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Japan Foundation Manila announced that the award-winning and highly-revered Japanese film Passage of Life, is one of the selected foreign movies that will be screened in this year's Cinemalaya 17: Philippine Independent Film Festival.

The film will be featured from August 19 to 21, 2021, under the Allied Screenings category of the festival.

In addition to the screening, there will be a live online discussion on the film on August 20, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. This will feature the film's director, Akio Fujimoto.

Originally released in 2017, Passage of Life is a co-production between Japan and Myanmar.

It has won several awards such as the Best Asian Future Award at the 30th Tokyo International Film Festival, the Spirit of Asia Award by the Japan Foundation Asia Center, CinemAsia FF 2018 Best Performer Award, Bangkok Asean FF2018 Special Jury Award and Jogja Jakarta NETPAC FF 2018 GEBAR Award to the film's director Akio Fujimoto.

Fujimoto was born in Osaka, Japan. He first studied family psychology in college before enroling at the Visual Arts Academy in Osaka, where he learned the art of filmmaking.

Fujimoto worked as selection committee chief for the student film category at the Nara International Film Festival.

In 2013, he directed his first short film, Psychedelic Family. Then he moved to Tokyo to work on his first feature which is Passage of Life.

The film is based on a true story that depicts the life and struggles of a Burmese boy and his family while living in Japan.

It also illustrates hatred and love within a family.

Language, cultural differences, and the refugee system were featured conspicuously in the film.

Watch the trailer below:

Along with director Akio Fujimoto, the online live discussion will also be lead by Kazutaka Watanabe, producer of Passage of Life and Janus Victoria, a Filipino writer and director who works in features and documentaries.

Meanwhile, let's look back at last year's film entries that featured Kapuso stars: