The 27th Tokyo International Film Festival officially started on 23rd October 2014, which means it is now time for us to go see great movies from all over the world at Japan's biggest and most important film festival.
The Festival
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is a very important event in the cinema world for Japan but also for Asia and for the whole world. It was created in 1985 and has been held in October every year ever since.
This year, many movies will be shown under various categories like: the main competition of the festival, World Focus, Japanese Cinema Splash, Crosscut Asia (focusing on Thailand this year) or Asian Future. Some of these categories present great works by talented upcoming Asian or International directors so I highly recommend you check them all.
Note that all the movies are shown in their original version with either English subtitles or both English and Japanese subtitles.
Other events such as a tribute to the great animator Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) will be held so stay tuned for these too!
If you need any more convincing, the president of this year's main competition's Jury, James Gunn (director, Guardians of the Galaxy) thinks ''TIFF is a great festival because it offers movies from all over the world that are truly different from each other and it offers a great cultural experience.''
The Opening and Closing Movies
This year the opening movie was the new Disney movie Big Hero 6 which was partly inspired by Tokyo. The directors even mentioned that this festival is of extreme importance to them because they always had the idea to premiere their movie here in Tokyo, at the festival. They even coordinated the production's finish with TIFF.
The closing movie will be Parasyte, the highly anticipated Japanese movie by Takashi Yamazaki based on the manga of the same name and starring the young star Sometani Shota.
General Information
The film festival lasts from October 23rd to the 31st.
Depending on the category, prices vary between ¥1,300 and ¥2,000 but note that if you are a student prices for certain movies become extremely interesting (it can be as low as ¥500 at the door).
Most movies are showed at the Toho cinemas in Roppongi Hills (only 5 minutes walk from Roppongi station) and some of them are showed at the Toho cinemas in Nihonbashi (5 minutes walk from Ginza station) and there will be one special representation at the Kabukiza theatre in Ginza.
Albeit some movies might be fully booked, there are still a lot of movies with tickets left so hurry up and go watch some of this year's best movies!
Lastly, to quote the executive producer of the opening movie, John Lasseter, ''may you see amazing films that will entertain you, inspire you and fill your heart with strong emotions!''
