Tokyo Film Festival Is Re-Discovering a Discovery Role, Says Artistic Director Ichiyama Shozo

With strong accents on mainland Chinese directors, Japan’s next generation of filmmaking talent and a new women’s empowerment section, this week’s Tokyo International Film Festival can lay reasonable claim to being a discovery festival – as well as one catering to a large public in the Japanese capital.

“We have a strong Chinese-language presence in the competition section, three mid-career Japanese directors in competition, a really super World Focus section and a new Women’s section,” Ichiyama Shozo, the festival’s programming director, told Variety. And in the home of anime, the festival’s animation section has this year expanded to encompass overseas-made features.

The vagaries of timing, the complexities of the festival circuit and Tokyo’s own regulations, which require premieres in the key competition section, can lead to a lineup that hews in a different direction from other major festivals.

Whereas Venice this year had many high-profile English-language films, Tokyo has none in competition. (Titles picked up from Venice or Cannes must find berths in the sidebars.) Similarly, while the recent Busan festival, somewhat controversially, showcased multiple films and series from the Netflix streaming giant, Tokyo has none of these either.

Rather, Tokyo has ridden its luck and Ichiyama’s personal connections in China, where he is a regular production partner of Jia Zhangke, to become a significant showcase for the ever-fragile independent sector in China. “Some of the Chinese films only passed [Chinese] censorship shortly before our press conference, so maybe they were not submitted to Venice,” Ichiyama said.

He highlights the new films by Midi Z [“The Unseen Sister”] and Yang Lina [“A Big World”], the latter an actor-turned director who Ichiyama has known since her acting debut in Jia’s “Platform.” The film’s cast is headed by Chinese pop and acting superstar Jackson Yee, whose performance Ichiyama describes as “seriously good.” “My Friend An Delie,” is the directorial debut of Dong Zijian, star of Jia’s “Mountains May Depart,” where he played the young boy who fell in love with Sylvia Chang. Another highly popular star, Dong also takes the lead role.

While political relations between Japan and China are characterized by friction and rivalry, Ichiyama suggests that, contrastingly, film industry connections are strong and improving. “This [selection strength in depth] is very good for the festival and good promotion for the films. ‘The Unseen Sister’ releases commercially in China just two days before it plays in our festival. The lead actresses will come here, walk the red carpet and do a big promotion,” said Ichiyama. “Additionally, we expect many top Chinese producers and a lot of Chinese press.”

The 15-title competition includes two other films in Chinese: Taiwan-based Huang Xi’s “Daughter’s Daughter,” which debuted in Toronto; and the world premiere of Hong Kong-based Philip Yung’s “Papa,” which probes the notion of responsibility after the slaying of a family.

The competition section also finds room for three films by Japanese directors who are both well-known and still rising filmmakers: Katayama Shinzo with “Lust in the Rain”; Ohku Akiko with “She Taught Me Serendipity”; and Yoshida Daihachi with the highly anticipated “Teki Cometh.”

“We have three mid-career Japanese directors who have been steadily making excellent films. What they show in competition proves that Japanese films are up to international standards,” said Ichiyama.

The festival opens with period action thriller “11 Rebels” which is directed by the prolific Shiraishi Kazuya from a previously-unproduced screenplay by the late Kasahara Kazuo. Starring popular actors Yamada Takayuki and Nakano Taiga, it is set to be distributed by Toei on Nov. 1. Significantly, the film is a product of the Tokyo festival’s industry development section and was a participating project in last year’s Tokyo Gap-Financing Market.

“This film inherits the tradition of ensemble period dramas that Toei once excelled at, showcasing the top-tier production values in contemporary Japanese cinema in every aspect, from action sequences to set design. It is also significant that it shines a spotlight on people who have been cast aside throughout history,” said Ichiyama.

The diversity of current Japanese filmmaking is further demonstrated in the dedicated Nippon Cinema Now. There, a standout is “Ainu Puri,” a documentary about the Ainu people who are native to Northeast Japan, Mark Gill’s photographer biopic “Ravens” with Asano Tadanobu in the leading role and five titles, spanning from 2008 to the present, by Irie Yu, who works across independent and commercial sectors.

The Women’s Empowerment section was a suggestion of the Tokyo Metropolitan government that Ichiyama says he was keen to embrace, and not just because it came with a promise of additional funding. It also aligns with the festival’s pledge to program and employ more women.

“There are so many good films by women filmmakers. But every year, we regret not showing more women’s films,” Ichiyama says. But he rejects the idea that not having more in competition – four of the 15 films in competition are by women directors – and establishing a women’s section is creating a ghetto and refers again to the international festival cycle.

“Many [women-directed] films have premiered elsewhere, Berlin or Cannes, which means that, in Tokyo, this new section would have to be their home,” he explains. And Ichiyama tips “Promise, I’ll be Fine,” by first time feature director Katarina Gramatova, as another standout from the main competition.

Alongside the new section, the festival will host a symposium looking back at the history of women directors in Japan.

And while few international guests will make a second trip to Tokyo in the space of a month, Ichiyama suggests that the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Tokyo Filmex festival be regarded as a pair.

Not only is Ichiyama still a part of the Filmex team (though not its programmer), he regards the smaller festival as unconstrained by the need for premieres and having more programming freedom. “Maybe, for young Asian filmmakers, Filmex is even stronger than TIFF,” he said. The festival is backed by Japan’s agency of Cultural Affairs and the Tokyo city government, commercial sponsors and private donors. These even include China’s Jia.