Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2011

While it may not be apparent by surveying most Japanese films on offer in Tokyo cinemas these days, there is a new surge of young auteurs in Japan breaking through. Up-and-coming filmmaker Fumie Nishikawa studied filmmaking in London and worked on a script for a film that screened at the prestigious Venice film festival. Her documentaries have screened at fests throughout the world and this, her first feature, has been circulating at children’s film fests around the globe over the last two years. Picking up the Adult Jury Prize at Chicago International Children’s Film Festival in 2009, Azemichi Jumping is a sweet and uplifting, if somewhat cliché story. A hearing impairment has sealed tween Yuki (Haruka Oba) into a world of her own. When she discovers a group of hip-hop dancers at her Junior High school she joins them despite her insecurities and works toward the big competition at the end (guess what happens). Playing on petty jealousies, peer pressure and a sense of inferiority, the film finely portrays Yuki’s reality. It also captures the drab and decrepit towns, surrounded by rice fields, on the outskirts of Kanto where young’uns grow up neither urban nor suburban. While mainly a kids piece, this will charm those ready for a formulaic but feel-good yarn. (English title: Azemichi Road; 85 min)