Japanese Filmfest "Eiga Sai" to unreel at Ayala Center Cebu

CEBU, Philippines - In celebration of the Philippines-Japan Friendship Month, the Consular Office in Cebu with the Japanese Association of Cebu and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cebu proudly presents the much-awaited “Eiga Sai 2010” - a Japanese Contemporary Film Festival at Ayala Center Cebu Cinema 4 this August 3 to 8, 2010.

Now on its 12th year, “Eiga Sai,” which literally means ‘film festival’, aims to bolster further the diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Japan by continuously providing an opportunity for Filipinos to enhance the understanding and appreciation of Japanese arts and culture explored in this medium.

This year’s offering brings together eight contemporary films, one of which is the two-hour-26-minutes film “Always Sunset on Third Street 2” set in Tokyo in 1959.

Would-be writer Ryunosuke Chagawa (Hidetaka Yoshioka) is still living across the street from Norifumi Suzuki (Shinichi Tsutsumi) and his auto repair shop, though now he shares his home with Junnosuke (Kenta Suga), an orphan he’s taken under his wing at the urging of pretty Hiromi (Koyuki), who continues to manage a nearby tavern.

At Suzuki Auto, where Norifumi Suzuki and his wife Tomoe (Yakushimaru Hiroko) live, Mutsuko (Maki Horikita), the apprentice female auto mechanic, is still staying with the Suzukis and managing enough to stand on her own, she becomes the object of affections of Takeo (Yosuke Asari), a downbeat young man who is studying cooking. Then the Suzukis gain a new family member – their relatives’ daughter whom they are going to look after.

Junnosuke’s biological father Kawabuchi comes to Chagawa to take back his son. In order to keep Junnosuke with him, the father imposes conditions upon Chagawa to give the boy a decent life. To secure a stable life and also prove himself to Hiromi, he starts writing again to win the Akutagawa award, a once abandoned hope.

A sequel to ALWAYS – Sunset on Third Street (Always Sancho-me no Yuhi), director and screenwriter Takashi Yamazaki returns to the nostalgic world of Tokyo in the 50s recreating the street scenes of the Showa era particularly the Nihombashi and Haneda airport built in those days.

The film was nominated in almost every major category at the 2008 Japan Academy Awards, and Yoshioka Hidetaka picked up his second best-actor win for the role of Chagawa.

Here’s the complete list of exciting films to be screened at Ayala Center Cinema 4: Aug. 3, 7pm – Always Sunset on Third Street 2 (Rated G); Aug. 4, 7pm – Glasses (G); Aug. 5, 7pm – The Bandage Club (G); Aug. 6, 7pm – The Battery-Future in Our Hands (PG 13); Aug. 7, 4pm – Fourteen (PG 13) and 7pm – I Just Didn’t Do It (PG 13); and Aug. 8, 4pm – How To Become Myself (G) and 7pm – Tokyo Tower Mom & Me, and Sometimes Dad (PG 13).

All films will be shown with English subtitles. Admission is free. For more details, you may contact the Consular Office of Japan in Cebu at tel. nos. 231-7321 to 23.