The Japan Foundation, Manila has announced on Friday the full lineup for this year’s EIGASAI – Japanese Film Festival, which is scheduled to happen from July 3 to August 25.
17 Japanese films will be featured for the 22nd year of the much-awaited event, including the Oscar-nominated animated film Mirai, and the 2018 live-action film adaptations of Laughing Under the Clouds and Kakegurui.
EIGASAI 2019’s opening feature film will be Samurai Marathon by Bernard Rose, which is based on the novel “Bakumatsu Marathon Samurai” by Akihiro Dobashi, while the closing film will be The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, which is based on the 2005 novel by Keigo Higashino.
Other films that have its screenings are The 8-year Engagement by Takahisa Zeze, The Crime that Bind by Katsuo Fukuzawa, Mixed Doubles by Junichi Ishikawa, One Cut of the Dead by Shinichiro Ueda, Perfect World by Kenji Shibayama, The Tears of Malumpati by Keita Meguro, and Yakiniku Dragon by Chong Wishing.
Masaaki Yuasa’s animated film Lu over the Wall, produced by Science Saru, will also have its screening during the film festival.
There will also be a special screening of the award-winning Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s feature films After the Storm, The Third Murder, and last year’s Palme d’Or winning and Oscar-nominated film Shoplifters.
In partnership with the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the organizers of the film festival will also bring Katsumi Nojiri, the director of the Japanese independent film Lying to Mom, in Manila.
The director will be present during the film’s Philippine premiere on August 3, which is in conjunction with the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival, at the CCP.
The organizers of EIGASAI 2019 also announced that the schedule for its screening venues in Metro Manila, Tacloban, Naga, Bacolod, Davao, Pangasinan, and Cebu.
JULY 3-14
Red Carpet Cinema
Shangri-la Plaza, Mandaluyong City
JULY 18-21
Robinsons Place Tacloban (Leyte)
SM City Naga (Camarines Sur)
JULY 25-28
SM City Bacolod (Negros Occidental)
AUGUST 1-4
Abreeza Mall, Davao City
AUGUST 2-11
Cultural Center of the Philippines
CCP Complex, Pasay City
AUGUST 8-11
SM City Rosales (Pangasinan)
AUGUST 14-17
Cine Adarna
University of the Philippines Film Institute
AUGUST 15-18
Ayala Center Cebu, Cebu City
AUGUST 22-25
Gateway Cineplex
Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City
Full details of the screenings, including the titles and schedules, will be announced in the coming days. All screenings on all venues are free-of-charge, except for Shangri-la Plaza screenings which will cost PHP100 per screening for each titles.
For more details regarding the film screenings, please visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/eigasaiPH or through the JFMO website.
EIGASAI – Japanese Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by The Japan Foundation, Manila since 1997, held in conjunction with the Philippines-Japan Friendship Month, which happens every July.
The event became well-known in releasing Japanese films from all across genres, including drama, comedy, historical, and animation, as well as bringing people involved in the movies exhibited to discuss their work and the thought process in creating their work.
