Since the first Chinese-Japanese Films Festival held in December, 2017, each winter, film fans will be waiting for the annual Chinese-Japanese Films Festival: Japanese Films Festival. Now, the 2020 Chinese-Japanese Films Festival: Japanese Films Festival is ready to open. From December 20, 2019 to January 5, 2020, an array of new Japanese films will meet audiences in Shanghai and Guangzhou.
In January, 2019 Chinese-Japanese Films Festival: Japanese Films Festival was celebrated in Shanghai and Chengdu, presenting 6 films, including FLY ME TO THE SAITAMA, NETEMO SAMETEMO, HANALEI BAY, and YOUR BING CAN SING and YOU, I LOVE and THE BASTARD AND THE BEAUTIFUL WORLD, attracting tens of thousands audiences to cinemas. During the festival, the audience attendance rate was above 90%.During the meet-and-greet session, Japanese Director Hideki Takeuchi communicated with fans face to face, livened up the atmosphere and was rewarded with laughter and applauses. In March, Chinese-Japanese Films Festival: Chinese New Films Festival 2019 was celebrated in Tokyo and Osaka, where 6 films were screened and met with great enthusiasm, including LOST FOUND, PEGASUS, ALA CHANGSO, THE ROAD NOT TAKEN, THE ISLAND, and PATROLMAN BAOYIN. The Chinese and Japanese film makers also got together in Tokyo to discuss how to enhance the exchanges and cooperation between the film industry of the two countries, which received great buzz.
Hideki Takeuchi Taking Pictures with the Audience during the Japanese Films Festival 2019
2020 Chinese-Japanese Films Festival: Japanese Films Festival will bring to the Chinese audience 8 new Japanese films, including TALKING THE PICTURES, AT THE END OF THE MATINEE, THE 47 RōNIN IN DEBT, FAMILY OF STRANGERS, THEY SAY NOTHING STAYS THE SAME, COME KISS ME AT 0:00 AM, HIT ME ANYONE ONE MORE TIME and GOODBYE, among with GOODBYE is world premiere, while COME KISS ME AT 0:00 AM and THE 47 RōNIN IN DEBT are international premiere. The films were starred by famous actors such as Katayose Ryota, Kanna Hashimoto, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Satomi Ishihara, Masaharu Fukuyama, Tadanobu Asano and Yutaka Takenouchi. THEY SAY NOTHING STAYS THE SAME was the first film director by former actor Jô Odagiri and TALKING THE PICTURES was the new comedy director by Mayayuki Suo after the last one from 5 years ago.
GOODBYE
【World Premiere】
Director:Izuru Narushima
Cast: Yô Ôizumi, Eiko Koike, Asami Mizukawa, Ai Hashimoto
During the recovery of postwar Japan, Tajima worked as a magazine editor while earning plenty of money from black market he was engaging in. Despite being indecisive and unreliable, Tajima somehow seemed attractive that he had many mistresses. But when his wife leaves him, he finally decides to break off all his relations with the mistresses, to take his family back. To achieve this goal, Tajima asks Kinuko, a greedy gluttonous peddler, to pretend to be his wife and accompany him when he goes to see all the women. Kinuko’s outlook was so filthy, but when she washes off the dirt, she turned into a beautiful woman who many men would admire. Tajima, to say Goodbye to his mistresses, Kinuko, for the money she is being paid, they set on a journey as an unmatching fake couple.
Highlight: Adapted from the unfinished work of the same title of deceased writer Dazai Osamu, a sneak peek of the new film to be released during the 2020 Valentines’ Day in Japan
COME KISS ME AT 0:00 AM
【International Premiere】
Director: Shinjo Takehiko
Cast: atayose Ryota, Kanna Hashimoto
Hinana (Kanna Hashimoto) is a no-nonsense schoolgirl, indisputably the most serious student in class. But in truth, she is a starry-eyed dreamer who hopes to fall in love fairy-tale style with Prince Charming. One day, superstar actor Kaede Ayase (Ryota Katayori) comes to her school for a film shoot! That is a fateful encounter between Hinana and Kaede. Hinana falls harder and harder for Kaede who is unpretentious and kind. The romance between a superstar and an ordinary schoolgirl must be kept secret at all costs. What does fate have in store for the secret lovers? An exhilarating & intoxicating & enchanting Cinderella love story is brought to the screen now.
Highlight: A modern Cinderella story played by a heartthrob and a girl of rare beauty
THE 47 RōNIN IN DEBT
【International Premiere】
Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Cast: Shin\'ichi Tsutsumi, Takashi Okamura, Gaku Hamada, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Satomi Ishihara
Revenge is... ultra-expensive! It is a fictionalized story of a real-life revenge plot carried out by 47 ronin (masterless samurai). Based on financial balance sheets actually recorded by Kuranosuke OISHI, we are able to accurately depict this entire plan for revenge from the standpoint of money, in this budget attainment entertainment that will inspire you to both laughter and tears.
Highlight: A subversive adaption deconstructing a classic revenge story
HIT ME ANYONE ONE MORE TIME
【Mainland Premiere】
Director: Mitani Koki
Cast: Kiichi Nakai, Tatsuo Dean Fujioka, Yuriko Ishida, Masao Kusakari, Kôichi Satô
Keisuke Kuroda, the prime minister of Japan, has the lowest approval rating of any prime minister in history. He is rushed to the hospital when a rock knocks him out in the middle of a speech. From a power-driven politician, he becomes an unsophisticated man. An amnesiac with nothing to lose regains his ideals and dreams!
Highlight: The new work of the great Japanese master of comedy with an amazing cast
TALKING THE PICTURES
Director: Mayayuki Suo
Cast: Ryo Narita, Yuina Kuroshima, Masatoshi Nagase, Kengo Kora, Yutaka Takenouchi
Shuntaro Someya, who idolized a katsudo benshi he watched at a motion picture house during his childhood, dreams of “captivating the viewers with narrations that stir their hearts.” Then one day, he is reunited with his first love, a friend with whom he spent his childhood discussing their dreams. Will Shuntaro be able to achieve his dream professionally and romantically? Homage to the silent films and film makers, the film brings together stars such as Masatoshi Nagase, Yutaka Takenouchi and Kengo Kora and shows the fantastic film world.
Highlight: A new cinema work of Mayayuki Suo paying homage to the silent era
AT THE END OF THE MATINEE
Director: Nishitani Hiroshi
Cast: Masaharu Fukuyama, Yuriko Ishida
After one of his performances, world-renowned classical guitarist Satoshi Makino meets Yoko Komine, a journalist who works for a news agency in Paris. They are both in their forties, going through a distinctly delicate period in their lives. From the moment they meet, they feel a connection and are strongly attracted to one another. Knowing that Yoko has a fiancé, Makino cannot rein in his emotions and declares his love for her. But their lives go on in the real world, and an unexpected misunderstanding forever changes the course of their love.
Highlight: A love story of a musician and a journalist
FAMILY OF STRANGERS
Director: HIDEYUKI HIRAYAMA
Cast: Tsurubei Shofukutei, Gô Ayano, Nana Komatsu
This film takes places in a psychiatric hospital in Komoro, Nagano Prefecture, where all the patients are dealing with their pasts. Hidemaru Kajiki was sentenced to death for killing his mother and wife, but a mistake was made during the execution, and he survived. Chu was once an ordinary office worker, but started hearing voices and acting violently, and is now shunned by his sister and her husband. Yuki is a high school student sent to the hospital due to her truancy from school. The three live far removed from their families and the rest of the world, and are trying to live happy, cheerful lives. Then, one day, someone is murdered at the hospital and everything changes. Hidemaru committed the murder…but why?
Highlight: The sorrows and healing process of the Japanese played by Gô Ayano and Nana Komatsu. People\'s Choice Award in the foreign film category at the 28th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival: Golden Rooster International Film Festival
THEY SAY NOTHING STAYS THE SAME
Director: Joe Odagiri
Cast: Akira Emoto, Nijiro Murakami, Tadanobu Asano, Yu Aoi
Toichi is a boatman who ferries the villagers to a town on the other side of the river. Besides rowing a boat for the villagers all day long, he barely has a communication with others. One day, Toichi meets a mysterious young girl. Having no family and no place to go, Toichi let her stay with him but this encounter starts to bring about changes to Toichi’s life…Who is the girl? What kind of past does she have? She becomes a company to Toichi but also turns his life upside down.
Highlight: The first film directed by Joe Odagiri, who is charming as ever