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From 'marathon' to 'sleep': 33,000 people watched this year's Eiga Sai

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Totel V. de Jesus

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/life/09/01/20190901-the-8yr-engagement.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>A scene from &#x27;The 8-Year Engagement.&#x27; Photo from the Eiha Sai Facebook page</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA -- Proof that Filipinos love watching Japanese films is the recently concluded Eiga Sai Japanese Film Festival, now on its 22nd year in the Philippines. From last year&#x27;s 28,745 audience count, this year&#x27;s Eiga Sai has totaled 33,004 -- the biggest number in the history of this annual festival in the Philippines. &quot;This was reported by our cinema venue partners,&quot; Roland Samson of the Japan Foundation confirmed to ABS-CBN News. A major factor is the increase of additional movie houses in the provinces and Metro Manila this year. For the first time, Eiga Sai was made available in SM malls in Legazpi, Albay province, Iloilo, and Rosales, Pangasinan. Robinsons Moviewold in Tacloban City also participated. In Metro Manila, Gateway Mall in Cubao opened its doors for the final leg of Eiga Sai. As in the last couple years, there were also screenings at the University of the Philippines Film Institute in Diliman, Cinemalaya at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Abreeza Mall in Davao City and Ayala Center in Cebu City. A total of 17 films were shown. There were films catering to children and the whole family like the animated &quot;Mirai&quot; and &quot;Lu Over The Wall.&quot; Some were for young adults like &quot;Laughing Under The Clouds&quot; and &quot;Kakegurui.&quot; The term &quot;only the Japanese&quot; is made evident in the heart-wrenching romance films like &quot;The Eight Year Engagement&quot; and &quot;Perfect World.&quot;People lined up for the special screenings of award-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s films &quot;Shoplifters,&quot; &quot;After The Storm&quot; and &quot;The Third Murder,&quot; at UP.At the CCP&#x27;s Cinemalaya, there were two screenings of &quot;Lying To Mom,&quot; a film about suicide. Director Nojiri Katsumi was present during the first screening on August 3 at CCP Little Theater for a talk-back session. For a first-time director, Katsumi was able to present a light-hearted film about suicide and how a family dealt with such loss. In several interviews, Katsumi said he made the film as a way of coping with the death of his brother who committed suicide. He also wrote the script but veered away from the sentimental to the pure tearjerker, adding humor and insight that made the film a success.With regards suicide as subject matter, there was parallelism in another much-attended film, &quot;Yakiniku Dragon&quot; by director-scriptwriter-playwright Chong Wishing. Adapted from his much-awarded play of the same title, the story is about a Korean family running a small yakiniku restaurant-bar at a squatter settlement in the Kansai region near Osaka in Japan in the 1970s. But here, suicide is treated as a subplot. The film focuses on the struggles of each family member in surviving the changing landscape of the booming Japanese economy. Japanese humor is at its best in &quot;One Cut Of The Dead,&quot; written and directed by Ueda Shinichiro. The initial showing at Shangri-La Plaza was sold out but we were able to catch it at the UP Film Institute. Though packaged as a horror film, a genre that the Japanese has mastered, this one is more of a comedy. What Shinichiro accomplished is a parody of the devil-may-care attitude in the indie movie setup and a hilarious critique of the profit-driven commercial film industry.Consider the plot: A zombie film is being shot by an indie crew in an abandoned building in the mountains. The director is restless and isn&#x27;t satisfied of the unrealistic scenes, reaching as much as 42 takes in one crucial shot. When real zombies appear and attack the crew, he takes &quot;real-time&quot; on a literal level, almost jumping for joy and keeps the camera rolling. He is elated until the zombies run out of food and turn to him. The ending will surprise moviegoers as it veers away from the predictable. Just like in the previous years, Eiga Sai started its run at Shangri-La Plaza with the opening film aptly titled &quot;Samurai Marathon&quot; on July 3. Shangri-La is the only venue that sold tickets at an affordable P100, less than half-the-price of a regular movie ticket that ranges from P250 to P300. The rest of the venue-partners nationwide had free-to-the-public screenings. The festival closed on August 25, with the jam-packed Cinema 4 at Gateway Cineplex during the final screening of the mystery drama &quot;Where The Mermaid Sleeps.&quot;Indeed, the 2019 Eiga Sai has been a major success, from a cineaste&#x27;s marathon to his much-needed sleep.

Proof that Filipinos love watching Japanese films is the recently concluded Eiga Sai Japanese Film Festival, now on its 22nd year in the Philippines.

Proof that Filipinos love watching Japanese films is the recently concluded Eiga Sai Japanese Film Festival, now on its 22nd year in the Philippines.