The 26th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) had luck on its side, as festival director general Yasushi Shiina smilingly noted at its closing ceremony on October 25. "We squeezed through between two typhoons," he said.
The first, Typhoon Wipha, whipped past one day before the festival began on October 17, causing a large loss of life and property on Izu Oshima Island south of Tokyo. The second, Typhoon Francisco, threatened more destruction on luckless Oshima only a week later, until it was downgraded to a tropical storm.
Swedish director Lukas Moodysson also counted himself fortunate after winning the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix, TIFF's highest honour, for his kids-form-a-punk-band film We Are the Best!.
"It's not a festival film," he told the closing-night crowd at the festival's main venue in the Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills Cineplex. He said he had planned to "spend the night shopping for toys and having dinner" with wife Coco - on whose memoir the drama-comedy was based - and their young daughter. Jury chairman Chen Kaige, however, said the jury's decision was unanimous.
The top prize winner aside, this year's edition of the TIFF was devoted to showcasing talent from Asia in not only the competition, but also the new Japanese Cinema Splash section, which screened Japanese indie films, and the new Asian Future section, which presented work by up-and-coming Asian directors.
Among Asian winners in the 15-film competition section were: Iranian Behnam Bezadi's Special Jury Prize-winning Bending the Rules; the mainland's Wang Jingchun, named best actor for his turn as a hard-nosed cop in Ning Ying's To Live and Die in Ordos; and the Philippines' Eugene Domingo, named best actress for her turn as a newbie barber in Jun Robles Lana's Barber's Tales.