Japan's film industry releases more than 400 films a year, but only 10 screened in the Japanese Eyes section of this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, which ran from Oct. 18 to 26.
Started in 2004, Japanese Eyes was inspired by the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section, which specializes in adventurous films by new directors. Both adjectives certainly apply to some of the films in Japanese Eyes, but, year in and year out, the selections tend to be on the earnest, high-minded side, ranging from the messagey to the melodramatic. I'm not quite sure why — perhaps the programmers want to present the respectable side of Japanese cinema to the world, not the latest Takashi Miike genre outrage.
Interesting films do end up on the program, though — and not all are by young directors. One is this year's winner of the Japanese Eyes Best Picture Award — Jun Ichikawa's "buy a suit."