The U.S. premieres of the films Yoko, Ripple, and Tea Friends highlight the seventh Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (ACA) Cinema Project, which will spotlight “Emerging Japanese Films” in a series set to run Sept. 26-28 at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
The ACA is sponsoring the series as the cornerstone of its Japan Overseas Expansion Enhancement Project. Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO) serves as the steward for the encore of the screening series.
Launching the ACA Cinema Project on September 26 at 7:00 PM is the stateside debut of Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s quirky, character-driven, road trip drama Yoko (2022; TRT: 113 minutes). Yoko represents the longtime professional reunion of director Kumakiri and Oscar-nominated actress Rinko Kikuchi (Tokyo Vice, Babel). Yoko marks the 20-year follow-up to their initial collaboration, 2001 Rotterdam International Film Festival FIPRESCI Prize winner Hole in the Sky.
Set for September 27 is Ripples (2023; TRT: 120 minutes), a dark comedy from director Naoko Ogigami, a USC film school graduate, 2007 Sundance Film Fest nominee (Gasses, Megane), and director of the quietly intense critical favorite, Riverside Mukolitta (2022). In Ripples, Ogigami spins a yarn about a repressed matriarch and unfortunately over-the-top circumstances ― a disquieting earthquake, crushing debt, a dying ex-husband, a raging co-worker, and her son’s girlfriend ― that take her to the brink.
Wrapping ACA Cinema Project on September 28 is Tea Friends (2023; TRT: 135 minutes) from director Bunji Sotoyama. An original story inspired by true events, Tea Friends offers a somewhat out-of-the-box take on intimate entanglements of the elderly. The latest title from ENBU Seminar, producers of the surprise smash hit zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead (2017), Tea Friends revolves around the youthful staff of a call girl club that caters to the elderly, said club’s mature female escorts, and the ladies’ lonely male retiree clients.
Each day’s film starts at 7:00 PM The schedule for in-person and virtual filmmaker discussions after film exhibitions will be announced in September.