The Kyoto International Film and Art Festival, which takes place from Oct. 15 to 18 in Japan's ancient capital, began as a sort of challenge to the local film industry's power center, Tokyo.
The festival's first edition in 2014, held just before the bigger and longer-established Tokyo International Film Festival, highlighted not only many locally made films, going back to the silent days, but also the city's rich and still-vibrant artistic tradition.
This year's edition continues the dual film-art focus, with KIFAF executive producer Kazuyoshi Okuyama telling the media on Monday that he wants "a line-up of films with an edge." Exemplifying that programming philosophy is the opening film, "Tsuioku" (literally, "Remembrance"), Kenichi Oguri's documentary about the ferocious World War II battle for the island of Peleliu.
Another stand-out is "Hee: Making," a drama about the struggles of a mentally ill woman starring and directed by Kaori Momoi, a veteran actress with many international credits to her name, including the 2005 drama "Memoirs of a Geisha."
My own motivation for trekking to Kyoto, however, is "Chushingura," a 1926 period drama starring Matsunosuke Onoe, Japan's first superstar. Made the year he died, at age 50, the film was long available only in fragments, but a 66-minute print was recently discovered and will receive its first public screening at KIFAF, along with three other Onoe rarities. Not surprisingly, both Onoe and "Chushingura" director Shozo Makino — called the "father of Japanese cinema" for his pioneering film work — were based in Kyoto. Cinematically, this is a city with a lot to be proud about. Take that, Tokyo!
For more information, visit 2015.kiff.kyoto.jp.