Watch award-winning movies for free when the Japanese Film Festival Online streams between 14-27 February. All 20 films are being shown with English subtitles.
A selection of 12 Japanese movies will be presented during "Japanese Film Festival 2022", which will take place at House Samyan in Samyan Mitrtown, Rama IV Road, from tomorrow to Feb 13, and SFX Cinema Maya in Chiang Mai from Feb 25-27.
A scene from “Yakuza and the Family” (Provided by Star Sands/Kadokawa)
Two new movies about gangsters mark a clear departure from classic yakuza flicks by portraying absurdities in society through the eyes of gangsters instead of emphasizing a sense of obligation and sympathetic characters.
Although yakuza movies were once a very popular genre, only a handful have been made in recent years. The two new ones show how real-life changes are now affecting those in the underworld.
“Yakuza and the Family” was created by director Michihito Fujii. He used the same production crew that he worked with on “The Journalist,” a 2019 film that won the best picture of the year award at the Japan Academy Film Prize in March 2020.
Feb 18, 2021
Working from her own scripts, which are based on her own novels, Miwa Nishikawa has made film after cannily observed film about human duplicity, criminal or otherwise, often with a black-comedy slant. With her latest film, “Under the Open Sky,” Nishikawa shows again why she belongs in the top ranks of Japan’s directors.
Starring Koji Yakusho as a weathered ex-convict just released from prison after serving 13 years for murder, the film screened at the Toronto and Chicago festivals to glowing receptions from critics and fans, though Nishikawa couldn’t be there to bask in the applause.
Many reviewers, who have collectively given the film a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, praise Yakusho’s performance, with Wendy Ide of the industry trade publication Screen International calling it “the film’s key selling point.”