Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Japanese Film Festival 2009


The Japanese Film Festival is one of a select few festivals that are constantly well attended, probably also because that this is one of the rare festivals that comes with free screenings.

It's no different this year too, though with some very slight changes due to the economic crunch I believe. Brought forward to August this year, the festival screenings have been considerably scaled down to a period of 6 days showcasing a total of 9 films - 5 of which are free, and 4 ticketed. Well, it's the quality that counts. While there's a director-in-focus in MASUMURA Yasuzo having 2 of his films featured, this year won't see a director-in-attendance, where in previous editions the festival had the honour of hosting KAWASE Naomi and the late ICHIKAWA Jun.

The latter's final film, buy a suit will be screened separately from the festival - it will be shown this Saturday at The Picturehouse, but no tickets will be sold. Instead, admission is open to the public through SFS membership. Memberships from $30 available at the door. You may bring up to 2 guests if you hold a SFS Reel membership card. Non-members may sign up online or at the door 30 min before the screening. You can get more details here.

This year's theme for the festival is, well if you can read the characters in red above, Best in Japanese Horror, Mystery and Supernatural (OK so in Mandarin it reads "Horror"). The bulk of the film ratings being R21 will give you an inkling of what you're gonna be in for. You can click here for the Festival Committee's introduction, and here for the lineup of films this year.

Need I remind you that the National Museum Gallery Theatre seats about 250 pax thereabout, so if you're interested to watch the films, especially the paid ones, get your tickets NOW! I've got mine already, so see you there!

Related Links
Official Festival Webpage
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