Tokyo International Film Festival Selects Samurai Action Thriller 11 rebels as the opening film of its 37th edition. The film is directed by Shiraishi Kazuya from a decades-old script by the late, great screenwriter Kasahara Kazuo (Japanese Yakuza, Battles without honor and humanity). The festival will close with the screening of the Franco-Italian comedy My Marcellodirected by Christophe Honoré and starring European film star Chiara Mastroianni, who is also part of the jury of the main competition in Tokyo this year.
Produced by the Japanese giant Toei, 11 rebels has already secured theatrical distribution in North America, where it will look to capitalize on the renewed interest in samurai action films following FX's huge success ShogunThe protagonists are famous local actors Takayuki Yamada and Taiga Nakano.
“We expect this powerful film to mark a spectacular opening for the festival,” event organizers said in a statement released Thursday.
Set during the Boshin War, one of the fiercest battles in Japanese history, 11 rebels follows a motley crew of samurai as they mount a suicide mission to defend a fortress. “When the interests of the Shibata clan, the old shogunate, and the new government collide, their heroic battle begins,” the official plot summary reads.
“This film inherits the tradition of ensemble period dramas that Toei once excelled at, showcasing the high-level production values of contemporary Japanese cinema in everything from the action sequences to the production design,” said Tokyo programming director Shozo Ichiyama. “It is also significant that it highlights people who have been sidelined throughout history,” he added.
My Marcello It premiered in competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it attracted attention with its unique premise, in which French actress Chiara Mastroianni plays a character who transforms into her real-life father, Italian cinema icon Marcello Mastroianni (The Sweet Life, 8 1/2). The film also features her real-life mother, Catherine Deneuve.
“This is a unique film that serves both as a tribute to Marcello Mastroianni and as an experimental piece, in which many French actors, including the protagonist Chiara Mastroianni, appear under their real names, blurring the line between the stars’ true selves and fiction,” Ichiyama said of the selection. “This film is a perfect way to close this year’s festival, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Marcello Mastroianni’s birth.”
The 2024 Tokyo International Film Festival will be held from October 28 to November 6. The full program of the event will be revealed on September 25.