Arts writer
CATS for hire, magical make-up, strong women and self-discovery make their way onto the big screen at the 21st Annual Japanese Film Festival at Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau at the V&A Waterfront from October 10 to 12.
The festival aims to celebrate the journey Japan has taken alongside South Africa up to this year, the 20th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy. All films are in Japanese with English subtitles.
Free tickets will be available at the box office an hour before screening.
In Rent-A-Cat, Sayoko rents out cats to help lonely people fill the emptiness in their hearts. She walks along the river with a megaphone promoting her service and her animals in a handcart. Sayoko is lonely too since the death of her grandmother. All she has left is her cats. A young man shows up from her past and her life seems to fall apart.
Atsuko Kagami, known as “Akko Chan”, a 10-year-old girl in elementary school, is the main character in Akko Chan: The Movie. A spirit appears and gives her a magical compact. Akko uses it to become 22, and has a blast wearing make-up and fashionable outfits. She even meets the man of her dreams, Naoto Hayase, an elite manager at a famous cosmetics company facing a corporate buyout. As he strives to save his company by developing a new product, Akko comes up with ideas. Can she save the man she loves?
Inspired by a true story, Tug of War! tells how eight ordinary women band together to revitalise their community. Chiaki Nishikawa (Mao Inoue) works in the public relations department for the city of Oita. In the past, the city won the tug-of-war world championship three times and Chiaki is a tug-of-war enthusiast. To promote the city, the mayor instructs Chiaki to form a female tug-of-war team.
This drama depicts the everyday challenges of women as daughters, wives and mothers and how tugging on a rope brings them together.
January 1946 – a British military transport plane departs from Shanghai on its way to Tokyo, Japan, in Fly, Dakota, Fly. During the flight the plane makes an emergency landing on Sado Island. The residents have heard about stereotypes of British soldiers and have mixed feelings about their “guests”. But for the next 40 days the islanders, including Chiyoko Morimoto (Manami Higa), daughter of the inn owner where some British crew members stay, take care of the crew until the plane can take off again. Based on a true story it was filmed on Sado Island with support from the local community, including some who witnessed the event back in 1946.
In Tokyo Oasis, Touko seems to have lost her grip on reality. While soul searching, she meets others dealing with similar issues. A midnight truck driver, Nagano, is grappling with his soul and is unable to move forward. A movie theatre manager, Kikuchi is uncertain of her life. She has moved to new surroundings but feels lost. A young job seeker at the zoo, Yasuko, has no faith in her future. She thinks her luck is slipping away. During the time they spend together they start to feel a new awareness and discover a new sense of freedom, an oasis within.
Leaving on the 15th Spring zooms in on Minamidaito Island where there isn’t a high school, so teenagers leave the island for schooling. Yuna Nakazato (Ayaka Miyoshi) lives on the island with her father. She is the youngest child and has two older siblings. Yuna has one year left before she must leave the island to attend high school. Yuna’s mother lives in Naha to watch over her older sister Mina while she attends high school there.
Yuna misses her mom but worries about her father, who will be left alone next year.
l Tokyo Oasis will be screened on October 10 at 7pm, Akko Chan: The Movie on October 11 at noon, Fly, Dakota, Fly on October 11 at 2.30pm, Tug of War! on October 11 at 5pm, Leaving on the 15th Spring on October 12 at noon and Rent-A-Cat on October 12 at 2.30pm. See www.sterkinekor.com for more.