THE Japanese Film Festival Ireland brings its 17th edition to Limerick this month, with screenings at Belltable on Saturday April 11, as part of a nationwide programme running nationwide from April 8 – 30.
Now firmly established as Ireland’s only truly national film festival, this year’s event showcases 17 films spanning a broad range of genres and styles, from acclaimed contemporary dramas and classic anime to J-horror and time travel romance.
The Limerick date at the Belltable on O’Connell Street offers local audiences a chance to sample one of the festival’s varied programme of new and classic Japanese cinema.
The wider festival line-up includes Kokuho, an epic kabuki theatre drama that swept this year’s Japanese Academy Film Prize ceremony in Tokyo with ten awards including Best Film. Genre offerings include Exit 8, based on an acclaimed indie video game, and The Curse, described as a return to the tradition of classic J-horror. Anime fans can look forward to a 25th anniversary screening of Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress and a new re-release of cyberpunk classic Akira.
Belltable Screenings
Millennium Actress
14:30 – A celebration of and reflection on classic cinema, Millennium Actress stands as one of Satoshi Kon’s greatest achievements.
A Pale View of Hills
17:00 – Based on Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel, A Pale View of Hills is an elegant and moving account of war, loss and memory.
How Dare You?
20:00 – Mipo O’s (Living in Two Worlds, JFF25) latest film is reminiscent of the childhood comedy-dramas of Hirokazu Kore-eda or Yasujiro Ozu, but with a welcome contemporary edge. A charming, funny and topical look at a future-defining generation gap.
The festival opens in Dublin with a free screening of documentary Ripples of Physis at Chester Beatty Library, before concluding at Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford. Other venues include Cork, Galway, Bray, Sligo, Waterford, Wexford, Dundalk, and Ballina.
The festival is co-organised by the Embassy of Japan and access>CINEMA. Full listings and ticketing information are available at jff.ie.