JFF 2013 News - Four Superstar Guests for JFF

Just when you thought that the Japanese Film Festival couldn't get any bigger or better, The Japan Foundation Sydney have announced FOUR superstar guests who will be attending this years festival in Sydney and Melbourne.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE: The 17th Japanese Film Festival is delighted to announce four special guests for both of the two flagship cities Sydney and Melbourne including Actress Kaoru Yachigusa, award winning Director Yoshihiro Fukagawa and Satoshi Miki as well as an Australian Producer Ken Isaacs. 

Sydney Special Guests 

ACTRESS // Kaoru Yachigusa 

Kaoru Yachigusa is known as royalty of the Japanese screen who started her performing career as a member of the Takarazuka Revue (a Japanese all-female musical theater troupe) before transitioning to film, television and narration. Yachigusa has starred in several films in the Festival’s history, including Until the Break of Dawn in 2012 and Dear Doctor in 2011. Yachigusa has received a host of awards including Best Supporting Actress at the 34th Hochi Film Awards in 2009, Best Supporting Actress at the 52nd Blue Ribbon Awards in 2010 for Dear Doctor, Best Supporting Actress at the Japanese Academy Awards for her role in Like Ashura (2004) and in 1997 she was awarded the Japanese Government Award (Shiju Award). 

Yachigusa has shone in classic films by legendary domestic and international directors including Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954), which won the honorary Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, Madam Butterfly (1955) by Italian director Carmine Gallone and Mr Phu. by Kon Ichikawa. 

Yachigusa stars in 2 films in the 2013 line-up, The Great Passage and Don’t Lose Heart. She will be coming to Sydney to attend the screening of Don’t Lose Heart on Sunday 23 November at Event Cinemas. 

DIRECTOR // Yoshihiro Fukagawa

Yoshihiro Fukagawa has directed many impressive films in his career to date. His film Into the White Night was screened in the Main Programme of the Panorama section at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival in 2010. He is currently directing his latest film In His Chart 2, scheduled to be released in 2014. Fukagawa takes a break from his busy schedule to accompany actress Kaoru Yachigusa to Sydney’s screening of Don’t Lose Heart on Sunday 23 November at Event Cinemas, George Street.

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER // Ken Isaacs 

Ken Isaacs is an Australian Film Producer whom lived in Asia for 18 years, 16 of which were in Japan. In 2007 Ken produced the Singapore based Easternlight Films production of Dance of the Dragon starring Jason Scott Lee (The Bruce Lee Story - Balls of Fury - Hawaii Five-0) and Fann Wong (Shanghai Nights). Ken marketed the film globally and it went on to win no less than nine awards at Festivals worldwide. After returning to Tokyo, Ken was the consulting Producer on the Sony Pictures production of the best-selling novel Rainfall starring Academy and 

Emmy Award nominated actor Gary Oldman. In 2010-11 he went onto collaborate, package and co-produce Blindly in Love, which enjoys critical success and screens throughout Japan. Ken will be in attendance for the first screening of Blindly in Love in Sydney on 16 November at Event Cinemas, George Street. 

Melbourne Special Guest 

DIRECTOR // Satoshi Miki 

Satoshi Miki, director and screenwriter of award-winning Adrift in Tokyo, is renowned for his ability to effortlessly weave tales that seem humorously pointless but provoke deep-thought. Miki’s casual job as a broadcast writer during his student days at Keio University was the beginning of his career in the entertainment industry as a screenwriter for variety shows. He then started stage directing and expanded into television drama series and films such as Insects Unlisted in the Encyclopaedia, which screened at the 2008 Udine Far East Film, and Instant Swamp, which premiered in North America at the 2009 Fantasia International Film Festival. Miki will be attending the Melbourne’s screening of his newest film, Ore, Ore (It’s Me, It’s Me) on Friday 6 December at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).