Now in its 21st year, the festival is co-organised by the Embassy of Japan in South Africa and the Japan Foundation.

The festival content is free to the public, and will be screened over weekends during October at the following cinemas: Brooklyn Nouveau in Brooklyn Mall Pretoria (from Fridy, 3 to Sunday, 5 October), V&A Nouveau at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town (from Friday, 10 to Sunday, 12 October) and Rosebank Nouveau in the Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg (from Friday, 17 to Sunday, 19 October).

The Japanese Film Festival is aimed at promoting understanding of Japanese culture among South Africans. The 2014 festival aims to celebrate the journey Japan has taken with South Africa, which is significant as it marks the 20 year anniversary of South Africa’s Democracy.

All the films are in Japanese with English subtitles. Free tickets will be available at the box office one hour before screening.

The 2014 selection include the following six films:

Rent-A-Cat

Sayoko rents out cats to help lonely people fill the emptiness in their hearts. She walks along the banks of the river with a megaphone promoting her service and her animals in a handcart. It turns out that Sayoko is lonely too, ever since the death of her grandmother. All she has left is her cats. However, one day a young man shows up from Sayoko's past. He follows her home and suddenly Sayoko's life seems to completely fall apart.

Akko Chan: The Movie

Atsuko Kagami - known as ‘Akko Chan’ - is a 10-year-old girl in elementary school. One day, a magical spirit appears to her and gives her a magical compact. Chan uses it to become 22-years-old, and has a blast wearing makeup that she adores and many fashionable outfits. And if that wasn’t enough, she even meets the man of her dreams. Her crush is Naoto Hayase, an elite manager at a famous cosmetics company. But his company faces a corporate buyout and is about to be taken over. As he strives to turn his company around by developing an innovative new product, Chan comes up with totally unexpected ideas to take on the crisis. Will she be able to save the man she loves? And what will happen to their relationship?

Tug of War!

Inspired by a true story, Tug of War! is the heart-warming tale of how eight ordinary women band together to try and revitalise their local community. Chiaki Nishikawa (Mao Inoue) works at the public relations department for the city of Oita. In the past, the city had won the tug-of-war world championship three times and Nishikawa is also an enthusiast for the tug-of-war game. To promote the city of Oita, the mayor instructs her to form a female tug-of-war team. Full of laughter and tears, this heart-warming human drama depicts the everyday challenges of women, as they face the world head-on as daughters, wives and mothers and how just tugging on a rope brings them together.

Fly, Dakota, Fly

January 1946 - a British military transport plane departs from Shanghai on its way to Tokyo, Japan. During the flight the airplane makes an emergency landing on Sado Island (located in the Chubu region of Niigata Prefecture, Japan). The residents on the island have heard about stereotypes of the British soldiers and have mixed feelings about their new ‘guests’.

Nevertheless, for the next 40 days the islanders take care of the crew members until the plane can take off once again. This includes Chiyoko Morimoto (Manami Higa) who is the daughter of the inn owner where some of the British crew members stay. Based on a true story, it is filmed on location on Sado Island with support from the local community, including some who witnessed the event back in 1946.

Tokyo Oasis

Touko seems to have lost her grip on reality. Along her journey soul searching, she becomes acquainted with people who carry similar issues as she does. A midnight truck driver, Nagano, who happens to give Touko a ride, is grappling with the discovery of his soul and is unable to move forward. His escape from reality is to continually move from place to place. A movie theater manager, Kikuchi, is uncertain of her life. She has moved to new surroundings but feels more lost than ever. A young job seeker at the zoo, Yasuko, has no faith in her future. She thinks that her luck is slipping away from her. During the extraordinary time they spend together Touko and the three characters start to feel a new awareness growing and discover a new found sense of freedom, an oasis within. Together they feel change taking place. Finally, Touko begins to walk again with lightened steps toward a new beginning of everyday life in Tokyo.

Leaving on the 15th Spring

On Minamidaito Island there isn't a high school. Consequently, teenagers who turn 15-years-old leave the island to attend high schools. Yuna Nakazato (Ayaka Miyoshi) lives on Minamidaito Island with her father. She is the youngest child and has two older siblings. Nakazato has one year left before she must leave the island to attend high school. Her father grows sugar cane on the island. Her mother lives in Naha, the capital city of Okinawa, originally to watch over her older sister Mina while she attended high school there. Her older brother also works in Naha. Every family on Minamidaito Island has a similar situation where the family lives separately. Nakazato misses her mom, but she worries about her father, who will be left alone next year. She is curious about the world and also feels unease over her future.

With a variety of genres and award-winning titles being screened, the Japanese Film Festival presents some of the most exciting Japanese cinema in South Africa, and Cinema Nouveau is delighted to be associated, once again, with this exciting cultural venture.

For more information on the Japanese Film Festival, one can visit the website. Alternatively, visit and like Cinema Nouveau’s Facebook page and follow them on Twitter.