Japanese Film Festival India kick starts with 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' screening

The sixth edition of the Japanese Film Festival (JFF) India started in New Delhi with the screening of legendary screenwriter Yuji Sakamoto's upcoming venture We Made a Beautiful Bouquet, directed by Nobuhiro Doi.

The four-month-long touring festival, organised in association with PVR INOX, will take place in seven cities across the country between October 2023 and January 2024, a press release said.

The opening ceremony was attended by Koji Yoshida, the Director of the Japan Information Centre, the Embassy of Japan in India, and Koji Sato, Director General of the Japan Foundation New Delhi, film critics, and members of the Japan Foundation and Japan Embassy.

"We are glad that the JFF, which began in 2017, is now in its sixth edition and has become an annual event for the people of India. It goes without saying that anime is very popular in India, but we hope that through this film festival, people will also discover the appeal of the latest Japanese feature films," Koji Sato said in a statement.

Influencers and Delhi-based cosplayers attended the We Made a Beautiful Bouquet screening along with the members of the Delhi Anime Club and Delhi Film Club.

After wrapping up in Delhi on Sunday, the movie gala will take place in Hyderabad and Chennai between November 2 and 5. It will be followed by Mumbai and Bengaluru from November 7 to 10. The last leg of the JFF India 2023 will take place in Kolkata and Pune between November 18 and January 21.

“We congratulate Japan Foundation on the successful opening of the sixth edition of the Japanese Film Festival in India. We are confident that the relationship between the two countries will continue to grow through the medium of film," Koji Yoshida said.

The highlight of this year’s JFF India is the screening of the popular anime from the Detective Conan universe and the 4K remastered edition of Lupin The 3rd: The Castle of Cagliostro, the first anime film directed by filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki in 1979.

The sixth edition will also showcase 10 masterpieces, including A Man, Anime Supremacy, Intolerance, MONDAYS: See you 'this' week, Father of the Milky Way Railroad, Detective Conan: Episode ONE Detective Conan the Movie: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital, and Detective Conan the Movie: The Last Wizard of the Century.

Gautam Dutta, Co-CEO, PVR INOX Ltd, said the team is pleased to host the sixth edition of the JFF.

“Japan Foundation and PVR have shared a long association since 2017 and there has been no looking back ever since. We have taken inspiration from this new emerging trend of film festivals from Japan Foundation and our recent film festivals based on legends of Indian cinema have met with huge success," Dutta said.