Toronto Japanese Film Festival

Toronto Japanese Film Festival

This year marked my first time going to the Toronto Japanese Film Festival. Even though I was aware of the fest during previous years, none of the movies attracted me enough to make the 45 min drive (during rush hour nonetheless) to Toronto to watch any of the films. Luckily they had an amazing selection of movies this year, with most being relatively new, so we took advantage of the 5-movie pass and picked five films to watch.

My first movie at the festival was the opening night film, A Tale of Samurai Cooking. They had a really swanky reception prior to the movie with catering by Hashimoto. (Hashimoto being the number one Japanese restaurant in Toronto with average prices of $300 pp.) It was super packed once we got in and there were lineups in all directions for the free appetizers, sushi and sake. Hashimoto also prepared extravagant dishes that were directly from the movie, which were on display at the front and were auctioned off in the evening.

Reception

For the actual movie itself, it was a lighthearted comedy about a woman who marries into a samurai family of chefs. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes depicting the food, especially seeing how the dishes were prepared. I thought it was a great opening night film and it gave me a good feel for the rest of the festival.

A Tale of Samurai Cooking

For my second and third movie, I watched Black Butler and The Little House. Black Butler is an adaption from a manga by the same name, with Mizushima Hiro as the lead character Sebastian. While I haven’t read the manga, the movie was a bit of a train wreck. None of the characters nor scenes made any sense and the plot development was weak. The only redeeming part was seeing Hiro on the big screen again. (But even that wasn’t enough to save the movie.)

Black Butler

The Little House was a beautifully shot film which followed the story of a young woman from a remote village who goes to work as a housekeeper for a family in Tokyo. The story was set in the years before WWII and depicted her conflicted feelings after discovering an extramarital affair in the family. The film was more slower paced, but it really bought out the beauty of pre-war era and the people who lived during those times.

The Little House

Moving onto the best movie out of the film festival – Eien no Zero. Even though I had a bias going in since I loved the book and the lead actors, I was blown away by how the story unfolded and how the battles were brought to life. It was perfect having Okada cast in the lead role because no one else could portray the character of Miyabe better than him. The movie was hard to watch at parts, but also very bittersweet towards the end. I definitely got a little teary-eyed. Fortunately it wasn’t to the extent of the woman in front of me, who bought an entire box of tissues with her to the movie. Lol. I can’t wait to re-watch this once the DVD comes out. =)

Eien no Zero

My last film was Shirayuki Hime Satsujin Jiken during the closing night reception. I had read the book so I was interested in seeing how it would be adapted onto the big screen. I was pleasantly surprised by the humour in the movie, especially with the integration of ‘live tweets’ which was impossible in the novel. The interview segments with each subject was hilarious with all the dry humour. I think I enjoyed the movie more than the book in that aspect.

Shirayuki

We were lucky that the director was able to fly in from Japan for the reception, so it was interesting hearing him talk more about the film. (Although I admit the Q&A session was somewhat terrible. Not the fault of the director, more so the questions that were asked and the things that were lost in translation.) They served food at the closing night reception as well, but not to the extent of the opening. Towards the end of the night I managed to grab a photo with the director, so that was a bonus for me.

Overall I was pretty lucky this year to attend the festival and watch such an amazing lineup of films. If they keep up with their selection process, I’m pretty sure there’ll be lots of great films in the years to come. =)

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