The 42nd Montreal World Film Festival will be held from August 23rd to September 3rd 2018. So far there is only seven Japanese films listed in the line-up. We will add more details as they are available.
Of course, the festival has had financial troubles for sometime and run on a very minimal staff, so we shouldn’t expect a smooth operation. It will certainly not be better than last year. But the most important part of the festival is that there is movies to watch. This year it will be the nineteenth year that we are covering this movie festival and we hope that it will recover from this difficult period and prosper for many years to come.
Here is the line-up (so far) for the Japanese movies:
World Competition
Life in Overtime (終わった人 / Owatta Hito): Japan, 2018, 125 mins; Dir.: Hideo Nakata; Scr.: Nonji Remoto (Based on the novel by Makiko Uchidate); Phot.: Koichi Saito.
[ AsianWiki / IMDb / Toei / Youtube ]
Samurai’s Promise (散り椿 / Chiri Tsubaki / lit. “Falling Camellia”): Japan, 2018, 111 mins; Dir./Phot.: Daisaku Kimura; Scr.: Takashi Koizumi (based on the novel by Rin Hamuro); Cast: Jun’ichi Okada, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Haru Kuroki, Hirofumi Arai, Kyôko Yoshine.
Shinbei is exiled from his clan for investigating its activities too closely. Eight years later, when Shinbei’s dying wife pleads with him to go to help his former best friend, Umeme, he returns to the clan. Infighting has produced turmoil within the clan, allowing Shinbei to discover the truth behind incidents involving his wife and his friend. Confronting Umeme, he understands the reason for his wife’s last wish. (FFM)
Samurai’s Promise will be presented as opening movie of the FFM on Thursday August 23, 2018 at the Imperial Cinema.
[ AsianWiki / IMDb / Official / Youtube ]
Documentaries of the World
The Reality Behind What We See: The Poet, Yoshimasu Gozo, in Kyoto / Le poète Yoshimasu Gozo à Kyoto (Maboroshi wo Miru Hito): Japan, 2018, 107 mins; Dir.: Haruo Inoue.
78-year-old Gozo Yoshimasu is Japan’s most reknowned poet. Yoshimasu began composing in his twenties and has since been on the cutting edge of contemporary poetry for the past sixty years. (…) Yoshimasu, who witnessed the devastation caused by the massive tsunami of the Great Earthquake of 2011, was at a loss for words upon seeing the impact of “water” strip everthing away. After the earthquake, and as if dismantling his own “framework of the mind,” Yoshimasu began to cut out words, ruled lines, and notes of all sizes and shapes he kept in his “diary.” (…) This was his new “poetry.” (IMDb)
World Greats (Out of Competition)
Think Again, Junpei (純平、考え直せ / Junpei, Kangae Naose): Japan, 2018, 95 mins; Dir.: Toshiyuki Morioka; Scr.: Hideo Okuda (novel); Phot: Shinji Kugimiya; Prod.: Haruo Umekawa; Cast: Kisetsu Fujiwara, Reiko Kataoka, Manaka Kinoshita, Katsuya Maiguma, Suzuka Morita.
[ AsianWiki / IMDb / Official / Youtube ]
Zone Out / Regarder dans le vide (Out Zone): Japan, 2017, 115 mins; Dir.: Hiroshi Kanno.
[ IMDb ]
Focus on World Cinema
The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan (泣き虫しょったんの奇跡 / Nakimushi Shottan no Kiseki): Japan, 2018, 127 mins; Dir./Scr.: Toshiaki Toyoda (based on the autobiographical novel of Shoji Segawa); Phot.: Kôji Naoi; Prod.: Kyôichi Mori; Cast: Ryûhei Matsuda, Yôjirô Noda.
[ AsianWiki / IMDb / Official / Youtube ]
The Second Security Unit (第二警備隊 / Dai 2 Keibitai): Japan, 2017, 112 mins; Dir./Scr.: Yuji Kakizaki; Ed.: Yuji Kakizaki, Yasutake Torii; Mus.: Shingo Nishimura; Cast: Toshio Kakei, Masayuki Deai, Yuka Takeshima, Nobuyoshi Hisamatsu.
Press review:
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- La programmation du FFM est en ligne (La Presse)
- Gazette Time Machine: Scenes from Festival des films du monde (The Gazette)
- Festival des films du monde has filmmakers hoping for a happy ending (The Gazette)
[ Traduire ]
Updated 8/17.
