The annual Japanese Film Festival is back for the 7th year round, with Japanese movies in excess exclusively for your viewing pleasure! Here are the 8 films to be screened:

Noriben: The Recipe of Fortune
Dir: Pgata Akira (2009). Casts: Konishi Manami, Okada Yoshinori; Murakami Jun.
Komaki Nagai decides to leave her good-for-nothing of a husband, with her daughter in tow and sets out on a journey to the town she was raised in to look for work. She soon accepts part-time work, and finds herself bumping into her classmate, Tateo, who takes her to a Totoya tavern. Simply amazed by the taste of their mackerel, she embodies a determination to open the ultimate box lunch shop.

Dear Doctor
Dir: Nishikawa Miwa (2009). Casts: Eita, Yo Kimiko, Yachigusa Kaoru.
A Tokyo medical graduate student is assigned as an intern in a minute under-populated mountain village. There, friendship blossoms with Ino, a helpful veteran doctor who pays visits to the sick in the middle of the night. As the sole doctor in the village, its inhabitants regard Ino as a god.

Yamazakura:The Cherry Tree in the Hills
Dir: Shinohara Tetsuo (2008). Casts: Tanaka Lena, Higashiyama Noriyuki, Shionada Saburo, Dan Fumi.
Set in the Ido period, Noe has lost her husband and married into the Isomura family. Her encounter with a samurai, Tezuka Yaichiro (who desires Noe as his wife), makes her already wretched life miserable. Faced with a drought and severe land tax, Yaichiro makes a decision that will change both of their lives.

Dog in a Sidecar
Dir: Negishi Kichitaro (2007). Casta: Yuko Takeuchi, Arata Furuta, Hana Matsumoto.
This original story tells the tale of Kaoru, a young girl who lives with her obnoxious brother and feckless parents. After her mother abruptly leaves one day, a mysterious woman, by the name of Yoko, shows up at her front door. A walking contradiction to all notions of proper womanhood, Yoko eventually takes the girl under her wing and brings her out of her shell.

One Million Yen Girl
Dir: Tanada Yuki (2008). Casts: Yû Aoi, Mirau Moriyama, Pierre Taki.
A 21-year old girl is recently released from prison and has to put up with local neighbourhood gossip about her. She makes up her mind to save one million yen, move to a different locale and continue doing so. Her travels end up being a journey of discovery about herself.

The Summit:  Chronicle of Stones
Dir: Kimura Daisaku (2009). Casts: Asano Tadanobu, Kagawa Teruyuki, Matsuda Ryuhei
The year is 1907. Shibasaki, famous for his skills as a surveyor, is suddenly called to General Staff Headquarters, where he receives orders to conquer Mt. Tsurugidake, the last uncharted region of Japan. The mountain stands 2,999m above sea level and sometimes referred as "needle mountain" or "mountain of death" for its inaccessibility.

Feel the Wind
Dir: Omori Sumio (2009). Casts: Koide Keisuke, Hayashi Kento, Nakamura Yuichi
Anyone would agree, that the challenge they undertook was impossible. Haiji was an elite runner until his fateful injury. He encounters Kakeru, a gifted runner who got kicked out from the track team after a trouble with his high school coach. Haiji immediately feels that Kakeru is the runner that will make his dream come true.

5 Centimeters per Second
Dir: Shinkai Makoto (2007). Voice of: Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondō, Satomi Hanamura.
An animated film about life's struggles (through time, space, people and love) that begins in the early 1990s and ends in modern day Japan. The title of the film comes from the speed in which cherry blossom petals fall: a metaphorical representation of humans and how people drift apart. Each of the three segments focus on Takaki Tōno and his struggles to forget the love of his young life: Akari Shinohara.

For screening schedule, please visit www.gsc.com.my.
Time and Date: June 17-21 2010 Time: Varies
Address: GSC Mid Valley & 1 Utama
Tel: 03- 2284 62289 (JFKL)
Entry Fees: RM 5 per screening
URL: www.jfkl.org.my