Do you know that you can watch Japanese films for free online? I am not talking about bootleg or pirated sites, but an official one sanctioned by the Japanese government. And all you need to do is sign up for free.

The Japan Film Festival (JFF), which regularly hosts movie screenings in certain cinemas in the Philippines, has a website where they show Japanese films of varied types—although mostly these are what most people would call the “artsy” kind, which is not at all dissimilar to those that the JFF screens in movie theaters in the country.

Dubbed the JFF Theater, the website regularly updates its lineup of Japanese films available for streaming (with subtitles too). I stumbled upon it by chance. On one of those days of semi-doomscrolling, I saw a post by the JFF Theater’s official Instagram page, promoting a film about friendship and karaoke, a 2024 movie called “Karaoke Iko!” (“Let’s Go Karaoke”). Curious, I clicked on it and saw that I could watch the film online for free. I did, but only after going through the very easy process of signing up for an account on the JFF Theater’s official website.

Since then, I have constantly been receiving email updates about the next lineup of films for streaming on JFF Theater. These range from popular titles from a few years back to somewhat more obscure flicks from decades ago, all of which feature an aspect of Japanese culture that film enthusiasts can learn from and enjoy. There are also documentaries available every once in a while.

Its current lineup features two interesting titles. There is “Yudo: The Way of Bath” (2022), which is about the future of a family-owned local bathhouse. The other is a 1992 comedy called “Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t,” which won Best Film at the Japan Academy Prize in 1993. It stars Masahiro Motoki, the same actor from “Departures” ("Okuribito"), the 2009 Oscar winner for Best International Feature. Another is the 2017 film “The Miracles of the Namiya General Store,” based on the 2012 novel of the same title by bestselling Japanese author Keigo Higashino.

Perhaps the Philippines can learn a thing or two from the JFF. Currently, some Filipino classic films are available for streaming online for free, but in the respective YouTube channels of their particular producers. This is well and good, as it still makes the films available for free public streaming. But why not make an online repository that promotes these films on a regular, rotational basis not just for Filipinos but for international audiences online?

This may be something the Film Development Council of the Philippines can add to its regular activities, which already includes a subscription-based online film streaming service called JuanFlix. While the subscription model is understandable, it seems a little unclear as to how successful this has been in promoting Filipino films to a wider audience, in the same way the JFF Theater does with its free streaming model.