The Weekend Japanese Film Show in January – Haru’s Journey

 

DATE: 9 January 2016

TIME: 3.00 p.m.

VENUE: Auditorium, Content Malaysia Pitching Centre, Unit G09 G10, Platinum Sentral, Jalan Stesen Sentral 50470, Kuala Lumpur

ADMISSION: Free

Organized by : The Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur. The Japan Foundation is a non-profit organization established with the purpose of fostering mutual cultural exchange between Japan and other countries.

The 2016 season of our free monthly film screenings opens with Harus Journey which follows the uneasy journey of an elderly fisherman and his granddaughter as they hit the hard roads of northern Japan providing uniquely penetrating insight into Japanese culture through the universal themes of acceptance resilience and familial commitment.

 

Haru’s Journey

春との旅

(小林政広 KOBAYASHI Masahiro/2010/83 min)

An elderly fisherman named Tadao and his granddaughter Haru live together in a small harbourside village in Hokkaido. When Haru loses her job, she decides to take her grandfather to Tokyo where there are better work opportunities. But Tadao refuses, and so begins a road movie driven by household dynamics as the two set off on a journey to the mainland to see if one of his siblings is willing to look after him.

A favoured director in the European film festival circuit, Masahiro Kobayashi established his mainstream credentials with this uniquely penetrating portrait of Japanese culture, filtered through the universal themes of acceptance, resilience and familial commitment.

// AWARDS HONOURS //

❖ 65th Mainichi Film Award of Excellence in Japanese Film

❖ 65th Mainichi Film Award for Best Newcomer – Eri Tokunaga

❖ 20th Japanese Film Critics Award for Best Japanese Film

❖ 2011 Granada Film Festival Cines del Sur Silver Alhambra for Best Director – Masahiro Kobayashi

❖ 2011 Vesoul Asian Film Festival Audience Award

Official webpage: http://www.jfkl.org.my/events/wjfs-jan-2016

THE WEEKEND JAPANESE FILM SHOW has been organised by The Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur (JFKL) regularly for over 10 years. The programme takes place every first Saturday of the month and is free of charge. All films are presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

Japan's Taxi Association Visits Malaysia

The Minister of Tourism and Culture Malaysia Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz hosted a dinner to welcome 50 members of Sango Taxi Association from Osaka and two members each from Kobe and Fukuoka’s taxi associations at the Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur Hotel today.

This is the second visit to Malaysia organised by Sango Taxi Association to enable their members and taxi associations from other cities to get first-hand experience of the country’s tourism attractions.

During the dinner, Dato’ Seri Mohamed Nazri expressed his appreciation to the members of the Japan’s taxi associations for their assistance in promoting Malaysia to their passengers and clients in Japan.

“It is amazing to see that the members of these taxi associations have taken the initiative to visit Malaysia at their own expenses in an effort to get to know the country better so that they can share their experiences with their family, friends, and passengers in Japan. At the same time, they can also be a spokesperson for Malaysia,” he said.

The Minister of Tourism and Culture also said that such commitment shown by them is exemplary and should be applauded and appreciated.

Their weeklong tour to various parts of Malaysia, beginning today, is organised by Tourism Malaysia. It includes a Destination Seminar and a tour to Genting Highlands, Kuala Lumpur, and Melaka.

Japan Taxi 2016

The artwork on the Japan Taxi for Visit Malaysia.

Tourism Malaysia has been collaborating with various taxi associations across Japan in eight of its major cities, namely Osaka, Tokyo, Kobe, Yokohama, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Sapporo, in an advertising campaign called Taxi Wrapping, which involves 1,060 taxis. It is part of Tourism Malaysia’s continuous efforts to promote Malaysia’s tourist destinations to Japanese tourists.

Tourism Malaysia is the only National Tourism Organisation allowed to carry out the taxi wrapping campaign in Japan due to the close diplomatic, economic and cultural relations between Malaysia and Japan. The taxi wrapping campaign is more cost-effective compared to other terms of mainstream advertising, besides producing high recall and response levels from consumers.

 Japan is one of Malaysia’s top ten tourist generating markets. Malaysia recorded a total of 149,951 Japanese tourists for the first four months of 2015. This year, Malaysia aims to attract 600,000 Japanese tourists to the country in conjunction with the Malaysia Year of Festivals (MyFest).

With better connectivity between Malaysia and Japan through direct flights by Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia X, Japan Airlines, and All Nippon Airways from Tokyo (41 flights per week), and Osaka (14 flights per week), Tourism Malaysia foresees higher passenger traffic between the two countries in the future.

In conjunction with the Malaysia International Travel Mart (MITM 2015), Malaysia Airlines will be treating its customers to some irresistible travel deals via its website, www. malaysiaairlines.com beginning today until 17 August 2015.

Travelers will be able to enjoy some great bargains on Malaysia Airlines’ domestic and international routes for immediate travel until 31 March 2016. Meanwhile, the national carrier will also be joining 60 other exhibitors beginning today till 16 August 2015 for the MITM at Mid Valley Exhibition Centre

Malaysia Airlines’ Senior Manager Regional Sales Malaysia, Kathleen Leong, said, “Take advantage of this special promotion and plan ahead your travels with your family and loved ones. This is the time for travellers to go out and about exploring the hidden gems of our homeground or travel abroad for a much needed vacation”

“If you are in the city, come and visit our booth at the Mid Valley Exhibition Centre and you will be spoilt for choice on our many exclusive travel deals. We will also be giving away return tickets to Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok to some lucky draw winners during the exhibition,” added Kathleen. Release for MITM 2015 – Malaysia Airlines Deals.

AirAsia Free Seats Promotion June

AirAsia Free Seats Promotion June 2015 is back with 3 million promo seats up for grabs for selected AirAsia and AirAsia X flights throughout the airline’s extensive route network.

The promotional all-in-fares are from as low as RM9.54 inclusive of applicable taxes and fees one way. For free seats promotion, guests only need to pay for the applicable taxes and fees while the seats are free! These promotional seats are available for booking from 22 – 28 June 2015, for the travel period from 15 February 2016 – 31 August 2016.

Free seats are available to various domestic international destinations such as Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kota Bharu, Langkawi, Penang, Terengganu, Kuching, Miri, Ho Chi Minh, Surat Thani, Lombok, Bangkok, Singapore, Jakarta, Xi’an and many more destinations from Kuala Lumpur; along with other exciting destinations from AirAsia’s other hubs in Penang, Johor Bahru, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. Promo all-in-fares from as low as RM129 one way are also available for destinations like Perth, Melbourne, Chengdu, Seoul and Tokyo; or guest can enjoy affordable luxury with AirAsia X’s award winning Business Class Flatbed with all-in-fares from as low as RM699 one way to Perth, Xi’an, Taipei, Osaka and Colombo from Kuala Lumpur.

Siegtraund Teh, Group Chief Commercial Officer of AirAsia said, “Our legendary free seats are back and we hope to see more people taking this opportunity to travel and discover new places. This is a great time for our guests to plan out their holidays and travelling for next year. We were recently awarded the World’s Best Low Cost Airline for seven consecutive years and this free seats promo is our special way of saying thank you for all the support given by our guests. Rest assured we are always listening to our guests’ needs for low fares”. Visit www.airasia.com for the AirAsia Free Seats Promotion June, 2015.