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Tokyo Int'l Film Fest to Show Labyrinth, The Obsessed, Edge of Time, Angel's Egg 4K Remaster

The 38th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) announced on Wednesday the films it will screen in its Animation category. TIFF will show the Asian premiere of Shōji Kawamori's original animation film Labyrinth (Meikyū no Shiori), the musical anime film of Shinji Ishii's Toritsukare Otoko (The Obsessed) novel, the international premiere of the multinational omnibus film Edge of Time,  and the Japanese premiere of the 4K remaster for Mamoru Oshii and Yoshitaka Amano's 1985 original video anime Angel's Egg (Tenshi no Tamago). The festival, which will run from October 27 to November 5, will also screen Japan's first feature-length animated film, 1945's Momotaro, Sacred Sailors (Momotaro - Umi no Shinpei).
 
Kawamori's original animation film Labyrinth will open in Japan on January 1. Kawamori is directing the anime, his first feature-length animated film not based on an existing franchise, at SANZIGEN. The original story concept is credited to the companies Slow Curve, Vector Vision, GAGA, and Fuji Television, and Slow Curve is also credited with planning and producing the project. Risa Ebata (Macross Frontier, AKB0048) is designing the characters, and Taichi Hashimoto (Listeners, Gate Keepers 21) wrote the script.

The film centers on Shiori Maezawa, a completely ordinary high school girl who finds herself in a deserted parallel world of Yokohama after her smartphone suddenly breaks. When she checks her phone, she finds photos of herself on her social media accounts that she does not remember posting. In order to stop her other self from going out of control, Shiori tries to escape from her smartphone's strange labyrinth.

The musical anime film Toritsukare Otoko will screen at the festival under the title English title The Obsessed. The film will open in theaters in Japan on November 7. Wataru Takahashi (Crayon Shin-chan 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021 films) is directing the film at Shinei Animation, with a script by Naoyuki Miura (Fujoshi, Ukkari Gay ni Kokuru.). Masatsugu Arakawa (Windy Tales, Medabots Spirit) is designing the characters. Bandai Namco Filmworks is distributing.

The 2001 novel centers on Giuseppe, a man known in his town as the "Obsessed Man," due to his tendency to be obsessed about a particular thing for short amounts of time, during which he pays no heed to anything else. One day, he sees a balloon seller named Pechka, and he falls in love at first sight. Though Giuseppe tries to get close to Pechka, the sadness that Pechka holds in her heart keeps him at a distance. Giuseppe enlists the aid of his mosue friend Cielo, as he uses the things he was previously obsessed about to slowly help Pechka.

Edge of Time is a 97-minute, four-part anthology film previously known as the TAISU Project. It features shorts by Japanese directors Shinichirō Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Macross Plus, Space Dandy)  and Shuhei Morita (Freedom, Tokyo Ghoul) and Chinese directors Li Wei and Weng Ming with the motif of "Taisu," an energy that transcends time and space. The festival describe its stories: "In order to find the only friend, search for love and memories in the edge of time and space."

The 4K remaster of Angel's Egg will screen at TIFF on October 29 and 30, with special appearances by director Oshii and voice actress Mako Hyōdō after the screening on October 30. Angel's Egg 4K remaster will have its Japanese theatrical debut (outside festivals) at Dolby Cinemas in Japan on November 14, before opening wider for theaters nationwide on November 21. 

The 78th Cannes International Film Festival's Cinéma de la Plage screened the world premiere of the 4K remaster on May 20. The film also screened at Fantastic Fest, which took place in Austin, Texas from September 18-25. The film is getting its New York premiere at the 63rd New York Film Festival (NYFF) in the "Revivals" category, with four screenings on September 27 and 30, as well as October 4 and 6. Beyond Fest in Los Angeles will screen the film's U.S. West Coast premiere on October 5. Spain's Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival will screen the 4K remaster during its October 9-19 run. The Manchester Animation Festival in the United Kingdom will screen the 4K remaster on November 9-13. GKIDS will screen the 4K remaster in North America beginning on November 19. 

The Momotaro, Sacred Sailors film was produced as World War II propaganda, and film scholars consider it the first feature-length animated film produced in Japan. Mitsuyo Seo directed the 74-minute black-and-white film after first directing the 37-minute film Momotaro's Sea Eagle (which has a similar premise and which scholars also consider to be the first feature-length animated film in Japan, based on different definitions of "feature-length.") A crew of 70 staff members created Momotaro, Sacred Sailors using 50,000 animation cels on a budget of 270,000 yen.

TIFF will also screen the anime films ChaO, Jinsei, and The Last Blossom, as well as the French/Belgian animated film Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (with French and Japanese dialogue). The international entries include Zaven Najjar's French film Allah Is Not Obliged, Alberto Vázquez's Spanish film Decorado, and Rodolfo Ambriz and Arturo Ambriz's Mexican film I Am Frankelda.  The live-action film of KOTAKE CREATE's infinite-loop horror game The Exit 8 (8-Ban Deguchi) will also screen at this year's festival.

Sources: Press release, 38th Tokyo International Film Festival press conference (Egan Loo)