Japan's Skip City film festival has announced their full line up and Screen Anarchy readers will no doubt want to take note of one very high profile world premiere because One Cut Of The Dead director Ueda Shinichiro makes his return as the writer and co-director of Aesop's Game! Says the official press release:
The film is co-directed by Shinichiro Ueda, whose short film Take 8 received the Honorable Mention at the 2016 festival, Yuya Nakaizumi, whose feature debut film Running Again was screened as the Opening Gala film at the 2018 festival, and Naoya Asanuma, whose short film if winter burns won the Best Picture at the 2017 festival.
All three directors worked for the sensational One Cut of the Dead, which garnered over 2.2 million admission number and 3 billion yen box-office as Director (Shinichiro Ueda), Assistant Director (Yuya Nakaizumi) and Movie Still Photographer (Naoya Asanuma). They reunited for Aesop’s Game and show their harmonious teamwork as well as each unique character in the film.
Check out the full festival press release below and the trailer for Aesop's Game below that!
Launched in 2004 as one of the world’s first film festivals to focus solely on films shot on digital in order to discover and nurture emerging talent, SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D- Cinema FESTIVAL introduced numerous new Japanese talents such as Kazuya Shiraishi (Sea of Revival), Ryota Nakano (A Long Goodbye), Shinichiro Ueda (One Cut of the Dead) and Shinzo Katayama (Siblings of the Cape).
The 16th edition of the Festival will be held over 9 days from Saturday, July 13, to Sunday, July 21. The press conference was held on Friday, June 7, at the Todofuken Kaikan in Nagata-cho, Tokyo, to announce its full line-up including the titles of the International Competition and the Japanese Film Competition, and the special program. The details are as follows. Please kindly cover on your magazine as we are sure to discover more newcomers at this year's festival.
Special Program: The First Steps of Top Runners Screenings of the theatrical debut film from 4 world-wide renowned directors.
We take a look at the ambitious debut films of four great film directors, George Lucas, Clint Eastwood , Steven Soderbergh, and Takashi Miike, who all became synonymous with large scale productions. The talent evident in their debut films is sure to impress you.
The International Competition includes Another Child, directed by internationally-famous Korean actor Kim Yoon-seok. Bad Art, co-directed by “LOST”’s Tania Raymonde and artist Zio Zeigler, for International Premiere. The 98-minute one cut film Blind Spot, directed by Tuva Novotny starred in The King’s Choice. These three films are directorial debuts from well-known actors.
The wide-ranged lineup consists of strong dramas such as Sons of Denmark, The Day I Lost My Shadow and Irina, a black comedy Lajko – Gypsy in Space, an animation The Tower regarding a Palestinian girl and her great-grandfather living in a refugee camp, an intense documentary Midnight Traveler self-portrays the director’s family going into exile. The Tower is the first animation film selected to the International Competition of the festival ever.
Travel Nostalgia is the only Japanese (Japan=China co-production) film in the International Competition, directed by Qinyao WU who produced the film as her thesis film at the Graduate School of Rikkyo University. All ten films are Japan Premiere or more, and the Jury members led by Director Takashi Miike will give prizes including Grand Prize at the Closing Ceremony on Saturday, July 21.
The Japanese Film Competition is aiming to discover and nurture new and yet unknown talent. For the Japanese Film Feature Competition we feature Sacrifice, directed by Taku Tsuboi who worked for the films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Makoto Shinozaki as a crew, Me & My Brother’s Mistress, in which main actress Nanami Kasamatsu is superb, The Idiot’s Back, an intense romantic comedy like a Korean masterpiece My Sassy Girl, Dream of Euglena, a feature debut of Mikiya Sanada who acted in many films including Outrage by Takeshi Kitano and Battle Royale by Kinji Fukasaku, and F is for Future directed by Teppei Isobe whose Who Knows about My Life won Best Picture at the Japanese Film Short Competition in SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL 2018. 4 out of 5 films are world premiere.
The Japanese Film Short Competition nominees include Sticks and Stones by Takuma Sato whose Don’t Say That Word screened at the New Currents competition in Busan International Film Festival 2014 and The Birth by Kazuomi Makita whose Time Will Tell and Point of the Love were nominated for the Short Competition of SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL in 2015 and 2013 respectively.
The Opening Gala film is Aesop’s Game, which will be theatrically released on Friday, August 16. The film is produced by Saitama Prefecture / SKIP CITY Sai-no-Kuni Visual Plaza for nurturing the young talent. The film is co-directed by Shinichiro Ueda, whose short film Take 8 received the Honorable Mention at the 2016 festival, Yuya Nakaizumi, whose feature debut film Running Again was screened as the Opening Gala film at the 2018 festival, and Naoya Asanuma, whose short film if winter burns won the Best Picture at the 2017 festival.
All three directors worked for the sensational One Cut of the Dead, which garnered over 2.2 million admission number and 3 billion yen box-office as Director (Shinichiro Ueda), Assistant Director (Yuya Nakaizumi) and Movie Still Photographer (Naoya Asanuma). They reunited for Aesop’s Game and show their harmonious teamwork as well as each unique character in the film.