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Genji Fantasy: The Cat Fell in Love With Hikaru Genji

The Tale of Genji Museum in Uji City, Kyoto will be airing a short film blending history and fantasy, the story follows a modern high school girl named Hana who is transformed into a cat and transported back in time. She travels 1,000 years ago to the Heian Era as portrayed in The Tale Of Genji, arguably the most famous novel in Japanese literature. Guided by the novel's titular character Hikaru Genji, Hana experiences firsthand the emotions that the author Murasaki Shikibu depicted in her novel. The short features scenes based on The Diary of Lady Murasaki and other historical materials, such as the real-life noble Fujiwara no Michinaga swiping early drafts of The Tale Of Genji because he could not wait to read chapters as Murasaki wrote them.

Genji Fantasy: The Cat Fell in Love With Hikaru Genji

NR 2019
Hotel Aporia

Ho Tzu Nyen's Hotel Aporia features a cast of historical figures from Japan's interwar period, including World War Two kamikaze pilots, philosophers of the Kyoto School, filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, and animator Ryuichi Yokoyama. They were all caught up in the heady mix of Japan's militant nationalism, anti-modernism, and cultural propaganda. Letters and correspondence between the artist and his Japanese collaborators, the writers Tomoyuki Arai and Yoko Nose, form the narrative basis of the work. Experimenting with the epistemological and affective capacities of animation, Ho superimposes animation images of featureless faces onto found footage clips from Ozu's fiction films and Ryuichi Yokoyama's animation propaganda films. This is a single-screen cinematic presentation of Hotel Aporia. Its original form, first presented at the Aichi Trienanle, is a video installation projecting layers of animation and hybrid-animation images onto multiple screens within a heritage building.

Hotel Aporia

NR 2019
The Angels of Testimony

This film centers on an interview with Hajime Kondo, a 99-year-old veteran of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and one of the few former soldiers to publicly testify to the war crimes he committed. When asked whether he still remembers these testimonies, it becomes clear that age has largely erased his recollection of the events themselves. The interview footage is juxtaposed with performances by eleven Japanese youths, aged 16 to 26, who have memorized Kondo’s original testimony word for word. Shown as two looping sequences of different lengths, the film generates ever-changing combinations, probing how histories of violence persist—or disappear—across personal and collective memory.

The Angels of Testimony

NR 2019
Zhou Enlai Returned To Yan'an

In 1973, Premier Zhou Enlai, diagnosed with bladder cancer, returned to Yan'an after a 26-year absence. The 13 years he spent in Yan'an vividly came back to him. This land had nurtured the Chinese revolution, the People's Liberation Army, and the first generation of CPC leaders, solidifying the Party's leading position. Premier Zhou reflected on the contributions of the Yan'an people to the revolution and worried about the continuing hardships they faced. He urged the local cadres and the "sent-down youth" to contribute to the development of this revolutionary sacred land. The cadres pledged their commitment, and the sent-down youth vowed to put down roots in the yellow earth. Everyone was filled with passion and determination to improve the lives of the Yan'an people. Moved by their enthusiasm and resolve, Premier Zhou, despite his illness (which prevented him from drinking alcohol) raised a toast with everyone, solidifying their shared vow.

Zhou Enlai Returned To Yan'an

NR 2019
The Return

Tatsuya Nakadai, the world’s greatest living actor, returns to the screen in a brilliant adaptation of a story by novelist Shuhei Fujisawa. A traveling gambler known as “Funeral Uno” he is now 86 years old and returning to his hometown for the first time in 30 years. Partly told in flashbacks, he is forced to face his lifelong nemesis, Boss Kyuzo, a vile yakuza portrayed by another superstar of samurai cinema, Atsuo Nakamura! Before the two old gamblers can settle a 30-year-old score they must put their lives on the line in a game of dice that can only lead to a bloody sword duel the likes of which has never before been seen! Superb performances all around in a film loaded with surprises and exciting swordplay!

The Return

7.3 2019
A Town and a Tall Chimney

Japan in 1910, industrialization is unstoppable and devastating entire areas in the name of progress. In X, a farming village in Ibaraki Prefecture, the environment is so polluted that the plants in the fields die and the air, which is laden with toxic smoke, can no longer be breathed. But Saburo, the grandson of the village elder, can no longer put up with this and forms the resistance of the villagers. In Junpei, the idealistic employee of Hitachi, he finds an unexpected ally, and together they fight for a way to save the village.

A Town and a Tall Chimney

8.0 2019
The Composer

The film follows the true life story of one of China's greatest composers, Xian Xinghai. The start of the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany in 1941 made it difficult for Xian to return to China. He was stranded in Almaty, suffering poverty and sickness. Kazakh composer Bakhitzhan Baykadamov then helped Xian, providing him with a home, despite not knowing his true identity since Xian was then using an alias. There Xian put down roots and composed some of his most famous works.

The Composer

10.0 2019
Eien no Nispa

Takeshiro Matsuura was a Japanese explorer who was the first person to document the inner reaches of what is now known as Hokkaido. He explored the area extensively during the mid 19th century and created a map of the island that included parts which had been ignored by earlier cartographers. He visited Ainu communities and compiled records of the large numbers of the population who had been conscripted for forced labor far from their homes. Matsuura suggested the name Hokkaido for the area

Eien no Nispa

4.5 2019
Kishu Hanshu Yoshimune

Before Tokugawa Yoshimune, known as the "Ravage Shogun", was the lord of the Kishu domain, before he became the shogun! Yoshimune hides his identity and begins an investigation in the city of Edo in order to find out who he really is. As he grows up, he ends up throwing himself into a turmoil involving the shogunate... This is an entertainment historical drama in which a young 21-year-old named Yoshimune solves the problems of the common people in the city and goes around dealing with merchants and powerful people plotting evil deeds.

Kishu Hanshu Yoshimune

NR 2019
The Shooting of 319

The movie revisits the shooting of then-president Chen Shui-bian and vice president Annette LU on the eve of the presidential election in 2004. After the shooting, the two won the presidential election. Moreover, the crime suspect was drowned in a near port days after the incident. The assassination case has been investigated by the authority for 15 years; however, several questions surrounding the "319 Shooting" remain unanswered to this day. The movie approaches a dark period of Taiwan history and shows the mechanics of power - in a witty and creative way.

The Shooting of 319

5.0 2019
El Japón / Aqua Vitae!!

Takarazuka Cosmos Troupe 2019-2020. "El Japón -The Samurai of España-" In the town of Coria del Río in southern Spain, there are people who use the surname “Japón” to identify themselves as descendants of the samurai. What gave birth to this curious legend of Japanese samurai in a far-off land...? This lighthearted and pleasurable tale of heroism has as its protagonist a retainer of Sendai Domain, dispatched to Europe on a diplomatic mission, starkly portraying the emotions of the samurai and an encounter with another culture. "Aqua Vitae!! -The Water of Life-" A show built upon the theme of that most aromatic and mature of deep-flavored spirits: whiskey. Experience the many varied talents of the stylish and cool Makaze Suzuho and the other members of Cosmos Troupe, in a performance based on unique whiskey.

El Japón / Aqua Vitae!!

NR 2019
Ainu: Indigenous People of Japan

The Ainu are the indigenous people of Japan. Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan, was previously called Ainumosir, or land of the Ainu. Ainu traditions are facing a critical situation; the latest survey revealed that the Ainu population is less than 20,000 people in Hokkaido, and UNESCO has recognized the language as ‘critically endangered.’ This documentary was filmed in Biratori town in Hokkaido, where many people with Ainu roots still live. It is also known as the hometown of the late Shigeru Kayano, who contributed greatly to the field of research on Ainu culture.

Ainu: Indigenous People of Japan

NR 2019