Japan Cuts Unveils 2024 Festival Lineup Headlined by ‘Shin Godzilla: ORTHOchromatic’

In the wake of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest Oscar win for “The Boy and the Heron” and the VOD dominance of “Godzilla Minus One,” Japanese cinema continues to be as vital as ever to American audiences. That should make the upcoming edition of Japan Cuts, the annual film festival celebrating Japanese cinema co-produced by Japan Society, one of the most exciting events on New York cinephiles’ summer calendars.

The lineup, which IndieWire can exclusively reveal, contains a mix of American and New York premieres alongside a curated selection of newly restored classics. Notable titles include “Shin Godzilla: ORTHOchromatic,” a new black-and-white version of Hideaki Anno’s 2016 kaiju blockbuster; and “Shadow of Fire,” the war drama from “Tetsuo: The Iron Man” director Shinya Tsukamoto that premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.

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“We couldn’t be more amazed by this year’s festival,” Peter Tatara, director of film at Japan Society, who said in a statement announcing the lineup. “This year’s Japan Cuts presents an abundance of powerful, engaging and unexpected films together with rare appearances from some of their most imaginative creators. Japan Cuts is a reflection of the breadth of Japan’s contemporary film industry, and this year absolutely celebrates the scope and storytelling of what Japanese cinema brings to the world.”

Keep reading for the complete Japan Cuts 2024 lineup, with film descriptions provided by the festival. It runs July 10-21 in New York.

OPENING FILM

Between the White Key and the Black Key (North American Premiere) 
Opening Night Film with Director Masanori Tominaga Q&A and Reception. Music sweeps through 1980s Ginza, a glamorous and dangerous neighborhood where well heeled Tokyoites, artists and thugs all sway together under the power of jazz. Sosuke Ikematsu stars in this spiraling, splintering, intersecting Mobius strip of a film based on the memoirs of jazz pianist Hiroshi Minami and a single night and a forbidden song that changes destiny. Also featuring Japanese pop star Crystal Kay.

CENTERPIECE FILM

Shadow of Fire (U.S. Premiere)
The sickness of postwar Japan runs at a fever pitch in Shinya Tsukamoto’s (Tetsuo the Iron Man, Bullet Ballet) latest entry to his war trilogy, following his acclaimed wartime dramas Fires on the Plain and Killing (JC 2019). A chamber drama that evolves beyond its initial setup, Shadow of Fire opens with the chance rendezvous of two survivors—an orphan child who steals food from the black market (Oga Tsukao) and a woman forced to sell her body (Shuri) in the ruins of a burnt-out tavern. The introduction of a young soldier still tormented by the war and a mysterious stranger (played by 2024 CUT ABOVE Award recipient Mirai Moriyama) bring new complications to the pair’s impermanent way of life. An unflinching examination of the immediate postwar chaos, Tsukamoto’s masterful direction once again offers a brutally searing critique of war as Shadow of Fire portrays a populace fashioned into specters, unable to reckon with the trauma of the past. Followed by Mirai Moriyama CUT ABOVE Award presentation, Q&A with Shinya Tsukamoto and Mirai Moriyama, and Reception.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Great Absence (New York Premiere)
Tokyo-based actor Takashi (Mirai Moriyama) reluctantly travels to northern Kyushu with his wife (Yoko Maki) after local police inform him of a distress call made by his estranged father Yohji (Tatsuya Fuji), a retired professor who shows signs of rapidly progressive dementia. Once there, Takashi becomes involved in a mystery concerning the disappearance of Naomi (Hideko Hara), the woman for whom Yohji abandoned his family 20 years ago. Did she really commit suicide as Yohji claims? A deeply moving and artfully multi-layered sophomore feature about reconciliation, love and mortality by director Kei Chika-ura (Complicity) featuring stellar cinematography by frequent Hirokazu Kore-eda collaborator Yutaka Yamazaki. Followed by Lifetime Achievement Award Presentation for Tatsuya Fuji, Q&A with Kei Chika-ura and Tatsuya Fuji, and Reception.

FEATURE SLATE

All the Long Nights (U.S. Premiere)
Auteur Sho Miyake’s (And Your Bird Can Sing, JC 2019) tender followup to acclaimed boxing drama Small Slow but Steady focuses on the interpersonal lives of two coworkers afflicted with debilitating conditions—a beautifully compassionate drama shot on 16mm.

Between the White Key and the Black Key (North American Premiere)
Opening Night Film with Director Masanori Tominaga Q&A and Reception. Sosuke Ikematsu stars in this spiraling Mobius strip of a film based on the memoirs of jazz pianist Hiroshi Minami and a single night and a forbidden song that changes destiny.

The Box Man (East Coast Premiere)
Featuring Director Gakuryu Ishii In-Person. Absurdist, self-aware and characteristically bizarre, Gakuryu Ishii’s rendition of Kobo Abe’s experimental nouveau roman is fashioned with the punk ethos of Ishii’s early work as it follows a photographer who obsesses over a “box man”—a purposeful outcast who renounces everything to live inside a cardboard box.

Cha-Cha (North American Premiere)
Cha-Cha is the love story between a free-spirited artist and a boy with increasingly questionable tastes. The film is painted with the whimsical colors of a romantic comedy at its surface that belie much, much, much darker hues to be found in its deranged depths.

Following the Sound (North American Premiere)
A film of stillness and quotidian beauty, Following the Sound features all the hallmarks of director Kyoshi Sugita’s lyrical stylings.

Great Absence (New York Premiere)
Tatsuya Fuji stars as a retired professor who shows signs of rapidly progressive dementia. A deeply moving and artfully multi-layered feature about reconciliation, love and mortality by director Kei Chika-ura.

ICE CREAM FEVER (North American Premiere)
Adapted from a short story by award-winning author Mieko Kawakami, this colorful debut by Tetsuya Chihara follows four young women who intersect one summer at a Shibuya ice cream shop where they each find sweet inspiration.

KUBI (New York Premiere)
77-year-old icon of Japanese film and television Takeshi Kitano returns to the big screen in epic fashion with his 19th feature—a bloody and comically subversive retelling of the death of samurai warlord Oda Nobunaga. Heads will roll!

Kyrie (North American Premiere)
Starring singer AiNA THE END in her first leading role, Kyrie tells the story of a street musician who cannot speak and can only communicate through song. From Shunj Iwai, masterful director of Swallowtail Butterfly and All About Lily Chou-Chou.

Shadow of Fire (U.S. Premiere)
Centerpiece Film. An unflinching examination of the immediate postwar chaos, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Shadow of Fire is a brutally searing critique of war, examining the destroyed lives of those who survived its horrors. Followed by Mirai Moriyama CUT ABOVE Award presentation, Q&A with Shinya Tsukamoto and Mirai Moriyama, and Reception.

SHIN GODZILLA: ORTHOchromatic (International Premiere) 
Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s 21st century masterpiece is reborn with this stunning black-and-white version. ORTHOchromatic adds new dimensions to the film’s visual impact byrendering it in orthochromatic (“ortho” for short) black-and-white, a type of monochrome characterized by starker contrasts and more pronounced blacks. The results are awe-inspiring and presents Shin Godzilla as never seen before.

Six Singing Women (U.S. Premiere)
A car accident finds two men imprisoned by a group of enigmatic, animalistic women who seem spiritually connected to the land. A bold and decadent mystery-laden ecological fable, Six Singing Women is the first feature film in over a decade from artist and JAPAN CUTS alum Yoshimasa Ishibashi.

Whale Bones (North American Premiere)
Written and directed by Takamasa Oe — who co-wrote the Oscar winner Drive My Car with Ryusuke Hamaguchi — Whale Bones is an ethereal noir-tinged mystery that investigates the loneliness and desperation of our internet-mediated modern life.

NEXT GENERATION

Blue Imagine (North American Premiere)
In the aftermath of being assaulted by a well-known director, young actress Noel finds refuge in a communal living space for abused women. Blue Imagine complexly explores the physical, mental, and emotional scars of abuse, transformative power of friendship, and difficult questions of revenge, recovery and self-realization.

Motion Picture: Choke (New York Premiere)
In an imagined post-apocalyptic future, humanity reverts to prehistoric conditions and spoken language is lost. A highly original, dialogue-free indie drama shot in black-and-white.

Performing KAORU’s Funeral (International Premiere)
Featuring Director Noriko Yuasa In-Person. Failed actor Jun receives a phone call that informs him that his elusive ex-wife Kaoru has chosen him to be the chief mourner at her funeral in her last will and testament. With an ensemble of off-kilter performances, accompanied by a percussive soundtrack and propulsive editing, director Noriko Yuasa delivers a dark comedy that etches an entertaining yet poignant portrait of familial dysfunction. Winner of the JAPAN CUTS Award at the 2024 Osaka Asian Film Festival.

Rei (North American Premiere)
Unhappy in the big city, Hikari can’t find meaning in her existence until she meets Masato, a photographer from far off Hokkaido. This connection leads to an adventure, loneliness, dependency and a destructive love affair.

RETAKE (North American Premiere)
RETAKE follows a high school student who decides to make a movie over summer break with her friends and is a celebration of adolescence and the raw joy of cinema.

Sayonara, Girls.
With graduation around the corner, a group of students at Shimada High School in Yamanashi Prefecture spend their final days processing their time together and the future ahead. Led by an impressive cast of young actresses, Shun Nakagawa’s poignant feature debut deftly captures the bittersweet sensitivity of adolescence.

CLASSICS

August in the Water
Imported 35mm Print – Featuring Director Gakuryu Ishii In-Person. An unlikely coincidence of strange cosmic phenomena unites highschoolers Izumi and Mao in a race against ecological ruin brought on by drought and disease. Ishii’s mid-1990s masterwork is an evocative daydream infused with the enigma of existence—a primordial rite of passage awash in cloudburst and myth.

Mermaid Legend
40th Anniversary. The first Direkan production, Mermaid Legend is one of the great works of ’80s independent cinema, an elemental eco thriller in which an ama diver enacts near mythical revenge for the murder of her husband.

Moving (East Coast Premiere of 4K Restoration)
Featuring Tomoko Tabata In-Person. Shinji Somai’s undisputed masterpiece is a heartbreaking elegy to childhood, focusing on Ren (Tomoko Tabata), a resilient young girl grieving the separation of her parents and desperately clawing for some type of control in her life. A sweeping odyssey of self-discovery, Moving finds young Ren having to grow up in the face of it all, culminating in a surreal matsuri drenched in billowing flame and fantasy.

SHORT CUTS

Hail Mary (International Premiere)
A Filipino woman must protect a mysterious package from the cold and dangers of the Tokyo night. Hail Mary is shot entirely on a Xperia smartphone.

Wife’s Power Outage (U.S. Premiere)
Hana and Yusuke have been growing more distant and now sit in a karaoke room contemplating divorce. As they weigh their future, Tokyo suffers a blackout, and at the same time, Hana suddenly collapses.

Bottle George
From the mind of Akihiro Nishino comes a short film with a big message. Told through disarmingly beautiful stop motion animation, Bottle George is a parable for addiction, what we can lose when trapped by alcohol, and the hope of breaking free.

Social Circles
Through this experimental art piece, artist Eri Saito explores the faint boundaries that emerge between individual communications, relationships and our inability to fully connect.

Parking Area (International Premiere)
Parking Area sends a weary traveler into a psychedelic kaleidoscope. Stopping at a highway rest area, each step the traveler takes propels them into a realm where nature and concrete merge and sprawl into the sky.

Nezumikozo Jirokichi (U.S. Premiere)
Legendary anime director Rintaro’s first new work in over a decade depicts pioneering 1930s director Sadao Yamanaka and the production of his Nezumikozo Jirokichi.

DOCUMENTARY

Kadono Eiko’s Colorful Life: Finding the Magic Within 
A documentary bounding with energy on the renowned children’s book author most known as the writer of Kiki’s Delivery Service.

The Making of a Japanese (North American Premiere) 
Concerning itself with the formative qualities and values instilled by the country’s education system, The Making of a Japanese documents the lives of grade schoolers in one of Japan’s largest public elementary schools, intimately capturing what it means to learn and become a member of Japanese society.

Shunga: The Lost Japanese Erotica (North American Premiere)
A lush documentary on the past, present and future of sexually explicit art prints known as shunga. Recommended for mature audiences.

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