Heartwarming trilogy of films in Tokyo fest

Tokyo festival opens with Abe, Streep star turns

TOKYO, Oct 25, (Agencies): Cannes-winning Brillante Mendoza is among the three directors tapped by the Tokyo International Film Festival to create “Reflections”, a trilogy that depicts the intertwining of stories among Asian nations.

Be it a Filipino worker in Japan or a Japanese bureaucrat in love with a Cambodian woman, the main characters are old and lonely, caught in an Asian nation other than their own, in films that reflect the real-life erasing of barriers in this region.

Premiering Wednesday, “Reflections” marks the first production effort by a festival still struggling to gain stature. And so the work is a heartwarming experiment, despite its relatively modest budget of 10 million yen ($100,000) for each of the three sequences.

Mendoza’s poetic piece “Dead Horse” centers on an elderly Filipino, who is deported after having worked for decades as a laborer in Japan, betting on horses as well as taking care of them. His state is actually common: Filipinos are the most numerous foreigners in Japan, after Koreans and Chinese. Mendoza did research, talking to Filipinos working in Japan. And shooting in the snow meant a fun challenge for Mendoza.

The horses form a metaphor for the hero’s downtrodden plight, as well as his integrity. The close-ups of actor Lou Veloso’s forlorn face, speckled with the snowflakes of northern Japan, which he would never see in his tropical home, are tragically majestic.

“After 30 years, he doesn’t have a family any more. You lose the connection not only with his family but with everyone around him. It’s a sad situation, but, in fact, it is really happening”, Mendoza said in a recent interview. At a time when Japan is widely criticized for not being repentant enough about World War II atrocities, a piece of Japan that’s surprisingly lovable is presented by Cambodian director Sotho Kulikar in her “Beyond the Bridge.”

The man, played by Masaya Kato, returns after two decades to Cambodia, where he had a relationship with a local woman. He stands deep in thought on the bridge, built by the Japanese, destroyed during Cambodia’s civil war and then rebuilt, a moment symbolic of an ideal love that can overcome cultural differences, separation or even death.

Unshaken

The theme of unshaken love was based on Kulikar’s parents. Her father died when she was 2, killed in the war. Kulikar wanted to send a message to Cambodian people not to forget or bury the painful past, but to embrace it, she said.

“That is a big mistake for us because we cannot emotionally move on, if we have not accepted it”, said Kulikar, whose next film, a documentary, is about the culture of rice, which she believes also connects Cambodians with Japanese.

“I think the world has so many problems already I don’t think we should look into the bad parts only. We should look into the beautiful part of each country, each nation. Because we need to live together. Otherwise, there will be war again”, she added. “Why not see the beautiful side, and try to live together?”

Crossing borders was also a welcome theme for Japanese director Isao Yukisada, who worked with Malaysian actors and crew to shoot “Pigeon.” It explores Japan’s guilt about the colonization of Asia that led to World War II, juxtaposed with an elderly Japanese man, living his retirement years in Malaysia.

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There were Super Mario characters in the streets of Roppongi earlier in the day. But when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe descended on Tokyo’s entertainment district for the opening ceremony of the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival he did not repeat his Mario stunt outfit worn for the Olympic Games in Brazil. Instead he wrapped up in a strictly-starched dinner suit and a tired smile before greeting top overseas guest Meryl Streep on the steps of the Ex Theater.

Warming to the task, despite the light rain, Abe broke into English to recite a line from “The Iron Lady”, in which Streep portrays another Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher.

“I’d like people to take away all of the film’s surprises. At first it seems like an everyday love story, but then turns into something more deep and poignant”, Streep said of the opening film “Florence Foster Jenkins.”

“It is important to maintain some continuity”, Abe said after admitting that his regular visits to the festival had been interrupted for five years while he was out of power.

Wearing a Japanese, stork-themed dress, Streep picked up the election theme. “I’d like to stay and watch all of the films, but I have to go back home and help the next President get elected”, she said.

“What we’d like to see is for Japan to become the gateway to Asia, and for creators from Japan to go out into the world”, Abe said. He revealed that his wife had recommended him to watch Japanese hit film “Shin Godzilla”, but that he had hesitated after learning that early in the movie the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet meet an untimely death.