[Cross-Strait] Shanghai Film Festival Without Japanese Films, Veteran Fan: Worse Than the 'Hallyu Ban'
bellala 央廣4h ago
Affected by the deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations, the 2026 Shanghai Film Festival will not screen any Japanese films, a rare situation. Veteran film fans point out that in the past, even when Sino-Korean relations were poor, the Shanghai Film Festival could still screen Korean films. Now, the absence of Japanese films is even more serious.
Since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's "Taiwan contingency" remarks in November last year, Sino-Japanese relations have worsened. The 28th Shanghai International Film Festival, held from the 12th to the 21st of this month, not only did not set up a "Japanese Film Week" to introduce the latest Japanese films, but also did not screen any Japanese films or invite Japanese judges.
In response to this phenomenon, a veteran film fan who specially came to Shanghai from afar to attend the film festival believes that the Shanghai Film Festival without Japanese films is "greatly diminished." He said, "Japanese films at the Shanghai Film Festival are always highly sought after every year, and can be said to be indispensable. In the hearts of film fans, they are deeply intertwined with the Shanghai Film Festival."
He said that every year a large number of Japanese films participate in the Shanghai Film Festival, and many Japanese films even have their world premieres in Shanghai. Many Japanese filmmakers also come to participate in activities, and many Japanese directors have participated in the Shanghai Film Festival as judges.
He has attended the Shanghai Film Festival for 10 years. He observed that since the inception of the Shanghai Film Festival, Japanese films have been a very important component. Among the approximately 400 films exhibited at the Shanghai Film Festival each year, the number of Japanese films often ranks second only to those from China and the United States. For example, in the 2025 Shanghai Film Festival, there were as many as 224 screenings of Japanese films, and many of the exhibited Japanese films received excellent reviews. This year, neither the Beijing nor the Shanghai Film Festival is screening Japanese films, and "everyone truly feels that many good films are missing."
Cao Yin, deputy director of the Shanghai International Film and Television Festival Center, also stated at the opening ceremony of the 2025 Shanghai Japanese Film Week that "Japanese Film Week is one of the Shanghai International Film Festival's widely loved brand sections."
Especially since Shanghai is an "international" film festival, an A-list film festival, like Cannes, Berlin, and Busan International Film Festivals. This veteran film fan believes that given the importance of Japanese cinema, "almost no international film festival would not screen Japanese films," especially this year when many important Japanese film directors such as Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Hirokazu Kore-eda have new films, making it a "big year" for Japanese cinema.
Speaking of the films he was originally looking forward to, he said that Hamaguchi's new film "All of a Sudden," which won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and Kore-eda's "After the Storm" and "The Little Girl and the Box," were highly anticipated by him. He expressed regret that they cannot be shown in China, "and we don't know when they will be shown, and we don't know how long this will last."
He said that although Sino-Korean relations were poor before, and many Korean films could not be released in theaters, the film festival still had Korean films. "Even when Sino-Korean relations were that bad, the film festival still had them," including the Shanghai Film Festival, which screened several Korean films every year.
China, in opposition to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system by the United States in South Korea, implemented the "Hallyu Ban" in 2017, never approving any K-POP concerts, Korean TV programs, or artist activities.
However, now even the film festival is not screening Japanese films. This veteran film fan believes the situation is very serious, "There has indeed never been an example of a complete ban on films from a certain country."
This veteran film fan also pointed out that the Chinese film market is currently shrinking due to the impact of short videos and AI. The number of Chinese audiences and film box office revenue continues to decrease, and many people in the film industry have a strong sense of crisis. In this context, introducing Japanese films would be beneficial for the box office.
He gave an example, saying that "Demon Slayer" had good box office performance last year, and other animated films such as Detective Conan, One Piece, and Naruto also have large audiences. "Cutting Japanese films can almost be described as 'hurting the enemy by ten and damaging oneself by eight hundred,'" causing almost no harm to Japan, but the absence of Japanese films is actually a further blow to the Chinese film market box office. (Editor: Shen Zhenjiang)
Source link: https://www.rti.org.tw/news?uid=3&pid=215386
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