Daily Life in Juso - Juso Downtown Film Festival 2025 Report
[Date/Time] November 9, 2025, 11:00 AM – approx. 7:30 PM
[Location] Osaka City (Juso) Theater Seven / Seventh Art Theater
[Contents]
1. About the Juso Downtown Film Festival
This event started last year, and personally, I only watched two films, "Bold as You" and "Our Occultic Summer," but both were good enough to support for the next 10 years.
Originally, I had only come to Theater Seven to see the Kansai premiere of "MADO," which I promote on my own, and "Excuse" by my favorite director, Rinta Shitanda, but after attending the film festival last year, I learned how reliable Theater Seven's curation is.
This year, I attended the three films on the final day and the closing ceremony.
2. Films Watched (in order of screening)
※I will omit detailed reports on the films.
・"Flower of Farewell" (Director: Rei Shiina)
A film I can support for 10 years!
The sense of loss, precisely because that time was so happy, really came across, and it made me cry more than any other film in my life.
Not only that, but the way the foreshadowing was resolved was also impressive.
I also really liked that all the main cast members appeared for the stage greeting, so I went to the merchandise area immediately after it ended without hesitation!
・"Polar Night" (Director: Takaaki Hamid Okamoto)
Even before seeing the director at the stage greeting, I realized halfway through that this was themed around the "struggles of those who are different from others."
The theme and depiction were good, and it kept me engaged—in fact, it even made me imagine things outside the film's runtime—but the setting of a half-bird person with one wing didn't feel refined, and it looked a bit like a long sketch, so it didn't quite reach the level of a film I could fully support.
・"Imaginary Line" (Director: Kensho Sakamoto)
This also had the same direction as "Polar Night," with the theme of the issue of illegal foreign residents.
While I was curious about the miracle-like setting of the lead male, it was good to see how the main characters influenced each other over time.
I recognized the name and face of the lead actress, Yuka Nakajima, and realized later that she was the shop clerk in "Holiday."
There was no stage greeting. The moderator explained the background of the production.
If there is a screening with a stage greeting, I would like to go see it again.
3. Closing Ceremony
・The guests were director Junichi Yasuda and Yuno Sakura from "Samurai Time Skipper."
(I learned for the first time that she was actually an assistant director.)
A reasonable and luxurious choice of guests. The Seventh Art Theater was full.
・There was a screening of a film (leaning towards a documentary) produced at the children's film workshop, raising awareness of activities that broaden the base of film production.
The instructors were directors Keiko Kishimoto and Atsuto Saka. I suspect the talks started because of their film screenings at Theater Seven.
・At the awards ceremony, I was happy that "Flower of Farewell" won the Audience Award.
I haven't seen any of the other awarded films. I'll watch them if they are screened here.
4. Notes (Personal Observations)
・At Theater Seven, there are screenings with stage greetings on regular weekends, and since the people involved often "like" the posts on social media from the audience, I think the customers who just come to see their target film and go home might not be any different from usual.
I didn't see any customers who said, "I came for the first time because there's a film festival" (presumably).
I think the film festival targets people who already frequent or have visited Theater Seven. It was meaningful again this year!
・The special thing that is different from a regular weekend is that the people who finished their stage greetings mix into the audience to watch the next/other films together.
It gets me excited, and I think interactions between film production "teams" might also be born from places like this.
・For me, who got hooked on the charm of the "closeness between creators and the audience" in independent films, this is the film festival I want to support the most, including its accessibility.
5. The Town of Juso
・After the film festival, I moved to the area under the train tracks to have a drink before heading home.
There are plenty of shops to stop by before and after.
The film festival pamphlet has a map of places to stop by, introducing about 10 shops, but I noticed that posters were also posted in many other shops.