Japanese Film Festival: Film samurai head for Irish towns

The country is now awash with excellent film festivals – both general and specialist – focused on specific regions. The folk at the Japanese Film Festival, which began this week in Limerick and Sligo, require particular commendation for spreading their excellent programme throughout the nation. Few other festivals have quite this reach.

“Having started with four films in three cities in 2008, this event is now in its seventh edition with 18 films in seven cities,” Chihiro Atsumi, ambassador of Japan to Ireland, explains. This year’s festival will be moving on to Galway, Cork, Dublin, Waterford and Dundalk. It is thus a properly national event.

Organised by Access Cinema with the Ireland Japan Association and the Japanese Embassy, the 2015 bash brings punters the Irish premiere of The Light Shines Only There, Japan's official submission to the Academy Awards, and Ken Ochiai's moving Uzumasa Limelight, a dramatic tribute to the golden years of the samurai movie.

As ever, the JFF puts quality anime before its loyal body of fans. Hiroyuki Okiura's A Letter to Momo, which took seven years to complete, is a richly beautiful tale of a young girl's isolation on a mysterious island. In a less relaxed vein, Yasuhiro Yoshiura's Time of Eve, another anime, details interactions between humans and their android servants.

The Japanese Film Festival continues to unearth worthwhile revivals. This year we get to celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of cinema's greatest ghost stories: Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan. Delicious and all coming to a cinema near you (probably).

The Japanese Film Festival continues at venues throughout the country until April 23rd. For more, see jff.ie