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A competition featuring student films from around the world.
A competition for films and movies made by students. Past films have received high praise at film festivals abroad, such as the Cannes Film Festival. The prize for the most exceptional film is the Golden KOJIKA Award. The winner has the opportunity to submit a proposal for the next NARAtive project, and if their propsal is accepted, they will be chosen as the director of the film.
We will screen 11 films, divided into 4 programs, A~D. Program A will have 4 films, B and C will each have 3, and D will have 1 film. Please be aware that the start time for each film's program is listed next to the film, and not necessarily the specific time that film will start.
Lineup
Program A
Light•Walk Light•Walk
Ayumu, a 23-year-old part-time detective. One day, his older sister visits him for the first time in 10 years. His sister wants him to look after her daughter, Hikari, from August 9th to the 14th. Ayumu has just met Hikari, and now has to look after her. Ayumu and his niece, Hikari. Their life has a strange kind of distance. At the same time, Ayumu works as a detective, investigating the background of a man.
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World Premiere
Lanny
Following the death of a young girl’s beloved grandmother and pet, she is to relocate to the city with her parents despite their estrangement. While being told how to think, feel and behave by her parents, she reveals love in its rawest form.
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Japanese Premiere
Tokyo Girl
It seems like this era will come to an end soon. The era ends, but I don't. Even if the era changes, I won't probably won't. Today I pressed command-C on yesterday and then command-V, it was that kind of day. There's nothing I need to leave, but I'll keep talking. When the mumblings of Tokyo girls end, that's when the era has changed.
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Six Hours
A young woman decided to spend six hours buried in the ground. This is her way of facing her fears and changing her life. She asks her sister to bury her. First, she refuses but then reluctantly agrees. And the freezing night falls deeper…
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Japanese Premiere
Program B
Blooming Sunset at Dawn
35-year-old Yosuke lives with his mother, Hanako, a Chinese immigrant who is now divorced. Suffering from dementia, Hanako's only memories of Yosuke are up until he was in high school. Yosuke works during the day, and begins to play the role of a high school student at home. Though he tries to play both roles, the pressure from his work and Hanako gradually builds up.
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World Premiere
Village In The Sky
With the severe drought and lack of jobs, Aagaswadi village’s youth are forced to leave home for the city. Desperate for water, Bhimrao digs a well. This documentary follows the people of Aagaswadi’s struggles against the drought and its negative impact.
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Japanese Premiere
After the Night on the Bridge
Two brothers who lost their mother to suicide at a young age are living a quiet life together in Tokyo. One night, the older brother, Yusuke, meets a woman who is trying to jump off a bridge, Natsuki, and starts to like her. The other brother, Akihiro, unexpectedly learns Natsuki's secret. In its elaborate dialogue typical of daily life, this is a film with a strange kind of sympathy in this era.
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Program C
Drifting
Yan is a second child born during the One-Child policy. To avoid government punishment, Yan's parents hid their oldest daughter in the countryside and raised Yan as a girl. Yan struggles with his gender identity, being an outcast in a conservative society. His sole escape is drifting his father's old taxi.
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Japanese Premiere
sweep.
High school student Arisa has trouble fitting in with her group, and with things not going well at home, her life has become gloomy. One night, Arisa is lured by some bad friends of hers, and snatches a guitar from a homeless-like man on the street. Bothered by her feelings of guilt, on a later day she goes to return the guitar to that man, but...
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World Premiere
The Sound of the Safe
Days of youth left on video. Nostalgic photos. As I reminisce about the house where I spent 15 years of my girlhood, I have questions about the safe my father found when he rebuilt the house. He stubbornly refused to open it. My mother divorced that kind of father, and I interviewed her to paint a picture of my family from a different angle.
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Japanese Premiere
Program D
Roll
Yoshihiro lived a life going back and forth between his dorm and his part-time job at a second-hand shop, and every now and then, his university. His one joy was taking home items that no longer had any use, and taking them apart. It was that kind of Yoshihiro that encountered the unknown object of “film” and a girl named Nazumi. From this encounter, Yoshihiro’s world grows a lot bigger.
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World Premiere
Jurors
Marianne Slot
Marianne Slot is a renowned film producer and founder of the production company Slot Machine. Her produced films have been highly recognized worldwide and have won awards at the prestigious festivals: Cannes, Berlin and Venice, as well as the Césars in France. Films produced by Slot Machine have won hundreds of prizes.
Makiko Watanabe
Makiko Watanabe made her acting debut in Bakayaro! I'm Plenty Mad (1988). She performed in M/Other (’99) and The Mourning Forest (’07), both receiving awards at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2012, her performance in the SKIP CITY IDCF award-winning film, Capturing Dad, won her awards for Best Supporting Actress at both the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, and at the Asian Film Awards.
