This week started with a look at the Japanese films playing at the Cannes Film Festival 2013. There are two films from two great directors – Miike and Koreeda – and the trailer for Miike’s film gets me hyped up! I followed this with First Impressions of the Attack on Titan and My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected, two of the new titles from the Spring 2013 Season Anime. After three episodes from each I find these two of the best TV anime titles I have seen since Mawaru Penguindrum back in 2011. A bit quiet on the film front. A Japanese essay (finished at the last minute just before the lesson started!) took up most of my time but I did get Bakumatsu Taiyou-den in the post, a film that was shown at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival. I’m going to watch it tonight! Sooo excited!

What do the Japanese film charts look like this week (April 20^th-21^st)?

1. Detective Conan Private Eye in the Distant Sea
2. Crayon Shin Chan! Gourmet Food Survival
3. Lincoln
4. Dragon Ball Z Battle of the Gods
5. Wreck-It Ralph
6. Steins;Gate Fuka Ryoiki no Deja Vu
7. The Great Passage
8. Platina Data
9. Chinese Zodiac
10. Doraemon Nobita’s Dinosaur

Well the children’s anime Detective Conan and Crayon Shin-chan zoom out of their release slots last week to take the top two spots on the film chart. Another anime released last week, Steins;Gate, does good business on its opening weekend with $931,275 earned from just eighteen screens. The Great Passage remains in the top ten at seven and Platina Data takes eighth position. Definitely an interesting top ten!

What is released this weekend?

Shield of Straw                                         

Japanese Title:　藁　の　楯

Romaji: Wara no Tate

Release Date: April 26^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 124 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Kazuhiro Kiuchi (Original Novel), Tamio Hayashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Takao Osawa, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Nanako Matsushima, Kimiko Yo, Kento Nagayama, Goro Kishitani, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Hirotaro Honda, Masata Ibu

Takashi Miike is great. Fact. He is going to be at the Cannes Film Festival with his latest film Shield of Straw, an action title/crime-thriller based on a novel by Kazuhiro Kiuchi. The review at the Japan Times scores it as a 3 out of 5 which doesn’t sound spectacular but reviewer Mark Schilling describes it as

“A high-concept entertainment of a type beloved by the local industry, with a hyped-to-the-max plot that features death-defying heroics, the film pushes beyond its own cliches to an existential knife’s edge where the cop hero (Takao Osawa) is tested to the moral core of his being.”

Do we get a sense of that from the trailers?

Can we say f*ck yeah!?!?! TRAILER OF THE WEEK. This is what I want to see!

Kunihide Kiyomaru (Fujiwara) is a murderer. His victim is the granddaughter of a power-player in the political and financial world named Takaoki Ninagawa (Yamazaki).Three months elapse and Kiyomaru thinks he is in the clear until he sees that Ninagawa has placed full page ads in three of the biggest newspapers in Japan offering a 1 billion yen reward to the person who can kill Kiyomaru. Fearing for his life, he turns himself in to Fukuoka Prefectural Police.

This case is highly explosive so five elite detectives from the security section (SP) of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department travel to Fukuoka to escort Kiyomaru back. The distance between Fukuoka and Tokyo is 1,200 km and there are a lot of people who want to collect that reward including rogue police officers. The pressure is on and one of the SP officers, Mekari Kazuki (Takao) begins to show doubts about whether they should protect Kiyomaru but fellow officer Atsuko Shiraiwa (Matsushima) is determined to get the job done.

When I first started reviewing Japanese films properly Miike’s Audition was one of the first titles I looked to because it demonstrated that beyond the attention-grabbing shocks of extreme cinema there was a lot of technical skill on the screen. Little did I realise that I would be seeing most of his latest films in a cinema and heaping further high praise! The reviews range from his remake of the classic 13 Assassins, the amusing kids film Ninja Kids!!! and the cracked musical For Love’s Sake. I hope that Shield of Straw also gets a screening. It stars Takao Osawa (Aragami, Ichi), Nanako Matsushima (Reiko Asakawa in Ringu), Tatsuya Fujiwara (Battle Royale, Death Note), Tsutomu Yamazaki (The Woodsman & the Rain, Tampopo), Kento Nagayama (Crime or Punishment?!?), Kimiko Yo (Departures, For Love’s Sake) and Hirotaro Honda (Zero Focus).

Jellyfish Eyes                                         

Japanese Title: めめめのくらげ

Romaji: Mememe no Kurage

Release Date: April 26^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Takashi Murakami

Writer: Takashi Murakami (Screenplay),

Starring: Takuto Sueoka, Himeka Asami, Masataka Kubota. Shota Sometani, Takumi Saito, Asuka Kurosawa, Kanji Tsuda, Mayu Tsuruta

Takashi Murakami is one of the biggest contemporary artists in the world with his “superflat” style which merges Japanese pop-culture (anime, J-pop) into a colourful representation of what Otaku adore about Japan. When he has exhibited his work in the UK he tends to get column inches in newspapers and some TV air time. He is bringing his unique vision to cinema screens in a film which mixes live-action and animation with magical creatures that look like Pokemon and some family drama. The film’s theme tune sounds awful but the trailer looks kind of good with a mix of comedy and angst and cute and a narrative that manages to weave in the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (another film for the list). According to a feature on the Japan Times website it is also a bit of an existential tale and pretty damn awesome.

9-year-old Masashi (Sueoka) lost his father on March 11^th and moves to a new town with his mother. He starts at a new school and is the target of bullies. He also gains a friend in his class, Saki (Asami). When unpacking things at home, Masashi finds a strange creature like a jellyfish appears from one of the boxes. He names the creature Kurage Bo and takes him to school where he discovers that everyone in his class have similar “friends” which only children can see and control by remote control. These creatures seem cute and adorable but there is a dark corporate entity controlling them so they can harvest negative energy.

The film stars Takuto Sueoka (Welcome Home, Hayabusa) in the lead role and Himeka Asami (Yellow Elephant) as his friend Saki. Masataka Kubota (13 Assassins, The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky), Shota Sometani (Himizu), Takumi Saito (For Love’s Sake, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl) and the spectacular Asuka Kurosawa (A Snake of June, Dead Waves, Cold Fish).

Tabidachi no Shima Uta                                    

Japanese Title: 旅立ちの島唄　十五の春

Romaji: Tabidachi no Shima Uta – 15 no Aru

Release Date: April 27^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Yasuhiro Yoshida

Writer: Yasuhiro Yoshida (Screenplay),

Starring: Ayaka Miyoshi, Shinobu Otake, Karou Kobayashi, Saori Koide, Ryuya Wakaba, Jyo Hyuga,

Ayaka miyoshi, one of the stars of Good Morning Everyone, last year’s rock film which starred Kumiko Aso, takes the lead in this family drama which examines the lives of a family who are separated from each other due to geographical circumstances.  The trailer makes me think that this is not my sort of film.

Minamidaito Island does not have a high school and so when teenagers hit 15 they must head to mainland Japan. Yuna Nakazato (Miyoshi) is about to make the same trip as her two older siblings leaving her father Toshiharu (Kobayashi) behind. She worries about him being left alone but she will be joining her mother Akemi (Otake), sister Mina (Koide) and brother in Naha. With her date of departure looming Yuna feels unease about her future but also has a curiosity about the wider world.

A Woman and War                              

Japanese Title: 戦争と一人の女

Romaji: Sensou to Hitori no Onna

Release Date: April 27^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Junichi Inoue

Writer: Ango Sakaguchi (Original Novel), Haruhiko Arai (Screenplay),

Starring: Noriko Eguchi, Masatoshi Nagase, Jun Murakami, Akira Emoto, Hako Oshima, Sakiko Takao

This second world war film sounds very, very good. It’s based on an Ango Sakaguchi novel and it has no battlefield antics, just a searing and ugly reveal of Japan and the darkness encountered by some of those left behind towards the end of the war. Indeed, it has earned a pretty good write-up on Midnight Eye which considers it as treading similar ground as Koji Wakamatsu’s work with its mix of sex, violence and similar political views, “this independently-produced scorcher hits the screen like a bomb blast of fresh, honest air”.

World War II is drawing to a close and a writer and war propagandist named Nomura (Nagase) is preparing for the Allied invasion and the rapine and pillaging that he thinks will follow. A former prostitute turned bar owner (Eguchi) declares that she is happy with the war because it has made everyone unhappy. When the bar owner declares she is selling the bar and will marry the first man who will have her, Nomura agrees and the two retreat from the world to his house and engage in carnal pleasures. Meanwhile, a war veteran named Ohira (Murakami) who lost his arm and his ability to have erections returns from China harbouring dark memories of his service. He is unable to fit back into civilian life and begins to murder women…

It certainly is different from what I usually write about. The film stars Noriko Eguchi (Loft, One Missed Call, Fine, Totally Fine), Masatoshi Nagase (Suicide Circle, The Hidden Blade), Jun Murakami (Himizu, Isn’t Anyone Alive?, Vibrator) and Akira Emoto (Unforgiven, Ichi, Starfish Hotel). The trailer isn’t as grim as the synopsis suggests it might be but that’s because of the music. I really like the look of this and I find that Masatoshi Nagase, Akira Emoto and Jun Murakami are quite a compelling actors to watch even when they do nothing on screen.

Library Wars                                          

Japanese Title: 図書館戦争

Romaji: Toshokan Sensou

Release Date: April 27^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 128 mins.

Director: Shinsuke Sato

Writer: Hiro Arikawa (Original Light Novel), Akiko Nogi (Screenplay),

Starring: Nana Eikura, Junichi Okada, Kei Tanaka, Chiaki Kuriyama, Sota Fukushi, Kazuma Suzuki, Jun Hashimoto, Naomi Nishida, Kyusaku Shimada

Hiro Arikawa’s Library Wars light novel series has been a hit in Japan with Production I.G providing some TV anime adaptations. It has been about a year since the anime movie was released. I think I said I would watch the TV anime but I never did. Anyway, here’s the live-action movie. The director is Shinsuke Sato who strikes me as the perfect chap to direct this since he adapted the two Gantz movies and he also directed The Princess Blade. The film stars Nana Eikura (April Bride), Junichi Okada (Tokyo Tower),  Kei Tanaka (Tajomaru, Rent-a-Cat) Chiaki Kuriyama (Ju-on, Battle Royale, The Sky Crawlers, Exte: Hair Extensions, Shikoku), Kazuma Suzuki (Detroit Metal City), Naomi Nishida (Hana, The Happiness of the Katakuris, The Complex) and Kyusaku Shimada (The Woodsman & the Rain). To be honest I have never taken the concept seriously but viewing the trailer has left me interested if only to see Chiaki Kuriyama on the big screen again.

The year is 2019 and an authoritarian government runs Japan. It has passed a law banning free expression and so the government has created an armed force to find and destroy anything it deems as objectionable content like books. Enter the Library Force which aims to protect books. Can Atsushi Dojo (Okada) and Kasahara (Eikura) take down the government?

Kamen Rider x Super Sentai x Space Sheriff Super Hero Wars Z         

Japanese Title: 仮面ライダー x スーパー戦隊　x 宇宙刑事スーパーヒーロー大戦Z

Romaji: Kamen Raida- x Sūpā Sentai x Uchū Keiji Sūpahīrō Taisen Z

Release Date: April 27^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Osamu Kaneda

Writer: Shoji Yonemura (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuma Ishigaki, Junya Ikeda, Arisa Komiya, Shunya Shiraishi, Makoto Okunaka

Osamu Kaneda, director of numerous super sentai films reunites with Shoji Yonemura who, as a writer, has worked on a variety of titles and was involved with the recently released Hunter x Hunter: Phantom Rouge film. Super Sentai? I don’t watch these films but the trailer looks okay. It stars Junya Ikeda (Love Gear), Yuma Ishigaki (Azumi), Shunya Shiraishi (Gantz, Signal), and Arisa Komiya.

When a magical phenomenon occurs in space it leads to a series of attacks on people that have been linked to organised crime, Space Sheriff Gavan investigates.

Monster                                        

Japanese Title: モンスター

Romaji: Monsuta-

Release Date: April 27^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Akiko Ohku

Writer: Naoki Hyakuta (Original Novel), Miyuki Takahashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Saki Takaoka, Masaya Kato, Jun Murakami, Ren Osugi

This one looks like it could be good. A revenge thriller that could go under the name Never Torture an Ugly Duckling? Or does the girl get the guy, live happily ever after and plastic surgery is seen as a saviour? The trailer started off strong enough with menacing music, sex, surveillance, drugs, some horrible physical situations and emotional torment but tapered off towards the end. This is based on Naoki Hyakuta’s 2010 novel “Monstery”. The cast and staff are pretty good. It is adapted from the page by Miyuki Takahashi (Bakamono) and directed by up and coming female director Akiko Ohku (Tadaima, Jaqueline, Tokyo Nameless Girl’s Story, Tokyo Serendipity). It stars Saki Takaoka (Lesson of the Evil) in the lead role as the monstrous looking woman of the title, Masaya Kato (Gozu) who is the monster’s object of desire, Jun Murakami (The Lightning Tree) who is the pimp of the monster and Ren Osugi (Nightmare Detective, Exte, The Twilight Samurai, Uzumaki) who looks perfect as the sinister plastic surgeon. Who is the real monster? Masako or society?

Masako Tabuchi (Takaoka) has always been an outsider due to her looks. Even her family disowned her. When she is forced out of her home town and heads to Tokyo she decides plastic surgery might help her in her plight and so she works as a prostitute until she has had her entire body remodelled. Then she heads back to her home town to chase the boy she once loved and opens a restaurant. Is she guaranteed happiness or is she a few plates short of a dining set?

Why Don’t You Play in Hell?           

Japanese Title: 地獄　で　なぜ　悪い Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

Romaji: Jigoku de Naze Warui Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

Release Date: September 28^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Sion Sono

Writer: Sion Sono (Screenplay),

Starring: Jun Kunimura, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Fumi Nikaido, Tomochika, Hiroki Hasegawa, Kotou Lorena, Gen Hoshino

Sion Sono has three projects on the go. I have posted about the live-action dorama All Esper Dayo! which is screening on Japanese television. I have also posted about the casting call for Tokyo Tribes in pre-production. His third feature is Why Don’t You Play in Hell? and a teaser trailer was recently released for it. Thanks to fellow hardcore Sion Sono fan Tired Paul I found out about the trailer and I have to say that watching the trailer made me really happy.

Muto (Kunimura) and Ikegami (Tsutsumi) are rival gangsters who despise each other but there’s a catch for Ikegami… he loves Muto’s actress daughter Michiko (Nikaido). Part of the reason she’s an actress is because it is the dream of her mother Shizue (Tomochika) and so Muto is out to make that dream happen. Enter Koji (Hoshino), a passer-by who is mistaken for being a film director. When dealing with gangsters you don’t mess about so Koji gets indie film director Hirata (Hasegawa) to cast Michiko as the lead actress in his film but it soon goes all wrong.

I’m sure you’re happy after watching the trailer. The violence! The blood! Twisted kissing! Swords and knives! The screaming! The rainbow colours! The opera! A waterslide flowing with blood in a house! OH GOD, A REBELLIOUS CRAZY SONO FILM! LIFE IS WORTH LIVING.

The cast is pretty damn awesome with the ever-watchable Jun Kunimura (Vital, Outrage) playing a Yakuza. His rival is Shinichi Tsutsumi, the male lead in One Missed Call and a pretty good actor. Fumi Nikaido (Himizu), one of Japan’s rising actresses looks like a sadistic and cool character who might run with Aiko in with Cold Fish.

It looks like Sono is veering back to the crazy, careening, balls out and intense films from early in his career that his fans love him for. The script for this was originally written as an action film 15 years ago which would make it before Suicide Club and Strange Circus so that sounds just about right for the tone. The carnage and the locations shown remind me of the climax of Noriko’s Dinner Table. I’m babbling now. I think I’ll watch the teaser for the 30^th time!

Lynn from Lynn’s Book Blog has passed on the Liebster Blog Award to me. Not one for ignoring praise (please give me praise, I have writer’s syndrome) and never one for ignoring Lynn (a blogger with great taste in films as well as books) or any of my fellow commenters/bloggers, I have put up my responses here. Here are the rules:

1. Tell us 11 things about yourself

2. Answer 11 questions the blogger who awarded you asked

3. Pass the award to 11 people

4. Give them 11 questions.
5. Tell them about the award
6. Don’t award people who are recipients already

I have done this before so I’ll skip the formalities and the whole nominating people bit because I doubt anybody I would nominate has the time to reply to be quite frank.

11 Things About Me Updated for 2013

1. I have met Doctor Who.
2. I have met the film director Isshin Inudo.
3. I have Japanese relatives, I own Japanese things, I obsess over Japanese films, I speak Japanese but I have yet to go to the country.
4. I have a sister who is much younger than me and more beautiful, cooler and smarter than me. She has developed a cool taste in films.
5. I watch at least two films a week, usually both Japanese.
6. I spent most of my childhood watching subtitled films from France and Hong Kong.
7. I like rainy weather.
8. I work in an art museum with a famous collection.
9. I sometimes like to watch trashy anime like Haiyore! Nyaruko-san and Haganai.
10. I am trying to write a novel.
11. This is Year II of My Time of Getting Things Done.

Lynn’s questions (I have to pick one from the options)

1. Beer or Wine – Wine – I’m not a big drinker. I usually opt for pineapple/apple juice. I only drink on certain festive occasions.
2. Dogs or Cats – Cats. I currently have a black cat. I love the anime film The Cat Returns. I like the song Cats on Mars. Cats are cool plus Japan has awesome haunted cats. Bakeneko! Watch the film Kuroneko for an idea! 

3. Fantasy or Sci Fi – I grew up on both but my adolescence was spent watching horror and sci-fi like The Thing, Alien, Akira, Patlabor, Blade Runner, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise, Orguss 2. These films had complex stories with complicated and intricately layered themes that go beyond what fantasy offers. Or the fantasy I’ve read at least… 
4. Book or Film – This was a tough choice. I love books but I love films even more. That’s why I’m a cineblogger! Sometimes a film doesn’t measure up to the book and other times it improves on it and adds so much. Nothing beats the feelings I have when watching brilliant films and then discussing them in detail with people (real or on the internet).
5. Star Wars or Star Trek – I don’t particularly like either but I’ll settle for Star Wars – better designs – Storm Troopers look cool.
6. Batman or Superman – Batman. What I like about Batman is that he is mortal and his psychology is far more complex. Superman is too perfect.
7. Anime or Manga – GODDAMN IT! Why Lynn???? Okay, anime. As much as I like reading manga, watching anime is more enjoyable. As soon as I finish work and get home I sit down with something to eat and watch anime. Anime can also be better than the manga. Anybody who has read Ghost in the Shell will attest to that.

8. Gaiman or Tolkien – Gaiman. I have read Sandman, Neverwhere, Anansi Boys and I liked them a lot. Gaiman also wrote one of the better episodes of Doctor Who – The Doctor’s Wife. I think it’s because Tolkein is pure fantasy while Gaiman can do magical realism which I prefer.
9. Reading or Music – Reading. I don’t listen to music these days unless I am writing at the same time. I can read a magazine or a book at the drop of the hat and regularly carry one around with me.
10. Chocolate or Cheese – Cheese. 
11. Morning or Night – I used to be quite a night owl – staying up until 2 in the morning watching anime and films but I always felt like a wreck the next day and after a while of doing this I resolved to go to bed early. I wake up early and get a lot done whether it’s reading, writing (kana practice/film reviews). Im all about getting a Positive Morning (the name of an anime theme tune I looove – spoilers!).

That would be that but I saw some of the questions that Lynn was posed and liked a few so here are mine.

1. What was the book that got you into reading? Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. I was a prolific reader as a child but during high school I stopped reading books and just read video game magazines, played video games and watched films. Then I read Sputnik Sweetheart and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and felt like I was reading something identifiable, exciting, cool and inspiring and relevant to me.
2. What is your favorite fantasy movie? Does everything by Studio Ghibli count? If I had to pick one then it would be Spirited Away. My first Ghibli film, one of my greatest cinema experience. I love, love, love, love it. I even get emotional at the same moments. If you want magical realism with deep characters and Japanese mythology and a fantastic emotional core with its central character’s journey into maturity then watch this film.
3. What was your last author crush (as in Oh my God, I need to buy everything this person has ever written)? Haruki Murakami when I was in high school I read Sputnik Sweetheart and I was made a fan forever. I’ve read nearly every book he has written. I wish I could write like him ;_;
4. What book would you give to your younger self and why?  Japanese for Busy People 1,2 and 3 so I could improve my Japanese and pass my tests with ease!
5. Name a fictional character you’d like to trade bodies with for a while.  Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell. I’d want to experience being able to transfer for consciousness/mind/soul around electronic devices. And I’d like to terrorise people while invisible.
6. If your life had a theme song, what would it be?  The opening theme to Hataraku Maou-sama. I’ve had it on repeat and the lyrics fit my new trajectory in life.

Devil Survivor 2 The Animation         

Director: Seiji Kishi, Series Composition: Makoto Uezu, Music: Kotaro Nakagawa

Voice Actors: Aya Uchida, Hiroshi Kamiya, Junichi Suwabe, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Takahiro Sakurai, Ami Koshimizu, Kana Asumi, Kikuko Inoue, Yuka Iguchi

Studio: Bridge

My first impression of the anime? It’s dull. Here’s a post full of why.

Kuzue Hibiki and his friend Shijima Daichi are on the verge of going to college. They meet in Shibuya and discuss what they will do in their future. Daichi has dreams of going on dates and trips and playing around while Kuzue feels a degree of uncertainty about his future. Then Diachi introduces Kuzue to a phone app called Nicaea.

If you register with the app you can take a picture of a friend and see the face of your friend when they die. These short videos are called Dead Face clips and they are all the rage because people want to see how their friends will die.

Being a top friend Daichi takes Kuzue’s picture before they head down to a subway station where they see fellow school-mate Nitta who Diachi has a crush on. When her face pops up on the Dead Face site Kuzue sees she has been caught up in a subway accident… Much like Daichi and himself. The two panic as they hear the subway train approaching.

The accident happens. Then a message pops from Nicaea pops on their phone.

They choose to live and get another chance. When they wake up they are at the scene of the accident and find dead bodies and debris everywhere. Nitta is also alive but she is in danger from demons who are feasting on the corpses and are beginning to notice the trio. Fortunately a demon summoning app has automatically been downloaded on their phones and they can now summon demons to protect themselves.

When Kuzue, Daichi and Nitta emerge from the underground station they see Tokyo has suffered massive damage.

People are injured, buildings have gaping holes punched through them and electronic devices are fried. Even worse, demons have invaded reality and are attacking Japan.

The only people who understand what is going on are a secret group known as Japanese Meteorological Society (JP’s) who are a huge secret organisation designed to orchestrate humanity’s response to the now unfolding demonic invasion.

Operating under article 404 of the Special Disaster Management Act they have the power, technology and knowledge to battle against demons controlled by a group known as Septentriones. The countdown to Judgement day is now on. With six days until the world is eaten away Kuzue and his friends get press-ganged into helping the JP’s.

I was excited about this anime because it is based on a familiar Shin Megami Tensei video game franchise and it has staff from an anime I like called Persona 4 which was also a video game. Will I like this as much as I liked Persona 4?

Nope. After episode 1 finished I felt absolutely nothing for it. Episode 2 and 3 got similar reactions from me. Despite the large-scale destruction and all of the secret organisations and the clever mix of technology and the arcane magic and demons I was not that interested in what was happening because I found it dull.

The problem is not the production values.

The world of Devil Survivor is highly detailed with street signs and buildings in Tokyo and Osaka seemingly reproduced with great accuracy. There is a sense of how crowded the places are with the public and it has a feeling of life thriving all around the characters.

When the apocalypse begins some of the sights are well-delivered.

Plumes of smoke graze the city skylines.

What was once a bustling metropolis is the scene of chaos and destruction.

There are emergency workers clawing through wreckage and people are frantically trying to contact loved-ones.

Emergency messages are posted on boards.

Great little details but it did not grab me. The visuals lack any real visual flare. People die horribly but it is not reflected in what we see since the locations felt rather anonymous.

The anime Attack on Titan has so much visual flare it instantly had me frothing at the mouth. The locations were vividly imagined and it felt like being in a complete world and when I saw destruction it was affecting. Here I would have liked to have seen a few scenes giving us more sights so we get an idea about the damage to cities and how people are faring. Since the apocalypse is just starting I suspect more intense imagery is on the way but I wanted a greater sense of the disaster and its affects on the characters, some time dwelling on what everything means for the protagonists but the film rushes on to keep the story moving. 

The first three episodes are pretty clean and concise. There is nothing confusing and the story is efficiently handled with all of the factions and terminology set out nice and neatly but again, a lack of anything other than plot and background makes this a functional story and not an interesting one. The characters are well designed and visually memorable but they are also blandly written.

Hibiki is the main protagonist and he has little personality beyond a desire to protect everyone.

Presumably this desire will keep on growing and that’s great but not compelling enough for me.

While Yu Narukami of Persona was also devoid of personality he at least had a supporting cast that could hide that fact. Here the supporting characters are equally dull due to a lack of characterisation and detail.

Shijima is meant to be adorably inept but he just comes off as inept.

And anyway, what kind of friend would use the Dead Face App on a person anyway?

Nitta is also rather useless. She either cries or collapses

As a major character she is rather hopeless, on the verge of fainting and requiring the boys to support her.

To be fair, they are new to this demon-hunting business but they don’t reflect any real or interesting sense of cosmic horror and gradual acceptance over the things they see and encounter. Over the course of three episodes they just get on with things. The script is not that interested in developing their characters.

Persona 4 had fun characters who grew as the series went on and bolstered the protagonist but here they are underdeveloped which is a problem since the apocalyptic story of the anime is very serious but the characters are very earnest and one note and this mix disrupts any tension I feel. Although the stakes are high for the protagonists I am not invested in their situation because the writing lacks anything unique or amusing.

The demons are also unremarkable. They are variations of mythological beasts so expect to see minotaurs and pixies and an exploding jellyfish.

To be fair, I have yet to play an Atlus game where many of the monsters are that interesting to look at but while these creatures hack through humans with ease they do not instil me with fear or dread they just look dull and overly familiar.

Perhaps it is because of the anime wanting to make a huge impact on viewers and setting off the apocalypse quick sharp and establishing the story but in all of its haste it has forgotten to take interesting characters along for the ride and we never see much of the world anyway.

In a season where Attack on Titan does existentialism and spectacular images of destruction and My Youth Rom-com has great characters which revitalise a tired genre, I don’t feel like wasting my time watching much more of Devil Survivor 2: The Animation. Like Blood-C which I also dropped it could improve but I do not have the time or inclination to wait.

I’ve picked up another show in its place! Aku no Hana.

A new week a new dorama. With xxxHOLiC ending on a nice note I have picked up Shinya Shokudo, a recommendation from fellow Japanese dorama fan Tired Paul. So far it reminds me of Bartender. Expect a review in the coming weeks. I was also impressed with episode 4 of Attack on Titan (WHAT AN ENDING!) and My Youth Rom-Com. This season has been the best in terms of shows since Autumn 2011. The highlight of my week in film had to be two titles, A Woman Named Abe Sada, an awesome 1975 Roman Porno and Bakumatsu Taiyo-den, a 1957 comedy set in a cat house. Expect reviews of them as well.

This week in terms of blogging began with a God-tier teaser trailer for Sion Sono’s latest film, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? Awesome title! To say that it made my day would be an understatement. I felt so damn refreshed! I also posted my answers to a Liebster Blog Award and my first Impressions for Devil Survivor 2 The Animation. I’m going to try and finish my First Impressions up next week and get back to films.

Anyway… What do the Japanese film charts look like this week (April 27^th-28^st)?

1. Detective Conan Private Eye in the Distant Sea
2. Iron Man 3
3. Crayon Shin Chan! Gourmet Food Survival
4. Lincoln
5. Dragon Ball Z Battle of the Gods
6. The Last Stand
7. Steins;Gate Fuka Ryoiki no Deja Vu
8. The Great Passage
9. Wreck-It Ralph
10. Killing Them Softly

Last week’s number one, Detective Conan remains at the top while everything else drops down a place to make way for Iron Man 3. I’m not really a fan of superhero movies andrpefer things like Steins;Gate and The Great Passage which remain in the top ten at seventh and eighth respectively.

What Japanese films are released in Japan this weekend? Only two???

Return to Iitate Village of Radiation　　　　　　　　　　　

Japanese Title: 飯舘村　放射能　と　帰村

Romaji: Ītatemura Hōshano to Kison

Release Date: May 06^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Doi Toshikuni

My Japanese isn’t all that great so my translations can be wrong as I suspect they are in this case because it sounds very melodramatic and the trailer is rather undramatic with a lot of talking head interviews and observation. This documentary comes from Doi Toshikuni who released one earlier this year about Burmese in Japan. This documentary records the travails of two families in Iitate village, Fukushima Prefecture, which suffers the consequences of the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Rain, snow and wind all carry radiation and both the Shiga and Hasegawa families are forced to leave. The Shiga family, dairy farmers by trade, find themselves in a new town and working in factories while the Hasegawa family split up.

Innervision                                                             

Japanese Title: Innervisionインナーヴィジョン

Romaji: Innervision inna-vuijon

Release Date: May 06^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 45 mins.

Director: Makoto Sasaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: Hideyuki Kato, Kiyoshi Yaamoto, Hirotoshi Kobayashi, Masanori Kobayashi, Robert Harris

Innervision is another documentary but this one follows Hideyuki Kato, a musician who is visually impaired, who supervises the creation his own science fiction movie using equipment and digital technology James Cameron developed for Avatar. The main character looks to be an interesting chap and the short running time should ensure that the film does not outstay its welcome.

That’s it for this week. There are more films released next week. I also have a Japanese test but thankfully I have finished posts early and have the scheduled. The final video for this post is a cool AMV.

The Terracotta Far East Film Festival is a month away and the line-up of films will be released tomorrow. I have been a bit tardy in posting this information on a short-film competition with the awesome prize of a trip to Hong Kong but there is still plenty of time left to enter.

Here are the details:

Terracotta Festival’s “Asia In London” Short-Film Competition, in association with Cathay Pacific

Terracotta Festival, in association with Cathay Pacific, present an exciting competition to win a trip to the vibrant city of Hong Kong.

Terracotta are partnering with Cathay Pacific to celebrate the launch of their 5^th daily London Heathrow to Hong Kong flight. Accommodation is provided by the five star Design Hotels ™ member, The Mira Hong Kong.

To enter the competition, make and submit a short film on the theme: “Asia In London”. The film must last no more than 3 minutes in length.

Submissions are open from Tuesday 23 April and close at 12 noon 20 May.

A panel of judges including guest directors and actors attending Terracotta Festival 2013 will select the winning entry, and the winner notified by 30 May.

The winning entry will enjoy an Official World Premiere screening at Terracotta Festival and a prize presentation ceremony.

The prize consists of:

• 2 Cathay Pacific Economy class return flights from London Heathrow to Hong Kong

• 3 nights stay at a Design Hotel The Mira Hong Kong including daily breakfast for two

• Winning entry to have an Official World Premiere screening at Terracotta Festival 2013

The competition is open to all UK residents aged 18 or over. Full terms and conditions apply.

To find out more, head over to the site.

Long time readers of the blog will remember that I attended last years BFI London Film Festival and saw For Love’s Sake. My review was positively overflowing with love, praise and fervour for the film and it landed at number 2 in my Top 10 Films of 2012. I can still remember whole swathes of the film and how I felt during the screening. When I found out that Third Window Films was releasing it I was rather pleased and I highly, highly (very, very highly) recommend it. Enough from me, here’s the details:

FOR LOVE’S SAKE

Director: Takashi Miike (13 Assassins, One Missed Call, Audition, Ninja Kids!!!)

 Starring: Satoshi Tsumabuki (Villain, Tokyo Family, Tokyo!, Dororo)

Emi Takei (Rurouni Kenshin)
Sakura Ando (Love Exposure, Our Homeland, Penance)

Japan / 2012 / 134 Mins / In Japanese with English subtitles / Colour

Out on Double-disc DVD & Blu-ray 

June 10th, 2013

DVD and Blu-ray Special Features
Anamorphic Widescreen transfer with 5.1 Surround Sound
Making Of, Skip to a Song Selection, Theatrical Trailer

Takashi Miike, the director of ’13 Assassins’, ‘Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai’ and ‘Audition’ brings us as Bollywood-style musical action/comedy/love story!
 
Not exactly a director that plays along with genre rules, the prolific Takashi Miike now takes his talent in genre bending to the pure romance world with For Love’s Sake (a.k.a. Ai to Makoto), based on Kajiwara Ikki’s 1973 manga series. An epic story of a rich high school girl who falls in love with a tough young gangster, Miike’s take on the story breaks all the rules with musical numbers (with music by popular music producer Kobayashi Takeshi), tongue-in-cheek humour, and in-your-face violence. Starring Satoshi Tsumabuki (Villain) and Emi Takei (Rurouni Kenshin) as the star-crossed lovers, For Love’s Sake is a unique and incredibly wild ride that will change your definition of what a pure romance can be.

What did I do this week? Well I’ll tell you whether you’re interested or not. A post for the release of For Love’s Sake and a Competition to go to Hong Kong thanks to the lovely folks at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival. I took part in an interview with fellow cineblogger Lost in the Miso and I watched a lot of anime (more first impressions next week). No films. I am gearing up for the Terracotta Far East Film Festival with four films (three Japanese and one Korean) on the cards. I need to write a preview for this festival. I still need to write to reviews from the last film festival I attended. There are a lot of things I need to do and all of that will have to wait until I pass my Japanese exam next week.

What does the Japanese Movie Box Office Chart look like for the weekend May 04^th-05^th.

1. Detective Conan Private Eye in the Distant Sea
2. Iron Man 3
3. Library Wars
4. Shield of Straw
5. Crayon Shin Chan! Gourmet Food Survival
6. Kamen Rider X Super Sentai X Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z
7. Dragon Ball Z Battle of the Gods
8. Lincoln
9. Wreck-It Ralph
10. The Great Passage

No new entries in the top ten but it is encouraging to see The Great Passage hanging in the top ten. Detective Conan retains the top spot for the third week in a row, Library Wars and Shield of Straw round out the top five in their second week out.

What is released this week? A lot more than the paltry two titles of last week!

Saint Young Men                          

Japanese Title: 聖☆おにいさん

Romaji: Sei  聖☆Onīsan

Release Date: May 10^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Noriko Takao

Writer: Rika Nezu

Starring: Mirai Moriyama, Gen Hoshino, Reiko Suzuki, Ryoko Kinomiya

Imagine if Buddha and Jesus shared an apartment in the Tachikawa area of Tokyo and experienced life as humans in Japan. This is the concept of Hikaru Nakamura’s manga and it sounds amusing enough and it now has an anime film. The staff are experienced. Noriko Takao has worked as an episode director on gag anime K-ON! And Lucky Star. The screenplay comes from Rika Nezu who wrote for the live-action Kimi ni Todoke. There are great actors fulfilling the roles of seiyuu. Mirai Moriyama (The Drudgery Train) voices Jesus and Gen Hoshino (Why Don’t You Play in Hell?) voices Buddha. The animation is very gorgeous and detailed and the character designs are great, check out the trailer.

Home                               

Japanese Title: 家

Romaji: Ie

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 80 mins.

Director: Masatoshi Akihara

Writer: Shimizaki Fujimura (Original Novel)

Starring: Tomomi Nishimura, Yoji Matsuda, Anri Ban, Yuki Kimoto, Takuya Nakayama, Mitsuho Otani, Ichiro Ogura

Masatoshi Akihara, director of the rather amusing looking Lupin no Kiganjo (2011) is directing an adaptation of Shimizaki Fujimura’s novel of the same name which charts the fortunes of members of two families in the Kiso area of Nagano prefecture, one of which runs a brewery which will pass to a daughter and the other which is more humble and consists of teachers. It stars Tomomi Matsuda (Life on the Longboard), Yoji Matsuda (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, The Hidden Blade), and Anri Ban (Go, Tokyo Rhapsody). To be quite honest the trailer didn’t interest me in the least but I am thankful I did the research because that Lupin film (ルパンの奇巌城) looks very amusing!

Prefecture Government’s Hospitality Division    

Japanese Title: 県庁おもてなし課

Romaji: Kenchou Omotenashi Ka

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yoshinage Miyake,

Writer: Hiro Arikawa (Original Light Novel), Yoshikazu Okada (Screenplay)

Starring: Kengo Kora, Ryo Nishikido, Mari Horikita, Eiichiro Funakoshi, Megumi Seki, Masahiro Komoto, Satoru Matsuo

Anime fans will know that prefectures in Japan are falling over themselves to use anime to promote their regions. Well here’s an example of a film doing it. The film trailer looks dull, like an advertisement for the locations (it was shot mostly in Koichi prefecture) with some light drama thrown in and so I was eager to get to the end of it and watch something else. Script comes courtesy of Yoshikazu Okada who wrote Space Travelers. The cast looks pretty, the ones of note for me are Mari Horikita who was one of the brighter aspects in the J-horror films The Locker 1 and 2 and One Missed Call Final, Kengo Kora who was in Norwegian Wood, The Woodsman & the Rain and The Drudgery Train and Megumi Seki (The Foreign Duck, Christmas in August). It’s nice to see Horikita moving on to better films with bigger bugets.

Koichi prefecture needs to promote itself for tourism purposes so who are they gonna call? The hospitality division, that’s who.

Or so you might think but there’s a strict rule banning advertisements so a popular writer from Koichi named Kyosuke Yoshikado (Kora) is appointed as the special envoy for tourism in the area and has the help of hospitality division employees Fumitaka (Nishikido) and Taki (Horikita).

So what’s the plan? Well Kyosuke is pointed in the direction of Seien, a former employee of Koichi Prefecture who was fired when his plan to import pandas fell apart. When Fumitaka and Taki visit Seien they get a frosty welcome (more like a bucket of water thrown at them) from Seien’s daughter Sawa (Seki). Can this group work together?

Phone Call to the Bar 2                    

Japanese Title: 探偵はBARにいる2

Romaji: Tantei wa Bar ni Iru 2

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Hajime Hashimoto,

Writer: Naomi Azuma (Original Novel), Ryota Kosawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Yo Oizumi, Ryuhei Matsuda, Machiko Ono, Atsuro Watabe, Gori, Tomorowo Taguchi, Eisuke Sasai, Kazuki Namioka, Koen Kondo, Mariko Tsutsui, Yutaka MAtsushige, Kenichi Yajima

The sequel to the popular and, according to a friend who saw it on a flight from Japan, rather entertaining Phone Call to the Bar! This is based on Naomi Azuma’s 2001 novel and it has quite the cast. Yo Oizumi, Ratman in the Gegege no Kitaro films, the impossibly handsome Ryuhei Matsuda, star of The Foreign Duck and Nightmare Detective, Yutaka Matsushige, the scary killer in The Guard from the Underground, Mariko Tsutsui who was in One Missed Call, Atsuro Watabe who looked effortlessly cool in Heat After Dark, Machiko Ono who was in Eureka and Tomorowo Taguchi who was the eponymous protag in Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man. This trailer looks pretty damn awesome actually wth Ryuhei Matsuda mixing it up in the action department and Atsuro Watabe looking like a political slickster. Some pretty good humour emerges as well. Trailer of the week.

Masako (Gori) is a magician at a Japanese pub and s friends with a Private Detective (Oizumi). When Masako dies at a magic show convention, private detective and Takada (Matsuda) begins investigating and find that Gori may have been involved with political figures. As this rumbles on, a woman who has been following the private detective consults him with a mystery of her own.

En. Live Document of Clammbon                                

Japanese Title: えんLive Document of Clammbon

Romaji: En. Live Document of Clammbon

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 126 mins.

Director: Kōji Ōta

Starring: Harada Ikuko, Daisuke Ito, Mito

Photographer and director Koji Ota brings us a documentary on the trio Clammbon which was filmed at various events. We get an insight into the band’s rehearsal process and performances. I’ve never heard of Clammbon but I’m definitely listening now because I like the music! Here’s an English language fan page for the group.

Resshi ~ Yadaikoushin za ☆ Mu-bi- Shinkansen to Tanoshii Densha Tachi

Japanese Title: れっしゃだいこうしん　ザ☆ムービー　しんかんせんとたのしいでんしゃたち

Romaji: Resshi ~ Yadaikoushin za ☆ Mu-bi- Shinkansen to Tanoshii Densha Tachi

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 45 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yukitoshi Nagafuchi, Reiko Tokunaga, Ai Nonaka

I’m not even going to attempt translating the title for this anime quiz aimed at train otaku both young and old. It features info on a new bullet train called Hayabusa and Maglev networks.

Watch Rakugo on the Cinema Screen: “Master Storytellers of the Showa Period”                                          

Japanese Title: スクリーンで観る高座　シネマ落語「落語研究会　昭和の名人　五」

Romaji: Sukuri-n de Miru Kōza Shinema Rakugo ‘Rakugo Kenkyūkai Shōwa no Meijin Go’

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yanagiya Kosan, Kokontei Shinshō, Katsura Bunraku

Here’s an interesting film with a sketchily translated title. Rakugo is a form of verbal entertainment where a lone storyteller sits on a stage and depicts a long and complicated comical story with nothing but a paper fan and a small cloth for props and a change in pitch and tone in voice to provide life to different characters. The film shows us three such entertainers: Yanagiya Kosan, Kokontei Shinshō and Katsura Bunraku. This isn’t the trailer but I figure it will give you a flavour of what is involved.

Peach Festival Films

Female filmmakers have been on the rise in Japan as well regarded films like Dreams for Sale, End of Puberty and Just Pretended to Hear reveal. To get a better taste of what other young female directors are doing we get a whole festival dedicated to showing the freshest works coming from them. The theme for this year is ‘Tears’. Here are three short films that will be on the big screen (more get released next week). Here’s the website for the festival (in Japanese).

Peach Festival Presents Tears “Magma”

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents なみだ “Magma”

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Magma

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 31 mins.

Director: Ai Watanabe

Writer: Keisuke Tominaga(Screenplay)

Starring: Reiko Igarashi, Ikki Funaki, Shoko Nakahara, Yoko Chosokabe

This entry comes from Ai Watanabe and Keisuke Tominaga who both worked on the grisly sounding Let’s Make the Teacher Have a Miscarriage Club. The film played at Fantasia Film Festival and Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival last year.  The film stars Reiko Igarashi who appeared in Girl in the Sunset (2008).

Lisa is at a training camp practicing for a marathon when she is overtaken by a mysterious woman. Lisa is left in emotional turmoil just from the sight of the woman. Meanwhile a former student who trained for marathons appears and steals the attention of Lisa’s coach. Her name is Yoko and she makes a major impact on Lisa.

Peach Festival Presents Tears “Rainy Day Shiori-Chan House”

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents なみだ “雨の日はしおりちゃん家”

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Ame no Hi wa Shiori-chan Ie”

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 25 mins.

Director: Aki Morita

Writer: N/A

Starring: Aki Morita, Aki Miyata, Miki Kawamura, Haruna Sakai, Aoi Koka, Takashi Shigematsu, Akiyoshi Shibata, Mariko Sumiyoshi,

Not sure about my translation for the title (again, sorry!). Aki Morita has quite a little filmography going as an actress. The only film that she worked on (as an actress) that I recognise is Henge which will screen in London next month as part of the Terracotta Far East Festival Terror-cotta strand. This is her directorial debut and it looks like a relationship drama without any body-horror. She takes the lead role.

Yukiko is a theatre director who is reunited with a childhood friend. Whatever differences they had in the past are gone and the two begin to feel out a new type of relationship.

Peach Festival Presents Tears “Thorns of Love”

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents なみだ 愛のイバラ

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Ai no Ibara”

Release Date: May 11^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 24 mins.

Director: Yōko Oguchi

Writer: Yōko Oguchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Hozo Shimano, Fumiko Abe, Kazunori Sakurai

Well I’m interested in this one because Yōko Oguchi worked on Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film Barren Illusion. This was a film that involved a student cast and crew from the Film School of Tokyo. This one is a bit of a love story involving different couples, some of whom get sick of each other. 

Aku no Hana

Director: Hiroshi Nagahama, Assistant Director: Tetsuo Hirakawa, Original Creator: Shuuzou Oshimi, Series Composition: Aki Itami, Character Designer: Hidekazu Shimamura, Art Director: Kentaro Akiyama
Voice Actors: Youko Hikasa, Shinichirou Ueda, Mariya Ise, Sayuri Hara
Studio: Zexcs

This was not one of my picks from the Spring 2013 anime season. When I was writing the synopsis for it during the spring season guide for Anime UK News I was very uncertain about it. I mean, on the one hand it sounds initially unpromising, a middle school student named Takao Kasuga steals the gym clothes of the girl he has a crush on, Nanako Saeki. Great.

But things get really interesting when we find out that he was spied stealing the clothes by a fellow student, the strange, creepy and rebellious loner named Sawa Nakamura. The class is shocked and Saeki is upset so Sawa is sitting on explosive information. Instead of informing people about Kasuga’s indiscretion, Sawa uses this information as a way to control Kasuga and draw him into her own twisted world. Kasuga has a difficult choice: Play her game or be revealed to the class as a perv.

After the spring season started and I was disappointed with Devil Survivor 2, I was drawn to this because I kept reading about how viewer reactions were extreme.

The art style has proven controversial amongst fans of the manga and anime in general. It is very different to that of the original manga by Shuzo Oshimi due to its use of rotoscoping, a technique where animators trace over live-action scenes frame by frame.

There are real actors portraying the characters.

Some hate it for this change but there is an opposing camp who love it. I am in the latter camp and not because I like being different (which I do). I have thought about this deeply (for once) and I have come to the conclusion that Aku no Hana is one of the most intentionally disturbing anime I have seen¹ and it is thanks to its art style.

I like it a lot because it is different and it is very effective at delivering this twisted existential love (?) story which captures adolescent feelings in a unique way.

Anybody walking in expecting bishounen or wild hair styles will be shocked. The characters look much more like normal human beings than in most other shows.

Rotoscoping lends the features and movements of the characters an added weight to every scene. They constantly move and react to the world in real ways and while some of the detailing is off (faces can disappear), the visuals are never boring and always have an impact. Indeed, their faces are very expressive thanks to the technique. It feels like watching real people. It is perfect for conveying both huge and subtle changes in emotional tones, priceless for monitoring the reactions of certain disturbed characters and their tormented prey as well as the moments when the blossoming of love, hope and admiration appear.

The backgrounds are also highly detailed which make the world they inhabit seem very much like our own and shots can be manipulated to highlight certain feelings such as the artificiality of life that characters observe.

Shorn of typical anime aesthetics and with its own unique look the show is very uncomfortable and unnerving and uncanny. Stealing a person’s gym clothes is as seedy and pathetic and dangerous as it sounds in Aku no Hana.

This has been the key element in differentiating it from every other anime out there. The animation studio, Zexcs, creators of cute anime Da Capo and Rental Magica have taken a huge gamble on rotoscoping and it pays off brilliantly. The first three episodes have made a very heavy impact on me.

Episode one was all about build-up, establishing Kasuga’s world and his place in it.

Kasuga is an intelligent person and normal school boy and I say normal school boy without a hint of irony.

He has a normal, supportive family who actually talk to him and have things in common – books.

He has friends who are typical dumb boys – porn and posturing – and he’s slightly smarter than them.

He is not a pervert and he cannot run through walls.

What makes him little special is the fact he loves reading and he understands Charles Beaudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil on some level.

Okay, that’s hardly something to shout about but… well he’s at that age where being pretentious and reading literature like that comes naturally to intelligent adolescents who have a precocious talent for interpreting the world and it does feel special when you genuinely do understand something². And anyway, his love of books is admirable.

Through his narration and his conversations with his friends we understand that he is as a genuinely thoughtful teenager and an observer.

His world is small-town Japan. It is nondescript and surrounded by hills.

It is a place with its rusting signs, weed-strewn patches of grass, dusty store fronts, and sleepy and ordered streets.

Kasuga feels trapped in the town as the imagery rather helpfully shows.

It is maddeningly dull and Kasuga wants to leave town but is unable to change his circumstances due to his immaturity and indecisiveness.

He is genuinely conscious of his place in his world and what might be played for laughs in other titles – stealing clothes – causes him to swing between profound guilt and joy over his act of deviancy in a believable way since he is at an age in an environment where such feelings can be magnified beyond all proportion because he gives his existence meaning through his love of literature and using that to romanticise his desire and love for Saeki. A mere smile from her can change his whole outlook on life.  

Like Goth – Love of Death, the world of the adolescents is delivered skilfully. There are numerous moments when scenes and sequences are repeated which highlight the vapid and dull nature life outside of an individual can take on in comparison to all of the internal feelings one has.

When the location changes to the school, there are the same establishing shots and Kasuga walks down the same dull corridors.

These moments are delivered with long held shots where many things remain unnaturally static (thanks to the animation) or empty apart Kasuga and his fellow students trudging around. The repetitious nature of the scenes and the way they are set up gives the world a deadened feeling³. No wonder his desire for Saeki and his act of theft affect him so much, the drudgery train that is life is far too dull to compare.

The only time Kasuga’s world comes to life is when Saeki looks at him and when he reads books. These lead to wonderful magical sequences which show the sense of escape he feels when reading and expanding his horizons.

What he did in stealing the gym-clothes is not simple perversion but an extension of his pure love for Saeki, a beautiful, intelligent and seemingly happy girl he idolises. I can sort of understand why he might do such a thing and so the act is less pathetic and desperate and more… okay, it’s still pathetic and desperate but we know he isn’t a perv.

Connect this intelligent characterisation and world building with rotoscoping and I found a protagonist I cared about. His existential angst and emotional anguish felt palpable and recognisable.

And now we come to where the anime truly gets its power, the horror of Nakamura’s malevolence.

The first thing to note is that her design distinguishes her from the get-go. She has red hair and in a class full of students who have black hair she is clearly noticeable especially since she sits behind Kasuga.

Even when we don’t know who she is we still take notice of her.

Every time she cocks her head, our gaze is drawn to her. This is perfect because when Kasuga is blackmailed by her and she starts to control him, every little movement and change on her face gains importance. Kasuga is careful to watch his every move and when he thinks he has messed up he slowly turns to see if Nakamura has registered anything.

Episode one marks her out as danger girl. At the bottom of the class for results and quite willing to face down teachers with her unnerving glare, nobody wants to mess with her and they treat her like a deviant. Her red hair can be taken as a sign of her status as an outsider and rebelliousness. Kasuga is aware of what it is like to be on the outside since there are moments when the class are quick to blame Nakamura for whatever goes wrong.

For all of her toughness, the emotional bullying must still be horrible to experience, at least a little, and judging from the next shot it does register with Nakamura.

It’s heartbreaking and an example of the messed up social nature of school life where everything is stratified and based on popularity and those who don’t fit in either make themselves invisible like Kasuga or become targets for bullying like Nakamura. In an environment where it is safer to conform it comes as no wonder he is desperate to avoid being outed as the pervert who stole the gym-clothes by Nakamura and so he plays her increasingly strange games. It rings true and nothing feels contrived. This is very much My Youth Rom-Com without the gags.

Why is Nakamura tormenting Kasuga? This is fascinating to think about. His little act of theft has convinced her that he is a fellow deviant and she is making all sorts of associations about Kasuga that he finds horrifying.

She is not just a simple weirdo but one who wants to make a connection with Kasuga. She has built herself a persona as an outsider and is aware of the frustration she feels with the world around her much like Kasuga only she is the darker version of him.

She wants him to realise that she exists on the same level and the two have something in common which is why she goes to such great lengths to torment him.

Basically she thinks he is too intellectual and repressed and stuff while she is open and honest about wanting to break things and tear everything down and the two should join forces to burn the town to the ground and maybe kiss. I don’t know about the last part yet because her behaviour is somewhat unpredictable but it seems likely that Nakamura likes Kasuga a lot and he is drawn to her on some level.

What I do know for certain is that there is something very profoundly wrong with the girl and Kasuga has no answer for it. He gets rolled over by her because he lacks the will to do anything about it and it is disturbing to watch the emotional turmoil his confusing situation has caused. She may be shorter than him and a girl but she dominates the heck out of him and it is both painfully embarrassing and believable.

One highlight has to be episode three where she totally dominates Kasuga and (spoiler) makes him wear Saeki’s gym-clothes (spoiler). The rage that surges out of her is very scary and made all the more scarier by the animation.

It is gripping watching the anger and jealousy that roils around in Nakamura. She is very, very angry but out of all the characters she is the most alive. Just broken.

That written, the moment in episode 2 when she points to the hills and demands that Kasuga takes her over them was the moment I liked her a lot.

She has the guts to do things while others just exist.

A case of a moth drawn to a flame?

I find Nakamura is an amazing character to watch.

Even after episode five she is hard to get a handle on but I do love watching her and fear for Kasuga’s sanity. Every episode I wait for the ominous music to build and the camera to cut to her glaring or, even worse, grinning at Kasuga.

She is like the catalyst that makes all of the elements in the show – characterisation, animation, music and writing – explode into one of the best teen stories I have seen.

For some viewers the change in art style and the cheapness of some of the effects are off-putting but I think it works perfectly⁴. To be honest, this My Youth Rom-Com, and Attack on Titan have had the best first episode reactions from me this season and possibly since I have started watching TV anime regularly. Attack on Titan made me froth at the mouth over its action and gorgeous visuals and gritty story, My Youth Rom-Com made me laugh at remembering all the ways I was a pretentious cynic and Aku no Hana reminded me of those painfully angsty and deadened feelings which surfaced fro time to time. These titles makes the anime of spring 2013 the psychoanalysis season for me… I am going to recommend this as one of the two best titles airing right now.

It seems like a bizarre love-triangle is being set up and Kasuga is going to be on the receiving end of a lot of psychological torment. I dread to think about what’s in store for him. I cannot wait to watch what Nakamura does next.

Oh how I love Nakamura, a most interesting and disturbing character.

¹The anime Adventure Duo/Kid was unintentionally disturbing because it was mind-bogglingly awful.

² I thought I was special because I was watching films like Chungking Express and Battle Royale while school-mates were watching American Pie… Pretentious, I know but I did not care because it was one of the few things to break through my cynical shell

³ It from reminded me so much of my own time in high school since I took similar dull walks and buried myself in films to escape.

⁴ Some of the staff behind the anime have worked on lofty titles with unique approaches to delivering their subjects. Hiroshi Nagahama directed Mushishi and Detroit Metal City. Aki Itami, the person behind the scripts of Fruits Basket and Mushishi, is writing the scripts for Aku no Hana and Kentaro Akiyama, the art director for Mawaru Penguindrum, is in charge of art direction here. These guys really know what they are doing and it is working.

I went through the entire first impression and barely touched on the music. It’s fantastic. Here are the OP and ED themes.

Aku no Hana/Flowers of Evil was the only post this week but I wanted to let this one have the spotlight for a couple of days because I think the anime is very, very brilliant. I also had to revise for my Japanese test on Wednesday. I think I passed this course but I’m not happy with the way my study habits floundered at points. There is definite room for improvement. No films watched but plenty of anime like Attack on Titan, My Youth Romcom, Aku no Hana and Red Data Girl. Next Saturday I will be attending a Japan Day Festival, which I posted on AUKN.

What does the Japanese Movie Box Office Chart look like for the weekend May 11^th-12^th?

1. Detective Conan Private Eye in the Distant Sea
2. Phone Call to the Bar 2
3. Iron Man 3
4. Prefecture’s Government Hospitality Division
5. Library Wars
6. Shield of Straw
7. Crayon Shin Chan! Gourmet Food Survival
8. Kamen Rider X Super Sentai X Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z
9. Saint Young Men
10. Steins;Gate: The Movie

Major changes in this week’s movie box office standings with three new entries in the top ten from last week’s crop. Saint Young Men comes in at nine, Prefecture’s Government Hospitality Division at four and Phone Call to the Bar 2 resting at two. Detective Conan continue to reign supreme at one for the fourth week in a row while Steins;Gate claws its way back into the top ten at ten.

What is released this week? I say this week because there is a film festival going on in Japan at the moment and they released some titles on the 16^th and 18^th. There are lots of cool trailers.

Peach Festival Films

Female filmmakers have been on the rise in Japan as well regarded films like Dreams for Sale, End of Puberty and Just Pretended to Hear reveal. To get a better taste of what other young female directors are doing we get a whole festival dedicated to showing the freshest works coming from them. The theme for this year is ‘Tears’. Here are three short films that will be on the big screen.

Peach Festival Presents Tears “Sayonara Mermaid”       

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents なみだ “サヨナラ人魚”

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Sayonara Ningyo”

Release Date: May 16^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 48 mins.

Director: Ayaka Kato

Writer: Ayaka Kato (Screenplay)                                                

Starring: Kazuha Komiya, Yuta Toda, Katsunori Teraoka, Minori Hagiwara

This is the debut of Ayaka Kato and it has a title which sounds like it could be strange. The trailer is intriguing. Two guys approach a mysterious woman previously seen on a beach. Is she a mermaid? Is she simply suicidal and disturbed? Guys, you better watch out! Mermaids can’t be trusted! Even foxy ones!

Actually this is a film where a woman named Sammy, who is attending a prep school, is in all sorts of relationships with instructors and fellow students and feels emptiness. We then follow a series of encounters with different people. Is this a riff on the Little Mermaid fairy tale and does she go through similar things? Well this short has 48 minutes to develop this story. If Ayaka Kato is skilled enough, it should be enough.

Peach Festival Presents Tears “Itai no Itai no Tonde Ike”

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents “なみだ “いたいのいたいのとんでいけ”

Romaji: Matsuri Presents Namida “Itai no Itai no Tonde Ike”

Release Date: May 16^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 30 mins.

Director: Miwa Paku

Writer: N/A

Starring: Haruna Okawa, Mari Hayashida, Shioi Kasahara

I am totally unsure about this title. It looks like Pain of the Pain Fly Away but it sounds totally wrong… Arrgh. Frustration. Anyway, this film comes from Park Miwa who worked on the 3.11 shot-film compilation Tomorrow which gathered together staff originating from the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. The story follows Kana, a young girl who is trying to get her parents to reconcile their differences during a domestic conflict. The biggest name for me is Mari Hayashida who was in Cold Bloom. No trailer.

Leaving on the 15^th Spring                               

Japanese Title: 旅立ちの島唄　十五の春

Romaji: Tabidachi no Shima Uta – 15 no Aru

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Yasuhiro Yoshida

Writer: Yasuhiro Yoshida (Screenplay),

Starring: Ayaka Miyoshi, Shinobu Otake, Karou Kobayashi, Saori Koide, Ryuya Wakaba, Jyo Hyuga,

I listed this one with the incorrect release date of April 17^th. Apologies. I was suspicious because the website I got the info from didn’t tally up with another, much more reliable one. Anyway the film trailer didn’t impress me that much on the first run but a review from the Japan Times film review site chalks this up as an impressive feature citing the fact that director, “Yoshida can universalize from the real without turning his people into case studies or stereotypes… Yoshida prefers to speak volumes with nonviolent, emotionally charged suggestion. That is, he brings an understated lyricism to what an ordinary documentary might have reduced to just-the-facts prose.” Ayaka Miyoshi, one of the stars of Good Morning Everyone, last year’s rock film which starred Kumiko Aso, takes the lead in this family drama which examines the lives of a family who are separated from each other due to geographical circumstances.

Minamidaito Island does not have a high school and so when teenagers hit 15 they must head to mainland Japan. Yuna Nakazato (Miyoshi) is about to make the same trip as her two older siblings leaving her father Toshiharu (Kobayashi) behind. She worries about him being left alone but she will be joining her mother Akemi (Otake), sister Mina (Koide) and brother in Naha. With her date of departure looming Yuna feels unease about her future but also has a curiosity about the wider world.

The Complex                                              

Japanese Title: クロユリ　団地

Romaji: Kuroyuri Danchi

Running Time: 106 mins.

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Director: Hideo Nakata

Writer: Hideo Nakata, Junya Kato, Ryuta Miyake

Starring: Atsuka Maeda, Hiroki Narimiya, Masanobu Katsumura, Naomi Nishida, Sosei Tanaka, Masaya Takahashi, Satomi Tezuka, Taro Suwa, Yurei Yanagi, Megumi Sato, Mayumi Asaka

Hideo Nakata, the director of J-horror classic Ringu and Dark Water returns with another urban supernatural chiller with The Complex which premiered at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival. Reviews suggest this is a return to horror form for the director and the trailer strikes all the right notes for me! It stars the beautiful Atsuka Maeda who is a former member of AKB48 and starred in The Drudgery Train, one of the more interesting titles released in Japan last year.  Hiroki Narimiya, Tooru in Mirror Hell part of Rampo Noir and the titular character in the Phoenix Wright movie Ace Attorney is her male co-star. The supporting cast include Naomi Nishida (Library Wars, Swing Girls) and Megumi Sato (Cyborg She, Exte). First trailer of the week! Go J-hora!

Asuka (Maeda) has moved into the Kuroyuri apartment complex. It is a place with a chequered history as mysterious deaths occurred there 13 years ago. It isn’t long before she starts hearing the sound “garigarigari” from the apartment next door where an old man lives and it isn’t long before he is found dead! This is the start of a series of horrifying events that strike the apartment. Asuka calls upon Sasahara (Narimiya), a man who cleans up the homes of the recently deceased, to help solve the mystery.

Maruyama, The Middle Schooler          

Japanese Title: 中学生　円山

Romaji: Chuugakusei Maruyama

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 199 mins.

Director: Kankuro Kudo

Writer: Kankuro Kudo (Screenplay)

Starring: Hiroaki Takuma, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Yang Ik-June, Maki Sakai, Toru Nakamura, Nanami Nabemoto, Yuiko Kariya,You, Fumina Hara,Kenji Endo, Tomorowo Taguchi, Maho Nonami

This one is my second trailer of the week. It premiered at the 15^th Udine Far East Film Festival last month where it got this review and this more recent Japan Times review makes the film sound really, really funny. Hiraoka Takuma (The Wolf Children) takes the lead in this comedy with Yang Ik-June (Breathless, Our Homeland), Maki Sakai (Paris Tokyo Paysage, The Samurai That Night), You (Nobody Knows, Still Walking), Maho Nonami (2LDK), Tomorowo Taguchi (Tetsuo: The Iron Man) and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, member of J-pop group SMAP and star of Beautiful World. It’s directed by Kankuro Kuda, actor in Memories of Matsuko and Instant Swamp. The trailer is short and reading my synopsis is long but I like the look of this one!

Katsuya Maruyama (Hiraoka) is 14, an age where a boys thoughts are consumed by carnal desires. Only his are strange. He wants to “to touch his own weeny with his tongue.” Perhaps his strangeness is a result of living a mundane life in a housing complex with his mother Mizuki (sakai)), a woman obsessed with Korean dramas, his fitness obsessed father Katsuyuki (Nakamura) and sharing his room with his sister Akane (Nabemoto). There are other, stranger characters around like Tatsuo Shimoi (Kusanagi), a single father who wheels his infant son in a buggy around everywhere and prying into his neighbours lives and irritating housewives and a Korean electrician named Park Hyeon-Hun (Yang Ik-June) who attracts the attention of Mizuki. When bodies start turning up in the apartment complex Maruyama begins to draw a manga about a superhero named Captain Fruit (based on his father) who comes to the rescue. He shares his crazy tales with Shimoi and the line between fantasy and reality become blurred.

Gachi-Ban Supremacy                                    

Japanese Title: ガチバン　スプレマシー

Romaji: Gachiban Supuremashi-

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 66 mins.

Director: Takashi Motoki

Writer: Masao Iketani (Screenplay),

Starring: Kazuma Sano, Masataka Kubota, Ryo Kato, Mari Suzuki, Arai Atsushi Risako Ito

After the release of the first part of the Gachiban double-bill last month we get the second. I am still none the wiser for the franchise but I do recognise some of the actors because Atsushi Arai was in Classroom of the Evil and Ryo Kato (again) was in Detroit Metal City. Honestly, I think I’d rather be scared by The Complex or head over to that women’s film festival and watch some of those short films rather than watch a bunch of boys (who girls probably find really cute) punch each other out and yell.

SPINNING KITE                                                

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Kase Satoshi

Writer: Kase Satoshi (Screenplay)

Starring: Tomoya Nakamura, Kenta Uchino, Yuki Ito, Daigo Naohiro, Yoji Tanaka, Takashi Yamanaka, Yasuyo Mimura

Tomoya Nakamura (Quirky Guys & Gals) and Kenta Uchino (Winter Day) star in this youth drama about a band who have been together since junior high school. Punk music is what they live for in mundane existences punctuated by tough incidents and they aim to play at a concert for a chance of hitting the big time.

Foolish Old Man Folk Tales The Movie Wars      

Japanese Title: バカ昔ばなし劇場版　じじいウォーズ

Romaji: Baka Mukashibanashi Gekijōban Jiji u-ōzu

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 55 mins.

Director: Toru Hosokawa, Keiko Saotome

Writer: Toru Hosokawa, Keiko Saotome (Original Work/Screenplay)

Starring: Yōichi Nukumi (Narrator)

Popular writer Toru Hosokawa and painter Keiko Saotome  join fores to create a TV anime based on the popular picture book Momotaro. This is the movie and the story f the movie follows an old and woman and a demon who head into space . That’s about it for the synopsis I read. The trailer doesn’t really elaborate much further but it all makes absolute sense. If you consume enough sugar. It reminds me of the video for Dan Deacon’s song Paddling Ghost, quite possibly the best music video in all of creation ever.

Buddha Burning Human             

Japanese Title: 燃える仏像人間

Romaji: Moeru Butsuzō Ningen

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 80 mins.

Director: Uji Cha

Writer: Uji Cha (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuka Iguchi, Minori Terada, Ryuki Kitaoka

David Lynch makes scary movies. The other sort of movie nightmare I fear look sort of like this. Seriously, this is the scariest and most brilliantly inventive thing I have watched this week. The simple but highly detailed paper cuts outs and the bloody, visceral and creepy character designs created genuinely unsettling feelings in me. It is directed by Uji Cha, a creative from Kyoto who wrote, drew, photographed and directed the images in this film. It stars the voice of the beautiful and talented Yuka Iguchi who is a familiar voice actress who can be heard in anime like Bakemonogatari/Nisemonogatari as Tsukihi and in Haganai. She is joined by Minori Terada who voiced Musuka in Laputa Castle in the Sky.

Rough translation. The story begins with the theft of a Buddha statue from a temple. Schoolgirl Beniko (Iguchi) discovers that it was her parents who stole it when she stumbles upon it in a room in their house where she discovers that her parents are fusing it with humans and she’s next! Beniko finds herself involved in a twisted tale of murder and supernatural horror.

Nekoyado’s Spring and Autumn          

Japanese Title: ネコヤドのハルとアキ

Romaji: Nekoyado no Haru to Aki

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 15 mins.

Director: Yuichi Kondo

Writer: Yuichi Kondo (Screenplay)

Starring: Megumi Mizoguchi, Rika Hoshina, Takao Ayatsuki

This is the first of two short films from Yuichi Kondo. Both are fantasy/youth dramas and he has taken a number of roles including director, writer and cinematographer. The lead actresses are making their movie debut.

A short film that follows Haru (Mizoguchi)and Aki (Hoshina), two friends who fall in love with the same boy and fall out with each other. However, a small stuffed animal makes the girls reconnect. How, I don’t know but these stuffed animals look like magic! The trailer is nice.

Summer of Angels                                

Japanese Title: ソラから来た転校生

Romaji: Sora Kara Kita Tenkousei

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 48 mins.

Director: Yuichi Kondo

Writer: Yuichi Kondo (Screenplay)

Starring: Rika Hoshina, Megumi Mizoguchi, Kosuke Kuwano, Kento Nishijima, Itsuki Sagara, Nanase Iwai, Tomio Suga, Michi Yamamura

The second Yuichi Kondo film and another one which has fantasy/youth drama leanings. It is hard to get a grasp of what this one is about from the trailer but it’s certainly gentle. There are a lot more actors and a longer running time. The cast of the first short are here with more experienced actors like and Itsuki Sagara who starred in Goodbye Debussy and will next be seen in the movie based on Keisuke Kinoshita’s life (the last 9 months have seen his cachet rise with cinephiles with retrospectives of his films at different festivals), Nanase Iwai (Genius Party anime), Tomio Suga (Thermae Romae), and Michi Yamamura who was in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s dorama Penance and portrayed the reporter in Battle Royale.

Reika (Hoshina) is an angel who is looking for another angel named Runa who has gone missing so she can take her back. Part of her investigation involves posing as a transfer student at a school where she meets Makoto (Mizoguchi), a girl who wants to make an indie film for her school’s cultural festival.

Touhai Gekijouban (Tile Freeze Theatre Version) 

Japanese Title: 凍牌劇場版

Romaji: Touhai Gekijouban

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Yuichi Onuma

Writer: Yuichi Onuma (Screenplay)

Starring: Goki Maeda, Ayane Oto, Hidekazu Ichinose, Shunsuke Ichijo

Yuichi Onuma, director of the forthcoming Schoolgirl Complex film is here with a tale based on a highly interesting looking tale/manga which mixes mahjong and crime. Kei (Maeda) is a high school student who makes a lot of money working the back parlours of gambling dens where high stakes games of mahjong are played. He has an ice cool gaze and handsome features which intrigue the girls in his school but more female attention is on the cards when his life is mixed up with a girl named Amina (Oto) who is a mysterious foreigner. The trailer lacks atmosphere but I always like a mix of incongruous things like mahjong and crime/international politics.

Proof of the Child                               

Japanese Title: できる子の証明

Romaji: Dekiru Ko no Shoumei

Release Date: May 18^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 76 mins.

Director: Yuji Harada

Writer: Yuji Harada (Screenplay)

Starring: Yoshimi Aida, Yui Tokui, Shoichi Matsuda, Naohiro Takeda

Yuji Harada has been making short films for a few years now but his latest, Winter Alpaca, was screened at this year’s Yubari Film Festival where it won the Governor’s Prize and caught the attention of experienced film critic Tom Mes over at Midnight Eye, where he praises Yamada,

“Working in the tradition of Aki Kaurismäki and Nobuhiro Yamashita, director Yuji Harada is clearly a talent to watch for his ability to express conflicting emotions through a shooting style that eschews all visual trickery. His one-take scenes are modest marvels.”

Consider me interested. This film is the first feature length title and it follows a woman named Sachi who has a cheating boyfriend and abusive boss. She hooks up with a middle-aged stripper named Fujiko and the two head to the mountains. A lot of the actors are making their debut here although Shoichi Matsuda has been in titles like Love, Kill, Kill. I like the look of this trailer a lot making it my third favourite trailer of the week. The sexy antics, comedy and darkness in this story look to have been combined in an offbeat and quirky offering.

Tickets are now on sale for the fifth edition of the annual Terracotta Far East Film Festival. Due to Japanese language studies this post is about two weeks late but there is still time to order tickets.

The festival this year looks genuinely impressive with many UK premieres and a selection of films that cover a wide variety of genres and countries. There is strength and depth in this selection and it is heartening to see that the UK is getting to see these films.

For my part I have got four tickets thanks to fellow blogger Alua. I’m pretty hyped up at the prospect of seeing three Japanese films (A Story of Yonosuke, See You Tomorrow, Everyone, Land of Hope) and one Korean one (The Berlin File). Without further ado here is a word from the organisers followed by the line-up with some comments on the films I am familiar with and a preview of the Japanese films I will watch. Click on the titles to head over to the festival site for more information on the film and to order tickets!

5TH ANNUAL TERRACOTTA FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FULL LINE-UP

Over the years the festival has seen the event go from strength to strength. This year is set to be the biggest yet, expanding to 27 films spread over 4 sections and 2 venues from 06 – 15 June 2013.

The core of the festival will remain a hand-picked selection of the best CURRENT ASIAN CINEMA at The Prince Charles Cinema. This all UK Premiere section reflects the vibrancy and energy in Asian filmmaking today. Ranging from realist dramas to romance, light comedies to spy action thrillers, swordfighting epics to gothic fairytales, the festival aims to balance the representation of Asian countries.

Terracotta Festival 2013 (TFEFF13) will open with Hong Kong action COLD WAR on Thursday 06 June 2013. 

This year’s edition will also see a return to last year’s Terror Cotta Horror night on Friday 07 June in association with Film 4 Frightfest. The triple bill has now extended to an all-night horror marathon.

The organisers also have added the “IN MEMORY OF” section to mark the tenth anniversary of two of Hong Kong’s best loved and most missed stars: Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui.

Terracotta Festival 2013 will close out at the ICA with “SPOTLIGHT ON: Indonesia”.  11 – 15 June will be an entire week dedicated to Indonesian cinema, from the country’s freshest emerging talent alongside work by established filmmakers. This new section will bring rare insight into one of Asia’s rising film powerhouses.

Terracotta Far East Film Festival full Programme:
IN MEMORY OF: Leslie Cheung & Anita Mui 

Both Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui were wonderful actors, two of the biggest stars in HK cinema, and they both died untimely deaths. It is pleasing to see that they will be remembered with this retrospective.

DAYS OF BEING WILD Dir: Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong – Wed 29 May 2013, 20:45

1994/ Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles/ 94 mins/ starring Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau, Tony Leung Chiu Wai

Days of Being Wild was one of Wong Kar Wai’s (WKW) earliest films and it contains all of WKW’s familiar from gorgeous cinematography to characters going trough deep existential self-questioning in a story about a man searching for his birth mother. It stars a whole gamut of HK stars.

ROUGE Dir: Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong – Thurs 06 June 2013, 17:50

1988/ Cantonese with English subtitles/ 96 mins/ starring Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung

Stanley Kwan’s film is described as Part Romeo & Juliet, part ghost story, an outstanding and timeless classic. It stars both Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung.

HAPPY TOGETHER Dir: Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong - Fri 07 June 2013, 12:30

1997/ Cantonese and Mandarin with English subtitles/ 96 mins/ starring Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Chen Chang

I really like this film. I have watched it numerous times and I just love (and own) the soundtrack which is inspired by its Argentinian setting and don’t get me started about the ending.

The film follows the story of a gay love triangle slowly fragmenting and dislocating amidst the beautiful city of Buenos Aires.

CURRENT ASIAN CINEMA 

COLD WAR by Sunny Luk, Longman Leung, Hong Kong – Opening Film Thurs 06 June 2013, 19:50

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Cantonese with English subtitles/ 102 mins/ starring Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Andy Lau

This is a police thriller which reminds me a lot of Infernal Affairs and it looks to have similar impressive production values. It won big at the recent Hong Kong Film awards and UK film fans get to see it on the big screen with its premiere at the festival.

When police deal with a sophisticated hijacking of a police van they are outwitted at every turn and all the while the guys leading the police investigation are battling each other for positions of power in a tale of police corruption and politics.

LOVE ME NOT by Gilitte Leung, Hong Kong – Fri 07 June 2013, 14:30

UK Premiere/2012/ Cantonese with English Subtitles/ 92 mins/ starring Kenneth Cheng, Afa Lee

A sweet and daring portrait of blurred sexuality and love complications.

WHEN A WOLF FALLS IN LOVE WITH A SHEEP by Hou Chi-Jan, Taiwan – Fri 07 June 2013, 16:35

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Mandarin with English Subtitles/ 86 mins/ starring Ko Chen Tung, Chien Man Shu, Kuo Shu Yao, Nikki Hsieh

Vivid colours, lush set pieces and stop motion animation create a surreal, dreamy vision of Taipei.

YOUNG GUN IN THE TIME by Oh Young-doo, South Korea- Fri 07 June 2013, 18:35

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Korean with English subtitles/ 95 mins/ starring Hong Young-geun, Ha Eun-jung, Choi Song-hyun

Quirky, low-budget time travel romp filled with sex shops, robot hands and Hawaiian shirts.

KARAOKE GIRL by Visra Vichit Vadakan, Thailand - Fri 07 June 2013, 20:30

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Thai with English subtitles/ 77 mins/ starring Sa Sittijun, The Sittijun family.

Realistic, unseedy portrayal of a lovely and lovelorn Bangkok hostess.

THE ASSASSINS by Zhao Yiyang, China – Sat 08 June 2013, 12:00

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Mandarin with English subtitles/ 107 mins/ starring Chow Yun Fat, Hiroshi Tamaki, Crystal Liu Yi Fei

Chow Yun Fat in a historical swordfighting epic tale of love, power and betrayal.

A STORY OF YONOSUKE Dir: Shuichi Okita, Japan – Sat 08 June 2013, 14:20

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Japanese with English Subtitles/ 160 mins starring Kengo Kora, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Sosuke Ikematsu, Ayumi Ito, Gou Ayano, Arata, Kimiko Yo, Aki Asakura, Mei Kurokawa, Tasuku Emoto, Aimi Satsukawa, Keiko Horiuchi, Noriko Eguchi,

Shuichi Okita really impressed me with The Woodsman & the Rain, a film he directed and wrote. It is a wonderfully observed and rather touching comedy about the art of filmmaking and human bonds where he got great performances from his two lead stars, Koji Yakusho and Shun Oguri. The Story of Yonosuke was recently released in Japan (February) and it will get a release on DVD later in the year in the UK thanks to Third Window Films. I am pleased to say that this will be one of the films I will be seeing at the festival!

A story of a college student with an unusual name and a warm heart, spanning his college days in 1980’s Tokyo, as told by his closest friends and associates. Yonosuke Yokomichi (Kora) has left the port city of Nagasaki and travelled to Tokyo to attend university. His girlfriend is Shoko Yosano (Yoshitaka) and she is the daughter of a company president.

DRUG WAR Dir: Johnnie To, Hong Kong – Sat 08 June 2013, 17:30

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Mandarin with English Subtitles/ 107 mins/ starring Louis Koo, Sun Honglei, Lam Suet

Johnnie To’s fast moving actioner features a police captain and an arrested and coerced drug lord out to smash a major drug ring.

THE BERLIN FILE Dir: Ryoo Seung-wan, South Korea – Sat 08 June 2013, 19:45

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Korean with English subtitles/ 120mins/ starring Ha Jung-woo, Gianna Jun, Han Suk-Kyu, Ryoo Seung-bum

This is the Korean film I am going to see. There are a lot of dramas on the cards for me so this tale of North and South Korean agents in Berlin tangled up in a Bourne style multi-agency web of deceit is like the macho antidote to all of the emotions I’ll encounter. I love Bourne style films and I expect plenty of gunplay in this.

SEE YOU TOMORROW, EVERYONE by Yoshihiro Nakamura, Japan - Sun 09 June 2013, 12:25

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Japanese with English Subtitles/ 120 mins/ starring Gaku Hamada, Kana Kurashina, Kento Nagayama, Kei Tanaka, Nene Otsuka, Bengal, Haru

From the director of The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck & God in a Coin Locker comes a gentle emotional comedy that has been acquired by Third Window Films for UK distribution later this year.  It is described as a multi-layered look into life on a Japanese council estate (danchi?) and it stars Gaku Hamada, Kana Kurashina (Dreams for Sale), Kento Nagayama (Crime or Punishment?!?), Kei Tanaka (one of the school pupils on the roof in Suicide Club), Bengal (Boiling Point) and Nene Otsuka (Film Noir, Bashing). I’ll be watching this one. Will you?

Satoru Watari (Hamada) lives in an apartment complex. After graduating from elementary school he decides to stay in the complex for the rest of his life. True to his word he stays at home instead of going to middle school and gets a job in a cake shop in the complex and gets engaged to a friend. His other friends have other ideas and one by one they leave.

A WEREWOLF BOY by Jo Sung-hee, South Korea - Sun 09 June 2013, 15:30

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Korean with English subtitles/ 125 mins/ starring Song Joong-ki, Park Bo-young, Yoo Yeon-seok

Fantasy romance along the lines of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, taking a traditional fairytale structure and setting it against a 1960′s technicolor Korea.

THE BULLET VANISHES by Law Chi Leung, Hong Kong – Sun 09 June 2013, 18:00

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Mandarin with English Subtitles/ 108 mins/ starring Lau Ching Wan, Nicholas Tse

Detectives are called to a munitions factory where murders involving “phantom bullets” are puzzling the forensics teams and spooking the local workforce.

THE LAND OF HOPE by Sion Sono, Japan - Sun 09 June 2013, 20:05

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Japanese with English Subtitles/ 133 mins/ starring Isao Natsuyagi, Naoko Otani, Jun Murakami, Megumi Kagurazaka, Yutaka Shimizu, Hikari Kajiwara, Denden, Mariko Tsutsui, Yusuke Iseya, Mitsuru Fukikoshi,

I have been anticipating the release of this film since last year. I really, really (really x10) love Sono’s films. Suicide Club, Strange Circus and Cold Fish are my top three but his drama Himizu made me an emotional wreck and I expect the same thing here. Like Himizu, The Land of Hope deals with the aftermath of 3.11 in a restrained drama dealing with a family’s struggles after the aftermath of a Fukushima-style nuclear power plant explosion in their town. Like Himizu, I bet The Land of Hope works best in a cinema! I’ll find out because I’m going to be watching it!

An old couple named Yasuhiko and Chieko (Natsuyagi and Otani) live on a farm near a peaceful village in Nagashima prefecture with their son Yoichi (Murakami) and his wife Izumi (Kagurazaka). When an earthquake strikes the nearby nuclear power plant explodes and the village’s residents are forced to evacuate since the village is in the twenty-kilometre evacuation radius. The family are soon faced with a tough decision: evacuate with the rest of the village or stay on the land that generations of their family have lived on. Yoichi and his wife decide to head to a nearby urban community while Yasuhiko and Chieko remain on the farm. Both couples are beset by doubts and problems.

Terror Cotta Horror All-Nighter 

Part of me would have liked to have seen the three Japanese entries in this all-nighter but the more sensible part of me knows that I would rather get my sleep because being tired would make me miserable and I wouldn’t enjoy the films on Sunday!

COUNTDOWN by Nattawut Poonpiriya, Thailand – Fri 07 June, 23:30- 07:10

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Thai and English with English Subtitles/ 90 mins/ starring Pachara Chirathivat, Jarinporn Joonkiat, Pattarasaya Kruesuwansiri

New Year’s Eve in New York City goes wrong for three flat-mates when their drug dealer overstays his welcome and turns psycho on them.

BELENGGU by Upi, Indonesia – Fri 07 June, 23:30- 07:10

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Indonesian with English Subtitles/ 100 mins/ starring Abimana Aryasatya, Avrilla.

Visions of violent murders, a giant, knife throwing rabbit and a mysterious femme-fatale. What is really going on in Elang’s head?

HENGE by Ohata Hajime, Japan – Fri 07 June, 23:30- 07:10

UK Premiere / 2012/ Japanese with English Subtitles/ 54 mins/ starring Aki Morita, Kazunari Aizawai, Teruhiko Nobukuni

What would you do if the person that you loved most in the world turned into a monster right before your eyes? Sounds a lot like Tetsuo: The Iron Man

Yoshiaki (Aizawa) and Keiko (Morita) are a young couple living in a quiet area but things get decidedly strange when Yoshiaki begins to have strange seizures which leave him screaming like a beast and his wife absolutely scared. Then he undergoes a metamorphosis…

THE GHOST STORY OF YOTSUYA by Nobuo Nakagawa, Japan – Fri 07 June, 23:30- 07:10

1959/ Japanese with English Subtitles/ 76 mins/ starring Shigeru Amachi, Noriko Kitazawa, Katsuko Wakasugi

A classic retrospective presentation of an old Japanese Macbeth-like folk tale. Wikipedia describes it as arguably the most famous Japanese ghost story of all tie, Yotsuya Kaidan has been remade multiple times (30 times!!!) with the most recent example being the rather tame Kaidan directed by Hideo Nakata. It is based on a Kabuki play written way back in 1825 and follows the misfortunes of two families locked in a deadly curse.

ZOMVIDEO by Kenji Murakami, Japan – Fri 07 June, 23:30- 07:10

UK Premiere / 2011/ Japanese with English Subtitles/ 76 mins starring Maimi Yajima, Saki Nakajima, Miyuki Torii, Jouichi Ohori

When I first found this I transliterated the title as Zombideo (the way Japanese people would say it) and I prefer that title! Originally made in 2011, this horror comedy stars Maimi Yajima who is a member of the idol group “°C-ute”. I hope Terror-cotta release this in the UK because I kind of like the trailer.

Aiko (Yajima) works for a TV production company and discovers a video called “Introduction to Science”, a “how to” video which features a guide on dealing with zombies. Good timing really because a zombie army floods Japan and it is up to Aiko to beat back the ravenous hoards.

SPOTLIGHT ON: Indonesia

THE DANCER by Ifa Isfansya, Indonesia – Tue 11 June, time tbc

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Indonesian with English Subtitles/ 107 mins/ starring Oka Antara, Prisia Nasution, Slamet Raharjo, Dewi Irawan, Hendro Djarot, Lukman Sardi

The story of a girl destined to be the ronggeng of her village in the 60′s political turmoil. Indonesia’s official entry at the 85th Academy Awards.

LOVELY MAN by Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia – Wed 12 June, time tbc

UK Premiere/ 2011/ Indonesian with English Subtitles/ 76 mins/ starring Donny Damara, Raihaanun Nabila, Yayu aw Unru, Luddy Saputro

A provocative, powerful father-daughter story unlike any you’ve seen.

WHAT THEY DON’T TALK ABOUT WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT LOVE by Mouly Surya, Indonesia – Thurs 13 June, time tbc

UK Premiere/ 2012/ Indonesian with English Subtitles/ 105 mins/ starring Karina Salim, Ayushita Nugraha, Nicholas Saputra, Anggun Priambodo, Lupita Jennifer

At a special needs boarding school, the students are like any other teenagers: they attend classes, pursue artistic endeavours, and occupy their minds with love and dreams.

POSTCARDS FROM THE ZOO by Edwin, Indonesia – Fri 14 June, time tbc

2012/ Indonesian with English Subtitles/ 96 mins/ starring Ladya Cheryl, Nicholas Saputra, Adjie Nur Ahmad

Premiered at Berlinale, a story which revolves around Lana, a girl who was raised in a zoo after she was abandoned.

OPERA JAWA by Garin Nugroho / Arturo Gp / Arswendi, Indonesia – Sat 15 June, time tbc

2006/ Indonesian with English Subtitles/ 125 mins starring Martinus Miroto, Artika Sari Devi, Eko Supriyanto

A traditional Indonesian tragedy is reworked into a visually stunning musical in OPERA JAWA.

THE BLINDFOLD by Garin Nugroho, Indonesia – Sat 15 June, time tbc

UK Premiere / 2012/ Indonesian with English Subtitles/ 90 mins starring Jajang C. Noer, Adriani Isna, Eka Nusa Pertiwi

The story of three young people lured into a radical Islamic organisation.

Venues: 

IN MEMORY OF: Leslie Cheung & Anita Mui, CURRENT ASIAN CINEMA, Terror Cotta Horror All-Nighter at Prince Charles Cinema
7 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BY / Box Office : +44 (0)20 7494 3654

Tickets at Prince Charles Cinema: £8.50 non members, no concessions/ £6.00 (PCC Members)

(Friday afternoon: £6.50/ £4.00)
Festival Pass: £59.50 non members/ £48 members

EARLY BIRD PASS*: £55 non members/ £45 members (excludes Terror Cotta Horror Night and ICA Spotlight on Indonesia)

*if you buy early before Sunday 12th May, midnight
Terror-Cotta Horror All-nighter: £22 non members/ £19.50 members
SPOTLIGHT ON: Indonesia at Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA):
The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH / Box Office: +44 (0)20 7930 3647

Tickets at ICA: £10 / £8 Concessions / £7 ICA Members

The trailers were all gathered from the Terracotta YouTube channel.

Only one post this week and that was for the Terracotta Far East Film Festival which I will be attending in just under two week’s time! I have watched plenty of anime including Attack on Titan (tears of bloody joy over Mikasa’s emotional journey!!!), Red Data Girl (I will get that First Impression done!!!) and Aku no Hana (episode 7 just broke my mind with its awesomeness!!!) and with my exams over I will get back to watching and reviewing films!!! Tonight I re-watch 2LDK and Aragami again. Right, now I’m going to head off to Japan Day at Cardiff Library!

What is released this week? I say this week because there is a film festival going on in Japan at the moment and they released some titles on the 20^th. There are lots of cool trailers.

Peach Festival Films

Female filmmakers have been on the rise in Japan as well regarded films like Dreams for Sale, End of Puberty and Just Pretended to Hear reveal. To get a better taste of what other young female directors are doing we get a whole festival dedicated to showing the freshest works coming from them. The theme for this year is ‘Tears’. Here are three short films that will be on the big screen for the Peach Film Festival (Momomatsuri).

Peach Festival Presents Tears “The Morning of the Funeral”

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents なみだ “徳井唯藤子”

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Tokui Yui Fujiko”

Release Date: May 20^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 30 mins.

Director: Mariya Nukazuka

Writer: Mariya Nukazuka (Screenplay)

Starring: Marui Mitoko, Fuyuna Asakura, Kyoichi Arakawa

Mariya Nukazuka learned how to make films at the Tokyo National Universit of Fine Arts Graduate School of film. In her short film a woman named Hatsumi (Mitoko) who is back in her hometown to attend the funeral of her grandfather.

Peach Festival Presents Tears “Tokyo Halloween Night”

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents なみだ “東京ハロウインナイト”

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Toukyou Harou-in Naito”

Release Date: May 20^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 25 mins.

Director: Mari Okada

Writer: Mari Okada (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuki Kimura, Takeru Shibaki, Chiaki Tatsumi, Yoichi Kohiyama

Mari Okada studied at the California Institute of the Arts and has had her work screened at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. Furthermore, she has contributed to the 3.11 film Tomorrow. In this film a female scarecrow (Kimura) who stands in a rice field all day long has one wish, to be human for the night of Halloween.  Her wish comes true and so she finds herself on the streets of Tokyo surrounded by people. She meets a zombie (Shibaki) and follows him to a party where the two fall in love.

Peach Festival Presents Tears “Anemia”         

Japanese Title: 桃まつり presents なみだ “貧血”

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Anemia”

Release Date: May 20^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 25 mins.

Director: Maya Kato

Writer: Maya Kato (Screenplay)

Starring: Reina Haruyama, Yuri Yamada, Chisato Ushio, Ryo Hasebe, Shinnosuke Ibaraki

Maya Kato has appeared at a previous Peach Film Festival with the short film Falling. She reunites with two cast members from that film, Reina Haruyama and Yuri Yamada in a tale about a vampire named Abeko (Haruyama) and a wheel-chair bound virginal woman named Izumi who spend the night with two other people who don’t know that the two may have ulterior motives… like sex and blood! I like the look of the trailer. Very surreal.

Heart Beat                                             

Japanese Title: Heart Beat

Release Date: May 25^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: Naoya Asanuma

Writer: Naoya Asanuma (Screenplay)

Starring: Anna Ishibashi, Hideyuki Iijima, Yuki Kitagawa, Mayumi Uchida, Yu Yoshioka, Hajime Inoue, Keita Saito, Yoko Ishino

Naoya Asanuma’s film Heart Beat played at last year’s Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. It has an interesting cast made up of actors and actresses who have starred in cool indie films and major titles like Anna Ishibashi (My Back Page, MILOCRORZE – A Love Story), Yuki Kitagawa (Goth – Love of Death, Yo-Yo Girl Cop), and Yurei Yanagi (Kaidan, Ringu, The Complex, Cold Bloom).

Koji, Yuta and Kayo have been friends since childhood. The three play on the school basketball team but they keep on losing which makes their dream of playing in the national championships unlikely. Then Kayo quits without telling anyone why. The reason is because Kayo’s alcoholic mother is back home after drying out at a hospital and while she feels that she must look after her mother she want to re-join the team.

Angel Home                           

Japanese Title: くちづけ

Romaji: Momo Matsuri Presents Namida “Anemia”

Release Date: May 25^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 123 mins.

Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Writer: Takayuki Takuma (Screenplay)

Starring: Shihori Kanjiya, Naoto Takenaka, Takayuki Takuma, Tomoko Tabata, Ai Hashimoto, Yumi Asou, Mitsuru Hirata, Seiji Miyane, Rei Okamoto

Actor, writer, director Takayuki Takuma (For Love’s Sake) has joined forces with the extraordinarily cool director Yukihiko Tsutsumi (2LDK) is cool (great films, great raconteur). He has worked on big-budget films like SPEC: Heaven and low-budget passion projects like My House. This is a romantic/family story set in a group home for mentally underdeveloped adults … Could be tricky stuff but the trailer is pretty safe and even amusing and sentimental and it has some pedigree since it is based on a successful stage play that Takuma wrote. Mark Schilling’s review makes it sound decent.

The actors involved include Shihori Kanjiya (Survive Style 5+, Dead Waves), Naoto Takenaka (Ninja Kids!!!, Beck), the aforementioned Takayuki Takuma, Tomoko Tabata (The Hidden Blade), and Ai Hashimoto (Another, The Kirishima Thing).

The Sunflower House is a group home for mentally underdeveloped adults. When manga artist Itpon Aijo (Takenaka) and his mentally challenged daughter Mako (Kanjiya) take over the running of the house they encounter the residents including the lively Uyan (Takuma). When Mako and Uyan begin to fall in love it causes Itpon trouble.

It’s Me, It’s Me                   

Japanese Title:　俺俺

Romaji: Ore Ore

Release Date: May 25^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 123 mins.

Director: Satoshi Miki

Writer: Satoshi Miki (Screenplay), Tomoyuki Hoshino (Novel)

Starring: Kazuya Kamenashi, Yuki Uchida, Ryo Kase, Midoriko Kimura, Keiko Takahashi, Eri Fuse, Yutaka Matsushige, Ryo Iwamatsu, Yoshiyuki Morishita, Aimi Satsukawa,

Since 2005 Satoshi Miki has rapidly gained a rep for writing and directing great comedies. His reputation is such that Third Window Films has released a box set with three of his titles, Instant Swamp, Turtles Are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers and Adrift in Tokyo. I have only reviewed the latter but I liked it a lot. This is Miki’s latest film and it had its world premiere at the Udine Far East Film Festival and Mark Schilling has given it an excellent review stating,

Miki, who also wrote the script, maintains the same fine, tight control over his mind-bending material as he did in “Adrift in Tokyo.” And as in the previous film, he weaves deeper themes, as well as a wealth of dryly funny sight gags, into his slight story, but with more abandon and ambition…”

The film stars Kat-Tun member Kazuya Kamenashi (Humanoid Monster Bem), Ryo Kase (Bright Future, Outrage, SPEC), Eri Fuse (Boiling Point) Yutaka Matsushige (The Guard From Underground) and Yuki Uchida (Glory to the Filmmaker!). Unfortunately I couldn’t find a decent trailer (lots of Kat-Tun videos instead). I’ll try and get one later.

Hitoshi Nagano (Kamenashi) is a failed photographer working a dead end job at an electrical store when he finds the mobile phone of an obnoxious customer who has left it behind. He phones the customer’s mother and pretends to be her son so she will transfer money into his bank account. He might have expected to have never met his victim but she turns up in his life alongside doppelgangers who, despite being different in terms of character, get along really well with him. Hitoshi takes advantage of this.

Intimacy                                  

Japanese Title: 親密さ

Romaji: Shinmitsusa

Release Date: May 25^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 255 mins.

Director: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi

Writer: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Rin Hirano, Ryo Sato, Ayako Ito, Mikio Tayama, Toru Arai

The film is by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi who has directed The Depths (2011) and Passion(2008). Ryo Sato has starred in the short Sunrise Sunset, part of the Cinema Impact movement, released back in January. Intimacy was shown at a retrospective for Hamaguchi last year but this film seems to be slightly different since it follows the rehearsals of the actors, the planning and recording of the film and then the film itself.

Taishibou kei Tanita no Shain Shokudou

Japanese Title:　体　脂肪計　タニタ　の　社員　食堂

Romaji: Tai　shibou kei Tanita no Shain Shokudou

Release Date: May 25^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Toshio Lee

Writer: Daisuke Tanaka(Screenplay)

Starring: Yuka, Kenta Hamano, Masao Kusakari, Kinako Kobayashi, Yo Yoshida, Mitsu Dan, Kumiko Watari

Toshio Lee is a good comedy director. His live-action adaptation of Detroit Metal City was genuinely funny. He is back with another comedy but this time instead of death metal bands he takes on the real life tale of Tanita Corporation, the company which developed the world’s first body fat measuring device but finds it hard to sell the device because of its overweight employees. In the film, company president Konosuke (Hamano) hire a nutritionist named Nanako (Yuka) to get the overweight employees onto a diet of special food served at the company restaurant.

The film stars Yuka, who appeared in Takashi Shimizu’s horror flick Reincarnation (awesome J-hora!!!) and A Letter to Momo, Kinako Kobayashi (It’s Me It’s Me) and Mitsu Dan (Be My Slave). A film about fat people losing weight… It looks potentially amusing with Nanako enforcing a strict regime and people breaking under the pressure but it’s not enough to draw me in. What about you?

June 06^th                                           

Japanese Title: 6 月　6日

Romaji: 6 Gatsu 6 Nichi

Release Date: May 25^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 110 mins.

Directors: Hiroshi Kashiwabara, Hajime Ishida, Yoshikazu Ishii, Hara Takahito, Atsushi Muroga

Writer: Maya Kato (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuki Tanaka, Ayako Fujita, Toda Yuta, Kosuke Nagai, Yoshikazu Tanimua, Kaoru Kojima, Daiki Namikawa, Aiko Kato, Shun Tanaka

Here we have an omnibus film made up of 6 episodes which run for around 20 minutes each. The stories take place in a different number of setting starting in Edo Period Japan at around 1848 and ending way in the future in the year 2495. The theme linking the stories together is reincarnation. I’m unfamiliar with nearly all of the names attached but during a look at the work of Hajime Ishide I found his 2012 film Karakuri which looks good. Ignore the crappy CGI and focus on the possibilities and it could be entertaining. I mean, that submarine fired torpedoes at two people in a bloody dinghy! How awesome is that!

Shemale is the Second Generation        

Japanese Title: 二代目はニューハーフ

Romaji:

Release Date: May 20^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 25 mins.

Director: OZAWA

Writer: OZAWA (Screenplay)

Starring: Hitoshi Ozawa, Bell, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Yu Miyamura

Hiroshi Ozawa made an unforgettable appearance in Takeshi Kitano’s surreal gangster film Boiling Point and he has created a bit of an oeuvre playing tough guys in films like Score and Dead or Alive. He’s back in a film with an outrageous title that involves the disappeared son of a dead gangster reappearing in the criminal underworld in his new guise as a transsexual (Bell). The trailer doesn’t quite live up to my expectations because I was expecting something funny and not as serious as this. That written, it looks set to fall into competent low-budget action flick territory.

The Centenarian Clock            

Japanese Title: 百年の時計

Romaji: Hyaku Nen no Tokei

Release Date: May 25^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 205 mins.

Director: Maya Kato

Writer: Minato Takehiko (Screenplay)

Starring: Haruka Kinami, Mickey Curtis, Yuri Nakamura, Akiko Kiuchi, Hiroki Suzuki, Jun Inoue, Kai Shishido

Shusuke Kaneko is a director with a lot of films to his name. Most prominently for me are his Death Note adaptations and Azumi 2. He has two films getting a release this month. July sees the release of Ikenie no Jirenma (Dilemma of Sacrifice) where high school students on their graduation day are forced to find a sacrifice from among the student body or die. Before that we get this film which commemorates the centenary of the opening of a railway route in Kagawa Prefecture which is now known as the Takamatsu Kotohira electric railway. It is apparently famous in Japan. Anyway the film stars Haruka Kinami (The Samurai That Night), Mickey Curtis (Goodbye Debussy) an Yuri Nakamura (Fly with the Gold, The Grudge: Girl in Black).

Ryōka Kandaka (Kinami) is a curator for an art museum in Takamatsu City and she is organising a retrospective exhibition for an artist named Andō Yukito (Curtis). He is getting on in years and has lost his creative touch and so the prospect of a retrospective is not that attractive for him but an old pocket watch holding all sorts of memories of a girl he once knew could change his perspective.

+1 Plus One Vol.4                                      

Japanese Title: +1 プラスワン Vol. 4

Romaji: +1 Purasu Wan Vol. 4

Release Date: May 20^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Akira Ogata, Ryosuke Hashiguchi, Hiro Ando

Writer: N/A

Starring: Aya Saito, Kumiko Masuda, Atsushi Shinohara, Koji Yamashita, Koichi Ito, Noriko Iwasaki, Misa Namba, Satoko Okamoto, Kanae Uotani, Hitomi Ito, Gen Sato, Ken Nagano, Takao Mitsudomi, Takuya Nara

Ah, another omnibus film with three veteran directors from the low to mid-budget tier of Japanese films. Stories range from a squabbling couple and their journey to a camp on a mountain, two online lovers who meet for the first time offline.

The 66^th Cannes Film Festival came to an end today  and the illustrious jury lead by Steven Spielberg had a tough time picking winners. Apart from Spielberg , the jury included interesting names like Japanese film maker Naomi Kawase (The Mourning Forest) who recently had some of her films screened at Rotterdam, Ang Lee (Eat Drink Man Woman), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained and, uh, Carnage), Nicole Kidman (Stoker) and the fantastic French actor Daniel Auteuil (La Reine Margot, Hidden).

This year’s Cannes film festival had a wide variety of films in the running for the Palme d’Or. There were a lot of American films getting excellent reviews like Alexander Payne’s Nebraska and the Coen Brothers Inside Llewyn Davis. Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra was also highly rated with Michael Douglas tipped to win the best actor award for his performance as Liberace. Then it seemed that their chances were eclipsed by a French film that was screened on Wednesday called Blue is the Warmest Colour. As a report on the BBC stated Blue is the Warmest Colour was tipped to win the Palme d’Or with many critics were singing its praises and so it proved to be the right tip since it did walk away with the Palme d’Or.

Last year brought us a few treats in terms of Japanese films but no titles in competition to win the coveted Cannes Palme d’Or but this year Japan has made a major impact with two films in competition from two very special directors, Koreeda and Miike. Review are in for their films and it has been a split between love and dismissal for each director respectively.

How did the Japanese films do?

Shield of Straw                           

Japanese Title:　藁　の　楯

Romaji: Wara no Tate

Release Date: April 26^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 124 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Kazuhiro Kiuchi (Original Novel), Tamio Hayashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Takao Osawa, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Nanako Matsushima, Kimiko Yo, Kento Nagayama, Goro Kishitani, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Hirotaro Honda, Masata Ibu

Takashi Miike is no stranger to Cannes but the possibility that his latest film Shield of Straw would take the Palme d’Or looked highly unlikely before the critical reviews came in. Let’s be honest, action titles like this just don’t win festival awards regardless of their quality but the critical reaction from western critics has been surprisingly lukewarm and even dismissive.

Japanese reviewer Masaichiro Murayama of the Nihon Keizai Newspaper summed it up the way I figured the movie would perform overall, “Miike’s direction is straightforward, tailored create an enjoyable action movie.” That’s what the trailer promised. On sites like Pia there are a lot of user ratings hanging around 3/3.5 on average.

Then the Cannes reviews came in:

“Though shot in widescreen on a relatively hefty budget, the two-hour-plus thriller makes limited use of its resources, featuring far more talk than action.” Peter Debruge (Variety)

“Sleek and engrossing, though awfully drawn out and short on psychological complexity, this is a straight-up police action thriller that adheres to a very familiar Hollywood template. In fact, its chief enticement outside Japan may be as remake fodder.” David Rooney (Hollywood Reporter)

“It’s hard to immerse yourself in the film’s emotional fabric, however, when your attention is constantly being diverted by the furious pacing and glaring plot holes.” Adam Woodward (Little White Lies)

“It is put together with technical competence, but is entirely cliched and preposterous, and it implodes into its own fundamental narrative implausibility.” Peter Bradshaw (Guardian)

“The script alone could easily inspire a novella detailing all of the plot holes, gaps in logic and insanely repetitive exposition… but the real shame is that the man responsible for some of the smartest, most insane, exuberant, boundary-pushing Japanese movies of the past decade has brought the story to life with such flat, joyless direction…” Brian Clark (Twitch Film)

I wasn’t expecting it Shield of Straw get love at Cannes but I was expecting it to fare better than it did – the 1 star Guardian review is just totally outrageous and an example of what is striking about some of the reviews where more attention is focussed on the implausibility of the script – this is a high concept action film, just enjoy the ride! –  but when the reviews do focus on the action it seems to be lacking.

Overall, it looks like one of Miike’s middling movies like Ninja Kids!!!. Not as extreme as his earlier stuff like his low-budget extreme films Visitor Q and Ichi the Killer and not as accomplished as something like his more recent big-budget mainstream films 13 Assassins or For Love’s Sake. I figure I’d like this film. I did like Ninja Kids!!! more than I thought I would. If it were to get screened in the UK I would head out to see it.

Now we come to the good news. 

Like Father, Like Son                         

Japanese Title:　そして　父　に　なる

Romaji: Soshite Chichi ni Naru

Release Date: October 05^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: N/A

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer: N/A

Starring: Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yoko Maki, Jun Fubuki, Keita Ninomiya, Lily Franky, Jun Kunimura, Kiki Kirin, Isao Natsuyagi

Like Father Like Son looked to be the favourite Japanese film to take the Palme d’Or before the explicit French lesbian relationship drama Blue is the Warmest Colour came onto the scene and wowed lots of people. Like Father Like Son ticked all of the boxes which could give it the win, great drama, great acting and it has a sentimental story which should appeal to Spielberg. Director Kore-eda is a modern day Ozu, able to capture the emotional geography of everyday Japanese people in all sorts of scenarios and Japanese family life.

The Japan Times beat me to the critical reactions round-up but here are some that stood out to me:

“It is a very decent piece of work, although not as distinctive as those two previous movies, not quite as finely observed and frankly a little schematic and formulaic, with life-lessons being learnt by the obvious people. It does however have charm and abundant human sympathy.” Peter Bradshaw (Guardian)

Not only is it the best picture to be shown in competition so far, it also prompted the loudest reactions yet from this habitually noisy crowd: rippling laughter throughout, sustained applause at the close, and a steady refrain of goosey honks as attendees cleared their tear-streaming noses. Robbie Collin (Telegraph)

Kore-eda’s “Like Father, Like Son” is a characteristically low-key but supple treatment of familial bonds, expectations and responsibilities that reverberates with heartrending impact. Maggie Lee (Variety)

With the same restraint and control over plot and the characters that he has always displayed, he leads the story carefully, avoiding unnecessary histrionics and managing to draw out of calm, carefully weighed reactions, much more than other directors would do by unchaining explosions of temper. But all these qualities are partially wasted on a plot that leaves too many issues unsolved. Dan Fainaru (Screen Daily)

A character study of a rare density and undeniable accuracy, not succumbing neither pathos nor the clinical severity, included in a spontaneous narrative, in which each player is shown a disturbing nature. Two hours, LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON leads the viewer to pests territories laughter the most outspoken of the most cathartic tears.  Aurelien Allin (Cinema Teaser)

The reaction of the critic Robbie Collin is what I hoped the film would get. I have yet to review Kore-eda’s films on this blog but I have watched quite a few of them and I feel that each of them has been a carefully crafted drama with so much emotional resonance and humanity that it means so much. They have certainly evoked emotional reactions from me.  Perhaps I’m much more sentimental than I’d like to admit but from the early reviews from critics I’m sure I would have been in floods of tears from another great drama. This one looks exactly like tear fuel to me as the trailer reveals.

Well Like Father Like Son didn’t win the Palme d’Or but it did win the Jury Prize! The success of a Japanese film at Cannes makes me happy especially when it’s by Kore-eda. This gets a release later in the year in Japan and with its subject matter and the critical reaction at Cannes it should do well and hopefully get released in the UK soon.

Congratulations go out to Hirokazu Kore-eda.

I would like to thank Bonjour Tristesse for doing a great job covering all of the films at the festival! I only focus on Japanese ones and so getting a round-up of what the rest of the world is doing is really great. Check out his full list of winners!

This year marks the centenary of the founding of Nikkatsu Studio and because of this a lot of their old titles are getting restored and re-released. The BFI are joining in with the celebrations by screening a selection of works that came out of Nikkatsu Studio in the 50’s and 60’s with titles from important Japanese directors like Yuzo Kawashima, Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki. The season runs from June 01st to June 30th at the BFI Southbank.

What this season looks good at doing is revealing the grittier edge of post-war Japanese cinema, the changes in sexual politics and just what the taiyozoku (sun tribe) strand of films was like with their focus on nihilistic affluent youth. A lot of the stories are adapted from the books of Shintaro Ishihara, the man who would later become Governor of Tokyo. As far as the actors go well there are some familiar names like Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) and Jo Shishido (A Colt is My Passport) but most are unknown to me.

Here is the selection and the dates and info taken from the site (only a few comments from me edited in). Click on the titles for more information and to order tickets:

Seasons in the Sun: The Heyday of Nikkatsu Studios

Season Introduction: Seasons in the Sun: The Heyday of Nikkatsu Studios

June 03^rd, 6:15 PM

Film critic Jaspar Sharp (author of Behind the Pink Curtain and The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema) is the season curator for the season and he will provide a talk on the films guiding the audience through some of the films that best exemplify the studios output throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Suzuki Paradise: Red Signal

June 01^st, 6:20 PM, June 07^th, 8:50 PM

Director: Yuzo Kawashima, Starring: Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuya Mihashi, Yukiko Todoroki
Running Time: 81 mins

Director Yuzo Kawashima’s reputation is in the middle of a revival at the moment, starting with a retrospective of his films at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival and continuing with reissues of his titles like Bakumatsu Taiyo-den (courtesy of Masters of Cinema). This was one of the films screened at Berlin.

A newlywed couple drawn to the bright lights of Tokyo find their relationship in jeopardy when the pretty young wife Tsutae sees an easy escape route from poverty in the neighbouring red-light district.

Season of the Sun

June 01^st, 8:30 PM

Director: Takumi Furukawa, Starring: Hiroyuki Nagato, Ko Mishima, Yoko Minamida
Running Time: 89 mins

This is considered a pivotal work in Japanese cinema. Its story is one of love across the social divide and would kick start a popular and also kick start the career of Yujiro Ishihara the younger brother of Shintaro Ishihara, as a massively popular actor.

Man Who Causes a Storm (aka Stormy Man / A Man Called Storm)

June 02^nd, 8:30 PM / June 13^th 6:10 PM

Director: Umetsugu Inoue, Starring: Yujiro Ishihara, Kyoji Aoyama, Mie Kitahara
Running Time: 101 mins

A film about a violent young man named Shoichi who aspires to be a jazz drummer but really desires the approval of his mother who hates music. He works his way up in Ginza clubs and gets involved in the criminal underworld.

Crimson Wings

June 03^rd, 8:30 PM / June 08^th 3:50 PM
Director: Ko Nakahira, Starring: Yujiro Ishihara, Emiko Azuma, Hideaki Nitani
Running Time: 93 mins

A pilot is on a mercy mission to transport an urgently-needed tetanus serum to the remote island of Hachijo-jima to save a young boy, but little does he realise that his Cessna harbours a dangerous stowaway.

The Woman from the Sea (aka The Woman Who Came from the Bottom of the Sea)

June 08^th, 6:10 PM / June 10^th 8:50 PM
Director: Koreyoshi Kurahara, Starring: Tamiyo Kawachi, Sadao Mizutani, Hisako Tsukuba
Running Time: 76 mins

For this tale of a yacht-loving youth who discovers a mysterious woman adrift in the sea, Ishihara adapts his own novella Shark Woman and adds a supernatural element to the usual sun, sea and swimsuits antics of his taiyozoku tales.

Pigs and Battleships

June 08^th, 8:30 PM / June 10^th 8:45 PM
Director: Shohei Imamura, Starring: Hiroyuki Nagato, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Tetsuro Tamba
Running Time: 108 mins

Pigs and Battleships was the fifth feature by Shohei Imamura, and it takes place in the squalid underworld surrounding the US naval base of Yokosuka, a place populated by ‘pan pan girls’ and black-marketeers involved in illicit pork-meat scams.

I Look Up When I Walk

June 09^th, 3:50 PM / June 13^th 8:30 PM
Director: Toshio Masuda, Starring: Kyu Sakamoto, Hideki Takahashi, Mitsuo Hamada
Running Time: 91 mins

‘Sukiyaki’ is a hearty hotpot containing a variety of foreign and Japanese ingredients and it is a great title for this multi-genre mishmash symptomatic of Nikkatsu’s mukokuseki (‘borderless’) style, as it follows the paths taken through life by two youths fresh out of detention centre, and is as cheery and optimistic as its title suggests.

Monday Girl (aka Only on Mondays)

June 09^th, 6:00 PM / June 21^st 8:40 PM
Director: Ko Nakahira, Starring: Mariko Kaga, Akira Nakao, Tanie Kitabayashi
Running Time: 93 mins

Nakahira’s bouncy, Nouvelle Vague-inflected portrait of Yuka, a good-time girl in the cosmopolitan port of Yokohama is a film featuring downtrodden yet irrepressible women looking beyond Japanese shores to escape outmoded, restrictive patriarchal structures in the chaos of a rapidly modernising, internationalising world.

Branded to Kill

June 22^nd, 6:00 PM / June 29^th 8:30 PM
Director: Seijun Suzuki, Starring: Jo Shishido, Annu Mari, Koji Nanbara
Running Time: 91 mins

Suzuki’s cult classic, a baroque tale of a hitman on a kill-or-be-killed mission, was branded ‘nonsense’ by Nikkatsu’s president Hori upon its release, and saw its director famously fired from the studio. With its striking Pop Art aesthetic, sultry jazz score and near- surreal parade of action sequences, it has achieved an almost otherworldly patina over the years, with Shishido redefining cool as the anonymous rice-sniffing contract killer who crosses crosshairs with Annu Mari’s ethereal femme fatale.

A Colt Is My Passport

June 23^rd, 8:30 PM / June 28^th 6:10 PM
Director: Takashi Nomura, Starring: Jo Shishido, Jerry Fujio, Chitose Kobayashi
Running Time: 85 mins

This is the stylish tale of a hitman on the run after assassinating a powerful yakuza boss.

Retaliation

June 24^th, 8:50 PM / June 26^th 6:20 PM
Director: Yasuharu Hasebe, Starring: Akira Kobayashi, Jo Shishido, Hideaki Nitani, Meiko Kaji
Running Time: 95 mins

Gritty tale of internecine gang warfare, starring Akira Kobayashi as a yakuza who emerges from jail to find his gang dispersed. Shishido is the rival boss who grants him a second chance, and Kaji the girl caught in the crossfire.

Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter

June 25^th, 6:10 PM / June 30^th 8:50 PM
Director: Yasuharu Hasebe, Starring: Meiko Kaji, Tatsuya Fuji, Rikiya Yasuoka
Running Time: 85 mins

This is the third in the five-episode delinquent girl-gang series that thrust Meiko Kaji to prominence, with its raucous action and radical plot set in the mixed-race demi-monde surrounding a US naval base. The rough sexuality presaged Nikkatsu’s wholesale switch to erotic material the following year, which led to Kaji leaving the studio for more iconic roles as Female Convict Scorpion and Lady Snowblood.

Hataraku Maou-Sama¹                                   

Director: Naoto Hosoda, Series Composition: Masahiro Yokotani

Voice Actors: Ryota Ohsaka, Kanae Itō, Yōko Hikasa, Hiro Shimono, Yuuki Ono, Nao Tōyama,

Studio: White Fox

This First Impression has been a very long time in coming. Indeed, I am up to episode 8 when I should have written this after episode 1 and chucked it out like a regular aniblogger. It’s not because the show is bad. I really, really like it and think it’s bloody funny.

We are in another dimension. One where magic and religion hold sway over the populace, beasts’ stalk the earth and Gods’ reside in the sky. In one corner of this world the Devil King Sadao is the lord of the underworld, he is dread and cruelty incarnate. He has declared war on humanity.

He is close to conquering the continent of Ente Isla.

His four demon generals and their armies of monsters and the undead have stormed across Ente Isla and razed entire villages, putting civilians to the sword and crushing armies raised up against them.

But when all seems lost Hero Emilia unites humanity and with her combined forces she kills three generals and pushes Sadao’s evil minions back to his castle and lays siege to it and battles him. 

On the verge of being beaten by Hero Emilia, Sadao creates a portal to so that he and his last loyal general Ashiya may escape to another world.  

He enters the portal and finds that this other world is in our reality. More specifically modern-day Tokyo.

Furthermore, he has lost his demon form and looks like a human! His first priority might be to gather his strength and plan his next attack on Hero Emilia and Ente Isla but he has lost most of his powers. In this world magic does not exist, science and technology provide the framework for life. Sadao has a human body and all of its attendant needs. He still has vestiges of the old world, his funny language and clothes but he is essentially a nobody.

The police pick Sadao and Ashiya up assuming they are foreigners who are cosplaying and have run into difficulty. They take pity on them and give them a meal. But Sadao is not impressed. Using what’s left of his magic he discovers the lay of the land, where he is, the language spoken and what he needs to survive: Tokyo, Japanese, money and a bank account, ID cards and a place to stay.

Things start off well as he steals money and forges documents (how evil!) but his Devil King skillset pretty much revolves around “Conquering the World” which is mostly useless in his new situation and so he is forced to take up a temporary part-time job at MgRonald’s serving burgers and fries to puny mortals who would have trembled in his presence in his previous life. Yes, all thoughts of taking his revenge on hero Emilia are brushed aside in this new and terrifying world where he and his servant Ashiya must fend for themselves.

Going from conquering the world to working as a freeter to pay the rent must be humiliating! Not for Sadao who quickly adapts.

He has goals but they revolve around becoming the best employee possible and being made permanent at his McGronalds. Living in poor conditions on the edge of poverty he soon forgets about his former life and focusses on his work because nobody else is going to pay the bills. 

He keeps putting off his original goal of world domination as his present concerns take priority such as making sure the chips are fried but then out of nowhere Hero Emilia appears outside MgRonalds and swears vengeance. Only she doesn’t have her armour and isn’t carrying her sword, she is dressed in a yellow short-sleeved top and jeans and carrying a handbag. She is armed, though! Unfortunately it’s a cheap ¥100 knife. She too has been stripped of her powers in this new world and forced to take up work that is beneath her.

Unlike Sadao she still keeps her grudges and keeps threatening to destroy him but in this new world and in their new and reduced forms her threats sound bizarre. When the two bring up their past lives they really sound demented and they both know it. 

Soon they begrudgingly work together, buying lunch and providing shelter for each other. It turns out they both sort of like living in Japan. In this new life they are treated not as oddities but as friends and coworkers and while they do miss their past lives the travails of their present situation and the nice parts (katsudon! A promotion at work!) are of much more concern and their former identities drift away.

This alliance grows deeper as more characters from Ente Isla show up bringing back the politics and violence from their old world. Some have powers, some don’t. All are amazed at this new world and forced to act differently and reassess their place in the world they come from and the one they are in.

Like I said in my 2013 Spring Season Picks, while the fish-out-of-water concept is not totally original it has great potential for comedy if the writing is sharp enough. To wit, fantasy heroes and villains reduced to working dead end jobs and secretly boiling away with ideas and magic that they keep hidden lest they come across as crazy and frighten normal people around them.

The anime does make great comedy out of it because the characters are likeable and their journeys have an original slant.

The contrast between what Sadao, Ashiya and Hero Emilia were in the past and what they are in their present circumstances is well done.

The first ten minutes of episode one is all Final Fantasy and serious before Sadao steps through the portal to Tokyo. Then the anime gains a whole new character which is where the comedy comes in as we witness stock fantasy characters – honourable hero, evil devil lord – reduced to nobodies and living on the minimum wage, trying to acclimatise to life in our reality and be normal. It turns into a comedy of miscommunication and stumbling through interactions with regular people.

Demon lord Sadao must work a regular job at a McGronalds but he quite likes it and his loyal general Ashiya takes the role of a housewife while brave hero Emilia works at a call-centre. In a new world and with new identities, their concerns run the range of working hard to get a promotion at work and getting to the food sales at local supermarkets.

Sadao’s joy at being made permanent at McGronalds is actually quite familiar to anyone who has had to work part-time and it is made all the more amusing when you consider at one point was a mass-murdering demon overlord who wanted to conquer the world.

The key thing is definitely the characters who are all very likeable and do have a degree of originality. It is fun watching Sadao go from pure evil to quite a nice guy who enjoys his job and is popular with his workmates. Even more fun comes with watching Emilia struggle with the fact that Sadao is adapting well to the new world while she is struggling to control herself around her mortal enemy who she remains suspicious of.

The reality of their wage slave existence undercuts any grandstanding speeches and potential action scenes so characters go from sublime to the ridiculous in an example of bathos. Emilia finds that striding down a set of stairs in high heels and having to fit demon hunting work around your regular 9 to 5 is tough especially when armed with a cheap knife and not your demon killing sword!

Magical battles start around episode six but the writers maintain the dichotomy between fantasy and reality with new characters showing up from Ente Isla which allows the anime to poke fun at their wonderment of modern conveniences like computers and flat-screen televisions and their bafflement over how their magic powers and weird costumes don’t fit in with the reality of the new dimension.

The best aspects of the anime, aside from the smart redressing of the familiar premise is the sharp dialogue and presentation. The animation at the opening of episode one is very fluid and colourful and it maintains this quality for the most part. The epic fantasy battles that were so well animated they sent shivers up and down my spine. The locations, whether fantastical or normal are all very detailed and enjoyable to look at.

For all the colour and whizzing around I really like character design most because of the wonderful array of faces detailing the frustration and anger.

Thanks to the designs I never get tired of watching Emilia!

While the dialogue of the characters are not as insightful or as incisive as Hikki and Yukino in My Youth Rom-Com they are still amusing to listen to. We know their real identities and magical abilities but others don’t and so any talk about being heroes and demons comes off as sounding like the ramblings of demented people.

Overall the anime has maintained its high quality and is consistently funny. I genuinely look forward to each new episode. Not as much as Attack on Titan or Aku no Hana which are God-tier but enough to know I will be entertained.

As far as the theme tunes go, I like the opening one especially which has become my new theme tune.

Not so fond of the end theme though.

¹The title Hataraku Maou-Sama is known as The Devil is a Part Timer but my literal translation is Demon Lord at Work since hataraku is the verb for ‘to work’ and arubaito means ‘part-time job’.

The week started with the announcement of Hirokazu Koreeda’s win of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his latest film Like Father Like Son. I followed that with news on the BFI Nikkatsu Season and then my take on the very amusing fantasy/comedy anime Hataraku Maou-Sama and I’m writing up my thoughts on Red Data Girl. In terms of films I watched 2LDK and that was it. I really need to review it but finding time is tough. Tonight I am going to watch Kuroneko and tomorrow I will try and watch something else… I can’t decide what but it will probably be anime. Ah, this time next week I’ll be in London watching Japanese films on the big screen at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival! Awesome!

Before we get into the trailers, here’s an image from Takashi Shimizu’s Live Action Kiki’s Delivery Service:

16-year-old Fūka Koshiba stars as the magical good-natured witch Kiki. This story is based on the book and has no connection to the Ghibli anime according to Anime News Network. The film is directed by horror veteran Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On The Curse 1 & 2) and written by Satoko Okudera (The Wolf Children).

The trailers stretch across May and June with Makoto Shinkai’s latest films getting its release on May 31^st and a bunch of live-action titles going on June 01^st.

The Garden of Words                               

Japanese Title: 言の葉の庭 

Romaji: Kotonoha no Niwa

Release Date: May 31^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 46 mins

Director: Makoto Shinkai

Writer: Makoto Shinkai

Starring: Kana Hanazawa (Yukino), Miyu Irino (Takao)

Makoto Shinkai’s latest film was released yesterday. The anime looks and sounds stunning. The depiction of the world, the rain and the plants, and the highlighting of natural sounds stand out. It looks very immersive. A five minute promo was released quite recently and so here is the trailer and the promo.

“We met, for each of us to walk forward.

Takao is a 15-year-old boy with dreams of becoming a professional shoe designer and was skipping high school, sketching shoes in a Japanese garden when he encounters a mysterious older woman named Yukino who is 27. Without arranging it they end up meeting again and again, but only on rainy days, deepening their relationship and opening up to each other. But the end of the rainy season soon approaches…

The Gaze of Another                               

Japanese Title: だれかのまなざし

Romaji: Dare ka no Manazashi

Release Date: May 31^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 7 mins

Director: Makoto Shinkai

Writer: Makoto Shinkai

Starring: Aya Hirano (Katari),  Satomi Hanamura (Aya Okamura), Shinji OGawa

This short was produced for a home living exposition that took place at the Tokyo International Forums in February. The themes are “the future” and “family ties” and we watch the story of the growth of a family from the point of view of the cat. Seiyuu involved include Satomi Hanamura (Kanae in 5 Centimetres Per Second), Aya Hirano (Kana in Nura Rise of the Yokai Clan) and Shinji Ogawa (Suguru in Roujin Z and Fukushima in Patlabor: The Movie).

June Trailers:

Real                                                                                 

Japanese Title: リアル　完全なる首長　竜の日

Romaji: Riaru Kanzen’naru Shuchou Ryuu no Hi

Release Date: June 01^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 127 mins.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Screenplay), Rokuro Inui (Original Novel)

Starring: Takeru Sato, Haruka Ayase, Jo Odagiri, Miki Nakatani, Shota Sometani, Keisuke Horibe, Kyoko Koizumi, Keisuke Horibe, Yuki Kan

OH MY GOD! IT’S FINALLY HERE.

After my embarrassingly enthusiasm was displayed in a rambling preview I can finally take in the reviews of the films and see if it lives up to y lofty expectations. This is Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest film. After helming TV dorama Penance he has gone on to make this big-budget sci-fi thriller. The film is based on the 2011 novel Riaru Kanzen’naru Shuchou Ryuu no Hi, written by Rokuro Inui and it stars a mixture of new and familiar actors like Shota Sometani (Himizu), Haruka Ayase (Ichi), Miki Nakatani (Loft, Zero Focus), Joe Odagiri (Adrift in Tokyo, Mushishi, Retribution and Bright Future) and Kyoko Koizumi, (Survive Style 5+).

Koichi (Sato) and Atsumi (Ayase) are childhood friends who have become lovers. Despite this closeness when Atsumi attempts suicide Koichi is at a loss as to what the reason that drove her to do such a thing could be. Now she is in a coma and Koichi needs to find out the reason. Since Koichi is a neurosurgeon he has access to the latest studies and so he takes part in a medical procedure that will allow him to enter Atsumi’s subconscious through her central nervous system.

When he arrives she asks him to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew as a child. It is the key to a suppressed memory connected to a childhood trauma. Finding this picture will allow Koichi to truly get close to knowing his love.

Road of the Beginning (Literal Title) / Kinoshita Keisuke Story (Working Title)                                                                 

Japanese Title: はじまり　の　みち    

Romaji: Hajimari no Michi

Release Date: June 01^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Keiichi Hara

Writer: Keiichi Hara (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryo Kase, Yuko Tanaka, Aoi Miyazaki, Gaku Hamada, Ren Osugi, Mari Hamada, Yusuke Santamaria, Ken Mitsuishi Shigeru Saiki, Itsuki Sagara, Mayu Matsuoka, Shoko Fujimura

This film is made to commemorate the 100^th year anniversary of Keisuke Kinoshita’s birth and it follows his early life from his days as a lively youth to his entry into Shochiku movie studio. The trailer is pretty earnest and some of the themes seem to be the loyalty of a son to his mother and the mother’s belief in him. Wipe away the tears and you will see that footage from Kinoshita’s films has been interwoven into the new film. Aoi Miyazaki leading those children along the riverbank  is a clear nod to Twenty-Four Eyes.

Keisuke Kinoshita was a contemporary of Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi and yet he is pretty unknown to a lot of cinephiles in the west. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration because his films Twenty-Four Eyes and The Ballad of Narayama are available in the west and pretty famous but a lot of his other titles are only now getting screened at recent film festivals like Berlin and Venice. To be quite frank his work is unknown to me but from  writing up about him I can see how he is important since a lot of those titles sound different to the films of Ozu, presenting interesting new stories that must have challenged the views of audiences of the time. Wikipedia makes him sound like he has an interesting visual style as well:

He refused to be bound by genre, technique or dogma. He excelled in almost every genre, comedy, tragedy, social dramas, period films. He shot all films on location or in a one-house set. He pursued severe photographic realism with the long take, long-shot method, and he has gone equally far toward stylization with fast cutting, intricate wipes, tilted cameras and even medieval scroll-painting and Kabuki stage technique.

Well the cast involved are suitably skilled with Ryo Kase (Outrage) taking the role of the director, Yuko Tanaka (The Milkwoman) playing his mother. Other actors include Gaku Hamada (Foreign Duck, Potechi), Aoi Miyazaki (The Great Passage), Ken Mitsuishi (Noriko’s Dinner Table), Itsuki Sagara (Goodybye Debussy), Mayu Matsuoka (The Kirishima Thing) and Ren Osugi (Exte).

It is directed and written by Keiichi Hara who has a background in anime and helmed the film Colorful.

Dogs and Cats and Humans Earthquake of Animals 2          

Japanese Title: 犬と猫と人間と2 動物たちの大震災

Romaji: Inu to Neko to Ningen to 2 Doubutsu-tachi no Daishinai

Release Date: June 01^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 104 mins.

Director: Daiyu Shishido

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Prepare to cry. This documentary depicts the stories of cats and dogs and their owners who were all affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. We watch the fortunes of a family of stray cats, dog owners who lost their pets during the tsunami, the hardships of farmers and their livestock in the Fukushima area. It’s not all grim though because pets and owners are reunited.

Two Years of Cancer and Yoko Enjoys Life,          

Japanese Title: いのち　を　楽しむ　容子　戸がん　2 年間

Romaji: Inochi o Tanoshimu Yoko to Gan no 2-nenkan

Release Date: June 01^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: Akira Matsubara, Yumi Sasaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Awful translation work again because there’s nothing enjoyable about something like cancer but that does appear to be the title.

Inochi wo Tanoshimu = I enjoy life

Yoko to Gan no 2-nenkan = Yoko and 2 Years of Cancer

The documentary follows Yoko Watanabe who was diagnosed with breast cancer at te age of 40 and died at the age of 58. More specifically it catches the last two years of her life where she went without taking any form of surgery or medication and just had the support of her doctor, family and friends.

Kankin Tantei                         

Japanese Title: 監禁探偵

Romaji: Kankin Tantei

Release Date: June 01^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Takuro Oikawa

Writer: Takuro Oikawa (Screenplay), Takemaru Abiko (Manga)

Starring: Takahiro Miura, Natsuna Watanabe, Shoko Tsuda, Masahiro Komoto 

Kankin Tantei = Confinement detective. Confinement and detective work? Sounds sexy. Or problematic. Being confined would be problematic. Not that I would complain if it involved Natsuna Watanabe… Anyway, moving on before I embarrass myself further… Takuro Oikawa, director of suspense thriller Shuffle is on hand to make this locked room mystery come to life. The premise is intriguing and the trailer is promising and it stars two fine young actors in the form of Takahiro Miura (Cold Bloom, Ninja Kids!!!) and Natsuna Watanabe (Gantz).

A woman has been stabbed to death  in an apartment and all clues point to Ryota (Miura). He is suspected to be the killer by Akane (Watanbe) who just happened to be at the murder scene but Ryota claims he is innocent and imprisons her so he can think about what happened and prove his innocence. Definitely the actions of an innocent man! Akane offers to help him.

AKIKO Portrait of a Dancer by AKIKO,                               

Japanese Title: してAKIKOは… AKIKO あるダンサーの肖像

Romaji: Shite AKIKO wa… AKIKO ARU DANSA- no Shouzou

Release Date: June 01^st, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Suiko Haneda

Writer: N/A

Starring: Akiko Kanda

Akiko Kanda was a major award winning figure in the modern dance movement in Japan at her death due to cancer at the age of 75 in September 2011. She had a film made about her in 1985 when she was in her 40’s and this is the follow-up made when she was in her 70’s. We see her hospitalised after a dance recital in 2010 and her recovery and attempt at dancing again.

Red Data Girl        

Director: Toshiya Shinohara, Series Composition: Michiko Yokote

Voice Actors: Saori Hayami, Kouki Uchiyama, Jun Fukuyama, Kaito Ishikawa, Rie Kugimiya, Akira Ishida, Kazuhiko Inoue

Studio: P.A. Works

My last First Impression for Spring 2013 post rambles on about my one supernatural mystery anime of the season which is based on a series of light novels by Noriko Ogiwara. I reported about this for AUKN over Christmas in 2011 and was rather intrigued by the use of Shinto mythology.

The story starts at Tamakura shrine deep in the Kumano Mountains. It is a sacred and beautiful place and a World Heritage site in real life.

Who resides at this peaceful place? Izumiko Suzuhara, a 15-year-old girl who has been raised at the shrine for nearly all of her life.

Her father works in America while her mother, who she has not seen in many years, is somewhere in Tokyo. She is under the care of her grandparents who work at the shrine, and her guardian Yukimasa Sagara, a man who is close to her mother. Izumiko is something of an oddity at school due to the sheltered nature of her life which has left her behind modern styles and technology. She is also the focal point of spiritual energy.

She is on the verge of a momentous change since she will be leaving her small town to attend Houjou Academy in Tokyo, a place where students from all over Japan and the world at large with supernatural abilities have gathered so they can be tested for their powers and then whittled down so that the person with the greatest power can be given special privileges.

What supernatural ability does Izumiko have?

Like her mother, she is a shrine maiden who has the ability to be the spirit vessel for an ancient goddess with great power.

 Her guardian Yukimasa Sagara has placed his son Miyuki as her servant.

Miyuki is not too happy about this. Miyuki hates his father and doesn’t want to listen to his orders. He isn’t too fond of Izumiko who he views as too weak.

However during a supernatural encounter on a school trip a mysterious entity known as a Himegami reveals to Miyuki the true potential of Izumiko. She will be the last representative (yorishiro) of the Himegami goddess and he will be a guardian (yamabushi).

Because of this shared fate and the importance Izumiko now has the two become close and so they stick together as they meet the new students at Houjou Academy, some of whom are determined to come top of class and get the privileges given to those with the most power.

In a season full of action, drama, and comedy I was hoping for something different, something along the lines of Another, a series that took its time and allowed me to indulge in watching some world building. Red Data Girl is definitely similar because it is a slow-burn tale placing the supernatural in a realistic arena. Six episodes in and there is a mounting supernatural atmosphere with a central mystery that is slowly unravelling. Nothing I find scary, just sinister and it is thanks to the anime being atmospheric and its use of Shinto Mythology which means that it has some new, unfamiliar ground where everything is a surprise.

We come into this situation in media res. Much like Izumiko, we are thrust into a new world of goddesses and spirits and we gradually learn about her circumstances, why she was kept isolated, who everybody is in relation to her and different aspects of Shinto mythology.

Izumiko is, at first, a rather wet protagonist to follow. She is softly-spoken, prone to crying whenever anybody or anything challenges her and despite flashes of rebelliousness she is mostly docile. It is very believable for someone isolated from society to react in such ways but making someone so passive engaging for an audience is a hard thing to pull off. Thankfully the voice acting and her character design makes her sympathetic.

Izumiko is voiced by Saori Hayami who has a beautiful voice which radiates innocence but when the Himegami possesses Izumiko it takes on a harder edge. Izumiko’s character design also suggests innocence. I mean, who could hate a girl with glasses and a face that reveals her emotions so easily, especially when those emotions show how uncertain she is?

Anyway when the narrative finally gets going at the end of episode 3 it is clear that the wider world Izumiko exists in and the characters she engages with show that Izumiko has a lot of scope to grow. The fact that a Goddess deems her worthy to possess and there are other students at Houjou Academy who can summon spirits and golems means that supernatural situations will increase. I don’t expect explosions peppering town and energy blasts tossed around like confetti (leave that to shounen battle anime like Blue Exorcist) but I do expect more intrigue and intelligence. Okay, I do expect some fighting. Tengu have made an appearance! Anyway part of the reason I expect that is the supporting cast.

There are a lot of characters and they are interesting enough that, even when Izumiko doesn’t catch and hold our attention, they will. Miyuki is chief among them. He’s the angry young-man of the show.

Although he seems set up to be Izumiko’s love-interest he burns with hostility for her due to her meekness and was quite a bully when they first met as children. When I first saw him in action I felt that he verbalised the audience’s feelings for Izumiko’s passivity.

His journey into taking responsibility for Izumiko’s protection is believablly done and not contrived. It is a hard journey that has seen him have to reconstruct his identity after coming to terms with his weakness and her strength and he has resisted all the way but he has come to something of a begrudging acceptance.

Actually I quite like the chemistry between the two which makes the anime fun to watch. There are moments when his callousness emerges and he and Izumiko seem like an unhappily married couple arguing and doing their best to ignore each other lest they end up trying to kill each other.

The characterisation is sharp in this regard. The behaviour physical differences between the two are stark. She is physically small, runs out of breath easily and she shivers whenever danger approaches while he is taller and stouter and faces trouble. When the two are united, all sorts of emotions are released. Deep down his feelings are in flux and he is protective of her.

You know they are going to be together in the end, it just has to happen. As one character points out “in times gone by mountain monks and shrine maidens would marry”. Gosh, I feel like a girl writing something like that… Something violent is needed for balance…

Thank you Mikasa from Attack on Titan… Anyway… 

The presentation is very good. The backgrounds and settings create a great atmosphere. The tale is spun out around real world locations in different parts of Japan so there is are urban and countryside locations and they are very pretty, colourful and highly detailed. Take a look at these shots.

There is one problem. Using a slow pace for the full tale to be revealed is great if there are 24 episodes but there aren’t. There are 12 and the narrative shuffles along introducing many plot points and characters which means that a satisfying narrative resolution is going to be difficult to accomplish without a sequel. That written, I’m still watching it because I like Izumiko and the visuals. I find that it is a very easy anime to watch and while I do have misgivings about its length I am fully committed to watching it all the way to the end.

There. Done. Ramble over. Back to Japanese film reviews next week. Here’s the OP and ED. The opening theme is rather dull but I do like the end one.

Atsushi Funahashi is a name that is cropping up more and more on this blog. He first came to prominence with his 3.11 documentary Nuclear Nation which premiered at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival. He came up again with this year’s Berlin International Film Festival with his latest film Cold Bloom which looks to be a great drama which also uses the 3.11 disaster as a background. Indeed, it is one of the films released earlier this year that I wish to watch most.

Well I’ve got great news for cinephiles interested in Japanese films courtesy of the Japan Foundation UK because Atsushi Funahashi will be in London at the end of the month with his to give a talk!

Here are the details:

Atsushi Funahashi is one of Japan’s celebrated up-and-coming filmmaking talents emerging on the global stage. Having started making films in the United States, Funahashi’s Office Kitano produced film Big River (2005) was his first of four consecutive films selected for the Berlin International Film Festival, and his career has developed steadily since. Following the disaster of 11 March 2011, Funahashi made the bold decision to explore the sensitive subject through documentary in his Nuclear Nation (Futaba kara toku hanarete, 2012), and his Mikio Naruse inspired humanist drama Cold Bloom (Sakura namiki no mankai no shita ni, 2013), a feature film which was originally planned to begin production weeks before 3.11, but altered its course due to the unprecedented incident.

Prior to the screening of Nuclear Nation as part of the Open City Docs Fest, Funahashi will talk about his filmmaking career to date reflecting on his dual experience as a competent storyteller and a documenter, as well as working in a different country. Considering what the driving force is behind his films, Funahashi will also discuss what he is aiming to achieve and more recently his intention in pursuing the subject of the Tohoku earthquake through his films.

The event offers a rare opportunity to hear from a versatile director with a global perspective, whose future career will be worth watching out for.

This event is free but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please contact event@jpf.org.uk with your name, details and those of any guests.

Another Japanese film No Man’s Zone by Toshi Fujiwara will also screen at the documentary festival.

Big news has just been released from the fine folks running the Terracotta Far East Film Festival in the form of the guests who will show up and who won the short film competition and the trip to Hong Kong. Plus there’s a trailer for the festival itself.

Here’s the trailer and the information on who is attending:

FILMMAKERS AND HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 5^th ANNUAL TERRACOTTA FAR EAST FILM FESTIVAL

With 2 days to go to the Opening Night, it’s time to reveal the guests of the 5^th annual Terracotta Far East Film Festival and the Festival organisers are delighted to make a series of other announcements.

Highlights of this edition are the guest talent from Asia who will be attending the festival, the talent Masterclasses, the winner of the inaugural Terracotta Short-Film Competition, unveiling of the Official Trailer and the festival parties.

Hong Kong director Gilitte Leung joins the festival to introduce her independently produced film, LOVE ME NOT. Gilitte is also a guest jury member for the Short-Film Competition.

South Korean Director Ryoo Seung-wan, the master of action films such as THE CITY OF VIOLENCE, will be here to present the UK Premiere of his latest blockbuster, THE BERLIN FILE.

Week two of the festival sees Indonesian directors Ifa Isfansyah and Edwin at the festival for THE DANCER and POSTCARDS FROM THE ZOO respectively.

Gilitte Leung will hold a Masterclass at 11.30am on Friday 7 June; Ryoo Seung-wan’s Masterclass will be held at 11am Saturday 8 June. The free Masterclasses will take place at the upstairs screen of the Prince Charles Cinema and are open to all Terracotta Festival ticket holders, with priority entry for Festival Pass holders.

The winner of the Terracotta Short-Film Competition is Marcos Villaseñor with his fast-paced thriller entry PHONE BOX. The three minute short will have its World Premiere screening at the Opening Night of Terracotta Festival where the prize of a trip to Hong Kong will be presented. The prize includes flight and accommodation courtesy of the competition sponsors Cathay Pacific Airways and The Mira Hong Kong. The competition judges were impressed by the standard of entries.

The Terracotta Festival homepage now features the Official Trailer for Terracotta Festival 2013, created by Design Agency Sponsors of the festival, What is Bobo.

Last but not least, Terracotta Festival has also expanded the number of party and receptions.

There will be an East Street Party, Saturday 8 June 11pm – 1.30am (East Street, Rathbone Place) which is open to all Terracotta Festival ticket holders. Drinks and food can be purchased till 1am.

Japan Underground and Terracotta Festival team up to bring a Japan Night Party from 7pm Monday 10 June at The Pipeline, Middlesex street. Featuring four live Japanese music acts, tickets can be purchased via the Terracotta Festival website.

Ticket holders for any of the SPOTLIGHT ON: Indonesia films are invited to an Indonesian Reception at the Indonesian Embassy, Grosvenor Square at 6pm Tuesday 11 June (striclty reserved to ticket holders)

I did not cover the Edinburgh Film Festival last year and that turned out to be a major mistake because there were a lot of Japanese films shown. Well this year I’m ahead of the game and here is a post previewing Japanese films and films involving Japan at the Edinburgh Film Festival 2013. Tickets went on sale at the beginning of the week so take a gander at the titles.

The Complex                              

Japanese Title: クロユリ　団地

Romaji: Kuroyuri Danchi

Running Time: 106 mins.

Venue: Cineworld,

Screening Date: June 22^nd, 21:45 (Cineworld 5), June 25^th, 20:40 (Cineworld 11)

Director: Hideo Nakata

Writer: Hideo Nakata, Junya Kato, Ryuta Miyake (Screenplay)

Starring: Atsuka Maeda, Hiroki Narimiya, Masanobu Katsumura, Naomi Nishida, Sosei Tanaka, Masaya Takahashi, Satomi Tezuka, Taro Suwa, Yurei Yanagi, Megumi Sato, Mayumi Asaka

Hideo Nakata, the director of J-horror classic Ringu and Dark Water returns with another urban supernatural chiller with The Complex which premiered at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival. Reviews suggest this is a return to horror form for the director and the trailer strikes all the right notes for me! It stars the beautiful Atsuka Maeda who is a former member of AKB48 and starred in The Drudgery Train. Hiroki Narimiya, Tooru in Mirror Hell part of Rampo Noir and the titular character in the Phoenix Wright movie Ace Attorney is her male co-star. The supporting cast include Naomi Nishida (Library Wars, Swing Girls) and Megumi Sato (Cyborg She, Exte).

Asuka (Maeda) has moved into the Kuroyuri apartment complex. It is a place with a chequered history as mysterious deaths occurred there 13 years ago. It isn’t long before she starts hearing the sound “garigarigari” from the apartment next door where an old man lives and it isn’t long before he is found dead! This is the start of a series of horrifying events that strike the apartment. Asuka calls upon Sasahara (Narimiya), a man who cleans up the homes of the recently deceased, to help solve the mystery.

Lilou’s Adventure                              

Japanese Title: リルウの冒険

Romaji: Riruu no Bouken

Running Time: 117 mins.

Venue: Cineworld,

Screening Date: June 23^rd, 14:50 (Cineworld 11), June 25^th, 18:10 (Cineworld 05)

Director: Izuru Kumasaka

Writer: Izuru Kumasaka (Screenplay)

Starring: Lilou Diabate, Saera Nakandakari, Lamine Youl Diabate, Lily

This film strikes me as the most interesting at Edinburgh. It is tagged as being a “surrealistic story of two children’s journey across Japan” and while the story comes across as a simple adventure things are complicated by the fact that the main protagonist, the eponymous Lilou, is mixed-race. Not your usual white/Japanese mix but black and Japanese. Amidst the cool Twin Peaks dream sequences scenes of kawaii-Japan, 8-bit videogames and neon lights look to be darker ones where Lilou is challenged by others, perhaps because she is different. If the film explores this aspect of her character then consider me eager to watch it. Enough about my personal interests, here’s the trailer and synopsis.

Lilou is 10-years-old and half Japanese, half Guinean. She lives in Okinawa and has a friend named Kokoro. When Kokoro disappears, Lilou goes on a journey to find her, using clues from a video game.

I Catch a Terrible Cat                       

Japanese Title: こっぴどい　猫

Romaji: Koppidoi Neko

Running Time: 130 mins.

Venue: Cineworld, Filmhouse

Screening Date: June 21^st, 20:20 (Filmhouse 2), June 26^th, 20:15 (Cineworld 11)

Director: Rikiya Imaizumi

Writer: Rikiya Imaizumi (Screenplay)

Starring: Moto Fuyuki, Kazuha Komiya, Haruka Uchimura

Rikiya Imaizumi has been working hard in the indie scene working with the likes of Nobuhiro Yamashita and has won awards for his efforts. His first commercial film was Tama no Eiga (2010), It’s Over Now (2011) and Tuesday Girl (2011) which was part of Nippon Collection 2011. Lead actor Moto Fuyuki is a singer and guitarist. It looks like a well-observed drama/comedy with the emphasis placed on drama from this trailer.

Takada (Moto) is a succesul novelist who is about to turn 60. He has lived a solitary life since his wife passed away and struggles with writer’s block. When Sayo (Komiya), a new hostess at a bar he frequents, shows interest in him, he thinks he mght beat his loneliness. Meanwhile, he reluctantly becomes involved in the love lives of his son and daughter and has a male admirer.

Breathing Earth Susumu Shingu’s Dream       

Running Time: 93 mins.

Venue: Filmhouse, Cineworld,

Screening Date: June 26^th, 18:00 (Filmhouse 1), June 30^th, 12:40 (Cineworld 8)

Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer

Starring: Susumu Shingu, Yasuko Shingu

This is a German film focussing on the artist Susumu Shingu and the story of his move into architecture. It is described as “a moving exploration of creativity, and a remarkably sweet and engaging human being. The artist’s lifelong “dialogue with the wind and with water” is evoked through beautiful, lustrous imagery and the wisdom of a man who has lived a long life with his eyes wide open.” German trailer but you can get a sense of what the film will be like from it, a contemplative documentary where architecture and nature combined to make something beautiful.

Black Box 2: Patterns and Repetitions

Running Time: 83 mins.

Venue: Filmhouse

Screening Date: June 26^th, 21:45 (Filmhouse 3)

This is a programme of short films which represents “a broad approach to the aesthetics of repetition, re-presentation, sequentiality, and the relationship between stillness and motion. Questions of reproduction, remaking, and creative image recycling are at the forefront of many of these films, where various technological interventions turn existing images – photographs, found footage – into meditations on form and structure.”

2012, Makino Takashi/Japan/2012/30 min
Makino Takashi returns to EIFF with another perceptual treat – moving from abstraction to figuration, and from analogue to digital, 2012 tells the story of a year that developed subconsciously.

Black Box 3: Matter and Metamorphosis

Running Time: 82 mins.

Venue: Filmhouse

Screening Date: June 27^th, 18:25 (Filmhouse 3)

In this programme of short films, directors/artists look at the transformational potential of organic matter like earth, water, salt and snow and reveal what is described as “uncanny mystical worlds” where “Ecological concerns combine with meditations on artistic materials…” Where does Japan come into this? The first film which is…

Sou, Tatsuto Kimura/Japan/2012/10 min
Intricate study of rock formations and strata through a series of animated still images revealing the layers and textures of time.

Japan crops up again in a German film named 10 by Telemach Wiesinger. The director took his 16mm camera to cities twined with is German hometown of Freiburg and recorded film in each city. One of those cities is in Japan. A documentary film poem on travel, eh?