Whether you’re up for a yakuza redemption, bright teen story, or steampunk anime, our good friends from the isles have us covered.
Hitting both big cities – Bangkok and Chiang Mai – in February, the Japanese Film Festival returns with 12 films spanning a wide range of genres.
Highlights include Under the Open Sky, a touching drama about an ex-Yakuza gangster released from prison after 13 years who goes searching for the mother who abandoned him. The film won the Silver Hugo for Best Performance in an International Feature Film and Best International Feature Audience Choice Award at the 2020 Chicago International Film Festival.
Moviegoers looking for something more of a coming-of-age comedy with a nostalgic touch and sci-fi subplot can opt for It’s a Summer Film! in which a high-schooler obsessed with samurai films aspires to make her own for a school festival.
Anime fans won’t be disappointed either, as the event roster features animated steampunk fantasy Poupelle of Chimney Town. It revolves around Lubicchi, a young chimney sweeper, living in a factory town long surrounded by smoke. Lubicchi befriends a sentient, anthropomorphic pile of garbage named Poupelle, and together they try to prove that beyond their dark, smoke-filled sky is actually one full of light and stars.
In Bangkok, the Japanese Film Festival will run Friday through Feb. 13 at House Samyan. Find the full schedule here. Tickets are THB160 (THB140 for members).
Afterward, it moves north to screen seven of the nine films at Maya Lifestyle in Chiang Mai city on the weekend of Feb. 25-27. Those cinephiles unable to make it to either venue can watch online for free from Feb. 14 to Feb. 27.
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