Full Lineup for 24th Tokyo International Film Festival Announced

by Marc Saint-Cyr

The full lineup for the 2011 Tokyo International Film Festival has finally been fully unveiled, revealing a wide selection of interesting films. Some will be quite familiar to those who kept track of the most recent Toronto International Film Festival, as such eagerly anticipated films as the new Gus Van Sant effort “Restless” and the Brad Pitt baseball drama “Moneyball” are present within the lineup. Japanese cinema buffs will want to take note of the Japanese Eyes program, which will be presenting quite a few new works, including Shinju Sano’s Japan-Kazakhstan co-production “The First Rains of Spring,” Junko Kobayashi’s documentary on dancer Yasuyuki Shuto “Between Today and Tomorrow,” Keiichi Kobayashi’s coming-of-age story “About the Pink Sky” and Juichiro Yamasaki’s “The Sound of Light,” among others. Also worth noting here are two programs devoted to two very different Japanese actresses, the first one being Golden Age performer Kyoko Kagawa. She worked with some of the most renowned names of the time, which will be illustrated by the program’s selection of films which includes Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokoy Story,” Mikio Naruse’s “Sudden Rain” and “Anzukko” and Akira Kurosawa’s “The Lower Depths.” The second actress being celebrated could be considered a Pow-Wow favorite, as multiple works of hers have received attention here in the past. She is none other than Kiki Sugino, producer and star of Koji Fukada’s “Hospitalite,” which earlier this year opened the 3rd Shinsedai Cinema Festival in Toronto. That film will be shown in Tokyo along with several other films that Sugino has been involved in during her still-young career – including Tokyo-based Malaysian filmmaker Edmund Yeo’s short film “Exhalation,” which will be screening with Lim Kah Wai’s “Magic and Loss.”

The festival will be running from Oct. 24th-30th. Access the main website here for more details and the full list of films being presented.