The organisers of the Japanese Film Festival have announced early highlights of the 16th anniversary event, which will take place in late 2012.
The festival will screen Yoshitaka Mori's live-action adaptation of manga hit Space Brothers, which screened in Japanese cinemas in May. The plot tells of two brothers who, as youngsters witness what they believe to be a UFO hurtling towards the moon. The film follows their efforts to pursue their dreams, as men.
Organisers made the announcement at Sydney's Anime and Manga Festival, along with news Takashi Yamazaki's Friends: Naki on Monster Island (pictured) will also screen at 2012 Japanese Film Festival. The 2011 animation is adapted from the children's novel Naita Aka Oni by Hirosuke Hamada. The story is one of tolerance, depicting an island inhabited by monsters, and a human child who wanders onto the island out of curiosity and comes to befriend a misunderstood ogre.
The two new films join previously announced Always: Sunset on Third Street 3, continuing the saga of the inhabitants of a Tokyo street experiencing rapid post-war development, this time in the lead-up to the 1964 Olympics.
