An indication of the growing strength of Japanese films against international competition, Daihachi Yoshida’s dark comic drama “Teki Cometh” won three prizes in the Competition section at the 37th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF): The Tokyo Grand Prix for best film, best director for Yoshida and best actor for star Kyozo Nagatsuka.
This is the first time a Japanese film has won the festival’s biggest prize in 19 years, since Kichitaro Negishi’s “What the Snow Brings” took home the top nod in 2005.
Competition jury member and acclaimed Hong Kong film director Johnnie To praised Yoshida’s direction in his native Cantonese at the closing ceremony on Wednesday, saying, “Through effective cinematic language, he intricately portrays the mindset of the elderly character and the issues he faces, creating a deeply moving work.”
Based on a 1998 novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui and scripted by Yoshida, “Teki Cometh” begins as a low-key drama about a retired professor of French literature who is living a stoic, solitary existence, though his friendship with a former student (Kumi Takeuchi) crackles with an unexpressed sexual tension. After the professor receives a message on his PC that the “teki” (enemy) is coming, his dreams become more disturbed — and start to bleed over into his waking life.
Shot in black and white, the film evokes classical Japanese cinema, but in a pre-festival interview, the 61-year-old Yoshida confessed that his own dream life influenced his concept of the film.
“As I got older, I had more dreams about things I saw yesterday or worries I had about tomorrow,” he said. “Then, I got to the point when I couldn’t tell the difference (between dream and reality), so when I woke up, I would think for a while, ‘Oh, what a terrible thing I did.’ I’m having more and more dreams that are realistic in a bad way.”
His nightmares, however, have resulted in a dream awards harvest for the veteran director, whose only previous win at TIFF was an audience award for his 2014 black comedy “Pale Moon.”
Other major prizes went to non-Japanese films and talents, including “Adios Amigo,” Ivan D. Gaona’s spaghetti western-like drama that took the second-place Special Jury Prize; and Anamaria Vartolomei, who was awarded best actress honors for her performance in Teodora Ana Mihai’s “Traffic” as a young Romanian woman who migrates to Western Europe and becomes involved in an art museum robbery.
But another Japanese film in the Competition section — Akiko Ohku’s romantic drama “She Taught Me Serendipity” — won critical kudos with critic Richard Kuipers praising it as a “winning mix of gentle humor and touching human drama.” Reviews for Shinzo Katayama’s sprawling love-triangle drama “Lust in the Rain,” which also screened in competition, were mixed, however, with critic Wendy Ide calling the film, which was based on the autobiographical work of postwar manga artist Yoshiharu Tsuge, “ambitious but uneven.”
My own takes on these two movies were similar, though I was more impressed by Ohku’s boldness in stretching beyond genre boundaries, such as writing a lengthy monologue for Aoi Ito’s character, a part-time public bathhouse worker, that expresses her pent-up feelings for the nerdy male protagonist. A typical commercial scriptwriter would have chopped it down, but Ito delivers it in a heartfelt burst that energizes and elevates the entire film.
Opening the festival was Kazuya Shirashi’s “11 Rebels,” a full-bore period swashbuckler based on a long-forgotten script by screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara, best known for his classic yakuza films from the 1970s. Clocking in at 155 minutes, the film delivers a history lesson on the Boshin War, a conflict fought from 1868 to 1869 between the supporters of the shogun and a coalition aiming to seize power in the name of the emperor. The rebels of the title are a motley crew of criminals and samurai drafted to defend a small fort in a feudal domain caught between the two forces.
Non-Japanese festival programmers and directors I spoke with complained about both the lengthy running time and the difficulty of sorting out the convoluted storyline. “Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys (in the war)?” one commented. “I really had no idea.” Perhaps the 110-minute international version will make this clearer — or strip out the explanations and just leave the action.
Despite these critical cavils, as well as rainy days that reduced audiences for outdoor screenings at the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya complex to a few huddled stalwarts, the festival was a rousing success at the box office. At the closing ceremony TIFF chairman Hiroyasu Ando reported that ticket sales had increased by 10% compared with last year, while the number of guests from abroad grew by 20%.
Among them were the cast of “Gladiator II,” Ridley Scott’s sequel to his 2000 epic starring Russell Crowe as the general-turned-gladiator Maximus. Paul Mescal, who plays Maximus’ gladiator son, and Denzel Washington, who plays the gladiator hero’s politically ambitious mentor, were both at a press conference held the day before the film’s Nov. 5 screening — the first such mid-festival showing of a major Hollywood film in TIFF’s history.
The event was a love-in for the absent Scott with all four cast members present, including Connie Nielsen and Fred Hechinger, lavishing praise on the director. “There’s no better director for focusing on an audience’s sense of entertainment than Ridley Scott,” Mescal enthused.
Not surprisingly the “Gladiator II” screening sold out, though fans will have more chances to see the film — minus Mescal and company — after it opens nationwide on Nov. 15.
After a long dearth of Hollywood glamor, with the pandemic being a contributing factor, TIFF will perhaps once again become a magnet for stars of Mescal and Washington’s caliber. And I hope that TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama and his team find more gems like “Teki Cometh” — and further build TIFF’s reputation as a festival of discovery.
And the winners are ...
It was a good year for Japanese cinema at the 2024 Tokyo International Film Festival. The following are a list of winners in the Competition section:
- Tokyo Grand Prix: “Teki Cometh” by Daihachi Yoshida (Japan)
- Special Jury Prize: “Adios Amigo” by Ivan D. Gaona (Colombia)
- Award for Best Director: Daihachi Yoshida, “Teki Cometh”
- Award for Best Actress: Anamaria Vartolomei, “Traffic”
- Award for Best Actor: Kyozo Nagatsuka, “Teki Cometh”
- Award for Best Artistic Contribution: “My Friend An Delie” by Dong Zijian (China)
- Audience Award: “Big World” by Yang Lina (China)
- Asian Future Best Film Award: “Apollon by Day Athena by Night” by Emine Yildirim (Turkey)
- Kurosawa Akira Awards: Sho Miyake (film director) and Fu Tien-yu (film director)
- TIFF Ethical Film Award: “Dahomey” by Mati Diop (Benin/Senegal/France)
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Bela Tarr (filmmaker)
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