Boston Japan Film Festival

[The Shining Star of Losers Everywhere]
Dir. Mickey Duzyj. 2016. USA. 18’38”
In 2003, Japan was plunged into economic darkness, and people needed a ray of hope. They found one in Haru Urara, a racehorse with a pink Hello Kitty mask and a career-long losing streak.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA0YZu8bMbI

　

[Wasabi]
Dir. Bunji Sotoyama. 2016. Japan. 29’39”
Aoi is a high school student living with her father, Kazuo, who suffers from depression. Kazuo is unable to run his sushi restaurant due to his illness, leaving Aoi no choice but to succeed her father to save the restaurant. She turns to a magical baseball pitch to find her fate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zKAdE5sOKM

　​

[Toru]
Dir. Jonathan Minard, Scott Rashap. 2016. The USA. 14’00”
An infant's life is transformed by a new technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCoZEX6clOw

　

[Complex x Complex]
Dir. Miyuki Fukuda 2015 Japan. 24’42”
Eighth-grader Yui longs to be a grown-up. She considers armpit hair the symbol of adulthood, so her classmate Takeo—who has the thickest underarm hair in the class—becomes her idol. Is it love? A coming-of-age story about puberty, love, and halting conversation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhY3P6XcX3I

　

[I & Myself]
Dir. Hisanori Tsukuda. 2017. Japan. 5’00”
Mizuho came to Tokyo to make her dream a reality, but things have not been going well for her. She finds herself thinking, "What did I come to Tokyo for ... ?" Depressed and on her way home one day, she is stopped by a lady, who, to her astonishment, is another version of herself.

　

[Sociopaths]
Dir. A.T. 2015. Japan. 5’24”
A girl encounters an android on the street. Unnerved by the experience, she decides to follow the android to give it a "message.”

 

[Post X years later]
Directed by Hideaki Ito, documentary, 86 minutes, Japan, 2015
In the aftermath of WW2 the Bikini Atoll was used by the United States as a testing ground for Nuclear and Thermonuclear technology until 1957. In 1954 the largest test - the detonation of a Hydrogen bomb in Operation Castle Bravo - resulted in a significant amount of fallout that impacted inhabited areas. Among the exposed in the incident was the Japanese fishing boat Daigo Fukuryu Maru with a crew of 23, who at the time was outside of the "danger zone" declared by the US Government. While history has documented the plight of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, the reality is many other boats also outside the "danger zone" were similarly exposed. Now 59 years later, a documentary crew in Japan revisits the incident and interviews surviving fishermen, including some from other Japanese boats in the area, to bring to light an ordeal whose full impact has been kept in the dark by both the US and Japan governments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIu5Fhx3eso

 

Free to the public. A light reception will take place after the screenings, with a discussion from 3: 00 to 4:00 pm.