The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is excited to announce the titles of this year’s Opening and Closing Films. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing, TIFF is committed to screening its complete lineup in Tokyo theaters so that audiences can experience the communal joy of watching films on the big screen.
Fragments of the Last Will, starring NINOMIYA Kazunari, will open the 35th TIFF. The film is based on the true story of YAMAMOTO Hatao, a Japanese prisoner of war detained in a post-World War II Siberian gulag. Yamamoto believed that he would be able to reunite with his wife and children in Japan and fought to keep the light of hope alive for his fellow POWs. The festival will kick off on a high note with this deeply moving film.
The closing film will be Living, which revives internationally renowned auteur KUROSAWA Akira’s 1952 masterpiece Ikiru in the modern age, with a screenplay by Nobel Prize-winning author ISHIGURO Kazuo. The film has been selected by prestigious film festivals around the world such as Sundance, Venice, San Sebastian, and Toronto, and is considered to be an Oscar contender. It will close TIFF in Japan, the birthplace of the original film.