HCM CITY — Eight Japanese films will be screened at the annual Japanese Film Festival in HCM City from October 28 to November 11.

The festival will feature films, animation films and documentaries portraying love among teenagers, families and friends. Most of them were released this year.

The event will open with director Norihiro Koizumi’s Chihayafuru and Chihayafuru Part II, based on the famous manga series with the same name by Yuki Suetsugu.

Both of them honour karuta, a traditional Japanese card game and show how young people love and have preserved the game.

Three other movies will include the comedy What a Wonderful Family! by Yoji Yamada, historical film Magnificent Nine by Yoshihiro Nakamura, and horror film Creepy by Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

The festival will also feature Maromu Hosoda’s The Boy and the Beast, winner of the 2016 Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year, and Tatsuyuki Nagai’s animation Anthem of the Heart, one of five nominations for the prize.

Documentary Tsukiji Wonderlands by Naotaro Endo is about the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo, renowned as “the world’s largest fish market.”

All films will be shown with Vietnamese and English subtitles.

The festival, organised by the Japan Foundation Centre for Cultural Exchange in Việt Nam, will run from October 28 to November 11 at Đống Đa Cinema, 890 Trần Hưng Đạo Street, in District 5.

Tickets are VNĐ30,000 (US$1.3) and are available at the venue’s box office.

The film programme will also take place in Hà Nội from November 11-20 and Đà Nẵng from November 25-27.

More information on the film schedule can be seen at https://vn.japanesefilmfest.org/. — VNS