Japanese Film Week between 13-17 January at Toldi Cinema!
The highly anticipated Japanese Film Week will return to the movie screens of Toldi Cinema in 2025. Just like last year, five exceptional Japanese films have been selected from the best of Japanese cinema of recent years. The selection includes the award-winning film „Under the Open Sky” by one of Japan’s leading female directors, Nishikawa Miwa. The film will be screened on the closing day of the festival.
The Japanese Film Week opens on Monday, 13 January with a hilarious comedy called „First Gentleman”, which will be followed by a gripping family drama on Tuesday called „After the Sunset”, which touches upon motherhood, family ties and forgiveness. The repertoire also includes the heart-warming comedy “YUDO, the Way of the Bath“, which offers an insight into the exciting world of the traditional Japanese public baths (sento). And for those interested in Japanese lacquering, we recommend the captivating drama “The Tsugaru Lacquer Girl“.
The admission fee for each screening is HUF 1500 (EUR 3,6). Tickets can now be purchased at the ticket office or the website of Toldi Mozi. The films will be screened in Japanese, with English and Hungarian subtitles.
Lineup of the Japanese Week 2025
① First Gentleman (2021, 121 mins)Screening date: 13 January 2025 (from 18:30)
First Gentleman. Photo: Japan Foundation Budapest Office
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 shrugs 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 changes the future of the nation! She is selected as 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)
After the Sunset. Photo: Japan Foundation Budapest Office
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 truth: 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)
YUDO, the Way of the Bath. Photo: Japan Foundation Budapest Office
Architect Shiro Miura suddenly 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)
Tsugaru Lacquer Girl. Photo: Japan Foundation Budapest Office
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 instead 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)
Under the Open Sky. Photo: Japan Foundation Budapest Office
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.
The Japanese Film Week is a collaboration between the Japan Foundation Budapest Office and Toldi Cinema.
Read also:
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