Paris Cinema International Film Festival to bring Japan to France this July

by Chris MaGee

Japanese film enjoys great success worldwide, but in France love for Japanese film and pop culture, especially anime and manga, has achieved the level of mania. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the 8th annual Paris Cinema International Film Festival, according to Film Business Asia is bringing 100 Japanese films to the French capital between July 3rd to 13th. Yes, you heard that right - 100 Japanese films!

Aside from retrospectives of the work of Sadao Yamanaka and Koji Wakamatsu the majority of the films will apparently be drawn from just the last three years. This is consciously being doen in order to give an accurate picture of Japanese cinematic output and tastes at the start of this new century. With so many fests looking back over Japanese history this forward-looking strategy should be applauded.

The fest will also be highlighting the career of 37-year-old actress Shinobu Terajima (above). This may double up with the Wakamatsu retrospective as Terajima starred in Wakamatsu's latest film "Caterpillar".

The Paris Cinema International Film Festival website doesn't have a lot of details of this year's full line-up of Japanese films yet, but we'll definitely keep an eye out and let you know when it does. Thanks to Wildgrounds (via Facebook) for this great piece of news.