Issue:
April 2025
Join the Film Committee …
Join us on Tuesday, April 15 at 6 pm for a special screening of the tiny fish-out-of-water tale that’s taken the film world by storm: A Samurai in Time. The third feature by third-generation rice farmer Junichi Yasuda, it world premiered at Montreal’s popular Fantasia International Film Festival in August 2024, just before its scheduled release in one small Japanese cinema. Against all odds, it clinched the Gold Audience Award in Canada, immediately earning invitations to scores of other film festivals. At home, after weeks of sold-out screenings and positive word of mouth, the film was picked up by Gaga, which began rolling it out to over 400 cinemas nationwide. Within months, A Samurai in Time, completed on a minuscule budget of just ¥26 million ($170,000), climbed into the Top 10 at the box office. It would go on to rival records for independent films, grossing more than double most Hollywood hits in Japan. And in mid-March 2025, at the 48th Japan Academy Film Prize ceremony, A Samurai in Time became the first-ever independent feature to win the Best Film Award, along with a Best Editor trophy for Yasuda. With a total crew of just 10, the director had made the film by cashing out his meager savings and selling his car, then serving as writer, director, producer, cinematographer, production manager, gaffer, visual effects wizard and editor. The jidaigeki dramedy is still in theaters, and has just hit No. 1 on Amazon Prime Japan. The FCCJ will be the first English-subtitled screening — so come along to watch, to laugh, cry and hear more from Junichi Yasuda about his unexpected success. (A Samurai in Time, Japan 2024, 131 minutes, in Japanese with English subtitles).
