The Culturist Film Club: The Witches of the Orient
The next edition of The Culturist Film Club will be a sporty one.
With the Paris 2024 Olympics not far off (July 26-August 11), I’ve selected to screen The Witches of the Orient by Julien Faraut. A documentary about the formation of a Japanese female volleyball team in the 1950s, their rise and unbelievable 258 games winning streak, and their participation in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
The film includes amazing archive footage, animation and great score by Jason Lytle. A thrilling documentary that I first watched in 2021 during the home edition of IFFR, and I’m looking forward to seeing it on the big screen. Hope you can join me to watch and discuss the film.
As always, thanks and gratitude to Ossama El Shammaa and the team at Alliance Francaise for giving me the space to host these screenings.
Date and time: Tuesday, June 11 at 8.00pm
Ticket: AED 35 (free for Alliance Francaise members)
Location: Alliance Francaise, Dubai (location map)
The Witches of the Orient
Director: Julien Faraut
2021, France, 100 min, Japanese with English subtitles
How did a group of humble factory workers become a phenomenal sports success story and the pride of an entire nation? Meet the former players of the Japanese women’s volleyball team, now in their 70s, they used to be known as the ‘Witches of the Orient’ because of their seemingly supernatural powers on the courts.
From the formation of the squad in the late 1950s as a worker’s team at a textile factory, right up until their triumph at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, their memories and true magic from long ago bubble up into a heady brew where fact and fable fly hand in hand.
The Witches of the Orient also delivers a fascinating image of a post-WW2 world, in which Japan was trying to overcome its image of a vanquished nation, previously presided over by cruel rulers. The country could not have wished for a better, nor a more sympathy-inducing, way to bounce back. And we should thank the makers for taking us on this entertaining, educative and epic journey. — Nicole Santé, Business Doc Europe
The film is at its most strikingly effective when the editors alternate quickly between one archival source and another, emulating the lightning-paced brilliance displayed on court. It’s hard to inject much in the way of drama when one is dealing with an uninterrupted winning streak of 258 games, of course, but the last sections of the 1964 Tokyo final against the USSR do attain a surprising level of intensity. — Neil Young, Screendaily
