Japanese Film Festival 2021 - After the Sunset

The Embassy of Japan, in cooperation with the Japan Foundation, is very pleased to announce the return of the Japanese Film Festival to Wellington.

The Japanese Film Festival is an annual event held to encourage the growth of Japanese culture and understanding in New Zealand. Each year, we try to give the people of New Zealand some insight into the culture, customs, and traditions of Japan, alongside what is popular with Japanese society today, through film.

All films will be in Japanese with English subtitles.

Title: After the Sunset
Director: Michio Koshikawa
Released: 2019
Running Time: 133 minutes
Rated: M

Set in the small town of Nagashima, Kagoshima prefecture in southern Japan. Yuichi Hino farms yellowtail fish, a family business, for his livelihood. He lives with his wife Satsuki, his mother Mie and 7-year-old son Towa. But Towa is not their biological son. Yuichi and Satsuki want to formally adopt him, and as they embark on the special adoption procedures with the Family Court, they find out how Towa was taken into care. They are shocked to learn the name of their foster son’s biological mother is exactly the same as that of the woman who moved to the island a few years ago, and has since been working at the diner. The tensions between foster parents and biological mother are depicted in a human drama set in a small island in Japan.

Embassy of Japan in New Zealand.