Audience reacts at Japanese Film Festival at SM Davao City.
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Japan’s entry to this year’s Oscar’s for Best International Feature, may have lost to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest but for me, this will remain one of modern cinema’s masterpieces.
It is about a not-so-old bachelor, Hirayama, who works as toilet cleaner in modern Tokyo. Living alone, he looks forward to waking up every morning to do what may look like trivial to many. In an age when everything is dependent on digital technology, Hirayama finds comfort in reading books he buys in second-hand stores, listening to cassette tape music, and taking pictures of the sunlight filtered through the trees using a film camera.
Wenders, who is known for his acclaimed “angel-themed films” like Wings of Desire and Far Away, So Close, said in a published interview that Hirayama in a way is like his previous characters. Absurd this may sound, he is somehow invisible while cleaning toilets. Nobody minds him yet he plays a major role in everyone’s life.
Wenders said the film was conceptualized during the pandemic, initially as a short film series on Tokyo’s public toilets designed by 15 architects. These modern toilets are tourist attractions now.
Thankfully, I saw Perfect Days on the big screen at QCinema International Film Festival in September 2023, before it was announced as Japan’s entry to this year’s Oscars. Before that, Koji Yakusho, the actor who played Hirayama, won the Best Actor Award in the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
So I was delighted to learn that the actor had another film in the recent Japanese Film Festival, titled Father Of The Milky Way Railroad. It is the biopic of one of Japan’s most beloved authors, Miyazawa Kenji, often described as Japan’s Hans Christian Andersen.
Koji Yakusho plays Masajiro, a wealthy pawnbroker and father of Kenji. The synopsis reads: “Masajiro raised Kenji with the expectation that he would one day inherit the family business. However, the free-spirited Kenji is determined to walk his own path in life, and takes it upon himself to pursue agricultural studies, synthetic gemstones and other eccentric ventures, despite his father’s bewilderment. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, this incredible story depicts the power of family and unconditional love that endures through times of hardship.”
Japan Foundation Manila (JFM) held its annual film festival nationwide, starting at Shangri-La Plaza Red Carpet Cinema 1 on the first week of February and ending early March in SM City branches in Iloilo City, Davao City, Baguio City, and at the UP Film Institute in Diliman, Quezon City.
The festival was free admission, the clamor to get a seat so overwhelming that many people had to be turned down. Many were disappointed because after lining up for hours, they were told that there were no more tickets. Some opportunists even had the gall to sell each for P300.
The good news is that the Japan Foundation Manila has announced there will be an online Japanese Film Festival in June, featuring 23 films yet to be announced.
The audience feedback to the recent festival:
“Nostalgic!”
“Feels like I was brought to my childhood.”
“It’s a time machine. A modern classic!”
These were the common reactions of viewers to the two versions of Voltes V films at SM City branches in Iloilo City Davao City, Baguio City and at the University of the Philippines (UP) Film Institute in Diliman, Quezon City.
One was the 1999 anime version, Voltes V: The Liberation, and the most recent, the local adaptation by GMA Films released last year, Voltes V Legacy: The Cinematic Experience.
There’s an interesting backstory to Voltes V, the original anime series first aired on GMA Channel 7, from 1978 to 1979, during Martial Law.
It was dubbed in Tagalog, like other Japanese super-robot anime heroes like Mazinger Z, Daimos, but Voltes V was the most popular and influential. Most kids back then, now in their middle age, carried the Voltes V memories into their adulthood.
Ely Buendia and the rest of the Eraserheads named their debut studio album, Ultraelectromagneticpop, after Voltes V’s “ultra-electromagnetic” power source.
Visual artist Abdulmari “Toym” Imao Jr. has his Voltes V-inspired sculpture, paintings and mixed media artworks exhibited in various galleries.
Imao was immensely influenced by Voltes V, he wrote in an article in 2014 in the Philippine Daily Inquirer about the cartoon’s cancellation during Martial Law. It was in 1978, he was in third grade when Voltes V first aired on Philippine television.
He wrote: “Voltes V ushered in the ‘Super Robot’ era, which spawned a legion of devout followers who were glued to their TV sets every Friday to catch the unfolding saga of the Armstrong family against the Boazanian empire ruled by a despotic emperor bent on conquering the earth.
“Each day of the week, different robot shows were aired—Mazinger Z, Daimos, Mekanda Robot, Grendizer, and Dunguard Ace, to name a few. They captured the imagination of a predigital generation.
“It was a wonderful time to be a kid then—until they were seized through a directive by the Marcos government. Voltes V and the other robot animes were banned from airing nationwide because of their alleged ‘excessive violence.’
“An entire generation was heartbroken that the last four episodes of Voltes V were never aired. After watching the travails and triumphs of the Armstrong family, viewers never got to see what was supposed to be the triumphant overthrow of an evil empire, and the return of peace and democracy in both planets Earth and Boazania.”
We repeat: “The last four episodes were never aired.”
The effect on children who knew the difference between good and evil was made apparent in Imao’s consciousness.
‘I have created a sculpture—a visual metaphor of the anger I felt as a 10-year-old when Voltes V and other robots were summarily removed…. never knowing how the series ended’
Imao added in the Inquirer article: “I have created a sculpture—a visual metaphor of the anger I felt as a 10-year-old when Voltes V and the other robots were summarily removed from television. We were left hanging, never knowing how the series ended.
“My anger was trained on then President Ferdinand Marcos, who my young mind labeled as the Philippines version of the evil Boazanian Emperor.
“At first it was only because he deprived me of a favorite TV character. And then a sort of political awakening happened. Suddenly, I was affected by what grownups were talking about: Martial law.”
Neil Patrick Nepomuceno wrote in Manila Bulletin in 2021, how in 2012, then “Senator Bongbong Marcos insisted that the reason behind his father’s decision (to cancel the series) was the guardians of the children watching Voltes V and their concern (was its) possible negative influence on children.”
According to the Bulletin article, the final episodes were aired on GMA Channel 7 in 1999. This was the same version with the intriguing title Voltes V: The Liberation that was shown in the Japanese Film Festival (JFF).
Running for 140 minutes, Voltes V: The Liberation is directed by the original Voltes V creator, Nagahama Tadao. In Japan, Tadao was described as a well-known animator in the 1970s. He passed away in 1980, or a year after Voltes V was banned in the Philippines.
Voltes V: The Liberation is what Toym Imao remembered as the final four episodes of the series. The JFF synopsis reads: “In the climactic conclusion of Voltes V, the team faces Prince Zardoz and his devastating weapon in a desperate gambit to overcome the overwhelming threat, putting their skills and the Volt Machines to the ultimate test.
“The showdown unfolds as they embark on a perilous mission. Emotions running high, the team combines the Volt Machines to form the Ultra Magnetic Voltes V robot to deliver a decisive blow against the Boazanian forces and Emperor Zambojil’s ambition of inter-galactic conquest.”
For adults like Toym Imao and Ely Buendia, this is like a fulfillment of a cinematic experience aborted in childhood, akin to the healing of childhood trauma.
Dennis Trillo as Ned Armstrong in the 2023 local adaptation of ‘Voltes V.’ (Photo from Japanese Film Festival Philippines FB)
The 2023 version, Voltes V: Legacy, runs for 121 minutes, and is directed by Marciano Reyes V, known in the industry as Direk Mark Reyes. It features GMA talents Dennis Trillo, Miguel Tanfelix, Ysabel Ortega, Radson Flores, Raphael Landicho, Matt Lozano, and Martin Del Rosario.
Based on the popular ’70s Japanese anime, “the story follows three brothers, Steve, Big Bert, and Little Jon Armstrong. Together with their friends, Jamie Robinson and Mark Gordon, they pilot five vehicles that form the Ultra Electromagnetic Voltes V Super Robot and defend the Earth from the invading forces of the Boazanian Empire and their Beast Fighters.”
All JFF screenings had free admission.
But why Voltes V is very famous in the Philippines baffles many Japanese.
Japan Foundation Manila director Ben Suzuki (Japanese Film Festival Philippines FB)
“In Japan, only few Japanese know about Voltes V,” said Ben Suzuki, director of The Japan Foundation Manila in an interview last year with this writer during the opening of the JFF.
“When I came to the Philippines, I learned it was popular in the former regime of this country,” he said, referring to the 20-year rule of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.
“I am not a political person, but you have a complicated political story. And now, it’s Voltes V craze coming back under the presidency of Bongbong Marcos,” Suzuki said.
Voltes 5, he pointed out, was “not political,” but “originally (Japanese) animation,” which helped pave the way for the Japanese anime phenomenon. How it became part of Philippine history in the 1970s, Suzuki added, baffled him and many Japanese.
Good versus evil. (Screenshot from Japanese Film Festival FB)
“Yes, it’s about how good fought evil, but there is no connotation of politics,” he said. It so happened that everything fell into place back in the 1970s, and for overthinkers, the Philippines indeed happens to have “a complicated situation.”
Suzuki considers himself a balikbayan. He was director of JFM from 2005 to 2010, and was reappointed in 2020, during the pandemic.
“When I worked in the Philippines in my previous term, I visited many regions, from Batanes in the extremely far north to Basilan in the south and tried to develop cultural exchanges outside Metro Manila,” he said.
With the JFF back in the cinemas, in all over the provinces, Suzuki and his team apparently are doing an excellent job.
We were curious about the impact of Voltes V films on the present generation, especially the student audience at UP Film Institute. Would they view it the same way as those who grew up in the late 1970s, who equated with the suppression of the freedom of expression?
This year’s festival director Yojiro Tanaka said that the selection bore the theme of nostalgia, which seemed to have connected to the older viewers. “We chose films that will make our audience feel nostalgic and remember their own fond memories and feelings,” he said.
He added, however, how Japanese superheroes are different from their Western counterparts. Spiderman, for example: “You watch it for its humanism and humor, those are very important in life but…,” Tanaka paused and added, “You don’t feel the same as the hero. You also have that dark side in you. (And) that dark side of yourself cannot deny it. That exists in Japanese films, (that is) the relatability factor.”
Scene from the classic Japanese film ‘Tokyo Story’. (Screenshot from JFF FB)
2023 was the 120th birth anniversary of Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963), one of the greatest and most influential Japanese filmmakers, in Japan and in the world. The 2024 JFF showed his most popular work, Tokyo Story (1953).
There are available copies on YouTube, but seeing it on the big screen was still the best experience for cineastes.
Running for 136 minutes, the film is about an elderly couple, Shukichi and Tomi, living in the provinces who try to reconnect with their grown-up children building their lives in the city.
The synopsis reads: “The elderly couple have spent most of their lives in the small coastal town of Onomichi in Hiroshima, and hope their visit will be a memorable experience to cherish for the rest of their lives.
“However, once they arrive in the bustling metropolis, their eldest son and daughter prioritize maintaining their own lifestyles over spending quality time with their parents. Despite an initially amiable reception, Shukichi and Tomi sense an absence of sincere warmth, which makes them feel unwelcome and disappointed.
“They cut their stay short and return home. Before long, the son and daughter in Tokyo receive a telegram from their young sister Kyoko (Kyoko Kagawa) in Onomichi, informing them that their mother is critically ill.”
One of Japan’s finest veteran actors, Koji Yakusho (seated second from left), plays lead character in ‘Father of the Mily Way Railroad’. (Screenshot from JFF FB)
There will be 27 countries, including the Philippines, in the Online Japanese Film Festival 2024 this June.
Aside from Tokyo Story (you can find it on You Tube), we hope Perfect Days, Father of the Milky Way Railroad, and the two Voltes V films would make it on the list.
And because the two Voltes V films were shown in cinemas, without political intervention this time, more middle-aged fans should be able to see them, this time in the comfort of their homes.
