From 5 until 10 March, CinemAsia, the only all-Asian film festival in The Netherlands, will present 41 films from 15 countries and regions, many of which are shown in Europe for the first time. The locations for this years CinemAsia are Kriterion, Rialto, LAB111 and NEVERNEVERLAND.
OISHII Asia: A Tale of Samura Cooking: A True Love Story (武士の献立)
This year, CinemAsia, introduce a new culinary section, titled OISHII Asia. Each of the films in this category will showcase a national cuisine that will help giving you an appetite different Asian food. The Japanese film that fits in this category is A Tale of Samura Cooking: A True Love Story (武士の献立) by director Yuzo Asahara.
Not all samurai wield swords. As the heir to a distinguished line of chefs in Kaga (now Ishikawa prefecture) Yasunobu Funaki (Kengo Kora, Shoplifters, Shin Gojira) reluctantly wields a kitchen knife. The prideful samurai, however, shows no talent in gastronomy until he marries a headstrong wife (Aya Ueto, Azumi, Hanzawa Naoki) who teaches him the art of cooking. While a political revolt brews around him, Yasunobu must save his lord and clan by designing a banquet to manifest the splendour of Edo’s richest domain, while sending subtle messages of loyalty to the shogun.
Selected for Berlin and San Sebastian Film Festivals, this alternative samurai tale is a tasteful marriage of historical drama and culinary cinema. Written by Abacus and Sword screenwriter Michio Kashiwada, the warmly understated drama challenges the traditional samurai construct and gender roles while serving up dish after dish of sumptuous cuisine based on recipes left by the Funaki family.
This film will have its Dutch premiere at CinemAsia.
Dates & Location: Thu 7 March, 19:00 – Kriterion | Fri 8 March, 19:00 – Rialto
The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan (泣き虫しょったんの奇跡)
Biopic by director Toshiaki Toyoda. In the Japanese chess game of shogi, the all-important cutoff is 26 – the age limit for players to qualify for professional rank. Falling short after years of struggle, Shoji Segawa (Ryuhei Matsuda, Before We Vanish) is forced to give up his only dream. His passion and natural gift, however, eventually brings him back to the chessboard. Taking on the Japan Shogi Association, he makes an unprecedented bid to turn pro in his 30s. Featuring a staggering all-star cast, this real-life story speaks wholeheartedly to all strivers and dreamers. Toshiaki Toyoda, who played shogi to the national level, directs the stirring biopic from an insider’s perspective. Yet, you don’t need to know the rules to be swept up by the enthralling suspense of every match. In his 4th collaboration with the Blue Spring director, Matsuda earnestly embodies the late-blooming underdog, who inspires others chafing under Japan’s rigid hierarchical system.
This film will have its European premiere at CinemAsia.
Dates & Location: Sat 9 March, 21-30 – Rialto | Sun 10 March, 19:00 – Rialto
Chiwawa (チワワちゃん)
This dystopian youth drama is directed by Ken Ninomiya. Chiwawa (Shiori Yoshida), an effervescent young woman, is murdered. Miki (Mugi Kadowaki, Love’s Whirlpool), a friend that has lost touch with Chiwawa, realizes that she didn’t really know her. Through conversations with her friends, she reconstructs the roller coaster of events that brought Chiwawa to her grisly end.
Based on the manga by Okazaki Kyoko, Chiwawa is a supercharged glimpse of what it’s like to be young, beautiful, and directionless in modern day Tokyo. Epitomizing “Cool Japan” yet simultaneously exposing its dark side, this is not your usual cautionary tale of a young woman led down a dark path. In fact, it openly rebels against that idea, digging into larger cultural structures that create that very narrative, with older generations so ready to both exploit and dispose of the young. All the while, it wrestles with the transience of relationships and the complex sexual politics that burden any group of hip young things.
Chiwawa will have its international premiere at CinemAsia.
Dates & Location: Thu 7 March, 21:20 – Kriterion | Fri 8 March, 16:45 – Kriterion
Born Bone Born (洗骨)
This family dramedy (drama-comedy) is directed by Toshiyuki Teruya. Four years after the matriarch’s death, the Shinjo family has come together on Aguni Island for senkotsu, an ancient Okinawa ritual that offers people the chance for a final farewell to their loved ones. However, siblings Yuko and Tsuyoshi have returned with unexpected surprises and old grudges to be solved.
This bone-dry comedy depicts a fractured family that just happens to need a nearly-extinct burial tradition to put it back together. Despite the madcap burlesque, director Toshiyuki Teruya (also known as Gori in popular comedic duo Garage Sale) can’t hide his affection for his picturesque seaside hometown and its offbeat characters. The concept of senkotsu may sound morbid even to Japanese, but the characters’ enactment of this ritual culminates in a moving finale. Okinawa boasts the world’s longest living people; this film reveals their philosophy about the circle of life and death that may explain they’re good health. Winner of Audience Award at Japan Cuts, NewYork.
This film will have its Dutch premiere at CinemAsia.
Dates & Location: Fri 8 March, 21:15 – Rialto | Sun 10 March, 16:45 – Kriterion
Mixed Match
Multiracial people, called “hapa” in North America, are probably the fastest growing demographic in the world. Being of mixed-race is not just about identity, but can be a matter of life and death. Due to their complex genetic makeup, mixed-race cancer patients struggle to find a bone marrow or blood cell donors. Not only are ethnicities such as Asian or African under-represented in the available databases, but mixed-race profiles are also even rarer.
Jeff Chiba Stearns, a Canadian animation director of Japanese and mixed European descent, was not even aware of this biological issue that could affect himself and his children until he made this documentary. His eye-opening research spotlights Mixed Marrow, an organisation dedicated to registering multi-ethnic individuals to the donor registry. Tracking down patients, doctors, and medical authorities all over the U.S., his vital and inspiring film not only explores what role race plays in medicine but offers hope on new developments in cord blood stem cell research.
Through this special programme, CinemAsia wishes to raise awareness in the multiracial population the Netherlands and alert biracial couples and the children of their complex genetic and medical conditions.
This film will have its European premiere at CinemAsia.
Dates & Location: Fri 8 March, 19:15 – Kriterion
Hafu2Hafu
During CinemAsia, you can visit the photo exhibition of Hafu2Hafu by Maastricht-based Tetsuro Miyazaki. What does it mean to be hafu, how do hafu relate to Japan or the other countries and how does being hafu define their identity? Hafu2Hafu a personal investigatory project by the half Japanese/half Belgian photographer Miyazaki. He wanted to know what defined the identity of hafu, what they have in common and what separated from each other. His ultimate question was another question: what would they want to ask each other.
Source: CinemAsia
