JULY 1 (Friday)
Opening Night by Invitation at Cinema 2
Departures (131 mins ) 7:00 PM
JULY 2 (Saturday)
The Chef of South Polar (125 mins) 1:00 PM
Departures (131 mins ) 4:00 PM
The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones (139 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 3 (Sunday)
Summer Days with Coo (1:38 mins) 1:00 PM
The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones (139 mins) 4:00 PM
The Chef of South Polar (125 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 4 (Monday)
Yunagi City, Sakura Country (118 mins) 1:00 PM
Villon’s Wife (114 mins) 4:00 PM
Climber’s High (145 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 5 (Tuesday)
Your Friend (125 mins) 1:00 PM
One Million Yen Girl (121 mins) 4:00 PM
Feel the Wind (133 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 6 (Wednesday)
One Million Yen Girl (121 mins) 1:00 PM
Climber’s High (145 mins) 4:00 PM
The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones (139 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 7 (Thursday)
Feel the Wind (133 mins) 1:00 PM
Climber’s High (145 mins) 4:00 PM
Your Friend (125 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 8 (Friday)
Your Friend (125 mins) 1:00 PM
Yunagi City, Sakura Country (118 mins) 4:00 PM
Departures (131 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 9 (Saturday)
Departures (131 mins) 1:00 PM
One Million Yen Girl (121 mins) 4:00 PM
Villon’s Wife (114 mins) 7:00 PM
JULY 10 (Sunday)
Summer Days with Coo (1:38 mins) 1:00 PM
Feel the Wind (133 mins) 4:00 PM
The Chef of South Polar (125 mins) 7:00 PM
"Departures" (Daigo
Kobayashi is a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been
dissolved and now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move
back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over.
He answers a classified ad entitled "Departures" thinking it is an
advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is
actually for a "Nokanshi" or "encoffineer," a funeral professional who
prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While
his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his
work and begins to perfect the art of "Nokanshi," acting as a gentle
gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family
of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical
journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life
and living.)
The Summit: Chronicle of Stones(A team of explorers risk their lives to reach the peak of Mount Tsurugidake in order to complete a map of Japan in 1907.
Genres:
Art/Foreign, Drama and Adaptation
Running Time:
2hrs. 19 min.)
The Chef of South Polar (An
Antarctic research station is possibly the last place anyone would
expect to encounter seriously fine dining, but nevertheless this is
what’s on the menu in Shuichi Okita’s delicious adaptation of Jun
Nishimura’s autobiographical novel. Lobster, foie gras, you name
it—nothing is too luxurious for Chef Nishimura to dish up to the eight
man crew of the Dome Fuji Station research base in the frozen no-man’s
land where not even a virus can survive, let alone a human. As the men
carry out the mundane tasks of their communal isolation interrupted by
occasional playful forays into the stunning exterior wilderness, they
develop bizarre cravings or dress eccentrically and start to pine for
home. Okita wisely concentrates the action around the much-anticipated
meal times, with Nishimura as a kind of surrogate mother to the
disparate team members, seeking to constantly divert them from going
stir crazy. Taking a low key, elliptical approach to the story, and told
from Nishimura’s point of view with flashbacks to his much-missed wife
and young daughter, The Chef of South Polar is a delightful,
quirky blend of daily observation and elegantly simple aesthetics and a
mouth-watering addition to the food movie genre. Don’t, on any account,
come hungry.) Running time:125 Minutes Genre:Comedy
One Million Yen Girl (A
21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the
neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save
one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the
process. )
Your Friend (While
researching a story on a school for problem children, Nakahara meets
Emi, a college volunteer with a compelling tale of her own. After
overcoming her initial reluctance to open up to the writer, Emi talks
about her busted leg and her childhood friendship with the chronically
ill Yuka. Hiroki steps away from the mature material he's best known for
(Vibrator), but focuses the same empathetic gaze on a group of people
who don't conform in a perfection-obsessed society and the bonds formed
in it. Runtime: 125 min)
Yunagi City, Sakura Country ("Thirteen
years afterward, I wonder if those who bombed Hiroshima are looking at
me and saying: 'We did it! We were able to kill another person!' They
should be," murmurs Minami (played by Kumiko Aso), one of the two
leading female characters in Yunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni, as she
lies dying in 1958, her life brought to a premature end by sickness
resulting from her exposure to atomic bomb radiation.
This is a
story about those who at least initially survived the first U.S. atomic
bombing of 1945 and their descendants in contemporary times. The film,
based on a comic by Fumiyo Kono, jumps between the two time frames and
quietly depicts the sorrow and mortification experienced through the
everyday lives of laid-back and soft-spoken Hiroshima people. Only a few
scenes of the bombing and the ensuing devastation are featured.
Nanami
(Rena Tanaka), the leading female character in the contemporary part of
the film, is the daughter of Minami's brother, Asahi (Masaaki Sakai),
who had evacuated to Ibaraki Prefecture when Hiroshima was bombed. An
ordinary 28-year-old, Nanami has no idea about her dad's past or the
existence of her late aunts, but she finds out about them when she
follows her father to Hiroshima one day, suspicious of his unusual
behavior. Runtime: 118 min.)
Summer Days with Coo (A
small, lone Kappa miraculously survives over 200 years into modern day
Tokyo, Japan when he is found by young Koichi. "Coo" who is secretly
adopted by the whole family, faces a tragic past and the present's
challenge of living in a dramatically changed environment, searches with
his new human friend for places not invaded by people hoping to find
any remaining of his kind. When this intelligent "water sprite" draws
the popular attention of the whole city upon being discovered and then
confronted with his past, it forces him to take action and make an
ultimate decision, in order to preserve his kind, inner peace and well
being in today's harsh world. Running time: 138 minutes)
Climber's High (On
August 12, 1985, a jumbo jet crashes, causing 520 fatalities, making
the accident the biggest single-plane accident in the world. The local
press reporters are tossed about by the waves of facts and rumors.
While
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the accident, Yuuki, in charge of this
crash report at a local newspaper, faces a string of decision-making
moments. What are news and a reporter? How should a man do his work and
survive in a corporate hierarchy? What do family and friends mean to
him? An intriguing story, which keeps the audience on the edge of
tension and reality. Runtime: 145 min)
Feel the Wind (Haiji
was an elite runner, but has not competed due to a past injury. He then
meets fellow elite runner Kakeru who also left running, but caused by a
dispute. Their meeting inspires both young men to run again, with Haiji
choosing the fabled "Hakone Ekiden" (long distance relay race). The
race requires a 10 member team so Haiji and Kakeru recruits 8 others
(some of whom have never even run before). Within this unlikely group of
runners a bond is formed through their training and a belief that they
can accomplish the impossible. Runtime: 133 min)
Villon's Wife. (One
night, Tokyo restaurant owners Kichizo and his wife Miyo pursue a
drunken writer, Otani, to his home after he walks out on his bill. The
next morning Otani's wife Sachi goes to the restaurant, the "Tsubakiya",
to stop them from making a police report. She promises to repay them by
working at the restaurant. And she proves to be very good at it. The
customers really like her and give her generous tips. Meanwhile, her
husband wanders from one bar to the next, falling deeper into debt and
generally acting badly. He is a successful novelist, but almost none of
the money made from his books reaches his bank account. In the end, it
becomes a question of whether or not the cheerful Sachi and her
recklessa and depressed husband will continue to remain together.
Length:
114:04
All films will be shown with English subtitles. Admission is free.
For detailed screening schedules and inquiries, please access the Japan Foundation, Manila website: www.jfmo.org.ph or call the JFM telephone numbers (+632) 811-6155 to 58.
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