It is time again for our annual Japanese Film Week!
We have carefully selected five outstanding masterpieces from the last few years, with a variety ranging from hilarious comedy to thought-provoking drama dealing with complex interpersonal relationships. Each of the films are unique in their own way, however their is one common theme that connects them all: that is "bonds". A trusting bond between husband and wife, a loveing yet powerful bond between mother and child, or the heart-warming bond of a community.
Come and starts 2025 with five outstanding Japanese films!
Admission fee for each screening is 1500 HUF!
Tickets can be purchased after January 2, 2025 at the ticket office or the website of Toldi Mozi.
The movies are screened in Japanese, with English and Hungarian subtitles.
Lineup:
① The First Gentleman (2021, 121 mins)
Screening date: January 13, 2025 (from 18:30)
Ornithologist Hiyori Soma is married to Rinko, leader of a minority political party. One morning, his beloved wife poses an enigmatic question.
"Hey, Hiyori, would you have a problem if I became Prime Minister?"
He asks her to repeat the question, but she shurgs him off. Still confused, he sets off for a ten-day expedition on a remote island with no cell phone connection to observe birds in the wild. In his absence, Rinko chnges the future of the nation!
She is selected ad the first female Prime Minister in Japan's history, making Hiyori the first ever Prime Minister's husband.
Hiyori was always 100% supportive of Rinko's political ambitions, but could never have imagined the life that awaited him...!
② After the Sunset (2019, 133 mins)
Screening date: January 14, 2025 (from 18:30)
Set in the small town in Nagashima, Kagoshima prefecture in southern Japan. Yuichi Hino farms yellowtail fish, a family business, for his livelihood. He lives with his wife, his mother and a 7 year olds son, Towa. However, Towa is not their biological son. He came to live with them when he was 1 year old as a foster child, and now Yuichi and Satsuki want to formally adopt him. As they embark on the special adoption procedures with the Family Court, they soon find out a shocking thruth: Towa's biological mother is closer to them than they thought! The tension between the foster parents and the biological mother, the presence of residents on the island and the children growing up there are depicted in a human drama.
③ YUDO, the Way of the Bath (2022, 126 mins)
Screening date: January 15, 2025 (from 18:30)
Arhitect Shiro Miura suddely returns to his country hometown and the family business he left behind years ago: a public bathhouse called "Marukin Hot Spring". Since the recent death of his father, Shiro's plan as the eldest son is to close down the antiquate bathhouse and replace it with state-of-the-art condominiums. But he meets with cold reception from his younger brother, Goro, who has kept the bathhouse open since their father's passing.
One day when fire breaks out in the boiler room, putting Goro into the hospital, Shiro has no choice but to spend the next few days as bathhouse manager with the aid of trusty part-time worker and bathhouse devotee, Izumi. There, he encounters several bathhouse-loving customers and gets a glimpse of the sheer happiness and democratizing power the place has to offer.
As he gradually learns the ins and outs of the trade, and encounters a bunch of loveable people, Shiro finds the constriction inside him beginning to melt.
④ Tsugaru Lacquer Girl (2023, 118 mins)
Screeding date: January 16, 2025 (from 18:30)
Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture. Miyako Aoki, who lives with her father, has not found anything she wants to do after graduating from a local high school. She is working at a supermarket to help her family make ends meet. Helping her father, a Tsugaru lacquerware craftsman, is the only thing she can devote herself to. However, her father, who succeeded her grandfather (a highly respected Tsugaru lacquer craftsman), loses the will to continue the business as the industry goes into decline, and the family finds itself scattered. The mother left the family years before because of the poor life and the selfishness of the father, and the elder brother, a hairdresser, chose to live freely insted of taking over the family business. Miyako is unable to openly declare her desire to pursue a career in Tsugaru lacquering, but as she confronts her family and the art of lacquering, she takes on a great challenge.
⑤ Under the Open Sky (2020, 126 mins)
Screening date: January 17, 2025 (from 18:30)
Mikami, an ex-yakuza of middle age with most of his life in prison, gets released after serving 13 years of sentence for murder. Hoping to find his long lost mother, from whom he was separated as a child, he applies for a TV show and meets a young TV director Tsunoda. Meanwhile, he struggles to get a proper job and fit into society. His impulsive, adamant nature and ingrained beliefs cause friction in his relationship with Tsunoda and those who want to help him.