Tokyo Int'l film festival: "Action for Earth"!

Yoshino Kimura, Actress & TIFF Ambassador and Tom Yoda,

Chairman, Tokyo International Film Festival were our guests

at FCCJ press luncheon event http://www.fccj.or.jp/node/4877

22nd TIFF Ambassador Yoshino Kimura

Chairman Tom Yoda

Tom Yoda, a Meiji Daigaku graduate, was appointed

chairman of the Tokyo film festival in March 2008. He has

been in the entertainment-content business since 1988 and

has been chairman of the film distribution/production

company Gaga Communications Inc since 2004, and since this

July majority owner and president/CEO. He owns and heads

other entertainment companies and sits on several outside

boards. He holds or has held posts on many other

entertainment industry representative groups.

Tokyo Int'l film festival http://tiff-jp.net/en/

Yoshino Kimura debuted as the lead actress in NHK drama

"Genki wo Ageru" ("I'll Cheer You Up") in 1996. The

following year she won the Japan Academy Prize

rookie-of-the-year award for her first movie role,

"Shitsurakuen" ("Paradise lost"). She won the Academy's

best actress award in 2006 for her role in "Semi Shigure"

(released with English sub-titles as "The Samurai I

Loved"). She has starred in a Hollywood film, "Dream

Cruise," and appeared in more than 50 TV, film and stage

productions. As a singer, she has released singles and

albums.

The 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival will continue

its push for environmental awareness and screen the

controversial documentary “The Cove,” a film which shows

the butchering of dolphins in a small Japanese fishing

town, Taiji. Chairman Tatsumi “Tom” Yoda, a Meiji Daigaku

graduated in business management, said at a press luncheon

on Thursday at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

"It is very important for the festival to not only screen

high-quality films from around the globe but to also

educate the world about environmental issues. We live in

this world together, and those of us in the film industry

count on the environment — that is the message we want to

send.”

The event starts October 17 with the magnificent

documentary “Oceans” by Jacques Perrin and Jacques Cluzaud.

TIFF’s week-long run will feature roughly 130 films at

theaters in the Shibuya and Roppongi entertainment

districts of Tokyo. The closer will be Pixar’s “Up,” an

animated adventure up in the sky directed by Pete Docter.

In competition will be four world premieres, including

Jinsei Tsuji’s “Acacia,” starring famous ex-wrestler

Antonio Inoki, “Manila Skies” by Raymond Red and “Snowfall

in Taipei,” a Taiwanese love story by Huo Jianqi. The jury

president will be Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (”Babel”).

Twenty minutes of footage from “Avatar,” the James Cameron

3-D sci-fi feature, and “Sideways,” a Japanese remake of

the Alexander Payne story of love and wine California, are

slotted into the “Special Screenings” section.

Just as last year, the fest will push for ecological

awareness via a “green carpet,” the use of recycled

materials and the distribution of awards for

non-competition films that evoke environmental themes.

“The Cove” had been widely reported to have been refused by

TIFF, but it was confirmed just prior to the finalization

of the lineup. The film, shot by National Geographic

photographer Louie Psihoyos, displays footage of dolphins

being corralled and then killed by sharpened poles in

Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture. It has not yet been screened

in Japan. Regarding the documentary, the chairman said

that TIFF very strongly believes in freedom of expression.

“We were subjected to some criticism from some parts of the

media about perhaps engaging in censorship,” he said. “I

would like to make it absolutely clear that we do not

censor any works in any way.” Yet the film will be

accompanied by a disclaimer that will not hold TIFF liable

should any dispute arise during its screening.

Yoda noted that thirty percent of the event’s budget comes

from government sources. The chairman does not expect the

recent change to Japan’s political landscape in which the

Liberal Democratic Party was removed from power during last

month’s lower house victory by the Democratic Party of

Japan — to have an impact on TIFF’s budget allocation,

adding that the fest should be able to maintain at least

this year’s level of support going forward. The arts, Yoda

said, transcend political boundaries. “I believe very

strongly that whether it is the LDP or the DPJ in power

that culture is fundamentally non-partisan.” End of quotes

Kimura-san and I chatted during luncheon, about London,

about Cannes film festival, and I was impressed with her

excellent English and her sparkling personality, typical of

young Japanese women. Here we are watching pictures of her

movie on my Mac: "Killer Virgin Road". Mark Schilling

wrote in Japan Times about this movie : "Are most single

women obsessed with marriage despite their protests to the

contrary? Disappointed in love, do they fall to insecure

pieces, taking solace in late-night cartons of ice cream?"

From what I can see, Yoshino-san is a star on the rise.

Scene of Yoshino Kimura and Juri Ueno in "Killer Virgin Road."