Tokyo Film Festival Chiefs Talk Samurai, Japanese Buyers & Building Bridges Between Japan And The World 

As the biggest festival in one of the world’s biggest film markets, the Tokyo International Film Festival has always been held under the glare of painfully high expectations. But taking place towards the end of Asia’s crowded autumn festival season, then struggling through the brutal years of the pandemic, it hasn’t been easy for the event to create a global footprint. 

Ando Hiroyasu, who came on board as chairman in 2019, was determined to change all that and started to restructure the festival during the pandemic. In 2021, Shozo Ichiyama, a veteran producer (Caught By the Tides) and former Tokyo Filmex director, joined TIFF as Programming Director and helped to reorganize and streamline the program. Under Ando’s management, the festival also moved from Roppongi to the Ginza-Hibiya district, which has more cinemas, leisure and cultural venues, and introduced a series of high-profile filmmaker talks, known as the TIFF Lounge Talk Sessions.

“When I came on board, it was my desire to achieve the status and recognition befitting such a prestigious event,” Ando tells Deadline. “I believe we’ve been steadily and continuously evolving towards that initial goal but recognize that we’re still only halfway there.”

One major focus for Ando was to build bridges between Japan’s notoriously insular film industry and leading filmmakers in the rest of the world – hence the TIFF Lounge, which Ando devised with Cannes Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters). 

This year, the talks aat the fest, which runs October 28-November 6), will include an exchange between Kore-eda and Cannes Grand Prix-winning Indian director Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine As Light), whose work the Japanese auteur is said to be hugely impressed with; as well as between Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To and Japan’s Yu Irie, who is the Director In Focus in the festival’s Nippon Cinema Now section. 

Ando says the intention of TIFF Lounge is to “invite many filmmakers from overseas and promote interaction with Japanese filmmakers, contributing to the global growth of cinema.” Other talks will take place between Singapore’s Eric Khoo and producer Mike Wiluan; Indonesia’s Nia Dinata and Japan’s Mishima Yukiko, while other directors from the Nippon Cinema Now section will be in conversation with Cannes Film Festival’s Christian Jeune. 

Other leading filmmakers and actors attending the festival include Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who heads a jury also including Johnnie To, Italian actress Chiara Mastroianni, who stars in closing film Marcello Mio, Hungarian filmmaker Enyedi Ildikó and Japanese actress Ai Hashimoto. This year’s Kurosawa Akira Award will be presented jointly to Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake (All The Long Nights) and Taiwanese filmmaker Fu Tien-yu (Day Off).

Lead cast from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, which is making its Asian premiere at TIFF, including Paul Mescal, Fred Hechinger, Connie Nielsen and Denzel Washington, are also expected to make an appearance at the festival. 

Kazuya Shiraishi’s period action film 11 Rebels has been selected as the opening film of this year’s TIFF. Starring Takayuki Yamada and Taiga Nakano, the film is based on a forgotten script by late screenwriter Kasahara Kazuo (Battles Without Honor And Humanity). “There was discussion about whether this is an appropriate opening film for the festival as it’s quite violent,” Ichiyama smiles. “But it’s not just an action film – it has strong social messages and I was impressed with the performance of the young actors who had not worked on samurai action before.” 

The main International Competition will screen 15 films from around the world, including the Asian Premieres of Brazilian filmmaker Marco Dutra’s Bury Your Dead, French director Thierry de Peretti’s In His Own Image and Daughter’s Daughter from Taiwan’s Huang Xi, as well as the international premiere of The Unseen Sister, from Myanmar-Taiwanese filmmaker Midi Z.

Ichiyama points to the large number of Chinese-language titles in the competition – three from mainland China, one from Taiwan and one from Hong Kong, including world premieres of Yang Lina’s Big World, Hong Kong filmmaker Philip Yung’s Papa and My Friend An Delie, the directing debut of Chinese actor Dong Zijian (Mountains May Depart).  “Chinese filmmakers like to launch their films in Tokyo because a large number of Chinese journalists travel to the festival,” Ichiyama observes. 

The Asian Future competition, programmed by Kenji Ishizaka, focuses on first, second and third films from Asia and the Middle East. All ten films in the selection, including Malaysian director Chong Keat Aun’s Pavane For An Infant and Sima’s Song, from Afghan filmmaker Roya Sadat, are world premieres.       

Ando and Ichiyama both say that supporting Japanese cinema is another priority of the festival, with major showcases including Nippon Cinema Now and the Animation section, which was expanded last year to also include non-Japanese animated features, many of which have been inspired by Japan’s legacy in this medium. 

Other major sections at this year’s TIFF include a new Women’s Empowerment Section (see separate story); Gala Screenings, including Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle and Eric Khoo’s Spirit World; World Focus, including a series of films to commemorate the signing of the Japan-Italy co-production agreement; Youth, featuring films aimed at young people and children; Japanese Classics and TIFF Series.

Looking at the World Focus line-up, Ichiyama points to a few documentaries that have yet to find a Japanese distributor, including Direct Action, which won the Encounters Golden Bear at Berlin film festival, and says he hopes they will find a home following their TIFF screenings. 

“Japanese buyers are much more cautious these days because the Japanese yen is very weak,” he explains. “Actually, some buyers would say October is not the best time to release arthouse films in Japan, as specialist cinemas are packed, so they prefer to wait until early the following year, which also coincides with the Oscars window. But we dare to screen some international films that have yet to find Japanese buyers.” 

TIFF is taking place October 28 to November 6 at Tokyo Midtown Hibiya and several other venues and theatres in the Ginza, Hibiya, Yurakucho and Marunouchi districts of Tokyo. The festival’s associated industry platform, TIFFCOM, is taking place October 30 to November 1 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center in Hamamatsucho.