40th International Film Festival Rotterdam brings a wealth of Japanese films to The Netherlands

by Chris MaGee

As much as I'm absolutely thrilled to be heading to Frankurt again in April for the 11th annual Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival, I do have to admit that I'm a teensy bit jealous of my friends who are currently catching a slew of amazing films at this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam. The 40th offering of the fest opened this past Wednesday in The Netherlands and as usual its programmers are bringing a wealth of films from Japan to audiences.

In amongst the high profile films like "13 Assassins", "Cold Fish",”Outrage” and "Zebraman: 2" Japanese film fans will be able to catch a wealth of rare gems. These include Hiroki Nakamura's "Dissertation on Permeation: Harmony versus Convergence", Naomi Kawase's "Genpin", Koji Fukada's "Hospitalité", Yosuke Okuda's "Hot as Hell: The Deadbeat March", Masahiro Kobayashi's "Haru's Journey", Mari Terashima's "Alice in the Underworld: The Dark Märchen Show!!", Noboru Iguchi's "Karate-Robo Zaborgar", Nobuteru Uchida's "Love Addiction", NHK's "Kaidan Horror Classics", Keita Kurosaka's "Midori-ko", Ikki Katashima's "Pure Asia", Daishi Matsunaga's "Pyuupiru" and Atsuko Ochiai's "Sleep". If you're currently in Rotterdam reading this post take my advice and do not miss "Midori-ko", "Pyuupiru" and "Hospitalité"! You'll be sorry if you do. Add to these features the fest will also showcase a bunch of great short films including a special programme of short films by "Sawako Decides" director Yuya Ishii (above).

The 40th annual International Film Festival Rotterdam runs from January 26th to February 6th. To check out this year's full line-up check out their website here. We'll leave you with the trailer for this year's fest below.