Kota Kinabalu: The much-awaited Japanese Film Festival (JFF) returns for its 19th edition this year.
The festival runs from Sept 7-Oct 15 at selected GSC cinemas across Malaysia, with screenings at GSC Suria Sabah, here, to be held from Oct 12-15.
The programme promises to deliver the finest selection of Japanese cinema on the grand screen for everyone’s delight.
In Sabah, the festival features 12 captivating titles across genres like drama, documentary, romance, mystery and animation, immersing audiences in diverse aspects of Japanese culture.
SPONSORED CONTENT Daily Express members: Enjoy 1 for 1 signature cocktails and more at Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu Kota Kinabalu: DAILY EXPRESS is partnering with Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu to offer an exclusive deal for our members. Read more In conjunction with JFF 2023, the Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur (JFKL), offers 100 free ticket redemptions for Daily Express readers.
Readers can redeem free tickets by using the “JFFDEK0008E6E” promo code, valid through the GSC ticketing kiosk, GSC e-payment at gsc.com.my, or the GSC mobile application from noon, Thursday (Oct 5) onwards,
Each code offers one movie ticket for redemption in each transaction.
Tickets can be redeemed for JFF 2023 movies only, except for “#Manhole”.
Redemption is on a first-served basis and is only valid for the first 100 redemptions while stocks last.
Festival goers will also be rewarded while enjoying the festival by collecting stamps, which they can use to redeem exclusive goodies and prizes.
Tickets for JFF 2023 will be sold at an affordable price, except for “#Manhole”, via GSC channels.
All films presented will be in Japanese with English subtitles, and this is the list of movies:
The Water Flows to the Sea
2023 | 124 min | Drama | Oct 12, 6.30pm
High school student Naotatsu (Onishi Riku) decides to move in with his uncle Shigemichi (Kora Kengo) to live closer to school. However, on the day of his arrival, the one who came to pick him up at the station was a woman named Sasaki (Hirose Suzu). She takes him to the shared house where Shigemichi lives. From that day on, a chaotic yet amusing life begins with the residents of the shared house. Naotatsu is drawn to Sasaki, who rarely expresses her feelings, only to learn that she promised herself never to fall in love. What he does not know is that he is connected to her past and her decision.
#Manhole
2023 | 101 min | Suspense, Thriller | Oct 12, 9.05pm
Kawamura is a promising young man with a great job and a fiancée whose father owns the company. On the way home from a party on the eve of his wedding day, he falls to a deep bottom of a manhole. Trapped and horrified by incidents one after another, he gets desperate to escape and uses his only reliable tool, a smartphone, to locate himself with GPS, and reach police, friends, and even social network’s anonymous crowd. The clock ticks mercilessly and the morning is nearing. Can the groom get out of the hole intact and get married happily ever after to continue with his successful life?
The Zen Diary
2022 | 111 min | Drama | Oct 13, 6.30pm
Tsutomu lives alone in the mountains, writing essays, cooking food with vegetables he grows and mushrooms he picks in the hills. His routine is happily disturbed when Machiko, his editor/love interest, occasionally visits. She loves to eat and he loves to cook for her. Tsutomu seems content with his daily life. On the other hand, he still has not let go of his wife’s ashes although she died 13 years ago.
A Man
2022 | 123 min | Drama, Mystery | Oct 13, 8.50pm
Over four blissful years, Rie and her son shared a loving new life with her second husband, Daisuke. His sudden accidental death brings not only grief, but an unnerving discovery for the widow – the man she thought she knew was posing under someone else’s identity. In a startling dual narrative, the mystery around Mr. X unfolds beneath the hands of Kido, the attorney handling the case. Prefaced by René Magritte’s surrealist painting. Not to be reproduced, this thought-provoking film is a vital addition to a growing genre of Japanese cinema that interrogates fragile morals permeating contemporary society.
Shylock’s Children
2023 | 122 min | Drama, Mystery | Oct 14, 12pm
A million yen goes missing at the Nagahara Branch of Tokyo Daiichi Bank. Long-time customer service staff Nishiki (Sadawo Abe) sets out on a mission to uncover the truth together with his colleagues Airi (Aya Ueto) and Tabata (Yuta Tamamori). After coming across one tiny question, they find themselves in the face of the massive corruption hidden behind the missing money, but this was merely the beginning of a scandal that would shake the megabank to its very core.
And Yet, You are so Sweet
2023 | 99 min | Drama, Romance | Oct 14, 2.35pm
Kisaragi Maaya is in her second year of high school, and has just been completely rejected by her crush. Heartbroken and mortified, she vows out loud to “never confess to someone ever again”, only to realise later that her high school’s heartthrob Chigira Sui is within earshot. Upon hearing Maaya’s weeping, Chigira proposes a strange solution to heal her heartbreak – that she pretends to have a crush on him instead. When Chigira starts treating Maaya sweetly, it is not hard for her to keep up pretences in this strictly one-sided love game, but as the pair grow closer, Maaya’s feelings for CHIGIRA become undeniable. What will become of their “pretend crush” now? A still from ‘Yokaipedia’
Yokaipedia
2022 | 113 min | Youth, Adventure | Oct 14, 4.45pm
After making wishes at a local shrine, Itsuki, Taichi and Sonny are visited by a ghost-like sprite during the night, who tells them about a mysterious Ghost Book that can grant any wish their hearts desire. But when the boys visit a second-hand bookstore in search of the book, chaos ensues as they are transported to an alternate universe inhabited by monsters. Not far behind is their schoolteacher Hayama (Aragaki Yui), who has been dragged into the mayhem. The group soon realises they have a mission – they must capture the monsters in the Ghost Book before time runs out. Can they change destiny and return home before it is too late?
Small, Slow but Steady
2022 | 99 min | Drama | Oct 14, 7.10pm
Keiko, a young pro boxer, was born with a hearing impairment. Boxing is a real challenge for her, but the club she belongs to is like a second home. After winning two difficult fights, a creeping fear begins to grow inside her. The club chairman, the only person who had accepted her as a boxer, is plagued by health issues and is losing his eyesight. Having learned that the gym is about to close for good, a confused Keiko goes on to her third bout. But perhaps the biggest challenge she faces is trying to understand the true nature and strength of her will to fight.
Lupin the 3rd, The Castle of Cagliostro
1979 | 100 min | Animation, Adventure | Oct 15, 12pm
In the quaint European Duchy of Cagliostro, Lupin and Jigen end up with a damsel in distress on their hands. It is a daring rescue operation to find the castle’s treasure and save the captured princess. Directed by Miyazaki Hayao, this action-adventure romp is said to have inspired some renowned film directors as well.
Mondays: See you “this” week!
2022 | 82 min | Comedy | Oct 15, 2.10pm
Working over night with colleagues, a head injury from a traffic accident, constant sleepiness on the job and a bird slamming itself into the office window, on top of a pressing deadline at her advertising job, Yoshikawa is having the worst week ever. As if her headache was not bad enough, her coworkers Endo and Murata are going mad and claim the entire office is stuck in a time loop.
But after a few rounds of reliving the same mundane Monday, Yoshikawa soon realises they are telling the truth. Now the teammates must work together, enlighten their oblivious colleagues, and find a way to end this endless Monday.
The Lines That Define Me
2022 | 106 min | Drama | Oct 15, 4.10pm
After witnessing Sosuke’s first intimate encounter with a sumi-e painting, ink-painting master Kozan Shinoda spontaneously invites him to become his pupil and introduces him to the delicate, emotional power of bleeding ink. Overcome by the recent loss of his family, the chance gradually offers Sosuke a new path by which to ruminate on the dichotomising beauty of nature and ritualise his grief and self-expression. Stunningly captured, the tempo of the strokes and their delivery invigorate the sumi-e, offering a window into the traditional intergenerational sensibilities of Japanese artistic disciplines.
We Made a Beautiful Bouquet
2021 | 124 min | Drama, Romance | Oct 15, 6.30pm
The last train at midnight leaves a group of stragglers stranded at the station, who opt for a bar rather than paying for a taxi home. Among them are twenty-two-years-olds Mugi and Kinu, whose curiosity for one another is fated to have a lasting and more intricate outcome than initially expected. Caught in the period of youth when many enter the gruelling Japanese workforce, the pair live under the pressure of maintaining an income without compromising their creative passions. Patient and bittersweet, this romance chronicles the fleeting lifespan of love, as Mugi and Kinu reckon with the hard realities of societal life imposing on their relationship and senses of self.
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