These are our fifteen recommended films from the Tokyo International Film Festival, which will take place from October 28 until November 6, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan.

Ainu Puri by Fukunaga Takeshi – Japan, USA | 2024 – 81 minutes | Japan Premiere

Amanai Shigeki paves his own way to practice Ainu Puri (the Ainu way) and cherish his roots in Shiranuka, Hokkaido. He passes down the culture and the traditinal salmon fishing to his son, Motoki. Intimately following Shigeki and his family, the film explores their endeavor to live as Ainu in today’s Japan. (TokyoIFF 2024)

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Big World by Yang Lina – China | 2024 – 131 minutes | World Premiere

Chunhu, dealing with cerebral palsy, helps with his grandmother’s stage play, while preparing for a college exam. The grandmother tries to get him involved in society, but his mother can’t stop worrying about him. (TokyoIFF 2024)

Black Dog by Guan Hu – China | 2024 – 110 minutes | Japan Premiere

2008, before the Beijing Olympics. A young man is released from prison and returns to his hometown near the Gobi Desert to work for the local patrol, where he rescues a black dog. While spending time with the dog, he meets various people and embarks on a new life. (TokyoIFF 2024)

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Daughter’s Daughter by Huang Xi – Taiwan | 2024 – 126 minutes | Asian Premiere

Jin Ai-xia travels from Taipei to the US after news that her daughter Zuer, who is in the US with her same-sex partner for in vitro fertilization, has been in a car accident. The two have died, and Ai-xia becomes the guardian of the embryo. The harsh choice of accepting it and finding a surrogate mother, or abandoning it, leads her to confront her other daughter, Emma, whom she adopted in NY when she was young. (TokyoIFF 2024)

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Missing Child Videotape by Kondo Ryota – Japan | 2024 – 104 minutes | World Premiere

This genuine horror film allows viewers to experience the terror trapped in the coarse image of a VHS tape. One day, a videotape unexpectedly arrives from his mother. It shows the moment of his brother’s disappearance. As unforgettable and ghastly as this memory is, Keita decides to confront the incident once more and retrace the past, heading to the ruins of a mountain that should never have existed… (TokyoIFF 2024)

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Montages of a Modern Motherhood by Chan Oliver Siu Kuen – Hong Kong | 2024 – 111 minutes | Japan Premiere

Suk-jing leads an ordinary life with her husband and in-laws in the New Territories. Becoming a mother upends her familiar routine, forcing her to balance family expectations with career demands. The film offers an intimate look at her journey through the emotional shifts of motherhood, testing her resilience and redefining her identity. (TokyoIFF 2024)

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Pavane for an Infant by Chong Keat Aun – Malaysia | 2024 – 117 minutes | World Premiere

Malaysia faces the social issue of many babies being abandoned. Through the eyes of a female social worker who operates a baby hatch, Pavane for an Infant reveals a persistently male-dominated society, and explores the history of hardships that women have had to endure. (TokyoIFF 2024)

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Phantosmia by Lav Diaz – Philippines | 2024 – 246 minutes | Japan Premiere

Hilarion Zabala’s mysterious olfactory problem has recurred; a counselor/psychiatrist suspects it to be a lingering case of phantosmia, a phantom smell, and possibly caused by trauma, a deep psychological fracture. One recommended radical process to cure the ailment was that Hilarion must go back and deal with the darkest currents of his past life in the military service. Reassigned in the very remote Pulo Penal Colony, he must also confront the horrific realities of his present situation. (TokyoIFF 2024)

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Route29 by Morii Yusuke – Japan | 2024 – 120 minutes | World Premiere

Inspired by the poet Nakao Taichi’s poetry collection, director Morii spent about a month traveling along Route 29, a single road connecting Himeji and Tottori, where the film is set, to complete the script. This is a moving story of Noriko’s journey with Haru, an eccentric girl, and the various encounters she encounters along the way, and the bond she forms with Haru, which gradually deepens during the journey. (TokyoIFF 2024)

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She Taught Me Serendipity by Ohku Akiko – Japan | 2024 -127 minutes | World Premiere

Rising stars Hagiwara Riku, Kawai Yuumi, Ito Aoi and Kurosaki Kodai join forces onscreen, delivering an intensely authentic portrayal of contemporary youth. Ohku explores new horizons as she meticulously captures the fleeting moments of everyday life in this masterpiece. Prepare to be deeply moved, and truly savor the preciousness of life. (TokyoIFF 2024)

Snowflowers: Seeds of Hope by Koizumi Takashi – Japan | 2024 – 117 minutes | World Premiere

“A true story of love and inspiration” unfolds as Kasahara Ryosaku (Matsuzaka Tori), an unknown small-town doctor, fought to develop a cure for an epidemic in the late Edo period. With the support of his wife Chiho (Yoshine Kyoko), and a Western medicine doctor in Kyoto, Hino Teisai (Yakusho Koji), this untold story comes to life. (TokyoIFF 2024)

Teki Cometh by Yoshida Daihachi – Japan | 2023 – 108 minutes | World Premiere

Watanabe Gisuke is a 77-year-old retired college professor. His wife has already passed away, and he is now living alone in an old Japanese-style house his grandfather built. He cooks for himself, and though he has lost touch with his friends, he sometimes invites his former students for dinner and drinks. He goes on living a perfect life peacefully, counting down the number of years he can do with his savings. He even has his will ready and is just waiting for that day to arrive. But one day, an unsettling message appears on his computer saying that the enemy is coming. (TokyoIFF 2024)

The Bear Wait by Takino Hirohito – Japan | 2024 – 113 minutes | World Premiere

The film was made in memory of the director’s grandfather’s death. Takashi, an eight-year-old boy, is spending his summer vacation with his aunt Yayako. Yayako, a screenwriter, is staying in the house of her grandfather Ryujiro, who passed away last year, to write her script. Eventually, through Ryujiro’s diary, the two discover the crime that Ryujiro has hidden. (TokyoIFF 2024)

The Harbor Lights by Adachi Mojiri – Japan | 2024 – 119 minutes | World Premiere

Akari is a third-generation Korean resident in Japan born the year of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. “I barely feel like a Korean resident, and don’t recall the disaster. The earthquake, family, nationality – What do I even want?” Starring Tomita Miu in her first lead film role, this is a post-disaster story based on extensive research of people living in Kobe. (TokyoIFF 2024)

The Unseen Sister by Midi Z – China | 2024 – 112 minutes | International Premiere

Qiao Yan, born in a border town in southwest China, has become a star actress after much effort and struggle. But despite her aura of glamour, she always feels hidden pressure. When she receives a threatening anonymous letter, her long-estranged sister suddenly comes to see her. This reunion leads Qiao Yan to be haunted by her secret past… (TokyoIFF 2024)

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For more information, please visit: https://2024.tiff-jp.net/en/