Believe it or not, "Suffragette" is the first feature film out of Britain to focus exclusively on the suffragette movement. What took the country so long? Completed last year, it has finally made it to Japan, and in the light of all that's happening in Western politics, it couldn't be coming out at a better time.
Helen Pankhurst, an activist for women's rights and great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst who led the British suffragettes in the early 1900s, came to Tokyo late last year to promote the film.
"This came out (in the U.K.) just when Saudi Arabian women got the vote for the first time in their country's history. That was a pivotal moment for the filmmakers and myself," she said. "And now it's coming out here, just as Donald Trump becomes the new American president, another pivotal moment."