HI EVERYBODY!

So we’ve moved on down the street from Omotesando Hills, Space O to the LAFORET HARAJUKU shopping complex for week 2 of the festival & it’s already the next to last day of screenings here. Harajuku of course is the center of the world for the younger generations from around the world & this area is jamming on the weekends. 

FOR TODAY’S 1ST PROGRAM; CG ANIMATION PROGRAM 1,

Director YAO CHIANG & PRODUCER YIJU CHIANG came from Taiwan to introduce their magical fantasy short anime “st(r)ay.” The 2 main characters are camels with human bodies representing an elderly couple. The story is about alzheimer’s & how it can distort & destroy a person’s sense of time & self. YAO told the audience that the hourglass that has a prominent role in the story led to the desert sand dune setting which led to the camel forms of the elderly couple. 

  

FOR THE 2ND PROGRAM OF THE DAY; ASIA INTERNATIONAL & JAPAN 9,

We had 3 sets of guests to represent their films!

From Japan, director HIROKI INOUE brought along his two leading ladies, RIE KATO & REI TANAKA for his short “BLACK & BLUE.” The story about a wife trying to escape from her husband’s abuse & criminal activities. He wrote the story about 10 years ago & finally got the opportunity to make it. RIE told the audience that she hopes that this film gives someone going through an abusive relationship the courage to take a step forward & fight back.

This a very well-crafted, abused wife gets rescued by a stranger story & hint to filmmakers, we don’t too many well made suspense-thrillers or comedies! 

From South Korea, director NAKYUNG KIM brought her 2 leading ladies HANNAH KIM &  GAYOUNG JOO to introduce her very impactful short about a hospital in Korea where the nurses are assigned the order in which they are “allowed” to get pregnant. Nakyung heard about this actually happening in the news about 10 years ago & she wanted to make this short before it was forgotten. 

The final guest was the director of “TEZUTSU ~ FIRE FLOWER TOWN ~.” Located in Aichi Prefecture, this festival of fireworks, the standard shoot in the air type as well as the astonishing hand-held style & has a tradition that goes back over 450 years! He was invited by the town officials to film the festival & as he began visiting the town for preparations, he gradually came to love the town & its people. The festival looks stunning & is held every July!

Here’s a link if your interested: {https://japan-highlightstravel.com/en/travel/toyohashi/100004/}

3RD PROGRAM – A MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR THE CINEMATIC TOKYO COMPETITION!

We are very proud to bring this program to the festival. We call out for submissions that has TOKYO as the central theme. This year we received 411 submission from 68 countries around the world! From cool shorts that feature festivals throughout Japan with a jamming EDM soundtrack to CGI futuristic pieces to animation to a documentary about one of Tokyo’s rockabilly rockers! 

The last short was a special world premiere screening of “SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.” The production team from Australia, “Bus Stop Films” with director, GENEVIEVE CLAY-SMITH, producer HENRY SMITH & DoP AJ JOHNSON, production manager SARAH JANE JOHNSON brought the 2 leads of the film, PATRICK BRAMMALL & Bus Stop Films regular GERARD O’DWYER to  Japan to collaborate with our film production unit to make this absolutely wonderful short film. Two brothers played by Patrick & with Gerard as the brother with Down Syndrome who gets “lost” in Tokyo is a delightful fish-out-of-water story that shows the beauty of Tokyo through the eyes of Gerard who goes on an adventure throughout our massive yet kind city. I can’t resist mentioning how proud I am to have participated in the making of the film. 

 5TH PROGRAM & FINAL PROGRAM – ASIA INTERNATIONAL & JAPAN 5 WITH THE SCARIEST SHORT OF THEW FESTIVAL!

1st up was director TAKA HIROYA with his very, very scary short PHANTOM COLLECTOR about 3 friends who go into an abandoned hospital to see if the urban legend about a demon in the hospital was true. Well it certainly was! The director told the audience that he was lucky in that he found the soon-to-closed hospital for his location just a few weeks before they demolished the building. His leading lady NANAMI KAMEDA spoke to the challenges of acting in a horror story & making it believable. She said it was helpful that she actually felt scared in the creepy abandoned hospital location. Well, she did a great job!

Next up was a 1st for me. For the short “NANAMI KAWAKAMI, THE ACTRESS,” director KEITARO SAKON came out with the subject of his faux-documentary, the porn actress NANAMI KAWAKAMI. The storyline is that she wants to act in “standard” films while still proudly working in the porn industry. She was frank, brave & had the self-confidence to express her heart in front of our short film audience. Bravo!

The final short was “BREAKERS” directed by Columbia Film School student MINAMI GOTO. This coming-of-age, rebel-against-authority short was the AVEX DIGITAL AWARD winner last year. She  wanted to shoot film in her home area of Shizuoka & there was an unexpected major snowstorm on the scheduled 1st day of shooting so a lot of the extras couldn’t make it when the trains shut down! She told the audience she was able to keep going & complete it with the help of her dedicated crew! MINAMI has a sure hand as director & we are already looking forward to next effort!

More, soon come all.

DJ JOHN