Organizers for the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) announced Sept. 19 that the event will open with Junji Sakamoto’s “Climbing for Life,” a drama based on the true story of Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest in 1975, and close with Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet.”
TIFF is Japan’s largest film festival, and it customarily kicks off with a Japanese film and closes with a highly anticipated foreign film. This year, the festival will be held from Oct. 27 through Nov. 5 at venues in and around the Tokyo Midtown Hibiya shopping and entertainment complex.
Zhao, who won a best director Oscar for her film “Nomadland” in 2021, brings her acclaimed vision to an adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s poignant bestselling novel that breathes new life into William Shakespeare and his family while delving into themes of grief, marriage and parenthood. The film stars Paul Mescal as Shakespeare and Jessie Buckley as his wife, Agnes.
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