NHK-NEP (Japan) is presenting for MIPTV the company’s new Spring slate with two docs heading the slate: Satoyama (2x’52), coproduced with ARTE France in 8K, and Radioactive Forest 10 Years After (’52).
Satoyama is a nature short documentary produced by NHK in coproduction with ARTE France. Nature is rich in blessings but can also be harmful to human life. People across Japan have been resilient, learning their lessons and passing them on for generations. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, this 8K documentary series captures the supreme beauty of the Japanese countryside, a place where gentle slopes left by landslides have been carved into rice terraces, where meltwater from heavy snow nurtures colorful carp, and where volcanic ash sustains lush grasslands.
Another big title for MIPTV is Radioactive Forest 10 Years After (’52), a 4K/HD current affairs doc produced by NHK in co-production with CuriosityStream. The deep forest looks beautiful and healthy. But inside, it’s contaminated with radioactive materials and can be harmful to life. The Fukushima nuclear accident in March 2011 destroyed the region’s natural environment and people’s livelihoods.
Filmed in 8K, another top content of the MIPTV catalogue are Mysterious India: Jaisalmer (’59, working title), which takes viewers on a journey into this “golden” city, absorbing the historical and religious meaning behind the ornate designs created in the days when merchants trekked the Silk Road; Gender and Science (’49), which reexamines the meaning of gender through cutting-edge science about the biology of humankind; and The Frankenstein Temptation that presents incidents buried in history’s shadows in a thrilling, intelligent way to reveal the irresistible temptations of science.
Lastly, two dramas: The 13 Lords of the Shogun (2x’57 + 46x’43) contextualized on the 12th century, Japan when charismatic leader Minamoto no Yoritomo founds the Kamakura Shogunate, shifting the political powerbase from Kyoto to the east; and Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan (6x’49), based on the popular spinoff of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure by Araki Hirohiko.
