DEJIMA Japanese Film Festival
May 27 and 28 2005, Bioscoop Het Ketelhuis, Amsterdam
- Program schedule
- Articles
- 2006 previews
Under her banner the Dejima Japanese Film Festival organized three Japanese filmnights in 2006. On the last wednesday of March, April and May 2006 the films Monday, Marebito and Bashing were screened.
Wednesday 29 March 2006
Monday
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director: SABU
with: Shinichi TSUTSUMI, Yasuko MATSUYUKI
1999 | 35mm | 1:1.85 | 100 minutes
Weirder than David Lynch and with more swing than Tarantino! This past decade Hiroyuki 'Sabu' TANAKA has definitely created himself a niche in the bizarre and comical reaches of Japanese cinema. In his most unique film to date, a man awakes in a hotel with a bad hangover while outside an enormous police force awaits him. Slowly he puzzles his memories together and we see how an exploding corpse, a drunken yakuza and stylish dance moves got him caught up in this situation. Note of social critique: how does SABU think about the power of guns?
Wednesday 26 April 2006
A stranger from afar (Marebito)
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director: Takashi SHIMIZU
with: Shinya TSUKAMOTO, Tomomi MIYASHITA
2004 | 35mm | 1:1.85 | 92 minutes
Contrary variation on the famed J-horror genre, where pure tension and scary effects are subordinate to a sinister and suffocating mood. A cameraman with an unhealthy obsession for the literal fear of death slowly loses his grip on life when he tries to experience this fear himself. Wander around in a gruesome world in which ghosts and vampire-likes are astonishingly matter-of-course, because in front of the camera's eye fiction becomes reality... and vice versa.
Wednesday 31 May 2006
Bashing
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director: Masahiro KOBAYASHI
with: Fusako URABE, Ryuzo TANAKADA
2005 | 35mm | 1:1.66 | 82 minutes
Topical and controversial drama based on the kidnapping of three Japanese people in Iraq. Back home they are not given a warm welcome, due to the enormous social and political pressure on the Japanese government. The daily 'bashing' of these people is not only strongly presented as an existing social problem, but is also a clear metaphor for the treatment of minorities in any society worldwide.
