Simagine you were completely surprised to learn that you come from a family of ninja fighters, how would you react? This is the question that young Miu from “Ninja Girl” asks himself. She lives a reasonably interesting life in a small Japanese town, works in the city government and takes care of her sick grandfather. When he reveals the family secret, almost on his deathbed, Miu first goes out, gets some black fabric and tailors a typical ninja uniform for her new self. From now on you have to fight injustice and avenge the death of a friend. The independent film by Yu Irie, which will be shown as a European premiere at the Nippon Connection Film Festival, alternates between satire and action film and does not omit social criticism and the topic of racism. Like most of the festival’s films, it will be screened in its original language with English subtitles.
This year’s motto “Stories Of Youth – Coming Of Age In Japan” focuses on films that tell of growing up and growing up in Japanese society. The drama “What she likes . . .” by director Shogo Kusano. The coming-of-age film is about the homosexual teenager Jun and his struggle for (self) acceptance. For fear of coming out, he enters into a fake relationship with his classmate Sae, even though he is having an affair with a married man. The film, which is being shown as a German premiere in the Mousonturm, impresses above all with the haunting acting of the young leading actor Fuju Kamio. “The film deals with the problem of coming out and thus addresses one of the social challenges in Japan,” says Florian Höhr, who is responsible for the film program at Nippon. Depicting queer topics is therefore one of the concerns of the festival.
Festival also screens documentaries and animated films
As every year, the team has selected works by well-known directors as well as new discoveries. The first category includes the feature film “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” by director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who won the Oscar for best international film in 2022 for “Drive my car”. His episodic film about three women, which was awarded the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlinale last year, can be seen in Frankfurt.
In addition to feature films, the festival also shows documentaries, a retrospective and animated films, including two works that deal with virtual worlds and artificial intelligence. Mamoru Hosoda’s musical “Belle” is loosely based on the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” and tells of the schoolgirl Suzu, who dives into the virtual world “U” and becomes a star there as the singer Belle. Above all, the rousing music is fun, as is the case in the high school musical comedy “Sing a bit of harmony” by Yasuhiro Yoshiura, which is being shown in Germany for the first time. The film about Shion, who as a new classmate causes all sorts of hustle and bustle in her class because she is a robot in the test phase, is suitable for the whole family. The younger viewers from the age of six will only miss one or the other philosophical thought.
Nishijima doesn’t let the attackers get a chance to speak
Both the feature film “A Balance” and the documentary “Target” are dedicated to journalists’ struggle for the truth. In Target, Japanese reporter Takashi Uemura receives death threats. His opponents from across Japan’s nationalist spectrum are incensed by a series of articles Uemura wrote in the 1990s when he was writing a report on the fate of Korean Kim Hak-sun, the first woman to publicly discuss her experiences as a forced prostitute for the Japanese army during of the Second World War spoke. They start a debate about the war crimes. In 2014, Uemura is at the center of a historical revisionist defamation campaign. Japanese nationalists claim to this day that the women worked voluntarily as prostitutes for the army. They accuse him of inventing Kim’s story – and don’t shy away from personal attacks. The director of the documentary, Shinji Nishijima, also dealt with the so-called “comfort women” in the nineties. He wanted to shoot “Target” because the attacks against Uemura were an attack on all Japanese journalism, he told the South Korean television station KBS.
Based on Uemura’s case, his documentary traces the vehemence with which nationalist forces try to impose their understanding of Japanese history. Nishijima does not let the attackers have a say – because Japanese history is not up for debate. However, one would have liked to know what they had to say about the personal hostilities. Meanwhile, Uemura does not give up: “I will continue to use my pen to fight for the truth,” he says at the end of the film.
The complete film program is available www.nipponconnection.com.
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