Indie filmmakers in Japan don’t get a lot of respect. To the upper reaches of the industry, where Netflix and Toho dwell, they don’t exist. Investors are scarce, government subsidies are meager, and the arthouse theaters that show their films are dwindling.
Nonetheless, Foolish Piggies Films, the production company launched in 2013 by brothers Yuji and Hirobumi Watanabe, is still going strong. The siblings churn out micro-budget indie films at a steady clip, with Yuji serving as composer and Hirobumi as scriptwriter and director. Set in or near their hometown of Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture, these films all bear the Watanabes’ distinctive stamp, from Yuji’s clever repurposing of classical warhorses to Hirobumi’s unique mix of stylistic minimalism and dry comedy, as well as on-screen appearances as characters supplying most of the laughs.
Beginning with the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2013, where Hirobumi’s debut feature “And the Mud Ship Sails Away” premiered, the films of Foolish Piggies have screened widely in Japan and abroad, including a four-film special section at the Udine Far East Film Festival in 2020. (Unfortunately, the pandemic was raging then, and the Watanabes could not attend.)