Yuya Ishii picks up award as Tokyo Project Gathering wraps

The Tokyo Project Gathering (TPG) co-production market wrapped with the TPG Award going to Hara Ga Kore Nande, a Japanese project directed by Yuya Ishii.

Previous winner of the Edward Yang New Talent Award at the 1^st Asian Film Awards in 2008, Ishii previously directed Bare-Assed Japan and Sawako Decides, both of which travelled to many film festivals.

Hara Ga Kore Nande is about a young pregnant woman who is dumped by her boyfriend and estranged from her parents, and how she makes her way into a new and different family.

This year, TPG took place on the same floor of the Roppongi Hills complex as the rest of the TIFFCOM market, cutting down the maze-like elevator-and-corridor travel time for participants.

“They made a good move, putting TIFFCOM and TPG on the same floor. It seems like there’s a lot of business and it’s much more convenient. The selection this year also seems like a much better crop,” said producer Tim Kwok of Convergence.

“It’s been useful to have a film in the festival and a project in the TPG at the same time,” said Edmund Yeo who is attached as producer to director Woo Ming Jin’s The Book Keeper in TPG, and who produced Woo’s The Tiger Factory which is screening in the Tokyo International Film Festival. “It seems like there are more important people in meetings than when we were here two years ago with a different project – not just for us, but other projects, too.”

James Leong, whose project Camera previously won an award at the Puchon International Film Festival’s NAFF genre film project market, said, “I like Puchon, it’s concentrated with similar kinds of projects. On the other hand, TPG is bigger and there are a lot of booths and many walk-ins, too. It’s been quite useful getting feedback here, too.”