The Tokyo International Film Festival, now in its 26th edition, has had its share of detractors, dissing it for everything from competition lineups of major festival castoffs (no longer true since TIFF stopped insisting on world premieres) to a Special Screening section that is essentially a PR showcase for upcoming commercial releases (still and forever the case). And yet foreign critics, bloggers and fans keep turning up at TIFF for at least one reason: The festival offers a rare chance to see large numbers of new and not so new Japanese films with English subtitles, in better-than-average screening conditions.

There is also the glamor element, especially for the Special Screening films that feature butai aisatsu ("stage greetings") by popular stars. But the extended Q&A sessions, with a fawning presenter serving up softball queries that the talent on stage bats away with cute quips, can also be tiresome. Since all the seats are reserved, however, you can spend this time in the lobby posting photos of your hotdog-and-Coke dinner to Facebook. (Menu choices in the Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills multiplex, TIFF's main venue, are not wide.)

My own must-see list among the Japanese films is headed by the two in the Competition. The first is "Sutegataki Hitobito (Disregarded People)," Actor-director Hideo Sakaki's take on the George Akiyama manga of the same title about a socially awkward former trucker who returns to his hometown and starts an affair with a woman who shares his inferiority complex. The English title may make this sound like a downer, but as Sakaki proved in his previous film "Yukai Rhapsody (The Accidental Kidnapper)," he can make funny, warm-hearted drama with none of the usual drippy theatrics.