Japanese Film Festival 2019

Japanese Film Festival 2019 will open with the hotly anticipated Japanese zombie horror comedy hit of the year, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (カメラを止めるな!). Director Shinichiro UEDA will be attending the Festival to present his film and to have a post-screening dialogue session with the audience. After a string of award winning short films, ONE CUT OF THE DEAD is UEDA’s feature film debut, successfully earning 250 times its working budget in the box office. It most recently won the Audience Choice at the Singapore International Film Festival.

JFF is also pleased to announce the attendance of the director Wishing CHONG, who will present his film YAKINIKU DRAGON (焼肉ドラゴン). There will also be a post-screening dialogue with the audience. CHONG is a veteran screenwriter (All Under the Moon, Blood and Bones, Forget Me Not). YAKINIKU DRAGON is the film adaption of his acclaimed theatre production of the same name. It focuses on the life of zainichi; ethnic Koreans trying to integrate into the Japanese society.

JFF will also be presenting a retrospective of four Singaporean short films shot by cinematographer Hideho Urata. The films are Nicole Midori Woodford’s PERMANENT RESIDENT, K. Rajagopal’s RACE COURSE ROAD, Liao Jiekai’s NOCTURNE, Boo Junfeng’s PARTING.

Originally from Japan, Hideho Urata is a Singapore-based Cinematographer and a Senior Cinematography Lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts. His recent collaboration with Yeo Siew Hua on the film A LAND IMAGINED won the Golden Leopard at the 2018 Locarno International Film Festival. Hideho Urata will also conduct a cinematography masterclass, using selected clips from A LAND IMAGINED. Director Yeo Siew Hua will also be present to give insights in the making of the film.

For the first time in JFF Singapore, there will be a feature of 8 short films from the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (SSFF & ASIA), one of the biggest short film festivals in the world today.
Started in 1999 by actor Tetsuya Bessho, who was inspired after attending the Sundance Film Festival, the festival aims to introduce Japanese audiences to short films, a format that many Japanese people were unfamiliar with back then. Now, SSFF is a well-known qualifying festival for the Academy Awards.