Japanese Film Festival returning with fifth edition in Jan 2022

The Japan Foundation on Friday announced that the fifth edition of Japanese Film Festival (JFF) will kickstart from January 2022 in India.

Being organised in partnership with PVR Cinemas, the film gala will go on a multi-city tour starting in Delhi from January 14 to 16, followed by Chennai from February 4 to 6 and Bengaluru from February 11 to 13 at select PVR cinemas.

The digital edition of the film festival will kickstart from February 14 and will conclude on February 27.

During the festival, a diverse and exciting lineup of 11 critically-acclaimed Japanese films will be showcased.

Koji Sato, Director General at Japan Foundation New Delhi, said they are extremely delighted to organise the Japanese Film Festival and hopes it will help consolidate the relations between the people of two countries.

"The success of the last four editions of the festival and the overwhelming response of the Indian audience towards embracing Japanese culture have prompted us to bring it back to several of our big cities.

''JFF-India 2022 aims to strengthen the longstanding relationship between the two nations by offering Indian audiences a sense of contemporary Japanese film culture and everyday experience,'' Sato said in a statement. The popularity of Japanese content has been distinctly growing in the Indian landscape, Sato said.

''We are delighted and grateful for the special place that the festival has carved for itself in the Indian landscape. Keeping consumer safety at utmost, the hybrid platform will help us reach a wider audience base and we are hopeful that the festival will be even stronger this year,'' he added.

In a bid to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Japan and India, the festival will focus on its diverse line-up of films such as ''Wife of a Spy'', ''Josee'', ''Tiger and the Fish'', ''Ramayana: The Legend of Prince'' and ''Liar x Liar''.

The films selected will be screened in Japanese with English subtitles across select PVR cinemas with an aim to offer the Indian audience a sense of Japanese culture, art and experiences.