THE line-up for this year’s Japanese Film Festival at Garter Lane from Thursday to Saturday, April 18th to 20th will feature a diverse and packed programme of films, including work of the most acclaimed filmmakers from contemporary Japanese cinema, and covering a variety of themes, genres and topics. It will all be shown on Garter Lane’s gorgeous new Digital Cinema Package.
‘Tremble all you want’ (Thursday, April 18, 7:30pm)
24-year-old Yoshika has long left school, but after all those years she still harbours an all-consuming crush on her former classmate Ichimiya (who she affectionately refers to as ‘One’). When she goes on a few dates with co-worker Ni (or ‘Two’) and the pair clearly hit it off, Yoshika still can’t shake off her obsession with her idealised memory of ‘One’. After a near death experience involving a blanket and a heater, a newly-determined Yoshika decides to organise a class reunion in the hopes that ‘One’ will show up. As the plan plays out, it begins to dawn on her just how deep into her own fantasy world she has disappeared.
‘Tremble All You Want’ brings viewers on a whirlwind tour through the mind of an exhilaratingly unreliable narrator.
‘Penguin Highway’ (Friday, April 19th, 7:30pm)
10-year old Aoyama is serious beyond his years. He is an enthusiastic scientist and spends his days filling notebooks with his observations and theories. At the same time he is counting down the days until he will be grown up, so that he’ll finally be able to marry his crush – a young woman who works in the local dentist’s office! However when lots of penguins begin to appear without any logical explanation in the sleepy town where Aoyama lives, he and his friends must turn their attention to investigate this strange phenomenon and get to the bottom of this mystery. Based on a novel written by Tomihiko Morimi (who also authored JFF18’s ‘The Night Is Short’, ‘Walk On Girl’), this highly imaginative anime is the debut feature from Hiroyasu Ishida and marks the first length feature film from animation Studio Colorido.
‘One cut of the dead’ (Saturday, April 20th, 7:30pm)
One snowy evening, a young hunter Minokichi and his older mentor Mosaku take shelter in an old mountain cabin. As the pair try to keep warm, a ghostly woman enters the cabin and kills the older man by spraying him with her icy breath. However, she spares Minokichi on the condition that he keeps silent about what he has seen. The freezing night passes, and the young man makes it home. Some time later, he meets the beautiful, mysterious Yuki, but he dare not utter a word about her striking similarity to the ghostly snow woman. Minokichi and Yuki marry, and soon they have a daughter named Ume. But as Ume grows older, the events of that fateful night on the mountain continue to haunt Minokichi and his family.
To book your tickets (€9), go to www.garterlane.ie or phone the box office at
051-855038. Refreshments will be served at each showing.
