Happy weekend, readers!

Well, what’s left of the weekend (at least I published it on the weekend). I have been very busy this week but I did manage to post about the Japanese films programmed for the Glasgow Film Festival and the Rotterdam International Film Festival. I also wrote news reports for those festivals for different websites. I watched two films – nuclear nightmare movie Threads (UK, 1984) and zombie actioner Junk (JP, 1999), I’ve marathoned all available episodes of the anime Boku Dake ga Inai Machi and re-started Shirobako after putting it on a back-burner. I’ve also gone and started listening to ’80s music again. There’s a great crop of films released this weekend with The Actor and Inerasable getting screened

What’s released this weekend?

The Actor   

俳優亀岡拓次「Haiyuu Kameoka Takuji」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 123 mins.

Director: Satoko Yokohama

Writer: Satoko Yokohama (Screenplay), Akito Inui (Original Novel)

Starring: Ken Yasuda, Kumiko Aso, Shohei Uno, Yoshiko Mita, Shota Sometani, Hirofumi Arai, Youki Kudoh,

Website    IMDB

This small character-driven drama was one of the more interesting looking films from last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. It’s directed by Satoko Yokohama and it’s her second feature film after a career of shorts which has taken her to film festivals around the world. The film stars Ken Yasuda who man Japanese will recognise as a character actor with a colourful career but now he is coming into his own as a lead actor. The film has earned good reviews.

Synopsis from the Tokyo International Film Festival: Takuji Kameoka (Ken Yasuda) is a 37-year-old bachelor whose occupation is a “miscellaneous actor”. His only interest is drinking. One day he falls in love with a bar owner (Kumiko Aso) and his boring life begins to change. The film is based on the book “Actor, Takuji Kameoka” by Akito Inui, a five-time nominee for Japan’s most prestigious literary prize, the Akutagawa Prize. Satoko Yokohama, a much-admired up-and-coming newcomer, directs the film and we can immediately tell that she is a special talent, with a unique understanding that flows through to her actors and crew.

The Ark in the Mirage   

蜃気楼の舟「​ Shinkiro no Fune」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 99 mins.

Director: Yasutomo Chikuma

Writer: Yasutomo Chikuma (Screenplay),

Starring: Taiga Komizu, Min Tanaka, Ayako Ono, Tomomitsu Adachi, Aya Takekou, Noboru Mitani, Yota Kawase,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: A man who works at a homeless shelter for old men exploits the people he looks after for their welfare payments. He was abandoned by his father after his mother died and has a cynical attitude but one day, he finds his father among the homeless men.

The Inerasable    

残穢–住んではいけない部屋–「​ Zange – Sunde wa Ikenai Heya」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 107 mins.

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura

Writer: Kenichi Suzuki (Screenplay), Fuyumi Ono (Original Novel)

Starring: Yuko Takeuchi, Ai Hashimoto, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Kentaro Sakaguchi, Kenichi Takito, Erika Shumoto,

Website    IMDB

We get a horror/mystery film from Yoshihiro Nakamura (The Snow White Murder Case) which is based on an award-winning novel. Both the film and novel are told in the first person as the main character investigates a haunted apartment and all the people involved in previous inestigations, deaths and hauntings. Of course, these ghosts are going to get people Ju-On style but how scary will it be?

Synopsis from IMDB: An author of mystery-novels (Yuko Takeuchi) helps a student (Ai Hashimoto) to uncover the tragic story of the people who lived in her apartment before which is filled with anger, hatred, murder and suicide.

Saraba Abunai Deka: Long Goodbye   

さらば あぶない刑事「Saraba Abunai Deka」

Release Date: January 3^0th, 2016

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Toru Murakawa

Writer: Hiroshi Kashiwabara (Screenplay)

Starring: Hiroshi Tachi, Kyohei Shibata, Atsuko Asano, Toru Nakamura, Koji Kikkawa, Nanao, Bengal,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: It took ten years but this is the first entry in a franchise that has been running since it’s 1986 TV dorama inception. The story concerns Toshiki Takayama (Hiroshi Tachi) and Yuji Oshita (Kyohei Shibata) who are two veteran cops called into action when the yakuza and a crime group from the Americas show their faces in the city of Yokohama.

DOCUMENTARY of HKT48 The Night Theatre manager Ozaki Cried   

尾崎支配人が泣いた夜 DOCUMENTARY of HKT48「Ozaki Shihainin ga Naita Yoru DOCUMENTARY of HKT48」

Release Date: January 29^th, 2016

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Rino Sashihara

Writer: N/A

Starring: Rino Sashihara and te rest of HKT48

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: Documentary of HKT48 is the first HKT48 documentary and it is directed by HKT48 member Rino Sashihara (alongside an industry veteran). The girls are based in Hakata, Fukuoka prefecture and we get to see what goes on in the background of the group.

DOCUMENTARY of NMB48    

道頓堀よ、泣かせてくれ！DOCUMENTARY of NMB48「LOVE! LOVE! SING! Ikite itoshite utau koto gekijouban」

Release Date: January 29^th, 2016

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Atsushi Funahashi

Writer: N/A

Starring: NMB48 Girls

Website    IMDB

Idols, idols, idols, blah, blah… wait. The director is ATSUSHI FUNAHASHI? He who has directed films about the fallout from Fukushima like Cold Bloom and Nuclear Nation? And for all my complaints about idols, the lovely Sayaka Yamamoto is in this and when I’ve seen her on game shows I’ve always found her to have a cool personality and she’s a good singer from what I can remember.

Synopsis: NMB48 is based in Namba, Osaka and it has been five years since their debut at Osaka Castle Hall. We see the struggles, efforts, and successes of the girls as the film trawls through photos and interviews from the inception of NMB48 to their latest developments as one of the most popular sister groups of AKB48.

The Lover of My Ex   

別れた女房の恋人「Wakareta nyobo no koibito」

Release Date: January 28^th, 2016

Running Time: 86 mins.

Director: Satoshi Kaneda

Writer: Shuji Kataoka (Screenplay),

Starring: Junko Maru, Hidemasa Shiozawa, Junichi Haruta, Ayaka Tomoda,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: Naomi (Junko Maru) is a middle-aged divorcee who is torn between getting back together with her ex-husband and a young man named Sota (Hidemasa Shiozawa).

Neko nanka yondemo konai   

猫なんかよんでもこない。「Neko nanka yondemo konai」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Toru Yamamoto

Writer: Toru Yamamoto, Tamio Hayashi (Screenplay), Sugisaku (Original Manga)

Starring: Shunsuke Kazama, Mayu Matsuoka, Takeshi Tsuruno, Junko Uchida,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis from Dorama World: The film which is based on the same-titled manga by Sugisaku and had sold more than 270,000 copies to date, describes how a boxer Mitsuo (Kazama) faces the biggest crisis of his career as he has to retire if he loses his next match. At this point in time, Mitsuo’s elder brother picks up two cats from the streets thus resulting in Mitsuo, a dog lover, having to live with them and through his interaction with the cats, take a fresh look at his life.

Soshiki togo   

民暴「Soshiki togo」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Ryo Chris Kaihara

Writer: Ryo Chris Kaihara, Naoyuki Tomomatsu (Screenplay),

Starring: Hoka Kinoshita, Saaya, Hakuryu, Takashi Nishina, Izam, Honkon, Tadashi Naruse,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: when a bunch of yakuza face being evicted from their headquarters by local residents they take their frustration out on one particular target, a worker for cit hall. He is soon shown the corruption in local government and a violent history is revealed.

The Cross    

十字架「Juujika」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 122 mins.

Director: Sho Igarashi

Writer: Sho Igarashi (Screenplay), Kiyoshi Shigematsu (Original Novel)

Starring: Keisuke Koide, Fumino Kimura, Yasuko Tomita, Masatoshi Nagase. Ryota Koshiba, Ayumi Orii,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: Shunsuke Fujii was a middle school student who committed suicide due to being bullied. He left a letter behind that revealed that his classmate Yu Sanada (Keisuke Koide) was a friend and Sayuri Nakagawa (Fumino Kimura) was a girl he had a crush on. Shunsuke’s suicide has destroyed his parents. Shunsuke’s mother (Yasuko Tomita) and father (Masatoshi Nagase) cannot forgive Shunsuke’s classmates and they have spent 20 years of their life carrying their own cross since Shunsuke Fujii’s death…

Behind ‘The Cove’   

ビハインド・ザ・コーヴ　捕鯨問題の謎に迫る「Bihaindo za ko-bu hogeimondai no nazo ni semaru」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 107 mins.

Director: Keiko Yagi

Writer: Keiko Yagi (Screenplay),

Starring: Keiko Yagi, David Hance, Joji Morishita, Richard O’Barry, Katsunori Horihata, Louis Psihoyos,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: Director Keiko Yagi may be an amateur director but the subject of whaling and the controversy that surrounds it has inspired her to make this documentary to explore the topic.

Kaze no tayori   

風のたより「Kaze no tayori」

Release Date: January 30^th, 2016

Running Time: 90 mins.

Director: Munetoshi Mukai

Writer: Satoko Okazaki (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuko Akimoto, Ren Osugi, Kaoru Hirata, Yuki Saso, Shuntaro Yanagi, Masaya Kato, Yuko Araki,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: This is set in Sendai four years after the Great East Japan Earthquake and concerns a young woman (Yuko Shinki) entrusted with the café owned by her grandfather (Ren Osugi). She leaves that behind to open a café in Tokyo. All that changes when her grandfather falls ill…

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Nobunaga Concerto (2016/12/23)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed (2016/12/18)

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger vs. ToQger The Movie: Ninjas in Wonderland (2016/12/23)

Eiga Youkai Watch: Enma Daioh to Itsutsu no Monogatari da Nyan! (2016/12/19)

Paddington (2016/01/15)

Seasons/Les Saisons (2016/01/15)

Orange (2016/12/11)

The Walk (2016/12/23)

Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu-hen (2016/01/08)

Bridge of Spies (2016/01/08)

The next major release from Third Window Films is Uzumasa Limelight which will get a theatrical release across the UK when it plays as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2016 (here’s my preview). I watched it yesterday and enjoyed it a lot so I can easily recommend it. Expect a review soon.

Here are the details from the press release and an old trailer post:

Uzumasa Limelight    

太秦ライムライト 「Uzumasa Laimulaito」

Release Date: July 12^th, 2014 (Japan)

UK Release Date: February 09th, 2016

Running Time: 104 mins

Director: Ken Ochiai

Writer: Hiroyuki Ono (Screenplay),

Starring: Seizo Fukumoto, Chihiro Yamamoto, Hiroki Matsukata, Masashi Goda, Hirotaro Honda, Hisako Manda, Anna Kawashima,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis:  A moving, nostalgic portrait of the men behind the golden age of chanbara (sword-fighting dramas and films), Uzumasa Limelight goes behind the scenes of the distinctive film genre for which Japan is famous. It takes place in Uzumasa Studios (just outside Kyoto), the Hollywood of Japan. In this venerable studio are a group of performers who are “kirare-yaku” (actors whose main job is to “to be cut”–and show a beautiful, spectacular death on screen after being killed by the hero). Our lead character is named Kamiyama (real-life kirare-yaku Seizo Fukumoto) and he has devoted 50 years of his life as a kirare-yaku in sword-fighting movies produced at Uzumasa Studios. A master of the art, he lives to die. Now an elderly man, Kamiyama lives very modestly but has earned immense respect from his peers, some of them movie stars. When the studio where he works decides to discontinue its chanbara productions, Kamiyama finds himself at a loss. Hope arrives in the form of a young girl named Satsuki, who soon becomes Kamiyama’s disciple. Will the art of dying by the sword live on?

SEIZO FUKUMOTO: as Seiichi Kamiyama
Born February 3, 1943. Seizo Fukumoto entered Toei Studio Kyoto (Japan) at the age of 15. Since then, he has been on films, TV, and jidaigeki for more than a half century. His forte is kirareyaku, “to-be-killed actor” who loses sword fights. In 2003, he was starred in the Hollywood film The Last Samurai (starring Tom Cruise) as the role of the Silent Samurai, and the film brought him before an international audience.

CHIHIRO YAMAMOTO: as Satsuki Iga
Born August 29, 1996. Chihiro Yamamoto started learning Tai Chi when she was 3 years old. In 2012, she won 1 gold medal and 2 silver medals at World Junior Wushu Championship. Uzumasa Limelight is her debut in a film.

Director: Ken Ochiai
Ken Ochiai made his first film at age 12. Immediately following his high school graduation, he left his hometown of Tokyo, Japan, to pursue his dream of becoming a film director in the United States. Ochiai graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2006 with a BA in production. In 2008, he received his MFA from the American Film Institute Conservatory in directing.
To date, Ochiai has made more than 30 short films, commercials, and music videos including “Half Kenneth” which won the Jury Prize from the Directors Guild of America; Frog In The Well which won the Crystal Award at the Heartland Film Festival; and Miyuki’s Wind Bell which won the Sapporo Peace Award at the Sapporo Short Fest.
He received the Young Alumni Award from the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association in recognition of his achievements in filmmaking.
His first feature film, Tiger Mask was released in the fall 2013 in several Asian countries. The film is based on a Japanese legendary comic book series and produced by Toshiaki Nakazawa, producer from an Oscar®-winning film “Departures.”
Official site: www.kenochiai.com

The list of cinemas where it will be screened is as follows:

ICA – London, Aberystwyth Arts Centre – Aberystwyth,  Watershed – Bristol, QUAD – Derby, mac birmingham – Birmingham, Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) – Dundee, Filmhouse – Edinburgh, Showroom Cinema – Sheffield, Phoenix  Leicester

Uzumasa Limelight    

太秦ライムライト 「Uzumasa Laimulaito」

Release Date: July 12^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 104 mins

Director: Ken Ochiai

Writer: Hiroyuki Ono (Screenplay),

Starring: Seizo Fukumoto, Chihiro Yamamoto, Hiroki Matsukata, Masashi Goda, Hirotaro Honda, Hisako Manda, Anna Kawashima,

Website    IMDB

Uzumasa Limelight is all about the nostalgic regret for the passing of the golden age of samurai cinema. It tells a tale of a fading and unique tradition of cinema, the art of dying on screen in samurai movies, and draws on the history of lead actor Seizo Fukumoto to reveal the skill at the heart of what can be overlooked – a dramatic death that takes up a few seconds of screen time.

The story takes place in Uzumasa Studios which is located just outside of the historic city of Kyoto, It was once known as the Hollywood of Japan and was the location where thousands of jidaigeki (period dramas) were made, where stars would roam historical sets wielding katanas while acting as samurai and slice through cinematic swordsmen portrayed by actors known as kirareyaku (斬られ役which translates as “to be cut role”). These actors dedicated their lives to learning complex fight choreography and dying spectacularly on screen and helped make the samurai drama popular all over the world. Times are changing and the kirareyaku are ageing. Audiences are moving away from tried and trusted traditional tales of chivalry and embracing modern detective shows starring ikemen. Film and dorama producers are responding by cancelling movies and the few jidaigeki still being made are packed with pretty pop idols carrying CG swords. Meanwhile, the venerable extras with sword skills are being replaced by younger models.

One of these kiraryaku is 70 year old Seiichi Kamiyama (Seizo Fukumoto). His dedication to dying dramatically in samurai dramas has left an indelible mark in Japanese cinema and given him a long career as an on screen performer. He is a man looked up to by those who work in the studio and respected by older actors, but he is looked down upon by a new generation of arrogant filmmakers less interested in the craft and more interested in spectacle. With work drying up, Kamiyama and his fellow extras endure the indignity of being treated badly on set and making appearances at the Uzumasa theme park, practicing sword fighting for throngs of tourists. When the studio looks to discontinue chanbara productions altogether he faces the biggest crisis of his career and with his body ageing it seems that he will unable to hold onto the limelight.

However, his dedication, quiet passion, and professionalism inspire a young actor by the name of Satsuki Iga (Chihiro Yamamoto) to become a disciple and train hard under Kamiyama’s instruction. With the world taking notice of her, will Kamiyama’s legacy of dying spectacularly live on in the skill of this woman?

Uzumasa Limelight is built around Seizo Fukumoto, a veteran actor who started his career at the age of 15 back in the 1960s and is said to have died on-screen 50,000 times. He has become Japan’s most famous kirareyaku and uses his experiences and their physical impact on him to make Kamiyama, a unique character.

Fukumoto has a wonderfully creased face that speaks of efforts made in honing his

craft over the years. Every exertion ever made in his career is evident in the lines on his face and his features that are quietly expressive and emotive. His calm, kind eyes and steady countenance and movements speak of the wisdom, experience, and patience built up over the years. Kamiyama’s actions and dedication to practicing his work bear it all out and he is hard not to admire and regard with affection, especially when he looks out for friends abused by loudmouth directors. Other characters respect him tremendously as demonstrated by the way people speak to him and show concern over his dwindling career prospects and his ageing body. Every role lost and every bruise gained produces pathos, we fear that Kamiyama will lose touch with everything.

The script and direction presents Kamiyama’s end of career troubles in an unfussy manner. The narrative flows easily in a mostly linear way and apart from a few monochrome tinted flashbacks to a younger Kamiyama, it mostly focusses on the ageing process and the problems of injuries. There is a lot of commentary on the changing times in the entertainment world where stunts are more important than acting, fighting skills, and dying artfully. Kamiyama and his cohorts old school dedication is discarded in a series of vignettes where problems facing the characters are neatly laid out and the impact is shown soon after. There is the sense that one or two of the events fall a little too easily into place and their resolutions feel schematic rather than organic but the film builds up an interesting and revealing glimpse into the movie making process of Japan and heads to an ending that offers a denouement that audiences can get behind and cheer for as we come to share the nostalgia and melancholy for a disappearing way of filmmaking.

Throughout the film we focus on Kamiyama who is made of stern stuff and while he is inspiring by himself he is also surrounded by supporters who capture the imagination. There is a rich cast of veteran actors and newbies such as Chihiro Yamamoto who deliver earnest and dedicated performances that are full of physicality and emotion as shown in training montages and action sequences and it all helps deliver the sense of respect for Kamiyama and all he represents in terms of old traditions and hard work. The cinematography from Chris Freilich ensures that scenes are framed and lit in expressive manners that champion the colourful theatricality and the team aspect of filmmaking, allowing the cast to take the centre of the screen together and close-ups on the actors, Fukumoto getting ample screen time to charm the audience.

Uzumasa Limelight is an easy watch and has a gentle, nostalgic tone. The great strength of the film is that it is calm and elegiac and presents the story in an accessible way. By foregrounding Fukumoto’s character we see what skills will be lost and realise that although kirareyaku may be a dying breed, their visual style will live forever in the hearts of film fans.

4/5

Uzumasa Limelight gets a theatrical release this month. It plays as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2016. The film will then be released by Third Window Films late in 2016.

Chris Freilich Cinematography Reel featuring Uzumasa Limelight.

Happy weekend… or rather, new week.

Sorry, this trailer post’s a bit late because I wanted to let my review of Uzumasa Limelight have a share of the… limelight on the blog. I gave that a 4/5 because I enjoyed it a lot and it can teach viewers a thing or two about the Japanese film industry. I also posted some PR about the film’s theatrical release as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme.

I watched a couple of Japanese zombie movies last week like Wild Zero (1999). I also went to the cinema to watch The Revenant and was blown away by the epic scope of the visuals, great acting by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, the great musical score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and the nuanced look at the Native American characters.

What was released last weekend? Lots of stuff.

AKECHI kunoichi ninpo gaiden   

AKECHI くノ一忍法外伝「AKECHI kunoichi ninpo gaiden」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 79 mins.

Director: Hiroyuki Kawasaki

Writer: Shinji Hirata (Screenplay),

Starring: Noriko Fujioka, Narumi Yonezawa, Yasuko Tsuji,

Synopsis: This one is an ultra low-budget movie from pink film director Hiroyuki Kawasaki. It doesn’t show up on IMDB and doesn’t appear to have a website but it is listed on Wikipedia’s list of ninja films. The film takes place during the Sengoku period and focusses on eight kunoichi who are caught between Oda Nobunaga and his general Akechi Mitsuhide.

Ii nioi no suru eiga   

いいにおいのする映画「Ii nioi no suru eiga」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 73 mins.

Director: Mai Sakai

Writer: Mai Sakai (Screenplay),

Starring: Rie Kaneko, Haruhi Nakajima, Kaito Yoshimura, micci the mistake, possession mongoloid, Velladon

Website    IMDB

Rie Kaneko from the idol group Ladybaby makes a feature film appearance in this weird little title that was crowdfunded. It doesn’t look bad and I’ve now decied that Ladybaby is my new favourite idol group. Info straight from Tokyo Girls Update.

Synopsis: High school girl Rei (Rie Kaneko) wants to be a lighting technician and her friend Kaito (Kaito Yoshimura) is a whiz when it comes to organising the music production but these childhood friends get sucked into the world of Vampillia who has musical friends that Rei and Kaito can work with and some pretty dark desires to boot…

Omote to ura the Final   

表と裏「Omote to Ura Dai 2-shou」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Kenichi Fujiwara

Writer: Mayuko Yoshiyuki, Kenichi Fujiwara (Screenplay)

Starring: Kaname Endo, Shunsuke Daito, Chihiro Ohtsuka, Saori Takizawa, Manabu Hamada, Mikio Ohsawa, Sayaka Tsuruta,

Website IMDB

A young and idealistic lawmaker named Kyoichi (Endo) and a yakuza named Shoji (Daito) who were childhood friends at the same orphanage. Both want to change a corrupt world but while Kyoichi does so through politics and charisma, Shoji uses violence and the two reunite to change society… “in and out.”

New Initial D the Movie Legend 3: Mugen   

新劇場版 頭文字D Legend 3 –夢現– 「Shin Gekijouban Initial D Legend 3 -Mugen-」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 65 mins.

Chief Director: Masamitsu Hidaka, Director: Tomohito Naka

Writer: Mayori Sekijima (Screenplay), Shuuichi Shigeno (Original Manga)

Animation Production: LIDEN FILMS, SANZIGEN Animation Studio

Starring: Mamoru Miyano (Takuma Fujiwara), Yuichi Nakamura (Keisuke Takahashi), Daisuke Ono (Ryosuke Takahashi, Hiroaki Hirata (Bunta Fujiwara), Minoru Shiraishi (Itsuki Takeuchi),

Website ANN MAL

This is the third in a trilogy of films that retell the original Initial D story.

Synopsis: High school student Takumi Fujiwara works at a gas station during the day and as a delivery boy for his father’s tofu shop during the night. Thanks to his experience driving his father’s Toyota Sprinter AE86 Trueno, he develops precise driving skills and soon becomes the greatest amateur road racer on Mt. Akina’s highway and this makes him a rival to racing groups in the prefecture who want to take him on in races.

Code Geass: Akito the Exiled 5 (To Beloved Ones)     

コードギアス　亡国のアキト　最終章「愛シキモノタチヘ」「Code Geass: Boukoku no Akito 5 「Itoshiki Mono-tachi e」 」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016 (Japan)

Running Time: 59 mins.

Director: Kazuki Akane

Writer: Yoshinari Asakawa (Screenplay), Hiroshi Ohnogi (Original Creator),

Animation Production: Sunrise

Starring: Miyu Irino (Akito Hyuuga), Maaya Sakamoto (Layla Malkal), Ai Kayano (Anna Clement), Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku Kururugi), Yoko Hikasa (Ayano Kousaka)

Website ANN MAL

The year is 2017 around the time Lelouch took on the alter-ego “Zero” and built up his “Black Knights” rebellion army to free Japan from The Holy Britannian Empire but the Akito series is a spin-off which takes place in Europe. This was originally a four episode OAV which was meant to finish last year but was given one last episode.

Synopsis: The Holy Britannian Empire has invaded the continent and is about to defeat the E.U and a young pilot named Akito Hyuuga leads a special team fighting to prevent what seems inevitable. Then Layla Malkal, a former Britannian Aristocrat comes to the E.U.’s aid, commanding the “Wyvern” Knightmare corps comprised of Japanese teenagers and t looks like they might be able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat but the risks involved in every battle are immense.

Gekijouban Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam Over the wishes   

ラストエグザイル　銀翼のファム Over The Wishes「Rasuto Eguzairu Ginyoku no Famu Over The Wishes」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Yukio Takahashi

Writer: N/A

Animation Production: Gonzo

Starring: Aki Toyosaki (Fam Fan Fan), Ai Kayano (Millia il Velch Cutrettola Turan), Aoi Yuuki (Giselle Collette Vingt), Chiwa Saito (Teddy), Jun Fukuyama (Orang),

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis from ANN: The Sky Pirate Fam and Millia (the princess who Fam rescued as her Turan Kingdom faced devastation) wage a battle against the Ades Federation that reduced Turan to ashes, and aim to establish a revived Turan Kingdom.

Ika rete iru?   

イカれてイル？ 「Ika rete iru?」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 78 mins.

Director: Michihiro Takeuchi

Writer: Michihiro Takeuchi (Screenplay)

Starring: MAGiC BOYZ

Website IMDB

Synopsis: The MAGiC BOYZ are a bunch of junior high school kids who have become the world’s first Hip-Hop idol group with magical powers and they are a part of the Stardust Promotion agency so they are pop-music cohorts with Momoiro Clover Z. They made this movie in the style of a fake documentary.

Mood Swings   

ゆれる心「Yureru kokoro」

Release Date: February 01^st, 2016

Running Time: 75 mins.

Director: Shuji Kataoka

Writer: Shuji Kataoka (Screenplay)

Starring: Saki Seto, Akiyoshi Shibata, Haruna Yabuki, Shiro Shimomoto, Akira Aoyama, Rin Ogawa

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Misaki (Saki Seto) is an OL who is involved in the wedding of a co-worker and collaborating with a senior she has a crush on.

Kokonotsu no mado   

9つの窓「Kokonotsu no mado」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 99 mins.

Director: Kei Hiro, Ai Nagura, Kazuya Ogawa, Tsuyoshi Sone, Yo Hirose,

Writer: N/A

Starring: Rie Kitahara, Shinobu Mogi, Yuria Kizaki, Sae Miyazawa, Chiyori Nakanishi, Yui Yokoyama, Yuuna Ego, Anna Iriyama,

Website

Synopsis: The Short Shorts Film Festival and AKB48 collaborate to create nine short movies with stories of first love and vampires making up the content.

Given ima, koko, ni aru shiawase   

Given いま、ここ、にあるしあわせ「Given ima, koko, ni aru shiawase」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 90 mins.

Director: Natsuko Takahashi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Chie Ayado (Narrator)

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Three children with incurable illnesses and their families are the focus of this documentary.

Hakuoki SSL sweet school life THE MOVIE   

薄桜鬼SSL sweet school life THE MOVIE「Hakuoki SSL sweet school life THE MOVIE」

Release Date: February 06^th, 2016

Running Time: 78 mins.

Director: Michihiro Takeuchi

Writer: Michihiro Takeuchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Toshiyuki Someya, Atsushi Kimura, Masyu Ishiwatari, Seiya Inagaki, Katsuhiko Ibuka, Yuki Tamaki, Ryouma Baba,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Otome games are big business in Japan and slowly taking off in the West as developers and fans catch up which is where dedicated bloggers like Otoge Meow comes in to spread knowledge. That’s where I got some information for this. We have a live-action feature film adaptation of the Hakuoki game series which recasts the cast of Shinsengumi samurai warrior characters as teachers and students in modern Japan. The film is a continuation of a dorama.

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Nobunaga Concerto (2016/01/23)

Saraba Abunai Deka: Long Goodbye (2016/01/30)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed (2015/12/18)

Black Mass (2016/01/30)

The Inerasable (2016/01/30)

Eiga Youkai Watch: Enma Daioh to Itsutsu no Monogatari da Nyan! (2016/12/19)

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger vs. ToQger The Movie: Ninjas in Wonderland (2016/01/23)

Paddington (2016/01/15)

Seasons/Les Saisons (2016/01/15)

Orange (2016/12/12)

The Berlin International Film Festival takes place from February 11^th to the 21^st and it features a distinct Anglo-American presence thanks to some high-profile heavyweight Hollywood stars on the screen and gracing the red carpet with the likes of George Clooney and Meryl Streep getting involved from the opening night. There is also a planned tribute to Alan Rickman and David Bowie. While the festival features a mix of mainstream and more socially conscious sights to be seen on screen what we really want to know is…

…what Japanese films are playing at the festival?

There are many great-looking films (trailers as well) so if you want to know more such as dates and times and how to buy tickets, click on the titles/links. All films have subtitles and look great!!!

Creepy   

クリーピー「Kuri-pi-」　

Running Time: 130 mins.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Chihiro Ikeda (Screenplay), Yutaka Maekawa (Original Novel)

Starring:  Hidetoshi Nishijima, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yuko Takeuchi, Masahiro Higashide, Haruna Kawaguchi, Toru Baba, Misaki Saisho,

Website IMDB

This has the potential to be good based on the actors alone. Kiyoshi Kurosawa (a genius film director!) has worked on great films with lead actors Hidetoshi Nishijima (License to Live) and Teruyuki Kagawa (Tokyo Sonata) and the two actors have collaborated on great doramas together (Mozu, Double Face). There’s also Masahiro Higashide (The Kirishima Thing) and Haruna Kawaguchi (POV: A Cursed Film). Things get better when you look at this teaser trailer and see the high production values. I’m hyped for this one. This one is released in Japan in June.

Synopsis: Detective Inspector Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) decides to quit the force after a psychopath almost kills him. He takes up work as a university lecturer in criminal psychology and delves into cold cases, one involving a missing family where only one person survived, Saki (Haruna Kawaguchi). Life changes when Takakura and his wife Yasuko (Yuko Takeuchi) move house and introduce themselves to their next door neighbour Nishino (Teruyuki Kagawa) who hides his wife and daughter from the outside world. Nishino is suspicious enough as a person but when his “daughter” confronts Takakura and tells him that she has no idea who her “father” is, things get really dangerous…

A Road

あるみち「Aru michi」　

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Daichi Sugimoto

Writer: Daichi Sugimoto (Screenplay)

Starring:  Daichi Sugimoto, Yuta Katsukura, Rika Sugimoto,

Website IMDB

Director Daichi Sugimoto is currently studying at Tokyo Zokei University, Department of Design as a film major but his film A Road has won a major award in the shape of the 2015 PIA Fim Festival’s Grand Prize. It sounds like a fascinating dive into a person’s memory.

Synopsis: Daichi Sugimoto stars as himself, so to speak. His character is studying film at university but he misses the joys of childhood when he and his friends used to catch lizards. A university assignment in documentary film making leads him to look for the point when his childhood ended but despite his camera being able to capture the world, he finds that his memories of life, lizards and those he knows/knew and love/loved are harder to nail down.

While the Women are Sleeping   

女が眠る時「onna ga nemuru toki」　

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Wayne Wang

Writer: Michael Ray, Shinho Lee, Mami Sunada (Screenplay) Javier Marias (Original Story)

Starring:  Beat Takeshi, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Sayuri Oyamada, Lily Franky, Shiori Kutsuna, Makiko Watanabe, Hirofumi Arai,

Website IMDB

This is another film with a stellar cast – Hidetoshi Nishijima, Beat Kitano (Hana-bi), Lily Franky (Like Father, Like Son), Makiko Watanabe (Love Exposure) – and it has an interesting story which I think you can read on the New Yorker magazine website. The trailer looks great and the story involves obsession, lust, love, danger and all those good things that make thrillers. Ghosts, too, apparently!

Synopsis: Kenji (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Aya (Sayuri Oyamada) are spending a week at a hotel over the summer and they encounter a strange couple amongst the other guests. There is the considerably older man, Doctor Sahara (Beat Takeshi), and a there is a younger woman, Miki (Shiori Katsuna). Sahara records Miki every night with his video camera and while the women are asleep, he discusses Miki’s life and death with Kenji who is sucked into Sahara’s weird fantasies and concerned about Miki’s safety. Is it all a game or something deadlier?

Hee

火Hee「Hi Hee」　

Running Time: 72 mins.

Director: Kaori Momoi

Writer: Kaori Momoi, Miyuki Takahashi, Daisuke Kamijo (Screenplay) Fuminori Nakamura (Original Story)

Starring:  Kaori Momoi, Yugo Saso, Ayako Fujitani, Brian Sturges, Melody Thi,

IMDB

Director Kaori Momoi is a trailblazer in Japanese film if this interview is anything to go on. She has worked with Akira Kurosawa (Kagemusha), Takashi Miike (Sukiyaki Western Django), Shunji Iwai (Swallowtail Butterfly) and others and has appeared in all sorts of films. She is making films (writing, directing) all around the world as well as in Japan.

This is her latest work and it’s story involves a psychiatrist named Dr. Sanada (Yugo Saso) investigating an old patient named Azusa (Kaori Momoi) who thinks she is crazy and blames herself for the death of her parent’s in a fire. The reason he is investigating is because he has come into contact with her again after he is called to Los Angeles where she is a prostitute accused of murder. Sanada must decide whether Azusa is mentally ill or not and whether he failed her.

It’s an actor’s piece which challenges the audience to delve into the character if the festival site is to be believed. Momoi’s performance is said to be “incomplete, one-sided, contradictory, with an actress directing herself in a ruthlessly self-deconstructive manner, an actress that forces us to listen, to watch, to doubt.”

Hachimiri Madness: Japanese Indies from the Punk Years

This part of the programme is dedicated to some of the earliest works from some of the best directors of this generation back from when they were operating in the ‘70s and ‘80s as student filmmakers wielding 8mm cameras and young indie directors. We’re talking about Sion Sono, Shinya Tsukamoto, Sogo Ishii and more. Few of their early films are available legally in the West and when they do appear it’s always fascinating to see the sheer amount of imagination and raw talent on display. With film archives and distributors digitising and releasing these films, now’s the perfect moment to collect them together for a festival.

Sion Sono is the big highlight here with two films getting screened. The first is I Am Sion Sono!!  (1984, 37 min) which was made when he was 22-years-old. It’s an uncompromising self-portrait/introduction to the man and it is described as “a disarming, sometimes funny, sometimes raunchy, hugely energetic self-portrait which became the manifesto of a wild, uncompromising, uninhibited cinema.”

The second Sono film is his first feature A Man’s Flower Road  (1986, 110 min） and it is split into two parts. The first sees him running around Tokyo in a red rain cape while being pursued by men in white before he encounters a Kappa in a park. The second is more   autobiographical as it details his family life and struggle to become an adult. He roped in his family for this part.

The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo by Shinya Tsukamoto (1988, 47 min), I have reviewed on this blog thanks to its inclusion on the Tetsuo: Iron Man/Body Hammer DVD set. It’s a great little cyberpunk time-travelling story where a schoolboy with an electricity pylon on his back must save humanity from vampire.

Isolation of 1/8800000 (1977, 43 min) is by Sogo Ishii (Angel Dust, Isn’t Anyone Alive?) and is a story about an isolated sexually frustrated young student burned out from his university entrance exam is on the verge of exploding in a violent mess.

UNK (1979, 15 min) is by Makoto Tezuka (grandson of legendary manga-ka Osamu Tezuka) and the short film is a remake of Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He also directed High-School-Terror  (1979, 6min) which sees ghosts haunt some schoolgirls.

Akira Ogata’s cult film Tokyo Cabbageman K (1980, 59 min) imagines what happens when a young man named K wakes up one morning to find is head has been replaced by a giant cabbage.

The Rain Women (1990, 72 min) by Shinobu Yaguchi looks really interesting. It is described as a melancholy film and is split into two parts with the lives of two women on the screen, the first showing madcap adventures like racing bikes through convenience stores while the second sees the dynamic duo suffering tragedies. When the rain returns, the fun starts again.

Director Katsuyuki Hirano originally wanted to be a manga artist but when he picked up an 8mm camera he made Happiness Avenue (1986, 93 min) and thus began his career in films. His film is based on a manga by Katsuhiro Otomo and features fellow director Sion Sono amongst a group of friends roaring around town and rebelling against their more staid fellow citizens in a small town in Shizuoka.

Masashi Yamamoto brings a tale of violence and disillusion from 1980s Japan in Saint Terrorism (1980, 127 min) where the main character, a school girl, shoots random people and hooks up with a poisoner with whom she terrorises a building full of people in Shinjuku.
Last but not least is Hanasareru Gang (1984, 85 min) which is by Nobuhiro Suwa which looks like a substantial one since it’s inspired by French New Wave director Alain Renais’s film Hiroshima mon amour. It’s about a gang of petty criminals with a car full of cash and the tone changes from slapstick comedy to tragedy as these disengaged kids go on an adventure.

There is one classic on offer and that is…

Early Summer   

麦秋「Bakushū」　

Running Time: 124 mins.

Director: Yasujiro Ozu

Writer: Kogo Noda, Yasujiro Ozu (Screenplay)

Starring:  Setsuko Hara, Chishu Ryu, Chikage Awashima, Kuniko Miyake, Ichiro Sugai, Haruko Sugimura, Chieko Higashiyama,

IMDB

Ozu is one of the titans from the golden age of Japanese cinema and his tales of Japanese families experiencing changes such as people leaving home, parents ageing, and new technology are full of details and atmosphere to create beautifully made stories we can all relate to. This is the world premiere of a digitally restored version.

Here’s a scene from an older version of the film:

Synopsis: Noriko (Setsuko Hara) is 28-years-old and lives in her parents’ house, along with her brother, his wife and their two children. Some people around her think she should get married and her boss goes one further and introduces her to an old friend of his who might be a “good match”… The mere idea of Noriko facing the prospect of a possible marriage starts a wave of friction amongst her relatives…

Theirs are two short films:

Xénogénèse (1981, 7 min), is an experimental film that, according to the festival website, focuses on the duality of its medium. The director takes the lead role as a man dressed in shirt and tie walking around what appears to be a junkyard. Then, the director adds scratches to the surface of the image and employs “tactics of trompe-l’œil to comically allude to the circular nature of human life and, in its function as the artist’s self-portrait, gently mocks the home movie genre.”

The film was first shown in Berlin at the 1984 International Forum of New Cinema and now the festival gets a digitized version of the film.

Vita Lakamaya (2016, 8 min) is a lot more conventional. This animated film follows two creatures in a meadow and the other lifeforms around them (beetles, butterflies) that take part in a life-cycle. The festival website has a 29 second preview which is pretty good-looking.

Happy weekend people!

I wrote about the Berlin International Film Festival and its excellent-looking selection of Japanese films. I have only watched one film this week and that was a Fatal Fury anime.

What is released this weekend?

Kyoto Elegy   

マンガ肉と僕  「Manga Niku to Boku」

Running Time: 94 mins

Release Date: February 13^th, 2016

Director: Kiki Sugino

Writer: Shiki Asaka (Original Short Story), Kotaro Wajima (Screenplay)

Starring: Takahiro Miura, Kiki Sugino, Eri Tokunaga, Chisun, Shima Ohnishi, Taiga,

Website IMDB Kiki Sugino’s Website

Korean-Japanese Kiki Sugino has quietly carved out an interesting career as a producer/actor with films like Au revoir l’ete on her resume. This is her directorial debut and it’s a film about outsiders and bullying and a guy who gets stuck on three particular girls. Her sophomore film, Taksu was released in 2014 and was a strong mood piece that luxuriated in quiet moments punctuated by bits of passion. This one seems full on incidents. The issue of being overweight seems to be dealt with some sensitivity as well. I first wrote about this for a preview of the Edinburgh Film Festival last year.

Synopsis: A selfish university student named Watabe (Takahiro Miura) finds his life complicated by a trio of women including an overweight student named Satomi (Kiki Sugino) who is being bullied by other female students. She follows him around all day which isn’t an annoyance until Watabe meets a girl named Nako (Eri Tokunaga)…

Litchi Hikari Club   

ライチ☆光クラブ「Raichi☆Hikari Kurabu」

Release Date: February 13th, 2016

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Eisuke Naito

Writer: Eisuke Naito, Keisuke Tominaga (Screenplay), Usamaru Furuya (Original Manga)

Starring: Shuhei Nomura (Tamiya), Yuki Furukawa (Zera), Shotaro Mamiya (Jaibou), Junya Ikeda (Niko), Amane Okayama (Yakobu), Ryo Matsuda (Raizou), Junki Tozuka (Dentaku), Kisetsu Fujiwara (Kaneda), Reiya Masaki (Dafu),

Website  IMDB

I have written a preview about this and it has been a popular post since people want to know more about this dark ero-guro tale which mixes body horror, homosexuality, and beautiful boys. It’s based on a manga (review here) which is based on a stage play. The film has been brought to life by Eisuke Naito, a new and exciting director of horror films such as Puzzle (2014) and it looks like Naito has delivered another firecracker with Litchi Hikari Club since it has received praise in reviews I have read.

Synopsis: The story focusses on nine students at an all-boys school who, under the leadership of the charismatic and slightly unhinged aesthete Zera, create a powerful robot named Lychee who is powered by lychee… His mission is to capture the beautiful women of the world but when Lychee becomes self-aware he becomes attached to one of his victims all the while the boys squabble and fight amongst themselves for power and Zera’s attention…

Children of Iron   

鉄の子「Tetsu no Ko」

Release Date: February 13th, 2016

Running Time: 74 mins.

Director: Koki Fukuyama

Writer: Koki Fukuyama, Kaori Moriyama (Screenplay),

Starring: Tomoko Tabata, Taishi Sato, Mau, Jyonmyon Pe, Sugi-chan, Shiori Doi, Ryosuke Otani,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Rikutaro and Mariko are in the same grade at an elementary school but they are about to become closer when Rikutaro’s mother and Mariko’s father marry. Far from being overjoyed, the two are upset because they are teased by their classmates. What’s a kid to do? Make their newlywed and happy parents’ divorce!

Hotel Copain   

ホテルコパン「Hoteru Kopan」

Release Date: February 13th, 2016

Running Time: 74 mins.

Director: Naoto Monma

Writer: Koki Fukuyama, Kaori Moriyama (Screenplay),

Starring: Hayato Ichihara, Yoshimasa Kondo, Hikaru Osawa, Goki Maeda, Fumiko Mizuta, Kyoko Toyama, Mochika Yamada,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Yusuke (Hayato Ichihara) is an employee of a hotel in Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture. Back when Nagano hosted the Olympics it was a successful venue but it is quiet now. Yusuke prefers it that way since he is escaping his past. He was a middle school teacher but he quit because of issues with student bullying. Things reached a nadir when the bullied student committed suicide and it affected Yusuke who wants to escape everything with a menial low-responsibility job. His low-key life changes when he runs into the mother of the student who committed suicide. She is a guest at the hotel and this throws Yusuke into emotional turmoil.

Born in the EXILE Sandaime J Soul Brothers no Kiseki   

Born in the EXILE 三代目J Soul Brothersの奇跡「Hoteru Kopan」

Release Date: February 12th, 2016

Running Time: 91 mins.

Director: Hiroaki Hobo

Writer: N/A

Starring: Naoto, Elly, Takanori Iwata, Naoki Kobayashi, Kenjiro Yamashida, Ryuji Imaichi, Hiroomi Tosaka,

Website

Synopsis: With the release of their latest album “Planet Seven” Sandaime J Soul Brothers conquered the charts in Japan and won many awards so I guess it was a good time to make a behind-the-scenes film following their activities.

Selector Destructed Wixoss   

劇場版selector destructed WIXOSS「Gekijouban selector destructed WIXOSS」

Release Date: February 13^th, 2016

Running Time: 91 mins.

Director: Takuya Sato

Writer: Mari Okada (Screenplay),

Animation Production: J.C. Staff

Starring: Yoko Hikasa (Sachi Togasaki), Risa Taneda (Mayu), Rie Kugimiya (Rumi, Urith), Ai Kakuma (Ruko Kominato), Ai Kayano (Hitoe Uemura), Asami Seto (Iona Urazoe), Ayane Sakura (Yuzuki Kurebayashi),

Website ANN MAL

This is the theatrical continuation of a TV anime that was first broadcast in 2014. Warner Bros. Japan is distributing it. You can watch the first eight minutes in this clip.

Synopsis: WIXOSS is a card game that’s taking schools by storm. Legend has it that there exist “Ruling Cards,” female character cards with wills of their own. Special girls can hear the voices of the Rulings, and those who possess them are called Selectors and these Selectors have card battles in a dimension that other humans cannot access. Winners of these battles get to have their wishes granted. Ruko Kominato is one of these girls who finds a Ruling card…

Eiga Kentakkun to tetsudou Hakase no Go! Go! 100 no densha   

映画けん太くんとてつどう博士のGo!Go!100のでんしゃ「Eiga Kentakkun to tetsudou Hakase no G0! Go! 100 no densha」

Release Date: February 13^th, 2016

Running Time: 47 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Animation Production: N/A

Starring: Reiko Tokunaga (Ken-kun), Ai Nonaka (Sa-chan) Yukitoshi Nagafuchi (Tsudo Hakase),

Website

Synopsis: This is the latest in a series of films aimed at kids which detail the different sorts of trains operating in Japan on local and national lines.

Ro-karu Rosen Basu Noritsugi no tabi THE MOVIE   

ローカル路線バス乗り継ぎの旅 THE MOVIE「Ro-karu Rosen Basu Noritsugi no tabi THE MOVIE」

Release Date: February 13th, 2016

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Kenshiro Kashima

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yosuke Tagawa, Yoshikazu Ebisu, Mika Mifune,

Website

Synopsis: A trip organised by a TV Tokyo variety show that sees popular actors take local bus routes and exploring local areas. This one is in Taiwan and there are scary incidents such as a typhoon hitting their journey.

Shinema Kabuki Kisen / Shinema Kabuki Boshibari

シネマ歌舞伎　喜撰 / シネマ歌舞伎　棒しばり「Shinema Kabuki Kisen / Shinema Kabuki Boshibari」

Release Date: February 13th, 2016

Running Time: N/A

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: Bando Mitsugoro, Kanzaburo Nakamura, Shucho Bando,

Website

Synopsis: Bando Mitsugoro X died last year and there are some of his performances captured on camera and screened in cinemas. Kisen is one of his most popular performances and there’s also a screening of Boshibari.

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

The Martian (2016/02/05)

Nobunaga Concerto (2016/01/23)

Saraba Abunai Deka: Long Goodbye (2016/01/30)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed (2015/12/18)

The Inerasable (2016/01/30)

Eiga Youkai Watch: Enma Daioh to Itsutsu no Monogatari da Nyan! (2016/12/19)

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger vs. ToQger The Movie: Ninjas in Wonderland (2016/01/23)

Black Mass (2016/01/30)

Code Geass: Akito the Exiled 5 (To Beloved Ones) (2016/02/06)

Paddington (2016/01/15)

Third Window Films are set to release a number of films by legendary director Takeshi Kitano on Blu-ray this year. So far we have had the release of Hana-bi (my review here) and we are going to get a number of others such as Kids Return, A Scene at the Sea, Dolls, and Kikujiro. It’s a phenomenal run of titles and Kikujiro is a very popular film. It’s a family film, a road movie and it will make you laugh and cry and laugh even more. Here’s some info from a press release!

Third Window Films are all set to release Kikujiro on February 22^nd and it’s going to be available on Blu-ray with a new 2K master from Office Kitano.

Kikujiro   

菊次郎の夏「Kikujiro no Natsu」

Release Date: June 05^th, 1999 (Japan)

UK Release Date: February 22^nd, 2016

UK Distributor: Third Window Films

Running Time: 121 mins.

Director: Takashi Kitano

Writer: Takashi Kitano (Screenplay),

Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Yusuke Sekiguchi, Kayoko Kishimoto, Yuko Daike, The Great Gidayu, Rakkyo Ide, Fumie Hosokawa, Beat Kiyoshi,

(THE TRAILER IS FROM THE JAPANESE RELEASE AND NOT THE BLU-RAY FROM THIRD WINDOW FILMS)

Synopsis:

It’s summer and little Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi) has no one to play with. With

soccer practice suspended and his friends away at the beach, living alone with his grandmother seems even less fun for a nine-year-old boy.

With address and photo in hand, Masao decides to take off in search of the mother he’s never met. But with little money and even less sense of direction, Masao can’t go alone. A friend of his grandmother volunteers her husband Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano) to accompany the boy on his quest. 

Kikujiro hardly seems an ideal companion for anyone, let alone for a boy as sensitive as the sullen Masao. Brash, loudmouthed and always on the lookout for easy money, the irresponsible Kikujiro doesn’t even appear to be overly fond of children.

Kikujiro’s excursion to the cycle races is the first of a series of adventures for the unlikely pair. Theirs will be a whimsical journey of laughter and tears with many a zany surprise and oddball character to meet along the way. All to discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. All to show wide-eyed Masao that the world, as he’s known it, is not without magic.

By the bittersweet trip’s end, Masao will have collected a wealth of information for his “What I Did Last Summer” project. And for Kikujiro, the heart-warming lesson that sometimes it takes a child’s games to help us see exactly what went wrong with our own lives.

Extras:

Jam Session – 90 minute documentary on Kikujiro directed by the award-winning Japanese director Makoto Shinozaki (director of Sharing which was at the Vancouver and the Rotterdam International Film Festivals.

Cardboard slipcase with new illustrated design (limited to 1000 copies)

Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld   

極道大戦争「Goku dou dai sensou」

Release Date: June 20^th, 2015 (Japan)

UK Release Date: January 06^th, 2016

UK Distributor: Manga Entertainment

Running Time: 125 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Yoshitaka Yamaguchi (Screenplay),

Starring: Hayato Ichihara, Riko Narumi, Lily Franky, Reiko Takashima, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Sho Aoyagi, Mio Yuki, Pierre Taki, Denden, Yayan Ruhian, Yuki Sakurai,

Website IMDB UK Website

Criminals and vampires are essentially the same thing: parasites. Criminals live off regular people by robbing them much like vampires suck the blood of the innocent to stay alive. This is an analogy exploited to the fullest by Yakuza Apocalypse when a small town comes under assault from yakuza goons, vampires and, yes, yakuza vampires. It’s a hit and miss affair where fantasy and potential fun are hampered by average writing.

Akira Kageyama (Hayato Ichihara) is the loyal enforcer for the so-called “invincible” yakuza boss Genyo Kamiura (Lily Franky). Kamiura is popular because he keeps his town safe and looks after the citizens but not everyone in his gang shares his ideals and while Akira may be a stand-up guy his fellow gangsters don’t play by old-school rules of loyalty and honour which is why treacherous elements in his gang set up an assassination attempt on Kamiura…

This isn’t a normal hit though because a guy dressed up like a 17^th century Spanish missionary and his Otaku side-kick named Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian) show up and try to persuade Kamiura to re-join their gang, The Syndicate and give his territory to them. Kamiura declines so they use vampire slaying techniques to decapitate him. Turns out Kamiura was one of the undead! Kageyama is devastated that he failed his boss but he gets the shock of his life when the head of Kamiura clamps onto his neck and turns him into a vampire.

Predictably enough chaos ensues as Kageyama wrestles with his new abilities. Things go from bizarre to insane as Mad Dog and the rest of The Syndicate show up to take over the town and battles commence. Only Akira Kageyama can save the populace but does he have the confidence? Kamiura has left a message with advice for his vampiric protégé to help him in his time of need!

“Stay foolish!” That is the message of help read by main character of the film, yakuza tough-guy Akira Kageyama, after he has been turned into a vampire by his recently assassinated boss Genyo Kamiura (played for too little time by the always charismatic Lily Franky). It’s a message meant to give courage to our lead character in a moment of crisis and one that also seems meant for director Takashi Miike as he continues his much vaunted return to his exploitation roots after nearly a decade of mainstream movie-making with films like 13 Assassins (2010), Ace Attorney and For Love’s Sake (both from 2012). All of the elements are there for foolish fun such as bizarre characters like the smelly kappa crime boss, martial-arts masters in over-sized frog suits and giant monsters, but none of this is a patch on Miike’s more foolish and out there blackly comic films such as the death-filled musical The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) or gender-bending yakuza love story Gozu (2003). I would put this somewhere in the middle of Miike’s massive filmography, close to Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2003).

The film is full of visual invention and flair as Miike’s martials many techniques to craft an atmosphere of fun with fantastical dream sequences, vampires and monsters and a cast of loudly dressed yakuza hard men in high-octane battles. All of this gets mashed up into ever expanding instances of affray. Despite the weirdness and active imagery this two hour film threatens to outstay its welcome because Yoshitaka Yamaguchi’s script tries hard to justify the constant chaotic cavalcade of fantastical nonsense by embarking on a sluggish story of internecine rivalries in crime gangs and an ill love interest for Akira’s character (a wasted Riko Narumi).

The world building is laboured and despite being punctuated with bizarre but short-lived fight scenes it feels dragged out for the sake of form, padding out a story with reasons when they are not needed for what is essentially goofy action title – none of it means anything. Since there is so much to get through there is the sense that some of it could be cut out especially since the fighting doesn’t really get going until the second hour of the film when everyone gets involved in the vampire action.

There are moments of fun in amidst the slow parts such as the way Akira ends up infecting the town with vampirism tainted with yakuzaism. Yes, newly minted vampires speak and act like gangsters which delightfully plays on the clichés as nurses, school girls, and even police officers adopt the mannerisms and speech patterns of their criminal oppressors so we see them growl and strut around like crime lords and intimidate the real gangsters. In these scenes there are great performances from many of the actors such as Kiyohiko Shibukawa but you wish there could be more as the film cuts back to needless gang politics.

Hayato Ichihara provides a strong central protagonist to anchor the film to with his impressive physique which he uses to perform in the all too brief action sequences which leads to another disappointment which is the much anticipated final fight between Ichihara and Ruhian which starts off with the promise of two mighty characters in a martial-arts dust-up and devolves into two well-toned guys punching each other. Some may find the bathos funny but others will surely be bored. Ruhian as an otaku is funny to see as he roams around with his backpack full of Love Live! Type posters and brings the film to life when he is fighting.

Ultimately, as I mentioned above, this is not Miike’s best. It is a middling title that lacks the fun and themes seen in other films. It’s great looking and occasionally funny but there’s a lot of potential that is wasted. It is an average story that contains some good set-pieces and great actors. It should have been better.

3/5

Happy weekend, readers!

This trailer post is a bit of a rush-job. I spent plenty of time watching films for fun like Michael Clayton (2007) and X the Unknown (1956) and even more time practicing Japanese. This week I posted a review of Yakuza Apocalypse (2015) and a plugged the forthcoming Blu-ray release of Kikujiro.

What’s released in Japan this weekend?

Koi to Onchi no Houteishiki   

恋とオンチの方程式「Koi to Onchi no Houteishiki」

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 90 mins.

Director: Shiho Kozai

Writer: Shiho Kozai (Screenplay),

Starring: Natsuna Watanabe, Yuta Hiraoka, Masaya Kikawada, Yo Yoshida, Chihiro Otsuka, Miho Fujima,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Midori Yamabuki (Natsuna Watanabe) was once an aspiring pop idol but now she works as a bus guide in Kagawa Prefecture. The reason why is because she lost her confidence when she was younger. As a child she went to an audition in Tokyo and was laughed off the stage because she was tone death. Since that day she has kept a mic which her mother gave to her. This mic allows three wishes to come true. Midori may have to use this when Takuto Kurita (Masaya Kikawada), son of the CEO of a sound equipment company, comes to town and Midori falls in love with him…

Ninja the Monster   

Ninja the Monster「Ninja the Monster」

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Ken Ochiai

Writer: Akihiro Dobashi (Screenplay)

Starring: Dean Fujioka, Aoi Morikawa, Soko Wada, Rantaro Mine,

Website  IMDB

Ken Ochiai is a new director worth watching after making Uzumasa Limelight (2014). He’s back with a more fantastical tale:

Synopsis: The 18^th Century is drawing to a close and shogun has banned ninja activity in Japan and the once legendary shadow warriors are being hunted down and killed. A princess, Gohime (Aoi Morikawa), is on her way to Edo (present day Tokyo) and must pass through a forest which a dangerous creature stalks. She has a retinue of men to protect her, one is a former ninja named Denzo (Dean Fujioka). The monster attacks the travellers and the only survivors are the princess and Denzo. Will they be able to escape the monster?   

Classmates   

同級生「Doukyuusei」

Release Date: February 20^th, 2016

Running Time: 91 mins.

Director: Shouko Nakamura

Writer: Asumiko Nakamura (Original Creator),

Animation Production: A-1 Pictures

Starring: Hiroshi Kamiya (Hikaru Kusakabe), Kenji Nojima (Rihito Sajo), Hideo Ishikawa (Manabu Hara),

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis from Anime News Network: During music class before the chorus festival, male student Hikaru Kusakabe notices that the bespectacled honour student Rihito Sajo is not singing. Although he thinks that Rihito just doesn’t like singing, he finds him practicing alone in the classroom after school. Without even thinking, Hikaru calls out to him.

Oyster Factory　　

牡蠣工場  「Kaki kouba」

Release Date: February 20^th, 2016

Duration: 145 mins

Director: Kazuhiro Soda

Starring: Shinsuke Hirano, Koichi Watanabe, Yukiko Watanabe

Website  IMDB

I wrote about this documentary for a preview of the 2015 run of the Vancouver International Film Festival. Here’s the text:

This two hour plus documentary ostensibly looks at life inside an oyster factory but takes in the lack of young people entering the works, the generational divide and Chinese-Japanese relations as Chinese workers are brought in to help keep an oyster factory running.

Synopsis from the film’s website: In the Japanese town of Ushimado, the shortage of labor is a serious problem due to its population’s rapid decline. Traditionally, oyster shucking has been a job for local men and women, but for a few years now, some of the factories have had to use foreigners in order to keep functioning. Hirano oyster factory has never employed any outsiders but finally decides to bring in two workers from China. Will all the employees get along?

Maiko: Dancing Child   

Maiko ふたたびの白鳥  「Maiko futatabi no hakuchou」

Release Date: February 20^th, 2016

Duration: 70 mins

Director: Ase Svenheim Drivenes

Starring: Maiko Nishino

Website  IMDB

Not a J-movie but it does have a Japanese person as it’s subject. There’s an interesting interview with the director and star of this documentary on Cinelinx.

Synopsis from the film’s website: Maiko Nishino is the prima ballerina at the Norwegian National Ballet and this documentary charts her recent life as she balances becoming a mother and retaining her role as Odette and Odille in Swan Lake.

Ghoul – 100 Nen, Kimi wo Omou –   

グール　喰怨　百年、君を想う「Gu-ru Kuon Hyaku-nen, Kimi wo omou」

Release Date: February 20^th, 2016

Running Time: 70 mins.

Director: Guillaume Tauveron

Writer: Yuta Higuchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Keisuke Kaminaga, Motohiro Ota, Mizuishi Atom, Sayaka Nakaya,

Website

Synopsis: A group of young people are summoned to a European style house deep in the mountains. One committed a crime. They are all put to a test. The trailer features the cast talking about the film.

Yuuwaku wa Arashi no yoru ni   

誘惑は嵐の夜に「Yuuwaku wa Arashi no yoru ni」

Release Date: February 20^th, 2016

Running Time: 99 mins.

Director: Shinji Imaoka

Writer: Shinji Imaoka (Screenplay)

Starring: Mio Takaki, Tasuku Nagaoka, Yumi Ishikawa, Butcha, Takuya Matsunaga,

Website

Synopsis: A mother and daughter share the same lover.

Chimamire sukeban Chainsaw   

血まみれスケバンチェーンソー「Chimamire sukeban che-nso-」

Release Date: February 20^th, 2016

Running Time: 73 mins.

Director: Hiroki Yamaguchi

Writer: Mitsunori Fukuhara (Screenplay). Rei Mikamoto (Original Manga)

Starring: Rio Uchida, Mari Yamachi, Seira Sato, Yuki Tamaki, Kayako Okuda,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: Rebel schoolgirl Giko Nokomura (Rio Uchida) is forced to take up a chainsaw and slice her way through zombies… some of whom are former classmates…

Baile Tokyo   

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 89 mins.

Director: Yuu Sakakibara

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: Baile Tokyo is a documentary about F.C. Tokyo, one of the J League’s greatest football clubs. The team’s training and performance on the pitch and interviews off pitch over the 2015 season is the focus of the film.

Masuda Susumu kanja-san to ikiru   

増田進　患者さんと生きる「Masuda Susumu kanja-san to ikiru」

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Shinya Todori

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: Doctor Masuda may be in his 80s but he shows no sign of slowing own and he can’t really afford to since Japan’s population is ageing. It’s a good thing he’s still going because he has pioneered different approaches to community medicine and he has become an expert doctors from acorss Japan visit.

Nakajima miyuki yakai VOL. 18 `Hashi no shita no arcadia’ gekijouban 

中島みゆき　夜会VOL.18 「橋の下のアルカディア」　劇場版「Nakajima miyuki yakai VOL. 18 `Hashi no shita no arcadia’ gekijouban」

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 113 mins.

Director: Ichizo Seo

Writer: N/A

Starring: Miyuki Nakajima, Ataru Nakamura, Takumi Ishida,

Website

Synopsis: Miyuki Nakajima is a massive force in Japanese music and she has had documentaries about her released in the past. This is the latest.

Daichi wo uketsugu   

大地を受け継ぐ「Daichi wo uketsugu」

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 86 mins.

Director: Junichi Inoue

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kazuya Tarukawa, Mitsuyo Tarukawa

Website

Synopsis: 11 students head to Kazuya Tarukawa’s farm which was gravely affected by the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. They learn about the personal tragedies of the farmers who work the land and the battle with Tokyo Electric Power Company.

劇場版SA サンキューコムレイズ UNDER THE SKY

劇場版SA サンキューコムレイズ UNDER THE SKY「Gekijouban SA sankyuu komureizu UNDER THE SKY」

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 70 mins.

Director: Yuichiro Iwaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: The band SA: TAISEI, NAOKI, KEN, SHOHEI,

Website  Wikipedia information on the band.

Synopsis: SA a.k.a. Samurai Attack are a punk band who rose to fame in the 1980s and then disbanded. They reformed in the 90s and have spent the time remastering old albums and reconnecting with fans as they tour. This documentary showcases a the pre-production for a performance.

劇場版SA サンキューコムレイズ UNDER THE FLAG

劇場版SA サンキューコムレイズ UNDER THE SKY「Gekijouban SA sankyuu komureizu UNDER THE FLAG」

Release Date: February 20th, 2016

Running Time: 70 mins.

Director: Yuichiro Iwaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: The band SA: TAISEI, NAOKI, KEN, SHOHEI,

Website  Wikipedia information on the band.

Synopsis: SA a.k.a. Samurai Attack are a punk band who rose to fame in the 1980s and then disbanded. They reformed in the 90s and have spent the time remastering old albums and reconnecting with fans as they tour. This doc captures the behind-the-scenes of their July 11^th, 2015 performance at the Hibiya Amphitheatre.

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

The Martian (2016/02/05)

Nobunaga Concerto (2016/01/23)

Saraba Abunai Deka: Long Goodbye (2016/01/30)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed (2015/12/18)

Born in the EXILE Sandaime J Soul Brothers no Kiseki (2016/02/12)

The Inerasable (2016/01/30)

Eiga Youkai Watch: Enma Daioh to Itsutsu no Monogatari da Nyan! (2016/12/19)

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger vs. ToQger The Movie: Ninjas in Wonderland (2016/01/23)

Black Mass (2016/01/30)

Paddington (2016/01/15)

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger vs. ToQger The Movie: Ninjas in Wonderland (2016/01/23)

Kikujiro

菊次郎の夏「Kikujiro no Natsu」   

Release Date: June 05^th, 1999 (Japan)

UK Release Date: February 22^nd, 2016

UK Distributor: Third Window Films

Running Time: 121 mins.

Director: Takashi Kitano

Writer: Takashi Kitano (Screenplay),

Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Yusuke Sekiguchi, Kayoko Kishimoto, Yuko Daike, The Great Gidayu, Rakkyo Ide, Fumie Hosokawa, Beat Kiyoshi,

IMDB

Kikujiro is Takeshi Kitano’s most innocent film. The titular character was inspired by his own father (also named Kikujiro) who was a bit of a chancer, it’s a story of a little boy and his unlikely adult guardian on a summer trip full of friendship and misadventures that make up for some heartbreak.

Kikujiro takes place during the summer school holidays. The main protagonist is a quiet nine-year-old boy named Masao (Yusuke Sekiguchi).

He has no one to play with since his schoolmates are going on family vacations. Masao won’t get the opportunity to do anything as fun since he lives alone with his grandmother who has to work, his father long dead and his mother “away working hard.” His loneliness and curiosity about the parents he has never met spur him to head off in search of his mother. With little more than a few thousand yen, his mother’s address from a package, and an old photo, Masao sets off on a journey from Tokyo to Toyohashi. The little boy soon gets into difficulties but a friend (Kayoko Kishimoto) of his grandmother volunteers her husband Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano) to accompany him on his journey.

Now here’s where things go awry…

Kikujiro is an ex-yakuza, either a brash loud-mouth or layabout loser he has no problem shaking down people for money, even kids. Kikujiro is also immature and acts before he thinks a lot of the time and yet despite his childishness he doesn’t even appear to like children all that much. Regardless of everything Kikujiro and Masao start their journey from Tokyo to the seaside town where Masao’s mother lives. With Kikujiro leading the way the two don’t take a sensible route to Toyohashi like, say a bus or train, they end up blowing their money and gambling and cheating their way on the road in what turns out to be a memorable adventure filled with happiness and sadness for the two as they meet with many surprising situations and weird characters… 

Kikujiro is Takeshi Kitano’s road-trip movie only not filled with as much violence or yakuza like Sonatine (1993), Boiling Point (1990), and Hana-bi (1997). This is a good-natured, even heart-warming tale filled with whimsy and sentimentality as Kitano revels in taking two characters on an old-fashioned holiday full of fun and games sure to evoke nostalgia for childhood summers. Fortunately things don’t get to saccharine sweet due to the clashing personalities of the characters!

Like many of Kitano’s other films the structure takes the form of a series of vignettes. Each takes place in a chapter which gets its own intertitle complete with an amusing still photograph and on-screen text previewing the next misadventure that quiet little Masao and outrageous Kikujiro get into. It’s a technique presented in a segmented, even childish manner as if mimicking an entry in Masao’s “What I Did Last Summer” project book. Instead of these sequences feeling loose they are held together by the growing emotional bond between the two main protagonists.

It doesn’t start off promisingly. Kikujiro doesn’t want to escort the child anywhere and it is only because his wife makes him that he does so. He struggles to get the two out of Tokyo when his lousy adult skills sees him blow their trip money gambling and he puts Masao in danger multiple times. Even when they get out of the city and into the country (by stealing a taxi) Kikujiro meets and antagonises all sorts of people, from a young couple on a date, truck drivers, and bikers. I use the word antagonise but it makes Kikujiro sound more threatening than he actually is.

Kikujiro is too lackadaisical and even good-natured at times to be a truly horrible character for audiences to dislike even though he gets into fights. There’s no sadism behind even his most thuggish actions, just impetuousness. We see his actions from Masao’s perspective and at worst he’s a petty crook, belligerent but honourable and as the story continues he becomes Masao’s guardian angel of sorts after he comes to understand that he and the boy may be more alike than he first thought. The audience will see another dimension to the man who they might write off as a loser which justifies the Japanese title for the film Kikujiro’s Summer.

Kikujiro begins to open up as a character and a more tender side emerges from behind the gruff exterior which shows he is capable of finer feelings. He holds Masao’s hand, ruffles his hair and offers words of encouragement instead of admonitions. He also goes to extreme lengths to make Masao’s summer vacation a happy one, utilising his yakuza skills to press gang others into helping with the fun and games. His immaturity works wonders here as he organises traditional Japanese summer holiday activities but with an anarchic Kikujiro-twist so we see poolside fun, fishing, eating watermelons, rope swinging, “Daruma-san ga koronda” and going to festivals but all twisted into near painful and unique experiences that are sure to make an audience laugh. More importantly it’s all to ensure the lonely boy has some happy memories to take back to school. There’s even the promise of friendship between the two, something unthinkable from the start.

The bad influence of Kikujiro doesn’t rub off on Masao who remains the innocent good-natured cutie (as many characters refer to him) that people in the film fall for and work hard to make happy. Indeed, he goes from frowning to grinning whenever he’s on screen and it’s gratifying to see. Their impact on each other is also neatly shown in the way that they dress similarly and form a neat manzai double act of sorts (Kitano going back to his comedy roots) with Masao being the straight-man and Kikujiro being the goofball.

Even the intertitles chart the growing closeness between Masao and Kikujiro, the respectful Oji-san in the on-screen text turning into the more familiar and cuter Oji-chan as the two bond. It’s a natural development that never feels forced.

By the end of the trip, Masao will not be so lonely and he will have collected a lot of fun tales to regale his school class with when asked about what he did during the summer. Even better, these are the sorts of unique experiences that will help him grow up with happier memories and with a more upbeat view of life. As for Kikujiro, he will have grown up as well and thanks to the heart-warming encounters the two experienced during their journey you can bet he will stop being a complete lay-about loser.

4.5/5

Kikujiro is release today on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK and the image quality

is fantastic. I am going to have to replace another DVD like I did following on from the excellent release of the Hana-bi Blu-ray. 

Extras:

Jam Session – 90 minute documentary on Kikujiro directed by the award-winning Japanese director Makoto Shinozaki (director of Sharing which was at the Vancouver and the Rotterdam International Film Festivals.

Cardboard slipcase with new illustrated design (limited to 1000 copies)

There are a lot of film festivals in Japan and despite this being a Japanese film blog I never report on them (unless you count a few half-hearted attempts at Yubari). Anyway, I want to tackle the Osaka Asian Film Festival because Osaka has become one of the more interesting focal points of Japanese filmmaking with the university producing directors and writers who are creating films like Dressing Up which get great plaudits from film critics. So what about the film festival itself?

The Osaka Asian Film Festival is in its 11^th year and focusses on Asian films. It takes place from March 04^th to 13^th and East Asian territories such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The programme is large and full of many great films (all easily laid out on the website).

The Main Competition section which has thirteen films with a team of international jurors choosing the winner of two awards, Grand Prix and Most Promising Talent. There is only one Japanese film in this section:

Tsumugu   

つむぐもの「tsumugu mono」

Release Date: March 19th, 2016

Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Kazutoshi Inudo

Writer: Yusuke Moriguchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Saburo Ishikura, Kim Kkot-bi, Riho Yoshioka, Yojin Hino, Chika Uchida, Yuki Morinaga, Shohei Uno,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Takeo (Saburo Ishikura) is a widower who lives in Fukui Prefecture. He works as a traditional paper maker who lives and works alone. He has a brain tumour which causes him to fall and be incapacitated. He needs help but he is unwilling to open his heart to anyone.

A Korean girl named Yona (Kim Kkobi) is in Japan on a working holiday and works with Takeo. Despite his abusive language and prejudice, she is determined to help Takeo.

They may be from different countries, different generations, and have different genders but their hearts and souls learn to communicate.

There are specific sections of the programme dedicated to the cinematic output of individual countries/territories: Vietnamese Cinema in Bloom, Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2016, Special Focus on Hong and New Action! Southeast Asia which showcases action films from Southeast Asia. The greatest concentration of Japanese films is in the Indie Forum and [12^th CO2 Grant-recipient Film] sections where there is a gang of female filmmakers and students fresh from university making their debuts.

Eriko, Pretended   

見栄を張る「Mie wo haru」

Release Date: N/A

Running Time: 93 mins.

Director: Akiyo Fujimura

Writer: Yusuke Moriguchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Mei Kanami, Keiko Koyanagi, Yoka Kubo, Miki Nitori, Atsuya Okada, Masahiro Saito, Masami Shinozaki, Nagiko Tsuji, Yoko Tsuji,

Website  IMDB

Eriko, Pretended is part of the 12th CO2 Grant-recipient Film section and was in a crowd-funding campaign (in the West and Japan) which ended this month. It features a group of experienced crew who have worked on other films.

Synopsis: Eriko (Haruka Kubo) moved to Tokyo to become an actor but after ten years of trying she hasn’t quite made it. When her sister dies, Eriko returns home to attend the funeral where she delivers a eulogy. After the event she has to answer awkward questions about her acting career but, more importantly, she states that she will care for her sister’s ten-year-old son Kazuma…

I Am a Weapon

私は兵器「Watashi wa heiki」

Release Date: N/A

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Akihiro Mima

Writer: Akihiro Mima (Screenplay)

Starring: Ibuki Tsuji Hideki Tamai, Yuka Hirahara, Takeshi Yamamoto, Kensho Tachibana, Shun Sugata,

Website  IMDB

Director Akihiro Mima made the 2013 film Utopia Sounds but has been silent since then. He’s back in the 12th CO2 Grant-recipient Film section.

Synopsis: Moto Maruse (Ibuki Tsuji) is the son of a violent man who beat someone to death and he is afraid of repeating history. With a hatred for violence and a fear of people who might make him a monster, he avoids relationships with other people and becomes a piano tuner. It’s a hard thing to keep up and when Moto meets a boy named Shaku Fujii, he sees someone similar to himself and starts teaching him piano. It goes further because Shaku’s mother Itsuka has an ex-husband named Seiichiro who is a journalist investigating puzzling random incidents of violence. At the same time, Moto is drawn into a mysterious organization for acting revenge, “Messengers.” However, Seiichiro starts to expose the existence of the organization…

The Man Who Was Eaten

食べられる男「Taberareru otoko」

Release Date: N/A

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Keisuke Kondo

Writer: Akihiro Mima (Screenplay)

Starring: Chikara Honda, Mahiro Sugiyama, Tomomi Ishikawa, Haruka Nakano, Soichiro Yoshimoto, Riku Tokimitsu, Shingo Kawaguchi, Yoshio Shin,

Website  IMDB

One of the great things about Twitter is that filmmakers can easily get in contact with you and when you are tweeting about Japanese films like I do you attract Japanese filmmakers. Alas, I’m a small one-man operation with little time so when the guys and gals behind The Man Who Was Eaten followed me, I followed them back and… that was it – I did send them a message but didn’t push the issue. I wish I’d made more of an effort to get in contact or asked someone to do that for me because this cynical sci-fi comedy in the 12th CO2 Grant-recipient Film section has come from a production team composed of current students from Osaka University of Arts and the Europa Kikaku and the story looks potentially interesting.

Synopsis: Following an alien invasion, humanity has been turned into cattle for the invaders to devour and children are educated from an early age about how much it is an honour to be chosen as food for aliens. Miserable middle aged divorcee Murata Yoshio is an isolated loner but when he is selected for alien food he is given a week-long heroes send-off which makes him ponder the question, “Do you think I am delicious?”

The Indie Forum features eleven Japanese films, some shorts and some features:

RUMAH (ルマ, Dir: Yosep Anggi Noen 20 mins.) comes from Indonesian filmmaker Yosep Anggi Noen who travelled to Okinawa to make this film which stars Erika, lead actor in the wonderful Hirokazu Koreeda film After Life. This is a story about a woman named Ayumi (Erika) who works as an information centre operator. With the internet available, nobody calls her and Ayumi is only asked a few questions a day by older people. One day, she along with her colleagues, is soon told they will be fired. Ayumi returns to her parent’s home and waiting for her is her father who she has not spoken to in years…

Somewhere in My Memory (想い出の中で, 30 mins. Dir. Keihiro Kanyama) stars Chiharu Konno as career woman who lives in Tokyo named Tomoe. She returns to her hometown at a time when everyone is preparing for the traditional annual fire festival. Tomoe reunites with her estrange parents and some old childhood friends but she has an announcement to make… she is now divorced.

KISARAZU (7 mins. Dir: Toshimichi Sato) stars Chen Shourong and Futaro Kashiwagi and it’s all about the exploitation of foreign workers in Japan as told through the story of a Chinese girl named Li-hong who fights against terrible working conditions and sexual harassment. Her boss tries to get her expelled from the country… The festival site describes it as “Based on a true event from 2006, the film paints the true reality of this system. An actual Chinese trainee who was involved in the system and is now protected plays the part of Li-hong.”

Here’s the trailer which is less than a minute long but gives an idea of the creepy boss:

The director’s website has more of his shorts films.

Keiko Tsuruoka is a new voice who I first came across when her film The Town of Whales played at the Berlin Film Festival in 2013. Now new voices don’t always find the support to carry on but she has soldiered away making more and more films and there are two of her latest ones at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.

A Light in the Distance

あの電燈「Ano dentou」

Release Date: N/A

Running Time: 53 mins.

Director: Keiko Tsuruoka

Writer: Keiko Tsuruoka (Screenplay)

Starring: Mariko Kobayashi, Naoya Shimizu, Akaji Maro, Kaori Takeshita, Suzuna, Kazunari Yanagitani,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: High school girl Mado (Mariko Kobayashi) wakes to an empty town and a tsunami incoming. She has been left behind while everyone else has evacuated. Everyone except her classmate Fujii (Naoya Shimizu) who refuses to leave. Mado finds herself press-ganged into searching the town for others who have stayed behind and encounter a group of people plus traumatic memories…

TOMO NI KATSUGEBA: ON OUR SHOULDERS

ともに担げば 「Tomo ni Katsugeba」

Release Date: N/A

Running Time: 64 mins.

Director: Keiko Tsuruoka

Writer: Keiko Tsuruoka (Screenplay)

Starring: Shohei Ueki, Haruki Takano, illy, Hina Yamazaki, Kenichi Saito, Takahiro Kato, Eiji Koshiya

Website

Synopsis: This story is all about the traditional metalworking techniques and craftsmanship and two hardworking men, Tsuyoshi and Seiichiro, who work in this industry and have been rivals since childhood. The breathe cities summer festival is cancelled puts celebrations at risk, the townspeople turn to Tsuyoshi and Seiichiro… Will they work together?

Mad Tiger (マッド タイガー, Dirs. Jonathan Yi, Michael Haertlein, 82 mins.) is a feature-length documentary about two Japanese men who were in the same band (Peelander-Z) and toured the US playing performance-art punk rock but when one of the men decides to quit, their friendship is tested severely.

Hakodate Coffee (函館珈琲, Dir: Hiroshi Nishio, 90 mins.) stars Masaya Kikawada and Reiko Kataoka and more as a group of young artists who live and work in an apartment where they make glass ornaments, teddy bears and more. The group keeps growing as they share their workspace and coffee.

If any film typifies the raison d’etre of the film festival, it’s 5 to 9 (ファイブ トゥ ナイン, Dirs: Tay Bee Pin, Daisuke Miyazaki, Vincent Du, Rasiguet Sookkarn, 80 mins.) which was filmed across Asia with an international cast portraying characters undergoing massive changes in their lives on the evening of the Brazil-Germany match at World Cup 2014. A couple parts in China and in Singapore there’s a couple who leave their future to the final result of the match, a porno-projectionist in Japan collects debts and a filmmaker in Thailand suspects his wife is cheating. This is a collection of short films and the stories take place between 5pm and 9am.

My Technicolor Girl

夢の女　ユメノヒト「Yume no onna Yume no Hito」

Release Date: April 09^th, 2016

Running Time: 71 mins.

Director: Rei Sakamoto

Writer: Futoshi Nakano (Screenplay)

Starring: Kazuhiro Sano, Kiyomi Itoh, Hanako Wada, Maki Nishiyama,

Website

Synopsis from the festival site: Nagano (Kazuhiro Sano) has spent 40 years in a mental hospital in Fukushima with only the memory of his first love on his mind (love sickness?). However, during the evacuation when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, knowing that he’s already completely healed, he makes his way back out to into the world and tracks down where his first love is… Tokyo, if you’re curious. She lives with her son and his wife and so Nagano mounts his bike and heads to Tokyo…  His story is like that of Urashima Taro, the Japanese fisherman who went beneath the sea as a young man and returned to an unfamiliar world. 

To See Mother

椿、母に会いに「Tsubaki, haha ni Ai ni」

Release Date: N/A

Running Time: 72 mins.

Director: Shunichi Takagi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Fumi Kumakawa, Tomoki Kimura, Keigo Tani, Yoko Takano,

Synopsis from the festival site: Tsubaki Higurashi is nearly 30, works part time as a sign holder, and always covers her face with a medical mask.  Her boyfriend works from home (and usually in the nude) and her estranged mother tries to visit her but Tsubaki avoids her. Tsubaki questions her choices in life and where future is heading. One day, a man pretending to be a professional entertainment scout approaches Tsubaki, and while she listens, thoughts of “Why me?” float around in her head, she gradually becomes interested. Each of her thoughts slip away in the streets of Osaka.

KENJI-KUN NO HARU

けんじ君の春「Kenji-kun no Haru」

Release Date: N/A

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Aki Morita

Writer: N/A

Starring: Fumi Kumakawa, Tomoki Kimura, Keigo Tani, Yoko Takano,

Synopsis: Kenji Sawaguchi is a womaniser and lives off others instead of getting a job. His favorite thing to say is, “Could you lend me some money?” His friend Shoichi and his older sister Haruka are always getting taken advantage of by Kenji and he owes money to all sorts of people and his ex-girlfriends hold gatherings at his place which is why he is usually on the run. When Kenji meets a college student named Ryoko, he falls in love with her. Will he be able to romance her?

This is actress MORITA Aki’s directorial debut on a feature film. Lead actor TOZUKA Junko, known for his role in “Kamen Rider Wizard” and his recurring role in the drama “Angelheart”, is expected to become one of the most promising young actors.

There is a Special Screening of Artist of Fasting, the latest film from left-wing firebrand Masao Adachi. It played at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival last month as part of a retrospective of Adachi’s work. This film is an adaptation of a Franz Kafka story and was filmed in a shopping arcade in Utsunomiya with local people taking part.

Artist of Fasting   

断食芸人「Dnjiki geinin」

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Running Time: 104 mins.

Director: Masao Adachi

Writer: Masao Adachi (Screenplay), Franz Kafka (Original Short Story)

Starring: Hiroshi Yamamoto, Daizo Sakurai, Tomorowo Taguchi, Sakurako Kaoru, Juri Ihata, Takatsugu Iwama, Sankichi Kawamoto,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: A nameless man sits down in a busy shopping street and says nothing. People are intrigued and interpret his silence in different ways and soon a crowd begins to gather. This crowd includes people handing him cash and food which yakuza steal, monks who see some religious aspect to his actions and pray by his side, the Street Performers’ Association who want him to join them and suicidal youths feel soothed in his presence; the press wants to know if he’s a victim of Abenomics. Eventually, the man is caged and given an army guard…

There is a Special Presentation of a documentary all about chambara – Japanese sword-fighting. There is a resurgence of interest in this type of Japanese film thanks to foreign and female fans finding things to love and flocking to screenings. Indeed, I reviewed a chambara film of sorts called Uzumasa Limelight (2014) which gave a behind-the-scenes view of the Japanese film industry and the state of chambara films. Two of its stars, Seizo Fukumoto and Chihiro Yamamoto appear in this documentary.

CHAMBARA: THE ART OF JAPANESE SWORDPLAY

時代劇は死なず　ちゃんばら美学考「Jidaigeki wa shinazu: Chanbara bigakukou」

Release Date: October 18th, 2015

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Sadao Nakajima

Starring: Seizo Fukumoto, Shogo Kimura, Hiroki Matsukata, Sadao Nakajima, Chihiro Yamamoto,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Kyoto has been at the centre of the development of period drama films and “Chambara (sword-fights)” is one of the most popular types of film with classics from the ‘60s and ‘70s such as 13 Assassins proving good enough to get a recent update and Lady Snowblood and Lone Wolf & Cub continually on the top ten lists of cult movie fans around the world. This documentary looks at the appeal of the films while including interviews with critics, actors, and “tate-shi (sword-fight choreographers)”. As a finale, a genuine “chambara” scene will be presented.

The Closing Film for the festival is Mohican Comes Home which is directed by Shuichi Okita (The Story of Yonosuke, The Woodsman and the Rain) and stars Ryuhei Matsuda (The Great Passage, My Little Sweet Pea) and Atsuko Maeda (Seventh Code).

Mohican Comes Home   

モヒカン故郷に帰る「Mohikan kokyo ni kaeru」

Release Date: April 09th, 2016

Running Time: 124 mins.

Director: Shuichi Okita

Writer: Shuichi Okita (Screenplay)

Starring: Ryuhei Matsuda, Atsuko Maeda, Akira Emoto, Jun Miho, Miu Tomita, Yudai Chiba, Masako Motai,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Eikichi Tamura (Ryuhei Matsuda) left his hometown of Hiroshima and headed for the bright lights of Tokyo in the hopes of being a rock musician. While he made it as the lead singer of a death metal band, fame didn’t happen. Eikichi returns home several years later and tells his mother Haruko (Masako Motai) and father Osamu (Akira Emoto), that his girlfriend Yuka (Atsuko Maeda) is pregnant. His parents are simultaneously upset over the lack of preparation and excited to have a grandchild but things get difficult when Osamu collapses and is taken to hospital…

Hello dear audience!

I have been busy this week and about to get busier with preparations for Japan. I may not post next week and there will be a point this year when I may not be posting at all but I’ll try to keep going because there are lots of great Japanese films to write about.

I watched Kikujiro (1999), Appleseed (1988), Darkside Blues (1994) and Vampire Hunter D (1985). I wrote a review for Kikujiro and previewed the Japanese films at next month’s Osaka Asian Film Festival.

What’s released this weekend?

While the Women are Sleeping   

女が眠る時「onna ga nemuru toki」　

Running Time: 103 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Wayne Wang

Writer: Michael Ray, Shinho Lee, Mami Sunada (Screenplay) Javier Marias (Original Story)

Starring:  Beat Takeshi, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Sayuri Oyamada, Lily Franky, Shiori Kutsuna, Makiko Watanabe, Hirofumi Arai,

Website IMDB

This recently played at the Berlin Film Festival and reviews paint it as an intriguing psycho-sexual thriller. Here’s the blurb I wrote:

This is another film with a stellar cast – Hidetoshi Nishijima (License to Live), Takeshi Kitano (Hana-bi), Lily Franky (Like Father, Like Son), Makiko Watanabe (Love Exposure) – and it has an interesting story which I think you can read on the New Yorker magazine website. The trailer looks great and the story involves obsession, lust, love, danger and all those good things that make thrillers. Ghosts, too, apparently!

Synopsis: Kenji (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and Aya (Sayuri Oyamada) are spending a week at a hotel over the summer and they encounter a strange couple amongst the other guests. There is the considerably older man, Doctor Sahara (Beat Takeshi), and a there is a younger woman, Miki (Shiori Katsuna). Sahara records Miki every night with his video camera and while the women are asleep, he discusses Miki’s life and death with Kenji who is sucked into Sahara’s weird fantasies and concerned about Miki’s safety. Is it all a game or something deadlier?

Artist of Fasting   

断食芸人「Dnjiki geinin」

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Running Time: 104 mins.

Director: Masao Adachi

Writer: Masao Adachi (Screenplay), Franz Kafka (Original Short Story)

Starring: Hiroshi Yamamoto, Daizo Sakurai, Tomorowo Taguchi, Sakurako Kaoru, Juri Ihata, Takatsugu Iwama, Sankichi Kawamoto,

Website  IMDB

This film also played at a film festival… two festivals to be precise. It was at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and it will play at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.

Synopsis: A nameless man sits down in a busy shopping street and says nothing. People are intrigued and interpret his silence in different ways and soon a crowd begins to gather. This crowd includes people handing him cash and food which yakuza steal, monks who see some religious aspect to his actions and pray by his side, the Street Performers’ Association who want him to join them and suicidal youths feel soothed in his presence; the press wants to know if he’s a victim of Abenomics. Eventually, the man is caged and given an army guard…

Chinyuki   

珍遊記「Chinyuuki」　

Running Time: 100 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Yudai Yamaguchi

Writer: Ohkawara, Shu Matsubara (Screenplay) Gataro Man (Original Manga)

Starring:  Kenichi Matsuyama, Pierre Taki, Kana Kurashina, Junpei Mizobata, Takashi Sasano,

Website IMDB

I have reviewed a few splatter films directed by Yudai Yamaguchi. Top of the pile is Tamami: The Baby’s Curse and then there’s Deadball and Meatball Machine which aren’t as great. He’s back with a more mainstream film based on the manga series “Chinyuki – Taro to Yukaina Nakama tachi” which was written and illustrated by Gataro and published from 1990 to 1992 in Weekly Shonen Jump. The manga series is a parody of 16th century Chinese novel “Journey to the West” which is why we see Kenichi Matsuyama (Shindo) looking like the Monkey King… only nude.  This film looks like a case of dumb but fun…

Synopsis: Genzo is a monk on his way to India but his journey will see him meet all sorts of people and creatures starting with an old couple who have an adopted son, Taro Yamada (Kenichi Matsuyama) who is a wild card since he’s a troublemaker with magical powers…

The Shell Collector   

シェルコレクター「Sheru Korekuta」　

Running Time: 89 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Yoshifumi Tsubota

Writer: Yoshifumi Tsubota (Screenplay) Anthony Doerr (Original Short Story)

Starring:  Lily Franky, Ai Hashimoto, Sosuke Ikematsu, Shinobu Terajima,

Website IMDB

This is a solid looking drama with an impressive-looking cast. Lily Franky takes the lead and shares the screen with Ai Hashimoto (The Kirishima Thing), Sosuke Ikematsu (How Selfish I Am!) and Shinobu Terajima.

Synopsis: A blind man (Lily Franky) works studying as a conchology scholar. He is now a world-renowned expert and lives a peaceful existence studying the shells on a remote island in Okinawa. All of that changes when a painter named Izumi (Shinobu Terajima), appears in front of the blind scholar and tells him she suffers from a rare disease. The scholar knows how to cure the woman’s disease by using poisons from certain shells and so when word of his medical skills spread people gather on the island to meet him…

I’m Not Just Going to Do What Kurosaki-kun Says   

黒崎くんの言いなりになんてならない「Kurosaki-kun no Iinari ni Nante Naranai」　

Running Time: 74 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Sho Tsukikawa

Writer: Yuko Matsuda (Screenplay) Makino (Original Manga)

Starring: Nana Komatsu, Kento Nakajima, Yudai Chiba, Sara Takatsuki, Yuta Kishi, Yui Kitamura, Amane Okayama, Rimo Hasegawa,

Website IMDB

Nana Komatsu came out of nowhere to stun audiences in The World of Kanako and since then she has appeared in lots of films. A lot of them are adaptations of manga. This one has a suspect story about her character Yu becoming obedient to someone. Don’t give up your freedom!

Synopsis: Yu Akahane (Nana Komatsu) moves to a school dormitory room following her father’s transfer from work and she is excited because she will live in the same dorm as Takumi Shirakawa (Yudai Chiba) aka “White Prince.” Alas, Haruto Kurosaki (Kento Nakajima) aka “Black Devil” kisses her first and this steaks Yu’s heart.

Pinay’s Addicted!   

ピン中！「Pinchu!」　

Running Time: 74 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Yudai Kanazawa

Writer: Yudai Kanazawa, Yasunori Matsuhisa (Screenplay)

Starring: Shingo Yanagisawa, Lorena Koto, Takayuki Godai, Wakaba Makino, Yoshiaki Hattori, Ai Watari,

Website IMDB

One of the biggest exports from the Philippines is its people. Five years ago there was no Filipino community where I love and now there is a fairly large one and they have taken over a church in my area. It’s great to see. Japan has long had a community and this film explores that from the slant of men having a good time at a Filipino bar with some girls. This probably isn’t a serious discussion of the issue unlike IMBISIBOL which played at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Synopsis: The Philippines pub Fiesta is a popular place for men to hang out. Azumi (Takayuki Godai) is a prime example since he has been a patron there for 30 years and married Jane (Lorena Kotou) who works at the pub. This is little more than a hostess club so they are open to an inspection by the Immigration Bureau which may cause chaos for patrons and hostesses…

Mother’s Lover   

母の恋人「Haha no koibito」　

Running Time: 74 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Takahiro Ueno

Writer: Shuji Kataoka (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuko Mizushima, Nanami Hidaka, Sasaki Kokone, Masanori Sugawara, Momona,

Website  

Synopsis: More stories of middle-aged women bedding young guys.

Detective Opera Milky Holmes the Movie: Milky Holmes’ Counterattack  

劇場版 探偵オペラ ミルキィホームズ ～逆襲のミルキィホームズ～「Gekijouban Tantei Opera Miruki ho-uzu – gyakushuu no miruki Ho-muzu-」

Release Date: February 27^th, 2016

Running Time: 91 mins.

Director: Hiroaki Sakurai

Writer: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Screenplay),

Animation Production: J.C. Staff

Starring: Suzuko Mimori (Sherlock Shellingford), Mikoi Sasaki (Hercule Barton), Izumi Kitta (Cordelia Glauca), Sora Tokui (Nero Yuzurisaki), Satomi Akesaka (Arsene/Henriette Mystere), Yoshino Nanjou (Kokoro Akechi),

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: The members of Milky Holmes are on a study tour… Well, they should be studying but they are soaking in the hot springs among snow monkeys but when the Thief Empire attacks and uses their Toys (special powers) the girls have to fight back. Things get intense with the arrival of the Genius 4! In the midst of battle, a violent lightning bolt strikes from the sky. Struck by the lightning, the four Milky Holmes girls lose their abilities.

Joe, Tomorrow: 20 Years with Joichiro Tatsuyoshi, Legendary Boxing Champ   

ジョーのあした　辰吉丈一郎との20年「Joe no ashita tatsuyoshi jou ichirou to no 20-nen」　

Running Time: 81 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Junji Sakamoto

Writer: N/A

Starring: Joichiro Tatsuyoshi

Website 

Synopsis: Boxing legend Joichiro Tatsuyoshi is the subject of this documentary which uses interviews with the man to track the evolution of his career and family life and the physical problems he developed from boxing – detached retinas and more. The film itself evolves as it shows Joichiro’s relationship with his youngest son who wants to enter the profession. The title is a reference to the classic boxing manga Ashita no Joe.

Hakamada Iwao yume no ma no yononaka   

袴田巖　夢の間の世の中「Hakamada Iwao yume no ma no yononaka」　

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Kim Sung-woong

Writer: N/A

Starring: Iwao Hakamada, Hideko Hakamada

Website 

Synopsis: Sadly, former boxer Iwao Hakamada is more famous for serving 48 years on death row and in solitary confinement rather than in the ring after he was sentenced for the murder of a family of four in 1966. Hakamada was released in 2014 after a tireless campaign from his sister Hideko to reopen the case on the basis that DNA evidence showed he was not the killer and that the police framed him. His time inside has seen his mental state deteriorate, something prompted by the threat of the death sentence. There have been a couple of documentaries and dramas made of this case and this is the latest. Here’s an interview with the director on the Japan Times website.

Shadow Kids   

SHADOW KIDS シャドーキッズ「Shado- Kizzu」　

Running Time: 74 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Shunji Muguruma

Writer: Shunji Muguruma, Jun Yoshida (Screenplay)

Starring: Kunihiko Ida, Takehide Kanda, Yuki Kanda, Nanami Mitani, Hisako Ohkata, Agatha Okada, Hikari Seta,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Takashi (Takehide Kanda) and his sister (Yuki Kanda) are bullied but the mysterious Shadow Kids save them. Takashi sees the dark side of Kabukicho while running with this gang of heroes.

101-Kai-me no beddo in   

101回目のベッド・イン「101-Kai-me no beddo in」　

Running Time: 80 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Salmon Sakeyama

Writer: Kosuke Komatsu (Screenplay)

Starring: Mai Chusonji, Maki Nishimoto, Yun Hayama,

Website

Synopsis: Something about two middle-aged women going into the movie making business and hooking up with two youngsters. The group go looking for popular things to make films around.

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

The Martian (2016/02/05)

Nobunaga Concerto (2016/01/23)

Point Break (2016/02/20)

Saraba Abunai Deka: Long Goodbye (2016/01/30)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed (2015/12/18)

Born in the EXILE Sandaime J Soul Brothers no Kiseki (2016/02/12)

Sherlock (2016/02/19)

Girlz und Panzer der Film  (2015/11/21)

Doukyuusei (2016/02/20)

Eiga Youkai Watch: Enma Daioh to Itsutsu no Monogatari da Nyan! (2016/12/19)

Wild Zero    

ワイルドゼロ「Wairudo Zero」

Release Date: August 08^th, 1999 (Japan)

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Tetsuro Takeuchi

Writer: Satoshi Takagi, Tetsuro Takeuchi (Screenplay),

Starring: Guitar Wolf, Drum Wolf, Bass Wolf, Masashi Endo, Kwancharu Shitichai, Haruka Nakajo, Yoshiyuki Morishita,

IMDB

Wild Zero is a film from 1999 which was shot in Thailand (doubling up for Japan) and directed by Tetsuro Takeuchi, a veteran of the music video scene. It’s a B-movie about a young guy discovering the power of rock and love with help from real-life garage rock power trio Guitar Wolf.

The story takes place in Asahi, a small town Japan. A young guy named Ace (Masashi Endo) is attending concerts thrown by his heroes Guitar Wolf. He dreams of being a rock star himself and looks the part with his motorbike, leather jacket and quiff. Unfortunately he’s a bit of a lame as is revealed when he interrupts a Mexican stand-off between the band and a seedy club manager.

Ace ends up getting punched out but helps the band out of their sticky situation. Guitar Wolf sees the passion for rock in Ace and make a blood pact with him. They are now rock and roll brothers! They also offer him protection in the form of a whistle. All Ace has to do is blow on the whistle and the band will come to his rescue. It’s a gift that Ace will soon put into use because the very next day all hell breaks loose!

Ace arrives at a gas station robbery orchestrated by three losers. This is where he spies a beautiful woman named Tobio (Kwancharu Shitichai). With his new found confidence (inspired by Guitar Wolf) and a potential lover to impress he saves the place (mostly by accident) from the group of robbers. Unfortunately a bigger threat arrives in the form of a herd of zombies and the two are soon on the run. Maybe it’s time for Ace to use the whistle!

Wild Zero is a zombie movie, sure, but I’d much rather describe it as an advertisement for the band Guitar Wolf who strut into various scenes with coolness emanating from them geared up in their greaser outfits and sunglasses (which they never take off). When they aren’t strutting they are riding their bikes and cars complete with custom paint jobs. The band aren’t great actors but they exude charisma and cool. Their garage rock blasts over the soundtrack continually for the film and it proves to be a fitting accompaniement to the chaos.

They are the highlight. The secondary characters are much more of a drag. A collection of kooks and everyday characters caught up in the alien invasion. There is the three lackaiasical stoner friends who rob the station made up of Hanako and Masao, a bickering couple, and a guy with butterfly knives. A trio of yakuza and some other randoms help fill out the cast. When the film is on them in the zombie apocalypse it lacks spark. Their normalness is their problem. Their normalness highlights the coolness of Guitar Wolf who dominate the scenes they appear in and a few more members of the cast.

There are colourful characters such as a lean and lithe gun runner who blasts anyone who interrupts her in the shower and the drug-dealing club owner who wears a wig and hotpants and runs around blasting guns. There’s also Ace, played as a good-natured everyman by the affable Masashi Endo. His journey to win Tobio’s heart is charming and provides an emotional through-line for the film.

Alas, when they aren’t on the screen the film fizzles out. The pacing is rather shambolic as it lurches from one set-piece to another. It’s like a garage jam Guitar Wolf are performing. They get the thread of a good musical idea that thunders along and sometimes it’s sustained for a sequence, sometimes it cuts out and the band have to try again only instead of music it’s zombies eating brains! The horror references are laboured and some are poorly worked into the film – the film stops as everyone has an argument about seeing Night of the Living Dead. There’s also the stereotypical overacting and mugging for the camera as is expected with a B-movie from Japan.

Amidst the various uneven parts of the film are moments of greatness usually involving Guitar Wolf. The lead of the band, while not the greatest actor is cool enough to be a rock and roll Messiah so it’s always fun to see the different moments of spiritual awakening Ace has such as when Guitar Wolf materialises in a zombie siege and urges the young protag to save his potential lover leading to the, “Rock and roll has no boundaries, nationalities or genders,” speech which is a lovely and progressive sentiment when Ace’s love turns out to be a little more different than anyone expected. It helps deliver an earnest message about doing your best and looking past the surface of things and finding your inner rock and roll hero.

If nothing else, you get to see the lead singer shred through an entire alien ship with a sword hidden in his guitar.

3/5

The American film distributor Kino Lorber has set up a series of theatrical screenings for Sweet Bean, the 2015 film from acclaimed director Naomi Kawase. It has had a long journey on the festival circuit starting at Cannes last year and heading to Rotterdam last month. The American release covers some major cities:

Lincoln Plaza Cinema      New York            NY          March 18-24, 2016

Landmark Midtown Art Cinema Atlanta GA          April 1-7, 2016

Laemmle theaters – LA  Los Angeles        CA          April 8-14, 2016

Sundance Kabuki Cinemas           San Francisco     CA          April 8-14, 2016

Gene Siskel Film Center                Chicago                IL             April 8-14, 2016

The Japan Society in New York have also organised a preview screening on March 03^rd at 7 PM. To find out more about the screenings and to book tickets, head over to the Kino Lorber site.

Sweet Bean    

あん「An」

Running Time: 113 mins.

Director: Naomi Kawase,

Writer: Naomi Kawase (Screenplay), Durian Sukegawa (Original Novel),

Starring: Masatoshi Nagase, Kirin Kiki, Kyara Uchida, Etsuko Ichihara, Miki Mizuno, Taiga, Wakato Kanematsu, Miyoko Asada.

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: After getting released from prison Sentarou (Masatoshi Nagase) heads to the suburbs of Tokyo and works hard to become the manager of a dorayaki bakery store. He is a skilled at cooking but lacks passion because of troubling memories. An older woman, Tokue (Kirin Kiki) asks to work at the store, making the sweet red bean paste that fills the dorayaki. Sentarou is an introverted loner but gives the lady a shot. Tokue brings cheer to the place despite the low wage and her sweet red beans become popular (far more than anything Sentarou makes) and her presence is welcomed by the customers. The store flourishes, but a rumour spreads that Tokue once had an illness

Hello dear audience!

I need to study more! I still want to blog! Difficult choices lay ahead for me but I think I can balance everything until I get to June/July and a four week period where I will be working incessantly. I’ll try and stock up on film reviews for that period. For now, I am mixing and matching posts!

I posted a review for Wild Zero (1999) and news about the US theatrical release of the Noami Kawase movie An (2015).

What’s released this weekend?

Cherry Blossom Memories   

桜ノ雨「Sakura no ame」　

Running Time: 98 mins.

Release Date: March 05^th, 2016

Director: Atsushi Ueda

Writer: Hirotoshi Kobayashi (Screenplay) halyosy (Original Novel)

Starring:  Maika Yamamoto, Koudai Asaka, Ryohei Hirota, Ikumi Hisamatsu, Toko Miura, Yuki Inoue, Tomoko Tabata,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Miku (Maika Yamamoto) is a shy high school student and a member of the school’s chorus club. She loves singing and has feelings for Haru (Koudai Asaka), the head of the chorus club. Their teacher, Meiko (Tomoko Tabata), is going to retire and she hopes the chorus club can win the last chorus competition she will oversee. The song selected for the chorus competition is “Sakura no Ame” and it’s a tough one that will push the singers.

Hoshigaoka Wonderland   

星ガ丘ワンダーランド「Hoshigaoka Wanda-rando」

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Running Time: 111 mins.

Director: Show Yanagisawa

Writer: Show Yanagisawa, Koko Maeda (Screenplay),

Starring: Tomoy Nakamura, Nozomi Sasaki, Yoshino Kimura, Masaki Suda, Anne Watanabe, Hayato Ichihara, Hirofumi Arai, Yutaka Matsushige,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Atsuto (Tomoya Nakamura) is a young man who works at the lost and found department at the Hoshigaoka Station. It is a fitting job for someone who was abandoned by his mother (Yoshino Kimura) when he was young.  He likes to imagine about the owner of the lost item and what happened to cause the item to be lost but when Atsuto learns that his mother committed suicide his life begins to change…

Sailor Suit and Machine Gun: Graduation   

セーラー服と機関銃 –卒業–「Se-ra- Fuku to Kikanju – Sotsugyou-」　

Running Time: 118 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Koji Maeda

Writer: Ryo Takada (Screenplay) Jiro Akagawa (Original Manga)

Starring:  Kanna Hashimoto, Hiroki Hasegawa, Masanobu Ando, Takuro Ohno, Shohei Uno, Koki Maeda, Tokio Emoto, Kanji Furutachi, Shingo Tsurumi, Eita Okuno

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Izumi Hoshi (Kanna Hashimoto) is a high school girl but what many don’t know is that she has led a yakuza faction, seeking out the killer of her yakuza boss uncle. She found that killer and used a machine gun to end that person’s life. Her yakuza group, mission accomplished, disbanded and everyone retreated into civilian life. Alas, some dangerous people won’t let Izumi and her gang retire quietly…

Where Florence Sleeps   

フローレンスは眠る「Furo-rensu ha nemuru」　

Running Time: 121 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Katsuto Kobayashi, Kenji Kobayashi

Writer: Katsuto Kobayashi, Kenji Kobayashi (Screenplay)

Starring:  Ryo Fujimoto, Yuki Sakurai, Gaku Yamamoto, Atsuka Kishi, Karin Yamaguchi, Ichirota Miyagawa,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: “Florence no Namida” is a priceless diamond and Hideki Sato (Ichirota Miyagawa), the CEO of a chemical company, is kidnapped because his family owns the diamond. This same family refuse to hand over the diamond and begin fighting over ownership of the business. The kidnapper is shocked but continues with his crime because his mother died over the diamond.

Boku ga inochi o itadaita 3-kakan   

ぼくが命をいただいた3日間「Boku ga inochi o itadaita 3-kakan」　

Running Time: 56 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Risa Kudo

Writer: Shinichi Tanaka (Screenplay)

Starring: Kirato Wakayama, Yuna Taira, Kazuya Takahashi, Yuuko Itou, Chieko Matsubara, Denden,

Website

Risa Kudo, star of Rika: Zombie Hunter, is a director and cinematographer in her own right and this is her latest title. No trailer but Yuna Taira talks about the film.

Synopsis: High school boy Yusuke (Kirato Wakayama) heads to his grandparent’s farm in the mountains to experience the traditions and wholesome food that his father Keita (Kazuya Takahashi) grew up with. He hates it but with a lot of effort, his grandparents Fumi (Chieko Matsubara0 and Genzo (Denden) bring the city boy around.

Sarome no musume anazasaido in progress   

サロメの娘　アナザサイド in progress「Sarome no musume anazasaido in progress」　

Running Time: 70 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Kei Shichiri

Writer: Kei Shichiri,  (Screenplay)

Starring: Izumi Aoyagi, Misaki Kudo, Ikuyo Kuroda, Yoko Chosokabe,

Website

No trailer

Synopsis: Indie warrior Kei Shichiri makes experimental shorts and this is part of a series of films connected to the historical/cultural figure of Salome. How that translates to modern Japan, I’m not sure…

Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016   

映画ドラえもん　新・のび太の日本誕生「Eiga Doraemon Shin Nobita no Nippon Tanjou 」

Release Date: March 05^th, 2016

Running Time: 104 mins.

Director: Shinnosuke Yakuwa

Writer: Shinnosuke Yakuwa (Screenplay),

Animation Production: Shin-Ei Animation

Starring: Megumi Oohara (Nobita), Wasabi Mizuta (Doraemon), Yumi Kakazu (Shizuka), Tomokazu Seki (Suneo), Subaru Kimura (Gian),

Website ANN MAL

This is a remake of a 1989 film

Synopsis: Nobita is fed up of being told off at home and in school comes up with the idea of running away from home because he is always being scolded at home and at school. Additionally, Gian, Shizuka, and Suneo all have their own reasons for running away from home. Together with Doraemon, they all travel through time to the Japan of 70,000 years ago.

Fukushu Shitai   

復讐したい「Fukushuu Shitai」　

Running Time: 98 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Atsushi Muroka

Writer: Yusuke Yamada (Originl Novel), Yoshimasa Akamatsu, Atsushi Muroka (Original Screenplay,

Starring: Masaru Mizuno, Ken Kaito, Yoshinori Okada, Maryjun Takahashi, Yuka Ueno,

Website  IMDB

I have a copy of the Yusuke Yamada novel this is based on. I bought it when attending the 2012 London Film Festival with the intention of translating it. That project didn’t happen.

Synopsis: Masaru Mizuno from the idol unit BOYS AND MEN plays Yasuyuki, husband to a recently murdered wife. He gets his chance for revenge when the government catches the culprit and sets up a death game on an exotic island with criminals and victims fighting each other.

Girl of the Sea   

人魚に会える日。「Ningyo ni aeru hi.」　

Running Time: 93 mins.

Release Date: March 03rd, 2016

Director: Ryugo Nakamura

Writer: Ryugo Nakamura (Screenplay)

Starring: Kanan Gima, Aimoco, Cocco, Kenta Nakaza, Yayoi Shiroma, Singo Chinen, Satoshi Kawamitsu,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: This is a film set in Okinawa that was made with the help of students. It takes in the controversial issues of the Futenma airforce base move and its impact on the locals.

Otona no renai jijou   

オトナの恋愛事情「Otona no renai jijou」　

Running Time: 99 mins.

Release Date: February 27th, 2016

Director: Kei Morikawa

Writer: Kei Morikawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Junko Maru, Yuki Mamiya, Yoshihiko Arima, Yuka Takeda, Makoto Ashikawa,

Website

Synopsis: 37-year-old Shiori works for a women’s magazine and is covering the issue of AV actors. One catches her eye and the eye of her younger niece.

New Directions in Japaese Cinema Shorts

Four new directors were given the chance to make films in 2015 thans to funding from the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Here’s a compilation of clips from the films in one trailer:

Chichi no Kekkon   

父の結婚「Chichi no Kekkon」　

Running Time: 30 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Momoko Fukuda

Writer: Momoko Fukuda (Screenplay)

Starring: Itsuji Itao, Sonim, Takashi Yamanaka, Jyonmyon Pe, Kinuo Yamada

Website

Synopsis: A young woman (Sonim) returns to her family home to visit her father (Itsuji Itao), a widower who wishes to remarry. She gets a surprise when it turns out that he intends to be the bride…

Hana kujira chichi   

はなくじらちち「Hana kujira chichi」　

Running Time: 30 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Takahiro Horie

Writer: Takahiro Horie (Screenplay)

Starring: Yoshiyuki Morishita, Mei Kurokawa, Yuji Nakamura

Website

Synopsis: A man named Tetsuji (Yoshiyuki Morishita) abandoned his family and became homeless. One day he is reunited with his daughter Hana (Mei Kurokawa) who has become a professional wrestler and is about to get married…

Koware hajime teru, heiheihei   

壊れ始めてる、ヘイヘイヘイ「Koware hajime teru, heiheihei」　

Running Time: 30 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Takuma Sato

Writer: Takuma Sato (Screenplay)

Starring: Taga, Yukino Kishii, Tetsuya Makita, Minori Nakata, Boumoto Sakiko,

Website

Synopsis: A businessman named Makoto has a habit of drop kicking people who are bothering the girl of his dreams at her workplace, a convenience store.

Tsumi to basu   

罪とバス「Tsumi to basu」　

Running Time: 30 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Yusuke Fujii

Writer: Yusuke Fujii (Screenplay)

Starring: Abe Shinnosuke, Dai Watanabe, Kawai Aoba, Kana Nakagawa, Yuko Fueki,

Website

Synopsis: Used-car salesman Goro is kicked out of his house by his wife and stuck with his brother Yoshio. They encounter a woman named Naomi who is looking for her recently disappeared boyfriend.

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

I’m Not Just Going to Do What Kurosaki-kun Says (2016/02/27)

The Martian (2016/02/05)

Nobunaga Concerto (2016/01/23)

The Finest Hours (2016/02/27)

Born in the EXILE Sandaime J Soul Brothers no Kiseki (2016/02/12)

Point Break (2016/02/20)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed (2015/12/18)

Saraba Abunai Deka: Long Goodbye (2016/01/30)

Hateful Eight (2016/02/27)

Girlz und Panzer der Film (2015/11/21)

Films are regularly screened at the Japanese Embassy down in London in free events and I often hear about them but never attend. That doesn’t mean I can’t help tell others about them. There are two films playing this month and the latest film to get screened is Final Take, a movie directed by Yoji Yamada in 1986. It is set in the 1930s, an era when silent movies were being replaced with talkies and everyone dreamed of being a star. Here’s the trailer:

Final Take   

キエマの天地「Kinema no Tenchi」

Release Date:  August 02^nd, 1986 (Japan)

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Yoji Yamada

Writer: Yoji Yamada (Screenplay),

Starring: Kiyoshi Atsumi, Kiichi Nakai, Narimi Arimori, Chieko Basho, Harumi Edo, Akira Emoto, Ittoku Kishibe, Keiko Matsuzaka,

IMDB

Synopsis: A film director named Ogura meets a pretty candy seller named Koharu at a cinema and finds out that she dreams of becoming an actress.  The director immediately gives her a role in his project, but she ruins take after take. She goes home determined never to be an actress again but a young assistant to the director named Kenjiro is sent to her home to fetch her, and says ‘There are many young girls who want to become an actress, but only a few whom we want to make an actress.’ Kenjiro writes a script and it looks like Koharu might get another shot at acting but will she take it?

The film will be screened on Wednesday, March 09^th at 18:30. Admission to the films is free but you need to register for a ticket. For more information, head to the embassy’s site.

Aya Hanabusa is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and director of Tale of a Butcher Shop, a film which got its UK premiere when it appeared in this year’s Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme. She is in London for a special talk to discuss her filmmaking style and the themes involved in Tale of a Butcher Shop which include prejudice aimed at the Burakumin minority in Japan as well. This event has been set up by the Japan Foundation as part of their touring film programme and it is a great chance to meet a filmmaker and get the inside story of documentary filmmaking in Japan.

Here’s more information on the film and the venue:

Tale of a Butcher Shop   

ある精肉店のはなし「Aru Seiniku-ten no Hanashi」

Running Time:  108 mins.

Director: Aya Hanabusa

Website   JFDB

Synopsis: The Kitades and their family-run butcher shop in Kaizuka City (outside Osaka) are the focus of this documentary. It is the place where they have been raising and slaughtering cattle, and selling the meat for over 100 years. Due to their trade they are Buraku people and thus discrimated against. When the film gets to the family, they have made the decision to shut down the slaughterhouse. This one is not for the faint of heart since animals are shown being slaughtered.

Date:         March 20^th, 2016 from 2.30pm

Venue:        ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), Studio,

                      The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH

Booking:

This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To book your place via Eventbrite, please visit: aya-hanabusa.eventbrite.co.uk To find out more, head over to the Japan Foundation webpage.

This event is organised as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2016 ‘IKIRU: The Highs and Lows of Life in Japanese Cinema’ (5 February – 26 March 2016)www.jpf-film.org.uk

Third Window Films are releasing a series of films by Takeshi Kitano on Blu-ray as Office Kitano updates the titles with 2K masters. Regular readers will know that I have reviewed Hana-bi and Kikujiro and next Monday I hope to review the latest film to get a release in the series, Dolls.

I was in high school when this was released and I must admit to being turned off by the obvious artiness of it, which isn’t to say that it’s bad so much as my taste ran more to his more violent gangster films. When I was in university I came to love his more sedate films like A Scene at the Sea and Kids Return. Like those two films, Dolls doesn’t feature Kitano acting on screen and it features a score by Joe Hisaishi (his last collaboration with Kitano). I suppose now is a great time to see how far my views have changed since it’s getting a release on March 14^th!

Here’s some info from a press release!

Dolls    

ドールズ「Do-ruzu」

Release Date:  2002 (Japan)

UK Release Date: March 14^th, 2016

UK Distributor: Third Window Films

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Takashi Kitano

Writer: Takashi Kitano (Screenplay),

Starring: Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tatsuya Mihashi, Chieko Matsubara, Kyoko Fukada, Kanji Tsuda, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Yuko Daike,

IMDB

Synopsis:  Three romantic tales are told using elements of Japanese Bunraku puppet theater and beautiful visuals. The first story is about Sawako (Miho Kanno), a woman who becomes suicidal when her fiancé Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima), leaves her to marry his boss’s daughter. The second story follows an obsessed fan Nukui (Tsutomu Takeshige) of a pop idol who expresses his love for the singer Haruna (Kyoko Fukada) through violence. The final story is about aging gangster Hiro (Tatsuya Mihashi) who attempts to reconnect with an old flame (Chieko Matsubara). The stories are intercut together but all involve love and death…

Extras:   

Interviews with Takeshi Kitano, Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima & Yohji Yamamoto;

Behind the Scenes, Video from the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival;

The first 1000 copies feature a cardboard slipcase with new illustrated artwork by Marie Bergeron

Hello dear audience!

I posted a lot of news items like the Blu-ray release of Dolls and the screening of the Yoji Yamada movie Final Take and there was the news item for the director talk involving Aya Hanabusa (Tale of a Butcher Shop) which takes place later this month. Expect more news items in the coming weeks.

What’s released this weekend?

What a Wonderful Family!   

家族はつらいよ「Kazoku wa tsuraiyo」　

Running Time: 108 mins.

Release Date: March 12^th, 2016

Director: Yoji Yamada

Writer: Yoji Yamada, Emiko Hiramatsu (Screenplay) halyosy (Original Novel)

Starring:  Isao Hashizume, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Masahiko Nishimura, Yui Natsukawa, Shozo Hayashiya, Tomoko Nakajima, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Yu Aoi, Jun Fubuki,

Website IMDB   Shochiku

It’s great to see Yoji Yamada is still cranking out films and he’s using his familiar players to create a comedy about a family falling apart.

Synopsis: A family is thrown into chaos when the matriarch Tomiko (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) announces to her husband Shuzo (Isao Hashizume) that she wants a divorce. Their children are shocked about the news of the separation and things spiral out of control as each member of the family opens up about their grievances.

Everest: The Summit of the Gods   

エヴェレスト 神々の山嶺「Eberesuto Kamigami no Itadaki」

Release Date: March 12th, 2016

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director: Hideyuki Hirayama

Writer: Masato Kato (Screenplay), Baku Yumemakura (Orginal Novel)

Starring: Junichi Okada, Hiroshi Abe, Machiko Ono, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Pierre Taki,

Website  IMDB

Great cast and it follows hot on the heels of the Hollywood film Everest (2015). As interesting as this looks I think I would be more interested in finding out about some of the real life Japanese women who have been scaling Everest (the first woman to scale the mountain was from Japan). There’s also the chap who lost nine fingers to frostbite who was scaling the mountain last year.

Synopsis: Makoto Fukamachi (Junichi Okada) is a cameraman on holiday in Tibet. He finds an old camera on a backstreet of Nepal and it has footage that might solve the mystery of whether George Mallory became the first person to successfully climb Mount Everest on June 8, 1924 or not. To find out more about the camera and the myth, Makoto seeks out the legendary climber Joji Habu (Hiroshi Abe) who has isolated himself because of his reckless personality and the dangers it could bring.

Devotion to Cinema    

キネマ純情「Kinema Junjo」　

Running Time: 82 mins.

Release Date: March 12th, 2016

Director: Noboru Iguchi

Writer: Noboru Iguchi (Screenplay)

Starring:  Yuni Hon, Minori Arakawa, Anna Yanagi, Sumire Ueno, Asaka Nakamura, Airi Yamamoto, Ayaka Ohbu, Miko Haruno,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Yoshie (Yuni Hon) was inspired by her older sister Keiko (Sumire Ueno) to become a member of the theatre club in high school. things progress as Yoshie begins acting in an indie film with her friend Akari (Minori Arakawa) and Aki (Anna Yanagi). It all sounds like fun but their sadistic director Naomi (Asaka Nakamura) pushes them psychologically…

Kiori    

キオリ「Kiori」　

Running Time: 94 mins.

Release Date: March 12th, 2016

Director: Kyoichi Furumoto

Writer: Kyoichi Furumoto (Screenplay) Seiji Toda (Original Manga)

Starring:  Asuka Shinguu, Kimihiko Hasegawa, Miyuki Kojima, Tatsuo Heideru

Synopsis: Kiori is based on the Seiji Toda manga Persuasion Game and involves a group of scientists trying to manipulate the brain of a young woman who goes under the pseudonym Kiori.

Ultraman X The Movie: Here Comes! Our Ultraman  

劇場版　ウルトラマンX きたぞ！われらのウルトラマン「Gekijouban Ultraman X: Kitazo! Warera no Ultraman」　

Running Time: 73 mins.

Release Date: March 12th, 2016

Director: Kiyotaka Taguchi

Writer: Takao Nakano, Hirotoshi Kobayashi, Yuji Kobayashi (Screenplay)

Starring: Kensuke Takahashi, Akane Sakanoue, Yoshikiko Hosoda, Hayato Harada, Takuya Negishi, Mamoru Miyano, Takami Yoshimoto, Michael Tomioka, Yuuka Nakayama,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: A greedy archaelogist named Carlos Kurosaki is searching for treasure but he unleashes Devil Beast Zaigorg and with him, the threat that this world will turn into Hell. Zaigorg is so powerful Ultraman X’s Light vanishes.​ Xio Members look for an archaelogist named Tsukasa Tamaki in order to find the Mysterious Power which can be used to seal Zaigorg. ​Tsukasa’s song Yuuto is along on the journey and his strong feelings towards his mother Tsukasa creates a miracle: Ultraman & Ultraman Tiga appears! All Ultra Heroes who have gathered & Xio members unite to defeat Zaigorg & his monster army.

RADWIMPS HESONOO    

RADWIMPSのHESONOO Documentary Film「RADWIMPS no HESONOO Documentary Film」　

Running Time: 70 mins.

Release Date: March 05th, 2016

Director: Kayoko Asakura

Writer: N/A

Starring: Radwimps: Akira Kuwahara, Yojiro Noda, Yusuke Takeda, Satoshi Yamaguchi,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: RADWIMPS are world famous (partly because of anime theme tunes) and so they tour the world! The documentary captures the action at six venues during their Asia-Europe tour – France, Britain, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan!

Shimajirou and the Country of the Picture Book   

しまじろうと えほんのくに「Shimajirou to Ehon no Kuni」

Release Date: March 11^th, 2016

Running Time: 61 mins.

Chief Director: Isamu Hirabayashi, Director: Hiroshi Kawamata

Writer: Shinnosuke Yakuwa (Screenplay),

Animation Production: TOHO Animation

Starring: Omi Minami (Shimajirou), Bin Shimada (Dotto), Miki Takahashi (Mimirin),

Website ANN MAL

This is the fourth film in the Shimajirou franchise and it includes a live-action first half which is an interactive part to keep children’s attention. There will be songs, dancing, and a quiz for children to get involved with – they get to use a megaphone that will be distributed to theater-goers. The first Shimajirou movie came out in 2013.

Synopsis from Anime News Network: The film’s story begins when Shimajirou and his friends go to the sea and find a picture book that Shimajirou had treasured in his childhood. When they hear a voice beckoning them from the book, they are drawn into the world of the book. There, they meet Puni-tan, and find a town of sweets in the middle of a forest. Shimajirou must find a way to return to his world.

PriPara Mi~nna no Akogare Let’s Go PriPari   

プリパラ　み～んなのあこがれ♪レッツゴー☆プリパリ「Puripara Mi-nna no ogare rettsu go- puripari」

Release Date: March 12^th, 2016

Running Time: 60 mins.

Director: Makoto Moriwaki

Writer: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Screenplay),

Animation Production: Tatsunoko Production

Starring: Chiatsu Akasaki (Falulu Bokerdole), Himika Akaneya (Laala Manaka), Miyu Kubota (Sophy Hojo), Yuu Serizawa (Mirei Minami),

Website ANN MAL

This is the third film in the Pripara franchise.

Synopsis from Anime News Network: Falulu is far away in the heart of the PriPara world in Puransu. The sparkle is disappearing from the idol sacred ground PriPara, and Falulu sends an SOS message to Laala and her friends. If the sparkle doesn’t return, the PriPara world itself will disappear. Laala and her friends try to help Falulu, and they work together to save the PriPara world.

Digimon Adventure tri. 2: Ketsui    

デジモンアドベンチャーtri.（トライ）第２章「決意」「Dejimon adobenchā tri. (torai) Dai 2-sho `ketsui’」

Release Date: March 12^th, 2016

Running Time: 75 mins.

Director: Keitaro Motonaga

Writer: Yuuko Kakihara (Series Composition), Akiyoshi Hongo (Original Creator),

Animation Production: Toei Animation

Voice Actors for the Human Characters:Natsuki Hanae (Taichi Yagami), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Yamato Ishida), Suzuko Mimori (Sora Takenouchi), Junya Ikeda (Jo Kido), Junya Enoki (Takeru Takaishi), MAO (Hikari Yagami), Mutsumi Tamura (Koshiro Izumi), Hitomi Yoshida (Mimi Tachikawa), 

Voice Actors for the Digimon: Kinoko Yamada (Palmon), Chika Sakamoto (Agumon), Miwa Matsumoto (Patamon), Mayumi Yamaguchi (Gabumon), Junko Takeuchi (Gomamon),

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis from the official website:

Time has passed since Alphamon appeared, and restoration work has moved ahead little by little in the town of Odaiba.

“I had decided once I got back to Japan, I’d be sure to take a dip in a big bath!” shouts Mimi. Because of that and a desire to make their new members Meiko Mochizuki and Meicoomon feel welcome, the DigiDestined go to a nearby hot springs theme park. Everyone has a good time, but Joe doesn’t show up.

Joe feels caught between the imminent reality of college entrance exams, and his responsibilities as a DigiDestined.

“Why do we have to do this again?”

Just then, another infected Digimon appears in Odaiba. It’s that proud virus type, Ogremon… As a TV station helicopter relays a broadcast of his rampage, Mimi and Palmon spring into action.

“We’ll show people that there are good Digimon, too!”

Mimi and Palmon ignore Koushirou’s attempts to hold them back, however, and their battle brings about unforeseen consequences…

Joe and Mimi each have their own troubles. Then on the day of Tsukishima General High School’s festival, that man appears before them…

The adventure now evolves once again…

Little Performer: The Pulse of Winds   

リトルパフォーマー　風の鼓動「Ritoru pafo-ma- Fu no kodou」　

Running Time: 98 mins.

Release Date: March 15th, 2016

Director: Shunji Muguruma

Writer: Shunji Muguruma, Jun Yoshida (Originl Novel), Yoshimasa Akamatsu, Atsushi Muroka (Original Screenplay,

Starring: Chihiro Hayama, Satsuki Hayama, Nagisa Takano, Taka Ookubo, Shiro Tsubuyaki, Kunihiko Ida,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: A group of elementary school girls find that their school will be shut down at the end of the summer. The girls try to hold a dance concert at the school in celebration of their school days but troubles surface between them…

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016 (2016/03/05)

I’m Not Just Going to Do What Kurosaki-kun Says (2016/02/27)

The Martian (2016/02/05)

The Big Short (2016/03/04)

Nobunaga Concerto (2016/01/23)

Star Wars The Force Unleashed (2015/12/18)

Point Break (2016/02/20)

The Finest Hours (2016/02/27)

Saraba Abunai Deka: Long Goodbye (2016/01/30)

Born in the EXILE Sandaime J Soul Brothers no Kiseki (2016/02/12)

Dolls   

ドールズ「Do-ruzu」

Release Date:  2002 (Japan)

UK Release Date: March 14^th, 2016

UK Distributor: Third Window Films

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Takashi Kitano

Writer: Takashi Kitano (Screenplay),

Starring: Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tatsuya Mihashi, Chieko Matsubara, Kyoko Fukada, Kanji Tsuda, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi, Yuko Daike,

IMDB

Dolls is a beautiful film about love, love that is betrayed and love that is lost and regained. It is a gorgeous film visually and aurally, absolutely stunning at points.

The film comes from Kitano’s desire to make a film about men and women experiencing a love that is all-consuming and tinted with tragedy was inspired by Kitano’s real life encounter with two bound beggars in Tokyo and the tragic love stories found in Bunraku plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon who worked during the 18^th and 19th Centuries. To explore these ideas the film consists of three romantic tales set in the modern day but with Bunraku’s influences heavily affecting the presentation and actions of the characters.

The first tale begins when a young woman named Sawako (Miho Kanno) becomes suicidal after her fiancé, Matsumoto (Hidetoshi Nishijima), breaks their engagement and leaves her to marry his boss’s daughter. When Matsumoto hears the news of a suicide attempt he rushes to Sawako’s side at hospital only to find she has lost her mind with grief. Matsumoto, driven by his own guilt and grief, absconds with Sawako and the two, tied together by red rope, perform a pilgrimage to places they have been and relive memories. Following this is the tale of an aging yakuza boss named Hiro (Tatsuya Mihashi). He spends his days living in fear of assassination. With little to do other than rehash old memories he looks back to a time before he became a successful gangster and remembers a girl named Ryoko (Chieko Matsubara) who would meet him at a specific bench in the same park every lunch time and bring him a bento to share with her. Feeling guilt over discarding her Hiro attempts to reconnect with his old flame. Next, an obsessed fan, Nukui (Tsutomu Takeshige), adores the pop singer Haruna (Kyoko Fukada). When she is disfigured in a car accident he expresses his love for her in a highly violent manner in order to meet her. All three couples experience love so intense it drives them to act in extraordinarily selfish and self-destructive ways.

For those familiar with Kitano’s gangster films Dolls may seem like a departure but he has previously made films about everyday life and always brought elements of Japanese theatre and his stand-up comic routines into his films. Theatricality plays a heavy part here.

Dolls opens with a performance of a Chikamatsu’s 1711 play The Courier for Hell and its story of the courtesan Umegawa and her lover Chubei. Their tragic tale is told by puppeteers and a singer who charts their fall from happiness. The same dolls transcend their theatre origins to look on over the humans in the film as their mortal counterparts perform their own tragic love stories.

The stories and characters are archetypal and universal. The plots of each story are predictable and drenched in fatalism drawn from the familiar selfishness of human beings. The characters become doll-like with their limited movements, facial expressions (especially Hidetoshi Nishijima) and ostentatious costumes by fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. Some may find it hard to be interested in the unsurprising elements and stylistic acting choices but what makes the film more palatable is the fact that each story is intercut together and characters intrude in each other’s narratives and when brought together they work exceedingly. It all hinges on an audience accepting the theatricality and getting absorbed in the slow bounce back and forth between tales and there are emotional spikes as the narrative strands reach their dramatic conclusions and the visuals facilitate this. Japanese audiences and those familiar with Japanese culture will recognise all sorts of elements from the meaning of the red rope that binds Matsumoto and Sawako to the manzai act and in this the film is dense with meaning and engaging.

The stories are woven together over the course of four seasons and the Japanese landscape. Characters walk along railway lines stretching through dense forests of deep greens. They sit on beaches where the water stretches off, a heartless steel blue. They cross footbridges with red leaves scattering around them. They wear red kimonos in snowbound lanscapes. Takeshi Kitano’s regular cinematographer Katsumi Yanagishima comes away a hero as he captures four different seasons in Japan so there is the delicate pink of cherry blossoms in spring, the deep red of autumn leaves in the autumn and the bleak white of winter snow. The costumes, all primary colours, make a stunning impact which will inspire and engage all but the most cynical audience members.

Dolls is a beautifully composed paean to love told by meshing traditional Japanese tales with modern cinema technology and Kitano’s eye for aesethics. It is a film with a lot of style and is exquisite to look at especially with the 2K remaster put out by Third Window Films where the colours shine proudly and the cinematography is breathtaking. Each scene could be frozen and the image put into a picture book or hung on a wall. The acting, distancing and awkward, and simple stories, traditional tales repurposed, might be difficult to take for some jaded souls in our modern movie-going audience to take and it will likely test the patience of people but it is a film that should be experienced at least once since it is a film where there is something, at least visually, that will inspire viewers and inspiration is what cinema is great at making.

4/5

Extras:    

Interviews with Takeshi Kitano, Miho Kanno, Hidetoshi Nishijima & Yohij Yamamoto;

Behind the Scenes, Video from the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival;

The first 1000 copies feature a cardboard slipcase with new illustrated artwork by Marie Bergeron