Tokyo Film Festival opens

By Gautaman Bhaskaran

TOKYO, OCT. 28. The 14th Tokyo International Film Festival began last evening with an animated feature, ``Shrek'' by Mr. Andrew Adamson and Mr. Vicky Jennson. With the festival slated to close also with an animated movie, Walt Disney's ``Atlantis: The Lost Empire'', it is apparent that Japan holds cartoons and caricatures in high esteem in a society that cherishes visuals, and hardly ever loses an opportunity to use a comic drawing.

It can be at an entrance to a railway station, it can be on the screen of your cellular telephone instrument. What, however, did not seem as picturesque on the festival's opening night was the absence of stars, both Japanese and Hollywood. Directors like Mr. Steven Spielberg and Ms. Sally Potter cancelled their trip to Tokyo, because of the war in Afghanistan.

Some American stars too failed to light up the occasion which began with a musical composition in memory of all those who died in the terror attacks on Sept. 11. Interestingly, one Japanese cinema critic quipped, ``but what about those being killed in Afghanistan now''.

The Tokyo Festival's strength lies in its huge prize monies that it offers to virtual novice directors. There are 14 films in competition - by men or women who have not made more than three movies - though there are none from India.

Mr. Murali Nair's ``A Dog's Day'' in Malayalam is slotted in the Cinema Prism section, which is entirely an Asian basket, and has been considered, over the years, to be more important than competition itself.

This year, the festival's new Director-General, Mr. Michiyasu Kawauchi, has, however, vowed to make the event as important as Cannes or Berlin or Venice.

This looks like a tall order, given the fact that Korea's Pusan International Film Festival and even the relatively smaller, Fukuoka International Film Festival have carved for themselves significant niches on the global map.

But Tokyo's importance as a centre for the latest Japanese works perhaps remains undisputed. It is here in this festival that the best of Japanese cinema can be seen.

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Section  : International
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