Tokyo film festival is all set to open with Paul Greengrass directed 'Captain Phillips', starring Tom Hanks. The film is based on a true story about a US container ship hijacked by Somali pirates.
The 'Festival Muse' this year is Chiaki Kuriyama, best known for her performance as Gogo Yubari in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Volume 1.
The festival also announced the launch of Japanese Cinema Splash. This
new section aims to showcase Japanese independent films from directors in all stages of their careers. Japanese Cinema Splash along with the newly established
Asian Future and “renewed” World Focus sections (both of which were
previously announced at Cannes) are part of the new director general of the festival, Yasushi Shiina’s vision to make the festival a global confluence of film-makers. He is reported to have stated that he has set two primary goals; first, that the overseas creators assemble and come to Tokyo. Secondly,
to provide an opportunity for the Japanese film lovers to view the
films that have not been released in Japan and to view the new films that are set to release towards end of the year. He added that TIFF is hoping to create a platform for disseminating Asian and Japanese contents globally.
The
closing film of the festival will be writer/director Koki Mitani’s
long-awaited sixth feature, 'The Kiyosu Conference'. Based on Mitani’s
novel of the same title, the historical epic stars Koji Yakusho.