’11 Rebels’ Period Thriller Set to Open Event

Period thriller “11 Rebels” has been set as the opening film of next month’s Tokyo International Film Festival.

Directed by the prolific Shiraishi Kazuya from a previously-unproduced screenplay by the late Kasahara Kazuo, the film stars popular actors Yamada Takayuki and Nakano Taiga.

“We expect this powerful film to mark a spectacular opening to the festival,” Tokyo festival organizers said. The festival runs from Oct. 28 to Nov. 6 in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area.

Organizers also said that the festival will close with French-Italian comedy “Marcello Mio,” in which French actress Chiara Mastroianni, plays a character who turns into her real-life father, the famous film director Marcello Mastroianni. Directed by Christophe Honore, the film had its world premiere in competition at the Cannes festival in May.

Chiara Mastroianni has previously been announced as a member of the jury that will select the main competition winners in Tokyo this year.

“This is a unique film that serves as both an homage to Marcello Mastroianni and an experimental piece, in which many French actors, including the lead Chiara Mastroianni, appear under their real names, blurring the boundary between the stars’ true selves and fiction. This film [also commemorates] the 100th anniversary of Marcello Mastroianni’s birth,” said Tokyo programming director, Ichiyama Shozo.

“11 Rebels” explores the historical betrayal by the Shibata clan of Niigata happened in the shadows of the Boshin War, the fiercest war in Japanese history. An 11-member suicide squad takes on a hopeless fortress-defense mission. When the interests of the Shibata clan, the old shogunate, and the new government collide, their heroic battle begins.

Set to be distributed by Toei on Nov. 1, the film was a participating project in the Tokyo Gap-Financing Market, held last year as part of TIFFCOM, the Tokyo festival’s affiliated industry market.

“This film inherits the tradition of ensemble period dramas that Toei once excelled at, showcasing the top-tier production values in contemporary Japanese cinema in every aspect, from action sequences to set design. It is also significant that it shines a spotlight on people who have been cast aside throughout history,” said Ichiyama.