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Japan to screen 30 diverse films at festival
Aiming to widen the Indonesian publicâs understanding of its diverse culture, Japanese officials will kick off the Japanese Film Festival on Thursday, focusing on film genres that are less mainstream and popular than J-horror or Japanese animation movies
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iming to widen the Indonesian public's understanding of its diverse culture, Japanese officials will kick off the Japanese Film Festival on Thursday, focusing on film genres that are less mainstream and popular than J-horror or Japanese animation movies.
The festival, which will be held at the Blitz Theater in the Grand Indonesia Mall, is hosted by the Japanese Embassy, the Japan Foundation and the Japan Image Council and will run from Nov. 26 to Dec. 1.
The opening screening will be of A Samurai Chronicle, directed by Koizumi Takashi, which was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor awards at the 38th Japan Academy Prize and won for Best Supporting Actor. Set in Japan's Edo period, the film narrates the story of a samurai trying to atone for a past crime.
Other films to be screened include The Kirishima Thing, The Great Passage, The Complex, The Little House, The Pearls of the Stone Man and Being Good.
A total 30 live action and animation movies, consisting of 11 long films and 19 short ones, will be screened during the festival.
Japanese Ambassador to Indonesia Tanizaki Yasuaki pointed out that the diversity of the films being screened would show Indonesians a different side of Japan.
'We have no doubt that this wonderful event will satisfy not only Japanese language learners, fans of Japanese culture and the many people who want to know more about Japan, but also many people who are not very familiar with the country,' Tanizaki said.
'We believe that this Japanese film festival can spur an increased level of interest in Japan and help the friendly relationship between Japan and Indonesia develop even further.'
According to Japan's deputy chief of mission Kozo Honsei, film is one of the easiest ways to exchange culture. While Indonesia and Japan have been able to reach productive political and economic exchanges, the cultural exchanges between the two nations could also be increased.
'I thought that in the prospective of a bilateral relationship between Indonesia and Japan there was kind of a close relationship between economics and politics,' Honsei said. 'It's a little bit mellow from the perspective of cultural exchange and technology. From the perspective of the Japanese government, we have to widen our view to use this kind of festival.'
While this festival will be the first of its kind in Indonesia, it has been held annually in various places around the world for 12 years.
