Japanese Film Festival explores theme of ‘youth and love’

AMMAN — Jordanian audiences are getting a taste of Japan’s culture at the 6th edition of the Japanese Film Week, which kicked off on Saturday at the Royal Film Commission. 

Organised by the Embassy of Japan, in cooperation with the Royal Film Commission, the festival will run through September 27, showcasing a selection of renowned Japanese films centred around the theme of “youth and love”. 

A film will be screened each day of the festival at 8pm, with Japanese dialogues and English subtitles. 

“I Just Wanna Hug You” was the film chosen for the opening of the festival. The drama, directed by Akihiko Shiota, explores the love story between Tsukasa (Keiko Kitagawa) and Masaki (Ryo Nishikido), who face family disapproval while trying to build a family together.

The Japanese Film Week continues with “Tamako Love Story”, an animated feature directed by Naoko Yamada showcasing the changes a teenager goes through after her childhood best friend confesses his love for her. 

On Monday, audiences will be able to enjoy Daigo Matsui’s musical drama “Wonderful World End”. 

This feature follows the life of  17-year-old Shiori (Ai Hashimoto), who hopes to launch a career as a model and actress. 

Soon she meets Ayumi (Jun Aonami), a timid 13-year-old who is in awe with Shiomi’s interactive video blog, but Ayumi’s growing infatuation will become difficult to disguise, and their odd friendship will take an unforeseen turn after Ayumi runs away from home and quietly begins to infiltrate Shiori’s life and relationship with her boyfriend.

“Wonderful World End” was nominated for the Generations Award for Best Film at the International Berlin Film Festival, and for Best Feature Film at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema. 

The teenage love stories continue on Tuesday with “Love for Beginners”, a drama directed by Takeshi Furusawa which explores young Tsubaki’s (Emi Takei) discovery of the first love. 

The festival will conclude on Wednesday with the screening of “Enoshima Prism”, a comedy featuring the time travels of Shuta (Sota Fukushi) three years after his friend Saku (Shūhei Nomura) passed away.