Date & Venue

9 July - 8 August 2015
Please click here for the schedule and admission

Gallery Theatre, National Museum of Singapore
93 Stamford Road Singapore 178897

About Japan Film Festival 2015

The annual Japanese Film Festival is here at Singapore once again! Organised by the Japan Creative Centre, in collaboration with the Singapore Film Society, the Japan Foundation and the National Museum of Singapore, this year’s festival will be announced in two parts – the first part will run from 9 to 19 July and the second part from 20 July to 8 August, with a total of 37 screenings at the National Museum of Singapore.

The retrospective of films by Okamoto Kihachi, one of the leading exponents of jidai-geki (時代劇), is the theme for this year’s festival, featuring famous classics such as Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo, Kill!, Judo Saga and Samurai Assassin. There will also be an additional mystery screening on 17 July, which the film title will not be revealed until the actual day. All the films in the retrospective will be screened on 35mm, a rarity with today’s digital cinema.

This is the 22nd edition of the festival in Singapore. Through the years, the selection of films has hinged on one criterion – that these films move audiences as they have moved its programmer. So do come down and let us embark together on this journey of discovery and exploration into the world of Japanese Film! More information about the films, tickets and screening schedule are available on the Japanese Film Festival 2015 official website. See you there!

About Okamoto Kihachi

OKAMOTO Kihachi was born in Tottori Prefecture on 17 February, 1924. Inspired after watching John Ford's Stagecoach, he decided to pursue a career in film directing. In 1943, fresh from college, Okamoto joined Toho Movie Co., but was soon drafted into the military. His experiences during the war and in the army would have a profound effect on his later works. With the end of the Second World War in 1945, the young Okamoto returned to Toho and assisted directors like MAKINO Masahiro and TANIGUCHI Senkichi. In 1958, he debuted his very own film All About Marriage. A romantic comedy starring a young lady protagonist, this work was a far cry from his later films. Still, his unique style - montage with short cuts or rhythmical direction and editing was undeniable.

From The Big Boss in 1959, Okamoto made a series of modern gangster films. At the same time, he directed Desperado Outpost, developed from his own script. Desperado Outpost, set during the Second World War in northern China, showed energetic outlaws from the Japanese army, and it was almost like a western film. It became a box-office hit, resulting in the production of the Desperado Army series like Westward Desperado (1960), Operation X (1962). Apart from Desperado Army, Okamoto directed another acclaimed film, Fort Graveyard (1965). In 1963, Okamoto directed his first period drama about an escaped Ninja - Warring Clans. Subsequently, more period films such as Samurai Assassin (1965), The Sword of Doom (1966) and Kill! (1968) were made. In the same year, Okamoto concurrently directed The Elegant Life of Mr. Everyman, a comedy about the daily life of an ordinary Japanese salaryman. The film proved too unconventional for Toho Studio, but became one of Okamoto's masterpieces.

In 1964, he made Oh, My Bomb!, a unique musical adopting the style of Kyogen (traditional Japanese comic theatre). In 1967, he made a comedy-thriller The Age of Assassins, which would later become a cult classic. After that, Okamoto directed the Toho all-stars blockbuster Japan's Longest Day, a story about military authority and politicians present when Japan surrendered to the Allied Nations. The following year, in 1968, he made Nikudan by sharing the production cost between Okamoto and Art Theater Guild (ATG), an independent company for arts film. In contrast to Japan's Longest Day, Human Bullet described the end of the War from the point of view of a young suicide attack soldier, who is an alter ego of Okamoto, himself. Both films became his masterpieces.

After founding Kihachi Production in 1974, Okamoto left Toho 2 years later to become a freelance director. He made films like Rainbow Kids (1991) under Kihachi Production, and still continued directing fine entertainment films with major film companies. Okamoto made almost 40 films in his career that spanned five decades, and Vengeance for Sale in 2002 was his last work before he passed away on 19 February, 2005 at the age of 81.