JFF THEATER

JFF THEATER: ITO Review: Tuning the strings of self-confidence

Ito is a shy high school student with problems of communication who seeks to step out of her comfort zone, to embark on a journey of personal growth while working at a maid cafe. Her skills with the traditional Japanese musical instrument, the shamisen, serves as her tool for self-expression. Ito is a quiet and warming tale about overcoming self-imposed limits and growing up out of the shell to face the real world. Komai Ren shines as the heart of the story, portraying Ito as an enduring and lovable character, as we accompany her on a maturing journey, guided by the rhythm of the shamisen strings—a melody that shapes her growth while strengthening the ties that bind her to her family. The film is available with subtitles in multiple languages on the Japanese Foundation’s streaming platform, JFF Theater: https://en.jff.jpf.go.jp/movie/ito

JFF THEATER: I AM WHAT I AM Review: An ode to individualism

Mike Garcia

Kasumi is a thirty-year-old single woman who is pressured by her family to find a husband and get married. However, she has no interest in following social patterns and wants to live without being subject to social conventions of any kind. Shinya Tamada, through a script by Atsushi Asada, reflects on the screen an ode to individualism that challenges social norms and traditional conventions, building a story heavily influenced by social movements promoted in the world of Western entertainment. In the end, the film seems to advance in fits and starts, having a clear message, but digressing too much to express it in interesting subplots that do not end up taking off. The final result is an enjoyable film, although lacking in hook, where the ideological subtext eclipses the plot and the main character. Available in Japanese foundation free streaming service JFF Theater https://es.jff.jpf.go.jp

JFF Theater: PROJECT DREAMS: HOW TO BUILD MAZINGER Z’S HANGAR Review: An ode to enthusiasm driven by Go Nagai´s legacy

Mike Garcia

Based on true events, this crazy film tells us in a light-hearted and comedic tone the story behind the Japanese construction company Maeda, and the project they carried out to design the hangar to store the Mazinger Z robot and replicate his epic exit to the surface. Showing a lot of love for Go Nagai’s legacy, and featuring a multitude of references to it, the film moves at a frenetic pace, even allowing itself to include a shy little romance between two of its characters, giving the plot large doses of comedy and a few touches of inevitable nostalgia, gradually building up an ode to enthusiasm so energetic and contagious that it makes you feel like Koji Kabuto at the controls of Mazinger Z. Along with the characters, we participate in the gestation of the project and the many obstacles they had to overcome to turn their crazy idea into […]

JFF Theater: MY BROKEN MARIKO Review: The Everlasting Bond of True Friendship.

Mike Garcia

Shiino is a sullen office worker exploited by her boss, who discovers through the news that her best friend, Mariko, has just committed suicide. After the initial shock, Shiino decides to steal her friend’s ashes from her abusive father, to embark on a journey with her and discover the reasons behind her death. Based on the manga of the same name written by Waka Hirako, My broken Mariko is an emotional story of friendship in the form of road movie, which delves into the complicated intricacies of the human psyche, showing the strong bond of friendship between the two main characters through multiple flashbacks, which lead us through the unstable fractures in Mariko‘s soul, after a life of suffering, towards that fatal outcome that not even the strong bond of friendship that united her to Shiiro could avoid. “My Broken Mariko” ends up being a moving story to which its […]

JFF Theater: KIMBA, THE WHITE LION Review: The Tezuka´s classic that inspired The Lion King

Mike Garcia

The Japanese foundation continues spreading Japanese culture on their free streaming platform, offering from February, 1 until May, 1, a wide variety of films that comes from intimate dramas such as “My Broken Mariko” or “I am what am”, to stories with gluttony as their central axis, such as “The God of Ramen” or “School´s meals time of graduation” or delicious tales as “Bread of happiness” to funny comedies as “Project Dreams- How to build Mazinger Z´s hangar“, this month including animes such as Ozamu Tezuka´s classic, “Jungle Emperor Lion aka Kimba, the white Lion.” The movie I will comment on in this review The success of Osamu Tezuka‘s manga and its subsequent animated adaptation for television led to Kimba making the leap to the big screen in Japanese cinemas with this adventure that is basically a montage in the form of a 70-minute feature film of the television series. […]

JFF Theater HER LOVE BOILS BATHWATER Review: Love as a gear of hope

Mike Garcia

A strict and self-sacrificing mother discovers that she has only a few months left to live, which forces her to leave everything tied up before leaving this world. Ryota Nakano directs this tear-jerker drama that revolves around a broken family unit that needs to be put back together before its cornerstone disappears. A story about feelings that plays its cards very well, using all the tricks that cinema has at its disposal to move even the most unempathetic of viewers. Ultimately, the film is a quality emotional journey in which the perfect conjunction between director and actors makes the viewer feel part of this cinematic family, experiencing their pain alongside them, but also the hope that the characters convey on screen. The film is available for free with multiple subtitles in the Japanese Foundation streaming platform JFF Theater until February, 1, 2025, inside their collection: “The Twists and Turns of […]