Immersion - Zutritt ab 18 Jahren

In the organizer's words:

忌怪島 Kikaijima

Director: SHIMIZU Takashi
2023, 108 minutes, OmeU, DCP

! Admission from 18 years due to explicit depiction of violence !

This gripping horror film tells a dark story about the dichotomy between technology and tradition. Accompanied by a haunting shamisen soundtrack, it delves into a world of virtual reality horror and combines this with the motif of vengeful female ghosts, which have a long cultural history in Japan.

Neuroscientist Kataoka Tomohiko moves to a deserted island to join a research team investigating the links between virtual reality technology and neuroscience. Things go haywire when a mysterious woman in red appears during an incident and a series of drowning deaths occur. The only key to stopping the gruesome incidents seems to lie in the island's deeply rooted superstitions.

Film Week
JFF - Japanese Film Festival

In recent years, the Japan Foundation Tokyo has launched several film festivals, which have been offered both as streaming programs and in the form of in-person screenings. Due to their great success, there will be a new edition this year: the JFF - Japanese Film Festival Special World Tour 2024 will present a selection of seven new Japanese films made in the past three years on screens in Germany, Mexico, Peru and Spain. In Germany, all films will be screened at the Japanese Cultural Institute Cologne, while a selection of individual titles will be shown in Hamburg (Kino Metropolis) and Berlin (Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum).

Yoshida Keisuke, who directed BLUE/Burû (BLUE) and Kûhaku (Intolerance), will come to Germany especially for the festival, attend the screenings and hold discussions with the audience. A talk with Florian Höhr from Nippon Connection will take place in Cologne on March 8.

The films present the broad spectrum of current Japanese cinema, including moving dramas, a romantic comedy, mystery, suspense and horror. In Cologne, fans will get their money's worth almost every day, as the screenings will also take place outside the usual weekdays for the first time.