REWIND FEATURE: Tokyo International Film Festival 2016
TIFF 2016 - Part Four: The Closing Day of the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival
November 3rd 2016 - the final day of the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival - probably the most important day of the festival as it is the time to announce the festival winners and to honor the special prizes.
A special lifetime prize - the Samurai Award, was given to two very important filmmakers this year. American director Martin Scorsese and Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Prior to the receiving of the award at the closing ceremony, Kurosawa gave a special on stage 90 minute talk event for the press and special guests. Kurosawa burst onto the international scene with the 1997 suspense horror film “Cure”, a work that pioneered a new era for Japanese horror films, and followed with landmark films such as “Pulse” (2001), “Bright Future” (2003), “Tokyo Sonata” (2008), and “Creepy” (2016) continuing his international critical success. In addition, Kurosawa has written plays, novels, teaches film at Tokyo University of the Arts, and is a consistently pushing awareness of older films from previous generations, such as the works of Val Lewton and Alfred Hitchcock.
For the talk event, Kurosawa started from his earliest days in cinema - in university making 8mm short films with fellow students in the cinema circle. Later his career led to working as an assistant for director Kazuhiko Hasegawa, leading to various production work for other directors including Juzo Itami. While many of his former classmates were starting to gain ground in theatrical filmmaking, Kurosawa went to “V-cinema” or films made for direct-to-video. While in American circles “direct to video” usually meant features that were too poor to get a theatrical release, Japanese V-cinema made the most of it by pushing creative boundaries that major theatrical releases missed. Kurosawa didn’t seem to feel envy as he talked about the pride in creativity of his early years, but it was a chance opportunity when “Cure” - his first theatrical feature film was chosen to represent Daiei Pictures at the 1997 Tokyo International Film Festival. It was unusual that the studio would choose a non-prestigious picture but one that was a dark horror film, but it paid off. With international distributors looking for something “new” and “exciting” from Japan, they found something fresh, scary, and different from the rest. This was the same year that Takeshi Kitano’s “Hana-bi” started making waves internationally as well and the two directors’ works were very important in bringing Japanese genre films to international awareness. Although he felt that Daiei choosing a “psycho-thriller” was a strange choice, it changed things for the best for his career. By the time the world discovered this “new director”, he had already made many V-cinema titles which suddenly led to international retrospectives.
Interestingly Kurosawa also talked about how he seems to have many fans from various countries around the world but his name and films are not necessarily well known in Japan. While his films are somewhat known and even his latest film “Creepy” was heavily advertised, his name is nowhere near that of directors such as Takashi Miike or Koki Mitani in terms of popularity and recognition in the mainstream. Regardless, he said he was thankful that cinema was a way to bridge gaps between cultures and being able to connect with film fans all around Asia, Europe, America, and elsewhere throughout the years. With the Samurai Award, Kurosawa said he was incredibly honored to be receiving the award and will continue to work doing films of various genres and challenging himself to new work. Who knows? He may even make a musical. (We know Takashi Miike even did that).
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
As for additional questions from other than the moderator, Kurosawa was later asked by three young filmmakers questions about technique - from acting choices, music choices, and writing choices. The three young filmmakers joined on stage were Takashi Komatsu, Isora Iwakiri, and Madoka Kumagai. Later a few audience questions also followed, and so of course I raised my hand and asked this (in Japanese but I will translate it to English in writing):
JMR: “Mr. Kurosawa, you champion the importance of old films and film history and you were featured in interviews for documentary features on Val Lewton and Alfred Hitchcock among others. My question is do you ever go back and rewatch some of your own films?”
I was quite sure he would say “no” - but it is a question that is very divided among filmmakers. Some are embarrassed to see their older work, some like to study their own work to improve their techniques. Kurosawa’s answer was “Never!” He said he never watches his own films after completion. He did say he will never say never, as years later he may be on his deathbed and suddenly say “I think I want to rewatch what I made in my life”, but he also added that he imagines he would do that, then immediately regret doing such a task before dying. It was a funny answer and it led to quite a bit of laughter in good nature.
After the Q&A it was off toward the EX Theater for the official closing ceremony, where the awards would be announced and handed out. The nominees and television crew were sitting at the bottom of the theater area while all other press members were far off in the second floor balcony area. Here are the winners for the two hour event:
Tokyo Grand Prix / The Governor of Tokyo Award - “The Bloom of Yesterday” (dir: Chris Klaus, Germany)
Special Jury Prize - “Sami Blood” (dir: Amanda Kernell, Sweden)
Best Director - Hana Jusic for “Quit Staring at My Plate” (Croatia)
Best Actress - Lene Cecilia Sparrok for “Sami Blood”
Best Actor - Paolo Ballesteros for “Die Beautiful” (dir: Jun Robles Lana, The Philippines)
Award for Best Artistic Contribution - “Mr. No Problem” (dir: Mei Feng, China)
Audience Award - “Die Beautiful”
Best Asian Future Film Award - “Birdshot” (dir: Mikhail Red, The Philippines)
The Spirit of Asia Award by the Japan Film Foundation Asia Center - “Lipstick Under My Burkha” (dir: Alankrita Shrivastava)
Japanese Cinema Splash Best Picture Award - “Poolsideman” (dir: Hirobumi Watanabe)
WOWOW Viewer’s Choice Award - “The Bloom of Yesterday” (dir: Chris Klaus, Germany)
“Samurai Award” - Martin Scorsese / Kiyoshi Kurosawa
“Arigato Award” - Makoto Shinkai (director), Mitsuki Takahata (actress), Satoshi Tsumabuki (actor), Godzilla (character)
Yes, Godzilla appeared on stage! The “Arigato Award” was presented to people who contributed to people in the Japanese film industry who shaped this year in cinema. Makoto Shinkai’s latest film “Your Name” has broken box office records in Japan, has received incredible critical acclaim, and I must say personally, that it is the best film I have seen this year so far. Godzilla was resurrected for “Shin Godzilla” which has literally and figuratively been a monster hit with a rollout into other countries throughout this year and next. As mentioned prior Kurosawa was there to accept his award, but as for Scorsese he was unable to attend the ceremony and so a video message was played on screen. Scorsese mentioned how much Japanese cinema has opened a cultural gate with the films of Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, and other major directors, and watching more and more Japanese films helped him appreciate the culture and art to a loving level of influence. He is currently working on finishing touches for “Silence”, based on the novel by Shusaku Endo which will be released in December in the United States. Overall the awards were dominated by female filmmakers - three films by female filmmakers won awards (“Lipstick Under My Burkha”, “Quit Staring at My Table”, “Sami Blood”), the Best Actor award received by Paolo Ballesteros was for his role as a transgender character. Female driven films were also a main focus on many of the screened films this year at the festival. It was an interesting and great counterpart to the male-driven industry. Other highlights during the event were Paolo Ballesteros appearing in full dress and make-up to receive the award, which was unexpected since he flew in from The Philippines without informing the director, director Hirobumi Watanabe breaking down in tears of happiness after receiving the award, and the recently elected Governor of Tokyo - Yuriko Koike appearing on stage to give the Grand Prix to director Chris Klaus.
This year’s stats:
Total audience attendance: 60,589
Total number of visitors to other affiliated events: 222,039
JCS, Red Carpet, and other official events: 119,598
With over 1500 film entries, 206 screened during the festival, and only 34 eligible for competition, it was a tough race but a satisfying one. Most of these films have not been screened elsewhere and made their debuts at TIFF. Hopefully many will find international distribution and will be available in theaters across the globe and eventually on Blu-ray and DVD releases (which will of course be a highlight for our dear site).