Shang
Cineplex (Cinema 2), Shangri-La Plaza
Mandaluyong
The Eiga Sai 2014 focuses on the family as the
highly anticipated annual Japanese Film Festival presents movies centering on
the family unit. Sixteen films, the biggest selection so far, will be screened from
July 4 to 13 at the Shang Cineplex at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall.
During
the press preview, the Japan Foundation Manila’s Assistant Director Yukie Mitomi, mentioned that in her six years here
in the Philippines ,
she had experienced several natural disasters and that from these events, she
had seen the resilience and strong family bonds of the Filipinos. And thus, she
made it her mission to gather Japanese films that highlight the resilience of
humans and the importance of families amid the disasters that has befallen Japan .
Most of the films selected for the Eiga
Sai 2014 will center on the theme of family, starting from the immediate,
extending to the other relatives and expanding towards the neighbors and the rest
of the community.
The
film Reunion was
screened during the preview and it’s an example on how the Japanese film
industry responded to the deadly earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011 . The films to be shown at this
years Eiga Sai are the following: Homeland, directed by Kubota Nao which will
open this year’s festival, the award winning family drama Like Father, Like Son, the historical drama Fly, Dakota, Fly!, the documentary Hearts Together, the coming of
age films A Story of Yonosuke, The Kirishima Thing and Momoiro sora o. Other films in the festival are Hospitalité, Tug of War!,
Robo-G, Until the Break of Dawn, Tamako
in Moratorium, Casting Blossoms in
the Sky, Symphony in August, Things Left Behind, and the feature
animation Wolf Children.
The 2014 Eiga Sai is presented by The Japan Foundation, Manila in cooperation with the Embassy of Japan, Shangri-La Plaza and Film Development Council of the Philippines, and supported by WAO Corporation, Akira, SumoSam, Shu Uemura, ClickTheCity.com and Net25 TV and Radyo Aguila. The Eiga Sai is part of the Philippines-Japan Friendship Month celebration.
Reunion/
 |
| © 2013 Fuji Television Network |
The
film screened during the press preview was Reunion/遺体～明日への十日間 which was based
on the nonfiction book Itai Shinsai,
Tsunami no Hate ni by Kota Ishii. Directed by Ryoichi Kimizuka, the film
tells the story of what happened right after the deadly earthquake and tsunami
that struck Japan
back in March 11, 2011 . It
is a very touching and emotional tale of the people ranging from firefighters,
doctors, rescuers and volunteers who work hard at a makeshift morgue in order
to make retrieval of bodies by family members less difficult than it already
is. Lead actor Toshiyuki Nishida plays social worker Tsuneo Aiba, a retired
funeral home worker who takes in the reins after he sees the chaotic situation
at the temporary morgue. He effectively humanizes what possibly could be one of
the most difficult tasks ever, handling corpses and dealing with grieving
families. The recovery, checking, cleaning, labeling, identifying and retrieving of bodies could have easily gone the way of an assembly line, highly efficient and yet cold and impersonal, but Aiba made sure that the bodies will be treated with respect and dignity. Despite the odds, he was able to round up his confused and traumatized co-workers at the makeshift morgue and put a human and compassionate touch in their work.
The movie gave me a new perspective on how the Japanese, especially those who work in funeral homes, send off the departed. It also touched upon the themes that were tackled in Departures/Okurubito, the Academy Award winning film that was shown in Eiga Sai back in 2011. After seeing the film, it made me wonder how the Philippine film industry will respond to the super typhoon Yolanda that devastated most of central Visayas last November 2013. Reunion was screened in Japan only in 2013, just less than three years after the disaster, so I guess that it's still too early for local films to tackle Yolanda.
The movie gave me a new perspective on how the Japanese, especially those who work in funeral homes, send off the departed. It also touched upon the themes that were tackled in Departures/Okurubito, the Academy Award winning film that was shown in Eiga Sai back in 2011. After seeing the film, it made me wonder how the Philippine film industry will respond to the super typhoon Yolanda that devastated most of central Visayas last November 2013. Reunion was screened in Japan only in 2013, just less than three years after the disaster, so I guess that it's still too early for local films to tackle Yolanda.
Here
is the screening schedule of Eiga
Sai 2014 at Cinema 2 of the Shang Cineplex:
1:30
PM Hospitalité
4:30
PM Tamako in Moratorium
4:30
PM Wolf Children
4:30
PM Fly, Dakota, Fly!
4:30
PM Casting Blossoms to the Sky
7:30
PM Symphony in August
1:30
PM Things Left Behind
7:30
PM Tamako in Moratorium
1:30
PM Symphony in August
1:30
PM Fly, Dakota, fly!
4:30
PM Casting Blossoms to the Sky
7:30
PM Hospitalité
1:30
PM Tamako in Moratorium
7:30
PM Homeland
1:30
PM Wolf Children
After
the Shangri-La Plaza
Abreeza
Mall,
July
29-August 3, 2014
FDCP
Cinematheque,
Tickets:
Free
admission. First-come, first-served basis.
For
inquiries:
Shangri-La
Plaza 370-2597
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