Japanese Film Festival 2025

Northern Food Story [北の食景]

6.30pm

Northern Food Story is a documentary film about food set in Hokkaido. It portrays the culinary landscapes created by four chefs and the changing seasons. Japanese, French, and high-end sushi cuisines are featured. The film captures the daily lives of the chefs as they explore their unique culinary paths alongside the farmers, citizens, and culture surrounding them in Japan's northern land. The film was selected as one of five films to be screened in the Culinary Cinema section of the 72nd San Sebastián International Film Festival (Sept 2024, Spain), where it premiered worldwide.

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At The Bench [アット・ザ・ベンチ]

8.45pm

Two childhood friends reunite after a long time at a riverside bench and engage in a casual conversation that hints at a budding romance as the sunset dimly illuminates their true feelings. Yoshiyuki Okuyama, one of Japan's leading photographers, makes his directorial debut in collaboration with the production company behind Perfect Days. The film features an all-star cast and unfolds across five stories of families and lovers set on a riverside bench in Tokyo.

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The Solitary Gourmet

6.30pm

This is the story of Gorō Inogashira, a traveling salesman who visits various restaurants and street booths throughout Japan to sample the local cuisine. Eager to try new foods, this foodie's curiosity sometimes lands him in unexpected trouble. In this film, we see him traveling internationally for business and searching for new flavors. He is tasked with the seemingly impossible challenge of uncovering the secret ingredients of a mysterious soup that no one has ever heard of. His investigation leads him on a flavor-filled adventure to discover the soup's recipe and persuade the elusive chef to cook again.

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6 Lying University Students [六人の噓つきな大学生]

8.50pm

It's job hunting season, and six high-achieving university students have made it to the final round of recruitment at the elite tech company Spirallinks. With over 10,000 competitors behind them, the tension in the conference room is palpable as the finalists receive their final task: a group discussion in which they will debate an issue facing the company. The young hopefuls transform from rivals to teammates and form a study group to prepare for the challenge that will determine their career fate. However, an unexpected twist in the hiring process threatens their alliances as dirty secrets are exposed, and the students stop at nothing to achieve their goal of getting hired.

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Cells at Work! [はたらく細胞]

12.00pm

Have you ever wondered about the intricate workings inside your body? This live-action adaptation of the popular manga series Cells at Work! reimagines the human body as a bustling metropolis teeming with 37 trillion cells. In high schooler Niko's (Ashida Mana) body, a hardworking but clumsy red blood cell (Nagano Mei) often gets lost as she delivers oxygen through the bloodstream. Meanwhile, her battle-hardened counterpart, a white blood cell/neutrophil (Sato Takeru), relentlessly hunts down invading bacteria. Alongside trillions of other anthropomorphized cells, this unlikely duo must work together to protect Niko from foreign threats, one immune system emergency and bacterial invasion at a time! In stark contrast, Niko's father, Shigeru (played by Abe Sadawo), often gives in to his vices, and his cells constantly battle the strain of his poor habits and stress.

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ANGRY SQUAD: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers [アングリースクワッド 公務員と7人の詐欺師]

2.20pm

True to his profession, the mild-mannered tax office investigator, Kumazawa (played by Uchino Seiyo), is accustomed to living by the book. However, his life as a civil servant is turned upside down when he's tricked out of his savings by the slick con artist Himuro (Okada Masaki). Humiliated and furious, Kumazawa vows to get revenge, but then the swindler offers him a tempting deal. If Kumazawa teams up with Himuro, Himuro will help Kumazawa retrieve over one billion yen in unpaid taxes from the corrupt, well-moustached property developer Tachibana (OZAWA Yukiyoshi) in exchange for Himuro's own freedom.

Reluctant at first, Kumazawa's desire to bring Tachibana to justice proves stronger than his personal grudge against Himuro. Thus, the swindled begins his training to become the swindler. Together with a ragtag team of eccentric fraudsters, he forms the Angry Squad. What begins as a professional sting quickly spirals into something far more personal.

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Petals and Memories [花まんま]

4.50pm

The story is set in Osaka and follows siblings Toshiki and Fumiko, who lost their parents at an early age. Toshiki, the older brother, promised their late father that he would always protect Fumiko. Taking on the roles of both parent and brother, Toshiki dropped out of high school to work at a local factory and support them both. Now, Fumiko has grown up, and her wedding day is approaching. As Toshiki watches the happy couple set out to begin a new chapter, he grumbles all the while feeling a sense of relief. He rehearses his speech for her big day when an unsettling thought creeps in. Fumiko holds the memories of a woman who died in an incident.

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Seven Samourai [七人の侍]

7.20pm

In Kurosawa Akira's 1954 classic Seven Samurai, peasants from a small village settlement go looking for help, fearing the return of bandits. The film tells the tale of feudal class and warfare in medieval Japan. Struggling to find anyone who will help them due to their limited food supply, the peasants come across SHIMADA Kanbei, an elderly swordsman who wanders the land offering his services for free, as well as a cast of other carefree fighters who are all searching for purpose. Gorobei, Heihachi, and Shichiroji are friends and fellow soldiers. The young, impressionable Katsushiro and the enigmatic Kyuzo are matched only by the boisterous outcast, Kikuchiyo, played by Toshiro Mifune. The seven return to find a village on its last legs, still bearing the scars of previous raids. As they prepare for the climactic battle, this ragtag group slowly gives the hungry villagers hope. However, hope cannot replace the bitterness and anger that linger throughout the village.

Awarded the Silver Lion at the 15th Venice International Film Festival in 1954, and screened as part of the Cannes Classics selection at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Seven Samurai is a timeless tale where lingering divisions are as thick as blood. Their resistance reminds us that in war, there are no winners, only survivors.

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Teasing Master Takagi-san [映画 からかい上手の高木さん]

12.00pm

Nishikata, a physical education teacher at the middle school he attended on a small island, receives a phone call from Takagi-san, an ex-schoolmate who moved to Paris ten years ago in the summer after their third year of junior high school. Currently attending university in Tokyo, Takagi-san tells Nishikata, "Hey, Nishikata. I'm going back to the place I wanted to go, and I'm studying painting". Nishikata was always teased by Takagi-san when he was in middle school. However, he hasn't seen her since she suddenly moved and hasn't been able to tease her back.

One day, Tanabe, Nishikata's former homeroom teacher who is now the vice principal, appoints him to oversee the new teacher trainee starting the next day. After school, when Nishikata returns to the classroom to put a broom back in the cleaning supplies compartment, Takagi-san jumps out from inside. The place she wanted to go to again was here! From that moment on, the time between the two of them, which had stopped in the summer of their third year of junior high, begins to move again.

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Sunset Sunrise [サンセット・サンライズ]

2.30pm

It is the year 2020, and measures against the novel coronavirus are beginning to affect life all over Japan. Masks, temperature checks, and frequent hand sanitizing have become a necessary annoyance. However, for one enthusiastic Tokyoite, the "new normal" presents an exciting opportunity. Young salaryman Shinsaku (SUDA Masaki) leaves his life in the city behind and moves to a small town on the Sanriku Coast of Miyagi Prefecture. There, he rents an empty house from a wary landlord named Momoka (INOUE Mao) and works remotely. Surrounded by Tohoku's stunning nature, Shinsaku spends his days fishing and discovering his new neighborhood's charm. But can the territorial locals accept him as one of their own, even as scars from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami remain fresh?

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Showtime 7 [ショウタイムセブン]

5.20pm

Shinnosuke Orimoto (played by Hiroshi Abe) was once the face of the primetime news program Showtime 7. He was a national news anchor until he was mysteriously forced to step down from his position. Now reduced to hosting a late-night radio show, the washed-up anchor receives an ominous call from a stranger warning of an imminent bomb threat. Initially dismissing the call as a hoax, Orimoto hangs up, only to witness a deadly blast at a nearby power plant minutes later. As chaos unfolds, Orimoto seizes the opportunity to relive his glory days as a newscaster and steps into the role of negotiator live on the air. However, when the incident spirals out of control, he must tread carefully or face explosive consequences. With innocent lives on the line, will Orimoto succeed in reclaiming the spotlight, or will his pride be his downfall?

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366 DAYS [366日]

7.30pm

It's 2003, and a decades-spanning love story has just begun. High schooler Miu and senior Minato dream of a life beyond their sleepy Okinawan town. When a jumble of MiniDiscs brings them together, the pair bonds over their shared love of music. As they exchange songs, romantic sparks fly, and the two start envisioning a life in Tokyo, much to the disappointment of Miu's loyal best friend, Ryusei. However, when Miu follows Minato to Tokyo after graduation, she soon faces the harsh realities of city life. Being a small fish in a big pond brings challenges, and unexpected circumstances push Miu and Minato in different directions. Fast forward to the present: Miu's daughter must piece together the untold stories of her mother's past.

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