Overview
Hosted by the Japanese Consulate-General, the Japanese Film Festival is free, subtitled and a handpicked selection of the rare kind of Japanese films that even theatres like Academy Cinemas hardly ever stock.
Included in the lineup is Kenji Uchada's Key of Life, Tsukura Matsuki's Nakamura Kanzaburo The Movie, Yoshihiro Fukagawa's TWILIGHT: Saya in Sasara and Nobuhiko Obayashi's Seven Weeks.
Uchada's 2012 comedy Key of Life is a popular, instant classic which has already seen within its short existence a Korean remake, Luck-Key, already come into being. The story follows a suicidal, failed actor who, on a whim, swaps identities with a passed out rich-looking man in a public bathhouse. Turns out though that the man has yakuza ties.
Nakamura Kanzaburo The Movie is a 2013 documentary about a famous kabuki artist and the struggle to keep traditional Japanese art alive.
Based on the novel of the same name, TWILIGHT: Saya in Sasara sees a husband come back to life to help his struggling widow and child.
Closing the festival is Nobuhiko Obayashi's Seven Weeks is a magic realist film which skips time to trace the personal and political history of a small, Russo-Japanese border town and the people it houses.
For more events like this to spark up your weekend, check out our Socialiser Guide to the Weekend in Auckland.