After a three-year absence, the Japanese New Film Exhibition made a heartwarming return in 2024, once again fulfilling its promise to "keep fans warm through the winter."

On December 20, the "Japanese New Film Exhibition" guided by the Shanghai Municipal Film Bureau and specially planned by the Shanghai International Film Festival kicked off at the Shanghai Grand Cinema. "Enemy", which swept three awards at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival, was the opening film and was the first to meet movie fans. The film will not be officially released in Japan until January next year; on the evening of December 29, with the end of the screening of the film "Original Heart" at Shanghai Cinema SHO, which was also the last screening of this film festival, this year's SIFF SCREENING came to a successful conclusion.

The film festival was held in 6 cinemas in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo, with a total of 37 screenings and 5 post-screening meet-and-greet sessions. Data shows that the most popular films at the festival were "Cells at Work!", "Enemy" and "Anger Squad: Civil Servants and 7 Swindlers".

Three cinemas in Shanghai screen eight well-received films

On the two weekends of December 20th to December 22nd and December 27th to December 29th, the screenings of this film festival in Shanghai were arranged at three cinemas: Shanghai Grand Cinema, Tianshan Cinema-Wanping Theater Cinema, and Shanghai Cinema SHO to meet with movie fans. A total of 8 films were screened, all of which were new films released this year, with a total of 20 screenings.

Still images of some films produced by various cinemas in Shanghai

As soon as the film list of this year's film festival was announced, it attracted the enthusiastic attention of many movie fans, who expressed their "super expectation" for this year's Japanese new film exhibition and called it a veritable "Tokyo through train!" Some netizens also said that while "they have to compete with their hand speed again", they also motivated themselves to "have a goal in life again"! As for the experience of watching movies on site, netizens said: "Watching the Japanese new film exhibition every year means that the end of the year is approaching", and "the atmosphere of laughing and clapping together in the 1,000-person hall is really great!"

This year's film festival once again invited Yoshida Daihachi and Takeuchi Hideki, two old friends of the Japanese New Film Festival, to hold a post-screening meet-and-greet session and communicate with the audience face to face. On December 20, Yoshida Daihachi, the director of the film "Enemy", came to Shanghai again after seven years and attended the opening event in person. He had an in-depth conversation at the SIFF SCREENING's first post-screening meet-and-greet session "Reversed Daily Life: Yoshida Daihachi's Film World".

Director Yoshida Daihachi attended the post-screening meeting

On December 29, Director Hideki Takeuchi, who brought "Fly! Saitama" to the Japan New Film Festival in 2019, met with fans after two screenings of "Cells at Work!". The event was relaxed and lively, with the Shanghai audience discussing the film's "famous scenes" and other surprises with the director, and some young fans enthusiastically gave him a heart. The director also sent a warm blessing to the fans, "Take care of yourself."

Director Takeuchi Hideki (right) takes a group photo with the Shanghai audience

The linkage of three cities in the Yangtze River Delta demonstrates the brand spillover effect

Since its inception in 2017, the Japan New Film Exhibition has been using film as a medium to maintain friendly exchanges and interactions with other provinces and cities, and jointly build a bridge of communication and gathering between Chinese movie fans and Japanese film culture. In the past four sessions, the Japan New Film Exhibition has successively entered Shenzhen, Kunming, Chengdu, and Hangzhou, repeatedly setting off a wave of movie watching.

Following its entry into Hangzhou in 2020, this year's Japanese New Film Festival came to Hangzhou again and entered Ningbo for the first time, realizing the linkage of the three cities of Shanghai, Hangzhou and Ningbo in the Yangtze River Delta region, and achieving differentiated film selection. "Take Saotome Kaori as an Example" had its world premiere in Hangzhou.

Director Yoshida Daihachi's "Enemy" also served as the opening film of the Hangzhou stop of this film festival. Yoshida Daihachi also went to Hangzhou and Ningbo to meet with the audience, sharing his understanding of the original film and every detail of the film's creation cycle, discussing film narrative, character creation and other design ideas, and exploring the infinite possibilities of film art. He said, "Close communication with the audience and filmmakers and visiting different cities have a different meaning for me."

Director Yoshida Daihachi took a group photo with audiences from Hangzhou and Ningbo

In fact, during the film festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival also closely linked up with cities in the Yangtze River Delta through the "Belt and Road" Film Week. Every June, outstanding films from countries along the "Belt and Road" are also screened simultaneously in important cities in the Yangtze River Delta, such as Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Hefei. This year, the "Belt and Road" Film Week promoted the linkage of regional cultural resources and was successfully selected into the "Second Batch of Typical Cases of Humanities and Economy in the Yangtze River Delta", fully demonstrating the brand spillover effect and market potential of the film festival activities.

As a daily film festival brand that continues to expand outside of film festivals, "SIFF SCREENING" has upgraded its simple national film screenings to a "Film+" cross-border event this year. While continuing to add charm to the "City of Film", it also hopes to bring rich and diverse cultural content and a warm movie-watching atmosphere with everyone participating to more cities. It also hopes to introduce excellent new foreign films for public screening in China, promote exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations, and mutual understanding among peoples of different countries, and shoulder the mission and task of cultural and artistic exchanges.

Hot-selling derivatives are both artistic and practical

This year's main visual poster of the Japanese New Film Exhibition cleverly combines Japanese elements with modern illustration style, echoing the warm winter atmosphere and showing the delicate brushstrokes unique to Japanese films. A variety of derivatives designed based on the main visual pattern of the film festival have been greatly innovated and upgraded in terms of categories. In addition to the three-piece set of SIFF's star products: ticket clips, refrigerator magnets, and canvas bags, a series of items such as folders, calendar hanging cloths, and notebook tapes are also carefully designed. Some netizens said: The most worthwhile peripheral for this Japanese New Film Exhibition is the cloth calendar!

From categories to brands, SIFF also launched two joint collaborations: one is the Yan Wujie x SIFF series of bags, including passport holders, crossbody bags and other products; the other is the Kaixiya x SIFF series of scarves, including two scarf derivatives. In addition, SIFF's main line of cultural and creative products have also been updated, including mobile phone lanyards, card holders, and practical items such as beanies, gloves, and scarves. Many categories have attracted the attention of netizens during the pre-sale stage, and the sales in offline screening theaters have also attracted many fans. Some limited categories, such as the limited edition calendar hanging cloth for the film festival and the two-piece Japanese-style set, have been sold out in advance in just a few days.

Every film festival is a journey and a memory. I hope these little beauties can evoke our warm memories in the future.