Posted:Jun 25, 2007

Interview with Kanako Hayashi, director of Tokyo FILMeX

After seeing several new Asian films at the 2006 Tokyo FILMeX, I decided to find out more about this new, exciting, but small film festival.

I had an opportunity to talk with the festival director, Kanako Hayashi, who started the festival seven years ago and from the start has been introducing new Asian films to Japan, while also striving to illuminate the best films from Japan and Asia to foreign audiences.

FILMeX is a new festival: it is only six or seven years old. There is another film festival in Tokyo that comes about a month before and showcases a lot of Asian films. You cover films from the Middle East, through South and South-East Asia, to China, Korea and Japan. Why did you decide to open a new festival in Tokyo?

I was actually invited to do so by the president and the executive producer of Office Kitano, Mr. Mori. He goes to many international film festivals in the world, to Rotterdam, Cannes, Vancouver, London and so on, and he sees how much support independent filmmakers get there. He also wanted to support the filmmakers and emerging talent, so as to make a bridge between the filmmaker and the audience back home in Tokyo. Mr. Mori felt that we needed a small, serious film festival in Tokyo.

Personally, I had been a coordinator at the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute. I was working with the coordinators of various film festivals coming to Tokyo for the selection of the best of new Japanese cinema. I was arranging screenings and recommending suitable films out of both independent and major productions. So in this position, even before getting familiar with Takeshi Kitano’s films and productions, I had had some contact with his films. That included coordinating his “Hanabi” (Fireworks) at the Venice Film Festival. Eventually Mr. Mori asked me to make an international film festival in Tokyo. I thought that it was a very important thing myself. Working for the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, I’d had a chance to participate in international film festivals, but in this new project I saw the opportunity to present “the other international films”, the really interesting ones that would otherwise not be introduced to Japan. A festival like that is able to introduce new films from abroad to Japan and Japanese films to the outside world as a real form of cultural exchange. Those were the reasons that made me accept the position and here I am, a festival director.

Kihachi Okamoto, 'The Last Gunfight'
Kihachi Okamoto, 'The Last Gunfight'
© 1960 TOHO CO., LTD.

FILMeX shows a number of retrospectives of Japanese directors’ work and this year included Kihachi Okamoto. How did this compare with the last retrospective you held of his work in 2001?

Even before FILMeX’s opening day, Kihachi Okamoto had already been confirmed to be shown in Berlin next year. We are extremely happy about this. Okamoto was introduced to the United States years ago when some of his films were being released, for example at the Japan Society; he was especially known for his films featuring Toshiro Mifune. But this retrospective of Kihachi Okamoto himself is really a premiere. For his retrospective in 2001, during the second edition of the festival, we could only borrow three 35mm films from the Japan Foundation. Also, at the time we could not borrow the National Film Center’s theater, so we only showed three films at a smaller theater, so it had no international impact.

What other retrospectives have you presented and what effect have they had on people’s awareness of those directors’ work?

Three years ago we had the first Hiroshi Shimizu retrospective for the 100th anniversary of his birth. Shimizu worked at the Shochiku Film Studios, as did the better-known Ozu. He was also born the same year as Ozu. People know a lot about Ozu, while Shimizu, who also made a great directorial contribution to the Shochiku Studios, is not very well known. After the Shimizu retrospective, we have had the support of the National Film Center; we have been able to borrow a big hall from them, with over 300 seats, as opposed to 151 the last time. They also added the English subtitles and supplied us with many new prints.

In 2004, we also had a retrospective of Tomu Uchida, a Toei Film Studios director. Soon after that retrospective, his films went to the Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands. And last year, we had a Nobuo Nakagawa retrospective. He belonged to yet another production company. In Japanese film history we have had many master filmmakers, but only a selected few have been made known abroad. Of course, I’m talking about Ozu and Mizoguchi from the earlier years, and then Oshima, Imamura and Suzuki, but that’s about all. There a many more wonderful films and at FILMeX we feel that we have a mission to introduce more Japanese filmmakers to the outside world.

Dalia Hager, 'Close to Home', 2005
Dalia Hager, 'Close to Home', 2005

Do you now go to foreign festivals a lot?

For the selection process, of course. However, I do not go to so many festivals because of our limited budget. Above all, I go to Berlin and Cannes. Sometimes I get invited to act as a festival juror and that does not have to be covered by FILMeX’s budget, so all in all, I can still see a lot of new films. I used to travel for nearly a third of the year, but now I have a film selection to make back home, working with the Cinematheque, the archives and the friendly producers and film directors. I think I’m lucky because of my past experience: I know the industry people and the festival people, directors. I’ve learned to be keen to know and look for the most interesting films. For the selection of Korean films I go to Seoul, and not only to the festivals: Korea has a fantastic facility that has been arranged by the Korean Film Council. They gather many new films for selection and I make sure that I go there every year to choose from them. The Iranian film world was not easy to get access to at first. However this year, for the second year straight, we feel that we are being accepted, that we are not viewed as a “fake” festival. We sense it from other film sources as well as they are kindly trying to send us their videos and DVDs. So it’s getting better for us. It is not yet very easy to get to see films, but easier.

It is very clear that the festival is strongly connected to three or so countries: Iran, China and Korea, although there was less of an emphasis on Korea this year.

We saw many films in Korea, but could not find many interesting ones this year. We could not find anything for the competition and I did not want to compromise. I don’t care about balancing the number of films from each of the countries that we show; the important thing is the quality of the cinema. This year the Iranian films were very strong. Some years we show a lot of Korean films or Japanese films, but it all depends on the quality of the works.

Djamshed Usmonov, 'To Get To Heaven First You Have to Die', 2006
Djamshed Usmonov, 'To Get To Heaven First You Have to Die', 2006

I think it’s great that FILMeX is putting an emphasis on films from Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan. This year you even have a South American film, but no European films. Do you think that the regions that you cover are not getting enough exposure at other international film festivals or it is it because it’s easier to acquire works from those regions?

Once again, it all depends on the quality of the films. The Paraguayan film Paraguayan Hammock had been shown at Cannes and it’s a wonderful film, so I wanted to show it. The same goes for the Tajik film, To Get to Heaven, First You Have to Die, which was shown in the “Un Certain Regard” section at the Cannes Film Festival. This year, Cannes did not show very many Asian films and we had to wait until Venice. This year there was the Mozart project, which coincides with the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth and for this, seven films were produced, including one short. We were able to show five of the films from the Mozart project: Paraguayan Hammock, Taiwanese director Ming-liang Tsai’s I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone, Indonesian director Garin Nugroho’s Opera Jawa, and Half Moon, by Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi were others.

Ming-liang Tsai, 'I Don't Want to Sleep Alone', 2006
Ming-liang Tsai, 'I Don't Want to Sleep Alone', 2006

Filmmakers from the past years seem to be coming back to FILMeX. How close is FILMeX’s relationship with these returning filmmakers and producers?

Returning filmmakers do seem to like FILMeX and they send us their new films. For us it’s important to have them come back and to have this kind of network.

Ying Liang showed a great film The Other Half and got the Kodak Award in the form of Kodak film stock. It is a bit ironic, as both he and the other Chinese directors, including Zhang Ke Jia, participated in the this festival using digital video. How do you interpret Ying Liang getting the same award for the second time in two years, not even being a film user?

I don’t know how he’s going to continue working, or if he’ll decide to transfer his film to the Kodak film, or leave it in the digital format. In China, it is not easy to pass the censorship process and have your film released. Ying Liang is an independent filmmaker who has achieved this and he’s only in his 20s. I think he is very talented. Last year he came to FILMeX with his first feature Taking Father Home and it was shown here as a world premiere. At the time we did not know anything about him: he had not been recommended by anyone; his team simply sent us his film. As the film festival director responsible for seeing all films in the pre-selection process, I came across his film last year. Had I not discovered Ying Liang, he would have been discovered in Rotterdam, Hong Kong or at some other festival. I think I was lucky to come across him.

Despite being innovative, smart and critical, Ying Liang’s films had quite a few technical problems. The sound was a bit problematic, but also the light might have been misused.

I think the director and the producer might have seen the film for the first time on the big screen here. They were quite excited about the film’s projection and perhaps they will check the condition of the film. It really was the world premiere of this film. They have probably learned a lot from these first screenings.

Yin Liang, 'The Other Half', 2006
Yin Liang, 'The Other Half', 2006

What do you think will happen to Chinese filmmakers working exclusively with digital video?

Ying Liang is very independent and the issue is to do with money. I learned that in order to make his first feature last year, he had to get a part-time job between shootings. So after last year’s cash prize here and after being shown in some other film festivals, he got funding from the Rotterdam Film Festival and other cash prizes which allowed him to shoot his new movie in digital. It would not be possible at all to shoot it on film.

What are the immediate plans for the future of the festival, program wise?

We are going to continue with our mission of introducing the films by young Asian directors. Even with the special screenings of the various big directors’ films, we feel responsible for showing Asian filmmakers. Last year, we showed Hou Hsiao Hsien’s film on the opening night. It had been shown at Cannes and was well received, but returned to Taiwan without a prize. I felt that it was a masterpiece and decided to include it in the special screening section of FILMeX. Perhaps it did not please the Western audiences enough, but we were proud to show his work. Similarly, Ming-liang Tsai’s film, which we showed this year, had been shown in Venice but got no prize.

Feeling that it had the qualities of a masterpiece, I included it in the special screenings and showed it as the closing film. We like to invite the festival directors for the Q&A sessions to make the bridge between the filmmaker and the audience. Also, adding more variety of directors all depends on the budget. We want to continue with the festival and show more international films, but we can only do as much as the budget allows. If we had a bigger budget, we would be able to invite more non-Asian filmmakers too.

Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us.

Visit the FILMeX Website for more info on the festival.

Tokyo FILMeX 2006 jury member, film scholar and critic Chris Fujiwara posted his impression on the festival here on a great film information source, GreenCine Daily

Aneta Glinkowska

Aneta Glinkowska

Born in Poland. She has lived in New York since 1996, where she attended college and graduate school. To escape the routine of science labs in college, she went to the movies daily. Following an MA in Cinema Studies, she roams Tokyo as a writer, visiting art galleries daily and blogging about art events. She's looking for opportunities to write about art and cinema for all types of publications. Contact via email: aneta [at] tokyoartbeat [dot ]com.