Tokyo Film Festival To Open With Kazuya Shiraishi’s ‘11 Rebels’; Close With ‘Marcello Mio’

This year’s Tokyo International Film Festival will open with the world premiere of 11 Rebels, directed by Japan’s Kazuya Shiraishi, and close with French-Italian comedy Marcello Mio, directed by Christophe Honoré.

Starring Takayuki Yamada and Taiga Nakano, 11 Rebels is a period action film based on a forgotten script by late screenwriter Kasahara Kazuo, known for his work on series including Japanese Yakuza (1964-1971) and Battles Without Honor And Humanity (1973-1974). 

Scheduled for Japanese release on November 1, the Toei production follows an 11-member suicide squad taking on a fortress-defence mission against the backdrop of one of the fiercest wars in Japanese history. The film was a participating project at last year’s Tokyo Gap Financing Market and has already secured North American and German distribution. 

Marcello Mio stars French actress Chiara Mastroianni playing a version of herself who starts to transform into her real-life father, Marcello Mastroianni. The meta commentary comedy, which premiered in Cannes this year, also features the actress’ real-life mother, Catherine Deneuve. 

Chiara Mastroianni is also serving as a jury member at this year’s Tokyo film festival, alongside Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, who serves as jury president, Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To, Hungarian filmmaker Enyedi Ildikó and Japanese actress Ai Hashimoto. 

Tokyo festival programming director Shozo Ichiyama said: “This is a unique film that serves as both an homage to Marcello Mastroianni and an experimental piece, in which many French actors, including the lead Chiara Mastroianni, appear under their real names, blurring the boundary between the stars’ true selves and fiction. This film is perfect to close this year’s festival, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Marcello Mastroianni’s birth.”

Commenting on 11 Rebels, Ichiyama said: “This film inherits the tradition of ensemble period dramas that Toei once excelled at, showcasing the top-tier production values in contemporary Japanese cinema in every aspect, from action sequences to set design. It is also significant that it shines a spotlight on people who have been cast aside throughout history.”

Tokyo film festival, which runs October 28 to November 6, also recently announced the introduction of a Women’s Empowerment section, which will screen a selection of films directed by female filmmakers and/or with female-focused narratives. The festival will also feature a spotlight on the work of Japanese filmmaker Yu Irie, as part of its Nippon Cinema Now section.