SHIN’YA TSUKAMOTO’S A SNAKE OF JUNE WILL BE SHOWN ALONGSIDE YUKIKO MISHIMA’S SHAPE OF RED AT THE SPECIAL PRE-OPENING EVENT ON MAY 3rd
IN ADDITION: ON MAY 18th, MISHIMA’S DEAR ETRANGER AND THE EUROPEAN PREMIERE OF THE RESTORED VERSION OF HIRUKO THE GOBLIN BY TSUKAMOTO WILL BE SHOWN AT CASA DEL CINEMA DI VENEZIA
The twelfth edition of Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival – taking place from the 4th to the 7th of May – will be preceded on May 3rd with a pre-opening event centered around Japan. Two must-see films for all cinema lovers will be staged at Auditorium Santa Margherita, starting with Yukiko Mishima’s Shape of Red and Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s masterpiece A Snake of June, with the collaboration of RaroVideo Channel and Nikkatsu Corporation. During the festival, Tsukamoto himself will present the literary adaptation of A Snake of June. On May 18th, at Casa del Cinema di Venezia, Mishima and Tsukamoto will meet again figuratively as both Mishima’s Dear Etranger and Tsukamoto’s Hiruko the Goblin will be projected. The latter is presented for the first time in Europe in a restored version.
One of the most interesting, emergent female directors in the Japanese film industry of the new millennium, Yukiko Mishima will also be the protagonist of a special event. The Short will introduce Mishima’s cinema to Italy not only by showing her short film Ode to Joy on May 5th, but also her two latest feature films. Shape of Red is the film adaptation of Shimamoto Rio’s novel Red (2014). The film focuses on the female perspective of the protagonist, who is leading an apparently perfect life, even though she is internally struggling with a feeling of dissatisfaction. Later on, this feeling will turn into a burning passion when the protagonist meets her ex-boyfriend. Dear Etranger, on the other hand, was adapted from the namesake novel written by Shigematsu Kiyoshi. Dear Etranger (2017) was shown in many international festivals. The protagonist is a man who gets married for the second time and lives with his new wife and daughters. When his wife gets pregnant, he is forced to make compromises at work to spend time with his family. These events will change his life and affect the family dynamic.
Shin’ya Tsukamoto does not need introductions and is coming back to this year’s Short to talk about his literary career and premiere his new book in Italian Un serpente di giugno, a novel adaptation from his own classic film of 2002. Tsukamoto’s classic film will be projected as one of the two pre-opening films. In A Snake of June, Rinko’s life is suddenly unsettled when she receives a few compromising photos of herself. The photographer blackmails Rinko, threatening her that he would show the photos to her husband, but his aim is to help Rinko discover her sexuality. Tsukamoto’s second feature film, Hiruko the Goblin is a horror fairytale filmed in 35 mm for Shochiku in 1991 with a fairly good budget and featuring important interpreters. In the movie, a teacher falls in love with his pupil, and they venture in an underground cave near a school, where they mistakenly reawaken the demon Hiruko, whose body is half spider and the other half a human head.
