"Made in Japan” is a line that evokes many memories to various people; memories of the era when almost everything electronic or tech-related that we bought came from that country: Talk of Toshiba, Panasonic, Honda, Toyota, Canon, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp …name it. 

This last week, it was a different form of Made in Japan visiting Rwanda; the Japan Film Festival that was held between Tuesday, December 1, and Saturday, December 6, at the Kwetu Film Institute in Kigali. 

Organised by the Japanese embassy in Kigali, the festival was basically an introductory showcase of the Japanese film industry to budding and established local movie-makers, as well film students from the Kwetu Film Institute. 

Though the media and publicity messages from the Japanese embassy described it as a "film festival”, "film week” would have been a more apt description, especially going by the size of the audience; which fitted easily into one of the lecture rooms at Kwetu, and the spectrum of movies screened –five in total. 

The festival opened on Tuesday evening, with the screening of The Chef of South Polar, a 2009, comedy-drama based on the poignant essays of Nishimura Jun, who in real life serves as a Japan Coast Guard, and who cooks for an Antarctic scientific observation team. 

The film depicts with humor the extreme isolation of eight men, living apart from their families in the severe cold at the South Pole, a place where it is too cold for even viruses to survive!

Watching the 125-minute movie, one thing stands out; Japanese culinary prowess. 

From the full-course French cuisine, to handmade noodles, prawns and shrimp, the meals that fill the team members’ bellies are quite a spectacle to be forgotten. 

Not so much a movie freak myself, I found this first screening rather hard and laborious to follow, because yes –I’m not so much a movie person, but also because the movies were in the Japanese language, with English sub-titles. 

I was initially torn between concentrating on the sub-titles, and trying to comprehend the Japanese dialect –the intonation, tone, rhythm …

In the end, I decided that getting myself a little orientation in the Japanese language was more important than following the plot of a few movies. 

Goes without saying that after this first screening, there were a lot of pertinent observations and questions coming especially from the young film students in the house.

The first obvious observation was the fact that the Japanese film is generally more laid-back and documentary-like than their Hollywood counterparts. 

The other question was to do with Japanese culinary culture: Were noodles a must on every Japanese meal?

What about the use of chopsticks? And was it mandatory for all Japanese to "eat very fast”, as depicted in the movie?

The second day featured the 2011 animation film, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, by the Japanese film director Makoto Shinkai. 

A Japanese film festival is hardly ever complete without animations, and indeed, Japanese animations rank among the best in the world. 

Children Who Chase Lost Voices is the story of a young girl named Asuna, who one day hears a mysterious song coming from her father’s crystal radio, and is unable to forget it. She then meets a boy named Shun, who is from the underworld of Agartha, and although they develop a friendship, he suddenly disappears. 

Other movies screened were; Happy Flight (2008), Bushido Sixteen (2010), and on the last day, Hankyu Railway Station (2011), a 15-minute ensemble-drama based on the short story collections of Arikawa Hiro. 

Set around the Hankyu Imazu train line in Hyogo, Japan that takes only fifteen minutes to travel from start to finish, the movie warmly captures anecdotes from the lives of people who depend on this rail line.

Generally, Japanese films portray the country’s dazzling artistic traditions that encompass writings, pictures, crafts and architecture, its treasured sea food or "sea pearls”, cultural festivals in the Japanese summer, and their exquisite culinary traditions. 

In the end, the typical Japanese film is a visual exploration into the world of gold, silver, light, and other glittering touches used to highlight elements of Japanese culture, from traditional handicrafts to contemporary pop design. 

The Japanese also employ a lot of humor in their films, although their brand of humor is more subtle and toned-down, a sharp contrast to African humor that is usually brash, loud, and in-your-face. 

Overall, it was good to see the audience composed of far more Rwandans, mostly budding filmmakers, than Japanese during the screenings. 

Most of the attendees were actually film students from the Kwetu Film Institute. Part of the reason for the festival is actually this –that budding Rwandan filmmakers get acquainted with both the cultural and technical dimensions of Japanese films.

There was one general lament, however, a lament that was first voiced by Eric Kabera, the founder of the Kwetu Film Institute that hosted the festival: the lack of any Japanese film makers or film industry players at the festival.

This was duly echoed by his film students and other festival-goers. 

"To have a filmmaker from Japan in the room would be more appreciated, but we appreciate the collaboration and the partnership for people to understand the cultural aspects of Japanese culture,” said Kabera. 

Kabera is lucky to have been in Japan twice, on film-related excursions that eventually culminated in a Japanese Film Festival in Kigali. 

"I’ve had the opportunity to go to Japan, and I know those cultural elements, so I could see what they were suggesting in their films,” Kabera further remarked, adding that one of the things he fancied the most about Japanese films is the animation department, "which is one of the best in the world.”

He expressed hope and optimism that future film collaborations between Rwanda and Japan could kick off with a joint animation project. 

Tomio Sakamoto, a Counselor at the Embassy of Japan in Rwanda and who attended the festival described it as "a representative cultural event organized by the Japanese embassy in Kigali. 

"It’s one of the important avenues for us to introduce Japanese culture and also technique of the films.”

This is the second time the Japanese embassy is organizing such an event in Rwanda. The first was in February, in collaboration with the German Cultural Center, the Goethe Institute. 

He revealed that animation is deeply rooted in Japanese culture, hence the country’s enviable reputation for animation films. 

"We have not only animation but also comedy and entertainment films and serious films and documentaries but this time we are focusing mainly on the entertaining ones. We would like the Rwandan public to know about Japanese lifestyle and culture through the films.” 

He further remarked that real intercultural exchange between his country and Rwanda would begin when Rwandan filmmakers start taking their films to Japan as well.

"It’s always been our wish to create exchange programs with other countries, be it Germany, Japan, Korea, China, and film has got the power to do that,” remarked Eric Kabera, the festival’s host.

"We know that the Japanese film industry is not very highly exportable at the moment, but their animations are among the best in the world. 

So in a sense having the Japanese embassy take the initiative to come and share their films is very important.

On the other hand, we need these kinds of exchanges so that people can learn other cultures.

That’s what I do whenever I travel. I show the Rwandan faces, Rwandan culture, so it’s very important that we can also have all these people from around the world to do the same here.”