RAd the music blog: Lay out the cards! Chihayafuru 3 premieres at Eiga Sai 2018

Due to popular demand, the Japan Foundation, Manila brings Chihayafuru 3/ちはやふる 結び to the Philippines premiering at the 21^st Eigasai Japanese Film Festival this July 4-August 26, 2018.

Chihayafuru 3, the third installment of the live action film adaptation of Yuki Suetsugu’s manga series about the Japanese card game karuta will make its premiere at the opening night on July 4, 2018 at Greenbelt 1 Cinema 2 with the film director, Nori Koizumi, gracing the event. Koizumi will hold director’s talks on July 6 at the Ateneo de Mania University and on July 7 at Greenbelt 1 Cinema 2.

Director Nori Koizumi

To get viewers up to speed, the first two installments, Chihayafuru 1/ちはやふる 上の句 and Chihayafuru 2/ちはやふる 下の句 will have encore screenings during the festival. A demonstration on karuta will take place one hour prior to the screenings on July 4-5 at the Ateneo de Manila.

Aside from the Chihayafuru trilogy, Eigasai 2018 features a diverse line up that includes Let’s Go, JETS! From Small Town Girls to U.S. Champions?!/ チア☆ダン ～女子高生がチアダンスで全米制覇しちゃったホントの話～, Rudolf the Black Cat/ルドルフとイッパイアッテナ, Survival Family/サバイバルファミリー, Honnouji Hotel/本能寺ホテル , Memoirs of a Murderer /22年目の告白－私が殺人犯です－, Tora-san in Goto/五島のトラさん, Tori Girl/トリガール!, ReLIFE, and Daytime Shooting Star/ひるなかの流星.

Apart from the festival’s regular run, there will be special screenings of other films in conjunction with other upcoming Japan Foundation projects.

Director Hikaru Toda

Independent film Of Love & Law/愛と法 will have its Philippine premiere on August 4, 2018 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines with the director Hikaru Toda in tow during the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. Another screening and a panel discussion about LGBTQ, minorities, and inclusion happen on August 5, 2018 at the Cinematheque Centre, Manila in collaboration of the Japan Foundation Asia Center’s project EYES for Embracing Diversity.

The UP Film Institute – Cine Adarma leg of the Eigasai will include Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai/七人の侍 to coincide with The Spirit of Budô: The History of Japan’s Martial Arts exhibit to be held at the National Museum of the Philippines from July 21-September 26, 2018.

Playwright-director Hirata Oriza

Lastly, in line with Tanghalang Pilipino’s upcoming production of Japanese playwright-director Hirata Oriza’s Manila Notes, the Philippine version of the award winning play Tokyo Notes, the film When the Curtain Rises/幕が上がる, based on Oriza’s novel, will have a one-time screening on August 17, 2018 at the CCP Dream Theater. The screening will also feature a special talk by Oriza where he will also introduce the upcoming Manila Notes project.

The regular run of the Eigasai 2018 is as follows: July 4-8 at Greenbelt 1 Cinema 2, July 4-6 at the Ateneo de Manila University, July 12-15 at SM City Davao, July 27-29 at SM Naga, August 9-12 at SM Bacolod, August 12-15 at UP Film Institute, and August 23-26 Ayala Center Cebu.

Special screenings in conjunction with other Japan Foundation projects happen on August 4 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, August 5 at the Cinematheque Centre, Manila, and August 17 back at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Admission is free on a first-come first served basis except for the Greenbelt 1 screenings that has an affordable price of P100 per film.

Here are the films lined up for the 21^st Eigasai Japanese Film Festival.

Chihayafuru 3/ちはやふる 結び (2018)

Chihayafuru 1/ちはやふる 上の句 (2016)

Chihayafuru 2/ちはやふる 下の句 (2016)

Director: Nori Koizumi

Starring: Suzu Hirose, Shuhei Nomura, Mackenyu

Hirose Suzu debuts in her first leading movie role as the heroine, Ayase Chihaya. Hirose has become the most sought after teen actress since her appearance in the hit films Our Little Sister and The Boy and The Beast. Directed by Koizumi Nori of The Liar and His Lover. Chihaya (Hirose Suzu), Taichi (Nomura Shuhei) and Arata (Mackenyu) are childhood friends, bound by their passion for "competitive karuta (Japanese traditional playing cards)." Chihaya and Taichi are reunited in high school, and together, they form the "Competitive Karuta Club" to train and compete in the national championship.

Let’s Go, JETS! From Small Town Girls to U.S. Champions?!/ チア☆ダン ～女子高生がチアダンスで全米制覇しちゃったホントの話～ (2017)

Director: Hayato Kawai
Starring: Suzu Hirose, Ayami Nakajo, Yuki Amami

Film adaptation based on the true story of the Fukui Commercial High School cheerleading team's victory at the U.S. Championship. High school girls pour their hearts and souls into cheer dance. Directed by Kawai Hayato of MY love STORY!! Newbie high school freshman Tomonaga Hikari (Hirose Suzu) joins the cheer dance team on a lark so she can root for a certain boy at school. However, what awaits her is spartan training under the direction of a fiendish teacher. Her teammates quit one after another, but Hikari and her classmate Ayano (Nakajo Ayami) manage to endure the tough practices.

Rudolf the Black Cat/ルドルフとイッパイアッテナ (2016)

Director: Kunihiko Yuyama, Motonori Sakakibara

Starring: Mao Inoue, Ryohei Suzuki

Rudolf and Ippai-attena, a masterpiece of children's literature, is now a 3D computer graphics animation movie. A tale of cats, their friendship, adventures, encounters and farewells. Rudolf (voice: Inoue Mao), a black cat, is suddenly separated from his beloved master. He unexpectedly wakes up in a long distance truck that takes him to metropolitan Tokyo. There, he meets Ippai-attena (voice: Suzuki Ryohei), a big boss cat feared by everyone in town. Unable to return home, Rudolf starts a life as a stray with Ippai-attena.

Survival Family/サバイバルファミリー (2017)

Director: Shinobu Yaguchi

Starring: Fumiyo Kohinata, Eri Fukatsu, Yuki Izumisawa, Wakana Aoi

In this drama, a family scrambles about in an effort to survive a world without any electrical power. Waterboys director, Yaguchi Shinobu, writes and directs this film from his own original concept. The Suzukis are an ordinary family of four living in Tokyo. One morning, they wake to find all their electrical devices are not working. Then they learn the water and gas lines in their neighbors' homes are also shut off. The father, Yoshiyuki (Kohinata Fumio), takes his family with him out of Tokyo in an attempt to escape the crisis.

Honnouji Hotel/本能寺ホテル (2017)

Director: Masayuki Suzuki

Starring: Haruka Ayase, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Gaku Hamada

The "Honnoji Incident", the most puzzling affair in Japan's history, is the subject of this mystery. It portrays a woman who, under strange circumstances, travels back to the Warring States Period just prior to the incident and her encounter with military commander, Oda Nobunaga. At the helm is Suzuki Masayuki of HERO and Princess Toyotomi fame. Kuramoto Mayuko (Ayase Haruka) goes to Kyoto where her boyfriend's parents live. In a back street, she finds and checks in to the Honnoji Hotel, but when she exits the hotel's elevator, she emerges in 1582 Honnoji Temple.

Memoirs of a Murderer /22年目の告白－私が殺人犯です－ (2017)

Director: Yu Irie

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Hideaki Ito

8000 MILES: SR Saitama's Rapper director Irie Yu remakes the 2012 Korean film Confession of Murder. Fujiwara Tatsuya of the Death Note series plays the enchanting killer Sonezaki, and Ito Hideaki of Lesson of the Evil plays Makimura, the detective who is following the case. The statute of limitations expires on an unsolved serial murder case that claimed five lives. Twenty-two years after the murders, the perpetrator suddenly comes forward. Sonezaki Masato (Fujiwara) shows up at the press conference with a defiant smile and a book confessing to his crimes in hand.

Tora-san in Goto/五島のトラさん (2016)

Director: Masaru Oura

Starring: Torao Inuzuka

A documentary shot from 1993 and over 22 years chronicled a large family who make their living as udon noodle makers on the Goto Archipelago in Nagasaki Prefecture. It was awarded the Magnolia Award for Best Documentary at the 22^nd Shanghai TV Festival. Inuzuka Torao, known as "Tora of Goto" runs an udon noodle making business on the Goto Archipelago. Every day, his seven children wake up at 5 AM, help with the business for an hour, then head for school. Over the 22 years the documentary follows them, the children all grow up.

Tori Girl/トリガール! (2017)

Director: Tsutomu Hanabusa

Starring: Tao Tsuchiya, Shotaro Mamiya, Mahiro Takasugi

The film adaptation of Nakamura Ko's novel Torigirl which depicts the youthfulness of university students who stake everything on a flight contest held once every year on Biwa Lake in Shiga Prefecture. Yukina (Tsuchiya Tao) has just entered university. She is instantly smitten by an older student, Kei (Takasugi Mahiro), who invites her join the pilot team of the human-powered-flight club. The approximately 100 club members continue preparations for a summer contest, but another older student, Sakaba (Mamiya Shotaro), takes Yukina's place as official pilot. Then one day, Kei suffers a serious injury.

ReLIFE (2017)

Director: Takeshi Furusawa

Starring: Taishi Nakagawa, Yuna Taira

Live-action feature film adaptation of ReLIFE, which was serialized on the manga app comico and adapted for anime and stage performance. Directed by Furusawa Takeshi of Love for Beginners and Love and Lies. Depicts the main character giving his life a serious reevaluation. Twenty-seven-year-old Kaizaki Arata (Nakagawa Taishi) is unemployed after quitting his company job in just five months after something happens to him at work. One day, a mysterious man named Yoake Ryo (Chiba Yudai) invites him to participate in a social reintegration program called "ReLIFE" that involves taking medicine that will make him look 10 years younger and living as a high school student for one year only.

Daytime Shooting Star/ひるなかの流星 (2017)

Director: Takehiko Shinjo

Starring: Mei Nagano, Shohei Miura, Alan Shirahama

An adaptation of Yamamori Mika's identically titled comic which depicts the three-way relationship between a student, a classmate, and a teacher. In the director's chair is Shinjo Takehiko who has directed Beyond the Memories, Your Lie in April, among other teen romance films. Suzume (Nagano Mei), who has never been in love, meets Shishio (Miura Shohei), her homeroom teacher at the high school to which she transferred. For the first time in her life, Suzume develops a crush on the kind and supportive Shishio. At the same time, the classmate sitting next to Suzume, Mamura (Shirahama Alan), who seemed averse to girls, confesses his feeling for her.

Of Love & Law/愛と法 (2017)

Director: Hikaru Toda

Starring: Kazuyuki Minami, Masafumi Yoshida

Documentary about contemporary Japanese society through the lives of people in challenging circumstances including LGBT individuals and those left out of Japan's family registry system. Director Toda Hikaru, who has worked for many years in the US and Europe, depicts the lives of an openly gay couple who are lawyers. Kazu and Fumi are an openly gay couple who run a law office together in downtown Osaka. They met 15 years ago, and are inseparable in work at in their private lives, but their relationship is not recognized by the law. They both dream of being parents. One day, they find themselves caring for a boy with no place to go.

Seven Samurai/七人の侍 (1954)

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Starring: Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Isao Kimura

The masterpiece samurai period film by master filmmaker Kurosawa Akira. Upon painstaking research into the period, Kurosawa employed multiple cameras to simultaneously capture the unfolding true-to-life battles. The film captured the Silver Lion at the 15^th Venice International Film Festival and has engendered many remakes including The Magnificent Seven. In the Warring States Period, peasants terrorized by bandit attacks decide to hire samurai to protect their village. Kambe (Shimura Takashi) assembles a group of samurai, and joined by the thug, Kikuchiyo (Mifune Toshiro), the seven men stake their lives to stand up against the bandits through a variety tactics.

When the Curtain Rises/幕が上がる (2015)

Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro

Starring: Fumiyo Kohinata, Eri Fukatsu, Yuki Izumisawa, Wakana Aoi

An adaptation of Hirata Oriza's play by Bayside Shakedown series director Motohiro Katsuyuki. The members of idol group Momoiro Clover Z star as high school students who grow through their involvement in a lowly drama club. Among their co-stars is Kuroki Haru, who won a Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014 for her performance in The Little House. Fujigaoka High School's drama club has never made it past the preliminaries in regional competitions. Under the tutelage of Ms. Yoshioka (Kuroki), known as "the queen of school theater," the determined Saori (Momota Kanako) and her fellow clubmates band together in the hope of making the national championship.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Lay out the cards! Chihayafuru 3 premieres at Eiga Sai 2018

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