TOKYO FILMeX 10th Anniversary Update

This news has recently trickled out on Twitter and is available on the TOKYO FILMeX Japanese site (English here, not updated yet) and in the Japanese press releases but I thought it should be in writing somewhere so it gets around ahead of the full lineup press conference on the 17th of this month.

TOKYO FILMeX is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year (unbelievably, it's already my 8th tour of duty) and the retrospectives are quite special. As I hinted at in my July 31 entry, the foreign retrospective is on a European directing giant: Jean-Pierre Melville. Having become a great fan of Melville's works through legit videos/bootlegs and a Toronto Cinematheque retrospective in the mid 90s (by coincidence, Cinematheque's just-wrapped summer lineup included a Melville program), I'm extremely excited by this. The collection will span Melville's whole filmography including his ultra-rare short film debut.

The Japanese retrospective is on a period of filmmaking rather than a single director. In collaboration with Shochiku it will focus on the studio's fresh, modernistic films of the 1930s. Includes films by Shimazu Yasujirô and Nomura Hiromasa. The screenings will be held at the Tôgeki cinema below the Shochiku offices near Higashi-Ginza stn. All films subtitled in English, of course.

The head of the jury this year will be director Sai Yôichi, who is a longtime friend of the festival.


On a frivolous tangent, with news of Johnnie To's on-again off-again (now dead?) remake of Melville's The Red Circle I recalled a script I started and aborted before the handover of Hong Kong back to China. Entitled "1997" it was to star Chow Yun-fat in the Delon role and I'm embarrassed to say who I wanted in the Volonté role, but he's a pretty big TV star now (no, not Kiefer Sutherland -- he's cool).

Momoko Ando's "Kakera"

One of the films I pushed for inclusion in Skip City's newly established domestic competition section earlier this year (see my March 12 entry or collected Skip City entries) was 27-year-old Andô Momoko's (安藤モモ子） directorial debut Kakera - A Piece of Our Life (Kakera,『カケラ』). Based on Sakurazawa Erica's manga "Love Vibes," the story focuses on two women. One, who molds medical prostheses for a living, develops an instant fixation on another, a female university student, in what becomes a destructive relationship. My long-held interest in lesbian content (which probably dates back to Desert Hearts) aside, Kakera - A Piece of Our Life is an oddly engrossing film with a surprising sure-handedness in its direction.

"It girl" and fine actress Mitsushima Hikari is very believable as a young woman barely into adulthood who suddenly and somewhat forcefully becomes the object of desire for Nakamura Eriko's character. Nakamura is a dowdily-dressed "otaku" who wants to shape Mitsushima into the perfect counterpart. Looking at both actress' ages, I see that in fact Mitsushima is about to turn 24 while Nakamura is about to turn 21. You would never guess it watching this film. On a tangent I also want to mention that Mitsushima gave another excellent performance in PFF scholarship film Sawako Decides (Kawa no Soko kara Konnichiwa, 『川の底からこんにちは』). She can handle anything, it seems.

After our jury deliberations Kakera - A Piece of Our Life was set for inclusion but I was told Andô's father, famed actor-director Ôkuda Eiji (who recently starred in Sono Sion's Be Sure To Share and is on the jury of the in-progress Montreal World Film Festival) wanted his progeny's work to unspool at one of the major international events -- as in FIAPF-accredited competition festivals.

Well, that didn't happen but it just had its premiere at the Yufuin Cinema Festival in Ôita prefecture (I admit, I had never heard of it). More importantly, old cohort Jasper Sharp, who's been keeping a very close eye on Japan's emerging female directors, selected it for the 17th edition of the Raindance Film Festival (Sept 30 - Oct 11). Andô will also serve on the jury. As you may know, Andô's sister Sakura has appeared in the likes of Love Exposure and Ain't No Tomorrows, both of which are also screening at Raindance.

Ôkuda's clan is becoming a filmmaking dynasty of sorts -- the Makhmalbafs of Japan?

Update: Kakera - A Piece of Our Life's domestic release is tentatively scheduled for this fall but not confirmed yet.

Update 2: I found a full review (under the title Kakera - A Piece of Our Lives -- not sure which export title is correct) of the film ahead of its Raindance screening which goes into much more subtlety. Perhaps my "destructive" comment made the film sound overly dark. "Reconstructive" might be a better description of what Mitsushima's character goes through.