The VII Retrospective of Japanese Cinematography takes place from 3 to 8 April at «Pioner» cinema. It is conducted by the Visual and performing arts centre «Art Corporation» with the support of the Embassy of Japan and JTI, general partner of the retrospective. The spectators will see six movies of the leading modern Japanese directors, permanent participants and laureates of the major film festivals of the world in Berlin, Cannes and Venice.
«Within the scope of the festival week the «pearls» of Japanese cinematography will be shown in which the originality of the style and traditions combine in their own way with the popular with the audience genres from melodrama and detective to fantasy and horror. Here can be seen an extremely whimsical love drama «RADIANCE» shot by the most famous in the world Japanese woman director Naomi Kawase, and subtle, wonderful and disturbing family thriller «HARMONIUM» directed by the rising star of the world direction Koji Fukada, who will attend the screening and personally present his movie to the audience. The retrospective will introduce the spectators to two different at the first sight movies about fragility of human soul directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, one of the fashionable festival directors of the Land of the Rising Sun. These are the psychological detective story about justice mysteries and truth, which is always unreachable, «THE THIRD MURDER» and wise, calm and kind drama about life «UMIMACHI DIARY». The fans of movies full of suspense have the opportunity to see the movies of the Japanese «Hichcock» Kiyoshi Kurosawa – the terrifying horror film «CREEPY» and the eccentric fantastic story about alien invasion «BEFORE WE VANISH».
The artistic supervisor of the project Igor Soukmanov says, «When the directors, presented in the program, touch the twilight zone of the mind in their stories, they never leave out the beautiful side of the world. That is why such different pictures rhyme with each other. That is why «twilight» and «beauty» are written in the headline of our retrospective as poetic «alpha» and «omega» of modern Japanese cinematography».
This is the seventh retrospective of Japanese cinematography in Minsk, organized with the support of JTI. In previous years, Belarusian spectators saw the pictures of the famous Japanese directors Shohei Imamura, Keisuke Kinoshita and the legendary film company «Shochiku». Last year residents of Minsk watched the mystical stories of traditional Japanese cinema genre «kaidan» with bated breath.
«The assistance to the development of Belarusian-Japanese cultural relations is one of the priorities of our company’s activity in sociocultural sphere», says the deputy general manager of JTI in Belarus Gennady Brusnikov. «With the support of JTI famous Japanese performers played on tour in Belarus, we created the avenue of sakura, carried out the project dedicated to Iosif Goshkevich. This year Belarusian students will go to Japan to study. Since 2012, one of the main projects in this direction is a unique for our country Festival of Japanese Сinematography. This year Belarusian spectators have the unique opportunity to see new Japanese classics of cinematography. We are sure that the screening will be interesting for both cinema experts and general public».
During the preparation week on March 22 the film critic and feature film program director of the International Film Festival «Listapad», member of The International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI Igor Sukmanov will lecture on «Japanese Cinematography. The Empire of Feelings» and tell about how to watch Japanese cinema and enjoy it.
The organizators are the Visual and performing arts centre «Art Corporation» and «Japan Tobacco International S&D» (JTI).