We're half-way through the film part of the festival!
What film do you definitely want to watch until it ends?
After looking at the reactions in this thread and my own likes, I think these four for me:
- I am What I am
- The Lone Ume Tree
- BL Metamorphosis
- the four horror shorts
Yesterday, I also watched
School Meals Time Graduation -- very simple plot, great comedic acting (I love how teacher Amarida is so over-enthusiastic about his life passion -- and how nobody in the school bats an eye at his antics). And, like all of the great Japanese comedies, the film has an underlying message or two.
School meals are not just school meals.
Eating is more than consuming nutrients.
Giving children food that will be good for them tomorrow, might not be the right thing for them today.
That's my second-favourite film so far. Maybe it just speaks to me because I have been working in education in some way or other for the last 20 years, and I hear things that other people wouldn't.

Not a Camellia:
I still don't know what I will watch next, maybe I will watch 2 prequels before actually watching School Meals Time Graduation
I've seen that there are two drama prequels, and a movie -- I plan to watch them after the festival. There's also a third season and another movie, I think.
If you want to watch the first two drama seasons before the film because you want to better understand the plot, I don't think that's neccessary. They give the most important info, and the plot isn't that hard to follow anyway.

Not a Camellia:
but I gave up
I'm sad to hear that but it's good that you don't feel obligated to do anything. We're hear to enjoy ourselves.

Elisheva:
They rejected my more complete listings for the three remaining horror shorts (someone else added them with zero information). Which means I'm going to have to make a THIRD round of submissions for the three of them. There are days I hate this site.
:( :( :(

Elisheva:
Zen Diary, the richness of his environment and food reminded me of how impoverished my relative 'privilege' is.
That part was beautiful. Richness in simplicity.

Elisheva:
And then the second half,
I think mostly it wasn't grieving, it felt more that he had to understand his own mortality. (Or, if you'd like to see it that way, he was grieving himself?) In accepting that he, too, will be gone, and not too far into the future, and thinking about how the world will be like when he's dead, he is able to go on with life and let go of his wife. I like that the film includes the topic of death, and the pace felt right to me -- it *was* several months.
Do you really think he was selfish? I won't pretend to know why he did not want her to live with him either -- I can understand the wish to die alone, however. It also felt that she only said yes because he had that heart atteack and she was scared to lose him, not a *real* wish to be together. And, human emotions are complex things anyway.
Their relationship was strange for me from the beginning, I do admit. It did not feel very romantic, but also not like they were really comfortable with each other.
I see that you weren't as annoyed by the voice-over in that part. To me it no longer felt like the flow of thoughts of an old man, with some deep thoughts and some more personal observations, it was more like a compilation of "The Best of Zen" you could buy in the gift section of a book store. Too much anyway. More silence with the occasional sentence would have made more impact.
Oh, and re: ranking (I don't know how to quote when editing a post) -- I choose ranking for thevoting list just by what feels right. There's no kind of rational reasoning at all.