Films by Country

Japan

3-Iron

Bin-jip

Kim Ki-duk

A seductively unworldly and virtually wordless love story from the director of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. “This is a Zen comedy, full of beautifully distilled moments.” — Financial Times

Appleseed

Appurushido

Aramaki Shinji

Blonde action babe Deunan separates the robots from the bioroids in this spectacular exhibition of conventional anime character design amalgamated with state-of-the-art CG effects. “Eye-goggling.” — Screendaily

Café Lumière

Kohi jikou

Hou Hsiao-hsien

The great Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien has made a Japanese family drama to celebrate the centenary of the great Japanese director Ozu Yasujiro. “It is a film about happiness: something you can not see but something that Hou makes poetic, empowering and almost palpable.” — Financial Times

Delamu

Tian Zhuangzhuang

Winding through landscapes of staggering beauty, the year’s most spectacular documentary accompanies a caravan as it traverses the highest and most perilous of the world's ancient routes.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

Oshii Mamoru

Vast and spectacular, this dazzling anime is also rife with speculation about the meaning of cyberlife. Not for lightweights!

Godzilla Final Wars

Gojira fainaru uozu

Kitamura Ryuhei

Japan’s answer to Kong in an insanely action packed monster miasma, overflowing with super warriors, cool weapons, snazzy aircraft and more destruction than the last three Godzilla films combined.

Howl's Moving Castle

Hauru no ugoku shiro

Miyazaki Hayao

This year’s centrepiece is a beauty, thanks to animation genius and long-time Film Festival hero, Miyazaki Hayao. We proudly present the New Zealand premiere screenings of his latest amazing phantasmagoria. “An entertainment full of wonder and charm.” — Variety

Late Bloomer

Osoi-hito

Shibata Go

This belligerent Japanese indie about the multi-handicapped Sumida, who develops a crush on his new teenage caregiver, offers a satisfying lack of anything patronisingly feel-good or life-affirming.

Steamboy

Otomo Katsuhiro

This long awaited anime extravaganza from the forces behind the epochal Akira takes place in a breathtaking vision of the future, as it might have been dreamt up in the Victorian heyday of steam power.

Three... Extremes

Fruit Chan, Park Chan-wook, Miike Takashi

Japan’s Miike Takashi (Audition, Visitor Q), Korean Cannes winner Park Chan-wook (Old Boy) and Hong Kong’s Fruit Chan (Hollywood, Hong Kong) join forces to showcase their considerable skills in this creepy anthology triptych.

Tony Takitani

Ichikawa Jun

Elegantly stylised adaptation of celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s strange story about a solitary illustrator who tastes fulfilment with a woman who can never have too many clothes.

The White Diamond

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog’s stirring, lyrical documentary about Graham Dorrington, an English engineer who explores the South American rainforest canopy from a silently floating airship.

The World

Shijie

Jia Zhang-ke

"We are in the hands of a master… his imagery is so boilingly alive that we come away from it feeling exhilarated rather than depressed." — David Chute, LA Weekly