I went to the second Japanese Danish Film Festival

Post 00059 | June 1st 2025

I had a lot of fun the last time I went to the Japanese Danish Film Festival so when I saw they were planning make a new festival this year, I immediately booked my ticket. It was held this past weekend.

Like last year, it took place at the Nicolai Cinema in Kolding. Unlike last year, the program was a more expanded: Last year they only showed a single film Friday, but this year they held a formal opening ceremony and showed a couple of more films.

We started out Friday with a screening of season 7 of the MirrorLiar short films, once again showing great variety:

Sand is a criminal drama where a couple of investigators are puzzled by a series of murders where the victims were drowned in sand - Is it a murderer or is it a curse?
I think the second one was called Wedding and was a more international film starring US actors. A couple of elderly men are sitting in a besieged bunker, eating strawberries, mourning of their dead sons and discussing buddhist philosophy whilst artillery shell blasts all around them.
Kutsuya was a film about shoes. On a way to a date, a conman steps on a glue trap. He is stuck, but notices a shoe salesman at the side of the road.
Victims was more of a comedy. A couple of work colleagues have driven to a secluded spot to smooch when they accidentally back into a trade van whose owner get very upset. In the ensuing chaos, the tradesman falls onto the woman and their lips meet - Now they take turn being upset.
Finally, in Human Error, a man gets tricked out of his life savings by an AI scam call. His sister helps him into making a secret password so he won't get fooled another time.

I've come to really enjoy these MirrorLiar short films; With the high production quality and great variety, there's never really a dull moment.

Left: Arranger of the event, Kenneth Truelsen at the opening ceremony.
Right:Jonas Frederik and Sophie Kjestine playing at the opening concert.

After the short films we were taken to the building next door for the opening ceremony. The mayor of Kolding, where the event was held, held a speech about the importance of building friendship between nations, especially these days. Meanwhile in Washington, a sneeze could be heard from the White House.

Onwards to the opening concert! Pianist Jonas Frederik performed a selection of scores from classic Japanese movies. He was later joined flautist Sophie Kjestine.

After the concert, we returned to the cinema to watch 6 Singing Women, the first and only feature film of the night. Kayashima is trying to sell his father's house in the mountains. After signing the papers, he is offered a ride back by the buyer Uwajima, a Tokyo businessman. They crash on the way back and are drawn into the forest by six enchanting woman. I really enjoyed this. It was beautifully shot and had a great story. In the beginning I thought it was going to be a horror movie, but in the end I found myself rooting for women. I can highly recommend this movie.

Right after this, we watched a documentary: *With* explores the filming of 6 Singing Women along with the provincial city of Nantan's experiences of being hosts to the film crew. Nantan is a fair recent city, made from merging four smaller ones; This naturally has caused some friction so there was a hope to use the film as a part of a cultural festival to promote unity in town. It was an interesting topic, although a late night viewing might have been a little much for a film lacking suspense. A few snores could be heard from the rows of Japanese guests (who in their defence were dealing with jet lag - It was 6 AM their time when we watched it). Speaking of guests, the instructor of the film had made its way to the screening.

The second day started out with the first film nominated for an award. Much like last year we get to vote between four feature films. The first one was called Orb, an the story of Rin, an orphenated girl and Kuo, the son a fireworks maker. As they grow up, they fall in love, but eventually Rin has to leave her orphanage and moves to Tokyo to become an actress. It was a story of how Japanese sparklers are much like life itself. It was told in a very usual way - At first I even thought it was a documentary about sparklers. It definitely wasn't afraid of pulling heartstrings either. A definitely contender for the award. Once again the director had made it to the screening along with Tsubaki Kaori who played Rin.

We then watched Winter Sunflower, which is a school project made by a group of 6 graders. When their teacher gets kidnapped by an evil warrior, the class has to go around the city of Daikanyama to look for clues on how to find him. It was an incredibly cute film, and well shot as well. I noticed they had been supported by MirrorLiar, but it still felt like the children had retained most of the creative input.

Speaking of MirrorLiar, we then watched season 6 of their short films.

1/96 is a film about a man who in a state of annoyance over his family decides to take a detour home to try to enjoy the things he isn't able to anymore.
In Sun and Moon a sister and brother meets for the first time after their father funeral in a small café. They don't exactly hit it off.
FAAAWWW!!! is a comedy; Two gangsters are about to kill a guy when a golf ball hits one of them. In the confusion the man escapes and they confront the golfer instead, who in his defence had shouted "fore" beforehand. They nevertheless shoot him, and he takes his revenge by cursing them: After this they'd always hear him shout "fore" when they were committing crimes.
If the last one was funny, this one is hilarious: The Man and the Bird is a stop motion film about a man - or at least a humanoid character - being tasked with delivering a box. A bird takes interest in the box and tries to steal it, but the box always returns to the man. Every single frame of this film was wonderfully ridiculous and absurd.
Finally, in Cafune a girl is thinking back at all the letters she'd received by her grandparent who recently passed away. At least that's what I think. To be honest, I was still laughing too much at The Man and the Bird to pay attention to the plot. I'm sorry!

We then went on to watch the second nominated film: The Road to Me was a documentary of May, a young social media influencer who embraces "van life", the trend of converting a used van to a home. We follow her journey building her van, trying to figure out what to do with her life and her trip around Japan where she meets other van people.

Another feature film: 11 Rebels is an action film taking place during the Boshin War during the last days of the shogunate. It follows eleven criminals who are released from captivity by a rival faction to become a suicide squad, being promised freedom if they successfully defend a fortress. It had some pretty cool action scenes, but I had a hard time following the plot, being a numpty at Japanese history.

And we continue with yet another new feature film: SANA: Let Me Hear is the latest film by famous horror movie director Takashi Shimizu. He joined us for the screening of the film. Honoka is a temporary teacher who one day sees a schoolgirl fall off the roof of the school. Not only was a mysterious girl with her on the roof; She later finds out that the exact same thing happened thirty years ago, with the same mysterious girl. I've never been good with horror, but I'd like to say this was unsettling in just the right way. There is a part of me who thinks you should be able to sympathise with the evil - or at least understand their motive - in these sorts of movies. This wasn't the case here, which I found a little disappointing. Still, it seems this film is part two of a trilogy, so many the two other parts can expand on this. The film worked well on its own though. All in all I enjoyed it.

After the film there was a meet & greet session with Takashi Shimizu. He was actually a pretty down to earth guy. He mentioned he had a dream of one day directing a comedy. I hope he achieves this, as he was pretty humourous.

The third and final day we watch the third the final of the films nominated for an award. Breathing Underwater follows Aoi, a tomboy who is on the high school swimming team. One day when she confronts a disrespectful upperclassman, their swimming team gets challenged to a swimming competition. As if that wasn't bad enough, all her friends on the swim team seems to having a crush on Aoi's childhood friend while Aoi has started to question if the really is a girl after all. It was a good movie, more traditional than the other two, and while I feel like I'm getting too old for high school drama, all in all I enjoyed it.

We then watched A Samurai in Time that much like 11 Rebels took place in Samurai times - At least for the first five minutes. Kosaka Shinzaemon is a samurai who in a thunderstorm fights against an opponent from a rival clan. During the sword fight they are struck by lightning and Shinzaemon is brought to present day Japan. He now tries to adjust to modern life by becoming a stunt man in period dramas, often with hilarious consequences. It was a pretty funny movie that I'd be happy to recommend. I noticed that Third Window Films, a UK distributor, has picked up the film for an English bluray release so it shouldn't be too difficult finding a copy if you think it sounds interesting.

Speaking of time, up until now we've mostly watched new movies, but this changed with Battle Royale that celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. In an attempt to deal with juvenile delinquency, Japan has launched the Battle Royale Act, in which a random school class is taken to a remote island to participate in a death match. They have to kill each other - Last one wins. If more than one student is alive after three days, the explosive necklaces they're all wearing will detonate. I'm not sure I understand how this will curb delinquency, but I digress. It's an absolutely insane film that I can absolutely understand why it became a cult classic.

After the film there was a meet & greet with Toru Harada, the assistant director of Battle Royale. Rather than an interview, he held a presentation where he talked about the making of the film along with Kinji Fukasaku.

After the presentation, it was time to see this year's short films that were nominated to awards just like the feature films:

In Third Wheel, a master carpenter has died. He goes to see his wife, but finds out she can't see him. Thankfully, his apprentice is psychic, so he can mediate for him - Or will he? He ends up telling the widow that her former husband insists she should marry him - Cheeky!
Nothing Will Change is a conversation between Toko and Midori. Toko has been modeling for Midori, but after Midori has become pregnant, Toko demands Midori stops painting her.
Julia refuses to learn English and has driven away any English Tutor her parent has hired. When she gets a particular uptight tutor, Julia talks her friend, who is a witch, into killing the tutor, but unfortunately she picks the wrong potion.
Mayumi (who goes by the stage name Satomi) is a talented young singer in the 1990's, but sadly she suffers from stage fright. She draws inspiration from Coronet, an anime idol until one day she meets Coronet in real life, only to prove herself a bitch.
Finally, in Happiness Index, Nobu is unhappy when one day he starts seeing numbers - happiness scores - over everyone's heads. Now he tries to figure out how to improve the scores.

Sayaka Tsutsui, the Vice Chairman of the festival posing with this years awards. Can we all just take a moment to appreciate the gorgeous kimono she's wearing?

Directly after watching the last short film, we went straight onto voting for our favourite films. I found it a lot more difficult this year; I enjoyed most of the short film this year and there wasn't really a feature film I didn't like either. I decided to vote for Orb, because I really appreciated its way of telling a story. I was torn between Satomi and Happiness Index, but decided to go with the latter in the end.

It turned out that I was in the minority when it came to the feature film. Breathing Underwater won Best Feature Film twice - both from the jury and the audience -, best cinematography as well as best actor and actress. Road to Me won best score. I redeemed myself however with Happiness Index who won the short film award both from the jury and the audience.

And so the second festival draws to a close. We ended the final day by watching Transcending Dimensions a monk named Rosuke has gone missing. An assassin goes to kill a finger chopping sorcerer who might be involved, but meanwhile Rosuke is on a spaceship to become a sorcerer himself? I honestly don't know. It was way too far out for me.

All in all though, I was glad to see the second film festival was another success. It definitely seemed a lot more professional this year, like they knew what they were doing. The only "hiccup" in the scheduling was that they'd received the director's cut of 11 Rebels, which pushed the latter half of the Saturday schedule. I was also impressed by how many new films were shown as opposed to last year. I don't know if its because we're finally over covid restrictions (which put a damper on film production) or a greater support from Japan. I suspect the latter, considering the amount of directors that turned up for the event. In any case, it looks as if Eihi Shiina is doing a good job as ambassador. I hope the festival will return next year even more triumphantly.