Welcome to another trailer post. We’re almost midway through September and that means closer to the Raindance Film Festival (here’s my preview). I’ll be attending that and, hopefully, interviewing some directors. I’ll have to see how my schedule shapes up. It will be tight because I’ll also be going to see the Tate’s exhibition about JMW Turner’s painting towards the end of his career. After Raindance, I’ll be going to the BFI London Film Festival (here’s my preview). Fewer films to see there but there is The World of Kanako, my most anticipated title of 2014. I hope to get the preview of the Vancouver Film Festival completed next week.

The week has been very busy with lots of extra hours at work, Japanese class and yet I still found time to write up my autumn anime season picks for the blog and start on a massive backlog of reviews including one from last year’s Raindance and this year’s Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme. I also completed Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology on the PSP. Truthfully, I was ready to complete it long ago but I stopped playing it because it was not that much fun. Time to start playing Star Ocean: First Departure. No movies watched this week. As far as anime goes, I watched all of the latest episodes from my summer picks – the Space Dandy episode Lovers Are Trendy, Baby, was fun and heart-breaking. Scarlet and Dandy made such a good couple. Tokyo Ghoul is getting even more exciting and over the top and Barakamon is maintaining its high quality brilliance but the biggest investment in time, attention and effort for me happened when I started watching the anime adaptation of Monster again, a mature and dark anime I rate highly. 70+ episodes and it is worth it!

This week I posted about the London Film Festival and Takashi Miike’s latest horror title, As the God’s Will which is released next month.

What’s released this weekend in Japan? Lots of excellent films, much like last year’s September!

Rurouni Kenshin The Legend Ends   

Japanese: るろうに剣心　伝説の最期編

Romaji: Rurouni Kenshin: Densetsu no Saigo-hen

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 135 mins.

Director: Keishi Otomo

Writer: Kiyomi Fujii, Keishi Otomo, (Screenplay), Nobuhiro Watsuki (Original Manga)

Starring: Takeru Satoh, Emi Takei, Yu Aoi, Munetaka Aoki, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Yusuke Iseya, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Kaito Oyagi, Tao Tsuchiya, Maryjun Takahashi, Kazufuki Miyazawa,

The Kyoto arc of the original manga comes to an explosive end as Kenshin must face off against another elite assassin, Shishio Makoto, a man who wants to overthrow the newly formed government.

Website

Honey Flappers   

Japanese: ハニー　フラッパーズ

Romaji: Hani- Furappa-zu

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 80 mins.

Director: Megumi Sasaki

Writer: Hiroyuki Machino, Kenji Hirayama, Megumi Sasaki (Screenplay),

Starring: Anri Sakaguchi, Yukie Kawamura, Saaya, isaki Nitou, Yukiko Kawabe, Haruna Yabuki, Yuuri Morishita, Asuka Kishi, Sayuri Anzu, Ayumi Orii, Ruri Shinato

Mika (Sakaguchi) struggles at university but all of that changes when she gets a job as a hostess at Club Honey, a cabaret club and battles to be the best hostess in town!

Website

Maiko wa Lady   

Japanese: 舞妓はレデイ

Romaji: Maiko wa Redei

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 135 mins.

Director: Masayuki Suo

Writer: Masayuki Suo (Screenplay),

Starring: Mone Kamishiraishi, Hiroki Hasegawa, Jurina Matsui, Sumiko Fuji, Eri Watanabe, Tamiyo Kusakari, Tomoko Tabata, Naoto Takenaka, Sakurako Ohara, Gaku Hamada, Tou Muto,

Haruko Saigo (Kmshiraishi) is a Kagoshima girl with dreams of becoming a geisha. She heads to Kyoto and starts ife as a maiko (apprentice geisha) but finds that learning the traditions and coping with the different way of life is a little bit harder than expected.

Website

Umi wo Kanjiru Toki (When I Sense the Sea)   

Japanese: 海を感じる時

Romaji: Umi wo Kanjiru Toki

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Ando

Writer: Haruhiko Arai (Screenplay), Kei Nakazawa (Original Novel)

Starring: Yui Ichikawa, Sosuke Ikematsu, Masaki Miura, Kumi Nakamura, Sakiko Takao, Madoka Sakai,

Based on a famous novel by Kei Nakazawa.

Emiko (Ichikawa) and Yo (Ikematsu) are both members of their high school newspaper club and run into each other in the club room during a break. Emiko is attracted to Yo and desires him despite the fact that he has a girlfriend. The two kiss and this sparks a relationship based mostly on sex. Emiko follows Yo to Tokyo when he attends university and their relationship continues but how will it end…?

Website

Murder Workshop   

Japanese: 殺人ワークショップ

Romaji: Satsujin Wa-kushoppu

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 75 mins.

Director: Koji Shiraishi

Writer: Koji Shiraishi (Screenplay),

Starring: Shohei Uno, Akiko Kiuchi, Mie Nishimura, Asami Ito, Hidetoshi Tokudome,

Murder Workshop comes from ENBU Seminar, an indie collective constantly releasing shorts and features. These guys pair up buding actors with experienced directors and other professionals for on the job training. This latest one is directed by horror vet Koji Shiraishi and it stars Shohei Uno. Shiraishi’s latest film was featured in last week’s trailer post and is a prolific low-budget horror auteur. Shohei Uno is a character actor who is moving into taking the lead roles.

Here’s the music video for the film’s theme:

Akiko is abused by her lover. When she receives an email offering training to kill a person, she signs up for the course. When she gets to the workshop, she finds herself surrounded by people ready to be taught to kill and all lead by their mysterious and brutal teacher (Uno)!!!

Website

Cardfight!! Vanguard The Movie: Neon Messiah 

Japanese: 劇場版 カードファイト!! ヴァンガードネオンメサイア

Romaji: Gekijouban Cardfight!! Vanguard Neon Mesaia

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 70 mins.

Anime Director: Shin Itagaki, Live Action Director: Takashi Motoki

Writer: Mayori Sekijima (Screenplay), Akira Ito (Original Creator)

Starring: Daigo (Daigo), Izumi Kitta (Misaki Tokura), Takuya Sato (Toshiki Kai), Tsubasa Yonaga (Aichi Sendo), Mamoru Miyano (Koji Ibuki),

The Cardfight!! Vanguard franchise is big and there are two films getting released today, one an anime, the other live-action, both starring the musician DAIGO. Two directors are working on this. The live-action one is directed by Takashi Motoki and the anime is directed by Shin Itagaki (Ben-To, Teekyuu). In the live-action film, DAIGO is the strongest Cardfight!! Player and gets challenged to battles thanks to a criminal organisation, while in the anime, Aichi and Kai join forces to battle a massive threat..

Website

Atorie Iroiro (Atelier of Variety)   

Japanese: アトリエ　いろいろ

Romaji: Atorie Iroiro

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 135 mins.

Director: Ryosuke Yoshiyuki

Writer: N/A

Starring: Keisuke Mita

Atelier of Variety? The documentary was shot over the course of ten years and follows the book illustrator Keisuke Mita as he works with people with various mental disabilities.

Website

Club Andalusia Ginza Namiki Street   

Japanese: 銀座並木通り　クラブアンダルシア

Romaji: Ginza Namikidouri Kurabu Andarushia

Release Date: September 13^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Hideki Wada

Writer: Hideki Wada, Ryou Kurashina, Keiji Sagami (Screenplay), Ryou Kurashina, Takeshi Mine (Original Manga)

Starring: Hiroki Matsukata, Nao Eguchi, Dai Watanabe, Yuji Abe, Ryo Nishikata, Sayaka Tsuruta, Rie Ishihara,

Oh no, another adaptation of a manga. Hold it! This one is based on the rather mature and mysterious titles of Ryou Kurashina and Takeshi Mine, two experienced creatives. This story is set in Club Andalusia which is located in Ginza where hostess and customers meet and when they gather together you can bet  large amount of secrets and mysteries are created as well as the sparks of romance…

Website

The Pinkie         

Japanese: さまよう　小指

Romaji: Samayou Koyubi

Release Date: September 14^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 63 mins.

Director: Lisa Takeba

Writer: Lisa Takeba (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryota Ozawa, Miwako Wagatsuma, Haruka Suenaga, Kanji Tsuda

The best day of the month with the best film! When writing about film festivals you get to know a lot of the titles that are on tour around the world and, of course, you pick up one or two that you really want to see. The Pinkie is one of those films. I first encountered it when writing the Rotterdam International Film Festival post and I had hoped that I would see it at Raindance or the London Film Festival. Alas, no. It’s getting released in Japan this weekend and I still think it looks like a heap of fun. It also has the best poster that I have seen this year (apart from Snow White Murder Case)! Here’s my original blurb from Rotterdam:

Wow, this looks like a lot of fun which is why I put it first. It comes from Lisa Takeba who was at last year’s festival with a short film about an alien private detective who is wandering around earth. If that sounds a little random, this one reads a lot more interesting as it looks like a mash-up of anime, film and Japanese pop culture and fashion where a female stalker has her way with the guy of her dreams. Lisa Takeba has a background in advertising and writing videogames so she’s got a lot of experience with different styles to work with! It stars Miwako Wagatsuma who is an actress worth tracking because she is taking on interesting roles as can be seen from her filmography which includes Guilty of Romance, The End of Puberty, Sentimental Yasuko, Kuro and Shing Shing Shing.

Since they were both five, Ryosuke has been stalked by Momoko – the ugliest girl in the village. Momoko’s love for Ryosuke is so boundless that she has her face surgically altered to suit his taste – but still, he wants nothing to do with her. Ryosuke is more interested in the girlfriend of a yakuza boss. But when the boss finds out about their affair, he has Ryosuke’s little finger hacked off. Magically, the finger falls into Momoko’s hands, and she uses it to clone Ryosuke, so she can finally have him (or almost him) for herself – and that’s the first five minutes.

Website

Canada is awesome. Two film festivals and both featuring lots of excellent films! The first Canadian film festival I’m thinking about is the Toronto International Film Festival which had a plethora of great titles and that one finished yesterday. The second film festival I’m thinking about is The Vancouver International Film Festival which kicks off on September 25^th and finishes on October 10^th. It features a lot of Japanese films and Tony Rayns has written up about them.

As ever, the titles link to the festival pages which have more information such as times and prices and fuller descriptions.

The Features:

Sharing   

Japanese: Sharing

Romaji: Sharing

Running Time: 94 mins.

Director: Makoto Shinozaki

Writer: Makoto Shinozaki, Zenzo Sakai (Screenplay),

Starring: Asuka Hinoi, Kinuo Yamada, Ryudai Takahashi, Tomoki Kimura, Kumi Hyodo, Takuji Suzuki,

It’s easy to dismiss Japanese entertainment as production committee driven adaptations on novels. This is original and it looks like it could be a great psychological piece what with the festival sites description of being Cronenberg-like. Kinuwo Yamada is an interesting actress who has appeared in Villain (2010), Confessions (2010) and There’s Nothing to Be Afraid of (2013).

Eiko (Kinuo) is a psychology teacher in a university. She lost her husband in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and this pushes her to research cases of individuals who claim to have had precognitive dreams about the disaster. One of her students, Kaoru (Asuka), is a member of the drama club, and is writing a stage a play about the disaster. The two become so engaged in their projects that it pushes friends and colleagues away from them as they become more extreme n their work…

Disconcerto　(English Title) / Rhapsody in front of Mahoro Station (literal title)

Japanese: まほろ　駅前　狂騒曲

Romaji: Mahoro Ekimae Kyousoukyoku

Running Time: 124 mins.

Director: Tatsushi Omori

Writer: Tatsushi Omori, Hikaru Kurozumi (Screenplay), Shion Miura (Original Novel),

Starring: Eita, Ryuhei Matsuda, Yoko Maki, Masatoshi Nagase, Kengo Kora, Maro Akaji, Nao Omori, Miku Iwasaki, Shohei Uno, Hirofumi Arai, Masaki Miura, Tomoko Naraoka,

Director Tatsushi Omori had a strong year in 2013 with his film, The Ravine of Goodbye, and switches tones with this laid back title. He reunites with his leading lady from that film, Yoko Maki, and teams her up with two of Japan’s most talented young actors, Eita and Ryuhei Matsuda. This is the sequel film which was the sequel of a television series which was based on the novel of Shion Miura. Tony Rayns calls this, “a package of unsinkable charm!,” and he knows his stuff.

Tada (Eita) runs a “benriya” – a do-it-all service – in front of the fictional Mahoro Station n Tokyo. He is optimistic unlike his friend Gyoten (Matsuda) who is cynical. The two blunder through various assignments but when people and events from Gyoten’s past show up their friendship is pushed to breaking point…

Ow   

Japanese: 丸

Romaji: Maru

Running Time: 89 mins.

Director: Yohei Suzuki

Writer: Yohei Suzuki, Yukiko Koyama (Screenplay),

Starring: Kaoru Iida, Masatoshi Kihara, Shu Ikeda, Sari Kaneko, Hitomi Karube, Rock Murakai, Shoji Omiya, Shigeko Tanaka

Vancouver usually has at least one strong indie title and this is it, a scii mystery with politics mixed in.

Tetsuo is unemployed and stuck in his famiy home with his girlfriend Yuriko. Things seem bad when he finds out that his father lost his job a month ago  but they get weirder and even tragic when a mysterious orb descends from the sky, infiltrates the house and starts scrambling the brains of anyone near it. A police investigation ends in chaos and it is left to a reporter named Deguchi to discover just what is going on!

The Furthest End Awaits  

Japanese: さいはてにて−かけがえのない場所−

Romaji: Saihate nite – Kakegae no Nai Basho

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Chiang Hsiu-Chiung

Writer: Nako Kakinoki (Screenplay),

Starring: Hiromi Nagasaku, Nozomi Sasaki, Hiyori Sakurada, Masatoshi Nagase, Sakurada Hiyori, Kaisei Hotamori, Asami Usuda, Issei Ogata, Jun Murakami, Masatoshi Nagase, Miyoko Asada

The Furthest End Awaits is set in Japan yet and directed by Taiwanese director Chiang Hsiu Chiung, Tony Rayns describes it as “a high benchmark for films about female solidarity.” Chiang has acted in films and worked as an assistant to Hou Hsia- Hsien. This is her first fiction feature. It’s not released in Japan yet and I’m going to see it at the London Film Festival!

Misaki Yoshida (Nagasaku) runs a coffee shop in Tokyo. When she finds out that her father has disappeared, she heads back to her family’s hometown in the Nodo Peninsula, on the Sea of Japan. She finds that he has left an old family boathouse and a lot of debts. In order to clear the debts Misaki decides to turn the boathouse into a café and it attracts many locals such as Eriko Yamazaki (Sasaki), a single mother with two children and a caberet singer. The two women forge a friendship with each other.

The Vancouver Asahi   

Japanese: バンクーバーの朝日

Romaji: Vancouver no Asahi

Running Time: 130 mins.

Director: Yuya Ishii

Writer: Satoko Okudera (Screenplay),

Starring: Satoshi Tsumabuki, Kazuya Kamenashi, Mitsuki Takahata, Aoi Miyazaki, Ryo Katsuji, Yusuke Kamiji, Sosuke Ikematsu, Shihori Kanjiya, Eri Ishida, Koichi Sato,

Vancouver scoop the film world again with another film not yet released in Japan and it’s thanks to the fact that they have supported the director, Yuya Ishii since his earliest films. Regular followers of this blog will know that I have reviewed his films Sawako Decides, Mitsuko Delivers, and The Great Passage and found all but one to be wonderful, full of dry comedy based on observational humour. This looks like a mix of that with more serious drama based on the immigrant experience. The screenplay is by Satoko Okudera, scribe for the wonderful The Wolf Children. I bet another reason Vancouver got the film s because it’s set in the city! The lead actor is Satoshi Tsumabuki, a great talent who can completely change his performances with the roles he is given as seen in For Love’s Sake, Villain, Judge! and more. No trailer but here’s a new report with clips:

Vancouver in the 1930’s had a Japantown, a place near the docks where sailors and immigrants lived. The children of these immigrants form a baseball team named Asahi. Despite being beaten by their Caucasian rivals they keep playing and get better. They endure racism and prejudice but things get worse when Japan goes to war with the US…

The Tale of Princess Kaguya    

Japanese:　かぐや　姫　の　物語

Romaji: Kaguya Hime no Monogatari

Running Time: 137 mins.

Director: Isao Takahata

Writer: Isao Takahata, Riko Sakaguchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Aki Asakura (Kaguya), Kengo Kora (Sutemaru), Nobuko Miyamoto (Ouno), Takeo Chii (Okina)

The Tale of Princess Kaguya has been touring film festivals since last year. It is by Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, writer and director of Only Yesterday, Pom Poko, Grave of the Fireflies and Little Norse Prince Valiant. It’s based on a traditional Japanese story where a newborn girl is discovered in a luminous stalk of bamboo and she brings joy to an elderly woodcutter and his wife. She quickly grows into a beautiful and talented young woman but finds the demands of the world too much…

The Horses of Fukushima                     

Japanese: 祭の馬

Romaji: Matsuri no Uma

Running Time: 74 mins.

Director: Yoju Matsubayashi

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

While filming a documentary, Memories of the Lost Landscape, director Yoju Matsubayashi came across a stable of injured horses in the exclusion zone of Fukushima, this after the Great East Japan Earthquake and reactor meltdown at the power plant.  He became fascinated with a failed steeplechaser named Miller’s Quest and charted the horse’s recovery. Tony Rayn’s states: “Of all the many Fukushima documentaries of the last three years, this is the most unexpected, and probably the most moving.”

The Short Films and Anime:

The one short film is the 28 minute, Niagara, a film written and directed by Chie Hayakawa and starring Saki Itami Keita Hoshino, Masako Kawachi and Junji Sanechika. The film is “excellent,” according to Tony Rayns, who goes on to state that, “film centres on the moment that a young woman (who has grown up thinking she’s an orphan) learns for the first time to see… and to start living.” It screens with The Horses of Fukushima.

Amazing Anime

As is usually the case with Vancouver there are a lot of animated short films that show indie anime in Japan is alive and well even if the commercial industry is struggling to create new content that can hook more sophisticated and demanding audiences. There is also a lot of female talent on offer, a trend that IS slowly happening in mainstream anime!

Titles range from an analysis on the state of old media in Newspaper (dir: Yoshinao Satoh, 7 mins), a documentary which takes a look at The Japan Times, a fantastic resource for news on Japan, to the icky sounding Anal Juice (dir: Sawako Kabuki, 3 mins), is about the dreams the director had when her lover left her – apparently he liked enemas…

Fear not, with the other shorts we are coming back into more normal territory with Rappa (Yuki Nakajima, 5 mins) which promises ninja action during a prison break (not nessarily featuring ninjas), White, Heat, Lights (dir: Takashi Nakajima, 11 mins), a series of vignettes about sunrises and sunsets, Soliton  (dir: Isamu Hirabayashi), which featured at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and is a mediatation on the 2011 earthquake and tsunami as told by one man’s journey across varying terrain. There is Waiter (dir: Hajime Takahashi), which is described as A seriously weird animation which plays on two meanings of “wait”: “wait on (someone)” and “to wait (for something).” Yamada himself says “it might be a criticism of nuclear power.”

Other shorts include the impressive looking and sounding Gyrø (dir: Yuki Kobayashi), a feminist protest against lazy men with a reggae score. De_Riria_Subasutaimu (dir: Shinsaku Hidaka, 13 mins), which, with its hospital location and a husband visiting his sick wife and going on a mental journey, reminds me of Silent Hill 2. The Small Garden (dir: Shunsuke Saito, 12 mins) is a good-looking sci-fi mystery about the origins of EVERYTHING! Awesome. Flower Bud (dir: Saki Nakano, 5 mins), is a short about touching and feeling and dreaming. Budding, Swelling (dir: Ryoya Usuha, 7 mins) is a CG short about the fine matter of material beings.  Snow Hut (dir: Yoriko Mizushiri, 6 mins) is described as a sensual meditation on the snow in Kamakura and snowing.

That’s a strong line-up!

Third Window Films will release Lesson of Evil on September 28^th and I have had mine on pre-order since it became available on day one. I’ll wait until I get it before I review it but I am anticipating a barn-storming bit of entertainment. It’s a title I have kept track of ever since it played at the Rotterdam film festival and I was excited by the buzz because the reviews pointed to it as evidence that he was going back to his roots in gory horror and action titles and those are the films I first go to know him by. The film is based on a book written by Yusuke Kishi, an award winning novelist who specialises in horror and stars a lot of great actors.

Also, awesome DVD case!

Here are the release details:

LESSON OF EVIL

A film by Takashi Miike (Audition, 13 Assassins, For Love’s Sake)

Japan / 2012 / 129 Mins / In Japanese with English subtitles / Colour

Starring: Hideaki Ito (Sukiyaki Western Django, The Princess Blade, Umizaru)
Shota Sometani (Himizu, Tokyo Tribe, Sadako 3D)
Fumi Nikaido (Himizu, Au Revoir L’Ete, My Man, Why Don’t You Play In Hell?)
Takayuki Yamada (13 Assassins, Gantz, Crows Zero)

On DVD & BLU-RAY September 29th

DVD/BLU-RAY Special Features:
2 hour long Making Of, New UK Trailer

Synopsis

Cool and charismatic English teacher Seiji Hasumi (ITO) is popular with students and teachers alike. He inspires trust and respect from his class, greeting many with an affectionate, if irritating, ruffle of the hair. But his actions soon take a turn, revealing something dark behind that charming smile. Students become suspicious when friends slowly start to disappear, but little do they know that absolute jaw-dropping carnage is just around the corner.
 
Adapted from Yusuke KISHI’s horror novel, Aku no Kyōten, a commentary on tough high school life and dark student–teacher relationships, with plenty of black humour, absurd violence, and a splash of Cronenbergian fantasy added for good measure. 
 
Director, Takashi Miike Biography
 
Born on August 24, 1960. After studying under Shohei Imamura and a number of other directors, he made his debut in 1991 and has directed many productions of various genres since then. His innovative ideas and edgy direction are highly praised in and out of the country, and he has enthusiastic fans all over the world. In 1997, along with John Woo, he ranked as the tenth most promising film directors chosen by “Time” magazine in the U.S. In 2000, “Audition” won the International Film Critics Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. In 2003, “Gokudo kyofu dai-gekijo: Gozu” was shown during the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes International Film Festival and received accolades from critics. In 2006, “Big Bang Love, Juvenile A” was shown in the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2010, “13 Assassins” was in the competition section of the Venice International Film Festival, and in 2011, “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai” was in the competition section of the Cannes International Film Festival. Miike is one of the most promising directors of our time.

Greetings from the still United Kingdom! I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

This week I posted about the Japanese films playing at the Vancouver International Film Festival and the release of Lesson of Evil from Third Window Films. I hope to tackle the films playing at the East Winds Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival. Maybe the London Korean Film Festival will get a mention.

With the onset of Autumn comes festival season. Plotting my trips to London for Raindance and the LFF involves visiting art galleries to see exhibitions. I’m hoping to catch The Wallace Collection. Autumn also means new anime and I announce my anime picks next week and you can read two previews here and here.

It’s a busy weekend with a few diamonds like Bon Lin!

Bon Lin   

Japanese: ぼんとリンちゃん

Romaji: Bon to Lin chan

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 91 mins.

Director: Keiichi Kobayashi

Writer: Keiichi Kobayashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Ema Sakura, Mahiro Takasugi, Hakushu Togetsuan, Rino Higa, Kaho Tsukioka, Takayuki Suzuki,

The writer/director of About a Pink Sky (2012) is back with another youth picture which will play at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. I should get around to watching About a Pink Sky!

Natsuko Yotsuya (Sakura) is a teenage girl who is also known as Bon and she has a friend named Miyu. Bon is from a small town but Miyu lives in Tokyo with her boyfriend. When Natsuko finds out that Miyu is being abused by her partner, she heads to the big city to bring her homes. Tagging along is her childhood friend Rintaro Tomoda (Takasugi) who is also known as Lin. They meet a series of Otaku who help guide them through the streets of Tokyo to find Miyu.

Website

Gajimaru Shokudo no Koi    

Japanese: がじまる　食堂の恋

Romaji: Gajimaru Shokudo no Koi

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Keiichi Kobayashi

Writer: Keiichi Kobayashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Haru, Yu Koyanagi, Seika Taketomi, Dori Sakurada,

Four men and women in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, fall in love. Mizuho (Haru) runs a restaurant established by her grandmother and a customer, Hayato (Koyanagi) visits just to see her. Shota (Sakurada), is Mizuho’s childhood friend and a girl from Tokyo named Riko (Taketomi) is in love with him.

Website

Goose Bumps The Movie 2   

Japanese: トリハダ　劇場版 2

Romaji: Torihada Gekijouban 2

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 94 mins.

Director: Koichiro Miki

Writer: Koichiro Miki, Tetsuya Matsumoto, (Screenplay),

Starring: Anna Ishibashi, Rika Adachi, Aimi Satsukawa, Goki Maeda, Mari Iriki, Mai Oshima, Mio Yuki, Shunya Shiraishi,

This is an omnibus film full of creepy tales that stars Anna Ishibashi (Pet Peeve), Aimi Satsukawa (The Story of Yonosuke), Mari Iriki (Cult – review coming soon) and Mio Yuki (As the Gods Will).

Shiori (Ishibashi) is working late at an office when she finds two mysterious letters addressed to a woman named Reiko Miura. In a fit of curiosity she opens them… 

The first letter has the message, “I want to meet you. I love you.” The second letter states, “Today I will go and meet you. It has been a while.” Shiori looks up Reiko on the internet and discovers she was the victim of a stalker/murderer and she may be targeted next…

Website

Zakurozaka no Adauchi   

Japanese: 柘榴坂の仇討

Romaji: Zakurozaka no Adauchi

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Setsuro Wakamatsu

Writer: Yasuo Hasegawa, Kenzaburo Iida, Hironobu Takamatsu (Screenplay), Jiro Asada (Original Novel),

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Kiichi Nakai, Ryoko Hirosue, Kichiemon Nakamura, Masahiro Takashima, Sei Matobu, Eisaku Yoshida, Tatsuya Fuji,

It is 1860 and the end of the Edo period. The Meiji government is trying to reform Japan and part of their efforts is curbing samurai culture. When Kingo Shimura (Nakai) is forced to avenge his lord after a brutal murder, he must break the law on revenge and search for a mysterious samurai named Jyubei Sahashi (Abe) and take him down!

Website

Karaage USA    

Japanese: カラアゲ★USA

Romaji: Karaage USA

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Naoki Segi

Writer: Kota Yamada (Screenplay),

Starring: Ai Takahashi, Ken Kaito, Miyoko Asada, Nahana, Dante Carver, Princess Apuraku, Kenjiro Ishimaru, Yuji Nakamura, Misako Watanabe,

A Japanese girl is leading a black girl on a journey and fried chicken is involved. Japanese fried chicken is better than American fried chicken? Why is there a black person involved? Does this add fried chicken authenticity? The poster and tagline could be interpreted as pretty racist! Dave Chapelle has something to say about this stereotype:

A great excuse to show Dave Chapelle! Back to the film:

Ayane (Takahashi) works at a karaage store where food is fried in hot oil. She hates karaage and leaves home. When she comes back five years later she brings a girl named Shirley (Apuraku) who is the step-daughter of an ex-husband. Her family are furious but all that changes when Ayane takes part in a fried food festival called “Karaage Carnival” and proves to be a hit who can save her family’s store…

Website

Yoju Mameshiba Bokyo hen   

Japanese: 幼獣マメシバ 望郷篇

Romaji: Yoju Mameshiba Bokyo hen

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Toru Kamei

Writer: Yuji Nagamori (Screenplay),

Starring: Jiro Sato, Kai Shishido, You Takahashi, Seika Taketomi, Dakichi Sugawara,

Jiro (Sato) leaves home to escape his mother’s control and, with his pet dog Mameshiba Ichiro, moves to a seaside village.

Website

Inagawa Ghost Story     

Japanese: 柘榴坂の仇討

Romaji: Gekijouban Inagawa Kaidan Katari be

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 79 mins.

Director: Hajme Ohata,

Writer: N/A

Starring: Junji Inagawa, Mahiru Kurumizawa, Nobu Morioto, Takashi Omoto,

This looks a lot like POV: A Cursed Film (2012)… Takashi Shimizu is one of the proucers.

Junji Inagawa is famous for telling ghost stories and so he is paired up with group of young ladies  to re-enact a ghost story but weird things start happening on set…

Website

Mister Home   

Japanese: ミスターホーム

Romaji: Misuta- Ho-mu

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 70 mins.

Directors: Chihiro Ikeda, Takakazu Nagatomo, Ayumu Hasegawa, Wataru Kudo, Konpon Muneko,

Writer: Chihiro Ikeda, Takakazu Nagatomo, Ayumu Hasegawa, Wataru Kudo, Konpon Muneko,

Starring: Akane Higo, Shirori Sugioka, Gen Ogawa, Hideki Tasaa, Satoshi Kasajia Kumi Funakoshi, Yasuku Mori,

This is an ENBU cinema gig where new actors/staff work/train with directors already in the industry.

In this omnibus film, the inhabitants of a house in a small town are focussed on. These residents include a poet, a religious guru and a landlord who wants them all out of the house because it might fall apart.

Website

Boku-ra wa Doubutsu Tanken-tai Fuji Safari Paaku de dai Bou ken 

Japanese: ぼくらは動物探検隊　富士サファリパークで大冒険

Romaji: Boku-ra wa Doubutsu Tanken-tai Fuji Safari Paaku de dai Bou ken

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 55 mins.

Director: Kentaro Yamagishi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Daisuke Suzuki, Nyoko Mizuki

A parent and child cinema screening that takes the audience to Fuji Safari Park which allows people to view the animals that exist in the foothills of Mount Fuji. Like lions and tigers! Whoa.

Website

Strike Witches: Operation Victory Arrow Vol. 1   

Japanese: ストライクウィッチーズ Operation Victory Arrow Vol 1サン・トロンの雷鳴

Romaji: Sutoraiku Uicchi-zu Operation Victory Arrow Vol 1San toron no raimei

Release Date: September 20^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 55 mins.

Director: Kazuhiro Takamura

Original Creator:  Huikane Shimada

Starring: Kaori Nazuka as Lynette Bishop, Saori Seto as Mio Sakamoto, Ami Koshimizu as Charlotte E Yaeger, Misato Fukuen as Yoshika Miyafuji, Chiwa Saito as Francesca Lucchini,

This is an OVA released this autumn and it depicts the lives of the Strike Witches as they returned home after te end of Operation Mars in the second series (according to Anime News Network).

Website

Yowamushi Pedal Re:RIDE      

Japanese: 弱虫ペダル Re:RIDE

Romaji: Yowamushi Pedaru Re;RIDE

Release Date: September 19^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 55 mins.

Director: Osamu Nabeshima

Original Creator:  Wataru Watanabe

Starring: Daisuke Kishio as Junta Teshima, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Hajime Aoyagi, Ayaka Suwa as Miki Kanzaki, Junichi Suwabe as Toji Kanzaki, Megumi Han as Aya Tachibana,

Yowamushi Pedal Re:RIDE is a compilation film which goes through the first half of the Inter High arc from the TV anime.

Website

Autumn is here! New anime!

We are almost at the end of the year and 2014 has had a summer season to die for what with awesome titles like Space Dandy, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, and Barakamon providing an excellent stream of entertainment, humour and great animation. Tokyo Ghoul was another standout as it compressed the manga to create an excellent action title. Expect series reviews for those titles!

With the help of Anime News Network and My Anime List, I got my autumn anime season previews published by Anime UK News at the beginning of the month (part one and two are up) and I found the experience to be an interesting mixture of comfort derived from doing something familiar and relief that the season doesn’t look too bad.

At first glance, the autumn season doesn’t look too stellar but I prefer to try avoid being negative because there are a few shows that have the right combination of staff and source material to make things work. There’s a strong fantasy element in this season and I’m willing to take a chance on quite a few titles.

Here are the shows I am most excited by (this is a provisional list which will probably change as I drop and add shows):

Psycho-Pass Season 2        

Staff

Chief Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro, Director: Naoyoshi Shiotani, Series Composition: Tow Ubukata Character Designer/ Chief Animation Director: Kyoji Asano, Original Character Design:  Akira Amano Story Concept: Gen Urobuchi,

Voice Actors and Characters

Kana Hanazawa as Akane Tsunemori, Kenji Nojima as Nobuchika Ginoza, Shizuka Itou as Yayoi Kunizuka, Keiji Fujiwara as Sakuya Tougane, Ayane Sakura as Mika Shimotsuki, Masumi Asano as Risa Aoyanagi,

Studio: Tatsunoko Production

Website

Synopsis

At the end of the last season, detective Akane Tsunemori discovered the true nature of the Sybil System and due to her belief in legal order chooses to obey the system. She now takes the head of her department and takes command of a new set of enforcers. As she transitions into her role a new criminal looks set to challenge society.

I really enjoyed the first Psycho-Pass and even went as far as to rewatch it quite recently. It had big ideas and themes and a dystopian setting all of which were thought-provoking and that was mostly thanks to the series’ antagonist, Makishima Shogo (I cannot remember the last time I was so charmed by a serial killer!) and the ending was so cynical and open that it invited another season. Well we’re getting it (plus a movie).

Psycho-Pass Season 2 lacks the presence of original creator Gen Urobuchi which may be a good thing. I have watched most of the new shows which he has created and/or written and I have been underwhelmed by them. The man replacing him is Tow Ubukata, an experienced writer who was behind Le Chevalier d’Eon and Mardock Scramble. He is also in charge of the writing for Ghost in the Shell: Arise. The rest of the staff are familiar names who have worked on a lot of Production I.G titles I like. Speaking of I.G, they have been replaced as the animation studio for this title. Perhaps Production I.G is focussing on the Psycho-Pass film that is currently being made. I’m eagerly waiting for the second season plus I want to see if Akane Tsunemori can take down Sibyl.

Donten ni Warau (Laughing Under the Clouds)

Staff

Director: Hiroshi Haraguchi, Series Composition: Yuuya Takahashi, Character Designer: Takao Maki, Original Creator: Kemuri Karakara, Music: Shuichiro Fukuhiro,

Voice Actors and Characters

Tsubasa Yonaga as Chutaro Kumo, Yuichi Nakamura as Tenka Kumo, Yuuki Kaji as Soramaru Kumo, Mamiko Noto as Nishiki,

Studio: Dogakobo

Website

Synopsis

The story takes place during the Meiji era. As Japan modernises those known as samurai are slowly fading away into the pages of history. However, there are those who will not go without a fight and because of them the crime rates are increasing. The government decides to create an inescapable prison  on a lake which is only accessible by water. Three boys of the Kumo family are assigned to transport the criminals to their new “home”.

Donten ni Warau is based on a popular shoujo manga and features a lot of ikemen and what seems to be a heavy fantasy element. I’m willing to give this a go despite knowing nothing about it and the premise being hardly unique. The animation studio is Dogakobo, a group responsible for some awful harem anime and the lovely Natsuyuki Rendezvous.

Gugure! Kokkuri-san   

Staff

Director: Yoshimasa Hiraike, Original Creator: Midori Endo, Character Designer: Miwa Oshima,

Voice Actors and Characters

Ryou Hirohashi as Kohina Ichimatsu, Daisuke Ono as Kokkuri-san, Jouji Nakata as Shigaraki, Takahiro Sakurai as Inugami,

Studio: TMS Entertainment

Website

Synopsis

A little girl named Kohina accidentally summons a Kokkuri-san, a low-ranking ghost in Japanese folklore. The Kokkuri-san just happens to be a handsome, young man with white hair. When he sees her terrible eating habit of consuming cup ramen for every meal he decides he wants to protect her.

I’m looking for a simple comedy to enjoy. I do not expect this to be as memorable as Barakamon but I do expect to get a few laughs from it much in the way that I did with Kill Me Baby.

Amagi Brilliant Park    

Staff

Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto, Series Composition: Fumihiko Shimo, Character Designer: Miku Kadowaki, Original Creator: Shoji Gatoh, Music: Shinkichi Mitsumune,

Voice Actors and Characters

Kouki Uchiyama as Seiya Kanie, Ai Kakuma as Isuzu Sento, Kana Hanazawa as Satomi Murano, Tomoyo Kurosawa as Sylphy,

Studio: Kyoto Animation

Website

Synopsis

Seiya Kanie is a high school student blessed with good looks, athletic abilities and a massive intellect. This is probably why he’s kidnapped by a mysterious transfer student who carries a musket. He is taken to a deserted amusement park, Amagi Brilliant Park, which will close unless it can attract 100,000 visitors in two weeks. Seiya is in a battle to bring his brains to the business world and make Amagi Brilliant Park a success!

The PV won me over. Kyoto Animation are bringing back the team who adapted Full Metal Panic to create a new comedy anime. Alas, that was a show which was popular back when I was in high school and totally passed me by.  The premise sounds silly enough to visit for a few laughs and since this is Kyoto Animation, it’ll look great.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis    

Staff

Director: Keiichi Satou, Series Composition: Keiichi Hasegawa, Character Designer: Naoyuki Onda, Original Creator: Cygames, Music: Yoshhiro Ike,

Voice Actors and Characters

Shuuichi Ikeda as Walfrid, Ayako Kawasumi as Reesha, Yoko Hikasa as Anne Murano, Mamoru Miyano as Roux,

Studio: MAPPA

Website

One look at that promotional video and I was sold. In a season with strong fantasy titles, this looks absolutely top notch in terms of visuals. MAPPA are currently dazzling people with their animation on Zankyou  no Terror and it looks like they are continuing to put the money on the screen with some sparkly and fluid looking visuals, distinctive characters and settings that mark this as THE fantasy show of the season. It is based on a card game which may be something to make one cautious but the director is Keiichi Satou, and he did sterling work on Tiger & Bunny.

Save the best until last!

Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu     

Staff

Director: Kenichi Shimizu, Series Composition: Shoji Yonemura, Character Designer: Tadashi Hiramatsu, Original Creator: Hitoshi Iwaaki, Music: Ken Arai,

Voice Actors and Characters

Nobunaga Shimazak as Shinichi Izumi, Aya Hirano as Migi, Kana Hanazawa as Satomi Murano, Miyuki Sawashiro as Kana Kimishima,

Studio: Madhouse

Website

Synopsis

High school student Izumi Shinichi lives a normal life with his mother and father in Tokyo but that all stops when worm-like aliens called Parasytes invade Earth. They plunge from the sky and take over the brains of humans by entering through the ears and nose. Shinichi was targeted while he slept but since he was wearing headphones, the Parasyte was forced to burrow into his arm and occupy his right hand and settled there.

Shinichi wakes up horrified and finds that the alien has its own intellect and personality and it is named Migi. The two join forces when they become targeted by other Parasytes who want to destroy Shinichi because he can still think for himself. The two battle other Parasytes and try to save humans from being snacks for aliens!

Every season has at least one show which is a heavy hitter for committed anime fans from the old school who remember a time before the poisonous mixture (to me, objectively it might be good) of moe and slice-of-life dominated everything and this is it for me. It’s based on a manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki which is held in high regard (I haven’t read it but I keep hearing great things).

One note of caution is that the director is new to the game although he has worked on titles like Monster and Roujin Z so I’m willing to believe he can do the job. The character designs come from Tadashi Hiramatsu who will forever be remembered by me for his work on Dennou Coil and Moldiver. The writing looks to be in good hands because Shoji Yonemura has written on great series like Berserk, an adaptation of a long-running scary manga.

The promotional art and videos released so far look fantastic and it’s animated by Madhouse, the guys behind great titles like Paranoia Agent and Black Lagoon. Their recent batch of shows haven’t really grabbed me (the premise of Photo Kano made it a non-starter and Sunday Without God was too uneven) but I’m reassured by what I am seeing here. With 24 episodes already guaranteed, we could see something of real quality with this one.

Aaaaand that’s about it for the anime I’ll be watching. Below is a gallery full of the key images from most of the shows airing this season:

The Raindance Film Festival has launched and I’ll be heading there next week – commitments at work mean that I cannot take a holiday sooner (not that I’m complaining because I’m thankful that I have a job!) and I’ll miss out on some of the Japanese films that are screening between now and when I get to London. I’ll be able to see the titles I miss when I get my signed copy of the New Directors From Japan DVD! Enough bragging.

I didn’t watch any films this week – I’m still trying to review about a dozen or more… I have watched lots of anime. Zankyou no Terror, Space Dandy, Barakamon, Shirogane no Ishi Argovellon. Great stuff. The only thing I posted about this week is the anime I’ll be watching in the autumn season.

What is released in Japan this weekend?

Zero

Japanese Title: 劇場版　零 ゼロ

Romaji: Gekijouban Rei Zero

Release Date: September 26^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Mari Asato

Writer: Mari Asato (Screenplay), Eiji Ohtsuka (Original Novel)

Starring: Ayumi Nakajo, Aoi Morikawa, Fujiko Kojima, Jun Miho, Karen Miyama, Noriko Nakagoshi, Kasumi Yamaya, Minori Hagiwara, Yuri Nakamura, Kodai Asaka,

I previewed this film last month and I’m looking forward to it because it adapts a favourite video game of mine, Fatal Frame. The next Fatal Frame game is released today. The film which was released yesterday, has been directed by Mari Asato, a female director who has been mentioned here on this blog thanks to films like Bilocation (2014) and Ju-on: Black Ghost (2009) and she looks to have captured the horror atmosphere here!

At an old girl’s school located in the heart of the countryside, student Aya Tsukimori (Ayami Nakajo) becomes part of an ancient “cursed incantation” and is trapped in her school dormitory. At the same time, students begin to report ghost sighting around the school while others disappear and are later discovered to have drowned in mysterious circumstances. Aya attempts to contact fellow pupil Michi Kazato (Aoi Morikawa) who begins investigating the disappearances of her classmates and the two become wrapped up in a deadly mystery…

Website

Mother

Japanese: マザー

Romaji: Maza

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Kazuo Umezu

Writer: Kazuo Umezu (Screenplay),

Starring: Ainosuke Kataoka, Mimi Maihane, Shoko Nakagawa, Kimie Shingyuji,

Nothing to do with the Korean film which reviewed ages ago. This is an autobiographical title by Kazuo Umezu. Horror manga fans will know him as the guy behind Drifting Classroom (heart-breaking) and Orochi (intriguing) among others.

Sakura Wakakusa (Maihane) is editing the autobiography of Kazuo Umezu (Kataoka) and heads to the mountain village to research more about his past knowing that his mother, Ichie (Shingyoji) had a huge influence on Umezu. Whilst looking around, she finds herself attacked by strange phenomenon and it seems to come from Ichie who should be dead and in the ground!

Website

Danger Dolls      

Japanese: 少女は異世界で戦った

Romaji: Shojo wa Isekai de Tatakatta

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 97 mins.

Directors: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Hirotoshi Kobayashi (Screenplay)

Starring:  Rumi Hanai, Rina Takeda, Kayano Masuyama, Nana Seino, Mao mita, Kazuki Namioka, Mana Sakura, Noburo Kaneko, Kohki Okada,

Danger Dolls is a sci-fi tale about a bunch of girls who work by day as defenders of our reality by fighting with aliens from a parallel world with swords and by going undercover as idols! I don’t know which is more impressive. This was shown at the Asian Film Festival of Dallas.

Website

Fuja   

Japanese: 風邪

Romaji: Fuuja

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 90 mins.

Directors: Izo Hashimoto

Writer: Izo Hashimoto (Screenplay)

Starring:  Yosuke Kubozuka, Manami Konishi, Tet Wada, Chris Peppler, Akira Emoto, Kumiko Akiyoshi, You Takahashi,

No trailer.

Kikuo Himura (Kubozuka) has developed the cure for the cold virus… and the formula for the vaccine is stored in his HEAD! The news of his vaccine causes the medical world to chase after him with secret organisations and rival doctors after his secrets. A mysterious woman named Sakurako (Konishi) may be able to help…

Website

Hunger Z    

Japanese: ハンガー・ゼット

Romaji: Hanga Zetto

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 74 mins.

Directors: Naoto Tsukiashi

Writer: Takeyuki Morikaku (Screenplay)

Starring:  Ryouta Murai, Nagisa Odaijima, Asami, Atsushi Mizutani, Shinya Niiro, Koji Saito, Daisuke Tamaru, Takuro Hayashi, Katsuki Naamura.

In a world overrun with zombies humans are on the brink of extinction! The zombies realise this and come up with a plan to save their food source – farming! Humans are now livestock confined to farms, forced to breed and make food. Toshiyuki is an unassuming young man caught by the z-heads and partnered with a girl. As is most commonly the case with zombie films, she’s gorgeous and this is the male protagonists chance to date a girl out of his league!

Website

Akira No.2           

Japanese: アキラＮｏ．２

Romaji: Akira No.2

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 122 mins.

Directors: Norihisa Yoshimura

Writer: Norihisa Yoshimura, Kazumi Shinoda, Sakurako Inoue (Screenplay) Hiromasa Okushima (Original Manga),

Starring:  Ryota Ozawa, Yasuhiro Kido, Maasa Igarashi, Shodai Fukuyama, Manami Hashimoto,

Akira, the No. 2 boy in a high school full of delinquents battles other Yankees for the top position.

Website

Phantom Limb     

Japanese: 幻肢

Romaji: Genshi

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 92 mins.

Directors: Michihito Fujii

Writer: Michihito Fujii (Screenplay), Soji Shimada (Original Novel),

Starring:  Ryo Yoshiki, Mitsuki Tanimura, Yuya Endo, Shiro Sano, Satsuki, Ichirota Miyakawa,

The film’s budget was funded by the Japanese equivalent of Kickstarer.

Medical student Masato Kanbara (Yoshiki) is out for a drive with his girlfriend Haruka Itonaga (Tanimura) when they suffer an accident. When Masato recovers, he has no memory of the accident or his girlfriend and this leads to depression. His doctors treat this with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) which causes him to have visions of Haruka. As they interact, he falls deeply in love wth her…

Website

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet -Meguru Kōro, Haruka-    

Japanese: 翠星のガルガンティア　めぐる航路、遥か　前編

Romaji: Suisei no Gargantia -Meguru Kōro, Haruka-

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 54 mins.

Directors: Kazuya Murata

Writer: Gen Urobuchi, Daishiro Tanimura (Screenplay)

Starring:  Kaito Ishikawa (Ledo), Hisako Kanemoto (Amy), Ai Kayano (Saaya), Kana Asumi (Melty), Tomokazu Sugita (Chamber), Inori Minase (Reema),

This is the first of two OVAs getting a release in the cinema that continues the story ad features the return of staff and cast. Since I haven’t finished watching the TV anime, I’ll link to Anime News Network and their news bit which does have the synopsis.

Website

Mono oki no Piano (Piano Barn)    

Japanese: 物置のピアノ

Romaji: Mono oki no Piano

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 115 mins.

Directors: Chiaki Nitani

Writer: Miho Saito, Nozomi Kasahara, Yuto Kitsunai (Screenplay), Misaho Hara (Original Story)

Starring:  Ena Koshino, Kyoko Yoshine, Takahiro Watanabe, Shiro Sano, Kaori Kanda, Junkichi Orimoto, Yume Sasaki, Hatsunori Hasegawa,

Two sisters living on a peach farm in Koori town, Fukushima Prefecture,are opposites. Haruka Miyamoto (Yoshine) feels less beautiful than her sister Akiba Miyamoto (Koshino) and hates being compared to her. She finds comfort in playing a piano in a barn. A year after the Great East Japan Earthquake, she decides she wants to be a pianist. Akiba, for her part, moved to Tokyo to attend college. When she moves back to Koori, Haruka is unsettled and memories connected to the disaster she has tried to forget resurface.

Website

Girls High-school    

Japanese: アルプス女学園

Romaji: Arupusu Jogakuen

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Directors: Takeshi Oota

Writer: Junya Okunishi (Screenplay)

Starring:  Mai Nakahara, Rina Miyazaki, Haurka Momokawa, Misaki Momose, Ai Shinozaki, Ayaka Kawai,

A youth drama starring members of Idoling!!!, Super Girls and Tokyo Cheer2 Party who are in a private school somewhere in Yaanashi Prefecture and that school is going to be closed due to poor management. Can the girls save it???

Website

gdgd Fairies the Movie — Wonder What Kind of Movie That’ll Be…?    

Japanese: 劇場版gdgd妖精s（ぐだぐだフェアリーズ） っていう映画はどうかな…？

Romaji: Gekijō-ban gdgd Yōseis tte Iu Eiga wa Dō kana…?

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 61 mins.

Directors: Sota Sugahara

Writer: Kotaro Ishidate (Screenplay)

Starring:  Satomi Akesaka (Fusako Mochida), Kaoru Mizuhara (shrshr), Satomi Akesaka (krkr), Suzuko Mimori (pkpk), Natsuki Mori (Witch), So Nozawa (King)

Gudaguda fairies is a CG animated project which tells the story of a group of firies who lie inside the trees of fairy forest

Website

Konna Watashi-tachi ga Nariyuki de Heroine ni Natta Kekka www ‘Narihero www’    

Japanese: こんな私たちがなりゆきでヒロインになった結果www『なりヒロwww』

Romaji: Konna Watashi-tachi ga Nariyuki de Heroine ni Natta Kekka www ‘Narihero www’

Release Date: September 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 14 mins.

Directors: Sota Sugahara

Writer: Takuya Masumoto (Screenplay),

Starring:  Maaya Uchida (Arisu Soyogi), Mutsumi Tamura (Sokura Soyogi), Yuiko Tatsumi (Purato Soyogi), Kouji Ochiai (DT), Taisuke Nishimura (Cats Toukatsu),

This runs with those gdgd fairy things. It’s a short about three sisters who battle some evil organisation named “Black Inc.” I think…

Website

Final Fantasy XV was shown at the recent Tokyo Game Show and I think it looks great buuuut… it has been in development for nearly TEN YEARS in which time is has had a reboot and new director in the shape of Hajime Tabata (director of the excellent Crisis Core). These delays and  makes me think of the troubled development and reception of Final Fantasy XIII.

What I remember about the launch of Final Fantasy XIII back in February 2011 was the critical reception of the game with websites and publications such as Edge magazine giving it 5 out of 10. This for a major entry in the main franchise! Could the poor scores have been justified? I was curious and bought the game.

My overall experience was mixed. Final Fantasy XIII starts off disastrously as it gracelessly explains gameplay mechanics and a bloated and clichéd narrative full of crystals, authoritarian governments, destinies being fought and gods to be challenged, cackling bad guys and heroes full of self-doubt.

For what seems like too long and for the sake of a badly written chase narrative, the game sends players scurrying around  a long series of tutorials and cutscenes that are never fun to endure. The player is forced down a series of palette-swapped corridors and made to battle identikit enemies as the game sluggishly hands out combat techniques and plot developments. Interaction with the world and exploration take a back seat to dull battles interspersed with watching dull films. The grand narrative and combat system don’t kick in soon enough to save events and the game comes too close to being about as interactive as viewing a landscape painting in an art gallery. The feeling hangs over events because there are few shops and mini-games, no villages to explore or communities to interact with and fewer people to talk to. When you do talk to non-player characters they utter bland short lines. It’s easy to see removing RPG ephemera and mechanics like item management and pointless quests/conversations as a deconstruction of the genre as some claim but it makes the game less interesting to venture into.

At times it feels like the developers do not trust the player enough to let them explore the gameplay and the world and resorts to lecturing them slowly. Indeed it feels like it takes nearly half the game before you can fully exploit the intricate combat system and you can actually start levelling up characters the way you want to.

This only happens in chapter 11 of 13!

It is here, on a world called Pulse, where you do get to fully exploit your summons and your character’s classes and can start tailoring your combat teams. The game opens up not least because Pulse is more of an open world. Players can explore wherever they want and battle whatever they see.

It is here that the boredom is shed and a sense of wonder starts to grow along with the freedom granted to the player in pushing the story and characters forward at the speed they want. All of those dull hours training were for this moment when you are let loose and a sense of the grand adventure finally comes to life. It is also here the feeling that training could have been cut short comes to life showing up just how bad the game’s design is in the early stages. It’s hard not to escape the feeling that you have wasted tens of hours of your life… When you do get to this point, the sense of an epic narrative, a traditional element of Final Fantasy, is fully realised by the scenery and freedom to explore.

World building has always been a key strength of Square Enix and it works here for the most part. The Final Fantasy series usually provides a sense that players control a person travelling through unique places with unique cultures and histories all intermingling to make a rich and compelling story and it is hard to deny that the world of FFXIII is well-realised and stunning to look at.

The graphics, music, UI, on-screen menus and are sexy and slick and beautifully realised – probably the only menu in an RPG I would keep accessing just to see the character animations. The physical world is beautiful and varied, made up of grasslands, forests, high-tech cities in the sky.

I love the look and music for certain areas like Gapra Whitewoods, Sunleth Waterscape.

The locations are gorgeous to look at, colourful and evocative with rich and varied colour palettes. The soundtrack for both is an ambient electronic onee held down by a gentle percussion, with an insistent piano melody and ghostly female vocals provided by Mina, which weave in and out. Take a listen.

Pulse is a vast and intriguing area to explore, a huge rolling glass plain with caves and streams, cliffs that hang into an abyssal drops, jungle mazes and frosty mist-covered hillsides and the entire place teems with life as multitudes of creatures co-exist and wander around. With the narrative disappearing, players can engage in hunting quests, clamber over the ruins of an ancient civilisation thick with packs of Borbear who dance around in rhythm, battle Feral Behemoths that stalk the plains, and gape at the herds of Adamantoise, creatures the size of mountains that can wipe out the player and their party with two stamps of a foot.

The graphics and music provide a brilliant skin for these locations and the combat which is fast, flexible, and fun flourishes. It is here that the game provides a lot of depth thanks to the interlinking of classes and skills and battle formations.

Once I was able to get to Pulse and experience the full flow of combat, get over my problems with the world and story and build the characters I wanted I enjoyed the game a lot.

The player effectively trains their team of six and manages their tactics in battle and through canny timing and playing with formations and the stagger and active time battle gauges. The battles became fascinating matches full of jabs, looking for an opening to exploit in the opponents defence so the stagger gauge hits max allowing the player to then pummel away  at the enemy and do massive with glee and watch their health disappear quickly.

The main character is supported by two others and they can be switched in and out of teams with ease. As a result there are a lot of roles and attendant skills that provide great depth. It was exciting to tailor different formations and tactics both before battle and during it, quickly switching between options as the flow of battle alters. It became a battle of wits to master situations and it became faster and faster the better the payer became. One could tackle humongous enemies by rolling into battle with the main character’s class set a Commando (damage dealing) or Ravager (offensive magic) with support from a Saboteur (debuffs) and Synergist (buffs) and switch formations to something like Evened Odds (Saboteur, Synergist, Medic) if things go badly and to Relentless Assault (Commando, Ravager, Ravager) when you want to press on the offensive and fling spells at the poor monsters.

The last paragraph was boring and confusing to read so let me show you some combat.

And this is a reminder that as good as Bioware and Bethesda are at making RPGs, they don’t have the style of Square Enix. The UI flows in and out smoothly, character fly around the screen and it is so so satisfying seeing the fireworks happening as demonstrated by the acrobatics of Lightning’s Army Of One.

As much as I dislike the script this feeling was exacerbated by the poor opening. By the end of the game I enjoyed the different characters and their relationships building up. As badly written as a lot of it was, I enjoyed guiding Sahz and Vanille in slogging through the gorgeous Sunleth Waterscape, scrambling their way through forests and skirting gorgeous lake shores, all the while, blasting Flans with magic before allowing themselves to relax in the pleasure town of Nautilus. I enjoyed playing as Lightning, dragging Hope through the Gapra Whitewoods, a sparkling crystalline forest shrouded in eternal twilight. Lightning toughens Hope up (mostly through my relentless grinding which saw me wallop the boss easily) in the chilly confines of their location, and she opens up as a character, changing from a completely unforgiving and harsh soldier to tough older sister as they fought against monsters and evaded hostile government forces.

Lightning became my favourite FF protagonist not named Zack Fair because of her no-nonsense attitude. She speaks as much with her fists and has little patience for most of the characters who fulfil the rote role of troubled male who lost his mother, hyper young girl, mouthy braggart types and grumpy old men.

She is cold and disciplined she just wants to get her job done and isn’t afraid of anything or anyone. She has the smarts, confidence, and the guts to do whatever it takes and it made a change to play her, a grown woman, rather than a bland male lead with amnesia or a little girl. She is so brilliant she starred in her own game.

She would have been great in a world as complex as Final Fantasy XII which still remains my favourite entry in the series, a game with a rich world and racial diversity. I’m a fan of the games that take place in the world of Ivalice (Final Fantasy XII and Tactics Advance and Vagrant Story). Here’s an interesting podcast from Retronauts discussing the work of Yasumi Matsuno and his Final Fantasy games.

Once you get past the initial opening and get to the combat system FFXIII becomes a lot more fun.

This is a Final Fantasy title but feels so different from previous entries in the main series. The worlds and lore of different Final Fantasy games are usually beautiful and complicated and it is no different here but the opening 10 – 20 hours are truly awful – really game breaking for those who have no patience. Slog past it and get to test out the full battle system in the open world setting of Pulse, and the game opens up, the art and animation come to life and the music soars. The poor scores and vitriol it received were a little much when you lose the first part, perhaps 5 wasn’t the wrong score to give. My score would be 7.

All images are from the Final Fantasy Wiki.

I’m back from London and the Raindance Film Festival and I am in the process of writing lots of reviews for the blog and other websites like Anime UK News and so there is a lot for me to write about like Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats, How Selfish I Am!, The Light Shines Only There, and… the final film I saw at Raindance, And the Mud Ship Sails Away. I talked to the director of that film and also got to interview the director Yosuke Fujita, the genius behind Fuku-chan, a segment in Quirky Guys and Gals, and Fine, Totally Fine, one of my favourite comedies of the last few years and tell him how much I liked it!

Whilst in London, I went to the Courtauld Gallery to see their collection and to see my favourite Impressionist painting, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. I also went the Japan Centre (something that has become a routine).

But I had to go to work the next day so all of those reviews are on the back-burner for now. The only thing I posted about this week was Final Fantasy XIII, a post that is long overdue and I have written lots of notes for months ago.

What’s released this weekend in Japan?

A Samurai Chronicle   

Japanese: 蜩の記

Romaji: Higurashi no Ki

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Takashi Koizumi

Writer: Takashi Koizumi, Motomu Furuta (Screenplay), Rin Hamuro (Original Novel)

Starring: Koji Yakusho, Junichi Okada, Maki Horikita, Mieko Harada,

Based on Rin Hamurao’s Naoki award winning prize.

Toda Shuukoku was arrested for having an affair with one of his feudal lord’s concubines and murdering a person who exposed the scandal. In a normal situation he would have been expected to commit seppuku but because he was in charge of an important project he was allowed ten years to live with his family and complete his work. At the end of the ten years, he must then commit seppuku.

Seven years later, a samurai named Danno Shouzaburou commits a crime at his clan’s castle. Instead of being punished conventionally, he is given the assignment to install himself in Toda’s house and ensure that Toda commits suicide. If not, Danno must kill Toda and his entire family.

Website

Taiyo no Suwaru Basho   

Japanese: 太陽の坐る場所

Romaji: Taiyo no Suwaru Basho

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: Hitoshi Yazaki

Writer: Hitoshi Yazaki (Screenplay), Mizuki Tsujimura (Original Novel)

Starring: Asami Mizukawa, Fumino Kimura, Takahiro Miura, Kanna Mori, Shingo Tsurumi,

Two girls named Kyoko live two different lives. One is the queen bee at school. When she grows up, she will become a local news reporter. One is plain and ignored by classmates. When she grows up, she will be a successful actress. When they meet in a high school class reunion ten years after graduation, they find that they and their classmates are part of a vicious circle of rumours, jealousy and spite and a secret unites them all.

Website

Ogawa-cho Serenade   

Japanese: 小川町セレナーデ

Romaji: Ogawacho Serena-de

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Keinosuke Hara

Writer: Keinosuke Hara (Screenplay),

Starring: Risa Sudo, Izumi Fujimoto, Ken Yasuda, Kinako Kobayashi, You Takakhashi, Kokone Hamada, Ren Osugi,

The legend that is Ren Osugi is back in a film about Okama… is that term offensive? What about Okoge? There’s a film with that name.

Manami (Sudo) runs the “Snack Bar Sayoko” where she raised her daughter Sayoko (Fujimoto) as a single mother. The father, Angel (Yasuda) is still around but he’s a drag queen not that Sayoko knows, she just sees him as a friend… After graduating from high school and experiencing some failed romances, Sayoko returns home and finds that the snack bar is in financial difficulty so Sayoko opens a new bar… an Okama one. Can you guess what happens next? Sayoko asks Angel for help.

Website

Love Session   

Japanese: ラブセッシュン

Romaji: Rabu Sesshun

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Eiji Itaya

Writer: N/A

Starring: Crystal Kay, Hiroko Shimabukuro, Keisuke Ilmari Ogihara, Masatsugu, Chiba, Koki Okamoto, Minako Yoshida, Fumiya Takeuchi, Reiji Okamoto, Hama Okamoto, Ryoji Narita,

A music documentary where veteran musicians send video letters to younger artists with advice and personal stories and they create music based on their reactions to it for a concert. Musicians include Rip Slyme and Crystal Kay.

Website

LAST LOVE / Mistress   

Japanese: LAST LOVE 愛人

Romaji: LAST LOVE Koibito

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: Hitoshi Ishikawa

Writer: Hitoshi Ishikawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Risa Sudo, Izumi Fujimoto, Ken Yasuda, Kinako Kobayashi, You Takakhashi, Kokone Hamada, Ren Osugi,

A middle-aged man named Iwata works as a caretaker of an apartment and lives the life of a bachelor. He once had the dream of being a guitarist but gave that up and now lives a quiet life cleaning up after others. A young woman named Yumi dreams of being a dancer but struggles to make money and is depressed. She becomes the mistress of a married man. When the wife finds out the relationship collapses and Yumi is in desperate circumstances, her depression striking a new blow. Iwata and Yumi meet and their lives change…

Website

The New World of Synthesizer in Osaka   

Japanese: ナニワのシンセ界 The New World of Synthesizer in Osaka

Romaji: Naniwa no Shinsekai The New World of Synthesizer in Osaka

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 75 mins.

Director: Jun Ohsuga

Writer: N/A

Starring: Shin Arakawa, Aya Nishida, Unyo 303, Risa, Mine,

Synthesizers. Japan is famous for them and this documentary looks at the effect that the musical instrument has had on the music world with analysis of Roland, Korg, Moog, and Yamaha synthesizers and musicians who have used the instrument over the years including many from the synthesizer scene in Osaka.

Website

Soba ni iruyo! Jiheishou (Oodizumu) to Kurumasiu no Kantoku    

Japanese: そばにいるよ！　自閉症（オーディズム）と車椅子の監督

Romaji: Soba ni iruyo! Jiheishou (Oodizumu) to Kurumasiu no Kantoku

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 75 mins.

Director: Hiroko Yukaha

Writer: N/A

Starring: Tazuko Makitsubo, Haruko Mabuchi, Misako Konno, Kimiko Inui, Haruka Kadono

This is a posthumous film work from Tazuko Makitsubo who recently passed away. She directed films about children with autism and the socially vulnerable such as the elderly and ill and in this one she shows the impact that a child with autism has on a family and society.

Website

Iro-do Shijuhatte Takarabune Corporation   

Japanese: 色道四十八手　たからぶね

Romaji: Iro-do Shijuhatte Takarabune Corporation

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 71 mins.

Director: Koichiro Igawa

Writer: Koichiro Igawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Tomohiro Okada, Nana Ida, Mayuko Sasaki, Takahiro Nomura,

In commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the pink film movies in the 1960s, we get a new low-budget adult fulm which shows instances where pink films have spiced up the lives of a couple. This is connected to Mamoru Watanabe, one of the three pillars of the pink fim industry, who died last year. He was in the process of making a film looking at Shijuhatte and Shunga at the time. Koichiro Igawa, another pink film director, is now taking up his old projects.

Website

Saru Window Period   

Japanese: サルウインドウ・ピリオド

Romaji: Saru Uindou Puriodo

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Yoichiro Hayama

Writer: Yoichiro Hayama (Screenplay),

Starring: Nobuaki Fujioka, Tomomi Shigeno, Natsumi Nanase, Akihiro Nakatani, Kohei Kuroda, Chiho Katsura, Chie Yamaguchi,

The first instalment in the “Saru” or “monkey” series by Yoichiro Hayama. A horror drama about a home care helper with a bad heart who finds an immediate transplant but contracs HIV due to the bad organ. This dashes his hopes of starting a family and his health begins to decline… illegal operations and strange diseases, organ transfers and violence. All with a jaunty tune in the trailer.

Website

Kamatoto    

Japanese: カマトト

Romaji: Kamatoto

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 71 mins.

Director: Koichiro Igawa

Writer: Koichiro Igawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Haruka Momokawa, Mizuki Yamaguchi, Mai Ishioka, Hasuno Kinoshita, Koharu Nonami, Saki Shimizu, Ai Shinozaki,

Idol groups Kaiketsu! Tropical Maru and AeLL star in a drama about a girl named NAtumi (Momokawa) who has grown up in a small fishing village but ddreams of being a pop idol in Tokyo. Her father is against this idea and the two gradually grow apart and even clash. When Natsumi’s father dies in an accident at work, Natsumi and her friends start on the road to stardom.

Website

Kabadeen! Hanafubuki Koko hen   

Japanese: カバディーン!!!!!!!　嗚呼・花吹雪高校篇

Romaji: Kabadeen! Hanafubuki Koko hen

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 63 mins.

Director: Go Ohara

Writer: Go Ohara, Kota Oura (Screenplay),

Starring: Shogo Suzuki, Toshiyuki Someya, Takuya Yoshimura, Ryosuke Tsuruta, Teppei Sasayama, Junpei Sasayama, Ryuhei Sakata, Arisa Komiya

WTF is this? Japan finally produces a movie about school kids that isn’t creepily focussed on girls, is full of guys goofing around and it looks downright hilarious! If this were a live-action adaptation of Haikyuu!!, I’d watch it . For the first half of the trailer. Anyway, this is about a bunch of ikemen high school boys who play a game called Kabaddi and that originates in India, apparently. It’s a contact sport halfway between British Bulldog and wrestling. The basketball team are invited to sign up.

Website

A Company Man (2012)      

Release Date: October 11th, 2012

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Lim Sang-Yoon

Writer: Lim Sang-Yoon (Screenplay)

Starring: So Ji-Sub, Lee Mi-Yeon, Kwak Do-Won, Kim Dong-Joon, Jeon Kuk-Hwan, Lee Kyoung-Young, Jang Eun-Ah,

At 96 minutes, A Company Man is a relatively lean and mean film which efficiently works its way through its narrative but the actual experience of watching it is less than engaging because it is highly derivative of other titles. It felt soulless despite the few good bits, an example of a film pillaging from other titles and adhering to standard tropes to make a passable title.

The handsome Hyeong-Do (So Ji-Sub) is the titular company man. He is a dedicated worker and a rising star at his metal trading company. Except that metal trading is a front for the organisation. What Heyong-Do’s company provides is assassins. The men and women who work in the office are highly trained killers and Heyong-Do is being groomed by the chief to be a manager.

Things go awry when he works with a temporary hire, a young man named Hyun-Yi who will act as an assassin and then be disposed of when the mission is completed. Hyun-Yi is shocked by the betrayal and his innocence shines through as his end at the hands of Hyeong-Do approaches. Hyun-Yi asks for a final favour from Heyong-Do which is to give money to his family. Heyong-Yi is moved by the plea and this leads him to come into contact with Su-Yeon (Lee Mi-Yeon), the mother of Hyun-Yi, a woman who affects Hyeong-Do on a deep level…

She’s a former singer who had two kids while still young and had to take up work in a garment factory after quitting her music career. It turns out that she was Hyeong-Do’s favourite singer while he was in school. He feels an attraction to her and this, mixed in with guilt over Hyun-Yi’s fate, leads him to start a relationship with Su-Yeoni. This means trips with her to the countryside and this opens up his world and he sees that there is more to life than the brutality peddled by his bosses and this brings him into conflict with his old job…

A Company Man does some things rather well. It quickly establishes the office culture with ease as we see neatly dressed men and women sat in their cubicles working behind cluttered desks which house automatic weapons. Everyday office stationary has some deadly function such as piano wire and knives hidden in watches and suit jackets, folders concealing automatic weapons and a trolley stacked with papers and ammunition for weapons that goes from cubicle to cubicle. In the filing room are the numerous shelves containing contracts for hits, a shooting range and knife-fighting arena. Each of these areas has a secretary and a boss in a glass cubicle who can watch over everything. It’s a triumph of production design which makes an evocative environment that describes a world where function and form are united to pursue the art of killing. It is the anonymous glass and steel and grey carpets we associate with such workplaces but with a deadly twist. The team spirit seems high, people chat at water coolers and some laze around when the boss is absent, but the few characters we get to know are actually competing fiercely with each other for a promotion which Heyong-Do wins.

It has been a hard-fought thing for Hyeong-Do and behind the ice cold façade we see that this is something that is wearing him out. He goes out on the most horrific and risky missions, coldly murders people and arrives back at the office to slump behind his desk, write a report for an ungrateful boss who is less capable than him and then clock off at the end of the day and return to an apartment exhausted and bored since there is little to his personal life.

It is all familiar territory but that allows the viewer to acclimatise quickly. The problem is that once these elements are done, there’s nothing else original and novel that is left that defines the film.

People who watch Korean films will find the film has a well-worn plot and narrative because it is derivative of a lot of other films. Indeed, it can be accused of being a clone of the far superior A Bittersweet Life(2005) but transposing the action to the world of office workers from that of gangsters. The protagonists from this film and A Bittersweet Life have the same lifestyle, apartment and fashion sense (there’s even a scene involving them ironing their suits in a bland room to get across the empty lifestyle!!!) and both go on the same journey for the same reasons and the same results happen only A Company Man lacks the humour and the outrageousness of the action scenes that A Bittersweet Life had. It lacks the tight scripting that provided an exploration of the revenge-thriller/neo-noir genres while plying the old tropes present for the viewer to engage with. It also lacks the emotional development for characters that hook a viewer.

The cast are given little to work with. Archetypes like a fatherly boss, a strong and upright single mother and surly teenage daughter abound and these are thinly sketched so while the actors are may be strong in their individual roles there is nothing that makes the characters memorable or unique and when they interact they say and do nothing totally exciting unless it is in the fights. Fatally, the film spaces the few fights out between long stretches of conversations which, while character specific and takng place in scenic locations, aren’t really that interesting and only serve to move the plot forward. When the dull characters speak dialogue which is rote stuff the film slows down tremendously and the tension seeps out.

If the characters suffer in the talking stakes, then the film comes to life in the fast-paced but few all-too brief action scenes. The film features some striking physical fights in tight environments where two men may grapple in nervy encounters that consist of short, sharp punches, grappling and submission holds. There is an outstanding close-quarters battle in a car where bullets zip through the interior as characters wrestle for a gun and this quickly turns into a knife fight where the flashing blade slashes the upholstery before the fighters take it outside for a high-stakes battle on a busy motorway. It is at moments like these when the film truly comes to life as the camera zips around with extremely quick movement and editing and fast paced pans that are familiar from other well-executed Korean action films.

The script’s failure to make any of the characters remotely emotionally engaging is a major disappointment that other Korean films typically avoid and this hamstrings the use of brutal violence. Why should we care about cardboard cutouts blasting each other?

Alas, it is hard to care about the outcome when the characters are so two dimensional. Curiously I found the big-bang finale of the extended gunfight in the office rather distasteful due to the rather flat nature of the scene and the realistic nature of the violence. Perhaps endless news reports of shootings in America have had some impact on me but I suspect it’s because the fight lacks the spark and gratuitousness of other films to raise it above the familiar and the characters are dull, a complaint I have kept making.

I love action films as other reviews like The Man From Nowhere shows but this was a disappointment. When watching A Company Man you will recognise that beneath the surface it is a film that lacks originality and the characters are dull so when they are not in fights the film struggles to be entertaining. It is a pretty film. The detailed, sleek and graceful cinematography makes the locations pleasing to look at for the most part but it is derivative of many other titles such as the neo-noir tales in the mould of Le Samurai (1967) and countless revenge thrillers that Korea excels at. There is no adventurous side to it, this is a precision piece of filmmaking that adheres to rules and conventions, takes from other films and has had the life sucked out of it to create a safe title.

3/5

Warner Bros. UK are gearing up to bring over a selection of films that adapt popular manga into films over the next couple of months with Black Butler due to arrive in cinemas across the UK on October 17^th. Today saw the release of the UK trailer which is below.

Black Butler        

Japanese: 黒執事

Romaji: Kuroshitsuji

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: January 18^th, 2014

Director: Kentaro Otani, Keiichi Sato

Writer: Tsutomu Kuroiwa (Screenplay), Yana Toboso (Original Manga)

Starring: Ayame Gouriki, Hiro Mizushima, Mizuki Yamamoto, Takuro Ohno, Yuka, Ken Yasuda

In the year 2020 in an Asian city where Eastern and Western cultures mix, a young woman named Shiori (Gouriki) finds herself plunged into a world of mystery and danger.

Shiori is the orphaned head of the Genpo noble family, owners of a massive toy manufacturing enterprise. Since only males can take over the reins of power in the Genpo family, she must pretend to be a man and so she takes on the name Kiyoharu Genpo and wears male clothes. On top of running the company, she also functions as a secret watchdog for the Queen, a service that her family has provided for generations. 

In her role as an agent of the Queen, Shiori is assigned the task of investigating the disappearance of young women and an ongoing serial murder case in which the mummified dead bodies of various dignitaries are discovered. The only clue left at the crime scenes is a strange tarot card which has a “black invitation” that leads to a deadly world and all of this may be connected to the deaths of Shiori’s parents. When Shiori receives an invitation herself, she summons a demonic butler from hell named Sebastian (Mizushima). He is a supernatural servant who has impeccable manners, flawless grace, and deep wells of knowledge as well as having deadly martial arts skills, and devilishly good looks. His job is to watch over Shiori and protect her as they hunt for who sent out the invitations and who is behind the mysterious crimes. All Shiori has to pay for his service is her soul.

The details known about the release so far are that the film has been given a 15 certificate and will be the Japanese language version with English subtitles and it will launch on October 17th.

Warner Bros. Japan have become a major presence in the Japanese entertainment world with film adaptations of anime and manga with the likes of Berserk: Golden Age Arc – The Egg of the King, Wild 7 and Rurouni Kenshin getting the big screen treatment. This year alone saw the release of three major titles like Black Butler on January 18^th, and two Rurouni Kenshin films over August and September which are due to get a release in the UK after Black Butler.

Here are images from the film:

Hello, dear audience. I hope you are all well. The autumn anime season is in full swing and I have watched a lot of premieres for a lot of shows. I was very impressed with Parasyte, fun a blackly comic body horror, and Gugure! Kokuri-san a comedy that made me laugh more than I hoped for. It also had a really, really dark tone surrounding the loneliness of the characters. Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis was as action-packed as hoped. The biggest disappointment was Amagi Brilliant Park which didn’t make me laugh at all, plus a needless nude shot.

In terms of films, I had unexpected fun at work when I struck up a conversation with a lady from Hong Kong and we talked Wong Kar-Wai for quite a while. Moments like that make life fun. On the blog, I posted about the Korean action-thriller A Company Man and the UK release of Black Butler.

Next week, I’ll be back in London for the BFI London Film Festival. The following day, I’ll be watching Black Butler!

What is released this weekend?

A Drop of the Grapevine   

Japanese: ぶどうのなみだ

Romaji: Budou no Namida

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Yukiko Mishima

Writer: Yukiko Mishima (Screenplay),

Starring: Yo Oizumi, Yuko Ando, Shota Sometani, Kyoko Enami, Tomorowo Taguchi, Kitaro, Ren Osugi, Lily,

Ao (Oizumi) returns to back home to Sorachi, Hokkaido, to take over his father’s vineyard after many years away. His younger brother Roku (Sometani) has never known him and their reunion is frosty but the two agree to work together try an create a special wine called “Black Diamond”, but it is a hard job and things look bad until a travelling camper named Erika (Ando) enters their lives and brings harmony.

Website

Cape Nostalgia   

Japanese: ふしぎな岬の物語

Romaji: Fushigina Misaki no Monogatari

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Izuru Narushima

Writer: Masato Kato (Screenplay), Akio Morisawa (Original Novel)

Starring: Sayuri Yoshinaga, Hiroshi Abe, Yuko Takeuchi, Arata Iura, Eiko Koike, Tsurube Shofukutei,

Etsuko (Yoshinaga) lives in a village in Cape Myogane, Chiba Prefecture. With the help of her nephew Koji (Abe), she runs a coffee shop that has views of Mount Fuji. It is a popular place for people to gather and Etsuko shares the lives of her patrons.

Website

Kin Kyori Renai    

Japanese: 近キョリ恋愛

Romaji: Kin Kyori Renai

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Naoto Kumazawa

Writer: Yukiko Manabe (Screenplay), Rin Mikimoto (Original Novel)

Starring: Tomohisa Yamashita, Nana Komatsu, Hirofumi Arai, Asami Mizukawa, Nozomu Kotaki, Mizuki Yamamoto, Kazuma Sano,

A film where a teacher starts a relationship with his pupil and the guy isn’t arrested…? This is based on a manga that was adapted into a television show and video game.

Haruka Sakurai (Yamashita) is a handsome part-time English teacher who is popular with his stuents. When he gives privates lessons to one of his students named Yuni (Komatsu) she develops more romantic feelings for him…

Website

Housoukinshi: Sennou – Jaaku Naru Tetsu no Image   

Japanese: 放送禁止　洗脳　邪悪なる鉄のイメージ

Romaji: Housoukinshi: Sennou – Jaaku Naru Tetsu no Image

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Toshikazu Nagae

Writer: Toshikazu Nagae (Screenplay), Rin Mikimoto (Original Novel)

Starring: N/A

A psychotherapist named Kirika Odajima is handed the case of a woman named Shimako who was brainwashed after a mysterious event which drove away her family. While digging into the story, Odajima finds a recording made by a journalist and friend of Shimako, Minami Washizu. On the recording is something horrifying.  Something evil.

Website

Minyon Baionno Hōsoku / Harmonics Minyoung   

Japanese: ミンヨン　倍音の法則

Romaji: Minyon Baionno Hōsoku

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 140 mins.

Director: Shoichiro Sasaki

Writer: Shoichiro Sasaki (Screenplay),

Starring: Min Youg, Yun Young, Hideaki Muto, Tatsunori Tanbe,

Min-Young is a college student living in Seoul who, inspired by the photo her recently deceased grandmother, goes in search of the Japanese family in the photo which was taken way back in World War II. She travels to Japan and encounters various people and learns of the hardships of the Japanese family.

Website

Fukushima A Record of Living Things Episode Two Disruption   

Japanese: 福島　生きもの の 記録　シリーズ2 異変

Romaji: Fukushima Ikimono no Kiroku Shirīzu 2 ihen

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Masanori Iwasaki

Writer: Masanori Iwasaki (Screenplay),

Starring: N/A

Hats off to Japanese documentarians who are still reporting on the 3/11 disaster and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown because they are tracking the reach of the damage done to the ecosystem, the people and animals. This one is about animals such as macaques, cows and birds which were left in the danger zone. Some strange physical variations have been reported… Nothing exceptionally dangerous like in Fallout 3 but still, things are changing. It’s a sequel to a documentary released last year which picked up an award for Excellence at the Japan Film Awards.

Website

Sengoku Bloody Agent      

Japanese: 戦極 Bloody Agent

Romaji: Sengoku Bloody Agent

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Naoki Takeda

Writer: Naoki Takeda, Shin Tachibana (Screenplay),

Starring: Ayumi Kinoshita, Yuto Nakano, Masaki Nishimori, Rei Toda, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Etsuke Sasai, Rie Nishiwaki,

It isn’t all horror, idols, and school girls! Japan can create bad ass low-budget action films. In this one, a woman named Aika (Kinoshita) hires a group of martial arts experts to take out every yakuza organisation in Japan but they meet their match with the Black Bullet organisation!

Website

Kumano Kara   

Japanese: 熊野から

Romaji: Kumano Kara

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 90 mins.

Director: Chiseko Tanaka

Writer: Chiseko Tanaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Tsuyoshi Kaibe, Yoshinobu Iseya, Koichi Ito,

A travel writer and his best friend head to the south of Japan to visit a series of shrines from Taisha to Kumanogawa, Kamikura and Totsukawa. They see priests and pilgrims tourists and locals. Although there are actors here, some of the things filmed are unscripted.

Website

Kabadeen! Gekitotsu Koko hen    

Japanese: カバディーン!!!!!!!　 激突・怒黒高校篇

Romaji: Kabadeen! Gekitotsu Koko hen

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Yuichi Abe

Writer: Kota Oura (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryusuke Nakamura, Daisuke Watanabe, Toshihiko Tanaka,

This is about a bunch of ikemen high school boys who play a game called Kabaddi and that originates in India. The basketball team are invited to sign up.

Following on from last week’s Kabadeen! Film, this one sees the basketball team come to terms with the change of sport and they engage in brutal training in a forest to be Kabaddi all-stars…

Website

HappinessCharge Precure! The Movie: The Ballerina of the Land of Dolls

Japanese: 映画ハピネスチャージプリキュア！人形の国のバレリーナ

Romaji: Eiga HapinesuCha-ji Purikyua! Ningyō no Kuni no Bararina

Release Date: October 04^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Chiaki Kon

Writer: Yoshimi Narita (Screenplay),

Starring: Haruka Tomatsu (Iona Hikawa/Cure Fortune), Megumi Han (Hime Shirayuki/Cure Princess), Megumi Nakajima (Megumi Aino/Cure Lovely), Rina Kitagawa (Yuuko Oomori/Cure Honey),

The Pretty Cure girls are all set to watch a play when the dolls start talking. “Please rescue our kingdom!” the ballerina named Tsumugi says, and she leads the Pretty Cures to the Doll Kingdom. The Pretty Cures find things look normal at first, they are surrounded by cute stuffed animals and clockwork soldiers, but things get strange when they encounter a mysterious man named Black Fang. It turns out he is attacking the kingdom. Worse is to come when he captures Tsumugi. The Pretty Cures won’t stand for this and aim to save the day.

Website

Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Voyage of Remembrance   

Japanese: 宇宙戦艦ヤマト2199「追憶の航海」

Romaji: Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199: Tsuioku no Kōkai

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 131 mins.

Director: Takao Kato

Writer: Shigeru Morita (Screenplay),

Starring: Daisuke Ono, Takayui Sugo, Noriko Kuwashima, Kenichi Sugumura, Aya Uchida, Rina Sato, Shizuka Ito, Aya Hisakawa,

This is a compilation of the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 series, 26 episodes condensed into 131 minutes, ahead of the reboot for the franchise. Aliens’ attack Earth, humanity builds a big spaceship named Yamato. Lasers are fired. Things explode.

Website

The Tenor Lirico Spinto   

Japanese: ザ・テノール　真実の物語

Romaji: Za Tenōru Shinjitsu no Monogatari

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 121 mins.

Director: Sang Man Kim

Writer: Sang Man Kim (Screenplay),

Starring: Ye-ryeon Cha, Yusuke Iseya, Ji-tae Yu, Natasa Tapuskovic, Kii Kitano, Dean Dawson,

Bae is a Korean opera singer and a rising star in the European opera world. Sawada is a music producer who wants to recruit him for a performance in Japan. The two become friends but when thyroid cancer threatens Bae’s life, he must have it cut out and that means cutting his vocal chords and losing his voice. With Sawada’s help, Bae gets back on the road to recovery and, possibly, back to singing.

Website

Tsuma ga Koishita Natsu   

Japanese: 妻が恋した夏

Romaji: Tsuma ga Koishita Natsu

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Shinji Imaoka

Writer: Shinji Imaoka (Screenplay),

Starring: Mao Miyaji, Noboru Kaneko, Rynosuke Kawai, Honoka,

Koji has lost his wife Kaori physically and emotionally before she died and yet she was three months pregnant despite their sexless relationship… Koji decides to investigate their past including a former lover he had named Reiko…

Website

Endless Affair Owari Naki Jouji Movie Version   

Japanese: 劇場版エンドレスアフェア　終わりなき情事

Romaji: Gekijouban Endoresu Afea Owari Naki Jouji

Release Date: October 11^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Shinji Imaoka

Writer: Shinji Imaoka (Screenplay),

Starring: Shigeyuki Totsugi, Hijiri Kojima, Tomoharu Hasegawa, Wakana Sakai, Ikkei Watanabe, Mickey Curtis,

Jdramas wrote about the drama last month because the film started off as a TV show.

Kosuke is a married man and a section manager in the media department of a large company. He has the chance to be the next department manager and to become the leader of a massive building project but things are in danger when a rival arrives at the company. Tachibana is desperate and so he contacts someone connected to the project, an ex-girlfriend from his university days…  The two meet and soon, Kosuke is cheating on his wife with whom he has become distant. More complications emerge.

The wife is better looking than the mistress… If I were him, I’d make more effort at home.

Website

This post took ages to write and I bet it took ages for you to read. Here’s a random video as a reward:

How Selfish I Am        

Japanese: 自分の事ばかりで情けなくなるよ

Romaji: Jibun no Koto Bakaride Nasakenaku Naru Yo

Running Time: 106 mins.

Release Date: October 26^th, 2013

Director: Daigo Matsui

Writer: Daigo Matsui (Screenplay), Sekaikan Ozaki (Original Work)

Starring: Maho Yamada, Sei Ando, Shunsuke Daito, Mei Kurokawa, Sekaikan Ozaki, Sosuke Ikematsu, Kaonashi Hasegawa, Taku Koizumu,  Yukiji Ogawa,

Website

How Selfish I Am is an episodic musical drama exploring the loves and travails of a group of people in Tokyo, all of whom are connected together by the music of the rock group CreepHyp. A glib comparison might be Short Cuts by Raymond Carver/Robert Altman on a smaller scale with a post-rock soundtrack but just as much darkness and more visual and aural dazzle.

The film is the culmination of a long collaboration between filmmaker Daigo Matsui and the band CreepHyp, this is the final result of a series music videos made over the last few years¹ based on a story originally conceived by CreepHyp’s frontman, Sekaikan Ozaki. The episodic nature of the original music videos is carried over to a feature film format and expanded upon as it draws everything together into a final product which acts a musical showcase for the band, a creative director, and a strong ensemble cast.

The film is told over the course of a few years and from multiple perspectives split between two girls and two guys, all of whom are scudding along the bottom of the Tokyo social scene.

We start off with Kumiko (Ando), a lonely girl working at a cosplay bar/brothel who pines after her ex-boyfriend (Onoue).

Kumiko is followed by Mie (Yamada), a mousy, introverted and put-upon office lady who adores CreeHyp, and has a Twitter addiction (@mieephyp0819 – yes, I write down Twitter handles in films) and a ticket to CreepHyp’s concert which she may miss because of problems at work.

Tsuda (Daito), the guy collecting tickets at the concert, is undergoing something of a meltdown as his beloved pop idol is about to retire.

The final, and longest sequence, involves a young homeless man named Rikuo (Ikematsu) who lives in two vans with a young woman (Kurokawa) who, due to a trauma in her past that has damaged her, refuses to speak.

The four stories weave together to create a sometimes funny but mostly tragic tales demonstrating the bleaker side of the Tokyo dream, all loneliness, frustration and desperation.

The theme of the film is desperation although it is not a word that the characters ever utter. Instead, Daigo Matsui takes the original series of stories, conventional when written on paper, and makes them unique by visually telling us everything about the character’s frustrations and problems while using CreepHyp’s music and physical presence to counterpoint and emphasise the emotions felt by the characters and the bleakness of their situations. This is most prominent in the earlier sections of the film which are the most visually and aurally compelling and fun.

Matsui shoots Kumiko’s section (the most upbeat of the four) almost entirely in monochrome, an interesting technique which helps show her lonely routine of returning home to a cold, empty and cluttered apartment to prepare meals for herself and her absent ex-boyfriend. We see Kumiko struggling through a series of unfortunate, though blackly comic events which make her consider returning to her hometown. Upon hearing the music of CreepHyp, she reminisces over the good times she experienced after her arrival in Tokyo and meeting her boyfriend. At this point colour bursts onto the screen, as does the band, and through a montage we see a flashback happier times all scored to an exciting rock track that pulses with such energy it captures you and makes the heart race! It is impossible not to be caught up in her emotions and reminiscences and we hope she can pick herself up and get together with her ex!

For Mie’s section, Daigo expertly uses cross-cutting between CreepHyp’s preparation for a concert with the office drudgery Mie endures. Through Twitter messages flashed up as on-screen text we see her interior voice. She is totally psyched about going to their upcoming concert but her colleagues abuse her good-nature and meekness by piling work on her on the day of the concert. With her iPod charged and earphones in she goes about mind-numbing work and using Twitter to relay increasingly bitter complaints about colleagues who continually take advantage of her. Enduring criticisms over behaviour from colleagues she takes to eating her lunch in the staff toilet, something that seems not too unfamiliar to her. She addresses her work and colleagues in an increasingly passive-aggressive manner.

Matsui cleverly contrasts the behind the scenes documentary feel of the section of CreepHyp’s rehearsals and colourful concert and with the deadening grey and artificial office world Mie inhabits. Both sections are shot with a languid pace at first but this pace picks up as the concert approaches and it is hard not to feel an insistent urge to root for Mie build, to tell her to just drop work and go see her favourite band. She shouldn’t be at work if it causes her as much heart-ache as we see and we desperately want her to get to the concert, a feeling fuelled by her increasingly hopeless Tweets like, “I lose followers the more I write,” which flash up on screen.

It builds to an emotionally powerful ending where Maho Yamada’s convincing acting and the lyrics of the band convey just how burnt out Mie is. Dissolves of the concert and close-ups of Yamada, who has been a picture of placidity in public in the office and rage in private, culminate in a moment when the emotional dam bursts. Throughout this section she has shown skill in modulating her emotions and it is heart-wrenching stuff to see her end!

Tsuda’s section is the shortest and yet arguably one of the bleakest. He has the look of an unabashed otaku who rarely interacts with others and when he does it is very awkwardly, a sort of hesitant nervousness which soon gives way to a hopeful smile before he reveals an uncouthness and anger that seems to be bred from a lack of human contact. He is an outsider and even seems bipolar in his behaviour since he is prone to sudden bursts of anger which sees him smash portable CD players up. His anger and frustration come from not being able to socialise with those around him and his only source of release is a pop idol he adores and who offers a source of happiness away from his loneliness. Following Mie, this is another example of how important music can be for people, especially those who struggle to communicate with others. Daigo shoots Tsuda’s section with flashbacks, flashforward, fest editing, sweeping pans and rapid cuts which heighten just how frantic Tsuda’s mindset is.

Where the film comes unstuck is with Rikuo’s story. It is presented in a fragmented way that combines monologues delivered straight to camera that are intercut with the wider story which is being told in flashback. Rikuo and the silent girl dance what becomes a dark and potentially dangerous game as he struggles to contain his anger and engages in physical and verbal acts of violence with her and other characters. Their connection with each other is complicated. He is impulsive, driven by his meagre circumstances to acts of spontaneous violence and affection. She refuses to open up to him and the two struggle to live in harmony despite their feelings for one another. Questions are raised such as why does the girl stay with him and while her story is teased out, viewers are left to wonder and guess at just what is happening. When the big reveal comes it is not totally unexpected but getting to it is not as thrilling. In the final segment, the film becomes far more mundane in terms of editing, shot composition and most, importantly of all, because all of the absence of the band. There is little music from them and the only appearance they make is a CD cover.

Creatively, it is a brave decision to go against the tide of rest of the film but for this reviewer, well, I wanted more of the energy from the earlier parts of the film which were so enjoyable, the rush and excitement of fast cuts and excellent music, rather than a re-tread of another film which did the narrative better (clicking on this link would result in a massive spoiler) which I couldn’t help but think of. That written, the performances are still sympathetic in this part, with both Ikematsu and Kurokawa playing out a highly nuanced relationship full of violent affections and Daito impressively building upon his earlier nervous outsider role to become even scarier and desperate and lonely. Again, this one has another open ending which refuses to provide closure but assures us that life does go on.

Desperate is probably the best way to sum up the lives of the characters. Without having to tell the audience or milk the script for melodrama, Matsui skilfully shows people desperate for love and better lives and it hurts to watch (especially Mie’s section!). The brave performances, the episodic narrative structure of the script and CreepHyp’s music transforms what could have been a conventional misery narrative into an urgent and, at times, oddly upbeat, film that crackles with creativity and passion for much of its running time. Even in the final section which didn’t hold me attention, there is a lot to think about and recommend it. Daigo Matsui shows that even in the darkness, there is some release whether it is through CreepHyp’s music or other people. Although the final segment is a comedown in terms of pace it demonstrates a pretty brave attitude from the director to his material, music and the actors. I want to watch the film again just to reassess certain things in the stories and I recommend it.

4/5

Gosh, this review has gone on a bit. 

The title of the film is a mouthful to say in Japanese and my teacher got a laugh out of my efforts!

Daigo Matsui’s filmography mostly consists of adaptations of the gag manga Afro Tanaka (2012), Daily Lives of High School Boys (2013), and Sweet Poolside (2014). I guess those pay for films like this!

CreepHyp are good but there are others I like more. I should do a post about my favourite Japanese rock groups – the ones I listen to when I write reviews.

¹ For a taste of the film, you can watch the individual music videos here and others which feature the same actors but there are spoilers:

Back from the BFI London Film Festival and two more films go on my huge backlog of reviews to write… Wednesday was all about The World of Kanako and The Furthest End Awaits, two massively different films and both awesome. I got to meet Tetsuya Nakashima and have my picture taken with him as well as ask some questions! On top of those two films, I also watched Black Butler on Friday and enjoyed a lot – Ayame Gouriki and Hiro Mizushima were both fantastic in bringing the characters to life. Next week I have to watch Annabelle and the week after I watch Ghostbusters. Is this review list going to ever be whittled down?

I’ll get to it. I hope to have The World of Kanako, Fuku-chan the The Light Only Shines There done and posted in the next two weeks.

Anyway, not much else this week except television like Shingeki no Bahamut, Parasyte (WHAT AN AWESOME SECOND EPISODE!), Gugure! Kokkuri-san (still very funny), and The Walking Dead which had an awesome episode to open up series five with.

This week I posted a review of the film How Selfish I Am! Which I saw at the Raindance Film Festival.

What’s released in Japan this weekend?

God Tongue: Kiss Pressure Game The Movie 2 Psychic Love   

Japanese: ゴッドタン キス我慢選手権 THE MOVIE2 サイキック・ラブ

Romaji: Goddotan Kisu Gaman Senshuken The Movie2 Saikikku Rabu

Release Date: October 17^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Nobuyuki Sakuma

Writer: Nobuyuki Sakuma (Screenplay),

Starring: Hitori Gekidan, Hiroaki Ogi, Yuki Himura, Osamu Shitara, Ken Yahagi, Ai Uehara, Minami Kojima, Marina Shiraishi, Hideaki Ito,

I remember a moment, back in the distant past of 2013, writing about the first God Tongue movie in a trailer post quite well. The reason I remember it is because I like the title God Tongue. So mysterious and sexy. Is the movie a romance or a dark mystery? Does the protagonist have a silver tongue that allows him/her to charm their way into and out of situations? That poster has so much going on, it looks awesome! Is it the sequel to the awesome video game, God Hand? It could also be a Pink film.

Subsequent research (browsing videos on YouTube – very scientific, as you can see) led me to watch the original TV show it is based on and I was disappointed. It is based on a variety show where comedians making jokes about/involving sexy women on cheap sets. It was a drag to watch. I suppose this stuff is funnier if you’re Japanese and understand the language perfectly.

Hitori Gekidan is dropped off at a school where there is someone with psychic powers causing trouble and he must not kiss for an entire day or something…

Website

Disconcerto (English Title) / Rhapsody in front of Mahoro Station (literal title)

Japanese: まほろ　駅前　狂騒曲

Romaji: Mahoro Ekimae Kyousoukyoku

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 124 mins.

Director: Tatsushi Omori

Writer: Tatsushi Omori, Hikaru Kurozumi (Screenplay), Shion Miura (Original Novel),

Starring: Eita, Ryuhei Matsuda, Yoko Maki, Masatoshi Nagase, Kengo Kora, Maro Akaji, Nao Omori, Miku Iwasaki, Shohei Uno, Hirofumi Arai, Masaki Miura, Tomoko Naraoka,

This was recently screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival which I wrote about and from which I have copied and pasted the following text.

Director Tatsushi Omori had a strong year in 2013 with his film, The Ravine of Goodbye, and switches tones with this laid back title. He reunites with his leading lady from that film, Yoko Maki, and teams her up with two of Japan’s most talented young actors, Eita and Ryuhei Matsuda. This is the sequel film which was the sequel of a television series which was based on the novel of Shion Miura. Tony Rayns calls this, “a package of unsinkable charm!,” and he knows his stuff.

Tada (Eita) runs a “benriya” – a do-it-all service – in front of the fictional Mahoro Station n Tokyo. He is optimistic unlike his friend Gyoten (Matsuda) who is cynical. The two blunder through various assignments but when people and events from Gyoten’s past show up their friendship is pushed to breaking point…

Itsuka no, Genkan Tachi to   

Japanese: いつか　の、　玄関たちと、

Romaji: Itsuka no, Genkan Tachi to

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Yu Katsumata

Writer: Yu Katsumata (Screenplay),

Starring: Reina Fujie, Mugi Tachibana, Aya Enjoji, Chiako Matsubara, Houka Kinoshita Michi Yamamura, Mayuno Katsuo, Kouyou IGarashi

Aya Fujie, an idol from NMB48 stars as a girl named Ayame who recently graduated from high school. Her sister reappears after eloping with someone and she has a daughter but there are complicated details surrounding who the father is… Ayame must now adjust.

Website

Kids=Zero   

Japanese: Kids=Zero キッズ＝ゼロ

Romaji: Kids=Zero Kizzu=Zero

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 62 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: Yasutoshi Murakawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Aihime Yamaoka, Ai Yamazaki, Kei Kagaya, Ryoichi Yamaguchi

A tokusatsu series where kids in a talent school take the lead in the fight against evil. Some serious acting and acrobatics can be seen from these young ones, some of whom are mixed-race. 

Website

Kenjuu to Medama-shou   

Japanese: 拳銃と目玉焼

Romaji: Kenjuu to Medama-shou

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 113 mins.

Director: Junichi Yasuda

Writer: Junichi Yasuda (Screenplay),

Starring: Takahiro Ono, Yuno Sakura, Hiroshi Tanaka, Kyohei Yaguchi, Hiroki Takeuchi, Takashi Tanimatsu, Miki Fujioka,

Only a teaser but this looks… interesting. What’s going on??? This is a self-produced film from Junichi Yasuda, made from money earned from bridal photography and corporate video production. With a camera and a limited crew, he has produced an action film where the hero, Shiro (Ono) a kind-hearted bachelor, lives in a small town. He finds out that  the man who runs the town factory, Sakamoto (Tanaka) is involved in hunting  down a group of dangerous individuals and resolves to join the fight perhaps with the intention of impressing the secretary at his workplace.

Website

The Kumamoto Dormitory    

Japanese: 故郷の詩

Romaji: Kokyo no Uta

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 71 mins.

Director: Goichi Mine

Writer: Goichi Mine (Screenplay),

Starring: Goichi Mine, Kaori Iida, Akira Goto, Momoka Okabe, Yuki Maeda, Akihiro Hishida, Ryu Kenichiro,

This was at the 2012 Pia Film Festival where it picked up a number of plaudits and where I got the synopsis from:

Daikichi is an aspiring stuntman, who left his cute girlfriend back in his hometown of Kumamoto and came to Tokyo. But he wasted his days in Tokyo drinking with his friend Tenshi, an aspiring filmmaker also from Kumamoto, picking up girls, and working on ideas for a film that will never be completed. Before he knows it, he is about to graduate. His future is unclear and his dream might not come true. Realizing that both his love life and filmmaking have hit dead ends, Daikichi sets out to perform the greatest stunt of his lifetime.

Website

The Next Generation Patlabor Chapter 5    

Japanese: THE NEXT GENERATION ‐パトレイバー第5章

Romaji: THE NEXT GENERATION ‐PatlaborーDai 5 Shou

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Writer: Mamoru Oshii, (Screenplay), Masami Yuki (Original Novel)

Starring: Erina Mano, Toshio Kakei, Seiji Fukushi, Rina Ohta, Shigeru Chiba, Yoshinori Horimoto, Yoshikatsu Fujiki, Hinako Saeki, Daisuke Takashi,

This is the fifth in a seven-part series of films that act as a continuation of the Patlabor series with a brand new set of characters. In this one, we get the two segments, “Enkyori Sogeki 2000″ (Long-range Sniping 2000) which is all about an elite sniper named Kasha who confronts the teacher who trained her in Russia, and episode 9, “Crocodile Dungeon.” Where we see the guys and girls of Section 2 venture underground to investigate rumour of a white crocodile that create pearls but they find something even scarier and Izumi ha to save the day. A feature length film is set for release after the next episode and will open during Japan’s Golden Week holidays next year.

Website

Prince of Tennis Musical Seigaku vs Shitenhouji    

Japanese: ミュージカル「テニスの王子様」青学vs四天宝寺

Romaji: Myuujikaru `Tenisu no Oujisama’ Seigaku vs Shitenhouji

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 184 mins.

Director: Takeshi Konomi

Writer: Yukio Ueshima (Screenplay), Takeshi Konomi (Original Manga)

Starring: Yuki Kogoshi (Ryoma Echizen), Kazuyoshi Yamamoto (Shuichiro Oishi), Shintaro Anzai (Shiraishi Kuranosuke),

There are a lot of Prince of Tennis musicals and that’s because the series is massively popular in Japan. This is a recording from March of this year and is directed by the manga’s original creator.

Website

Planet Mizusa / Wakusai Mizusa   

Japanese: 惑星ミズサ

Romaji: Wakusai Mizusa

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Ryouken Sato

Writer: Ryouken Sato (Screenplay),

Starring: Hideki Fujioka, Aimi Satsukawa, Yuya Matsuura, Shohei Uno, Lily Franky, Mitsuyo Hoshino,

I love the poster for this one. The trailer looks interesting and there are a numbe actors in here like Lily Franky and Shohei Uno. A man named Yoshisuke (Fujioka) lives in a small town where strange things are afoot. He then meets a girl who claims to be an alien. Her name is Mizusa (Satsukawa). A strange relationship develops between them.

Website

Bonus video:

The East Winds Film Festival is one the UK’s major cinematic events that allows audience members to enjoy a selection of the latest East Asian cinema, and also be is possibly one of the best events found outside of London for viewing films from the region. The festival takes place in Coventry over three days between October 31^st and November 02^nd and it has a great line-up of films from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and a strong Japanese horror film contingent.

Here are the titles programmed. Click on the films to get taken to the festival page for more information:

Friday, October 31st

The festival opens on Friday with the European Premiere of the Taiwanese film Partners in Crime at 7PM. This is a mystery/thriller involving three schoolboys who come across the body of a schoolgirl who has just committed suicide. They have vague recollections of her and aren’t convinced by the suicide story so decide to investigate her death which leads to disturbing revelations…

At 9PM is the Japanese black comedy Greatful Dead (which will be getting a UK release courtesy of Third Window Films). This played at last year’s Raindance Film Festival where it received excellent reviews. The story follows Nami, a young woman with a dysfunctional childhood who stalks lonely old men and acts like a peeping tom, spying on people who have gone crazy from loneliness. One old man in particular provides great entertainment for her but when some Christian missionaries promise to bring him happiness, Nami takes drastic steps…

Saturday, November 01^st

1PM sees Lust of Angels screened at the festival. This is part of the New Directors from Japan DVD release that Third Window Films Kickstarted earlier this year and soon set for release on DVD. It also played at the Raindance Film Festival where it went down well.

Saori, a schoolgirl, is molested on the notorious “molester train” of the Hanagawa line and rescued by another school girl who witnesses the act. The girl who rescues her turned out to be a new student of Yamashiro Gakuen high school, which Saori also attends. The mysterious new student Yuriko, is rumoured to be a “parent killer”. Yuriko soon leads Saori and her friends to hunt molesters on the Hanagawa line…

I really like the poster for this one.

From 2PM, audience members can watch Thai film, Laddaland, a horror based on the real story of a haunted luxurious residential development called Laddaland. A struggling father moves his family there, much against their wishes, and soon people are murdered, a ghost shows up, and dark secrets are revealed.

Veering away from horror and into the world of thrillers is David Lam with Z Storm at 4PM. In the film, Louis Koo plays an anti-corruption investigator who looks into the case of a corrupt cop and a money laundering accountant who are caught on film destroying evidence. The case gets very complicated when they beat their charges and it emerges that they are working for a financial tycoon.

Saturday night will play host to the International Festival Premiere of The Swimmers at 7PM. This is from the director of Laddaland and also involves horrifying visions. In this film a schoolgirl is found dead in an apparent suicide at the bottom of the school swimming pool and it looks like two members of the swim team who were in a love triangle with the girl are involved.

One of the major highlights of the weekend for J-horror fans will be getting the chance to see A Record of Sweet Murder at 9PM, which gets its European premiere at the festival. This is a Japanese/South Korean co-production released just last month and it comes from Koji Shiraishi, one of Japan’s rising horror directors. With titles like CULT and Noroi: The Curse, he has carved out a niche melding reality TV with supernatural occurrences. This looks like more of the same but it has been getting good reviews (some spoilers in the Variety review).

The story begins when a reporter named Kim Soyeon is contacted by her childhood friend Park Sang-joon, a man who recently escaped a mental hospital and is said to have murdered eighteen people. He promises her an exclusive story if she brings along a Japanese cameraman. When she meets Sang-joon he explains to her that he has been hearing the voice of God and has been promised a “miracle” if he kills 25 people. The miracle is the resurrection of mutual friend.  What she next witnesses is horrifying…

Sunday, November 02^nd

The last day of the festival feature more films but with a lighter tone as drama and comedy come to the fore.

The first film screened, at 1:30PM, is the International Festival Premiere of romantic comedy Live @ Love. This title features a cast of rising stars in Taiwanese TV and looks set to be a fun spin on the detective duo narrative where a professional detective and her inexperienced but handsome assistant investigate a murder.

That is followed up at 4PM with yet another international festival premiere, Bugs 3D, a schlocky fun 3D film reminiscent of Hollywood B-movie pictures from the 60s and 70s. Giant bugs? Yep. Scientists create them because they provide high-quality protein at a low-cost, but when they escape, they start hunting humans.

Drama awaits at 6PM with the family drama Wonder Mama, starring Petrina Fung Bo Bo as a 49-year old librarian named Ah-Oi who is about to retire. Then she finds her quiet shattered when she learns her teenage maid has been impregnated by her 70-year old father. With her parents’ set to divorce at on old age, the pressure of raising the new-born, a missing husband and her 30-year old unemployed son who still lives with her, things are reaching crisis point in her house. Apparently this is based on a true story.

The final film of the festival, at 8PM, is another European Premiere and it is Nithiwat Tharatorn’s Thai box office smash hit The Teacher’s Diary, which has been selected as Thailand’s official entry into the Oscars’ foreign-language division.

This looks like a sweet comedy-drama about that follows the intertwining
stories of two lonely teachers posted to the same rural school a year apart. Sukrit “Bie” Wisetkaew is given work at a remote floating schoolhouse out in the middle of nowhere. He finds an illustrated diary left by his predecessor, the headstrong and opinionated Ann and, as he reads it, he slowly falls in love with her. When he leaves, Ann returns and finds that her battered diary has been expanded upon. Even though the two have never met, a bond is formed, as the two teach their pupils.

The full schedule and tickets are now available at www.eastwindsfilmfest.com.

This is going to be a brief trailer post because fewer films than usual have been released this weekend and I have cut down on the chatter because I have been consumed writing reviews for The World of Kanako, Black Butler, and The Light Shines Only There. They are titanic pieces of rambling reviewing written while listening to parts of the Kanako soundtrack. Also some art galleries are opening up where I work. Bad Education is over. Anyway, I’ll post The World of Kanako next Monday and there will be a special Halloween post on Friday.

Staying with the Halloween theme, I’m going to watch Ghostbusters next week! Plus, did everyone see the synopsis for one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s next films? It’s a supernatural tale! I felt joy reading it because it’s a return to what he’s good at and it looks great!

In terms of what I posted about this week, I covered the East Winds Film Festival which has a great line-up of films from all around East Asia.

What’s released this weekend in Tokyo?

Oh Brother, Oh Sister!   

Japanese: 小野寺の弟・小野寺の姉

Romaji: Onodera no Otouto Onodera no Ane

Release Date: October 25^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Masafumi Nishida

Writer: Masafumi Nishida (Screenplay/Original Novel),

Starring: Osamu Mukai, Hairi Katagiri, Nao Omori, Mizuki Yamamoto, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Minato Kotobuki, Tsuyoshi Muro, Kumiko Aso,

This is an adaptation of a book directed by the original author and the actors performed a theatrical version just last year. There’s a lot of dedication on show and some great actors. The story doesn’t grab me but what about the trailer???

Yoriko (Katagiri) and her younger brother Susumu (Mukai) have lived together since their parents died at an early age. Yoriko has hit forty while Susumu is in his thirties and neither have married but they are content just being together. One day, the two meet people who make them consider living apart.

Website

Shanti Days 365 Days, Happy Breath   

Japanese: シャンティ・デイズ　３６５日、幸せな呼吸

Romaji: Shanti Deizu 365 Nichi, Shiawasena Kokyu

Release Date: October 25^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 108 mins.

Director: Koto Nagata

Writer: Koto Nagata (Screenplay),

Starring: Mugi Kadowaki,  Jessica Michibata, Dean Fujioka, Jun Murakami, Shingo Tsurumi, Midori Kiuchi, Akira Watamoto, Tomoko Takaya, Nicole Ishida,

From Suurkiitos, the company that brought us My Pretend Girlfriend and Rent-a-Cat comes a yoga movie!

Miku (Kadowaki) moves from Tokyo to Aomori and moves into an apartment with Kumi (Michibata), a model and yoga instructor and also runs a modelling business. There is a clash of personalities because Miku is more laidback than Kumi but through the power of yoga they discover the power of friendship!

Website

Oyaji Actor Z   

Japanese: おやじ男優Z

Romaji: Oyaji Danyuu Z

Release Date: October 25^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Yutaka Ikeshima

Writer: Kyoko Godai (Screenplay) Go Arisue (Original Novel),

Starring: Seiki Nakamitsu, Koji Makimura, Yasushi Takemoto, Asam Sakanokami, Kaori Takeshita, Yuko Hoshino, Yumi Yoshiyuki, Maya Sawamura,

What do you get when you combine a filmmaker familiar with the erotic (Yutaka Ikeshima) with a book by someone who likes bondage and more erotic stuff (Go Arisue)? Apparently, this rather cheap and sleazy looking title. Some of the promo images for this left me disturbed. I feel sorry for the gravure idols taking part in this. Oh look, some of that stuff is in this NSFW trailer. You have been warned.

It’s all about an old guy named Mitsuo who has had a business fail on him and is in debt. He wants to escape the constant nagging of his family and gets his chance with AV actress Yuri Natsume.

Website

Black Butler: Book of Murder   

Japanese: 黒執事 Book of Murder 上巻

Romaji: Kuro Shitsuji Book of Murder Joukan

Release Date: October 25^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Noriyuki Abe

Writer: Hiroyuki Yoshino (Series Composition/OVA Script),

Starring: Daisuke Ono (Sebastian Michaelis), Maaya Sakamoto (Ciel Phantomhive), Emiri Kato (Mey-yin), Shunji Fujimura (Mr Tanaka), Hiroki Touchi (Baldroy), Shintaro Asanuma (Arthur),

Straight from Anime News Network!

At the Queen’s behest, young master Ciel Phantomhive hosts a lavish banquet to be attended by the crème-de-la-crème of London’s elite. What begins as a fabulous affair quickly takes a dark turn when guests begin turning up dead! Murder takes center stage in this chilling OVA collection where even a debonair demon butler isn’t safe from a killer on the prowl. Should Sebastian and Ciel wish to once more see the light of day, they must join forces with their guests, including the legendary author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to unravel the mystery – and apprehend the murderer before it’s too late!

Website

Prince of Tennis Musical National Convention Seigaku vs Rikkai

Japanese: ミュージカル「テニスの王子様」全国大会　青学vs立海青学vs四天宝寺

Romaji: Myuujikaru `Tenisu no Oujisama’ Seigaku vs Shitenhouji

Release Date: October 18^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Takeshi Konomi

Writer: Yukio Ueshima (Screenplay), Takeshi Konomi (Original Manga)

Starring: Yuki Kogoshi (Ryoma Echizen), Kazuyoshi Yamamoto (Shuichiro Oishi), Hideya Tawada (Kunimitsu Tezuka),

There are a lot of Prince of Tennis musicals and that’s because the series is massively popular in Japan. This is a recording from March of this year and is directed by the manga’s original creator. No trailer.

Website

After Opening Night   

Japanese: 夜があけたら

Romaji: Yoru ga Aketara

Release Date: October 25^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Kiyoto Kawamura

Writer: Kiyoto Kawamura (Screenplay),

Starring: Rina Takeda, Satoshi Kasajima, Takuya Watanabe, Yuri Kamiya,

Rina Takeda, the action girl, has made massive strides into dramatic roles in interesting films like The Tale of Iya and School Girls Gestation. She is here again in an indie film from ENBU Seminar about a woman who tracks down the schoolgirl who was having an affair with her husband who is a teacher…

Website

Random music video:

I got a press release for The East Winds Film Festival and it announces the guests set to arrive and there are a variety of interesting characters, especially the first one I’m going to write about…

The festival takes place at the end of this month in Coventry between 31st October and 2nd November in the state-of-the-art digital 3D Cinema Square One and the guest list has been announced. Attendees will get to see a selection of stars and directors who will be at the event to introduce their films, taking part in Q&A sessions and mingling with audiences.

Kim Kko-bbi, a rising star in South Korea and Japan made a major impact in the west with Yang Ik-June’s gritty drama Breathless (released by Terracotta) and has since starred in a series of Japanese horror movies and the recent big-budget historical actioner, Kundo: Age of the Rampant.

She is at the East Winds Film Festival to present the European Premiere of A Record of Sweet Murder, the recently released (as in, last month) production from one of Japan’s leading directors in underground horror, Koji Shiraishi, the man famous for Noroi: The Curse and CULT. She also introduces the upcoming Third Window Film release, Greatful Dead, directed by Eiji Uchida.

The next guest to announce is director Sophon Sakdaphisit who also has two films at the festival. Both are slow burn chillers with social commentary that some regard as the best horror films to be made in Thailand in recent years. Get the low-down on how he views and makes horror when he introduces Laddaland, an apparent real life story of a family who moved into a haunted condo development, and his most recent horror The Swimmers, a story of alienation and teen romance where a love triangle between two members of the school’s swim-team turns deadly.

Director, producer and screenwriter Clifton Ko Chi-sum will be at the festival for the European Premiere of his drama Wonder Mama, a story about a 49-year old lady librarian on the verge of retirement who can never get the ordinary, drama-free life she desires because of a lot of drama in her family.

Writer-director Nithiwat Tharatorn will be introducing this year’s Closing Film, The Teacher’s Diary, a feel-good movie that has become Thailand’s official entry to the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. This one looks very sweet and a nice way to end what looks set to be a great festival.

Genkinahito is back once again to present a film to give you some Halloween chills. As part of my annual celebration of the night, I have chosen a great horror title that I heartily recommend for some twisted filled fun. Previous years have featured Nightmare Detective, Strange Circus, and Shokuzai… This year I give you…

POV ~A Cursed Film~  

Japanese Title: POV～呪われたフィルム～

Romaji: POV ~Norowareta Film~

Release Date: 18^th February 2012

Running Time: N/A

Director: Norio Tsuruta

Writer: Norio Tsuruta (Screenplay)

Starring: Mirai Shida, Haruna Kawaguchi, Yasuyuki Hirano

Due to his insistence on staying in the genre he helped popularise Norio Tsuruta, famous for Ring 0: Birthday (2000), is one of J-horror’s better and more committed directors with a filmography made up of titles that range across types. Much like fellow horror director, Koji Shiraishi, Tsuruta mixes modern media with yurei and urban folktales.

POV ~A Cursed Film~ opens in a similar fashion to Shiraishi’s best known work, Noroi: The Curse (2005), with on-screen text warning the viewer of the horrors to be seen before entering the first sequence which involves a lengthy set-up that effectively establishes character and situation.

Two idol girls, Mirai Shida and Haruna Kawaguchi are filming their no-budget variety show and the topic of the day is ghost stores. Shida is genuinely scared of ghosts but soldiers on as Kawaguchi plays a mysterious video that is sent in, the first of many references to Hideo Nakata’s seminal J-horror Ringu (1998). Said video is not one that anyone on the production team remembers programming for the show but as Kawaguchi watches the spooky corridors, the girl’s restroom with a cubicle door that opens by itself, and empty classrooms she recognises her old school.

Eerie is the best way to describe things as there is no tangible proof that this is real. Glimpses of shades just in frame, faces barely glimpsed peering in through the windows of a corridor which is on the third floor. It all culminates on the rooftop where the camera’s POV is turned around to face the holder. As it moves, we see mottled legs, a tattered skirt and uniform and the scarred face of a girl who laughs in a sinister manner, fufufufu.

Everybody, especially Kawaguchi is freaked out not least because Kawaguchi used to hunt ghosts. Of course, despite a hesitant manager and a scared idol group and film crew, the gang are going to the haunted school to document the hot-spots on the tape not least because a psychic wants to cleanse the place. With the assistance of a sceptical teacher, they take a tour which will be filmed from multiple points of view – director Tachibana, his assistant Kitagawa and others…

This opening sequence has us primed to play spot the yurei as the film crew, led by the teacher, search the reputedly haunted corners of the school. Amidst the calm and stillness a sense of dread builds as the characters traipse around in the fading light of the day and into the oppressive silence of a building emptied of all life but the six people. The claustrophobia of the place sets in and the strangest of things happen. Locked doors open by themselves, lights flicker, shadows are glimpsed and the video camera images become fuzzy and distorted. The atmosphere becomes pregnant with dread. It is all underplayed at first and the gang even go some way to trying to debunk some of the strange occurrences as they investigate hauntings but these images are too freaky to forget, faces in windows, the silhouette of a man, the type of things we may swear we see in a dark corridor but are too uncertain (and scared) to confirm.

Then everything goes haywire and the ghosts come out in full force and the crew make like Scooby and the gang and run around corridors and classrooms.

From there everything becomes pretty generic in the second sustained sequence as a simple narrative of people trying to escape the ghosts, getting lost and running into each other, scaring each other and falling over.

One gets the sense Tsuruta is not trying to reinvent the genre he helped popularise, he is telling a solid tale and revealing how refined his techniques are and there is fun to be had witnessing a master at work. Everything is played straight. His script efficiently sets things up and even throws in a tragic and dark tale that is revealed. Even though the characters fall into horror clichés – let’s go investigate this place despite knowing it is clearly dangerous – and there is one outrageously melodramatic plot twist, I cannot pretend that I did not enjoy the film especially the execution of the haunting.

Once darkness descends and the characters are tired of traipsing around the school, Tsuruta hits the accelerator and the action picks up tremendously as the gang try and negotiate the haunted school. There are times when Tsuruta slows down to let the audience, and characters, catch their breath but these are momentary pauses that allow him to reset the ghosts so they can attack afresh from new positions. It is breathless stuff that is full of screams and shouting and some dialogue ripe with humour, “I can’t believe you are our manager. We have to go after her.”

Tsuruta proves his skill in the way he sets up shots and manipulates the frame. He can deploy familiar techniques like night vision and the shaky cam’s perspective and the position of actors to allow ghosts to get into the scene and surprise the audience. He also makes great use out of replaying recorded footage as a set-up for the emergence of more ghosts. Tsuruta enjoys having characters plunge into scary situations and with the scenes of investigation having made everything threatening, it is nerve-racking. The action is constant but rarely disorienting and when it is disorienting, it is deliberately done due to the person holding the camera running like hell with no particular direction in mind other than away from the ghosts.

These two sustained parts, the build-up and the scare, are fantastic. The camera is always rolling and there are few breaks in perspective which makes the film increasingly tense.

The sense of seriousness breaks down in the film’s coda which actually has a big and satisfying reveal where chaos totally reigns and it becomes fun. Crucially, Tsuruta uses the camera aspect ratio of the screen for a smart twist that explains everything including the title which gains new significance. The Ringu nods also come thick and fast. I won’t spoil this section, just sit back and enjoy the cheery J-pop song that plays after the credits role and everything that follows.

The cast are all solid and it would not be effective if they did not stay in character and take things seriously. They do, and it’s fun watching them put in energetic performances. Mirai Shida, voice of Kayo Horikoshi in The Wind Rises (2013) and Arrietty in The Secret World of Arrietty (2010), gamely plays up the role of idol with aplomb and Haruna Kawaguchi (the detective in Madame Marmalade) is also fun to watch.

I found that I enjoyed it more than something like Paranormal Activity due to the intense action and constant events. Overall, it’s a fun film and one of the better examples of idol horror and found-footage horror out there. I daresay that I prefer it to Noroi: The Curse.

4/5

Hello dear readers!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. This week, I watched a few horror/supernatural films. I saw Ghostbusters at my local cinema and had a blast. Seeing Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and the gang on the big screen was awesome an it lived up to my expectations. I think I’ll review it. I also watched The Beast Must Die, an old Amicus production from the ‘70s.

I started the week with a post about the guests who will appear at the East Winds Film Festival and then I posted my annual Halloween review for POV: A Cursed Film which I found to be a lot of fun and worth watching.

Okay, so we’re going into the next couple of months with reviews aplenty. Big reviews. I’m going to continue with the trend of one a week.

“Just look at her and tell me the world isn’t going to change.”

What’s released in Tokyo cinemas this weekend?

Sofuten!    

Japanese: ソフテン!

Romaji: Sofuten

Release Date: October 31^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Yasunari  Izuma

Writer: Yusei Naruse (Screenplay), Mina Itaba (Original Manga)

Starring: KANON (Kanon Tsuyama), Aika Oota, Mirei Tanaka, MIINA, Rio Sugawara, Mai Okamoto, Yui Masaki, Karin, Nanami Koyama, Saki Shishima, Dankan,

Girls from HKT48, SUPER ☆ GiRLS star in an adaptation of a manga from 2010 about a bunch of girls ranging from Yankees and fujoshi to more “gluttonous” ones who join the school softball team which is run by a janitor.

Dankan, I don’t really know all that much about him but I enjoyed watching him in Getting Any? and Eyes of the Spider. He was also in Noroi: The Curse.

Website

Bay Blues: 25 Years and 364 Days   

Japanese: ベイブルース 25歳と364日

Romaji: Bei Buru-su 25-sai to 364-nichi

Release Date: October 31^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Tomohiro Takayama

Writer: Takeshi Kaneda (Screenplay), Tomohiro Takayama (Original Story)

Starring: Tamiyasu Cho, Shozo Endo, Natsumi Ogawa, Shigeru Minmide, Iihwa, Eri Ishida, Yuta Kajiwara,

Eitoku Kawamoto was a rising-star of the comedy world before he died at the age of twenty-five. His comedy partner Tomohiro Takayama wrote an autobiography about him, trying to capture Eitoku’s style of comedy and what drove him by depicting his life. That book became a best-seller and has now been turned this film.

Website

Greatful Dead   

Japanese Title:  グレイトフル デッド

Romaji: Gureitofuru Deddo

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Eiji Uchida

Writer: Eiji Uchida, Etsuo Hiratani (Screenplay),

Starring: Kumi Takiuchi, Takashi Sasano, Kkobbi Kim, Aira, Itsuji Itao, Taro Yabe, Wakana Sakai, Hoka Kinoshita,

I’ve written about Greatful Dead a lot on this site mostly because this one’s getting a release at the end of January 2015 thanks to Third Window Films and it has toured the UK quite a bit and has gotten a lot of praise. I’ve read nothing but good things so I’m looking forward to watching it at some point. Here’s the UK trailer and the Japanese trailer.

Nami’s childhood was brutal: her mother ran away to Sri Lanka to help poor kids, her sister skipped town with her boyfriend and her father descended into despair and got himself a gothic mistress who played on this. Now that she’s grown up she takes pleasure in spying on people, watching loners in society and enjoying seeing their pain. Seeing one old man’s misery gives her more pleasure than most other but when Christian missionaries offer him happiness, well, Nami has to step in.

Website

Clover    

Japanese Title:  クローバー

Romaji: Kuro-ba-

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Takeshi Furusawa

Writer: Taeko Asano (Screenplay), Toriko Chiya (Original Manga),

Starring: Emi Takei, Tadayoshi Okura, Kento Nagayama, Natsuna Watanabe, Yusuke Kamiji Kai Shishido, Rie Shibata, Yasuko Mitsuura, Erena Mizusawa,

Takeshi Furusawa… That’s the director. I know I’ve written about him before but what was it about… THAT AWFUL J-horror, Ghost Train (2006)! He was Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s AD on the far superior Kairo (2000). So he’s stuck in the land of manga and novel adaptations and he’s doing shoujo… What’s it about?

Shy girl Saya Suzuki (Takei) works at a hotel as an OL and has a crush on her boss Susumu (Okura). As romance blossoms, Saya becomes a stronger person.

Website

Akane Kurarinetto   

Japanese Title:  茜色クラリネット

Romaji: Akane Kurarinetto

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 81 mins.

Director: Yuno Sakamoto

Writer: Yuki Shimazaki (Screenplay),

Starring: Sato Kaedeko, Rina Sato, Yuki Morita, Chie Ohashi, Risa Kumaki, Ayumu Saito, Tsuyoshi Sato,

This film is just like my life! I used to be in my high school orchestra and I played the clarinet. I never had any near death experiences, though. And no scary looking bear appeared either. This was made as part of a workshop involving unior high school students in Sapporo. Yuko Sakamoto is actually a high schooler but was tutored in the art of directing by Masato Sakai and Wataru Hayakawa.

Akane (Kaedeko Sato) is a junior high school student who has a friend in a coma. She discovers a book that allows her to enter another plane of existence… She enters a dream world and sees the unconscious world of her friend but as she starts doing this, a strange disease hits her town and begins to affect the children…

Website

Tori no Michi wo Koete    

Japanese Title:  鳥の道を越えて

Romaji: Tori no Michi wo Koete

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 93 mins.

Director: Yuki Imai

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Yuki Imai travels to the Tono region of Gifu prefecture to track a man and his grandson who keep track of migratory birds in the area and what the nature of their situation is.

Website

Natsu zen Owari        

Japanese Title:  夏前。 おわり

Romaji: Natsu zen Owari

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 81 mins.

Director: Yuki Sasaki

Writer: Yuki Sasaki (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuko Kageyama, Takuma Watanabe, Atsushi Hijiri, Marie Ono, Susume Katayama, Ayaka Komatsu, Natsuki Seki,

This is another Enbu Seminar films, a series of titles that allow young filmmakers to get experience in making professional productions. In the third of a trilogy of Enbu films, director Yuki Sasaki wants to examine the despair and hope of a group of people.

Website

Hatachi no Kuzu    

Japanese Title:  はたちのクズ

Romaji: Hatachi no Kuzu

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 65 mins.

Director: Natsusakura Suzuki,

Writer: Natsusakura Suzuki (Screenplay),

Starring: Minehiro Kinomoro, Ryosuke Kawamura, Hitomi Ikehane, Akira Sakai, Atsushi Shiraki, Kanji Tsuda,

This is another indie film from a young filmmaker and it has a lot of tragedy in it as well as hope as we see two brothers who were separated and a mother who finds it hard to get over her loss.

Website

Hikari no Neiro The Back Horn Film    

Japanese Title:  光の音色 THE BACK HORN Film

Romaji: Hikari no Otoiro The Back Horn Film

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri

Writer: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Screenplay),

Starring: Masashi Yamada, Eijun Suganami, Koshu Okamine, Shinji Matsuda,

The Back Horn appear in The Tone of Light which is directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri – My Man (2014), End of Summer (2013) – and was filmed in Vladivostok in Russia. It has a bunch of extras from the country. It looks like it is about an old man who wants to bury his wife, the love of his life. Apparently, the music of The Back Horn.is appropriate. I’ll stick to Tricot and shoe gazey stuff like The Florist. And Touhou vocals.

Website

Ignorance of Knowledge    

Japanese Title:  無知の知

Romaji: Muchi no Chi

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 107 mins.

Director: Choya Ishida

Writer: N/A (Screenplay),

Starring: Yukio Edano Tetsuro Fukuyama, Naoto Kan, Kenichi Shimomura, Tetsuo Sawada, Kaoru Yosano,

In this 3/11 documentary we see former government ministers interviewed about their response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. We also get insight into the rise of green energy with solar power getting analysed as well as the restart of Japan’s nuclear power plants.

Website

Wonogawa   

Japanese Title:  ヲ乃ガワ WONOGAWA

Romaji: Wonogawa

Release Date: November 01^st, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Hiroki Yamaguchi

Writer: Hiroshi Yamaguchi (Screenplay), Hiroki Yamaguchi, Yuri Takahashi, (Original Story)

Starring: Mizuho Abe, Achi Naoyasu, Keiko Koike, Nozomi Maeda, Luchino Fujisaki, Motoki Fukami, Junichi Kawamoto, Nao Oikawa, Naomi,

Sci-fi… How long as it been since I saw a sci-fi film which wasn’t anime… Feels like a long time. What’s this about? A series of environmental disasters strike the Earth in the not too distant future and a few pockets of humanity hold out. One such community founded a town at a hot spring in Japan and managed to survive but the discovery of a mobile phone from the ancient past heralds the start of chaos.

Website

And that’s it. No more dodgy translations for this week. Here’s a random Holiday appropriate video for you guys.

Black Butler      

Japanese: 黒執事

Romaji: Kuroshitsuji

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: January 18^th, 2014 (Japan), October 17th, 2014 (UK)

Director: Kentaro Otani, Keiichi Sato

Writer: Tsutomu Kuroiwa (Screenplay), Yana Toboso (Original Manga)

Starring: Hiro Mizushima, Ayame Gouriki, Mizuki Yamamoto, Takuro Ohno, Yuka, Ken Yasuda, Taro Shigaki, Goro Kishitani,

Website

Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji/ 黒執事), Yana Toboso’s supernatural manga, is hugely popular both in Japan and the west. The manga has sold 18 million copies worldwide and it has been the source of three TV anime series and numerous OVAs and much in the way of cosplaying, games, musicals, doujinshi works and fan-girl gushing. Go to any public library in the UK and you will probably find the volumes dominating the shelves. At a time when Warner Bros Japan are adapting popular manga like Rurouni Kenshin (2012) and Wild 7 (2011) into a mid to big-budget live-action films, it makes sense that this would be selected to capitalise on its legions of fans but, as is inevitably asked with any adaptation, is it faithful to the source?

Although taking place in the same universe of the manga, the changes to Black Butler are many.

The original story took place in Victorian England but for the film the setting has been changed to an unnamed Asian city in the year 2020 where Eastern and Western cultures mix. The world has been split between East and West and the two halves are at war. A Queen rules the western nations and maintains her authority through the use of aristocratic spies known as the Queen’s Watchdogs. One of these spies is a gloomy young man named Kiyoharu Genpo.

Kiyoharu Genpo? In another change the original protagonist, Ciel Phantomhive has been replaced by Kiyoharu and while he may also be the orphaned head of the aristocratic Phantomhive family (which has changed its name to Genpo) he is not actually a male. In yet another change the lead character is a young woman whose real name is Shiori (Ayame Goriki). Since only males can take over the reins of power in the Genpo family, she must pass herself off as a man and so she wears more masculine clothes and bears the name Kiyoharu Genpo.

When mummified dead bodies of various western aristocrats are discovered around the world, Shiori must break off an investigation into the disappearance of young women and focus her energies on this threat to the Queen’s power. Her only clue is a ‘Devil’ tarot card left on the body. These cards are a “black invitation” that lead to a deadly world and it may be connected to the deaths of Shiori’s parents. It is a big task for Shiori to handle but she is not alone.

As an aristocrat with a manor she has a household staff including a faithful chauffeur named Tanaka (Shigaki) and a bumbling maid named Rin (Yamamoto) and a demonic butler from hell, Sebastian (Hiro Mizushima).

He is an incredibly deadly efficient servant who possesses many skills and traits such as impeccable manners, graceful physicality, profound knowledge, finely-honed martial arts skills, and incredible good looks and his services come at a cost: his master’s soul. For Shiori, the price is worth it. “I will not die until I achieve my objective,” Shiori states, and her objective is to get revenge for the murder of her parents.

Shiori and Sebastian play out their unbreakable master/servant relationship in the hunt for who is behind the mummification deaths and the hunt for who killed Shiori’s parents.

“Kill them.” “As you wish.”

The creative team may be working with a much-loved source but they are certainly willing to take risks and make major changes to the characters and setting. The reason given by producer Shinzo Matsuhashi for the alterations was to allow Japanese actors to take on the major roles especially since he wanted to cast Hiro Mizushima as Sebastian and avoid the incongruities in seeing them play British aristocrats in Victorian London. The changes do feel odd but there are benefits. Instead of slavishly following the manga, the film’s script now has the chance to establish a new world in the same universe. The film mixes elements of the original manga’s story, gothic setting, and characters with a more familiar modern era that allows audiences to enter the story easily. However problems arise in Tsutomu Kuroiwa’s script when explaining the transition from the past to the future and establishing the world of the film. That Shiori would gender-swap is reasonable for a tale set in the Victorian period but seems far-fetched in a story set in the future no matter how much audience members may suspend their disbelief but even more problematic is the fact that the narrative is occasionally overburdened with backstories surrounding the Genpo family that are clumsily explained in atmosphere breaking scenes where characters spout off information, cackling bad guys reveal their entire nefarious plot and flashbacks cut into the flow of the action. As inelegantly handled as these moments are, the overall story follows the spirit of the manga in deftly handling comedy, gothic horror and it is very easy to follow.

What works better is the characters relationships with each other which are neatly sketched with a lot of emphasis placed on the deliciously dark relationship between Shiori and Sebastian. This plays out in interesting and comedic scenarios where interesting dynamics take place in their engagement and dialogue. Throughout the film Shiori exposes her weakness to Sebastian through her very reliance on him as her servant. Unable to face the same amount of danger, she needs his presence and so she exploits her power over the devilish demon to make him do her bidding even for menial tasks while Sebastian constantly teases her with the fact that he effectively owns her soul much to her displeasure. This creates delicious conversations where they needle each other as the two explore their feelings which include their pessimistic and dark thoughts on humanity.

All of this establishes Black Butler as a live-action movie franchise and provides a great platform for other elements such as what we see and hear.

I’m just a devilish butler.

Where the film really excels is in every other department from the fantastic art and sound direction to the costume and set design. It all creates a campy dark drama and revels in it. Two directors were employed to create the look and execute the action with Keiichi Sato overseeing the visuals of the story Kentaro Otani directing the acting and drama.

Keiichi Sato is an anime director best known for the action show Tiger & Bunny and he brings his sensibilities to bear because the visual aesthetic is crisp and clean and highly stylised. The atmosphere of the film is dedicated to being fun, gothic and slightly morbid (though in a fun way) and very dark thanks to the mix in settings which allows the inventive and playful mixing of styles in the set and costume design.

When not in modern clubs and attending board meetings in futuristic glass-fronted high-rise buildings or having tea parties in grand manors with manicured gardens that look to have been uprooted from their natural European settings (but actually shot in Arita Porcelain Park in Saga Prefecture), the protagonists are out investigating their assignment in grimy back streets and illicit dens of vice and dockside warehouses. Every member of the Genpo household wears elaborate Victorian dress and are all shot from different angles so we can luxuriate in elaborately designed jackets, bows, hats, waistcoats, and goth-loli maid outfits. Shiori and Sebastian do stand out in their Victorian costumes and accoutrements especially when facing off against dapper gangsters with mobile phones and guns who wear in aloha shirts and pin-stripe suits. Indeed, It all feels incongruous but soon becomes fun to watch the clash of fashion.

The fashion also serves to accentuate the performances of the acting which completely captures the characters of Sebastian and Shiori. Ayame Gouriki is a naturally cute actress more familiar to me from more upbeat roles such as Akemi Ninomiya in Watashi no Kirai na Tantei (2013) but she gets very serious here and while I was never truly convinced that she could pass as male (she’s too cute for that), she did bring the requisite darkness and morbidity that the role needed as well as proving sympathetic.

While not asked to do anything amazing in terms of acting, she does provide an excellent foil for her co-stars to work with.

Hiro Mizushima is one of the highlights in the film from his action scenes to the more comedic moments. Mizushima underwent intense training and dieting to capture the Sebastian’s movements and physicality and it shows because he is exquisite to watch as he weaves between his enemies in battles with stylish, graceful, and precise movement. I must emphasise how good his action scenes are. I have seen more complex and vicious fight scenes but the sheer grace and energy and fantastic choreography (all captured by direction which is balletic) that makes use of the physical space on display here left me on the edge of my seat and grinning like a schoolboy watching a circus performance.

This excellent sense of movement extends to his more comedic moments such as picking up after the clumsy maid Rin and saving her whenever she gets into a spill. Everything seems to be planned and executed with so much finesse that he really does seem physically incredible and creates the sense that he is a supernatural being and one hell of a butler.

Even more impressive is the sense of the devilishness of his character which he captures with facial expressions and an exquisite voice which, through subtle movements and the sardonic and supercilious overtones respectively, cover up a depth of feeling for his master Shiori.

One of the biggest surprises for me was Mizuki Yamamoto who plays the role of Rin, the bumbling maid. I had previously seen her in The Kirishima Thing (2012) where she played the glam queen bee in the school drama and put in a decent and complicated performance. Here, she transforms into a more comedic and heroic character which revealed she is an awesome action character who made my heart flutter.

Overall, while the script may be clunky the entire experience is an easy pleasure to engage with that does a good job at paying tribute to the original source. Whether the changes are off-putting is down to each individual member of the audience. What is in no doubt is that this is a thoroughly modern adaptation that allows the Black Butler franchise to strike out in new directions. The characters have been captured and a sequel bringing back Hiro Mizushima, Ayame Gouriki and co would be most welcome.

4/5

Hello dear readers!

I hope you are well. Well the highlight of my week was meeting a friend at a Malaysian restaurant. No movies for me, just television from the US and Japan. I am continuing with The Walking Dead, Gugure! Kokkuri-san, Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, Parasyte, Psycho-Pass 2, and the doramas Limit and Sailor Suit and Zombie. I started the week with a review of Black Butler and then spent the rest of it writing trailer posts and revising Japanese which I now do for around two hours a day. Time to get serious.

I wish I could write reviews faster because there are dozens of titles I have watched and made notes on but have not finished writing never mind all of the anime I have finished from the last season. This weekend sees two awesome films get released in Japan that I saw months ago but I’m so tardy, I cannot put links in… yet! Expect reviews for The Light Shines Only There, The Guest and Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats over the next couple of weeks (I know I keep promising them but I have two free days coming up so it’s time to write). Hopefully I’ll have some more reviews like Patema Inverted and others completed by the end of the year.

What’s released in Japan this weekend?

Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats      

Japanese Title: 福福荘の福ちゃん

Romaji: Fukufuku-sou no Fuku-chan

Release Date: November 08^th,  2014

Running Time: 111 mins.

Director: Yosuke Fujita

Writer: Yosuke Fujita (Screenplay)

Starring: YosiYosi Arakawa, Miyuki Oshima, Yuuki Tokunaga, Asami Mizukawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Kanji Furutachi,

Fine, Totally Fine (2008) is one of my favourite films ever. It is so funny with characters I can relate to so when I was at the Raindance Film Festival and I went to see Fuku-chan of FukuFuku Flats, which is by the same director Yosuke Fujita, I was super excited. The film did not disappoint and is a real contender for my film of the year thanks in no small part to a fantastic performance from Miyuki Oshima and some classic songs. Even better is the fact that I got to talk to Yosuke Fujita and tell him how much I loved Fine, Totally Fine. I just wish I asked better questions! Anyway, this is packed with comic stars like YosiYosi Arakawa who was in Fine, Totally Fine as well as the very funny in the 2014 comedy Judge!.

Tatsuo is a nice guy and has the nickname ‘Fuku-Chan’. He lives and works in “FukuFuku Flats”, a run-down apartment complex where he paints kites as a hobby. Despite being such a nice fellow, he finds it hard to socialise with people and despite his friend Shimacchi trying to set him up with a girl, he refuses al attempts. This is down to the fact he suffered a prank in junior high school and the reappearance of a girl named Chiho signals that he may change…

Website

0.5mm    

Japanese Title: 0.5ミリ

Romaji: 0.5 mm

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 196 mins

Director: Momoko Ando

Writer: Momoko Ando (Screenplay)

Starring: Sakura Ando, Junkichi Orimoto, Toshio Sakata, Masahiko Tsugawa, Akira Emoto.

This looks so good. It had its world premiere at Japan Cuts in New York and is the latest work of director Momoko Ando, the sister of super brilliant actress Sakura Ando! Here’s the blurb I wrote plus the synopsis from Japan Cuts.

Sawa, a home helper for a middle class family with an elderly infirm grandfather, is forced to stretch her morals to keep her job. As a result, she finds herself broke and out on the street. She survives her first night by striking up an ambiguous friendship with a kindly old man, gaining access to a portion of the immense wealth held by Japan’s aging population. She continues with similar encounters, and while these begin as scams or revenge on rampant sexism, they ultimately become vulnerable intergenerational exchanges.

Website

Night, Because    

Japanese Title: 夜だから

Romaji: Yoru Dakara

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 92 mins

Director: Koki Fukuyama

Writer: Takehiko Minato (Screenplay)

Starring: Kazuki Namioka, Chiba Milla, Kazuha Komiya, Velma,

I had never heard of Scarlet Diva before this film and it seems like the band are providing music/actors. Visually interesting but it reminds me of The Light Shines Only There. The story of a gentle widowed factory worker named Taichi (Namioka) runs into  woman named Erika (Chiba_, who was the mistress of a man before she got into a fight with the wife. The two drown their sorrows in alcohol and become attracted to each other but there is a destructive edge.

Website

Tokyo – The City of Glass    

Japanese Title: 東京　ここは、硝子の街

Romaji: Tokyo Koko wa, Garasu no Machi

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 105 mins

Director: Kazuhiro Teranishi,

Writer: Kazuhiro Teranishi, Oroba Irie (Screenplay)

Starring: Atsushi Kimura, JK, Tomoko Nakajima, Reiko Tajima, Akira Otaka,

THIS TRAILER IS SO NSFW! Like, from the first second. You have been warned! It also has some really OTT acting. I’m guessing this is aimed at fujoshi.

A model and graduate student named Toru (Kimura) runs a bar in Shinjuku and gets into a relationship with a Korean man named Yon around the same time that a detective starts to investigate a series of murders which may have involved Toru and an ex-boyfriend…

Website

Last Life    

Japanese Title: 最後の命

Romaji: Saigo no Inochi

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 110 mins

Director: Junpei Matsumoto,

Writer: Tomoyuki Takahashi, Junpei Matsumoto (Screenplay), Fuinori Nakamura (Original Novel),

Starring: Yuya Yagira, Masato Yano, Reina Ikehata, Lily, Yu Hirukawa, Chika Uchida, Kenichi Takito, Shu Nakajima, Ryunosuke Hashino, Rihito Itagaki,

Keito Myose (Yagira) and Yuichi Saeki (Yano) suffer from the aftereffects of a traumatic crime they experienced as children. After years apart they are reunited on the night a female acquaintance of Keito is murdered in his room and the police think Yuichi is the man behind the crime.

Website

A Courtesan with Flowered Skin   

Japanese Title: 花宵道中

Romaji: Hanayoi Dochu

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 102 mins

Director: Keisuke Toyoshima

Writer: Kazuhiro Teranishi, Oroba Irie (Screenplay), Ayako Miyagi (Original Novel)

Starring: Yumi Adachi, Yasushi Fuchikami, Ena Koshino, Tomochika, Yoko Mitsuya, Hanako Takigawa, Ayano Tachibana, Saki Takaoka, Kanji Tsuda

Based on an award-winning erotic novel from 2006, the story is set in the 1860s an focusses on Asagiri (Adachi) who works as an oiran (courtesan). She encounters an artisan named Hanjiro (Fuchikami) and her life is never the same…

Website

Twilight Sasara Saya    

Japanese Title: トワイライトささらさや

Romaji: Towairaito Sasara saya

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 114 mins

Director: Yoshihiro Fukagawa

Writer:  (Screenplay), Tomoko Kano (Original Novel),

Starring: Yui Aragaki, Yo Oizumi, Aoi Nakamura, Rila Fukushima, Ryo Ishibashi, Sumiko Fuji, Masao Komatsu, Takeshi Tsuruno,

Saya (Aragaki) is a widow and a mother. Her husband Yutaro (Oizumi) came from a powerful family and was a loving husband and soon-to-be-father but then he was killed in a car accident. Seeking some stability for herself and her child, Saya heads to her aunt’s town, a place where a house left by her aunt waits for her. Yutaro comes back from the dead, possessing people in order to help Saya but will he be able to help her when his family try to take the baby away?

This one is from Warner Bros.

Website

Uruu Nen no Shoujo    

Japanese Title: うるう年の少女

Romaji: Uruu Nen no Shoujo

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 85 mins

Director: Chihiro Amano

Writer: Chihiro Amano (Screenplay),

Starring: Emiri Kosaki, Takehito Sato, Natsuki Seki, Yuuta Nogawa,Chihiro Nagai, Yukino Onuma,

Enbu Seminar again! This is the third in as many weeks and is another film directed and written by a woman. Faulty translation: Emiri Kosaki plays an actress who returns to her hometown after failing to make it big and finds that those she left behind have moved on in life…

Website

Kowasugiru Hanashi Gekijouban / True Japanese Ghost Stories   

Japanese Title: 怖すぎる話　劇場版

Romaji: Kowasugiru Hanashi Gekijouban

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 80 mins

Director: Hikaru Okita,

Writer: N/A

Starring: Nene Minami, Eri Kamino, Mami Koike, Azusa Takagi, Tomomi Aoyama,

To commemorate the 35^th anniversary of a horror magazine, an omnibus film has been created and it’s about a ghost lady named Kiyoko who haunts people who venture into a supermarket.

Website

Sakana Kami    

Japanese Title: さかなかみ

Romaji: Sakana Kami

Release Date: November 08th, 2014

Running Time: 100 mins

Director: Ankou Kamano

Writer: Ankou Kamano (Screenplay),

Starring: Ankou Kamano, Takeshi Susumu

A film about a guy fishing.

Website

And that’s about it for badly translated trailers. Here’s a video for you to enjoy. I listened to this constantly while writing the review that is going up on Monday. I listen to it when I practice my kanji as well.