Family Dramas Dominate Tokyo Festival's Asian Lineup

By Elena Vasquez

Family relationships dominate the Asian films selected by Tokyo International Film Festival programmer Ishizaka Kenji for this year's edition, and he ties the trend directly to global instability.

"While it is hard to pinpoint an exact catalyst for this surge in family-driven drama, what is undeniable is that amidst today's geopolitical volatility, these filmmakers share an instinctive urge to reexamine the smallest foundational unit around them: the family and sibling bonds," Ishizaka told Variety.

How did the programmer's craft change?

Ishizaka has programmed Asian cinema at the festival since 2007, when most submissions were still shot on film. Digital took over within a few years. His selection process moved from 35mm prints and VHS tapes to DVDs, then to streaming links and downloadable screeners.

"The physical medium gave way to data; cinema lost its tangible 'weight,'" he said.

The shift changed the films themselves. Freed from the need to reload film, Asian directors leaned into long running times built on unbroken takes, and so-called slow cinema spread across the region. Two of its leading auteurs took top prizes at major European festivals in the 2010s: Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives," and the Philippines' Lav Diaz won Venice's Golden Lion for "The Woman Who Left."

What is in the Asian Future competition?

Ishizaka also oversees Asian Future, the festival's competition for young Asian filmmakers. Its 10 titles this year include:

• Katski Flores' "Edjop" (Philippines)
• Kim Hyun-min's "On the Heights" (South Korea)
• Chezhiyan's "The Paper Flower" (India)
• Azamat Shargyn's "Shyrmauyq" (Kazakhstan)
• Ariani Darmawan's "Jani Be Good" (Indonesia)
• Kujiraoka Hironori's "Saravah" (Japan)

The line between studio fare and independent film has blurred considerably, he said. "In the Philippines, for instance – a national cinema often described as enjoying its 'Third Golden Age' since 2005 – we are seeing mainstream stars actively board indie projects after falling in love with bold, original scripts," Ishizaka said. "This has even spawned the portmanteau 'maindie' cinema."

He points to directors Brillante Mendoza and Jun Robles Lana, who move easily between commercial and small-scale indie work, as key links between the two worlds. Other regional industries show similar crossover.

Which countries does the programmer single out?

If the 2010s belonged to Southeast Asian cinema, the story of the 2020s remains unwritten. For now, Ishizaka highlights Taiwan and South Korea for the strength of their public funding and institutional backing.

"Thematically, an exciting wave of emerging filmmakers from China's autonomous regions – Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang – is stepping into the spotlight," he said. "Mentored and inspired by trailblazing predecessors like the late Pema Tseden, these directors bring distinct regional perspectives and aesthetic sensibilities that set them apart from mainstream Chinese cinema."

For Asian Future directors, Tokyo audiences' reactions feed directly into their next projects, while meetings with visiting international programmers regularly lead to festival invitations and co-production opportunities. Japan's network of independent arthouse venues, known locally as mini-theaters, is supported by experienced distributors of international cinema.

"It is not uncommon for a festival premiere here to translate directly into a domestic theatrical distribution deal," Ishizaka said. "Ultimately, our mission is to serve as an active springboard that fosters these industry connections."

What about documentary film?

Ishizaka has spent much of his career studying documentary film and cultural exchange between Asia and the Middle East. Asian Future carries no nonfiction titles this year, but he registers a dramatic change in Asian war documentaries over the last five years.

"Miniature digital cameras mounted on helmets capture the harrowing frontline experience with visceral immediacy, yielding footage so intense it transcends realism into what can only be called the 'hyper-real,'" he said. "It is the visual language of an era marked by conflict."

Fiction features tackling the same subjects, by contrast, appear to be moving toward metaphor and allegory, he said. The Tokyo festival's competition premieres this autumn will test whether those new languages reach Japanese audiences — and distributors — first.