• A Japanese artiste showcases the Taiko dance during a Japanese film festival in Lusaka recently.

By JOWIT SALUSEKI –

LAST week the Japanese Embassy in Zambia gave an early independence present to theatre lovers in Lusaka when it feted them with three different movies at Arcades Mall’s Ster-Kinekor.
Three movies titled Fly Dakota, Fly!, Leaving on the 15th Spring and Akko-Chan were screened for free much to the satisfaction of the audience.
The first movie to be shown was Fly Dakota, Fly. This is a true story of human love brought back after 67 years.
The British air force pilots were on their way to take the British consulate in Shanghai to Tokyo , but were forced to make an emergency landing due to bad weather.
Local residents had mixed feelings towards them as they were enemies until half a year ago.
However, in a spirit of goodwill, the village mayor Shintaro invites British soldiers to stay with his family until the Dakota is ready to take off.
The British are cautious at first but gradually open up to the warm welcome by the residents of Soda Island.
Another movie Leaving on the 15th Spring followed next. This movie is about a 15-year-old named Yuna who lived in Minami-Daito Island with the father Toshiharu who grew sugarcane.
Minami–Dikato island was located approximately 360 kilometres east of Okinawa Island .
Since there is no high school there, students have to leave the Island when they graduate from junior high school.
Yuna will move to Naha to enter high school and live with her mother, Akemi.
But young Yuna is worried about her father who will be left alone on the Island and wishes all her family could live again someday.
She then comes to the end of her stay and sings ‘Abayoi’ with all her love and longing for her family as well as the island she must leave.
As if to serve the best for last, the screening of the movie Akko-Chan closed the curtains, as this is a super adorable romantic entertainment movie wrapped it all.
The movie is based on Himitsu no Akko-Chan, a classic by Fiji Akatsuka that shines in the history of Japanese comics.
The 10-year-old Aksuko Kagami, called Akko for short, transforms into her 22-year-old self with a magical compact that a spirit of mirrors gives her.
She then happens to meet Naoto Hayase, an elite manager at a famous cosmetics company, who takes a liking to her and later give her a part time job.
As times goes by, she gradually begins to fall in love with him and finds herself at loss.
Bewildered by the disparity of an elementary school girl in a 22-year-old body, Akko nevertheless earnestly makes an effort to do her very best and her pure energy surely touched many viewer’s hearts.
Deputy Minister of Tourism and Arts Lawrence Evans, who attended at the premiere night, congratulated the Japanese Embassy on the film festival, especially that the films were screened during the 50 years of bilateral relationship between the two countries.