Japan Shorts Program [2]

Screenings: 8/11 (Thu) 3:30pm (indoor), 8/14 (Sun) 10:00pm (outdoor and indoor), Online UPAF (9/3-9/11, worldwide)

Reschedule
Director: Takayuki SUZUE, Cinematographer: Misaki KONDO, Sound Recordist: Takeo NAGURA, Stills: Nobu TANAKA, Music: Yuka KONISHI, featuring: Kenya NOJIMA, Daichi NOGAWA, Chiho SHISHIME, Jango YAMADA, 2021, 16.5min, color, fiction

Photographer Yusuke (Kenya NOJIMA) meets a long-stranded middle school classmate Azusa (Daichi NOGAWA) and is asked to take his wedding photos. Yusuke and Azusa were a couple from middle school to college days. But they separated when they graduated from college for a reason. Yuke accepts the request, but Azusa’s bride-to-be doesn’t know Azusa’s relationship with Yusuke.

Takayuki SUZUE (Director) Born on March 24th, 1998. Takayuki started filmmaking in college and served as the head of the Tokyo Area Film Club Alliance. His film Instant Camera (2017) and Blue (2019) won awards at various film festivals. Boys Platonic – Takayuki SUZUE Retrospective, a retrospective of his past work, was theatrically released at Ikebukuro Cinema Rosa in 2020.

To Backache Sufferers
Director: Yuki TAKASHIMA, Writer: Yuki TAKASHIMA & Tetsuya OKUMURA, Cinematographer/Color Grading: Yosuke SUMI, Producer: Makoto SHIKI, featuring: Gai UENO, Manami HASEGAWA, Jiji Boo, Maiko KAWAKAMI. 2021, 30min, color, fiction.

Kai Inoue lives in Sasebo City in Nagasaki and he wants to be an actor. He has passed an audition for new talents by a major agency in Tokyo, and is waiting for the day to leave for Tokyo. Yui, his older sister, watches her brother feeling on top of the world with a sulky face. Yui has been trying to make it as a manga artist, but now she is tired and feeling apathetic and self-pity. The big day came but after a strange turn of events, Kai strained his back! The flight time is approaching, and Kai asks his family for help. Yui accepts his request under one condition…

Yuki TAKASHIMA (Director) Yuki landed on a TV station job after graduating from college. But he leaves it for a internet video venture company, where he made original contents for YouTube. In 2018, he became a freelance director and has been mainly running, producing, and supervising corporate YouTube channels. He has been making independent movies since 2019.

Lock on in the Air
Director: Makiko KITAOKA, Cinematographer: Michitoshi KASANAMI, Music: Artegg-Yumi, Producer: Yasunori SAKAMOTO, featuring: Ryota MIYAZAKI, Ruby NAKAMURA, Yutaro ICHIKAWA, Shoma TANIGAWA. 2022, 16.5min, fantasy fiction

A man nearing middle age and a young woman ride a wonder wheel together. They look happy, but the man secretly wraps himself up in suspicion as to why the woman approached him. What is the woman’s aim? Why the wonder wheel? The wheel starts and their destinies and everything start going around…

Makiko KITAOKA (Director) Makiko took a filmmaking course “Let’s Make Films with Everyone” at Cinema Schole, a well-known mini theater in Nagoya, taught by its manager Junji Kimata. She made 2 films in the course. One of them, “Nakagawa Canal Thunderbolt,” was screened as part of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2019 in a special program entitled “Peculiar Movie Theater–Cinema Schole Day.” She currently creates films at Negaposi Film, a film group in Toyota-City, Aichi, and is also involved in organizing the Toyotaikannu Film Festival run by Negaposi Film.

He’s a Devil All the Way
Director, Camera, Writer, Editor: Takashi OKAMOTO, Second Camera: Shinji YOSHIMURA, Sound Recordist/Stills: Atsuhito SAKA, Assistant Director: Katsuhiro IKEGAWA, featuring: Daigo JOKA, KUZU, Akira, Sayu HIGASHI. 2022, 10min, fantastic live action.

Shima TAMURA, a super capable sales woman, is accosted in a park by a devil during her lunch. The devil invites her to sign a contract with him. But the devil’s ability as a salesman is too low, Shima rolls her eyes and starts giving advices on how to succeed in getting the contracts signed…

Takashi OKAMOTO (Director, Camera, Writer, Editor) After being a guitarist and vocalist in a band for many years, Takashi started making music videos as he self-studied filmmaking. Gradually, fellow musicians started asking him to make MVs for them as well. His interest in video grew over the years, and he has been making a few films recently driven by an impulse to make movies.