The international competition jury of the Tokyo International Film Festival will be presided over by German filmmaker Wim Wenders, who will also present a retrospective of famous Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu.
The Tokyo International Film Festival announced on Monday that German filmmaking veteran Wim Wenders will chair this year’s competitive jury.
He last appeared at the Toyko International Film Festival in 2011, when the festival’s special screening area showed his film Pina.
Wenders and Tokyo
Wenders’ ties to Japan date back to 1985, when he created the celebrated documentary ‘Tokyo-ga,’ an homage to the iconic Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu, whom Wenders has long considered to be his cinematic hero. This year marks the 120th birthday of Ozu. To commemorate the event, the Tokyo Film Festival will have a special screening segment presented by Wenders.
With his Palme d’Or-winning film Paris, Texas, which was screened in the Festival of Festivals section, he made his festival debut at the Tokyo Film Festival in 1985. He made a comeback in 1991 with Until the End of the World, and in 1993 he presided over the Young Cinema Competition jury alongside Claudie Ossard, a producer, and Paul Auster, a writer.
Wenders expressed his delight at returning to the Tokyo International Film Festival in a statement. He only remembers his first jury appearance fondly, and the jury members from that time are still in touch, still calling each other ‘Claudie-san,’ ‘Paul-san,’ and ‘Wim-san.’ For this festival, which takes place 60 years after his death and hence 120 years after his declared master’s birthday, makes the occasion especially meaningful to him.
Wenders’ Filmography
Wenders is currently on a high, and his long-standing artistic ties to Japan are more visible than ever. ‘Perfect Days,’ the director’s most recent movie, recently appeared in competition at Cannes and was generally praised as his best fiction film in years. It received the Cannes best actor prize for its distinctive lead, veteran Japanese character actor Koji Yakusho, in an intimate character study about a middle-aged Tokyo man who has reduced his life to a routine of service and tiny pleasures. The critic for The Hollywood Reporter described the picture as “ineffably lovely.”
During his 55-year film career, Wenders gathered numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (1982), the Palme d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival and Best Director at Cannes in 1987. He has also been nominated for an Academy Award three times for his documentaries. Wenders debuted another superb feature documentary, Anselm, at Cannes this year, a portrayal of the legendary German artist Anselm Kiefer.
Wenders on his new film
‘Perfect Days,’ which had its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, is similar to ‘Groundhog Day,’ but unlike Bill Murray’s character, Phil, in the latter film, the protagonist, Hirayama, in Wim Wenders’ film embraces it, according to the German director.
Both films show the main characters waking up at the same time every morning, but unlike Phil in ‘Groundhog Day,’ Hirayama, played by Cannes best actor winner Koji Yakusho, wakes up on his own, or he wakes up because there’s an old lady brushing the street outside, always on time. Wenders claims he does not require an alarm clock and does not even possess one. There is a sense that this is a man at peace with his existence, rather than one who is at odds with it.
Wenders, clearly relieved to be free of the analogy, stated that when he opens his eyes, he is relieved that a new day has begun, and this is where the parallel with ‘Groundhog Day’ quickly ends. He is not bothered by having to go through his routine.
