By Gio J. Tanudtanud
THE JAPANESE Film Festival 2024 with the theme “Nostalgia” will showcase classic anime films including recent Japanese films at SM Ecoland this coming Feb 23 to Mar 3.
At the Kapihan sa PIA at SM Ecoland last Feb 5, Davao coordinator Angely Chi announced the schedule for the upcoming Japanese Film Festival 2024 for Davao City with free admissions.
The festival will feature anime classics from the 90s and early 2000s, as well as recently released Japanese films from 2020 to 2023. The films will be composed of genres such as Action, Comedy, Mystery, Thriller, Sports, and Drama.
There are a total of 14 Japanese films scheduled for the Philippines but only 13 will be shown in Davao City as “Tokyo Story” from 1953 is only exclusive in Manila.
Angely Chi said the film “Angry Son” will be rated R-13 while the rest of the films are rated PG. Angry Son is a Japanese film, released last Jan 13, 2023, about a Japanese high school teenager who is half Japanese half Filipino with the story portraying serious themes.
“The story is about a half-Japanese half Pinoy youth whose mother is an OFW Filipino woman. So that’s the film that’s R-13 because of the serious themes that’s depicted in that movie,” she said.
The Japanese Film Festival 2024 will commence on Feb 23 at 6 pm at the SM Ecoland Cinema 3 and launch its first screening of “The First Slam Dunk” anime film, released last Dec 3, 2022, at 7:30 pm.
The film festival will also include GMA’s Voltes V: Legacy – The Cinematic Experience, which premiered last 2023, as the first Tagalog film to be featured in the Japan Film Festival.
Voltes V: Legacy – The Cinematic Experience with the addition of the classic anime “Voltes V: The Liberation” from 1999 will only be showcased on the last day of the Film Festival on March 3. Voltes V: Legacy will be screening at 1:00 pm while Voltes V: The Liberation will be at 7:00 pm.
Angely Chi also invites everyone to watch the featured films since it has free admissions and limited seats for every film in Cinema 3.
“Since it’s free screenings, it’s first come first serve. And there in Cinema 3, there are 339 seats. So that’s 339 seats per screening and so we invite you to catch the screenings from February 23 to March 3.” she said.
