Masters of the Japanese Cinema Report

The Japan Foundation held its first three-day film festival between June 25th and June 27th, 2004. The foundation presented six films considered masterpieces of Japanese cinema made by distinguished filmmakers including KUROSAWA Akira and MIZOGUCHI Kenji. At the same time, audiences saw some brilliant performances by the actresses who appeared in the films.

There are few opportunities in Japan to watch Japanese films which are subtitled in another language so this three-day showing was well supported. In fact, some 1,185 people attended, including some whose mother tongue was not Japanese.

People came and enjoyed the festival for many different reasons. There were some who had previously only seen the films on video and wanted to see them on the big screen. There were some non-Japanese people who had an interest in Japanese films but had been put off by the language problems. And of course there were Japanese people with their non-Japanese friends who had been brought along to watch a Japanese film.

The noted film critic and prolific author Donald Richie, who has introduced the Japanese films to the world through his various published works, gave a lecture on June 26th. In his lecture Mr. Richie gave a commentary on director MIZOGUCHI Kenji’s 1936 film Osaka Elegy, which had been shown immediately before the lecture. He also spoke about Japanese films shown outside Japan.

A transcript of his talk can be seen on the TOKYO FILMeX Website. Please click on "Masters of the Japanese Cinema" Lecture by Donald Richie (2004.6.26).

This event will continue as The Japan Foundation Film Series and it is intended that various Japanese films will be shown with English subtitles. The second festival is scheduled for March 2005.

For people who would like to see more Japanese films with English subtitles there are details below of events taking place in the fall of 2004. A number of significant Japanese films will be shown. It should also be noted that some of the film prints belong to the Japan Foundation and will be shown with our cooperation.