Online festival of Japanese culture Japan Fest will take place from 17th till 23rd December.
There are many reasons to stay at home nowadays, but the Japan Fest will give you an opportunity to get acquainted with Japanese culture a little bit closer without leaving your home. For the first time in its history, the annual Japanese Film Festival goes online and expands the boundaries: apart from films you can also see art programmes that will help you understand Japanese culture a little better.
The film block is represented by 7 movies of the 2000s era: melodramas, detective stories, horror movies, historical action films, which courageously mix the language of tradition with the latest trends of the time. Computer graphics, manga drama and classic plots. The films depict an incredible image of Japan as a land of diverse cultures and subcultures.
The admirers of Japanese culture will enjoy two parts of “Tokyo Ghoul”. The film, based on the popular manga series of Sui Ishida, will tell about the existence in an alternate reality. Ghouls exist alongside ordinary people, but they are forced to hide their true nature. Another film in the program – “Sandome no satsujin”, a film-participant in the competition program of the Venice Film Festival. The psychological detective story about the secrets of justice and the fragility of the human soul was created by Hirokazu Koreeda, winner of the Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The festival also features a film by one of the most productive directors of our time, Takashi Miike: making several films of different genres a year, he participates in major international film festivals, writes scripts and works as a cameraman. His adaptation of the popular Japanese comic-manga “Kamisama no iu tôri” is filmed in the tradition of cult Japanese action films: horror and fantasy are mixed here. In addition, within the framework of the Japan Fest, another film by the director “Jûsan-nin no shikaku”, screened at the Venice Film Festival, is presented. Ten Shimoyama’s spectacular and aesthetic film “Shinobi” paraphrases the story of Romeo and Juliet between warring clans of ninja. The most celebrated film will be “Okuribito” by Yojiro Takita, winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and participant in the world’s largest film festivals. The story of the young musician Daigo, who was forced to leave the orchestra and went to work in a funeral parlour, is extraordinary, dramatic and raises questions of love, everyday life, death and eternity.
The additional programme “Art” is an immersion in Japanese culture. A master class dedicated to sumi-e (traditional Japanese painting) with ink will calm the mind, create an atmosphere of harmony, contemplation and integrity.
With Japan Fest it is possible to visit the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The film-exhibition “Van Gogh and Japan” tells about the most fruitful years of the great artist, when his works were infused with passion for Japanese art.
“Our company has Japanese roots, so we consider the popularization of Japanese culture and assistance in the development of Belarusian-Japanese relations as our honourable mission within the framework of programs implemented by JTI in the socio-cultural sphere. This year our traditional festival will be arranged in a new form and expands its content. This is a kind of innovation, which we are happy to support, since innovation is one of the foundations of all JTI activities” said Maxim Lobachev, head of JTI in Belarus.
The online festival is available on a special platform japanfest.artcorporation.by, where you can see trailers and previews of the content presented at the festival. To access it, please register and purchase a subscription for a certain number of days – it is also possible to pay for it online. Read more about access on the website.
Japan Fest is organized by Visual and Performing Arts Centre “ART Corporation”. The festival is held with the support of JTI, a permanent project partner in Belarus.
Follow the news of the project on the website japanfest.artcorporation.by and artcorporation.by, as well as in our social networks Facebook, Instagram, VK.