The Japan Foundation and Jasper Sharp bring "Girls on Film" to the UK

by Chris MaGee

There's a lot of news about various Japanese film retrospectives and touring programmes this Friday, so we'll take them one at a time. First up we have Pow-Wow friend and Shinsedai Cinema Festival partner in crime Jasper Sharp and his news of the Japan Foundation UK touring a half dozen films that depict the lives of contemporary Japanese women across the country between February 9th to March 21st. Jasper has acted as a programming consultant on this retrospective titled "Girls on Film: Females in Contemporary Japanese Cinema", and he'll be on hand at the Japan Foundation's London Office in Russell Square on February 4th at 6:30PM to help get the tour underway. But what films will UK audiences get to see? Some darn good ones - Hiromasa Hirosue's "Fourteen", Satoko Yokohama's "German + Rain" (above), Jun Ichikawa's "How to Become Myself", Naoko Ogigami's "Kamome Diner", Kazuyoshi Kum akiri's "Non-ko", and Izuru Kumasaka's "Asyl: Park and Love Hotel".

The Japan Foundation's "Girls on Film" begins on February 9th and runs to February 17th at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and then tours through four cities through the United Kingdom. To find out which other four cities and for full details head over to Jasper Sharp's official website here.