The thirty eighth Tokyo Worldwide Movie Competition received off to a gently emotive begin Monday night time with the native premiere of filmmaker Junji Sakamoto’s Climbing for Life, a crowd-pleasing biographical drama about Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei, the primary girl to summit Mt. Everest.
The movie’s star, Sayuri Yoshinaga, was offered with the competition’s lifetime achievement award throughout a poignant second on the opening ceremony. A four-time Japan Academy Award winner for finest actress, Yoshinaga’s profession stretches from Japanese cinema’s golden post-war period by means of the current day, with Climbing for Life marking her 124th display screen look.
On a transparent and unseasonably heat night time in Japan’s capital, Yoshinaga, her director, Sakamoto, and fellow forged member Rena Nonen walked the pink carpet within the upscale Ginza district forward of the official opening. They have been adopted by the face of the 2025 Tokyo competition, rising actress Kumi Takiuchi, and a slew of native and worldwide stars, together with Takumi Saitoh, Misato Morita, China’s Fan Bingbing and Peter Chan, and French actress Juliette Binoche.
Director Junji Sakamoto and Sayuri Yoshinaga (left and middle) stroll the Tokyo Movie Competition pink carptet.
Lately, Japan’s flagship movie competition has been working to reassert itself as a must-attend cultural occasion throughout the Asia-Pacific circuit. After an extended interval of uncertainty and uneven route, the competition — now led by chairman Hiroyasu Ando — is pursuing an bold revitalization, aiming to align its worldwide profile with Japan’s storied cinematic legacy, the surging world recognition of anime, and the increasing worldwide fascination with Japanese tradition.
“It’s an honor and privilege to return to a rustic that’s pricey to me — and to anybody who loves cinema,” mentioned Carlo Chatrian, former head of the Berlin Movie Competition and president of Tokyo’s principal competitors jury this yr. “There’s little to say earlier than watching movies. We come right here with all our feelings and totally different backgrounds, however I’m positive that after these ten days we’ll be a little bit totally different. We’ll know extra about one another and the world we’re dwelling in — and that is what makes cinema so particular.”
The ceremony’s venue sits only a few minutes’ stroll from the Imperial Palace, one of many focal factors of an unlimited safety operation at present underway for the go to of President Donald Trump, who landed at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport at 5 p.m. native time — simply because the curtain rose on the opening ceremony. Round 18,000 Japanese police and safety personnel have been deployed throughout the capital for the go to, throughout which the president is scheduled to satisfy with Emperor Naruhito this night and Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s newly elected first feminine prime minister, tomorrow. Safety has been tightened following the 2022 assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who maintained a detailed private relationship with Trump and was Takaichi’s mentor.
Previous editions of the Tokyo competition have featured statements of help from the Japanese prime minister through the opening ceremony, however such an endorsement was absent this yr.
As a substitute, Toshiro Ino, Japan’s Minister for Economic system, Commerce and Trade, was readily available to supply some phrases of help. The minister celebrated the choice by Cannes’ Marche du Movie of Japan as its nation in focus for 2026, whereas additionally lauding the latest field workplace success of the Japanese interval drama Kokuho, which has grow to be the nation’s top-grossing live-action movie in years (regardless of a three-hour runtime and deep concentrate on conventional kabuki theater).
Mentioned Ino: “Not too long ago, Kokuho grew to become a serious hit, and it has re-inspired the Japanese public’s curiosity in kabuki, a core a part of Japan’s cultural heritage. I’m delighted that such works are serving to to advertise and deepen appreciation of Japanese tradition. Our authorities will proceed to help efforts to convey these significant Japanese works to audiences worldwide.”
Competition chairman Hiroyasu Ando additionally launched American auteur Paul Schrader to the group through the opening ceremony. The screenwriter, director and frequent Martin Scorsese collaborator is attending the competition along with his 1985 characteristic Mishima: A Life in 4 Chapters. The movie — about celebrated author Yukio Mishima, who dedicated ritual suicide in 1970 after failing to incite an ultranationalist coup — was launched within the U.S. however has by no means been proven publicly in Japan resulting from decades-old right-wing opposition from Mishima’s acolytes. The movie will lastly make its “Japan premiere” this week as a part of a programming sidebar commemorating the one centesimal anniversary of Mishima’s beginning.
Stopped on the pink carpet earlier than the ceremony, Schrader instructed the occasion’s MC that he had at all times believed Mishima would finally display screen in Japan. “Nevertheless it’s been 40 years,” the 79-year-old Taxi Driver author mentioned with fun. “It’s taken a little bit longer than I anticipated.”
Requested for a closing message to the Tokyo viewers, Schrader added: “Don’t blame America for Donald Trump!”
(L-R) Mata Yamamoto, Paul Schrader, Alan Poul, and Tokura Shunichi attend the opening ceremony of the 2025 Tokyo Worldwide Movie Competition.
