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Japanese Film Festival 2016 in Jakarta to Screen The Anthem of the Heart

The Japan Foundation, Jakarta announced last Friday that its Japanese Film Festival 2016 event will screen the Indonesian premiere of The Anthem of the Heart, the original anime film from the anohana (Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai.) and Toradora! anime staff.

The film centers on Jun Naruse, who inadvertently drives a wedge between her family due to her words, and causes her parents to separate during her childhood. Since then, she has been unable to speak. In high school, she, along with classmates Takumi Sakagami, Natsuki Nitō, and DAIKI Tasaki, are chosen to lead a community outreach program. When they decide to make a stage musical, Jun's inability to speak becomes a liability for them, while Takumi and Natsuki's past relationship threatens to drive Jun away completely. DAIKI cares more about his baseball team than the program. The four must find a way to reconcile their differences, and to express themselves completely, confronting the consequences of the words they share with others.

The Anthem of the Heart ranked as the 35th highest grossing domestic Japanese film for 2015, and earned 1.12 billion yen (about US$9.46 million). The film premiered in Japan in September 2015.

The film reunited the core staff members from the anohana and Toradora! anime. Tatsuyuki Nagai (A Certain Scientific Railgun, Waiting in the Summer) again directed the film at the studio A-1 Pictures. Mari Okada (A Lull in the Sea, Hana-Saku Iroha) wrote the script, and Masayoshi Tanaka (your name., Joshiraku) designed the characters. Like the anohana anime, the story of The Anthem of the Heart is set in Chichibu. The idols of the Nogizaka46 group contributed their 13th single, "Ima, Hanashitai Dareka ga Iru" (Now, There Is Someone I Want to Talk With) as the film's theme song.

The Japanese Film Festival 2016 event is also screening the Indonesian premiere of Mamoru Hosoda's The Boy and The Beast film, as well as both live-action film adaptations of Yuki Suetsugu's Chihayafuru manga. The event will take place at the Cinemaxx Theater in Jakarta on November 24 to 27.

[Via Kaori Nusantara]