passion Project ‘Sakra’
Donnie Yen is among the exceedingly few actors of his generation to have worked at the highest levels of both Hollywood and the Chinese film industry. These days, though, he says he’s putting all his focus in the singular project of elevating Chinese commercial cinema’s reputation on the world stage. Yen made his breakthrough way […]
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Tokyo: Director Takeshi Fukunaga on His Competition Film, Straddling Cultures and Delving Deep Into Japan
With his atmospheric period feature Mountain Woman (Yama Onna) in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival, and the only Japanese director helming an episode of FX’s upcoming Shōgun remake, Takeshi Fukunaga looks well on the way to fulfilling the promise suggested by his feature debut, Out of My Hand. Released in 2015, Out of […]
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