KOTA KINABALU: The Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur has tied up with The Borneo Post to give away 100 complimentary passes to watch movies during the 11th edition of the Japanese Film Festival.
Residents of Kota Kinabalu can redeem the tickets on a first come first serve basis on September 27 at GSC Suria Sabah Mall to catch the best in Japanese motion pictures on October 2 and 5.
Redemption details will be announced in The Borneo Post on September 26.
The film festival will offer a variety of titles to whet every appetite, from light-hearted mainstream fare to movies that have made the rounds in film festivals the likes of Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto and New York.
Heart-warming dramas and rib-tickling comedies dominate the 13-strong list, which includes five new releases making their Malaysian premiere.
Yuki Tanada’s exploration of grief and loss in “Mourning Recipe” boasts an award-winning cast with a Japan Academy Prize and Venice Film Festival Marco Mastroianni Award to their names.
Period action-farce “Samurai Hustle” – about a hapless clan leader forced to make an impossible journey to save his village – was the top local film at the Japanese box office for three consecutive weeks and raked in a cool ¥900 million (RM28.3 million) in ticket sales.
Ten-year-old child star Mana Ashida flexes her lead muscles in Isao Yukisada’s “The Round Table”. The director rose to international prominence with the 2001 coming-of-age flick “Go”, which took home top honours at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, International Film Festival of Marrakech, Yokohama Film Festival and Japan Academy Prize.
In “Rent-a-Cat”, Mikako Ichikawa – who received the prestigious Silver St George in 2002 – plays a kooky woman who leases out her feline companions to lonely people.
“Fly, Dakota, Fly” meanwhile is the first ever film to depict the untold story of a British airplane that was forced to make an emergency landing in a remote Japanese island soon after the Allied victory in the Pacific. In spite of initial hostility, the Sadonmon spirit of helping those in need overruled national sentiment, and the villagers helped the passengers onboard return home.
Visitors to JFF 2014 will also find definite crowd-pleasers in Hirokazu Koreeda’s Cannes Jury Prize-winning “Like Father, Like Son” and Hayao Miyazaki’s swansong biopic “The Wind Rises”.
All films are presented in Japanese with English subtitles.