Date:13/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/13/stories/2008081358580200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Experience a new world at the Japanese Film Festival

Staff Reporter

Consul-General of Japan inaugurates three-day event

— Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

(From left ) R. Veeramani, president, Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Kazuo Minagawa, Consul-General of Japan in Chennai; Sujitha, actor and S. Kannan, president, ICAF at the inauguration of the Japanese Film Festival in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI: “Through movies, many aspects of Japanese culture can be shown,” said Kazuo Minagawa, Consul-General of Japan in Chennai.

Inaugurating a three-day Japanese Film Festival at the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce Auditorium here on Tuesday, he said: “Through films you can travel to and experience a new world.” “The first movie, Swing Girls, for example, shows Japanese youth culture, which even teaches me as a senior citizen. Others show the relationship between men and women and family ties. And one movie, a comedy, shows a ghost, and ghosts are important in Japanese culture,” Mr. Minagawa said, referring to the movie Ghost Pub. The movie Doraemon the Movie — Nobita’s Dinosaur 2006 is the first Japanese animation movie to be screened at the Japanese Film Festivals in Chennai.

“The Consulate-General of Japan selected the films, and they were very specific of showing this animation movie,” said Thangaraj, general secretary of Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF). “Because it is the first animation movie here, we want to see what the reactions are,” he added. The festival, on till Thursday, is being organised by the Consulate and the ICAF. ICAF president S. Kannan, actor Sujitha, and Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry president R. Veeramani participated.