15th Japanese Film Festival returns to GSC CityONE
KUCHING: The Japanese Film Festival (JFF) returned on Wednesday night with exciting diverse movies from the land of the rising sun.
The seventh JFF is featuring 13 recent films across a variety of genres, including drama, suspense, documentary, and comedy,
Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur director Koichi Horikawa said JFF, as one of the few foreign film festivals fills the need to share and learn about Japanese culture.
“The sponsorship from Mitsubishi Corporation has enabled us to extend JFF to the people in Sarawak since 2012, and we would not have been able to run the festival without the film titles kindly provided by GSC Movies and Astro A-List.
“We hope that you will get to meet the Japan you are familiar with as well as a new Japan you’ve never met through the films at the festival,” he said at the opening of JFF 2018 in GSC CityONE Megamall on Wednesday night.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Lee Kim Shin officiated at the function on behalf of the Sarawak government.
According to Horikawa, JFF first came to Malaysia in 2004 with just eight movies at two venues in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. Since then, JFF has grown little by little and is into its fifteenth year.
He said this year, JFF is touring eight venues in five cities for longer duration with more titles. GSC Paradigm in JB Mall, Johor Bharu is the newest venue.
“Also, to express our appreciation to the Malaysian audience and industry that have supported us over the years, we’ve lined up 4 special events with films shot in Japan by Malaysian filmmakers,” he said.
The opening ceremony on Wednesday night was a showcase of Japanese culture with the organising committee members including Horikawa in traditional Japanese attire and a spread of Japanese delicacies by local Japanese restaurant iZakaya.
This was followed by the screening of Ramen Heads and JFT Balls & Souls.
Other movies to be screened today until Sunday are Her Sketchbook, Born Bone Born, Tremble All You Want, Mixed Doubles, Yakiniku Dragon, Ramen Heads, Chihayafuru Part 3, The Gift of Memory, We Make Antiques, and Perfect World.