Embrace yourself for another FREE movie, the 2012 Japanese Eiga Sai or Japan Film Festival. I had made a previous post regarding the 17th French Film Festival which also offered FREE screening of French movies. This time around it would be the Japanese's turn to showcase their very own movies. This event is presented by the Japan Foundation in cooperation with the Embassy of Japan.
Synopsis:
Villain
- A gritty social critique, this drama is directed by Lee Sang-il, director of the multi-award winning Hula Girls. Eri Fukatsu, who won the Best Actress Award at the Montreal World Film Festival for her role, takes on challenging and heated love scenes, playing a woman (Mitsuyo) on the run with a murderer. Yuichi (Satoshi Tsumabuki) runs away after killing a woman (Hikari Mitsushima) he met on a dating website. He then meets Mitsuyo, a sales clerk. While the families of the victim and the assailant are left in agony, Mitsuyo becomes increasingly entangled in her relationship with Yuichi.
- Based on the popular comics by Shinichi Ishizuka, this drama spotlight is on mountain rescue operations. Oguri was a big fan of the original story, and he attempts ice wall climbing and rappelling in snow-covered mountains. His genuine performance gets across the severity and wonder of the mountains. Sanpo (Oguri), who volunteers as a mountain rescuer in the Northern Alps, has climbed the world’s famous peaks. His flaw is that he can be too easygoing, but, novice Kumi (Masami Nagasawa) from the Nagano Prefecture mountain rescue squad observes the way he works and learns that he is someone she can count on.
- Known for its previous production, ALWAYS-Sunset on Third Street- (Always San-chome no Yuhi) and the sequel, ROBOT Communications presents another heartwarming tale on the turning point of an elite business man in his fifties and a local train that has been running since 1911. Hajime (Kiichi Nakai) is next in line as head of a prominent electronics company. He works hard and barely has time for his family. But one day, his mother in Shimane was ill, and his best friend dies in an accident. Griefstricken, Hajime returns home—where memories of his childhood came back. He had always wanted to be a train conductor and drive the local "bataden" Ichibata Electric Railway.
- A hit maker Shinobu Yaguchi of Waterboys and Swing Girls unfolds his favorite entertaining group drama in this latest movie—Happy Flight which cannot be bundled in a usual category of aviation movies characterized as panic movies.The story deals with flight No.1980 bound for Honolulu from Japan. For Kazuhiro Suzuki (Seiichi Tanabe), the co-pilot, this is the final test to become a captain. For Etsuko Saito (Haruka Ayase), a newly recruited cabin attendant, it is a memorable debut on an international flight. However, the aircraft hits a bird after takeoff and is forced to turn back. Faced with yet another challenge - difficult landing conditions due to an approaching typhoon; finally, they managed to overcome with the help of the operation control center. The young crew in aviation-related occupations grew in experience after this bittersweet but fulfilling flight.
- A live-action adaptation of Takamori Asao and Chiba Tetsuya’s eponymous comic, regarded as a brilliant achievement in Japanese manga history. Two boxing rivals engage in a fierce battle that will determine of their fate. The director is Fumihiko Sori, who helmed the sports manga adaptation Ping Pong. In the late 1960s, a slum-dwelling delinquent named Joe Yabuki (Tomohisa Yamashita) is scouted by former boxer Danpei Tange (Teruyuki Kagawa) for his exceptional pugilistic ability, but he gets into trouble and is sent to a juvenile reformatory where he meets professional fighter Toru Rikiishi (Yusuke Iseya).
- Medical drama based on the debut novel by practicing physician Sosuke Natsukawa. It is a penetrating look at healthcare in Japan’s provinces through the personal growth of an honest young doctor. It is acclaimed as the film soundtrack debut for the blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. Ichito (Sho Sakurai) is an internist at a small hospital in Shinshu that needs physicians, and handles his heavy workload with support from his photographer wife Haruna (Aoi Miyazaki). One day he encounters Azumi (Mariko Kaga), who has terminal cancer, and he starts questioning the very existence of medicine.
- Directed by Keiichi Hara, highly regarded for Crayon Shin-chan Arashi o Yobu Moretsu Otona Teikoku no Gyakushu. His realistic style as seen in Summer Days with Coo (Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi) is taken one step further, and creates a unique world where the backdrop is so real you would think it might have been shot live. Someone has just died, but his soul is put into the body of Makoto Kobayashi (voice: Kazato Tomizawa), a boy in junior high school who has just committed suicide. Regaining life, the soul inhabits the boy’s body and soon finds the true reason behind his suicide.
- A film adaptation of the book by Michifumi Isoda, in which he paints a picture of life in the final days of the Tokugawa shogunate, based on his painstaking analysis of the household accounts left behind by a low ranking samurai. Director Yoshimitsu Morita, portrays the inner workings of a samurai household fighting to tighten finances. The Inoyama family has been in the service of Kaga clan as expert accountants and reckoners. The 8th head of the Inoyama family, Naoyuki (Masato Sakai), is so phenomenally gifted in numbers that he was called "abacus maniac." To cope with the increasing expenses that come with trying to move up, he works together with his wife Koma (Yukie Nakama) and family to do all they can to economize.
- This is based on popular manga artist Rieko Saibara’s manga series. As in his FUNUKE Show Some Love, You Losers! (Funukedomo, Kanashimi no Ai wo Misero), director Daihachi Yoshida’s films have all sorts of lovable, quirky characters. In this love story for grown-ups, woman’s pursuit for love never dies and Yoshida portrays such feminine strength and compassion with humor. Naoko (Miho Kanno) returns home with her young daughter, where her mother Masako (Mari Natsuki) runs the only beauty parlor in town-meeting place for lamenting bad luck with men and laughing over dirty jokes. Unbeknownst to them, Naoko has been secretly seeing her former teacher, Kashima (Yosuke Eguchi).
- A live-action adaptation of Soubei Amako’s cute ninja action manga. A popular animated television series, it presents the comical slapstick antics of a group of boys training to be elite ninjas. Director Takashi Miike works in a diverse array of genres, from violent works to family films. Rantaro (Seishiro Kato), a first grader at Ninja Academy, spends his days with his fellow students Shinbee (Futa Kimura) and Kirimaru (Roi Hayashi) making all sorts of blunders. One day, an assassin turns up at the home of fourth grader Takamaru (Takuya Mizoguchi).
Promo Period: July 5 - August 21, 2012
- Shang Cineplex Cinema 4, EDSA Mandaluyong City
- July 5 - Opening Night by Invitation at Cinema 2
- Villain - 7 PM
- July 6
- Railways - 2 PM
- Permanent Nobara - 4:30 PM
- PEAK - The Rescuers - 7 PM
- July 7
- Ninja Kids - 2 PM
- Tomorrow's Joe - 4:30 PM
- Happy Flight - 7 PM
- July 8
- Colorful - 2 PM
- In His Chart - 4:30 PM
- Abacus and Sword - 7 PM
- July 9
- PEAK - The Rescuers - 2 PM
- Railways - 4:30 PM
- Villaing - 7 PM
- July 10
- Happy Flight - 2 PM
- Tomorrow's Joe - 4:30 PM
- Colorful - 7 PM
- July 11
- Ninja Kids - 2 PM
- Permanent Nobara - 4:30 PM
- In His Chart - 7 PM
- July 12
- Abacus and Sword - 2 PM
- Railways - 4:30 PM
- Villain - 7 PM
- July 13
- Tomorrow's Joe - 2 PM
- Happy Flight - 4:30 PM
- PEAK - The Rescuers - 7 PM
- July 14
- Permanent Nobara - 2 PM
- Ninja Kids - 4:30 PM
- In His Chart - 7 PM
- July 15
- Abacus and Sword - 2 PM
- Colorful - 4:30 PM
- Villain - 7 PM
- Gaisano South Citi Mall, Davao City
- July 20
- PEAK - The Rescuers - 4:30 PM
- In His Chart - 7 PM
- July 21
- Railways - 11 AM
- Happy Flight - 2 PM
- Ninja Kids - 4:30 PM
- Permanent Nobara - 7 PM
- July 22
- Colorful - 11 AM
- Tomorrow's Joe - 2 PM
- Abacus and Sword - 4:30 PM
- Villain - 7 PM
- Ayala Center Cinema 4, Cebu City
- August 7
- PEAK - The Rescuers - 7 PM
- August 8
- Abacus and Sword - 7 PM
- August 9
- Railways - 7 PM
- August 10
- Tomorrow's Joe - 7 PM
- August 11
- Ninja Kids - 1:30 PM
- In His Chart - 4:30 PM
- Villain - 7 PM
- August 12
- Colorful - 1:30 PM
- Happy Flight - 4:30 PM
- Permanent Nobara - 7 PM
- UP Film Institute, UP Diliman Quezon City
- August 15
- PEAK - The Rescuers - 2 PM
- Abacus and Sword - 4:30 PM
- Railways - 7 PM
- August 16
- Ninja Kids - 2 PM
- Tomorrow's Joe - 4:30 PM
- In His Chart - 7 PM
- August 17
- Colorful - 2 PM
- Happy Flight - 4:30 PM
- Villain - 7 PM
- August 18
- Permanent Nobara - 2 PM
- Tomorrow's Joe - 4:30 PM
- Railways - 7 PM
- August 20
- Abacus and Sword - 2 PM
- In His Chart - 4:30 PM
- Permanent Nobara - 7 PM
- August 21
- PEAK - The Rescuers - 2 PM
- Colorful - 4:30 PM
- Villain - 7 PM
** First come, first served. Get your FREE tickets at least two (2) hours before the screening to guarantee your pass. See you there!
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