JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA is a free online film streaming programme that features Japanese independent films. Since 2020, the Japan Foundation (JF) has held the JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL ONLINE twice for overseas viewers, and has received a great response.
The aim of the new program JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA is to show the diversity of Japanese cinema. This is a free online streaming programme that features 12 Japanese independent films selected by managers from independent theaters, so-called “mini-theaters” throughout Japan. Mini-theaters have nurtured the diversity of the Japanese cinema culture and brought it up to the current state.
Although the number of Japanese films produced is one of the largest in the world, only a handful of films have been introduced overseas. This programme provides a great chance for the international audiences to discover new Japanese films.The films are streamed on the website JFF+ (Japanese Film Festival Plus) that is dedicated to Japanese films and run by JF. Alongside the films, interviews with directors and stories of mini-theaters bring the current state of Japanese film culture from multiple perspectives in its own context.
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I spent some of my break over Christmas enjoying what was on offer.
Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions is a documentary about a team of young people who record the memories of a town that was affected by the earthquake and Tsunami in 2011. Do you remember this? How easily great tragedy can be forgotten.
Tsunamis swallowed up many towns in the Tohoku region of Japan and the city of Rikuzentakata, which faces the Pacific ocean, was one area greatly impacted. In this poignant film, four young people visit the area to listen to the stories of the people who live in the new town that was built on top of the land that was devastated. They record the memories of the people they encounter and try to share their experiences. It is a tender and moving documentary that captures the memories of this tragedy.
Dryads in a Snow Valley
Niigata Prefecture, in central Japan, is known for its heavy snowfall. This documentary observes the lives of people who moved from the city to a village where removing snow from their roof in the winter is an essential part of life. The film observes their life as they engage in work such rice farming and traditional dyeing.
I my earlier Substack post on Andy Courturier’s book The Abundance of Less, I talked about this phenomena of people escaping the city to take up a slower, older, more traditional rural way of life. This is not an easy life. Glimpses of Japan’s social issues such as the depopulation, the effects of the earthquake and nuclear disaster intertwine with ordinary daily activities and creative lives of the people. And yet the warmth, resilience and appreciation of simple living shines through.
I found it distressing to watch the de-budding of baby goat’s horns, but other than that I enjoyed this glimpse at rural Japanese life.
Wonderwall
I really liked this. It’s a fictionalised film about students striving to save a beautiful old student form, which is looks like a squat but has glimpses of beauty with its old shoji screens. The kind of place I would’ve loved to be in as as student. And not too far removed from my own experience.
Set in Kyoto, with its old, traditional landscapes, it is also a city of students. There is a student dorm that still exists today that has kept the feel of the 1960s and 1970s student activism alive. The university decides to close down the aging dorm but the students continue to negotiate with the university. The dorm becomes a symbol of freedom against conformity. (Watch until the very end).
Hottamaru
Hottamaru” is a term coined by the director, Nao Yoshigai that means “the things that accumulate by being left alone”. The dancing spirits of the house collect things that are shed from the human body and they perform a ritual dance under the full moon at night—it is a world of dance and music as depicted by Yoshigai, known for her original cinematic vision. Popular musician, Satoko Shibata, plays the human and owner of the house. It’s quirky and arty and strangely absorbing.
Somebody’s flowers
This is a drama based the director’s own experiences. Takaaki, a young man who is pained by the death of his older brother Kento, visits his elderly parents in a housing complex, the father has dementia. One day something falls from the building and hits a neighbour’s head. Takaaki struggles to figure out if his father was the cause of the accident.
I found it a compelling domestic drama. Peering into the small apartments of Japanese living. I like the touches of everything being labelled to help the old man with dementia orientate himself. The fried egg offering to the deceased older brother. The film builds up layer on layer of people affected by loss. It’s a very watchable film.
Leaving on 15th of Spring
Minami-Daito island is located 360 kilometers south of the main Okinawa island, located in the southern-most region of Japan. There is no high school on the island and all of the middle schoolers going on to high school must move to the main island. Yuna spends her last year of middle school in her hometown while worrying about her family who she will eventually have to leave behind.A beautiful story of growing up set in an existing island and its cultures and lifestyles, full of local folk music.
More films will be released running up to the end of March.