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Eiga Sai Festival Shows The Boy and the Beast, Umimachi Diary, The Great Passage Films in Philippines

The Japan Foundation, Manila announced on Wednesday the films that it will screen in its Eiga Sai Japanese Film Festival this year in the Philippines. The film festival will start on July 7, and will end on August 20, with film screenings in Manila, Baguio, Davao, and Cebu.

The festival will feature the Philippine premiere of Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and The Beast anime film. The story of The Boy and The Beast is set in the human realm (Tokyo's Shibuya ward) and the bakemono realm ("Jūtengai"). In these two worlds that must not intersect, there lives a lonely boy and a lonely bakemono. One day, the boy gets lost in the bakemono world, becomes the disciple of the bakemono Kumatetsu, and is renamed Kyūta.

Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) created and scripted the movie. The film is Hosoda's first film since 2012, when his relatively new animation movie company Studio Chizu released Wolf Children as its first project. Masakatsu Takagi (Wolf Children) scored the soundtrack.

The film debuted at #1 in the Japanese box-office in July 2015 and earned 667,035,100 yen (about US$5.4 million) in its first two days. The film eventually surpassed the total box office earnings of Hosoda's previous film, Wolf Children. The film was the second-highest grossing domestic film in Japan in 2015.

Other films screening during the festival include:

• Kakekomi (Kakekomi Onna to Kakedashi Otoko)
• The Emperor in August (Nihon no Ichiban Nagai Hi)
• The Great Passage (Fune wo Amu)
• Chronicle of My Mother (Waga Haha no Ki)
• The Little House (Chiisana Ōuchi)
• August in Tokyo (Ai no Chiisana Rekishi)
• Our Little Sister (Umimachi Diary)
• Flying Colors (Biri Gal)
• Pale Moon (Kami no Tsuki)
• Crossroads
• Ken and Kazu (Ken to Kazu)

The festival will screen the films at the following venues:

• Shang Cineplex Cinema 2, Mandaluyong, Metro Manila (July 7 to July 17)
• Abreeza Mall Cinema, Davao City, Davao del Sur (July 22 to July 24)
• FDCP Cinematheque, Davao City, Davao del Sur (July 26 to July 30)
• Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay, Metro Manila (July 8, August 6, 9, 10, 12)
• SM Baguio Cinema, Baguio (August 11 to 14)
• FDCP Cinematheque Baguio (August 15)
• University of the Philippines Film Institute, Quezon City, Metro Manila (August 17 to August 20)
• Ayala Center Cinema 4, Cebu City, Cebu (August 17 to August 21)

All films will be shown with English subtitles.

The Japan Foundation, Manila provided the flyer for the film festival with detailed information on the screening time of each film at each venue.

This will be the first time the festival will screen in two locations in Baguio.

Kakekomi and The Emperor in August will have screenings that include a talk by the director Masato Harada. Shoji Hiroshi will be present at the screening of his film Ken and Kazu.

The Japan Foundation, Manila holds the Eiga Sai Japanese Film Festival every year in celebration of Philippines-Japan Friendship Month in July.