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BFI Anime Weekend 2016 in June

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The BFI is hosting a weekend of contemporary anime films at the BFI Southbank in June. This is a regular event which collects a diverse array of anime movies and a lot on offer in this year’s programme are some of the best and flashiest to be released in recent years.

Ghost in the Shell Motoko Kusanagi

Harmony + Q&A    Friday, June 03rd 2016 18:00

ハーモニー「Ha-moni-」   

Harmony Film Poster
Harmony Film Poster

Release Date: November 13th, 2015

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Michael Arias, Takashi Nakamura

Writer: Koji Yamamoto (Screenplay), Project Itoh (Original Novel),

Starring: Miyuki Sawashiro (Tuan Kirie), Akio Ohtsuka (Asaf), Reina Ueda (Miach Mihie), Shinichiro Miki (Elliya Vashirof),

Website ANN MAL

Harmony is the third film from the Project Itoh trilogy, a a concerted effort to adapt the three novels by late author Project Itoh (real name Satoshi Itō) who died in 2009. It is directed by Takashi Nakamura (Fantastic Children) and Michael Arias (Tekkonkinkreet), at Studio 4°C (Berserk). The director Michael Arias (Animatrix, Tekkonkinkreet) will take part in a Q&A.

Synopsis from My Anime List: In the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn’t that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn’t work, but one of the girls—Tuan Kirie—grows up to be a member of the World Health Organization. As a crisis threatens the harmony of the new world, Tuan rediscovers another member of her suicide pact, and together they must help save the planet…from itself.

 

Empire of the Corpses  Friday, June 03rd 2016 20:50

屍者の帝国 「Shisha no Teikoku」   

The Empire of Corpses Film Poster
The Empire of Corpses Film Poster

Release Date: October 02nd, 2015

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Ryoutarou Makihara

Writer: Project Itoh (Original Novel),

Starring: Yoshimasa Hosoya (John H. Watson), Akio Ohtsuka (M), Kana Hanazawa (Hadary Lilith), Taiten Kusunoki (Frederick Barnaby), Ayumu Murase (Friday/Noble_Savage_007),

Website     ANN   MAL

Empire of Corpses is the first of three films from Project Itoh. The novels are being turned into films by different directors and studios. The Empire of Corpses comes to us courtesy of WIT Studio (Attack on TitanHoozuki no Reitetsu) and is directed by Ryuotarou Makihara (Hal).

Synopsis: In 19th Century London, “corpse reanimation technology” has been developed, rendering the dead useful for basic physical labour.

Brilliant medical student John Watson is invited to join the UK government’s secret society, the Walsingham Institution. There he is given a clandestine mission: search for the legendary writings of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, left behind a century ago. These private papers allegedly detail the technology behind a more sophisticated reanimated corpse – the original – that could speak and even had free will.

The first clue leads Watson deep into Afghanistan. Alexei Karamazov, a military chaplain and genius corpse engineer for the Russian Empire, was seen leading an army of an unknown type of armed corpse there. He used them to instigate a rebellion before going underground, leading Watson to suspect he may know the whereabouts of Victor’s private papers.

Accompanied by Friday, a corpse that records all his activities, Watson begins the journey of a lifetime in search of Victor’s private papers.

 

 

Ghost in the Shell Saturday, June 04th 2016 18:15

攻殻機動隊  Koukaku Kidoutai」   

Release Date: November 18th, 1995

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Writer: Kazunori Ito (Screenplay), Shirow Masamune (Original Creator)

Starring: Atsuko Tanaka (Motoko Kusanagi), Akio Ohtsuka (Bateau), Tamio Ohki (Daisuke Aramaki), Kouchi Yamadera (Togusa),

Website    ANN    MAL

The 1995 classic Ghost in the Shell is brought back to the big screen to celebrate the 25th birthday of Manga Entertainment. Ghost in the Shell is a bonafide classic which mixes science fiction, great action, and existential philosophy. It is arguably Mamoru Oshii’s greatest film and a lot better than the manga it is based on.

Synopsis: Set in a futuristic Japan in the year 2029, the world has come through a brutal world war and science has advanced by leaps and bounds giving humanity the choice to prolong life and reduce suffering with the use of sophisticated cybernetics. With all of humanity linked into one system of minds and personalities known as ghosts, the biggest threat to civilization is the cyber terrorists capable of hijacking people’s bodies and memories. Public Security Section 9 of Niihama City (a fictional setting inspired by Hong Kong) helps police people with modifications and they are a diverse team of AI, cyborgs and unmodified humans who must investigate cases of corruption and terrorism. Their leader on the field is Major Motoko Kusanagi. She has full-body prosthetics, owing to a childhood accident. In this film, her loyal squadmates Batou and information specialist Ishikawa have been assigned an important task: to investigate a hacker known only as “The Puppetmaster.” But as Motoko and her team discover, things are never so simple.

 

Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie Saturday, June 04th 2016 20:45

攻殻機動隊 新劇場版 Koukaku Kidoutai Shin Gekijouban

Ghost in the Shell 2015 Film Poster
Ghost in the Shell 2015 Film Poster

Release Date: June 20th, 2015

Running Time: 100 mins.

Chief Director: Kazuchika Kise, Director: Kazuya Nomura

Writer: Tow Ubukata (Screenplay), Shirow Masamune (Original Creator)

Starring: Maaya Sakamoto (Motoko Kusanagi), Kenichirou Matsuda (Batou), Ikkyuu Juku (Daisuke Aramaki), Tarusuke Shingaki (Togusa),

Website    ANN    MAL

Production I.G are making plenty of entries in the Ghost in the Shell franchise and the latest directors entrusted with the anime are Kazuchika Kise and Kazuya Nomura. Kise is the guy behind the Arise reboot plus a Production I.G vet with work on all of the Ghost in the Shell movies and other titles like City HunterGoku II: Midnight Eye Giovanni’s Island and Patlabor. The director is another interesting chap. Kazuya Nomura has directed episodes of incredible anime like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0Dennou Coil and was involved in Ghost Hound and Mind Game. The script comes from Tow Ubukata who has written good cyberpunk titles like Mardock Scramble.

Synopsis: In the latest film a ghost-infecting virus known as Fire-Starter begins spreading through the system resulting in the assassination of the Japanese Prime Minister, Major Motoko Kusanagi and her elite team of special operatives are called in to track down its source. As they delve deeper and deeper into their investigation, they uncover traces of government corruption and a shadowy broker that bears an all-too-familiar face.

 

 

The Boy and the Beast Saturday, June 04th 2016 15:30

バケモノの子 Bakemono no Ko

The Boy and the Beast Film Poster
The Boy and the Beast Film Poster

Release Date: 

Running Time: 128 mins.

Director: Mamoru Hosoda

Starring: Koji Yakusho (Kumatetsu), Shota Sometani (Kyuuta – Teen), Aoi Miyazaki (Kyuuta – Young), Haru Kuroki (Ichirohiko – Young), Yo Oizumi (Tatara), Lily Franky (Monk Momoaki), Mamoru Miyano (Ichirohiko – Old),

Website   IMDB    ANN    MAL

Mamoru Hosoda’s latest film is a continuation of his mix of fantasy and reality and if you are a fan of Hosoda’s previous works like The Wolf ChildrenSummer Wars, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time I think it would be safe to say that this one is worth watching what with the excellent animation, voice actors, and more.

Synopsis: A lonely boy named Kyuta is on the run from his family in Tokyo’s Shibuya ward following the death of his moter. He finds that there is another world, the bakemono realm, Jutenkai. Typically, the human world and Jutenkai do not meet and humans aren’t welcome in the world of the monsters but the boy gets lost in the bakemono world and becomes the disciple of a lonely bakemono named Kumatetsu (Koji Yakusho) who takes the boy under his wing and renames him Kyuuta (Aoi Miyazaki / Shota Sometani).

 

 

Garm Wars: The Last Druid Sunday, June 05th 2016 17:20

ガルム・ウォーズ Garumu Wo-zu

Release Date: May 20th, 2016

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Writer: Mamoru Oshii, Geoffrey Gunn, Gen Urobuchi (Screenplay),

Starring: Lance Henriksen, Kevin Durand, Melanie St-Pierre, Dawn Ford, Summer H. Howell, Andrew Gillies, Garm wars the Last Druid

Website    IMDB

Mamoru Oshii has created a film in a similar vein to his 2002 film Avalon – a mix of CG and live-action. While some of the shots in the trailer look stunning it is the music that captures the imagination! Music from regular Oshii collaborator Kenji Kawai. Reviews are mixed on this one but audiences get to see it on the big screen before it is released in Japan.

Synopsis: A clone war has overtaken the world with three tribes battling for air, land and technology. When one clone finds herself lost and on the run, she falls in with an unlikely group.

 

 

Psycho-Pass: The Movie Sunday, June 05th 2016 20:00

Japanese: 劇場版 サイコパス    

Psycho-Pass The Movie Poster
Psycho-Pass The Movie Poster

Romaji: Gekijouban Saiko Pasu

Release Date: January 09th, 2015 (Japan)

Running Time: 110 mins.

Chief Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro, Director: Naoyoshi Shiotani

Writer: Gen Urobuchi, Makoto Fukami (Screenplay),

Starring: Kana Hanazawa (Akane Tsunemori), Ayane Sakura (Mika Shimotsuki), Tomokazu Seki (Shinya Kougami), Shizuka Itou (Yayoi Kunizuka), Kenji Nojima (Nobuchika Ginoza), Kazuhiro Yamaji (Jouji Saiga),

Website   ANN    MAL

The Psycho-Pass movie has garnered lots and lots of positive reviews. It is a continuation of the first season and a stand-alone story so people can watch the film without any knowledge of the world. Production I.G threw all of its resources at it and so to see it on a big screen is really exciting.

Synopsis: Year 2116—The Japanese government begins to export the Sibyl System unmanned drone robots to troubled countries, and the system spreads throughout the world. A state in the midst of a civil war, SEAUn (the South East Asia Union), brings in the Sibyl System as an experiment. Under the new system, the coastal town of Shambala Float achieves temporary peace and safety. But then SEAUn sends terrorists to Japan. They slip through the Sibyl System and then attack from within. The shadow of a certain man falls on this incident. In charge of the police, Tsunemori travels to Shambala Float to investigate. The truth of justice on this new ground will become clear.

Tickets go on sale on May 10th.

Source



Chihayafuru Part II, Scanner: Kioku no Kakera wo Yomu Otoko, TerraFormars, Hana-Dama: Phantom, Manga wo hamidashita otoko: Akatsuka Fujio Japanese Film Trailers

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Hello dear audience!

Wild Berries Brother Shuji and Sister Tomoko

I have gorged myself on three Japanese films in my local arthouse cinema – Ran, Our Little Sister and Cesium and the Tokyo Girl. I watched them with family and friends and they got to see me do my film festival thing when I met the director of Cesium and a Tokyo Girl. The new spring anime season started a few weeks ago and while JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is my favourite show, I’m totally taken with the OP for Kiznaiver:

Two posts this week, one about the BFI Anime Weekend for 2016 and the other previewing the Japanese films at Sci-Fi London: Cesium and a Tokyo Girl and Dual City. I also updated my Film Review Archive and Top Ten Films of the Year.

What’s released this weekend?

 

Chihayafuru Part II    

Chihayafuru Part II Film Poster
Chihayafuru Part II Film Poster

ちはやふる 下の句「Chihayafuru Shimo no ku 

Running Time: 103 mins.

Release Date: April 29th, 2016

Director: Norihiro Koizumi

Writer: Norihiro Koizumi (Screenplay), Yuki Suetsugu (Original Manga)

Starring: Suzu Hirose, Shuhei Nomura, Mackenyu, Mayu Matsuoka, Miyuki Matsuda, Hiroya Shimizu, Jun Kunimura, Yuki Morinaga

Website IMDB

Chihayafuru is based on a popular long-running manga and it has been given a three-film treatment. It stars Suzu Hirose who is the titular little sister in the Hirokazu Kore-eda film Our Little Sister (2015) and Hirose makes a pretty good impression based on that film.

Synopsis: Chihaya Ayase (Suzu Hirose) is a high school student who plays the card game karuta. She picked it up in elementary school when she met Arata Wataya who transferred into her school from another in Fukui Prefecture. The two parted ways when Arata returned to Fukui but only Chihaya continued to play karuta, something which she wants to change which is why she starts a karuta club at her high school in order to find Arata again.

 

 

Scanner: Kioku no Kakera wo Yomu Otoko   

Scanner Kioku no Kakera wo Yomu Otoko Film Poster
Scanner Kioku no Kakera wo Yomu Otoko Film Poster

スキャナー 記憶のカケラをよむ男 「Scanner: Kioku no Kakera wo Yomu Otoko

Running Time: 110 mins.

Release Date: April 29th, 2016

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Ryota Kosawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Mansai Nomura, Fumino Kimura, Atsuko Takahata, Chisun, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Hana Sugisaki, Shota Yasuda, Aina Fukumoto,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis from IMDB: Kazuhiko Sengoku (Mansai Nomura) is a former comedian who worked as a popular duo with Ryuji Maruyama (Hiroyuki Miyasako) but he also has a special ability to read memories left behind in things or places and he used this ability during his performances. It soon overwhelmed him and so he left the limelight to become a caretaker of a mansion.

Kazuhiko Sengoku is called out of retirement to help find a woman when Ryuji and a high school student named Ami Akiyama (Hana Sugisaki) call on him for help. At first he turns them down but he has a strange vision…

 

 

TerraFormars   

TerraFormars Film Poster
TerraFormars Film Poster

テラフォーマーズ Terafo-ma-zu

Release Date: April 29th, 2016

Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Kenichi Tachibana (Screenplay), Yu Sasuga (Original Manga)

Starring: Hideaki Ito, Emi Takei, Shun Oguri, Mariko Shinoda, Eiko Koike, Takayuki Yamada, Kane Kosugi, Tomohisa Yamashita,

Website    IMDB

I watched the OVAs for this just before the TV anime aired and I thought it was dull. The trailer for the film looks a lot more fun.

Synopsis: Earth is on the brink of collapse due to depleting natural resources and overpopulation. In order to secure the future of humanity, scientists send moss and cockroaches to help terraform Mars – cockroaches will help spread the moss across the Martian environment an help create an environment that humans can survive in. Years after the project is started, humans are sent to Mars and massacred by a strange presence. It turns out that the cockroaches have mutated!

Another mission is created 15 poor Japanese are sent to Mars to fight the roaches and they have been beefed up with special powers derived from insects. The fight for Mars begins!

 

Hana-Dama: Phantom    

Hana-Dama Phantom Film Poster
Hana-Dama Phantom Film Poster

華魂 幻影 Hana-Dama: Genei 

Running Time: 83 mins.

Release Date: April 30th, 2016

Director: Hisayasu Sato

Writer: Hisayasu Sato, Shinji Imaoka (Screenplay),

Starring:  Shima Ohnishi, Iori, Kanade Ai, Yota Kawase,  Miya Sakimoto, Moe Sakura, Kan Mikami, Anne Mari, Shizuko Kawakami,

Website   IMDB  

Synopsis: This is an erotic supernatural thriller from legenary pink film director Shinji Imaoka about a cinema projectionist named Teiichi (Shima Ohnishi). He has lost some memories but gained a visitor after he becomes haunted by a girl in black. She is reflected onto the cinema’s screen and sat on chairs. He makes contact with the girl and hides her in the projectionist room, but she disappears. Teiichi sees the phantom girl again and she draws him to the riverside where his lost memory then comes back.

 

Manga wo hamidashita otoko: Akatsuka Fujio    

Manga wo hamidashita otoko Akatsuka Fujio Film Poster
Manga wo hamidashita otoko Akatsuka Fujio Film Poster

マンガをはみだした男 赤塚不二夫 Manga wo hamidashita otoko: Akatsuka Fujio

Release Date: April 30th, 2016

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Masanori Tominaga

Writer: N/A

Starring: Fujio Akatsuka, Ichiko Aoba, Masao Adachi, Rieko Akatsuka, Frogman, Takao Igarashi, Akira Sakata, Tetsuya Chiba,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Fujio Akatsuka is the genius behind Genius Bakabon, Osomatsu-kun, and Himitsu no Akko-chan. These are works from the ‘60s that have become long-running family favourites. Osomatsu-kun has been updated to become Osomatsu-san, one of the funniest anime in the last few years. This is a documentary to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Fujio Akatsuka who died at the age of 72 in 2008 and it gathers together family-members, fellow cartoonists and more. There is home video footage as well as film from television. The director of the 2015 dramedy Rolling, Masanori Tominaga, has helmed this.

 

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)

Zootopia (2016/04/23)

Crayon Shin-chan Movie 24: Bakusui! Yumemi World Dai Totsugeki (2016/04/16)

I Am a Hero (2016/04/23)

The Revenant (2016/04/22)

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions  (2016/04/23)

Assassination Classroom: The Graduation (25/03/16)

Zutto Mae Kara Suki Deshita: Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai (2016/04/23)

Chihayafuru (2016/03/19)

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


Cesium and a Tokyo Girl セシウムと少女 (2015) Review

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Cesium and a Tokyo Girl      

Cesium to Shoujo Film Poster
Cesium to Shoujo Film Poster

セシウムと少女 「Seshiumu to Shoujo

Release Date: April 25th, 2015

Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Ryo Saitani

Writer: Ryo Saitani (Screenplay),

Starring: Kaira Shirahase, Masumi Hara, Yusuke Kawazu, Hatsuo Yamaya, Nankin, Takao Iida, Masato Nagamori, Keiji Yamasaki, Miho Kaneno,

Website    IMDB

Cesium and a Tokyo Girl is the debut feature film from Ryo Saitani, an animator who runs Laputa Asagaya Art Animation School in Tokyo. His film is a fun and inventive time slip tale which combines live-action and animated sequences to create an adventure that also delivers a serious message about the effects of urbanisation on Japan, destruction of the environment and the threat of radiation following the meltdown of Fukushima Daiichi after the 3/11 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami.

The story starts in the present day with a normal highschool girl named Mimi (Kaira Shirahase) in a canoe in Tokyo bay.

セシウムと少女 Film Image 1

How did she get there?

Mimi is a seventeen-year-old who lives with her parents in the Tokyo suburb, Asagaya. She is intelligent, precocious and virtuous, the type to grill a teacher over something she doesn’t understand and flip ideas around to fully understand them and the type to do the right thing and stick up for people and champion environmental causes. Mimi finds herself called to act in a national crisis when, three days after the 3/11 earthquake tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear accident, cesium is detected in Tokyo and worse still, radiation-contaminated rain has left Mimi with terrible pain in her tongue.

Mimi is determined to find out about the impact of radiation on the environment and this gets connected to the disappearance of her grandmother’s pet mynah bird which flew away at the same time as the meltdown at Fukushima. The bird is connected to her hospitalised grandmother’s childhood and in its absence, her grandmother has become seriously ill. What Mimi doesn’t know is that her search for her grandmother’s bird will lead her to a meeting with the Thunder God and the Wind God and they will introduce her to more Japanese deities from the past, all of whom are also concerned about the environment of Japan.

Cesium and the Tokyo Girl

Mimi and her newfound divine friends embark upon a magical journey through space and time, leaving behind modern-day Tokyo and going back to Tokyo circa 1942 in their search for answers to the changes in the environment and the location of the mynah bird.

Cesium and a Tokyo Girl is an apt title since it suggests the impact of something as huge as nuclear energy on a person’s life and the film uses the juxtaposition of the personal with a huge issue to examine the environmental impact of nuclear power and also urbanisation. Mimi, the idealised schoolgirl, is our lens into the changing environment in Japan and the Gods and adventures soften and make palatable the profound issues that writer/director Ryo Saitani wants to explore.

The film is split into three chapters: Mimi’s childhood, her adventures through time and the completion of her mission. In every scene and sequence there is an element of characterisation or information about Japan’s environment. It all mixes together quite naturally and we see Mimi’s trajectory from layman on the natural world to full on environmental activist quite clearly through her experiences and the film ably justifies how she ended up in Tokyo Bay. Audiences are sure to understand why she feels the way she does about the issue brought up because of the fun encounters and there is also a narrator who informs us of historical facts.

Despite the seriousness of the subject it is rarely overwhelming thanks to the delivery of the scenes. The film alternates between being a travelogue and a caper, a documentary and a musical. There are discussions of moral questions surrounding environmental issues which are delivered in a variety of styles such as drunken rants by the Gods as they guzzle wine at one of the many bars visited by the gang. There will be a musical interlude showcasing fashion trends in Japan and the diatribes against nuclear power are shown with archive footage of mushroom clouds and museum exhibits like the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, the infamous fishing ship whose crew suffered acute radiation syndrome after getting caught up in a hydrogen bomb test. There is discussion about how newspapers manipulate people into believing the benefits of nuclear energy and on-screen maps and charts will be interrupted by a character in a polar bear suit getting into fights. The time travel alone makes sure there are lots of different fun things to see.

The slide from the real to the fantastical is down to the mystery of the mynah bird which is named after the poet Hakushu Kitahara (1885 – 1942) who acts as a brilliant excuse to go back in time and meet different people and see various things including Kitahara himself.

セシウムと少女 Film Image 2

Mimi’s journeys from present day Tokyo to her grandmother’s childhood contrasts the changes from a more natural age and some of the negative developments of modernisation. Mimi’s Tokyo is choked with concrete buildings and bridges, cesium is found in all sorts of places and animals are disappearing. Her grandmother’s Tokyo is a more idyllic place which is all traditional low-rise wooden buildings and green spaces (just before the firebombing of the Second World War) and shot in a sepia tone to evoke nostalgia. There are many musical sequences when Mimi meets her grandmother as the girls go out on the town and showcase the fashions of Modan Gaaru’s while jazz music plays.

The rhythm of the film is fast, the visuals colourful and flashy, the tone fun. Ryo Saitani favours pacey editing and mixes a lot of camera angles to make palatable an otherwise overloaded narrative. There are inventive ways of framing everything. It isn’t enough to have a conversation, extreme close-ups or shooting with a Dutch angle happens a lot. Better yet, the Saitani departs from the conventional and generously uses musical segments and blends in animation inspired by ancient Japanese art such as the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga scrolls to make things even more fun. The variety keeps events flowing and it keeps getting more inventive. As Mimi meets the Gods they are introduced via animated musical sequences or given odd entrances. She encounters characters which are models brought to life with stop-motion animation and her time travelling can take the form of images of Mimi and other characters dancing across historical photograph of old cultural hotspots like Shinjuku’s Moulin Rouge. There is a sense of joy brought about by this mix of styles and it’s hard not to lose yourself in the fun when the plot stops so a song and dance number can explode on screen, a particular highlight being one that takes place in a public bath where Mimi and a group of other women while singing a jazzy version of a Kitahara nursery rhyme (quite an addictive song).

セシウムと少女 Film Image 3

These techniques, sequences and interludes sound messy but they all fit together seamlessly and are effectively used to paint a picture of a fun adventure while showcasing some of the unique locations in Tokyo and keep the audience engaged so that the message of the director never feels like a lecture and that message urges us that while we can appreciate what we have lost we should work hard to protect our environment. Hard to disagree with that. And so, as Mimi’s adventure comes to an end a bigger one is beginning for her as her desire to protect the environment awakens and audiences may feel the same thing happen for them.

Cesium and a Tokyo Girl is a genuinely fun and inventive time slip tale which combines live-action and animation to create a fun adventure. The environmental message may be a bit heavy-handed but its heart is in the right place and it is delivered with a cheery smile. I am glad I saw it on the big screen and I hope others can enjoy it as much as I did.

4/5

The film plays at Sci-Fi London on May 05th and I recommend it!

I also met the director of the film after the screening and he kindly gave me an autograph and posed for a photo.


Japanese Films at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival

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Cannes FIlm Festival 2016 Poster
Cannes FIlm Festival 2016 Poster

This year’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 11th to the 22nd and it’s the 69th edition of the event. The festival’s main programme (every title in competition and Un Certain Regard) has been announced. This year’s line-up looks like its lumbering under the weight of major American films like Steven Spielberg’s The BFG and two Jim Jarmusch films. There are films from European stalwarts such as the Dardenne brothers, Andrea Arnold and Nicolas Winding Refn and there are two familiar Japanese names in the mix but both are in Un Certain Regard… Plus there are two Japanese films in Cannes Classics. It’s a good line-up and continues an upward trend following on from a similarly packed 2015. The only person missing from the party is Takashi Miike!

After the Storm   

After the Storm Film Poster
After the Storm Film Poster

海よりもまだ深く 「Umi yori mo mada fukaku」

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda (Original Story, Screenplay)

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sosuke Ikematsu, Yoko Maki, Satomi Kobayashi, Isao Hashizume, Taiyo Yoshizawa

IMDB   Website

Cannes wouldn’t be complete without Hirokazu Koreeda (Kiseki) and when it comes to his films, well, you can’t go wrong. I’ve watched nearly everything made by the man from Maborosi (1995) and he is consistently brilliant. He reunites with familiar actors like Hiroshi Abe and Kirin Kiki (both of whom were in Still Walking), Yoko Maki and Lily Franky (who were in Like Father, Like Son) as well as new actors like Sosuke Ikematsu (How Selfish I Am!). Stay tuned for a review of Our Little Sister (2015) which was at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Synopsis from IMDB: Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay child support. After the death of his father, his aging mother (Kirin Kiki) and beautiful ex-wife (Yoko Make) seem to be moving on with their lives. Renewing contact with his initially distrusting family, Ryota struggles to take back control of his existence and to find a lasting place in the life of his young son (Taiyo Yoshizawa) – until a stormy summer night offers them a chance to truly bond again.

 

Harmonium   

深田晃司 Fuchi ni Tatsu

Release Date: 2016

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada

Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Tadanobu Asano, Kanji Furutachi, Taiga, Takahiro Miura, Momone Shinokawa,

IMDB   Website

Koji Fukada is a Japanese director inspired by French cinema and his films have travelled outside of his native country. Indeed, Hotori no Sakuko (Au revoir l‘ete) was released in the UK last year. He is working with actors from that film again – Taiga, Kanji Furutachi – and he’s working with the awesome Tadanobu Asano (Watashi no Otoko, Vital, Bright Future, Survive Style 5+).

Harmonium Film Image

Synopsis from IMDB: Toshio hires Yasaka in his workshop. This old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio’s family life.

 

Ugetsu Monogatari   

Ugetsu Monogatari Film Poster
Ugetsu Monogatari Film Poster

雨月物語 Ugetsu Monogatari

Release Date: March 26th, 1953

Running Time: 97 mins.

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Writer: Akinari Ueda (Original Story), Hisakazu Tsuji (Idea), Matsutaro Kawaguchi (Adaptation), Yoshitaka Yoda (Screenplay)

Starring: Machiko Kyo, Mitsuko Mito, Kinuyo Tanaka, Masayuki Mori, Eitaro Ozawa, Kikue Mori, Shozo Nanbu

IMDB

Kadokawa and Cineric Laboratories worked together to restore this classic Jidaigeki from Kenji Mizoguchi. This is considered one of the best Japanese films from the Golden Age period of filmmaking (and ever as far as I’m concerned). It won Ugetsu the Silver Lion Award for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival in 1953 and audiences get to see a version which has restored visuals. Martin Scorcese and cameraman/cinematographer Masahiro Miyajima (Ran) acted as consultants. Here’s a trailer from the Masters of Cinema release put out by Eureka in 2012.

Synopsis: The story is set in the Sengoku period and follows a potter named Genjuro and his brother-in-law who leave their loyal wives to become famous samurai only for tragedy to strike Genjuro when he comes under the spell of Lady Wakasa and the ghosts she is surrounded by.

 

Momotaro, Sacred Sailors

桃太郎 海の神兵 Momotaro Umi no Shinpei

Release Date: April 12th, 1945

Running Time: 74 mins.

Director: Mitsuyo Seo

Writer: Mitsuyo Seo (Original Story/Screenplay)

Starring: Machiko Kyo, Mitsuko Mito, Kinuyo Tanaka, Masayuki Mori, Eitaro Ozawa, Kikue Mori, Shozo Nanbu

IMDB

Mitsuyo Seo was a Japanese animator, screenwriter and director of animated films and helped make anime a major force. During World War II he made propaganda films for the Japanese government and Momotaro, Umi no shinpei (Momotaro, Sacred Sailors) is one of his most famous. The film influenced the next-generation animators including Osamu Tezuka and others. After the war American forces confiscated and destroyed many propaganda films but a negative copy of this film was found in Shochiku’s Ofuna warehouse in 1983 and was re-released in 1984. It is now being shown at Cannes.

桃太郎 海の神兵

Synopsis: A propaganda animated feature film made during WWII with the funding by the Ministry of Navy. This is an updated take on the Japanese fairy-tale, Momotaro (the guy born from a peach who rolled with a monkey, dog and pheasant killing ogres). Here he is depicted fighting for the Imperial Japanese Navy defeating European colonisers and taking the fight to America.

A prequel was made for the film (Momotaro’s Sea Eagles) but no sequel because, well, this was made in 1945.

There’s also a Studio Ghibli co-production called The Red Turtle and is the work of an award-winning Dutch animator and director Michael Dudok de Wit (“The Monk and the Fish,” “Father & Daughter” animated shorts). According to Anime News Network:

Director de Wit temporarily moved to Koganei in Tokyo (where Studio Ghibli is headquartered) to work on the film, completing the film’s storyboards and the scenario in his time there, while Studio Ghibli director Isao Takahata checked them. Takahata also serves as the “artistic producer” for the film.

AND THAT’S IT!


Hero Mania: Seikatsu, Ajin: Shoutosu, 64: Part 1 Prequel, Road to High & Low, Iitatemura no kaachantachi tsuchi to tomo ni, Ametsuchi no hibi Japanese Film Trailers

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Hello dear audience!

Harmonium Film Image

I gorged myself on a lot of new anime this week just to get a feel for the season so I’ve picked up Bungo Stray Dogs, Kiznaiver, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable and Re:ZERO. I spent more time writing film reviews than watching films… I did post about the Japanese films at the Cannes Film Festival and I posted a film review for Cesium and a Tokyo Girl (2015).

What’s released this weekend?

Hero Mania: Seikatsu   

Hero Mania Film Poster
Hero Mania Film Poster

ヒーローマニア 生活「Hi-ro- Mania Seikatsu 

Running Time: 109 mins.

Release Date: May 07th, 2016

Director: Keisuke Toyoshima

Writer: Jun Tsugita (Screenplay), Shigeyuki Fukumitsu (Original Manga)

Starring: Masahiro Higashida, Masataka Kubota, Nana Komatsu, Tsurutaro Kataoka, Eiichiro Funakoshi, Shizuyo Yamazaki,

Website IMDB

This is an action comedy starring Masahiro Higashide (The Kirishima Thing), Masataka Kubota (13 Assassins) and Nana Komatsu (The World of Kanako). It looks a lot like the film Kick Ass (2010) only not as mean spirited. I’m surprised a film like this hasn’t already been made.

Synopsis: After losing his job at a company, Hidetoshi Nakatsu (Masahiro Higashide) gets work as a part-timer at a convenience store. His frustration with society’s decay reaches boiling point when he has to deal with horrible people in his job and his frustration gets an outlet when he meets a young man named Toshida (Masataka Kubota), who has gadgets, a high school girl named Kaori (Nana Komatsu), who is super smart, and Kusaki (Tsurutaro Kataoka), a man who wields hammers under his sleeves. The four form a vigilante group to take out criminals and slowly become famous. That fame attracts a businessman who wants to form a team of his own…

 

Ajin: Shoutosu       

Ajin Shoutosu Film Poster
Ajin Shoutosu Film Poster

亜人第2部 -衝突-「Ajin Part dai 2 bu: Shoutotsu

Release Date: May 06th, 2016

Running Time: 106 mins.

Chief Director: Hiroyuki Seshita, Director: Hiroaki Ando

Writer: Hiroshi Sekio (Screenplay), Gamon Sakurai (Original Manga),

Starring: Mamoru Miyano (Kei Nagai), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Kaito), Takahiro Sakurai (Tosaki), Aya Suzaki (Eriko Nagai),

Animation Production: POLYGON PICTURES

WebsitANN MAL IMDB

I read the manga for about two volumes over a year ago and it didn’t appeal that much to me but it’s getting a major push with English-language releases and films by the guys behind the adaptation of Knights of Sidonia. The TV anime has turned out to be good, from what I have heard.

Synopsis from Anime News Network and MAL: 17 years ago, immortals first appeared on the battlefields of Africa. Later, rare, unknown new immortal lifeforms began appearing among humans, and they became known as “Ajin” (demi-humans). Just before summer vacation, a Japanese high school student named Kei is instantly killed in a traffic accident on his way home from school but is instantly revived.

For high schooler Kei—and for at least forty-six others—immortality comes as the nastiest surprise ever.

Sadly for Kei, such a feat doesn’t make him a superhero. In the eyes of both the general public and governments, he’s a rare specimen who needs to be hunted down and handed over to scientists to be experimented on for life—a demi-human who must die a thousand deaths for the benefit of humanity.

 

 

64: Part 1 Prequel   

64 Part 1 Prequel Film Poster
64 Part 1 Prequel Film Poster

64 ロクヨン前編  「64 Rokuyon Zenpen

Running Time: 121 mins.

Release Date: May 07th, 2016

Director: Takahisa Zeze

Writer: Shinichi Hisamatsu, Takahisa Zeze (Screenplay), Hideo Yokoyama (Original Novel)

Starring: Koichi Sato, Gou Ayano, Nana Eikura, Eita, Masatoshi Nagase, Kippei Shiina, Tomokazu Miura, Eiji Okuda, Yui Natsukawa

Website  IMDB

It’s a continuation of a TV series.

Synopsis from IMDB:  1989 is the 64 Shouwa year in the Japanese calendar, thus the unsolved case of a girl who was kidnapped and murdered is called “64 (rokuyon). It has hung over the Criminal Investigation Department in the Prefectural Police Department for fourteen years and the statute of limitations is approaching it. In 2002, Yoshinobu Mikami, an ex-detective who was the lead investigator on the “Rokuyon” works as a Public Relations Officer in the Police Affairs Department and finds his department dealing with a new case connected to the “Rokuyon” case.

 

 

Road to High & Low    

Road to High & Low Film Poster
Road to High & Low Film Poster

Release Date: May 07th, 2016

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Shigeaki Kubo

Writer: Team Hi-Ax (Screenplay),

Starring: AKIRA, TAKAHIRO, Takanori Iwata, Hiroomi Tosaka, Sho Aoyagi, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Keita Machida, Yuya Endo,

Website    IMDB

One of those Exile Tribe films where idol boys act in dramas. In this one, they are all in different gangs so different trailers for each gang which double as music videos on the YouTube channel and so on.

Synopsis: Here’s European Exile Tribe with the synopsis:

The story begins in a dangerous and desolate town filled with gangsters.

This area is known as “SWORD”, an acronym attributed to the names of five groups: “Sanno Rengokai”, “White Rascals”, “Oya Koukou”, “RUDE BOYS” and “Daruma Ikka”, and those who belonged to either of these gangs came to be referred to as “G-SWORD” accordingly.

But prior to the formation of SWORD, this area used to be under the rule of a legendary organization called “MUGEN”. But somehow this power monopoly by MUGEN was suddenly dispersed during its deadly battle with an unyielding force called the “Amamiya Kyodai”.

For now, a balance of power is somehow maintained by these groups – until a ghost of the past emerges, setting off a series of events that will shake this town once again.

With the resurgence of the past comes a battle of epic proportions, which will then decide the fate of this town.

 

Sanma to Qatar: Onagawa Tsunagaru Hitobito    

Sanma to Qatar Onagawa Tsunagaru Hitobito Film Poster
Sanma to Qatar Onagawa Tsunagaru Hitobito Film Poster

サンマとカタール 女川つながる人々「Sanma to Kata-ru: Onagawa Tsunagaru Hitobito 

Running Time: 73 mins.

Release Date: May 07th, 2016

Director: Hiroaki Inui

Writer: N/A

Starring:  Kiichi Nakai (Narrator), Yuri Abe, Yoshiaki Suda,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: This is a documentary with its roots in the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011. The film takes in the reconstruction of Onagawa in Miyagi prefecture where 80% of the residents lost their homes in the city. An injection of cash from a Qatari friendship fund helped in the rebuilding of the town which we see the results of as well as the emotional journeys of the residents.

 

Iitatemura no kaachantachi tsuchi to tomo ni   

Iitatemura no kaachantachi tsuchi to tomo ni Film Poster
Iitatemura no kaachantachi tsuchi to tomo ni Film Poster

飯舘村の母ちゃんたち 土とともに Iitatemura no kaachan-tachi tsuchi to tomoni

Release Date: May 07th, 2016

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Mizue Furui

Writer: N/A

Starring: Eiko Kanno, Yoshiko Kanno,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Two elderly sisters, Eiko 78 and Yoshiko 79, were still running their family farm in Iitate which is close to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. They had to evacuate with everyone else and now live in temporary housing. We see these tough ladies carrying on with life, continuing to do what they love while surrounded by grandchildren and other family members.

 

Ametsuchi no hibi    

Ametsuchi no hibi Film Poster
Ametsuchi no hibi Film Poster

あめつちの日々 Ametsuchi no hibi

Release Date: May 07th, 2016

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Mika Kawase

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yoneji Matsuda

Website

Synopsis: A documentary on Yoneji Matsuda, an artist who specialises in ceramics who lives and works in Okinawa, specifically the village of Yachimun which is what his pottery is named after. The Okinawa Island Guide has more on the area. Matsuda channels traditional methods of ceramic making – such as local clay, unique kilns – and continues the trend but it is getting harder and harder to pass on the traditions to a new generation…

  

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)

Zootopia (2016/04/23)

Captain America Civil War (2016/04/29)

Crayon Shin-chan Movie 24: Bakusui! Yumemi World Dai Totsugeki (2016/04/16)

Chihayafuru Part II Shimo no ku (2016/04/29)

I Am a Hero (2016/04/23)

TerraFormars (2016/04/29)

The Revenant (2016/04/22)

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions  (2016/04/23)

Assassination Classroom: The Graduation (25/03/16)


2016 Nippon Connection Film Festival Preview

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The 16th edition of the Japanese film festival Nippon Connection will take place in Frankfurt, Germany, from May 24th to the 29th. Over the course of six days audiences will get the chance to watch more than 100 short and feature films and this incudes indies, anime, blockbusters, and documentaries. This is the biggest festival dedicated to Japanese films and so filmmakers are going to attend the event to present their works.

On top of the films there are guests who are coming over from Japan so that means there are also workshops, lectures, panel discussions, performances, exhibitions, and there is also a Japanese market with food on sale. It’s a huge event with lots to see and do.

Good Stripes Film Image
Good Stripes Film Image

What is on the programme, then? I’ll break it down into sections:

Anime | Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Sion Sono |

New Feature Films | Familiar Feature Films | Shorts |

Horror Films | Documentaries |Daisuke Hosaka

 

Anime

This section features a healthy collection of contemporary titles from 2015 with two stand-outs in the pack based on critical reception which I highlighted with the full preview format:

The Case of Hana & Alice    

The Case of Hana and Alice Film Poster
The Case of Hana and Alice Film Poster

花とアリス 殺人事件「Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Shunji Iwai

Writer: Shunji Iwai (Screenplay/Original Creator),

Starring: Yu Aoi (Tetsuko Arisugawa), Anne Suzuki (Hana Arai), Ryou Kazuji (Kotaro Yuda – a man who holds the key to the murder mystery), Haru Kuroki (Satomi Hagino-sensei – Hana and Alice’s homeroom teacher), Tae Kimura (Yuki Tsutsumi – the ballet classroom teacher),

Website  ANN   MAL   IMDB

This film is a joy to watch and from the reaction of critics it seems like it will be a sure fire hit with audiences. It’s the prequel to Hana and Alice (2004), a live-action film directed by Shunji Iwai. He wanted to go back to when the two titular teens met to tell the story of the beginning of their friendship and it all happens through the world’s smallest murder case. Iwai chose to animate the original actors through the power of rotoscoping and it creates a unique look.

Synopsis: Newly arrived in small-town suburbia with her divorced mother, middle-school age transfer student Tetsuko Arisugawa (Arisu or ‘Alice’ for short) finds herself the victim of bullying by her classmates and seeks solace through dance. She soon learns of an urban myth about a mysteriously vanished former student called Yuda (Japanese for ‘Judas’) who was allegedly murdered by four of his classmates. Hana, a reclusive girl who lives in a house bedecked with flowers next door, seems to hold the key to the mystery, and together the pair soon embark on a wild and unpredictable series of suburban escapades.

 

Harmony + Q&A   

Harmony Film Poster
Harmony Film Poster

ハーモニー「Ha-moni-   

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Michael Arias, Takashi Nakamura

Writer: Koji Yamamoto (Screenplay), Project Itoh (Original Novel),

Starring: Miyuki Sawashiro (Tuan Kirie), Akio Ohtsuka (Asaf), Reina Ueda (Miach Mihie), Shinichiro Miki (Elliya Vashirof),

Website ANN MAL

Harmony is the third film from the Project Itoh trilogy, a concerted effort to adapt the three novels by late author Project Itoh (real name Satoshi Itō) who died in 2009. It is directed by Takashi Nakamura (Fantastic Children) and Michael Arias (Tekkonkinkreet), at Studio 4°C (Berserk). The director Michael Arias (AnimatrixTekkonkinkreet) will take part in a Q&A at Nippon Connection and so this is a great chance to get the behind-the-scenes info on the animation process.

Synopsis from My Anime ListIn the future, Utopia has finally been achieved thanks to medical nanotechnology and a powerful ethic of social welfare and mutual consideration. This perfect world isn’t that perfect though, and three young girls stand up to totalitarian kindness and super-medicine by attempting suicide via starvation. It doesn’t work, but one of the girls—Tuan Kirie—grows up to be a member of the World Health Organization. As a crisis threatens the harmony of the new world, Tuan rediscovers another member of her suicide pact, and together they must help save the planet…from itself.

 

 

When Marnie Was There Film Poster
When Marnie Was There Film Poster

When Marnie Was There「思い出のマーニー, Dir: Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 99 mins.」is reputedly the last film from Studio Ghibli and is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the chap who helmed Arrietty.  The film is an adaptation of a book written by British novelist Joan G. Robinson’s and features the familiar mixture of fantasy and reality where a lonely twelve-year-old girl named Anna travels to a small town to better cope with her asthma and makes a new friend, a mysterious blonde girl named Marnie who lives in a Western style house…

 

Miss Hokusai Film Poster
Miss Hokusai Film Poster

Miss Hokusai 百日紅 Miss HOKUSAI, Dir: Keiichi Hara, 90 mins.」 is the latest film from Keiichi Hara (Colorful). It’s a big blockbuster treatment of the story of the story of Katsushika Hokusai’s third daughter, the outspoken 23-year-old O-Ei. It takes place in 1814 in Edo, a place which is teeming with peasants, samurai, townsmen, merchants, nobles, artists, courtesans, and perhaps even supernatural things. O-Ei helps her father with his art and very often she would paint instead of him, though uncredited. She made art of her own and this is the untold story of O-Ei, Master Hokusai’s daughter: a lively portrayal of a free-spirited woman overshadowed by her larger-than-life father, unfolding through the changing seasons.

 

Empire of the Corpses「屍者の帝国, Dir: Ryuotarou Makihara, 120 mins.is one of three films from Project Itoh and it comes to us courtesy of WIT Studio (Attack on TitanHoozuki no Reitetsu). It takes place in 19th Century

The Empire of Corpses Film Poster
The Empire of Corpses Film Poster

London at the height of the British Empire only in this universe “corpse reanimation technology” has been developed, rendering the dead useful for basic physical labour. Brilliant medical student John Watson is recruited by the British to search for the legendary writings of Dr. Victor Frankenstein which allegedly detail the technology behind a more sophisticated reanimated corpse – the original – that could speak and even had free will. Watson will go on a globe-trotting mission, fighting enemy agents for those papers.

There are numerous animated shorts, a rich area for seeing invention and ingenuity and surprises:

A Wild Patience – Indie Animated Shorts By Women contains recent works by indie female artists who have animated using a number of different styles. These have been curated by film scholar and journalist Dr. Catherine Munroe Hotes.

Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation is a programme that contains 14 of the best titles from students at the prestigious university and they will be presented by Hiromitsu Murakami, a professor in the animation department. Some of these are at the Annecy International Animation Festival but this looks to be a much more comprehensive programme.

Tokyo University of the Arts Anime Projects
Tokyo University of the Arts Anime Projects

JVTA Presents: Twilight of the Cockroaches 「ゴキブリたちの黄昏, Dir: Hiroaki Yoshida, 105 mins.」was first released in 1987 and went to various film festival. The Nippon Connection website calls this film “one of the most audacious stylistic experiments in anime history, featuring a society of cockroaches fighting to survive in modern Japan. The sophisticated combination of animated images and live-action footage is still an eye-catcher today. The film was provided with new subtitles for the festival by the Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy (JVTA).”

There is an 8 minute film called Macky and Eucki in Midnight Galery directed by Rushio Moriyama playing at this screening.

 

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Kiyoshi Kurosawa FaceKiyoshi Kurosawa, one of the greatest living Japanese directors, will be at Nippon Connection where he will receive the Nippon Honour Award, which was created to honour people who have made a significant contribution to Japanese film. Well, Kurosawa has made a significant contribution to film and he’s one of the few contemporary Japanese directors working today that an international audience may be familiar with.

He will accept this award and be present for a screening of Journey to the Shore「岸辺の旅 , Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa. 128 mins.which is an adaptation of the 2010 novel Kishibe no Tabi by Kazumi Yumoto. It is a film about a woman named Mizuki (Eri Fukatsu) whose husband Yusuke (Tadanobu Asano) disappeared. One day, he comes back and asks Mizuki to go on a journey with him visiting all of the places he went to and all of the people he met while he was travelling. Mizuki begins to understand why Yusuke went on his journey. The film earned Kurosawa the Best Director prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

Kurosawa’s latest film also gets screened so GET HYPED!

 

Creepy   

Creepy Film Poster
Creepy Film Poster

クリーピー偽りの隣人 「Kuri-pi- itsuwari no rinjin」 

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

I call this a comeback because Kiyoshi Kurosawa has strayed away from horror films and gone into supernatural inflected dramas. This has coincided with a lull in quality from the man. Well he’s back in psychological horror and he has brought in great actors he has worked with before: Hidetoshi Nishijima (License to Liveand Teruyuki Kagawa (Tokyo Sonata). Early reviews from this has suggested that Kurosawa is back on form.

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…

Cure Yakusho Stares at City

The day after the screening of Creepy is the screening of Cure キュア Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 111 mins.which originally came out in 1997 and still scares today. For many, this is the first Kurosawa film they encounter and it’s a really intense serial killer movie were a detective named Takabe (played by regular Kiyoshi Kurosawa collaborator Koji Yakusho) tracking a mesmerist named Mamiya. What makes it memorable is the bleak atmosphere and psychological ambiguity. Here’s my review from year and years ago. I really like this film!

Kiyoshi Kurosawa will also be around for the film breakfast. This is an event where audiences can enjoy a buffet and a film with a filmmaker present. The film that is getting screened is:

Tokyo Sonata トウキョウソナタDir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 119 mins.」which, in my opinion, is one of the best dramas to have ever come from Japan. The story is about the fallout when the patriarch of a typical middle-class Japanese family loses his job but maintains the façade in the face of a family who are going through their own changes.

Tokyo Sonata Film Image

 

Sion Sono

There are two Sion Sono movies at the festival and both have been on the festival circuit but they seem to be very different.

The Whispering Star 「ひそひそ星, 100 mins. IMDBwas originally created and screened as part of an art exhibition which had the theme of dystopia running through it. The film was shot in different locations in Fukushima prefecture, turning the depopulated and irradiated areas into a futuristic landscape that speaks of hopelessness, pollution, and abandonment. It stars people who live in the areas and Sion Sono’s wife.

Synopsis: A spaceship shaped like a Japanese bungalow careens through the galaxy. It carries a humanoid robot named Yoko (Megumi Kagurazaka), a sort of interstellar UPS delivery person. Her job is simple: to distribute packages to human beings scattered across sundry planets. But with so much spare time between deliveries, Yoko begins to wonder what’s in those packages.

Love and Peace「ラブ&ピース , 117 minsis supposedly based on a script that Sono wrote many years ago, around the time of Suicide Club. Taking the lead is Hiroki Hasegawa, the mad cinephile in the yakuza movie comedy Why Don’t You Play in Hell? and Kumiko Aso, the waif running around in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s horror film Pulse. It’s getting a release in the UK at some point thank to the film distributor Third Window Films.

Love and Peace Film Image

Synopsis: The story is about a put upon salaryman who once had the dream of being a punk-rocker. He randomly buys a turtle and names it Pikadon. A series of events occur and Ryoichi’s dreams of being a rock star might be about to come true! However, it might also lead to the end of the world…

New Feature Films

This section features the newest or unreleased films. Full write-ups for these for anyone interested although I have copied and pasted the synopses from Nippon Connection for many to hurry up this preview and ensure greater accuracy. There are a lot of great looking titles here.

A Cappella 「無伴奏, Dir: Hitoshi Yazaki, 132 mins. 」  is a drama which stars Riko Narumi (Shindo) as a high school girl named Kyoko living in 1969, a period when there was change in the air what with Japanese students involved in campus riots, anti-war rallies, and the growth of subcultures in music, cinema, literature, and theatre. Kyoko becomes influenced by these things and joins a rally at a university which gets violent. After she is wounded she shelters at a club called “A Cappella” and meets and falls in love with a college student, named Wataru (Sosuke Ikematsu). She undergoes a sexual awakening but the politics of the age puts their love in great danger…

The Man Who Was Eaten   

The Man Who Was Eaten Film Poster
The Man Who Was Eaten Film Poster

食べられる男「Taberareru otoko

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

The Man Who Was Eaten is a cynical sci-fi comedy and a true indie film considering it has come from a production team composed of current students from Osaka University of Arts. The director will be present at the screening.

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?” He spends his final days trying to right mistakes…

Hakodate Coffee 函館珈琲, Dir: Hiroshi Nishio, 90 mins.Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Eiji, a struggling writer who wants to open a second hand bookstore in Hakodate (Hokkaido), moves into a house which he shares with several artists. As it turns out, all of the residents, including Eiji, seem to struggle with problems. But soon they begin to have a positive impact on Eiji’s life. The actor Tony Nakajima will be in attendance.

Anohito – The One    

Anohito Film Poster
Anohito Film Poster

あのひと 「Anohito

Running Time: 87 mins.

Director: Ichiro Yamamoto

Writer:  Ichiro Yamamoto (Screenplay), Sakunosuke Oda (Screenplay)

Starring: Hidenori Ono, Naohiko Washio, Ajiho Sugiyama, Boiru Nakajima, Takako Ueno, Seizo Fukumoto, Anna Kawashima,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: In a film where the past and present mixes we see the daily lives of four young soldiers who are raising the orphaned son of their commanding officer. As they each decide to go working in munitions factories, it is up to four women to take care of the boy as they wait for the men to return. It is based on a script from 1944 and shot in long black-and-white takes but it takes place in a strange present where clothes, locations and other things are familiar but the war still rages on.

 

The Sheep Story

ひつじものがたり 「Hitsuji monogatari

Running Time: 97 mins.

Director: Ken Kawai

Writer:  Ken Kawai, Sho Ishii (Screenplay),

Starring: Keisuke Horibe, Ryutaro Ninomiya, Akiko Ishikawa, Kana Kita, Shinji Imaoka,

This is so indie I can’t find anything on it beyond the trailer and Nippon Connection’s page and yet this one looks like fun! And no, this isn’t a sequel to the anime Bakemonogatari.

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Chronicling the adventures of a young man and his sheep as well as the exploits of a middle-aged man who’s running after his first love, this film juxtaposes youthful spirit and nostalgic longing. While the two episodes range from cartoonish to melancholic, they both share a lot of warmth and humour depicting their sometimes fallible, but ultimately very lovable characters.

The director will be in town to introduce the film!

 

Ken and Kazu   

Ken and Kazu Film Poster
Ken and Kazu Film Poster

ケンとカズ 「Ken to Kazu

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Shoji

Writer:  Hiroshi Shoji (Screenplay),

Starring: Shinsuke Kato, Katsuya Maiguma, Kisetsu Fujiwara, Shuna Iijima, Haruki Takano

Website   IMDB    JFDB

Search for this drama and you will find old entries dating back to 2011 and that is because the director Shoji Hiroshi made a short film of the same name and it travelled to different film festivals. From that short came this feature about two friends who deal in drugs. This has been picked up by Third Window Films for world sales.  

Synopsis from JFDB: Ken (Kato Shinsuke) and Kazu (Maiguma Katsuya) are partners in crime who use a car repair shop as their front for dealing stimulants. Ken tries to make a clean break after his girlfriend Saki (Iijima Shuna) gets pregnant, but Kazu has a secret…

The Look

まなざし 「Manazashi

Running Time: 93 mins.

Director: Atsushi Urabe

Writer:  Atsushi Urabe (Screenplay),

Starring: Toshie Negishi, Mitsuru Yamazaki, Takashi Irie, Takuya Matsunaga, Manabu Yazaki,

IMDB

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: After a long prison sentence, Yoko’s father is released and placed in his daughter’s care, since no nursing home is willing to take him in. However, looking after her father every day gradually becomes a heavy burden for Yoko. Atsushi Urabe presents this story in a challenging reductionist style. Here, looks convey more than words do – and they can convey a simple yet deeply humanistic message.

 

Hibana

火花 「Hibana

Episodes 1 – 3 Running Time: 150 mins.

Episodes 1 – 3 Running Time: 380 mins.

Director: Ryuichi Hiroki, Kazuya Shiraishi, Shuichi Okita, Shinji Kuma, Ysutaka Mori,

Writer:  Masato Kato, Miyuki Takahashi, Yuiko Kato (Screenplay), Naoki Matayoshi (Original Work),

Starring: Kento Hayashi, Kazuki Namioka, Mugi Kadowaki, Shota Sometani, Tomorowo Taguchi,

Website

Ryuichi Hiroki served as main director for the adaptation of Naoki Matayoshi’s best­selling novel – the first Japanese Netflix series, presented at Nippon Connection as a world premiere prior to its official release.

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Tokunaga is an aspiring comedian who becomes the apprentice of veteran Kamiya. But while Tokunaga rises to fame, Kamiya starts to lose his shine. 

This screening will take place in the presence of the leading actors Kento Hayashi and Kazuki Namioka as well as director Shinji Kuma.

Good Stripes    

Good Stripes Film Poster
Good Stripes Film Poster

グッド・ストライプス

Guddo Suroraipusu

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Yukiko Sode

Writer:  Yukiko Sode (Screenplay),

Starring: Akiko Kikuchi, Ayumu Nakajima, Asami Usuda, Juri Ibata, Itsuki Sagara,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Midori’s and Masao’s relationship has almost reached its end, when Midori realizes that she is pregnant. The couple unenthusiastically decides to marry, and over the course of the preparations they slowly begin to reconcile. In her second feature film, director and screenwriter Yukiko Sode shows her talent for telling a charming love story with memorable characters in an everyday setting.

The director Yukiko Sode will be in town to introduce the film!

Familiar Feature Films

Familiar films is a section dedicated to titles I have written about for trailer posts and previews of other festivals countless times. There are a many films that get their international premiere at Nippon Connection and some which have played at film festivals this year such as Osaka. The ones I think are the most interesting or worth watching to get the breadth and depth of Japanese cinema will be given full previews:

The Actor   

The Actor Film Poster
The Actor Film Poster

俳優亀岡拓次「Haiyuu Kameoka Takuji

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 a man who many 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 FestivalTakuji 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, Dir: Yasutomo Chikuma, 99 mins.」is about a man who works at a homeless shelter for old men. He 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.

Being Good「きみはいい子, Dir: Mipo O, 121 mins.」 Mipo O is a director/writer who tackles tough subjects as seen in The Light Shines Only There. Her latest film is the adaptation of the book Kimi wa ii ko (You’re a Good Kid). The book is by Hatsue Nakawaki which won the 2012 Tsubota Jōji Literature Award. The book is a collection of five stories about child abuse and people trying to prevent it, each story occurs in the same town and on the same rainy afternoon. The film adapts two stories into one:   Santa no konai ie (The House where Santa Doesn’t Come) and Beppin-san (Pretty Girl). The first story sees Tasuku (Kengo Kora), an idealistic primary school teacher struggling to deal with his class and their parents especially when he discovers that one of his pupils is being abused by his parents. The second story is about Masami (Machiko Ono), a woman who appears to be a good mother, can’t help lashing out at her own child because of traumas she suffered as a child…

Gonin Saga    

Gonin Saga Film Poster
Gonin Saga Film Poster

GONIN サーガ 「Gonin Sa-ga

Duration: 130 mins

Director: Takashi Ishii

Writer: Takashi Ishii

Starring: Masahiro Higashide, Kenta Kiritani, Masanobu Ando, Koichi Sato, Anna Tsuchiya, Naoto Takenaka, Rila Fukushima,

Website    IMDB

Gonin Saga is another film that has been on the top ten lists of film critics. It has a good pedigree since it comes from Takashi Ishii, a veteran manga artist and filmmaker who specialises in hardboiled crime stories. Gonin Saga is a continuation of one of his best films as we revisit the story but through the eyes of the children of the original characters. The cast includes a range of talented young actors like Masanobu Ando, Masahiro Higashide, and Anna Tsuchiya. See this to watch a good crime drama from a master of the form.

Synopsis from the Vancouver International Film Festival’s websiteIshii Takashi’s Gonin (VIFF 1995) set the standard for neo-noir yakuza movies with its tale of five down-on-their-luck men taking on a powerful yakuza gang, the Goseikai—and facing deadly reprisals. Twenty-years-later, the sequel Gonin Saga brings this story up to date. Some of the original mavericks had families: Hisamatsu, for example, left a wife and son. Hisamatsu’s son Hayato (new star Higashide Masahiro) has an honest, crime-free life but is best friends with Ogoshi’s son Daisuke, who’s still working as a bodyguard for the gang. It all kicks off when a reporter asks Hayato’s mother to reveal the truth about the original attack on the Goseikei—and soon history is threatening to repeat itself.

The Inerasable 「 残穢–住んではいけない部屋–, Dir: Yoshihiro Nakamura, 107 mins」 is 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 the fates of all the people involved in previous investigations, deaths and hauntings. Ai Hashimoto stars in this!

Her Father, My Lover 「友だちのパパが好き, Dir: Kenji Yamauchi, 105 mins.」 stars Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Cold Fish 2011) who plays the object of affection for his daughter Taeko’s best friend at university Maya who takes extreme measures to get her man. He’s not an entirely innocent party as he has been having an affair with another woman. The truth will come out and it will get even more ridiculous as Taeko can only watch…

Lowlife Love 「下衆の愛 , Dir: Eiji Uchida, 110 mins.」comes from Eiji Uchida (Greatful Dead 2013) and takes a cunical look at the film industry in Japan through its leading character, a young indie director named Tetsuo (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) who had one big hit and, well… not much else. He now lives with his mother and scrounges off anyone he can. A potential second shot enters his life when he meets a talented scriptwriter and a girl fresh from the countryside who wants to be an actor. He thinks he can make something special…

Kiyohiko Shibukawa and the film’s producer Adam Torel (owner of Third Window Films) will be at the screening.

 

Three Stories of Love    

Three Stories of Love Film Poster
Three Stories of Love Film Poster

恋人たち Koibito-tachi

Duration: 140 mins

Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi

Writer: Ryosuke Hashiguchi

Starring: Atsushi Shinohara, Toko Narushima, Ryo Ikeda, Ken Mitsuishi, Lily Franky

Website   IMDB

Three Stories of Love has been topping the end of year lists for many critics who specialise in Japanese films. It looks like a heady combination of comedy and drama rooted in strong writing that gives us the everyday lives of three people experiencing romance and frustration.

Synopsis: Bridge inspector Atsushi is grieving for his wife, the victim of a cruel murder, housewife Toko is longing to escape her unsatisfying marriage, and gay lawyer Shinomiya fails to be as successful in his love life as he is in his job.

Ryuzo And The Seven Henchmen 「龍三と七人の子分たち, Dir: Takeshi Kitano, 111 mins.」 is Takeshi Kitano’s latest film and it is about an old yakuza gangster named Ryuzo and his seven former henchmen who have all retired and live quiet lives as regular old men until, one day, Ryuzo becomes the victim of a phishing scam and is outraged. He calls his seven men together to reform their criminal society.

Pieta in the Toilet 「トイレノピエタ, Dir: Daishi Matsunaga, 120 mins.」is about a dying young artist who has stomach cancer. He gets the will to live again in his final three months after meeting a high school girl who believes in his art. This is based on the diary kept by the famous manga artist Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy) in the last weeks of his life. Tezuka also died of stomach cancer, but not at a very young age (61). The director will be present for the screening.

Sore Dake That’s It   「それだけ that’s it, Dir: Gakuryu Ishii, 110 mins.」is a crime film starring a whole host of great actors – Shota Sometani, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Gou Ayano – and it sees them fight to get back their stolen identities from criminal organisations. The title of the film “Soredake” was inspired by the 1999 song “Soredake” by Japanese rock band Bloodthirsty Butchers. The band’s music is also feature in the film.  This is the German premiere and audiences can watch it in the presence of actor Kiyohiko Shibukawa (only on May 24). 

Dear Deer   

Dear Deer Film Poster
Dear Deer Film Poster

ディアーディアー「Dia Dia

Running Time: 107 mins.

Director: Takeo Kikuchi

Writer:  Noriaki Sugihara (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuri Nakamura, Koji Kiryu, Yoichiro Saito, Rinko Kikuchi, Shota Sometani, Wakana Matsumoto, Yurei Yanagi,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: When three siblings named Fujio (Koji Kiryu), Yoshio (Yoichiro Saito) and Akiko (Yuri Nakamura) were children, they lived in a mountain village and saw the elusive “Ryoumou Deer,” but nobody believed them. As adults their paths have diverged. The eldest child Fujio still lives in the same village and runs small factory but he is in serious debt. The middle child, Yoshio is living in the psychiatric ward of a hospital. The youngest child, Akiko, lives Tokyo, having fallen in love with a man and ran away there. When their father becomes ill the three siblings reunite in their mountain village.

Pink and Grey「 ピンクとグレー, Dir: Isao Yukisada, 119 mins.」is a film about the dark side of fame and acting. In this story, Rengo Shiraki (Yuto Nakajima) and Daiki Kawata (Masaki Suda) have been friends since childhood and they both love movies so they go into acting. Rengo becomes popular and Daiki gets left behind. When Rengo dies he leaves six letters and Daiki has to decide which one to publish. Questions arise as to whether Rengo committed suicide or if he was murdered and now that Daiki is becoming popular due to the scandal, people are asking if he had something to do with it…

The director will be present when the film is screened.

Sanchu Uprising: Voices at Dawn 「新しき民, Dir: Junichiro Yamasaki, 117 mins.」 is an indie film with ambition since it’s a jidaigeki! It’s based on a real life historical incident: in 1726, Sanchu, Okayama Prefecture, farmers negotiate with the feudal domain in order to seek exemption from rising taxes before infighting leads to suppression by the samurai class, and the farmers band together for battle. It’s a moment of injustice, setting the stage for bravery and sacrifice. However those daring characters remain largely off-screen as we follow the cowardly protagonist Jihei (Naohisa Nakagaki) who weighs the risks of rebellion and its aftermath. Synopsis part taken from Japan Cuts which aired it last year.

Their Distance   「 知らない、ふたり, Dir: Rikiya Imaizumi, 106 mins.」stars a group of Japanese actors and Korean popstars. In this tale, Leon, a young man who earns his living as a shoemaker, is shy and keen to avoid others. He spends his days working although he does go out to a park he loves. This is where he sees a Korean woman named Sona (Hanae Kan) passed out and sleeping on a bench. This is a case of love at first sight because Leon keeps thinking about the girl but his co-worker at the shoe shop, Kokaze (Fumiko Aoyagi), has feelings for him… The director will be at the screening.

If you want to see the film but cannot make the festival then you can purchase or rent it online on YouTube.

 Nagasaki: Memories of My Son 「 母と暮らせば, Dir: Yoji Yamada, 130 mins.」Yoji Yamada is a stalwart of the Japanese film industry having worked with Yasujiro Ozu as an assistant director and then becoming a director himself. His films win awards and tend to feature family stories. This one is described as a sad but hopeful one. Its story sounds hard. Nobuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) lives in post-war Nagasaki and works as a midwife. She survived the atomic bomb which killed her son Koji (Kazunari Ninomiya) three years earlier. She had already  lost another son and her husband so she is alone. Then, one night, Koji appears again and gives comfort to his mother and they reminiscence about her painful past as well as pleasant times.

Flying Colours   

Biri Gal Film Poster
Biri Gal Film Poster

ビリギャル 「Biri Gyaru」

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Nobuhiro Doi

Writer: Hiroshi Hashimoto (Screenplay), Nobutaka Tsubota (Original Novel),

Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Atsushi Ito, Shuhei Nomura, Rie Minemura, Ken Yasuda, Airi Matsui, Yo Yoshida, Tetsushi Tanaka,

The film is based on the novel “Gakunen Biri no Gyaru ga 1 nen de Hensachi o 40 Agete Keio Daigaku ni Geneki Gokaku Shita Hanashi” by Nobutaka Tsubota (published December 26, 2013 by Kadokawa) and the novel is based on the true story of the author Nobutaka Tsubota, who runs a cram school, and his student Sayaka Kobayashi who went from academic zero to hero in the space of a year. This is a fun and revealing look at the Japanese education system with characters you come to love!

Synopsis: Blonde-haired “gyaru” Sayaka has always been more interested in fashion than her studies. Because of this, she now has the scholastic aptitude of a 4th grader as a second-year high school student. However, when she visits a cram school, lecturer Mr. Tsubota recognizes her innate intelligence. After an informal discussion, and with the support of her family, Sayaka becomes determined not only to improve her grades, but to spend her final year of high school working hard toward getting accepted into prestigious Keio University.

Mohican Comes Home   

Mohican Comes Home Film Poster
Mohican Comes Home Film Poster

モヒカン故郷に帰る「Mohikan kokyo ni kaeru

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

This one was at the Osaka Asian Film Festival which I wrote about back in March. It has a great cast which includes Atsuko Maeda (Seventh Code) and Ryuhei Matsuda (The Great PassageMy Little Sweet Pea) and it’s directed by Shuichi Okita (The Story of YonosukeThe Woodsman and the Rain).

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…

My Technicolor Girl 「夢の女 ユメノヒト, Dir: Rei Sakamoto, 71 mins.」This was one of a number of films at Nippon Connection that was at the Osaka Asian Film Festival which I wrote about back in March. It stars Kazuhiro Sano as a man named Nagano who has been hospitalized at a mental hospital in Fukushima. 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. Having been hospitalized from when he was in his teens until his fifties, 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. Nagaon’s strongest desire is to meet the woman he loved and so he sets out on a bike headed for Tokyo.

Shorts

Cinéma Concrete (23 mins) directed by Takashi Makino explores the tenuous links of memory and thoughts as he combines musique concrete composed by Dutch musician Machinefabriek with imagery that plays with screen depth through layering and superimposing images and shadows. This is played with Action Direct, which is described as “an homage to the late music critic Teruto Soejima and will be accompanied live by Makino and British jazz musician Hilary Jeffery.” Both films can be viewed in 3D.

Skip City International D-Cinema Festival Present features three short films from 2015 and the titles are The Afterimage 「あの残像を求めて, Hiroki Kumamoto, 25 mins.」, Girl, Wavering 「空っぽの渦, Noriko Yuasa, 25 mins.」and Ondine’s Curse 「オンディーヌの呪い, Dir: Sayaka Kai, 30 mins.」.

Horror Films

This section is dedicated to scary Japanese ghost stories. These stories usually revolved around women used and abused by samurai who came back from the dead (NEVER, EVER underestimate women). Each of these films is a classic and so they are introduced by film critics and scholars. Full write-ups because I have watched around half of these and can confirm they are worth tracking down.

Ugetsu Monogatari   

Ugetsu Monogatari Film Poster
Ugetsu Monogatari Film Poster

雨月物語 「Ugetsu Monogatari

Running Time: 97 mins.

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Writer: Akinari Ueda (Original Story), Hisakazu Tsuji (Idea), Matsutaro Kawaguchi (Adaptation), Yoshitaka Yoda (Screenplay)

Starring: Machiko Kyo, Mitsuko Mito, Kinuyo Tanaka, Masayuki Mori, Eitaro Ozawa, Kikue Mori, Shozo Nanbu

IMDB

Kadokawa and Cineric Laboratories worked together to restore this classic Jidaigeki from Kenji Mizoguchi. This is considered one of the best Japanese films from the Golden Age period of filmmaking (and ever as far as I’m concerned). It won Ugetsu the Silver Lion Award for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival in 1953 and audiences get to see a version which has restored visuals. Martin Scorcese and cameraman/cinematographer Masahiro Miyajima (Ran) acted as consultants. Here’s a trailer from the Masters of Cinema release put out by Eureka in 2012.

Synopsis: The story is set in the Sengoku period and follows a potter named Genjuro and his brother-in-law who leave their loyal wives to become famous samurai only for tragedy to strike Genjuro when he comes under the spell of Lady Wakasa and the ghosts she is surrounded by.

Kwaidan                          Kwaidan Film Poster

怪談 Kwaidan

Running Time: 182 mins.

Director: Masaki Kobayashi

Writer: Yoko Mizuki (Screenplay), Lafcadio Hearn (Original Novel)

Starring: Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Rentaro Mikuni, Ranko Akagi, Fumie Kitahara, Otome Tsukmiya, Kenzo Tanaka, Tatsuya Nakadai

Kwaidan consists of four tales are adapted from Greek-born Lafcadio Hearn’s classic collection Japanese ghost stories about mortals caught up in forces beyond their comprehension when the supernatural world intervenes in their lives. The film has gone down as a classic and is widely available in the west. With striking cinematography and surrealist hand-painted sets, Kwaidan’s look is a unique abstract mix of luminescent colours that seemingly come from another world.

An introduction by Tom Mes precedes the screening.

Onibaba    Onibaba Film Poster

鬼婆 Onibaba

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Kaneto Shindo

Writer: Kaneto Shindo (Screenplay),

Starring: Nobuko Otowa, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Kei Sato, Taiji Tonoyama, Jukichi Uno

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: During a civil war in medieval Japan, an old woman and her daughter-in-law lure warriors into traps, then kill them and sell their goods to make a living. But soon, the girl’s affair with a neighbor ends the partnership with her mother-in-law, with fatal consequences. Shot in deeply aesthetic black and white, ONIBABA combines grim realism, erotic elements, and subtle horror to tell a parable about the terrors of war.

 

The Mansion of the Ghost Cat    亡霊怪猫屋敷 Film Poster

亡霊怪猫屋敷 Borei kaibyo yashiki

Running Time: 69 mins.

Director: Nobuo Nakagawa

Writer: Yoshiro Ishikawa, Jiro Fujishima (Screenplay), Sotoo Tachibana (Original Work)

Starring: Toshio Hosokawa, Yuriko Ejima, Ryuzaburo Nakamura, Fujie Satsuki, Noriko Kitazawa,

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: A doctor and his wife must face a vengeful ghost and an old curse that is tied to their house. Nakagawa’s use of both stark black-and-white imagery and gorgeous colour photography shows his masterful ability to create suspense and atmosphere. He would follow up with two milestones of Japanese horror cinema: The Ghost of Yotsuya and Jigoku.

 

Jigoku    Jigoku Film Poster

地獄 Jigoku

Running Time: 101 mins.

Director: Nobuo Nakagawa

Writer: Nobuo Nakagawa, Ichiro Miyagawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Shigeru Amachi, Yoichi Numata, Torahiko Nakamura, Fumiko Miyata, Utako Mitsuya,

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Shiro and his ominous fellow student Tamura kill a man in a car accident. Conscience-stricken, Shiro is drawn into a seemingly inescapable vortex of dramatic events, leading him into the most horrible depths of hell. With his surrealistic masterpiece Jigoku, Nobuo Nakagawa created an atmospheric and unique vision of a bleak world (and terrifying underworld) filled with sins and suffering.

 

The Ghost Story of Yotsuya                  Ghost of Yotsuya DVD Case                

東海道四谷怪談 Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan

Running Time: 76 mins.

Director: Nobuo Nakagawa

Writer: Masayoshi Onuki, Yoshihiro Ishikawa (Screenplay), Nanboku Tsuruya (Original Kabuki Play)

Starring: Shigeru Amachi, Noriko Kitazawa, Katsuko Wakasugi, Shuntaro Emi, Ryuzburo Nakamura,

Arguably the most famous Japanese ghost story of all time, Yotsuya Kaidan has been remade multiple times (30 times!!!) with the most recent example being Kaidan directed by Hideo Nakata. This one is the 1959 version directed by Nobuo Nakagawa, the man who would later go onto to film Jigoku (also at this festival). It is based on a Kabuki play written way back in 1825 and follows the misfortunes of two families locked in a deadly curse. According to Nippon Connection, this one is considered one of the finest versions because of its focus on the psychological aspects of the story.

Other adaptations of the film are available at this festival such as…

The Yotsuya Ghost Story (Part I & II)      Yotsuya Kwaidan Parts I and II DVD

新釈四谷怪談 (前篇/後篇)Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan

Running Time: 159 mins.

Director: Keisuke Kinoshita

Writer: Eijiro Hisaita (Screenplay), Nanboku Tsuruya (Original Kabuki Play)

Starring: Ken Uehara, Kinuyo Tanaka, Osamu Takizawa, Keiji Sada, Haruko Sugimura,

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Influenced by an old friend, down-and-out masterless samurai Iemon forges a plan to murder his obedient wife Oiwa and marry the rich and beautiful Oume. However, plagued by his guilty conscience, he is soon destined for doom. Keisuke Kinoshita reinterprets the classic horror story as a human tragedy. Instead of malice and hate, he depicts weak souls sealing their own tragic fate.

and this one…

Yotsuya Kwaidan    Yotsuya Kwaidan Film Poster

四谷怪談 Yotsuya Kaidan

Running Time: 76 mins.

Director: Kenji Misumi

Writer: Fuji Yahiro (Screenplay), Nanboku Tsuruya (Original Kabuki Play)

Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa, Yasuko Nakata, Yoko Uraji, Mieko Kondo, Hideo Takamatsu,

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Kenji Misumi’s Yotsuya Kwaidan is presumed to be the first coloured film version of the famous play. Deviating heavily from the original source, Fuji Yahiro depicts cold blooded protagonist Iemon as a tragic hero. The “righteous revenge” for his ruthlessly murdered wife leads to the redemption of her evil spirit. The visionary finale is without a question the apex of this underrated masterpiece.

Documentaries

Oyster Factory     

Oyster Factory Film Poster
Oyster Factory Film Poster

牡蠣工場  Kaki kouba

Duration: 145 mins

Director: Kazuhiro Soda

Starring: Shinsuke Hirano, Koichi Watanabe, Yukiko Watanabe

Website  IMDB

This two hour plus documentary ostensibly looks at life inside an oyster factory in the small harbour town of Ushimado on the Japanese Inland Sea 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 websiteIn 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?

 

Daku (Hug)  / A Lullaby Under the Nuclear Sky 「抱く, Dir: Tomoko Kana, 69 mins.」 The director Tomoko Kana turns the camera on herself and her pregnancy. After the 3/11 Earthquake and Tsunami she visited the evacuation zone around the Fukushima nuclear disaster and found out that she was pregnant. From that moment on, she investigated the fear of radiation.

The Birth Of Saké 「Dir: Erik Shirai、90 mins.」is a documentary that looks at Japan’s Yoshida Brewery which was founded more than 140 years ago and is one of the last places to still practice the traditional method of creating sake which means that workers, eat, sleep and live together for half of the year, working long hours to create the liquor. Director Erik Shirai looks into the process of making sake, the skill and effort of the people involved including Toji Yamamato, the head brewmaster who has worked at Yoshida for more than 55 years, and a new generation of people at the brewery, and looks at the sake itself showing why it is an internationally famous beverage. Audiences at the screening will get a bento box, apple wine, and sake!!!

Doglegs 「Dir: Heath Cozens、89 mins.」features a pro wrestler with cerebral palsy named Shintaro. The story revolves around his desire to retire after twenty years and he wants to go out with a bang with a match against his more able-bodied mentor and nemesis, Kitajima. There’s another film called Budding, Swelling (Dir: Ryoya Usuha, 7 mins.) that plays with this doc.

Under the Cherry Tree「桜の樹の下,  Dir: Kei Tanaka, 91 mins.」 is about a group of elderly people who live in a public housing complex in Kawasaki city reveal their tough lives complete with laughter and tears and now they face retirement in an inhospitable building.

Live Fashionably or Die「神様たちの街, Dir: Yukio Tanaka, 75 mins.」 looks at a project that was set up to help people overcome the disastrous earthquake in January 1995 in Kobe and that project helps elderly people through a fashion show where they walk the runway as models. The short film, The Girl Who Never Knew War 「Dir: Yoshimasa Jimbo, 20 mins.」is screened with this one.

Katabui – In the Heart of Okinawa「Dir: Daniel Lopez, 80 mins.」is all about the islanders struggle to keep their identity whilst living with the U.S. military bases in Okinawa and the dominance of Tokyo.

Landscapes After 3/11 features two documentaries:

Nature and Its Manifestations: From Four Poems「自然と兆候/4つの詩から, Dir: Takamasa Iwasaki, 50 mins.」 travels to the ghost towns and depopulated landscapes to see how nature reconquers the space freed from human presence and does so through the eyes of three fellow artists who explore the poetic chronicle of life, death, and rebirth.

Close but Distant 「ちかくてとおい, Dir: Yui Okubo, 53 mins.」 looks at the town of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture and its reconstruction. What makes this a personal story is that this is the director’s home town and he involves his niece who has never known what it looked like before the disaster.

Dryads in a Snow Valley 「風の波紋, Dir: Shigeru Kobayashi, 99 mins.」 follows a family who moved from Tokyo to a remote mountain village in Niigata prefecture to join a few other people making a new start. The family built their own house and grow their own rice and endure the tough climate. This documentary captures their day-to-day lives to try to understand the motivation behind the choice to leave cities behind.

Daisuke Hosaka
Daisuke Hosaka Special

Daisuke Hosaka made his feature film directorial debut with Be the World for Her (2005) which won him the Special Jury Award at the 2005 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. Since then he has worked in the television industry as a director as well as writing scripts. His movie comeback is Thank You, Mom (2015). Both films mentioned are played at the festival and the director plus the actor Shigeo Osako will be in attendance.

 

Thank You, Mom

お母さん、ありがとう 「Okaasan, arigatou

Running Time: 37 mins.

Director: Daisue Hosaka

Writer:  Daisuke Hosaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Yumiko fujita, Shigeo Osako, Han Arai,

IMDB

Thank You, Mom Film Image

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: As an unmarried salaryman, Shugo still lives with his dad and can hardly believe his “luck” when a “robotic mom” moves in with the two men. The entertaining family short film was produced under the artistic auspices of Daisuke Hosaka in the context of a seminar at the Film School of Tokyo.

 

Be the World for Her

世界は彼女のためにある 「Sekai wa kanojo no tame ni aru

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Daisuke Hosaka

Writer:  Daisuke Hosaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Hiroki Sakanoshita, Kaori Fuseya, Taro Suwa, Kei Horie, Kanji Tsuda,

IMDB

Synopsis from Nippon Connection: Hiroki and Kaori seem like two normal Japanese high school teenagers involved in the usual disasters of everyday life. When Hiroki mysteriously disappears, Kaori discovers a conspiracy of incredible proportions. Daisuke HOSAKA’s teenage-sci-fi-parable became the surprise hit at the 2005 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival.

You can stream the film via the Loadshow website if you cannot attend the festival but remain interested.

Be the World for Her Film Image


The Japanese Embassy in London will Screen Kei Kumai’s Film “Darkness in the Light” May 12th

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The Japanese Embassy in London will Screen Kei Kumai’s Film Darkness in the Light on April 12th at 18:30. Doors open at 18:00 and you will need to register before heading in.

Light in the Dark Film Image 2

Kei Kumai is probably most well-known for the period drama The Sea is Watching (2002) which got a DVD release in the UK (it’s in my local library) although Darkness in the Light is completely different since it offers a take on a tragedy in contemporary Japan, the sarin gas attacks that took place in 1994. It played at the Berlin Film Festival in 2001.

Darkness in the Light    

Darkness in the Light Film Poster
Darkness in the Light Film Poster

日本の黒い夏 -冤罪- Nihon no kuroi natsu – enzai – 

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: March 24th, 2001

Director: Kei Kumai

Writer: Kei Kumai (Screenplay), Koichi Hiraishi (Original Work)

Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Akira Terao, Naomi Hosokawa, Nagiko Tono, Yukiya Kitamura, Renji Ishibashi,

Website     IMDB

Synopsis: The poison gas incident that occurred in the city of Matsumoto on the night of 27 June 1994 was a terrible disaster that claimed a large number of casualties. The police searched the home of a man, an average citizen, who was the first to inform them of the incident and who was himself one of the victims, on suspicion of murder, without any clear grounds for suspicion.

Through the eyes of high school students who later investigate the mass media coverage of the crime, the film depicts an innocent human being who finds himself in desperate straits due to the power of the police and the mass media, which made wildly inaccurate reports. It also highlights his strong bonds with his family who firmly believe in his innocence in spite of all the cruel slander and prejudice they experience. The director forcefully scrutinises the media reporting and the police investigation carried out at the time as he painstakingly brings the truth to light.

The film will be screened on Thursday, May 12th 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.


The Magnificent Nine, HK: Forbidden Super Hero the Abnormal Crisis, If Cats Disappeared From the World, The Whispering Star, Jonetsu tairiku Presents Sono Shion to iu ikimono, About My Liberty and other Japanese Film Trailers

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Hello dear audience!

Be the World for Her Film Image

I watched one film this week and that was Ran (1985) for the third time this year after watching it at a cinema for the first time ever. If you live in the UK you can watch it on BBC iPlayer – it screened on BBC Four! – for a day more (I should have reported on it being on iPlayer earlier). I have completed lots of writing because I want to spend the next few months studying. Two posts this week, one for Nippon Connection and another for a film screening at the Japanese embassy.

What’s released this weekend?

The Magnificent Nine    

The Magnificent Nine Film Poster
The Magnificent Nine Film Poster

殿、利息でござる! Tono, Risoku de Gozaru! 

Running Time: 129 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura

Writer: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Kenichi Suzuki (Screenplay), Michifumi Isoda (Original Novel)

Starring: Sadao Abe, Eita, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Karen Iwata, Yudai Chiba, Kitaro, Mitsukoo Kusabue,

Website   IMDB

I have reviewed many films by Yoshihiro Nakamura such as The Snow White Murder Case (2014) and it is clear that he has become the king of adaptations in recent years. This film is based on a novel from 2012 and stars Sadao Abe (Dreams for Sale), Eita (The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker, Wild 7) and Satoshi Tsumabuki ( For Love’s Sake).

Synopsis: Juzaburo Kokutaya (Sadao Abe) and his fellows are working to meet impossible taxes and labour demands. To overcome their problems they plan to lend large amounts of money to a han (historical term for the estate of a warrior) and distribute the interest annually to the residents, but if they’re caught breaching social etiquette like this they will lose their lives.

 

HK: Forbidden Super Hero the Abnormal Crisis    

Hentai Kamen Abnormal Crisis Film Poster
Hentai Kamen Abnormal Crisis Film Poster

HK 変態仮面 アブノーマル・クライシス HK Hentai Kamen Abunomaru Kuraishisu 

Running Time: 118 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

Writer: Yuichi Fukuda (Screenplay), Keishu Ando (Original Manga)

Starring: Ryohei Suzuki, Fumika Shimizu, Yuya Yagira, Osamu Adachi, Hirofumi Arai, Ayame Misaki,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: HK Kamen, real name Kyosuke (Ryohei Suzuki), lives in a city where panties are disappearing but he still wears Aiko’s (Fumika Shimizu) panties to battle evil but she takes her panties back and this leaves Kyosuke unable to transform just as a new enemy appears…

 

Sinbad    

Sinbad Film Poster
Sinbad Film Poster

シンドバッド  Sindobaddo

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Shinpei Miyashita,

Writer: Hiroyuki Kawasaki (Script Supervision), Hiroyuki Kawasaki (Script)

Animation Production: Nippon Animation

Starring: Tomo Muranaka (Sinbad), Momoko Tanabe (Sana), Tadashi Miyazawa (Najib), Nao Nagasawa (Ali), Takeshi Kaga (Captain Razak),

Website   MAL

Synopsis: This is the third in a trilogy of Sinbad films and it includes  catch-up on the first two.

 

The Whispering Star    

The Whispering Star Film Poster
The Whispering Star Film Poster

ひそひそ星「Hiso Hiso Boshi

Running Time: 100 mins.

Release Date: May 24th, 2016

Director: Sion Sono

Writer: Sion Sono (Screenplay)

Starring: Megumi Kagurazaka, Kenji Endo, Yuto Ikeda, Mori Kouko,

Website    IMDB

The Whispering Star was originally created and screened as part of an art exhibition which had the theme of dystopia running through it. The film was shot in different locations in the Fukushima prefecture, turning depopulated and irradiated areas into a futuristic landscape that speaks of hopelessness, pollution, and abandonment. It stars people who live in the areas and Sion Sono’s wife.

Synopsis: A spaceship shaped like a Japanese bungalow careens through the galaxy. It carries a humanoid robot named Yoko (Megumi Kagurazaka), a sort of interstellar UPS delivery person. Her job is simple: to distribute packages to human beings scattered across sundry planets. But with so much spare time between deliveries, Yoko begins to wonder what’s in those packages.

 

 

If Cats Disappeared From the World    

If Cats Disappeared From the World Film Poster
If Cats Disappeared From the World Film Poster

世界から猫が消えたなら Sekai kara Neko ga Kieta nara 

Running Time: 118 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Akira Nagai

Writer: Ryoichi Okada (Screenplay), Genki Kawamura (Original Novel)

Starring: Takeru Sato, Aoi Miyazaki, Mieko Harada, Eiji Okuda, Anna Ishii, Gaku Hamada, Eita Okuno

Website   IMDB

The director for this one is Akira Nagai and he made Judge! (2014) which is a fun comedy a million miles away from this. It’s a serious drama with Takeru Sato (Rurouni Kenshin and Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno), Aoi Miyazaki (The Great Passage, Eureka), Mieko Harada (Ran) and other good actors. I met Akira Nagai and he was a nice chap.

Synopsis: A postman (Takeru Sato) who has recently started living independently learns that he doesn’t have much time left to live due to a terminal illness. A devil (Takeru Sato) appears and offers to extend his life if he picks something in the world that will disappear. The man thinks about his relationships with friends (Gaku Hamada), ex-lovers (Aoi Miyazaki), his mother (Mieko Harada) and father (Eiji Okuda) and other relatives and friends who will be sincerely sad when he dies.

 

Jonetsu tairiku Presents Sono Shion to iu ikimono    

Sono Shion to iu ikmono Film Poster
Sono Shion to iu ikmono Film Poster

園子温という生きもの Sono Shion to iu ikmono 

Running Time: 97 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Shin Oshima

Writer: N/A

Starring: Sion Sono, Shota Sometani, Fumi Nikaido, Megumi Kagurazaka, Eri, Naoto Tanobe, Takuji Yasuoka,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: A documentary about the man, the legend, Sion Sono. We get to hear about his background, his early films and his current ones like Shinjuku Swan and Whispering Star. This documentary was shot by Shin Oshima, son of Nagisa Oshima.

 

 

About My Liberty   

About My Liberty Film Poster
About My Liberty Film Poster

わたしの自由について SEALDs 2015 Watashi no juyu ni tsuite: SEALDs 2015 

Running Time: 165 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Takashi Nishihara

Writer: N/A

Starring:

Website    IMDB

There’s an English language option on the website so check out this important story if you want to know more about Japanese politics.

Synopsis from the films website: A documentary following the turmoil of summer 2015 in Japan and the student activist group ‘SEALDs’ that led the crowds and kept protesting in front of the National Diet building.

 

Listen     

Listen Film Poster
Listen Film Poster

LISTEN リッスン Listen Rissun 

Running Time: 58 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Eri Makihara, Shizuku Sakai,

Writer: N/A

Starring: Tomomi Yokoo, Makoto Nozaki,

Website

Synopsis from the films website: A documentary which looks into the visual representation of “deaf music” with many of the staff and performers made up of deaf people. It’s an interesting concept.

 

Futari no tougenkyou   

Futari no tougenkyou Film Poster
Futari no tougenkyou Film Poster

ふたりの桃源郷 Futari no tougenkyou 

Running Time: 87 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Satoshi Sasaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: Fusako Tanaka, Torao Tanaka, Etsuko Ota, Yasuhiko Nishikawa, Hiroe Nishikawa, Keiko Yada, Ansei Yada,

Website

Synopsis from the films website: This documentary shows couples in the Chugoku Mountains living independently from the rest of the world once they reach their sixtieth birthday. We see the difficulties in being separated from family as well a good times.

 

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Zootopia (2016/04/23)

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)

64: Part 1 Prequel (2016/05/07)

Captain America Civil War (2016/04/29)

Crayon Shin-chan Movie 24: Bakusui! Yumemi World Dai Totsugeki (2016/04/16)

Road to High & Low (2016/05/07)

Chihayafuru Part II Shimo no ku (2016/04/29)

I Am a Hero (2016/04/23)

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions  (2016/04/23)

TerraFormars (2016/04/29)



Japanese Films at the 2016 Annecy International Film Festival

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This year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival takes place from June 13th to the 18th and the event sees a global collection of artists and animators attend the prestigious event to showcase their works, give talks and take part in other industry events. You can’t talk animation without including Japan and this year there is a varied list of titles.

Here’s what’s on:

The Anthem of the Heart   

The Anthem of the Heart Film Poster
The Anthem of the Heart Film Poster

心が叫びたがってるんだ。「Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterun Da.

Release Date: September 19th, 2015

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai

Writer: Mari Okada (Script),

Starring: Inori Minase (Jun Naruse), Kouki Uchiyama (Takumi Sakagami), Sora Amamiya (Natsuki Nido), Yoshimasa Hosoya (Daiki Tazaki),

Website     ANN

Tatsuyuki Nagai is a director and Mari Okada is a writer who specialise in telling dramatic stories in anime. Their greatest collaboration is arguably anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day but this, their latest work together, looks good.

Synopsis from the official English-language website: Jun is a girl whose words have been sealed away. She was once a happy girl, but because of a [certain thing] she said when she was very young, her family was torn apart. One day, the egg fairy appeared in front of her and sealed away her ability to talk in order to stop her from hurting anybody else. Since this traumatic experience, Jun lives in the shadows away from the limelight. But, one day she is nominated to become an executive member of the “community outreach council.” On top of that, Jun is also appointed to play the main lead in their musical…

 

Belladonna of Sadness       Belladonna of Sadness Film Poster

哀しみのベラドンナ  Kanashimi no Beradonna

Release Date: June 30th, 1973

Running Time: 89 mins.

Director: Eiichi Yamamoto, 

Writer: Jules Michelet (Original Novel) Eiichi Yamamoto, Yoshiyuki Fukuda (Script)

Starring: Aiko Nagayama, Katsutaka Ito, Tatsuya Nakadai, Chinatsu Nakayama,

This is an animation dating back from 1973 and it has returned to the world having undergone a 4K restoration based on the original negatives. It is an erotic anime, the third and last of the adult-oriented Animerama trilogy produced by the “Godfather of Manga” Osamu Tezuka. The film was directed by his long-time collaborator Eiichi Yamamoto (Astro Boy). It is based on the book Satanism and Witchcraft by French writer Jules Michelet and it features a psychedelic rock soundtrack.

Synopsis: Young and innocent Jeanne is ravaged by the local lord and makes a pact with the Devil himself. The Devil–voiced by legendary actor Tatsuya Nakadai (RanThe Human Condition)–appears in phallic forms and, through Jeanne, incites the village into a sexual frenzy.

 

The Boy and the Beast    

The Boy and the Beast Film Poster
The Boy and the Beast Film Poster

バケモノの子 Bakemono no Ko

Release Date: July 11th, 2015 (Japan)

Running Time: 128 mins.

Director: Mamoru Hosoda

Starring: Koji Yakusho (Kumatetsu), Shota Sometani (Kyuuta – Teen), Aoi Miyazaki (Kyuuta – Young), Haru Kuroki (Ichirohiko – Young), Yo Oizumi (Tatara), Lily Franky (Monk Momoaki), Mamoru Miyano (Ichirohiko – Old),

Website   IMDB    ANN    MAL

Mamoru Hosoda’s latest film is a continuation of his series of stories that mix fantasy and reality and if you are a fan of Hosoda’s previous works like The Wolf ChildrenSummer Wars, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time I think it would be safe to say that this one is worth watching what with the excellent animation, voice actors, and more.

Synopsis: After his mother’s death, Ren decides not to live with his guardians but fend for himself in the streets of Tokyo. There, he meets the powerful warrior Kumatetsu, and retreats into the world of beasts. Being one of two contenders to become the new Beast Lord of the realm, Kumatetsu must train an apprentice before earning the title. He chooses Ren as his disciple and changes the boy’s name to Kyuta.

 

Gamba: Gamba to Nakama-tachi        

Gamba Gamba to Nakama-tachi Film Poster
Gamba Gamba to Nakama-tachi Film Poster

GAMBA ガンバと仲間たち「Gamba: Gamba to Nakama-tachi

Release Date: October 10th, 2015

Running Time: 92 mins.

Chief Director: Yoichi Ogawa, Director: Tomohiro Kawamura, Yoshihiro Komori

Writer: Ryota Kosawa (Screenplay), Atsuo Saito (Original Creator),

Starring: Yuki Kaji (Gamba), Sayaka Kanda (Tideway),

Website     ANN      MAL

Synopsis from MAL: Gamba, a town mouse with a brave, adventurous spirit decides to go on an adventure to discover the ocean. On his way, he meets a troubled child mouse, Chuta. He says his family and other mice have been killed by a clan of weasels living on a nearby island. Chuta asks a group of ship mice, the bravest of their kind, for help, but when they find out that the villain behind this event is the terrifying weasel-leader Noroi, they give up on helping Chuta. However seeing the hopeless Chuta, Gamba promises him to save the island, his family and the other mice. Gamba and his friends team up to go on their adventure to defeat the evil Noroi and his clan.

 

The Focus on Territories programme has a Focus on Tokyo section where “which will feature talented representatives from the Tokyo animation industry, selected by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.”

Koji Fukada, a director famous for live-action films like Au revoir l’ete (2013) made the anime La Grenadière (2006, 48 mins.) and that will be screened at this year’s Annecy. Fukada has his latest live-action film premiering at Cannes this week.

Japan has a healthy system of creating animators and you can see graduation works from the latest crop of young animators. These include Natsu no megami no kuchi no naka (Dir: Liu Xinin) and the story is a simple one: The beach of a Chinese resort is packed. People are enjoying the summer holidays. An abrupt thundershower makes them run around in a flurry.

Nanimo-minakuteii (Nothing You Need to See) (Dir: Keigo Ito) is a little weirder since it features a young man turning his face inside out… And then there is Feed (Dir: Eri Okazaki) which is about: Two enormous creatures count down the end of a day, food is served as it was the day before. Children feed their goat as usual, feeling uneasy about their own daily life.

Other anime can be found in places like Commissioned Films in Competition 1 where Ez3Kiel “L’Œil du cyclone” (Dir: Masanobu Hiraoka) is playing. This is a music video which can be found online:

There’s also the music video for Sasanomaly “The Synesthesia Ghost” (Dir: Atsushi Makino):

There’s a Japanese entry in TV Films in Competition 4 called Super Short Comics “Into the Pocket” (5 mins. Dir: Keisuke Matsumoto). There are shorts like Suijungenten (Dir: Ryo Orikasa) in the Short Film Competition. Yoshiro Ishihara (1915–1977), who burst upon the scene of Japanese modern poetry in the mid-1950s, is now remembered as a “poet of silence.” He said, “A poem is an impulse to resist writing.” This film is an attempt to seek out the landscape from his poem. There is also “Parade” de Satie (Dir: Koji Yamamura).


Sion Sono’s Twisted Romance “Love Exposure” Screened at Japan Society New York June 03rd

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Love Exposure's Interesting Ride

The film section on the Japan Society (New York) website has a listing for a screening of Love Exposure (2009). There’s this sentence:

“In anticipation of the upcoming 10th edition of JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film (July 14-24, 2016) we screen Sion Sono’s notorious masterpiece about love, family, religion and upskirt photography.”

That sentence leads me to assume that Sion Sono’s two latest films, Whispering Star and Love and Peace will get screened at Japan Cuts this year. The two have been on the festival circuit and are at this year’s Nippon Connection.

Back to Love Exposure. It is a fun film, very long, and filled with cool references like Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41. There are great performances from Makiko Watanabe as a super sex maniac, Atsuro Watabe as a hapless priest and Hikari Mitsushima as a kick-ass girl! Here’s my review from four years ago. The film is occasionally played on television in the UK and you can purchase the Third Window Films Blu-ray and DVD release.

The film will be screened on Friday, June 03rd at 7 PM at Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017.

Here are more details on the film including a synopsis part adapted from the Japan Society:

Love Exposure      Love Exposure Film Poster

愛のむきだし  Ai no Mukidashi 

Release Date: 31st January 2009 (Japan)

Running Time: 237 mins.

Director: Sion Sono

Writer: Sion Sono

Starring: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsushima, Sakura Ando, Atsuro Watabe, Makiko Watanabe, Mitsuro Fukikoshi

Synopsis: After feeling rejected by his Catholic priest father for not having any sins to confess, high schooler Yu dives headfirst into sinning by becoming a master “peek-a-panty” photographer. Along the way, he gets entangled in an absurd love triangle involving his step-sister and his female alter ego, all the while being stalked by a parakeet-handling cult leader intent on taking everyone he loves away from him. A JAPAN CUTS fan-favorite and one of the most memorable films released in the last ten years, Love Exposure is destined to be regarded as a classic of Japanese cinema.


After the Storm, Garm Wars: The Last Druid, Distraction Babies, Zebra, She and Her Cat – Everything Flows, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin III Dawn of Rebellion, Garo: Divine Flame, Midori The Camellia Girl and other Japanese Film Trailers

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Hello dear readers!

The Lost Village Image

This has been a bit of a quiet week for me. I reviewed two films and I watched two films this week: Petal Dance (2013) and Florence Foster Jenkins (2016). I started watching the TV anime The Lost Village (Mayoiga 迷家). I am on episode three and I think it’s the funniest thing I have seen since Osomatsu-san. It is filled with characters and so over the top it has become absurd. I’m also watching Two Best Friends Play Silent Hill 2 because I find the Best Friends funny and because I’m a big Silent Hill 2 fan.

Two posts this week, the first for the Japanese Films at the Annecy International Film Festival. The second post is for the screening of Love Exposure at Japan Society New York.

What’s released this weekend?

After the Storm   

After the Storm Film Poster
After the Storm Film Poster

海よりもまだ深く 「Umi yori mo mada fukaku」

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda (Original Story, Screenplay)

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Lily Franky, Sosuke Ikematsu, Yoko Maki, Satomi Kobayashi, Isao Hashizume, Taiyo Yoshizawa

IMDB   Website

Film of the week! This is the latest film from Hirokazu Koreeda (Kiseki) which is playing at Cannes and reviews are good. In The Hollywood Reporter review from Deborah Young she states:

“As sweet as a ripe cherry at first glance, it has a rocky pit, as viewers who bite deeply will find out. More casual audiences may not even perceive it. This bittersweet peek into the human comedy has a more subtle charm than flashier films like the director’s child-swapping fable Like Father, Like Son, but the filmmaking is so exquisite and the acting so calibrated it sticks with you.”

Maggie Lee over at Variety says:

“Featuring an uncomplicated plot and easily relatable personalities, this is a divertissement compared with the thematic heft of “Like Father, Like Son.” Still its gentle contemplation of life’s disappointments and human inadequacy may draw new recruits beyond the director-writer’s euro-arthouse base.”

He reunites with familiar actors like Hiroshi Abe and Kirin Kiki (both of whom were in Still Walking), Yoko Maki and Lily Franky (who were in Like Father, Like Son) as well as new actors like Sosuke Ikematsu (How Selfish I Am!). Stay tuned for a review of Our Little Sister (2015) which was at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Synopsis from IMDB: Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay child support. After the death of his father, his aging mother (Kirin Kiki) and beautiful ex-wife (Yoko Make) seem to be moving on with their lives. Renewing contact with his initially distrusting family, Ryota struggles to take back control of his existence and to find a lasting place in the life of his young son (Taiyo Yoshizawa) – until a stormy summer night offers them a chance to truly bond again.

 

Garm Wars: The Last Druid    

Garm Wars the Last Druid Film Poster
Garm Wars the Last Druid Film Poster

ガルム・ウォーズ Garumu Wo-zu

Release Date: May 20th, 2016

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Mamoru Oshii

Writer: Mamoru Oshii, Geoffrey Gunn, Gen Urobuchi (Screenplay),

Starring: Lance Henriksen, Kevin Durand, Melanie St-Pierre, Dawn Ford, Summer H. Howell, Andrew Gillies, Garm wars the Last Druid

Website    IMDB

I wrote about this one when I reported on the BFI’s Anime Weekend in June. I picked this trailer for the post because it has music from regular Oshii collaborator Kenji Kawai. Mamoru Oshii has created a film in a similar vein to his 2002 film Avalon – a mix of CG and live-action. While some of the shots in the trailer look stunning it is the music that captures the imagination! Here’s an interview conducted with the director for the Toronto International Film Festival.

Synopsis: A clone war has overtaken the world with three tribes battling for air, land and technology. When one clone finds herself lost and on the run, she falls in with an unlikely group.

 

Distraction Babies   

Distraction Babies Film Poster
Distraction Babies Film Poster

ディストラクション・ベイビーズ  「Disutorakushon Beibi-zu」

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 108 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Mariko

Writer: Tetsuya Mariko, Kohei Kiyasu (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuya Yagira, Masaki Suda, Nana Komatsu, Sosuke Ikematsu, Denden, Nijiro Murakami,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: Taira Ashihara (Yuya Yagira) and his younger brother Shota (Nijiro Murakami) live by themselves in the small seaport town Mitsuhama. Taira Ashihara is always getting into scuffles and so he moves to the city of Matsuyama where he picks fights whenever he spots someone who looks tough. This attracts the attention of a criminal named Yuya Kitahara (Masaki Suda) and the two steal a car and head out of town with an occupant named Nana (Nana Komatsu) still in it. Shota goes looking for his brother…

 

Zebra   

Shimauma Film Poster
Shimauma Film Poster

シマウマ 「Shimauma」

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Hajime Hashimoto

Writer: Izumi Takahashi (Screenplay), Fumio Obata (Orginal Manga)

Starring: Ryo Ryusei, Kenta Suga, Kyoko Hinami, Maryjun Takahashi, Ryota Ozawa, Masaya Kato, Maiko Amano, Seiji Fukushi,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: The story surrounds a man named Tatsuo and his two friends. They run a badger game and extort money from their victims. One day, they pick the wrong target. A person they thought was an ordinary man turns out to be a yakuza. This mistake costs Tatsuo’s friend Hide a severe beating and two ribs that are pulled out of him. Tatsuo finds himself forced to enter even further into the criminal underworld where he finds he is now made to take revenge on others at any cost…

 

Midori The Camellia Girl    

Midori The Camellia Girl Film Poster
Midori The Camellia Girl Film Poster

少女椿「Shoujo Tsubaki」

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 90 mins.

Director: TORICO

Writer: TORICO (Screenplay), Suehiro Maruo (Orginal Manga)

Starring: Risa Nakamura, Shunsuke Kazama, Misaki Morino, Daichi Saeki, Motoki Fukami, Akihiro Nakatani, Miyuki Torii, Takeru,

IMDB   Website

I have vague memories of reading or watch a programme based on Shojo Tsubaki the original source for this film, Midori – The Camellia Girl. It is an example of ero-guro (the erotic grotesque) and has been influential. Film director and clothes designer, TORICO takes up the tale and uses his skills to create a unique film.

Synopsis: Midori (Risa Nakamura) is a 14-year-old girl who doesn’t have a family who is picked by the Aka Neko circus troupe alongside Wanda Masamitsu (Shunsuke Kazama), a man who has supernatural powers. Midori has an affinity for Wanda, but she is afraid of him. Wanda gets members of the circus troupe to follow him using his supernatural powers and even commits murder.

 

Garo: Divine Flame    

Garo Divine Flame Film Poster
Garo Divine Flame Film Poster

牙狼 GARO DIVINE FLAME 「Garo Divine Flame

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 78 mins.

Director: Yuichiro Hayashi

Writer: Yasuko Kobayashi (Screenplay), Keita Amemiya (Original Manga),

Starring: Daisuke Namikawa (Leon Lewis), Kenyuu Horiuchi (Herman Lewis), Romi Park (Emma Gusman), katsuhito Nomura (Alfonso San Valianta), Arisa Komiya (Sara),

Animation Production: MAPPA

Website ANN MAL IMDB

I really like the TV anime and watched it through. There are so many elements to the live-action doramas and films that I find it overwhelming and something I am not prepared to get into but the anime was a great introduction. I am not sure how popular it was with fans but I am happy to see it get a continuation in movie form.

Synopsis from Anime News Network and MAL: León, who has succeeded the name of Golden Knight “GARO” devotes himself to train a young Makai Knight for the next generation, together with Prince Alfonso of the Valiante Kingdom. Then, they receive an order to exterminate the most beautiful Horror in the world which resides in a neighboring country “Vazelia”. At the same time, a young Makai Knight for the next generation is kidnapped by an unknown person. León desperately follows them, only to find that he is surrounded by his enemies at a dead end. Then, a Makai Knight Dario who was supposed to be missing for some time suddenly appears and rescues him. Under his guidance, León is led to the town where he meets up a totally unexpected person.

 

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin III   Dawn of Rebellion       

Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin III Dawn of Rebellion Film Poster
Mobile Suit Gundam The Origin III Dawn of Rebellion Film Poster

機動戦士ガンダム THE ORIGIN III 哀しみのアルテイシア「Kido Senshi Gundam: The Origin III Akatsuki no Hōki

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 68 mins.

Chief Director: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Director: Takashi Imanishi

Writer: Katsuyuk Sumisawa

Starring: Shuuichi Ikeda (Char Aznable), Toru Furuya (Amuro Ray), Megumi Han (Sayla Mass), Ayumi Tsunmatsu (Astraia Tor Deikun) Eizou Tsuda (Zeon Zum Deikun), Miyuki Sawashiro (Crowley Hamon),

Animation Production: Sunrise

Website    ANN   MAL

Synopsis: This is the third in a four part series that will tell the story of Casval Rem Deikun and Artesia Som Deikun (Char and Sayla, before Char became known as the Red Comet) before the One-Year War in UC.0068. The episode follows the youth who would become known as Char Aznable and his future comrade Garma Zabi after they join the Zeons’ military academy. Find out more at Anime News Network

 

Durarara!!x2 Ketsu: Dufufufu!!    

Durarara!!x2 Ketsu Dufufufu!! Film Poster
Durarara!!x2 Ketsu Dufufufu!! Film Poster

デュラララ!!×2 結 第19.5話「デュフフフ!!」 「Durarara!!x2 Ketsu: Dufufufu!!

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 45 mins.

Director: Takahiro Omori

Writer: Noboru Takagi (Screenplay), Ryohgo Narita (Original Creator),

Starring: Miyuki Sawashiro (Celty Sturluson), Jun Fukuyama (Shinra Kishitani), Daisuke Ono (Shizuo Heiwajima), Hiroshi Kamiya (Izaya Orihara),

Animation Production: Shuka

Website  ANN    MAL

Synopsis from from Anime News NetworkThis is the third OVA episode from the Durarara!! series that hs been released in cinemas. It slots in between episode 19 and 20 and is titled “Dufufufu!!.” The episode revolves around an incident with a “fake Shizuo.” Who gets caught up with and another blonde-haired, sunglasses-wearing man wearing a bartender outfit named Shidzuo Nobusuma. Shidzuo is a young hoodlum. As the two men’s fates are entangled, a new legend is born on the streets of Ikebukuro.

 

 

Naze Ikiru: Rennyo Shounin to Yoshizaki Enjou   

Naze Ikiru Rennyo Shounin to Yoshizaki Enjou Film Poster
Naze Ikiru Rennyo Shounin to Yoshizaki Enjou Film Poster

なぜ生きる 蓮如上人と吉崎炎上 「Naze Ikiru: Rennyo Shounin to Yoshizaki Enjou

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 106 mins.

Director: Hideaki Ooba

Writer: Kiyoto Wada (Screenplay), Kentetsu Takamori (Original Creator/Script),

Starring: Katsuyuki Konishi (Ryouken), Koutarou Satomi (Rennyo), Takaaki Seki (Michimune), Ayumi Fujimura (Chiyo),

Animation Production: Studio Deen

Website ANN MAL

The film is based on the 2001 book Naze Ikiru written by Kentetsu Takamori and apparently that book was later published in English in 2006 under the title You Were Born for a Reason: The Real Purpose of Life.

The author, Takamori, is the chairman of Jodo Shinshu Shinrankai, an organization which conveys the teachings the Buddhist monk Shinran, who lived during Japan’s Kamakura period. Shinran is considered to be the founder of Shin Buddhism, the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. The anime is distributed by Suurkiitos, the guys who produced My Pretend Girlfriend.

Synopsis from MAL: Ryouken, a young man who hates temples and monks, laments his misfortunes but finds hope in his soon-to-be-born child. An unfortunate accident took everything from Ryouken. In the days of self-abandonment and suffering in darkness, Ryouken finds the teachings of the high priest Rennyo. In it, he finds answers to the question “Why live” as explained by the sage Shinran. As he is drawn into the teachings and no longer hesitates, Ryouken becomes Rennyo’s apprentice. The number of worshippers increase, but the Honganji temple becomes a target of the other sects, forcing Ryouken and Rennyo to flee from Kyoto. In order to find a new place to teach, they arrive in Yoshizaki (now in Fukui Prefecture) in the Hokuriku region.

 

She and Her Cat – Everything Flows   

She and Her Cat – Everything Flows Film Poster
She and Her Cat – Everything Flows Film Poster

彼女と彼女の猫 Everything Flows 「Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko Everything Flows

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: N/A

Director: Kazuya Sakamoto

Writer: Naruki Nakagawa (Screenplay), Makoto Shinka (Original Work),

Starring: Kana Hanazawa (Kanojo/Miyu), Shintaro Asanuma (Black Cat/Daru), Sayuri Yahagi (Friend/Tomoka), Akiko Hiramatsu (Mother), Makoto Shinkai,

Animation Production: LIDEN FILMS

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis from MAL: For the longest time, it’s just been the two of them. “Kanojo” and her cat Daru are inseparable, having grown up together. Now a junior in college, Tomoka—her roommate of a year and a half—moves out of their shared apartment, and in order to keep her living space, Kanojo must find a job. Day by day, Daru watches her continued efforts from a cat’s-eye view, eagerly awaiting his owner’s return. When she gets back, once again, it’s just she and her cat.

 

 

Yamikin Dogs 3      

Yamikin Dogs 3 Film Poster
Yamikin Dogs 3 Film Poster

闇金ドッグス 3 Yamakin Doggusu 3

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 77 mins.

Director: Tetsuhiko Tsuchiya

Writer: Masao Iketani (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuki Yamada, Kanji Tsuda, Ami Tomite, Megumi, Naoki Yamazaki,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: Tadaomi Ando (Yuki Yamada) was once a yakuza boss but because of the bad actions of his subordinate, he quit the yakuza and went into the illegal loan shark business but times are tough and his victims are giving him a hard time. Characters from the first film show up like Erina Himeno, a former idol, who has not given up her dreams despite being in a tough situation. Things are bad because the president of an unscrupulous production company is taking advantage of the people he works with.

 

Mosh Pit   

Mosh Pit Film Poster
Mosh Pit Film Poster

モッシュピット 「Mosshu Pitto

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 77 mins.

Director: Hiroki Iwabuchi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Asami Hokuto

IMDB

Synopsis: Mosh Pit is what the title suggests a music documentary shot on 17 cameras. It records a concert on November 18, 2015 at Tokyo’s Ebisu Liquid Room. We’re taken through numerous performances with a helping hand from the singer Asami Hokuto of the rock band “Have a Nice Day!”

 

Eiga nihontou touken no sekai   

Eiga nihontou touken no sekai Film Poster
Eiga nihontou touken no sekai Film Poster

映画 日本刀 刀剣の世界  Eiga nihontou touken no sekai

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 60 mins.

Director: Tatsuo Ouchi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kosuke Toriumi (Narration), Sadatoshi Gassan, Sadanobu Gassan, Masao Honami,

Website  IMDB

Synopsis: Japan is famous for many many things and that extends to swords which is what this documentary is about. We see what types of swords there are, the techniques involved in making them which have been handed down from ancient times and the manufacturing process. There are interviews with chaps like Sadatoshi Gassan. You can find out more about him in this interview first published in 2001.

 

Fushigina kuni no kenpou   

Fushigina kuni no kenpou Film Poster
Fushigina kuni no kenpou Film Poster

不思議なクニの憲法  Fushigina kuni no kenpou

Release Date: May 21st, 2016

Running Time: 122 mins.

Director: Hisako Matsui

Writer: N/A

Starring: Jakucho Setouchi, Yasuo Hasebe, Yoichi Miura, Ryoko Akamatsu, Keiko Takeshita (Narration),

Website

Synopsis: Hisako Matsui is a famous documentary and fiction film maker who has had her works screened at festivals around the world. Her last film was a look at feminism in Japan and this one is about the Japanese Costitution and different people like academics, diplomats, housewives and freeters reflecting on it and what it means.

 

 

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Zootopia (2016/04/23)

The Magnificent Nine (2016/05/14)

If Cats Disappeared From the World (2016/05/14)

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)

64: Part 1 Prequel (2016/05/07)

Captain America Civil War (2016/04/29)

Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions  (2016/04/23)

Crayon Shin-chan Movie 24: Bakusui! Yumemi World Dai Totsugeki (2016/04/16)

Chihayafuru Part II Shimo no ku (2016/04/29)

I Am a Hero (2016/04/23)


Sion Sono’s “Love and Peace” now available to pre-order! Out JULY 11th on DVD and BLURAY!

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Great news! The film distributor Third Window Films has announced a release date for Love and Peace! It will be out on DVD and Bluray from July 11th!!!

This announcement is on the appropriate day since it’s World Turtle Day and the film features a magical turtle!

Love and Peace Pikadon!
Love and Peace Pikadon!

Love and Peace is based on a script that Sion Sono wrote 25 years ago, around the time of Suicide Club. It is story is definitely from a time period when Sono was making wild films. This is a fantasy comedy of sorts about a sad-sack company man meeting a magical turtle and becoming a rock star! Taking the lead is Hiroki Hasegawa, the mad cinephile in the yakuza movie comedy Why Don’t You Play in Hell? and Kumiko Aso, the waif running around in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s horror film Pulse. This as been labelled as one of Sono’s passion projects and a slice of the “real” Sion Sono. Reviews are all positive that this is a great title to watch!

 

“If you see just one new Sion Sono movie this year, make it “Love & Peace””
Variety

“Ambitious and silly, perfectly blending the surreal with the saccharine to create something that’s simply a joy to watch.”
Twitchfilm

“Visually stunning, endlessly creative, and it doesn’t fail to deliver on the kaiju promise!”
Eye For Film

 

Love and Peace    

Love and Peace Film Poster
Love and Peace Film Poster

ラブ&ピース Rabu&Pisu

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Sion Sono

Writer: Sion Sono (Screenplay),

Starring:  Hiroki Hasegawa, Kumiko Aso, Tohiyuki Nishida, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Eita Okuno, Makita Sports, Erina Mano, Megumi Kagurazaka, Miyuki Matsuda

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: Ryoichi (Hiroki Hasegawa) once dreamed of becoming a punk rocker but he became a timid salaryman at a musical instrument parts company. Life is calm but he has feelings for an office lady (Kumiko Aso) he can’t express and he feels he wants more from his circumstances which is when fate strikes!

One day, he randomly buys a turtle and names it Pikadon. A series of events occur and Ryoichi’s dreams of being a rock star might be about to come true! However, it might also lead to the end of the world…

It’s available to pre-order at Amazon. Fans of Sion Sono who live in New York can see his epic love story Love Exposure on the big screen next month when Japan Society New York screen it.

Love and Peace DVD Cover Love and Peace Bluray Cover


Japanese Films at the 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival

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EIFF Logo 2016

The 2016 Edinburgh International Film Festival takes place in June and it runs from the 15th to the 26th. The programme was revealed today and there is an interesting line-up that mixes classic and contemporary films. Highlights include Satoko Yokohama’s latest, The Actor and indie crime film Ken and Kazu.

What’s on the programme:

The Actor      

The Actor Film Poster
The Actor Film Poster

俳優亀岡拓次 「Haiyuu Kameoka Takuji

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 a man who many 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 FestivalTakuji 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.

 

 

Belladonna of Sadness     Belladonna of Sadness Film Poster

哀しみのベラドンナ  Kanashimi no Beradonna

Running Time: 89 mins.

Director: Eiichi Yamamoto, 

Writer: Jules Michelet (Original Novel) Eiichi Yamamoto, Yoshiyuki Fukuda (Script)

Starring: Aiko Nagayama, Katsutaka Ito, Tatsuya Nakadai, Chinatsu Nakayama,
This is an animation dating back from 1973 and it has returned to the world having has undergone a 4K restoration based on the original negatives. It is an erotic anime, the third and last of the adult-oriented Animerama trilogy produced by the “Godfather of Manga” Osamu Tezuka and directed by his long-time collaborator Eiichi Yamamoto (Astro Boy). It is based on the book Satanism and Witchcraft by French writer Jules Michelet and it features a psychedelic folk rock soundtrack.

Synopsis: Young and innocent Jeanne is ravaged by the local lord and makes a pact with the Devil himself. The Devil–voiced by legendary actor Tatsuya Nakadai (RanThe Human Condition)–appears in phallic forms and, through Jeanne, incites the village into a sexual frenzy.

 

Lowlife Love   

Lowlife Love Film Poster
Lowlife Love Film Poster

下衆の愛Gesu no Ai

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Eiji Uchida

Writer: Eiji Uchida (Screenplay),

Starring: Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Denden. Masahiko Arai, Masato Arai, Kanji Furutachi, Yumi Goto, Aki Hiraoka, Nanami Kawakami,

Website  IMDB

Lowlife Love has finally come to Britain after touring world film festivals from Tokyo to Rotterdam to Nippon Connection and reviews are positively glowing.

Synopsis from IMDB: Tetsuo (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) is a lowlife. A film director with a small indie hit many years back, yet he has never gotten any further as he refuses to go against his ‘artistic integrity’. He’s a real loser. Despite being in his late 30s, he still lives with his mother and sister, borrowing money off them and scrounging from all he comes in contact with. This includes his best friend Mamoru (Yoshihiko Hosoda), who makes porn films with him for dodgy characters in order to make money, as well as the film actors’ school they’ve setup to exploit their students as well as for him to sleep with wannabe actresses. He’s a real jerk. Then one day two new students come to his school: Minami (Maya Okano), a naive and fresh girl from the countryside who wants to be an actress and Ken (Shugo Oshinari), a scriptwriter who has been living overseas. Tetsuo sees something in Minami and feels she has what it takes to be a real star and Ken has a brilliant script which could be the fantastic new project…

 

Ken and Kazu    

Ken and Kazu Film Poster
Ken and Kazu Film Poster

ケンとカズ 「Ken to Kazu

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Shoji

Writer:  Hiroshi Shoji (Screenplay),

Starring: Shinsuke Kato, Katsuya Maiguma, Kisetsu Fujiwara, Shuna Iijima, Haruki Takano

Website   IMDB    JFDB

Search for this drama and you will find old entries dating back to 2011 and that is because the director Shoji Hiroshi made a short film of the same name and it travelled to different film festivals. From that short came this feature about two friends who deal in drugs. This has been picked up by Third Window Films for world sales.

Synopsis from JFDB: Ken (Kato Shinsuke) and Kazu (Maiguma Katsuya) are partners in crime who use a car repair shop as their front for dealing stimulants. Ken tries to make a clean break after his girlfriend Saki (Iijima Shuna) gets pregnant, but Kazu has a secret…

 

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence    Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence Poster

戦場のメリークリスマス 「Senjou no Meri- Kurisumasu

Running Time: 123 mins.

Director: Nagisa Oshima

Writer: Nagisa Oshima, Paul Mayersberg (Screenplay), Laurens van der Post (Original Story)

Starring: David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takeshi Kitano, Tom Conti, Jack Thompson, Yuya Uchida,

IMDB

Originally released in 1983, this UK/Japanese co-production is most famous for Ryuichi Sakamoto’s soundtrack. It’s a relationship drama played out between four men, two of them portrayed by great actors and one by Ryuichi Sakamoto! Takeshi Kitano (Hana-bi, Kikujiro, Battle Royale) plays a brutal and jovial cam guard while David Bowie proves he can be a great actor as well as a great musician. It’s one of Oshima’s more famous films and more readily available. The British producer of the film, Jeremy Thomas will be present to discuss the film.

Synopsis: Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) was captured on a chindit raid and is now a POW. Captain Yonoi (Sakamoto) is the camp commandant. The two feel drawn to each other as kindred spirits because they both carry guilt from past incidents they were/weren’t involved in. Lieutenant Colonel John Lawrence (Conti) and Sergeant Hara (Kitano) both witness and question the bond of the two men. All four find themselves caught up in the vagaries of a cruel war.

 

Dersu Uzala    Dersu Uzala Film Poster 2

戦場のメリークリスマス 「Senjou no Meri- Kurisumasu

Running Time: 144 mins.

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Writer: Akira Kurosawa, Yuriy Nagibin (Screenplay), Vladimir Arsenev (Original Novel)

Starring: Yuriy Solomin, Maksim Munzuk, Mikhail Bychkov, Vladimir Khrulev, V. Lastochkin, Stanislav Marin,

IMDB

This screened on British television in the early 2000s and it bowled me over. I would love to see it again in a cinema. Here’s more from the festival website:

Synopsis: Based on the memoirs of Vladimir Arsenievan, the early 20th century explorer who mapped much of the territory of the Russian Far East, Akira Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala tells the story of an unusual friendship between Arseniev (Yuri Solomin) and the nomadic tribal hunter for whom the film is named (Maksim Munzuk). The unspoiled vastness of the Siberian wilderness, so utterly unlike the modern Japanese landscape with its cultivated forests, offered a radically new canvas for Kurosawa. Always a powerful visual stylist with a flair for action, the director crafted some of his most striking imagery for this breath-taking drama.

 

The Virgin Psychics        

The Virgin Psychics Film Poster
The Virgin Psychics Film Poster

映画みんな!エスパーだよ 「Eiga Minna! Esupa- Dayo!

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Sion Sono,

Writer: Sion Sono, Shinichi Tanaka (Screenplay), Kiminori Wakasugi (Original Manga),

Starring:  Shota Sometani, Elaiza Ikea, Erina Mano, Makita Sports, Anna Konno, Motoki Fukami, Ai Shinozaki, Tokio Emoto, Megumi Kagurazaka,

Website    IMDB

This is directed by Sion Sono (Suicide CircleStrange CircusNoriko’s Dinner Table) one of the world’s great contemporary directors and it is based on a TV dorama that is based on a manga written by Kiminori Wakasugi, creator of the hilarious Detroit Metal City.

Synopsis: Yoshiro “Yocchan” Kamogawa (Sometani) is an ordinary (virgin) high school boy who finds his life literally changes overnight when he wakes up with the ability to read other people’s minds. Sounds awesome! But he uses it for trivial things. He’s not alone in gaining weird powers as a café worker named Teru-oichan (Sports) gains telekinetic powers. Sounds really awesome! But he uses them for sex toys. Yosuke Enomoto (Fukami), a fellow school-pupil of Kamogawa and a basketball player, also gains a power, the ability to teleport. Sounds super-awesome! But it only works while he is naked. Get ready to see how they use their powers when they battle rival espers!

 

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance    Lone Wolf and Cub Sword of Vengeance Film Poster

子連れ狼 子を貸し腕貸しつかまつる 「Kozure ookami: Ko wo kashi ude kashi tsukamatsuru

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Kenji Misumi

Writer:  Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima (Screenplay/Manga),

Starring: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Akihiro Tomikawa, Tomoko Mayama, Fumio Watanabe, Keiko Fujita,

IMDB

Screened as part of the POW!!! Live Action Comic Strip Adaptations: The First Generation.

The classic Lone Wolf & Cub manga was adapted into a long-running movie series that went on to become a cult classic especially when the five films were re-edited into one called Shogun Assassin. This is the first entry in the film series and it is a brilliant title that will leave you craving for more. The manga is brilliant so give that a try as well.

Synopsis: Ogami Itto is the shogun’s special executioner. He has taken the heads of hundreds of men. However the shogun is scared of him and when the Yagyu Clan frame him for treason the shogun orders his death. Ogami’s family is attacked by three ninjas, his wife Asami is killed but his son Daigo lives and both father and son wander Japan, father pushing the baby cart as he heads from town to town working as an assassin for hire as he treads the path of vengeance…

 

 

Golgo 13    Golgo 13 1973 Live Action Film Poster

ゴルゴ13「Gorugo 13

Running Time: 104 mins.

Director: Junya Sato

Writer:  Takao Sato, K. Motomitsu (Screenplay),  Takao Sato (Original Manga)

Starring: Ken Takakura, Mohsen Sohrabi, Michiko Arai, Kazuo Harada,

IMDB

Screened as part of the POW!!! Live Action Comic Strip Adaptations: The First Generation.

Synopsis: Readers in the UK will know about Golgo 13 through the anime that screened late at night on the Sci-Fi Channel. There have been a number of live-action films about this unstoppable hitman and they were made at a time when genre cinema was churning out OTT action films and men were men etc. etc. Ken Takakura takes the lead role and he has to go to Iran to eliminate a bad guy.


Himeanole, Hold My Hand, The Match Girl, Wolf Girl and Black Prince, Lyrical School no michi tono sogu, Conflict: Saidai no koso, Anohito – The One, Onna Hieraruki- Teihen Shoujo Japanese Film Trailers

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Hello dear readers!

                                                     My song for the weekend!

I have had a busy week galavanting up and down the country and so I haven’t had much time to watch many films. That written, I watched a bunch of films Heat (1995), Dear Doctor (2009) and TV dramas like Rose Red, an adaptation of a Stephen King novel. I’ve started getting more work from film festivals which is great so more films for me to watch.

Two posts this week, the first for the release date for Sion Sono’s film, Love & Peace and the second post was for the Japanese Films at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

What’s released this weekend?

Himeanole    

Himeanole Film Poster
Himeanole Film Poster

ヒメアノール  「Himeanole」

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 99 mins.

Director: Keisuke Yoshida

Writer: Keisuke Yoshida (Screenplay), Minoru Furuya (Original Manga)

Starring: Go Morita, Gaku Hamada, Aimi Satsukawa, Makoto Otake, Tsuyoshi Muro, Maho Yamada,

IMDB   Website

Keisuke Yoshida has directed two good films, My Little Sweet Pea (2013) and The Workhorse & the Bigmouth (2013) and he tries his hand at adapting a manga by Minoru Furuya, the man behind Himizu (2012). Watch the trailer and gasp as it goes from a rom-com to super-serious thriller! Also, Gaku Hamada (The Foreign Duck, The Native Duck, and God in a Coin Locker) looks good in this. I like the look of this!!

Synopsis: Susumu Okada (Gaku Hamada) works on a cleaning team. One of Susumu’s team, Yuji (Tsuyoshi Muro), asks Susumu to act as cupid and get a café worker named Yuka (Aimi Satsukawa) to go out with him. Things get complicated when she says she loves Okada. Even worse, Yuka has her own problems, a classmate of Susumu’s from high school, Shoichi (Go Morita), is stalking Yuka…

 

Hold My Hand   

Hold My Hand Film Poster
Hold My Hand Film Poster

手をつないでかえろうよ シャングリラの向こうで Te wo Tsunaide Kaeroyo Shangurira no Mukou de

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 107 mins.

Director: Yoko Narahashi

Writer: Masayuki Imai (Screenplay),

Starring: Jay Kabira, Sumire, Nanami, Taiju Okayasu, Atsushi Yoshida, Itsuji Itao, LiLiCo, Katsuya, Tomoko Fujita,

Website    IMDB

 

Synopsis: Masato (Jay Kabira) is a school pupil in a special class in middle school because he is mentally slower than other people. Unfortunately he becomes the victim of bullying but he finds solace from a fellow pupil named Sakura (Nanami) who has a similar learning disability. The two become attracted to each other and eventually marry but to protect Sakura, Masato becomes a criminal and works for the yakuza. It looks like it will all go wrong when he meets a mysterious girl named  Reiko (Sumire) who asks him “What is God? What is history? What are human beings?” Masato thinks back on his honeymoon and Sakura.

 

The Match Girl   

The Match Girl Film Poster
The Match Girl Film Poster

燐寸少女マッチショウジョ 「Macchi Shoujo Macchi Shoujo」

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 94 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Uchida

Writer: Kitaji Ishikawa (Screenplay), Sanami Suzuki (Original Manga)

Starring: Sumire Sato Yutaka Kobayashi, Takafumi Honda, Kensho Ono,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: Rin (Sumire Sato) is the titular match girl. Her matches are special because they are “delusion matches” which turn momentary delusions into reality in their flickering flames. What delusions will this mysterious girl spark up?

 

Wolf Girl and Black Prince   

Wolf Girl and Black Prince Film Poster
Wolf Girl and Black Prince Film Poster

オオカミ少女と黒王子 「Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Oji」

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 116 mins.

Director: Ryuichi Hiroki

Writer: Fumi Nikaido, Kento Yamazaki, Nanao, Tina Tamashiro, Ryo Yoshizawa, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Mugi Kadowaki,

IMDB   Website

Ryuichi Hiroki flits between mainstream and passion projects again. Fans of films like Vibrator and Tokyo Trash Baby still find plenty to love in even the glossiest of titles like this one which stars Fumi Nikaido (Himizu, Why Don’t You Play in Hell?). I’ve only reviewed one of his films here and that’s Kimi no Tomodachi (2008).

Synopsis: High school girl Erika Shinohara (Fumi Nikaido) pretends she has a boyfriend when she is with her friends but maintaining the façade of a relationship is hard with nothing but her word to go on so she finds a pretty boy on the street and takes his picture abd pretends that he is her boyfriend. The boy is Kyouya Sata (Kento Yamazaki) and he attends the same school as Erika so she asks Kyouya to be her pretend boyfriend little realising that behind the pretty face is a dark side.

 

Lyrical School no michi tono sogu    

Lyrical School no michi tono sogu Film Poster
Lyrical School no michi tono sogu Film Poster

リリカルスクールの未知との遭遇 「Ririkaru Suku-ru no michi tono sogu」

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 75 mins.

Director: Demo Tanaka

Writer: Demo Tanaka, MC BOO, Junya Kato (Screenplay),

Starring: Ayaka, Mei, Yumi, Ami, Minan, Hime, ANI, Zen-la-rock,

IMDB   Website

I used to listen to Hip Hop back in high school but not much these days since the recent acts (mainstream at least) coming out of America don’t hold a candle to The Wu-Tang Clan, Lord Finesse, MF Doom and others from the ‘90s. Figures that I’d get back into the genre through Japan. Lyrical School are a group of talented, bubbly girls who bring the fun back to a genre that badly needs it.

Synopsis: Lyrical School are a hip-hop idol unit which is made up of talented girls, ayaka, mei, yumi, ami, minan, hime. They hang out in a warehouse where they create their music. One of their props is a doll which came from outer space! One day it comes to life and tells them it doesn’t have the energy to go back to its home. To make the energy it needs the girls orchestrate a party that attracts a large crowd so they can gather power….

 

Conflict: Saidai no koso   

Conflict Saidai no koso Film Poster
Conflict Saidai no koso Film Poster

少女椿「Conflict: Saidai no koso」

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 163 mins.

Director: Kenichi Fujiwara

Writer: Kenichi Fujiwara (Screenplay),

Starring: Sho Aikawa, Sosuke Takaoka, Izam, Mikio Ohsawa, Hideo Nakano, Hiroshi Shinagawa,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: This movie sees Yakuza fighting half grey (criminals unaffiliated to any crime syndicate) in a free-for-all which may upset the old criminal order. The film stars Sho Aikawa who appears in gangster films pretty regularly like Dead or Alive. I’ve reviewed two of his films – Serpent’s Path and Eyes of the Spider (1998).

 

Anohito – The One    

Anohito Film Poster
Anohito Film Poster

あのひと 「Anohito

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 87 mins.

Director: Ichiro Yamamoto

Writer:  Ichiro Yamamoto (Screenplay), Sakunosuke Oda (Screenplay)

Starring: Hidenori Ono, Naohiko Washio, Ajiho Sugiyama, Boiru Nakajima, Takako Ueno, Seizo Fukumoto, Anna Kawashima,

Website   IMDB

I first wrote about this for the film’s international premiere at Nippon Connection 2016 and that festival ends tomorrow.

Synopsis: In a film where the past and present mixes we see the daily lives of four young soldiers who are raising the orphaned son of their commanding officer. As they each decide to go working in munitions factories, it is up to four women to take care of the boy as they wait for the men to return. It is based on a script from 1944 and shot in long black-and-white takes but it takes place in a strange present where clothes, locations and other things are familiar but the war still rages on.

 

 

Onna Hieraruki- Teihen Shoujo    

Onna Hieraruki- Teihen Shoujo Film Poster
Onna Hieraruki- Teihen Shoujo Film Poster

女ヒエラルキー底辺少女 「Onna Hieraruki- Teihen Shoujo

Release Date: May 28th, 2016

Running Time: 71 mins.

Director: Toshiyuki Morioka

Writer: Rumi Tsunoda (Screenplay), Utako Suzuki (Original Work),

Starring: Natsumi Hirajima, Ami Tomite, Nanami Abe, Mariko Sumiyoshi, Ayane Okayama, Rino Higa,

Website

Synopsis: Utako Suzuki’s manga is adapted into a film starring Natsumi Hirashima, one of the original AKB48 idols. It’s a story set in a high school where a girl named Momoko (Hirashima) is at the bottom of the school hierarchy with no friends, boyfriend, or nything fun to do. She’s an outsider and treated like a fool by her classmates. Momoko is going to snap….

 

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Zootopia (2016/04/23)

The Magnificent Nine (2016/05/14)

If Cats Disappeared From the World (2016/05/14)

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)

After the Storm (2016/05/21)

64: Part 1 Prequel (2016/05/07)

Captain America Civil War (2016/04/29)

Crayon Shin-chan Movie 24: Bakusui! Yumemi World Dai Totsugeki (2016/04/16)

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

Gundam: The Origin III Dawn of Rebellion (2016/05/21)


Our Little Sister 海街 Diary (2015) Hirokazu Koreeda

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Our Little Sister   

Umimachi Diary Film Poster
Umimachi Diary Film Poster

海街 Diary 「Umimachi Diary

Japanese Release Date: June 13th, 2015

UK Cinema Release Date: April 15th, 2016

UK Home Video Release Date: June 13th, 2016

Running Time: 126 mins.

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Writer: Shin Adachi (Screenplay), Akimi Yoshida (Original Manga)

Starring: Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, Kaho, Suzu Hirose, Shinobu Otake, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Ryo Kase, Jun Fubuki, Ryohei Suzuki, Oshiro Maeda, Lily Franky, Kirin Kiki

Website   IMDB

Hirokazu Koreeda has become the director of choice for film fans worldwide who Umimachi Diary Manga Filmare eager to get an intimate slice of normal Japanese life and Our Little Sister is his latest in a career mostly (but not always) spent making films focussing on families. The story is adapted from a manga called Umimachi Diary (Seaside Town Diary) created by Akimi Yoshida and Koreeda uses cinema to showcase her tales of a female-led family facing different emotional hurdles and ultimately knitting together. Prepare to become part of a family, a community, and a way of life.

The film begins with three sisters. 29-year-old Sachi Kouda (Haruka Ayase) is a nurse at the local hospital and the mature one. 22-year-old Yoshino Kouda (Masami Nagasawa) is a bank teller and a party girl who likes to love and leave men. The youngest is 19-year-old Chika Kouda (Kaho) who is a shop assistant and an oddball with a unique taste in clothes and boyfriends. They live in a house once owned by their grandmother in the seaside city of Kamakura.
Umimachi Diary Start

It is an old-fashioned rambling house with sliding doors, paper screens, rich wooden furnishings and family heirlooms. Their parents are divorced. Their father left the family for another woman fifteen years ago and their mother doing likewise from shame and frustration.

When they learn of their father’s death, the three sisters head north to a hot spring in Yamagata prefecture so they can attend his funeral and it is here where they meet their 14-year-old half-sister Suzu Asano (Suzu Hirose), an innocent looking girl in her sailor uniform and the result of the affair that broke up the sister’s family.

Umimachi Diary Film Image 14

From the very first moment the four meet it is clear that Suzu is a responsible and earnest girl and the more Sachi talks to her the more she gets the sense that Suzu took care of their father in his dying days. What’s more, it becomes obvious that there is nobody at the funeral who really cares for her. Sachi makes a spur of the moment decision and invites Suzu to join the sisters in Kamakura. Suzu hesitates but only for a moment and she accepts the offer and the three women gain a younger sister.

Umimachi Diary Film Image 3

And so begins an enchanting tale of Suzu’s integration into her new family and her new home which is a seaside town audiences will long to visit. The film is made up of a series of incidents in the lives of the sisters but they stack up to show how a community and family come together and achieve a sort of harmony.

The setting is an idealised Japan. Kamakura is a slightly slow but peaceful place where timeless traditions such as summer festivals, watching fireworks, gathering to celebrate the haul of fish from the sea, and more modern things such as cheering on the school football team draw everyone together, even outsiders like Suzu who finds her football skills make her a star. The house the four sisters live in is the focal point in an idyllic fantasy. It comes complete with family heirlooms and a shrine and a garden full of plum trees planted by the sister’s grandmother and tended to by them as they carry on the family tradition of making plum wine. It all suggests stability and safety, a haven and continuity.

Umimachi Diary Sisters

Suzu can use the house as a base from which she can safely explore the past.

A trip to a seaside restaurant with friends for whiting on toast leads to her meetingUmimachi Diary Sea Cat Diner her father’s old friend (Lily Franky). A post football match celebration at the Sea Cat Diner reveals the owner (Jun Fubuki) is a family friend with a treasure trove of embarrassing tales about the three sisters from when they were Suzu’s age. These reminisces about the past add to the present tense narrative as well as giving funny little anecdotes which delight audiences and Suzu. The tales prompt Suzu to open up about her memories and this helps the others around her.

Umimachi Diary Film Image 9

This isn’t just Suzu’s tale because the three sisters benefit from her presence as they hear more about their father from the recent past and come to terms with long simmering disappointments and betrayals his actions fostered. The new perspective Suzu brings allows them to mature and these changes make the story richer as more plot threads are added. Two of the sisters get promotions at work, Sachi being asked to take charge of a new terminal care ward and Yoshino rising from bank teller to loan manager. Their new jobs give them, and by extension the audience, the opportunity to get to know their town more intimately and this helps when it comes to investing emotions into the community.

The film’s script never forgets anyone and joins different character’s narrative threads together into a cord that represents a community, a supportive one. Koreeda unpacks these nurturing moments through his typical considered pace and so the story feels natural, a slice of life. There is nothing contrived about the meeting of characters as they reminisce about the past and consider their present and the film’s script achieves a rich emotional tone through a series of subplots that coalesce into a quiet and pleasurable series of crescendoes.

Umimachi Diary Film Image 4

Koreeda’s relaxed observation of the family interactions leaves the audience free to see the subtleties of the performances. One of the chief joys of the films is the way Koreeda uses the camera to frame scenes with a serene and simple style, allowing actors to establish a position in a location and then letting the audience see them perform. We can sit back and get thoroughly absorbed in the growing emotional connections between the characters as they slowly reveal what is on their minds, Sachi and her worries for the future and Suzu holding regrets for the past.

Patient camera work means shots linger on a fine ensemble working together with great chemistry who, through subtle and engaging acting show the changing emotional states. Haruka Ayase is absolutely perfect as a sort of de facto matriarch of the family. Her patient and kind face breaking with frowns of consternation or a smile of happiness as she navigates her family’s thorny history. Suzu Hirose in her debut performance is a fantastic find as she captures the innocence of her character perfectly. The whole cast is brilliant but the final word goes to the location. Kamakura is gorgeous and seductive. Every shot is beautiful but the best is one scene where Suzu rides pillion on a bicycle down a road lined with cherry blossoms in full bloom. It is spectacular. The locations are an absolute delight made better with the great company. You are brought into the care of a group of beautiful community that you will enjoy staying with and will want to revisit multiple times.

Umimachi Diary Sakura

Our Little Sister is a movie that could only have been made in Japan, a nation which has a cinema dedicated to making so many female-driven films and a nation that isn’t afraid to make them as pleasant and subtle as this. The typically patient and fine direction from Koreeda and perfect acting from the talented cast makes this a relaxing and emotionally fulfilling experience that makes this so enjoyable to watch.

4.5/5

Our Little Sister/Umimachi Diary is an award-winning film that was at last year’s Cannes Film Festival,  Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver and the BFI London Film Festival which is a statement on how much of a household name Hirokazu Koreeda is and this film won four Japanese Academy Awards – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Lighting.

 

This film has toured the festival circuit Hirokazu Kore-eda is when it comes to cinephiles. His critical success has been well-earned when you consider that he is the auteur behind KisekiNobody Knows, After Life, Still Walking, and Like Father, Like Son, films which prove very popular with international audiences and critics. I have seen at least six of his films so far and think that he is one of the best directors in Japan currently working.



Evergreen Love, The Kodai Family, Detective Mitarai’s Casebook: The Clockwork Current, A Rain Woman, FAKE, Danchi, Ninkyo Yaro, Tokyo Sunrise and other Japanese Film Trailers

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Hello dear readers!

Umimachi Diary Start

Right, down to business. I’ll be taking a bit of a break from the blog because I am about to embark upon a teaching course. I have film reviews stacked up but the trailer posts might thin out since they take up time and I want to spend as much time as possible studying. I’ll try and keep them going but I need to hit the books. I hope everything works out. There are film festival screeners possibly winging their way to me over the next month or so and I have a couple of film festival posts to write and publish amidst the reviews but I will go dark for some time. I will respond if you comment on a post because I really do appreciate everyone who reads my writing. Thank you to all my regular commenters. I hope to see you guys soon!

I also want to wish Adam Torel, owner of Third Window Films, a speedy recovery. He’s a great guy and brings life to the Asian film scene in the West.

What did I post this week? A review for the wonderful film Our Little Sister (2015).

What’s released this weekend?

Evergreen Love   

Evergreen Love Film Poster
Evergreen Love Film Poster

植物図鑑 「Shokubutsu Zukan」

Release Date: June 04th, 2016

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director: Koichiro Miki

Writer: Chiho Watanabe (Screenplay), Hiro Arikawa (Original Novel)

Starring: Takanori Iwata, Mitsuki Takahata,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: Sayaka (Mitsuki Takahata) is an office lady looking for love. She finds it in the form of a man who has collapsed in front of her home. His name is Itsuki (Takanori Iwata) and she takes him inside and they begin to live together. Itsuki teaches Sayaka about cooking and she begins to grow as a person but he has a secret…

 

The Kodai Family   

The Kodai Family Film Poster
The Kodai Family Film Poster

高台家の人々Kodaike no Hitobito

Release Date: June 04th, 2016

Running Time: 116 mins.

Director: Masato Hijikata

Writer: Arisa Kaneko (Screenplay), Kozueko Morimoto (Original Manga),

Starring: Haruka Ayase, Takumi Saito, Kiko Mizuhara, Shotaro Mamiya, Mao Daichi, Masachika Ichimura, Kaho, Charlotte Kate Fox,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: Kie Hirano (Haruka Ayase) is an office lady who often daydreams. She works with Mitsumasa Kodai (Takumi Saito), an elite salaryman and the eldest son in the Kodai family. He is telepathic, having inherited his special ability to read other people’s mind from his British grandmother. He falls in love with Kie and the two begin to date which is when Mitsumasa introduces her to his very unique family…

 

 

Detective Mitarai’s Casebook: The Clockwork Current   

Detective Mitarai's Casebook The Clockwork Current Film Poster
Detective Mitarai’s Casebook The Clockwork Current Film Poster

探偵ミタライの事件簿 星籠の海 「Tantei Mitarai no Jikenbo Seiro no Umi」

Release Date: May 04th, 2016

Running Time: 107 mins.

Director: Seiji Izumi

Writer: Kenji Nakanishi, Yasuo Hasegawa (Screenplay), Soji Shimada (Original Novel)

Starring: Hiroshi Tamaki, Alice Hirose, Hikari Ishida, Jun Kaname, Eisaku Yoshida, Mitsuki Tanimura,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: Private Detective Kiyoshi Mitarai (Hiroshi Tamaki) and his assistant Miyuki Ogawa (Alice Hirose) travel to Fukuyama to investigate a case which involves bodies which were found drifting in the Seto Inland Sea…

 

A Rain Woman   

Ame Onna Film Poster
Ame Onna Film Poster

雨女「Ame Onna」

Release Date: June 04th, 2016

Running Time: 35 mins.

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Writer: Takashi Shimizu (Screenplay)

Starring: Nana Seino, Tomorowo Taguchi, Shuntaro Yanagi, Yu Takahashi, Nao, Hono Miyabe,

IMDB   Website

Takashi Shimizu is the horror auteur behind the Ju-On films but he has been working on more mainstream films like the live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service lately. He makes his horror comeback with this short that stars Tomorowo Taguchi (Tetsuo: The Iron Man).

Synopsis: Rika (Nana Seino) has dreams of seeing a girl in a heavy rain, at a railroad crossing meeting a mysterious woman wearing black clothes. The woman embraces the girl as a train approaches… The dream leaves Rika feeling depressed especially when the anniversary of the death of her mother approaches….

 

FAKE    

FAKE Film Poster
FAKE Film Poster

Release Date: June 04th, 2016

Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Tatsuya Mori

Writer: N/A

Starring: Mamoru Samuragochi

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: A couple of years ago the deaf musician and composer Mamoru Samuragochi made the headlines when it was revealed that he wasn’t as deaf as he claimed after a series of articles drew doubts about his deafness and it was revealed that a man named Takashi Aragaki had served as a ghost writer for 18 years. This documentary looks at the man at the centre of the uproar and how he dealt with the press coverage. Here’s a fascinating article on the Japan Times website in which the director talks about the film.

 

Danchi   

Danchi Film Poster
Danchi Film Poster

団地 「Danchi」

Release Date: May 04th, 2016

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Junji Sakamoto

Writer: Junji Sakamoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Naomi Fujiyama, Ittoku Kishibe, Mari Hamada, Mayu Harada, Hikaru Horiguchi, Renji Ishibashi,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: Hinako (Naomi Fujiyama) and Seiji Yamashita (Ittoku Kishibe) once owned a store that sold traditional Chinese herbal medicine but retired and moved into the local housing complex after selling their store. Old customers come calling and it provides something for Seiji to do until he runs in an election to select the next president of the housing complex. He shuts himself away under the floorboards of the apartment out of embarrassment and soon rumours spread that he has been killed by Hinako! Here’s a review at the Japan Times.

 

Ninkyo Yaro   

Ninkyo Yaro Film Poster
Ninkyo Yaro Film Poster

任侠野郎 「Ninkyo Yaro

Release Date: May 04th, 2016

Running Time: 69 mins.

Director: Kiyotaka Tokunaga

Writer:  Yuichi Fukuda (Screenplay),

Starring: Yoshikazu Ebisu, Yuya Yagira, Reina Triendl, Ken Yasuda, Manami Hashimoto, Jiro Sato,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: Genji Shibata (Yoshikazu Ebisu) is an ex-yakuza fresh out of prison after serving a sentence connected to him avenging the murder of his boss. He heads home to lead a quiet life but former colleagues tell him that the real culprit for the murder of Genji’s boss is still alive and actually sent him up! Genji comes out of retirement for revenge…

 

 

Tetsuya Kumakawa K-Ballet Company “Don Quixote” in Cinema      

熊川哲也 Kバレエ カンパニー 「ドン・キホーテ」 in Cinema「 Kumakawa Tetsuya K-Bare Kanbani- “Don Kiho-te” in Cinema」

Tetsuya Kumakawa K-Ballet Company “Don Quixote” in Cinema Film Poster
Tetsuya Kumakawa K-Ballet Company “Don Quixote” in Cinema Film Poster

Release Date: June 04th, 2016

Running Time: N/A

Artistic Director: Tetsuya Kumakawa

Writer: N/A

Starring: Stuart Cassidy (Don Quixote), Ayumi Shiraishi (Kitri), Isaka Fuzuki (Basilio), Ryo Izawa (Gamache),

Website

No trailer

Synopsis: Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya played host to an adaptation of Don Quixote where the titular old knight encounters young lovers Kitri and Basilio and potential love rival, the foppish aristocrat Gamache who wants to wed Kitri. Don Quixote also falls in love with Kitri and a chase ensues when the young lovers flee…

 

 

Tokyo Sunrise    

Tokyo Sunrise Film Poster
Tokyo Sunrise Film Poster

走れ、絶望に追いつかれない速さで 「Hashire, zetsubo ni oitsuka renai hayasa de

Release Date: May 04th, 2016

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Ryutaro Nakagawa

Writer: Ryutaro Nakagawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Taiga (Nakano), Takashi Fujimura, Reiko Fujiwara, Mei Kurokawa, Manami Takahashi, Moeki Tsuruoka, Ryuju Kobayashi,

Website   IMDB

Tokyo Sunrise comes from Tokyo New Cinema, a talented group of indie filmmakers who have two other titles to their name, Plastic Love Story (which I helped promote) and August in Tokyo. Their films are usually visually stunning and this one looks like a solid drama.

Synopsis from IMDB: ‘Tokyo Sunrise’ presents a young man’s journey to face an incomprehensible death of his best friend.

Here’s a Q&A the director took part in during last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival where he discusses the film which was programmed for the event.

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Zootopia (2016/04/23)

Wolf Girl and Black Prince (2016/05/28)

Snow White and the Huntsman Winter’s War (2016/05/27)

If Cats Disappeared From the World (2016/05/14)

The Magnificent Nine (2016/05/28)

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)

64: Part 1 Prequel (2016/05/07)

After the Storm (2016/05/21)

Crayon Shin-chan Movie 24: Bakusui! Yumemi World Dai Totsugeki (2016/04/16)

Captain America Civil War (2016/04/29)


The Japanese Embassy in London to Screen “Summer Holiday Everyday” on June 21st

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Summer Holiday Everyday is the next film to get screened at the Japanese embassy in London and it’s a gentle comedy that looks at middle-class mores and social order when a seemingly respectable family fall apart. It is adapted from a comic book written by Yumiko Oshima, one of Japan’s best comic artists for girls and the story involves subjects like school bullying and corporate conformism. The director, Shusuke Kaneko, has worked across genres and I am most familiar with him from his work on Necronomicon: Book of Dead (segment “part #2: The Cold”) and the Death Note films. It looks like a gentler version of Tokyo Sonata or Wild Berries.

Here are more details on the film:

Summer Holiday Everyday   Summer Holiday Everyday Film Poster

毎日が夏休み Mainichi ga natsuyasumi

Release Date:  June 11th, 1994 (Japan)

Running Time: 94 mins.

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Shusuke Kaneko, Yumiko Oshima (Screenplay),

Starring: Jun Fubuki, Hinako Saeki, Keiko Toda, Toru Masuoka, Hitomi Takahashi, Koichi Ueda, Akira Onodera,

IMDB

Synopsis: Set in Tokyo in the early 1990s. The Rinkaijis are, by all appearances, a well-to-do Japanese family. The stepfather Nariyuki works for an elite corporation, which gives his wife Yoshiko status in their suburban neighbourhood. One day the daughter Sugina, who herself has secretly stopped going to school as she is being bullied, discovers that Nariyuki has quit his job. He decides to start his own company with Sugina as vice-president: a nandemo-ya (a do-anything service). This only causes embarrassment for Yoshiko in front of her gossiping neighbours and her former husband, and she finds her world falling apart. Their first job does not go off very well, but he and Sugina soon find a closeness they have never had before. Much to Yoshiko’s consternation, the next job comes from Beniko, Nariyuki’s ex-wife, seemingly in a plot to get him back.

 

The film will be screened on Tuesday, June 21st at 18:30 (d00rs open at 18:00). Admission to the films is free but you need to register for a ticket. For more information, head to the embassy’s site.


Japanese Films at the New York Asian Film Festival 2016

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The 2016 New York Asian Film Festival takes place from June 22nd to July 09th and it is the 15th edition of the event. This year’s run features art-house and mainstream films, crime and romance, and a healthy stock of Japanese titles with guests jetting in from Japan! I’ll be reviewing a couple of these so stay tuned.

What’s on the programme?

Twisted Justice   

Twisted Justice Film Poster
Twisted Justice Film Poster

日本で一番悪い奴ら「Nihon de Ichiban Warui Yatsura 

Running Time: 135 mins.

Director: Kazuya Shiraishi

Writer: Junya Ikegami (Screenplay), Yoshiaki Inaba (Original Non-fiction Novel)

Starring:  Gou Ayano, Shido Nakamura, Young Dais, Pierre Taki, Haruna Yabuki, Munetaka Aoki,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: Twisted Justice is based on the 2011 non-fiction novel Hajisarashi Hotsukaidoukei Akutoku Keiji no Kokuhaku by Yoshiaki Inaba, a former detective. He serves as the basis of the main character, Yoichi Moriboshi (Gou Ayano), who goes from a green detective in the 1970s to a gun-running menace in the 2000s.

The New York Asian Film Festival plays host to this film’s international premiere with the director Kazuya Shiraishi and lead actor Gou Ayano appearing at the festival on June 22nd and 28th respectively. Ayano will be awarded the Screen International Rising Star Award at his appearance.

 

Shunji Iwai is in town to pick up an award and three brilliant films of his will play:

A Bride of Rip Van Winkle      

The Bride of Rip Van Winkle Film Poster
The Bride of Rip Van Winkle Film Poster

リップヴァンウィンクルノ花嫁 Rippu van winkuru no hanayome 」 

Running Time: 180 mins.

Director: Shunji Iwai

Writer: Shunji Iwai (Screenplay),

Starring:  Haru Kuroki, Gou Ayano, Cocco, Soko Wada, Nana Natsume, Hideko Hara,

Website   IMDB

Reviews for this one have been really positive about the top quality of this film and I am looking forward to reviewing this one.

Synopsis: Nanami (Haru Kuroki) works as a part-time junior high school teacher. She lives an apathetic life, her only solace coming from connecting with others on a new social network service named “Planet”. She makes a connection with a man named Tetsuya and the two quickly become engaged but Tetsuya’s mother confronts Nanami with allegations of lying and cheating forcing Nanami to flee to a hotel where she gets a job as a maid. Nanami’s online-friend Amuro, a man who hires actors to play people’s friends, offers Nanami a housekeeping job in an old mansion, whose sole resident’s infectious spirit helps Nanami to open her heart. However, Nanami soon realizes that Amuro, the mansion, and its occupant aren’t what they seem…

The film plays on Friday, June 24th at 6:15pm and director Shunji Iwai will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

All About Lily Chou-chou    All About Lily Chou-Chou Poster

リリイ・シュシュのすべて 「Ririi Shushu no Subete」 

Running Time: 180 mins.

Director: Shunji Iwai

Writer: Shunji Iwai (Screenplay),

Starring:  Hayato Ichihara, Shugo Oshinari, Yu Aoi, Ayumi Ito, Takao Ohsawa, Miwako Ichikawa, Chiyo Abe,

IMDB

This was the film that introduced me to Shunji Iwai and it was an intense emotional experience with beautiful cinematography and an incredible score. I think it might have been better to start with some of his older works but don’t let that musing put you off. I guarantee you will be left feeling emotionally desolate after this so take tissues and stay through the end credits and dry those tears.

All About Lily CHou CHou Film Image

Synopsis: This film is pure heartbreak as it examines loneliness, isolation, and bullying in the lives of lonely kids isolated by technology but also drawn together by the singer Lily Chou-Chou, a singer with music powerful enough to break through the emotions of these cast-away kids and summon them to her concerts. It is told from multiple perspectives as a holiday goes wrong and almost near-fatal for one character which unleashes a horrible mixture of hatred, alienation, and confusion in him that ripples out to others and causes chaos as things intensify into bullying, rape, and prostitution.

Sunday, June 26th, 2:15pm.

 

Swallowtail Butterfly    

Swallowtail Butterfly Film Poster
Swallowtail Butterfly Film Poster

スワロウテイル Suwarouteiru」 

Running Time: 148 mins.

Director: Shunji Iwai

Writer: Shunji Iwai (Screenplay),

Starring:  Hiroshi Mikami, Chara, Ayumi Ito, Yosuke Eguchi, Atsuro Watabe, Nene Ohtsuka, Kaori Momoi,

IMDB

I have this on DVD but haven’t watched it yet but this sci-fi film is indicative of the way Iwai flits between genres.

Synopsis from the festival site:  Nearfuture scifi shot with handheld cameras and edited to a twitchy rhythm, Swallowtail Butterfly posits an alternate history where an economically flush Japan has attracted millions of immigrants who live in the Yentown ghettos, working on the margins, always on the hustle, trying to score that yen. Pop star Chara plays, well, a pop star who achieves fame when her Yentown comrades coopt a Yakuza cash scam and become rich enough to open a nightclub and release albums.

 The film plays on Saturday, June 25th at 2:45pm and it ends with a Q&A with Shunji Iwai

 

Creepy      

Creepy Film Poster
Creepy Film Poster

クリーピー偽りの隣人 Kuri-pi- itsuwari no rinjin」 

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 can be considered a comeback for Kiyoshi Kurosawa because he has strayed away from horror films and gone into supernatural inflected dramas. This has coincided with a lull in quality from the man. Well he’s back in psychological horror and he has brought in great actors he has worked with before: Hidetoshi Nishijima (License to Liveand Teruyuki Kagawa (Tokyo Sonata). Early reviews from this has suggested that Kurosawa is back on form.

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…

The film plays on Wednesday, June 29th, 6:00pm

 

HK: Forbidden Super Hero the Abnormal Crisis    

Hentai Kamen Abnormal Crisis Film Poster
Hentai Kamen Abnormal Crisis Film Poster

HK 変態仮面 アブノーマル・クライシス HK Hentai Kamen Abunomaru Kuraishisu」 

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

Writer: Yuichi Fukuda (Screenplay), Keishu Ando (Original Manga)

Starring: Ryohei Suzuki, Fumika Shimizu, Yuya Yagira, Osamu Adachi, Hirofumi Arai, Ayame Misaki,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis: HK Kamen, real name Kyosuke (Ryohei Suzuki), lives in a city where panties are disappearing but he still wears Aiko’s (Fumika Shimizu) panties to battle evil but she takes her panties back and this leaves Kyosuke unable to transform just as a new enemy appears…

The film plays on Wednesday, July 06th at the SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street

 

Kiyamachi Daruma   

木屋町DARUMA Film Poster
木屋町DARUMA Film Poster

木屋町DARUMAKiyamachi Daruma

Running Time: 116 mins.

Director: Hideo Sakaki

Writer: Hiroyuki Maruno (Screenplay/Original Novel)

Starring: Kenichi Endo, Susumu Terajima, Rina Takeda, Shohei Uno, Masaki Miura, Houka Karasuma, Setsuko Karasuma,

Website   IMDB

This one is apparently based on a once banned novel.

Synopsis: Shigeo Katsuura (Kenichi Endo) was once the leader of the yakuza in Kyoto but after losing his arms and legs in an act of betrayal from an underling he is forced to go around to his debtors’ homes to collect on debts and make money. He does this with the aid of his loyal henchman/nursemaid Kenta (Masaki Miura) and the sight of his body scaring people.

The film plays on Tuesday, July 05th at 6:00pm and the director Hideo Sakaki is making an appearance.

 

Miss Hokusai     

Miss Hokusai Film Poster
Miss Hokusai Film Poster

百日紅 Miss HOKUSAI~「Sarusuberi Miss HOKUSAI~」

Running Time: 93 mins. 

Director: Keiichi Hara

Writer: Miho Maruo (Screenplay), Hinako Sugiura (Original Creator),

Starring: Anne Watanabe (O-Ei), Yutaka Matsushige (Tetsuzo/Katsushika Hokusai), Shion Shimizu (O-Nao), Kumiko Aso (Sayogoromo), Kengo Kora (Utagawa Kuninao),  Gaku Hamada (Zenjiro/Keisai Eisen), Jun Miho (Koto),

Website  ANN   MAL

Miss Hokusai is an award-winning film I wrote about last year in a trailer post packed with information and links. The film is directed by Keiichi Hara who has worked on the Japan Academy Prize-winner Summer Days with Coo (2007), a film about a kappa and the suburban family he lives with, and Annecy double winner (Jury’s Special Distinction and the Audience Award) Colorful (2010) , a dark but ultimately life-affirming story about suicide and the afterlife.

Synopsis: This is the story of Katsushika Hokusai’s third daughter, the outspoken 23-year-old O-Ei. It takes place in 1814 in Edo, a place which is teeming with peasants, samurai, townsmen, merchants, nobles, artists, courtesans, and perhaps even supernatural things. O-Ei helps her father with his art and very often she would paint instead of him, though uncredited. She made art of her own and this is the untold story of O-Ei, Master Hokusai’s daughter: a lively portrayal of a free-spirited woman overshadowed by her larger-than-life father, unfolding through the changing seasons.

The film plays on Sunday, July 03rd at 2:30pm

 

What a Wonderful Family!      

What a Wonderful Family! Film Poster
What a Wonderful Family! Film Poster

家族はつらいよ「Kazoku wa tsuraiyo」 

Running Time: 108 mins.

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

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.

The film plays on Sunday, June 26th at 12:00pm

 

Tetsuo: The Iron Man                         Tetsuo Japanese Poster

Japanese Title鉄男 「Tetsuo

Running Time: 67 mins.

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Writer: Shinya Tsukamoto (Screenplay)

Starring: Tomorowo Taguchi, Kei Fujiwara, Shinya Tsukamoto, Renji Ishibashi, Nobu Kanaoka, Naomasa Musaka,

Tetsuo: the Iron Man is considered one of the defining titles in the ‘body horror’ movement and a cyberpunk classic and if you want to see a truly unique and intense film then go and see this one. Here’s my review. Here’s a bit of a biography I wrote about the director Shinya Tsukamoto.

Synopsis: A strange man known as the “metal fetishist” (Shinya Tsukamoto) is knocked over in a hit and run incident involving a salary-man (Tomorowo Taguchi) and his girlfriend (Kei Fujiwara). The next day the salary-man finds himself transforming into a half human-half metal monster….

The film plays on Saturday, June 25th, 5:15pm with an appearance by the director Michael Arias

 

Tekkonkinkreet   

Tekkonkinkreet Film Poster
Tekkonkinkreet Film Poster

鉄コン筋クリート 「Tekkonkinkreet

Running Time: 110 mins. 

Director: Michael Arias

Writer: Anthony Weintraub (Screenplay), Taiyo Matsumoto (Original Creator),

Starring: Kazunari Ninomiya (Kuro/Itachi), Yu Aoi (Shiro), Yusuke Iseya (Kimura), Kankuro Kudo (Sawada), Min Tanaka (Suzuki),  Nao Omori (Chokora),

IMDB  ANN   MAL

I bought the soundtrack to this before watching the film. There were many years in between both acts… Great soundtrack. Great film!

Synopsis from the festival site:  Deep in Treasure Town, the tough, violent Black and the far more innocent White are orphans are orphans who soar through the twisted streets like pintsized superheroes. Black decides that he needs to rule Treasure Town and protect White and starts going after the yakuza trying to raze the place and turn it into and turn it into an amusement park. Snake, the yakuza boss, is angry at Black’s victories over his men and decides to hire three almost superhuman hit men to take him out. Soon it is up to White to save Black, and perhaps all of Treasure Town, from Black’s own dark nature.

The film plays on Sunday, June 26th at 5:15pm when the cinema will play host to director Michael Arias.

 

Two more Japanese films will be revealed at a later date.


Natsumi’s Firefly, Eternal Maria, 64: Part 2, Sabuibo Mask, Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu! the Movie, Lost Serenade, Moratorium Cut-up, Shiranai Machi, Sato ni kitara eeyan, SING LIKE TALKING LIVE MOVIE Strings of the night Japanese Film Trailers

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Hello dear readers!

Miss Hokusai Helping Her Father

I did say I would take a break but I had a spare hour and started writing previews and thought, ‘why stop now? I did say I would try and keep the previews going…’ My serious studying starts next week (honest), I have one or two more festival films to review and possibly a DVD and Blu-Ray. I rushed this post so apologies.

What did I post this week? A preview of the Japanese films at the New York Asian Film Festival and the next film to be screened at the Japanese Embassy in London which is Summer Every Day.

What’s released this weekend?

Natsumi’s Firefly   

Natsumi's Firefly Film Poster
Natsumi’s Firefly Film Poster

植物図鑑 「Shokubutsu Zukan」

Release Date: June 04th, 2016

Running Time: 108 mins.

Director: Ryuichi Hiroki

Writer: Sho Kataoka, Takehiko Minato (Screenplay), Akio Morisawa (Original Novel)

Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Asuka Kudo, Yasushi Fuchikami, Nijio Murakami, Kaoru Kobayashi, Ken Mitsuishi,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: Natsumi (Kasumi Arimura) follows in her father’s footsteps on a path to become a photographer and heads to a forest to take a picture of a certain type of firefly. She encounters a family that live there and thinks back on her childhood.

 

Eternal Maria    

Eternal Maria Film Poster
Eternal Maria Film Poster

エターナル・マリア Ita-naru Maria

Release Date: June 08th, 2016

Running Time: 70 mins.

Director: Takehito Sakamoto

Writer: Takehito Sakamoto, Itarou Nakaa (Screenplay),

Starring: Mana Sakura, Rika Hoshimi, Yuki Itano, Tsugumi Muto, Emiri Okazaki, Shizu Hasegawa, Lemon,

Website

 

Synopsis: AV Film

 

64: Part 2      

64 Part 2 Film Poster
64 Part 2 Film Poster

64 ロクヨン前編  64 Rokuyon Kohen

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: June 08th, 2016

Director: Takahisa Zeze

Writer: Shinichi Hisamatsu, Takahisa Zeze (Screenplay), Hideo Yokoyama (Original Novel)

Starring: Koichi Sato, Gou Ayano, Nana Eikura, Eita, Masatoshi Nagase, Kippei Shiina, Tomokazu Miura, Eiji Okuda, Yui Natsukawa

Website  IMDB

Synopsis from IMDB:  1989 is the 64 Shouwa year in the Japanese calendar, thus the unsolved case of a girl who was kidnapped and murdered is called “64 (rokuyon). It has hung over the Criminal Investigation Department in the Prefectural Police Department for fourteen years and the statute of limitations is approaching it. In 2002, Yoshinobu Mikami, an ex-detective who was the lead investigator on the “Rokuyon” works as a Public Relations Officer in the Police Affairs Department and finds his department dealing with a new case connected to the “Rokuyon” case.

 

 

Sabuibo Mask   

Sabuibo Mask Film Poster
Sabuibo Mask Film Poster

サブイボマスク 「Sabuibo Masuku」

Release Date: June 11th, 2016

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Naoto Monma

Writer: Lion Hitoshizuku (Screenplay),

Starring: Funky Kato, Teppei Koike, Airi Taira, Yoichi Nukumizu, Asako Ito,

Website

Synopsis: A young guy sings to bring life back to his small town which has been deserted by people seeking work elsewhere.

 

Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu! the Movie    

Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu! the Movie Film Poster
Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu! the Movie Film Poster

白鳥麗子でございます! THE MOVIE 「Shiratori Reiko de Gozaimasu! the Movie」

Release Date: June 11th, 2016

Running Time: 92 mins.

Director: Shinji Kuma

Writer: Shinji Kuma (Screenplay)

Starring: Mayuko Kawakita, Masaru Mizuno, Shunsuke Tanaka, Ayaka Ohnishi, Yuka Ueno, Lisa Naito,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: The group Boys and Men all play guys chasing after MAyuko Kawakita

 

Lost Serenade   

Lost Serenade Film Poster
Lost Serenade Film Poster

月光 「Gekkou」

Release Date: June 11th, 2016

Running Time: 111 mins.

Director: Masato Ozawa

Writer: Masato Ozawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Nori Sato, Uwa Ishibashi, Kentaro Furuyama, Asuka Kurosawa, Yota Kawase, Jun Miho,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis from IMDB: Human rights for sexual assault and child abuse victims are global concern that is not only in addressed in Japan but throughout the world. From his debut, Director Masato Ozawa has continued to create films which shine a light on these serious social issues. In his previous work “Remiges,” Ozawa expressed the struggles of a girl and a boy who have been victims of violence with a fresh perception and won “Best Picture Prize” at the 14th Jeonju International Film Festival. With his works Ozawa have quickly gathered acclaim as one of Japan’s up-and-coming director. For “Lost Serenade” Ozawa challenged to depict original sin and redemption through a direct approach towards sexual violence also known as the ‘soul murder.’ Starring rising stars, Nori Sato and Uwa Ishibashi who poured their heart and soul into their characters, actors who shared Ozawa’s passion in this theme, Yota Kawase, Asuka Kurosawa and Jun Miho also supported the film.

 

Shiranai Machi    

Shiranai Machi Film Poster
Shiranai Machi Film Poster

知らない町「Shiranai Machi

Release Date: June 11th, 2016

Running Time: 99 mins.

Director: Shingo Ohuchi

Writer:  Shingo Ohuchi (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuko Hosoe, Yuya Matsuura, Shigeki Yanagisawa,

Website   IMDB

Synopsis IMDB: Yuji Itabashi works for investigating to make maps. One day, a woman who he never know visits his room. She says she came to visit Goto, a boyfriend she lived together, and come to pick up the thing that she left behind. Later on, Yuji’s friend, Kosuke Nishida; a junk dealer, who was with Yuji when the strange woman came, starts to make a fuss saying he saw Ghost in the room while he was alone. What was the Ghost the Nishida saw?

 

 

Moratorium Cut-up   

Moratorium Cutup Film Poster
Moratorium Cutup Film Poster

モラトリアム・カットアップ 「Moratoriamu Kattoappu

Release Date: June 11th, 2016

Running Time: 38 mins.

Director: Taro Shibano

Writer:  Taro Shibano (Screenplay),

Starring: Tetsuya Kobayashi, Fumiya Moritoshi, Tsukasa Sugiyama,

Website

 

 

Sato ni kitara eeyan    

Sato ni kitara eeyan Film Poster
Sato ni kitara eeyan Film Poster

さとにきたらええやん 「 Sato ni kitara eeyan」

Release Date: June 11th, 2016

Running Time: 100 mins.

Artistic Director: Yoshiki Shigee

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: A documentary following kids in Osaka with disabilities who all stay or visit a special children’s house which is a home away from home. It offers them and their parents some time to rest.

 

 

SING LIKE TALKING LIVE MOVIE Strings of the night    

SING LIKE TALKING LIVE MOVIE Strings of the night Film Poster
SING LIKE TALKING LIVE MOVIE Strings of the night Film Poster

Release Date: June 11th, 2016

Running Time: 106 mins.

Director: Shinya Noda

Writer: N/A

Starring: The band SING LIKE TALKING

Website

Synopsis from IMDB: The band Sing Like Talking celebrate their 30th anniversary with a concert featuring many fans and fellow musicians.

 

Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:

Evergreen Love (2016/06/04)

Zootopia (2016/04/23)

Deadpool (2016/06/01)

Wolf Girl and Black Prince (2016/05/28)

The Kodai Family  (2016/06/04)

64: Part 1 Prequel (2016/05/07)

If Cats Disappeared From the World (2016/05/14)

The Magnificent Nine (2016/05/28)

Snow White and the Huntsman Winter’s War (2016/05/27)

Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)


Japan Cuts 2016 Preview

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Japan Cuts 2016 Banner

Japan Cuts 2016 takes place from July 14th to the 24th and there are lots of familiar titles, many of which I’ll put as shorter entries to save space. However you cut it the line-up is really good with a diverse mixture of genres and stories. The guestlist is absolutely fantastic with the likes of Lily Franky, Atsuko Maeda, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sion Sono, and so many more talented filmmakers descending upon the festival! Here’s hoping Adam Torel of Third Window Films gets to attend the festival to introduce three films he has helped come into being. There’s also Japan Cuts Microcinema which sees some of the best short films from the last ten years played throughout the festival. Each film lasts around 30 minutes and people can jump in and watch whichever title takes their fancy between films. There’s also an interesting talk which analyses the Japanese film industry and how films get made.

What is on the programme, then? This is a quick preview but there’s a lot. I’ll break it down into sections and you can view trailers and more details for each on the films by clicking on the links:

New Feature Films | Familiar Feature Films | Anime |  Sion Sono |   Documentaries

New Feature Films

 

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 Film 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.

 

Kako: My Sullen Past   

Kako My Sullen Past Film Poster
Kako My Sullen Past Film Poster

ふきげんな過去 「Fukigen na Kako」 

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Shiro Maeda

Writer: Shiro Maeda (Screenplay)

Starring:  Kyoko Koizumi, Fumi Nikaido, Kengo Kora, Mei Kurokawa, Yuki Yamada, Itsuji Itao,

Website IMDB

Synopsis from the festival site: Ah, the wistful summers of near adulthood—or, for high schooler Kako (the ever-amazing Fumi Nikaido), drudging through the humid months of caring for her young niece at her family’s sleepy restaurant in Kitashinagawa, Tokyo. However that all changes when her aunt Mikiko (Kyoko Koizumi), thought to have died 18 years ago in an explosive accident, suddenly returns, bringing with her rumors of anti-government terrorist plots, international intrigue and maternal drama. A follow-up to The Extreme Sukiyaki (JAPAN CUTS 2014) by acclaimed playwright, novelist and screenwriter Shiro Maeda, winner of the 52nd Kishida Drama Award and 22nd Yukio Mishima Prize, Kako: My Sullen Past finds Maeda in full control of his cinematic instrument, channeling his characteristic dialogue and parodic cynicism through his wonderful cast and engrossing tale of radical politics and quotidian angst.

 

 

Emi-abi    

Emi-Abi Film Poster
Emi-Abi Film Poster

エミアビのはじまりとはじまり 「Emiabi no Hajimari to Hajimari」 

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Kensaku Watanabe

Writer: Kensaku Watanabe (Screenplay)

Starring:  Ryu Morioka, Tomoya Maeno, Haru Kuroki, Hirofumi Arai, Mari Yamachi,

Website IMDB

Kensaku Watanabe will be in town to introduce the film

Synopsis from the festival site: Up-and-coming manzai stand-up comedy duo Emi-Abi has lost consummate funny man Unno (a surprisingly touching Tomoya Maeno) to an accident, leaving conceited straight man Jitsudo (Ryu Morioka) to contend with his diminished career prospects as a bland, pretty face entertainer. Guided by his manager Natsumi (Haru Kuroki), who demonstrates stronger comedy chops than her own star, Jitsudo comes to learn the circumstances of his friend’s passing, as well as the life-and-death stakes of a career in comedy. Demonstrating a careful balance of tone across tragedy and deadpan and gross-out humor, writer/director Kensaku Watanabe expands Emi-Abi’s hilarious premise into a strikingly assured meditation on artistic rivalry and self-actualization.

 

Ken and Kazu

Ken and Kazu Film Poster
Ken and Kazu Film Poster

ケンとカズ 「Ken to Kazu

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Shoji

Writer: Hiroshi Shoji (Screenplay),

Starring: Shinsuke Kato, Katsuya Maiguma, Kisetsu Fujiwara, Shuna Iijima, Haruki Takano

Website IMDB JFDB

Search for this drama and you will find old entries dating back to 2011 and that is because the director Shoji Hiroshi made a short film of the same name and it travelled to different film festivals. From that short came this feature about two friends who deal in drugs. This has been picked up by Third Window Films for world sales.

Synopsis from JFDB: Ken (Kato Shinsuke) and Kazu (Maiguma Katsuya) are partners in crime who use a car repair shop as their front for dealing stimulants. Ken tries to make a clean break after his girlfriend Saki (Iijima Shuna) gets pregnant, but Kazu has a secret…

Familiar Feature Films

Familiar films is a section dedicated to titles I have written about for trailer posts and previews of other festivals countless times. Japan Cuts has a carefully considered programme which brings together the filmmakers and at least one or two of their works for talks. 

Bitter Honey   

Mitsu no Aware Film Poster
Mitsu no Aware Film Poster

蜜のあわれ Mitsu no Aware

Running Time: 105 mins.

Director: Gakuryu Ishii

Writer: Takehiko Minato (Screenplay), Saisei Muro (Original Manga)

Starring: Fumi Nikaido, Ren Osugi, Yoko Maki, Kengo Kora, Masatoshi Nagase, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Seiko Iwaido,

Website    IMDB

Gakuryu Ishii, that crazy indie director with punk sensibilities is back with what looks like an intriguing film and a more approachable mainstream one than he might normally make. I’ve reviewed two of his works, the brilliant Angel Dust and Isn’t Anyone Alive? but avoided his latest films because they didn’t appeal to me. This one does. It looks like fun and it’s full of great actors I really like: Fumi Nikaido (Himizu, Why Don’t You Play in Hell?, Watashi no Otoko), Ren Osugi (Hana-bi, Charisma, Exte, Eyes of the Spider), Yoko Maki (Like Father, Like Son), and Kengo Kora (A Tale of Yonosuke, The Drudgery Train, Norwegian Wood). The story is weird and the atmosphere shown in the trailer is delightfully dandyish with the great costumes and heightened acting. I want to see this film.

Synopsis: It is the Meiji era and that means writers like Ryunosuke Akutagawa (Kengo Kora) are busy making works of literature that will stand the test of time. Spare a thought for an old male writer (Ren Osugi) who would put pen to paper but is instead enthrailled with Akago (Fumi Nikaido), a red goldfish who is able to transform into a beautiful young woman. She possesses a pure and sensuous side and she uses it on the old man who she calls “Ojisama.” She has him wrapped around her little finger (flipper as well, I’m guessing) until, one day, the ghost of Yuriko Tamura (Yoko Maki) appears. She is a woman the writer knew in the past…

The early Gakuryu cyberpunk film Burst City 「爆裂都市, Dir: Gakuryu Ishii, 117 mins.」 plays at the same festival. Here’s more from the site: Sogo (Gakuryu) Ishii’s hugely influential film kicked off the Japanese cyberpunk movement of the late 1980s by taking Mad Max’s futuristic, dystopian biker gang aesthetic and smashing it together with the frenetic energy and antiauthoritarian sneering of the contemporary Japanese punk scene while foregrounding a hyper-inventive, groundbreaking visual style heavy on fast cutting, alternating film speeds, and concert documentary shooting. The loose, frenzied plot revolving around a violent confrontation between several gangs of punk musicians, yakuza, bikers and cops over the attempted construction of a nuclear power plant quite literally erupts into an explosive finale. A peerless punk cinema manifesto, Burst City remains as vibrant today as it did when it roared new life into Japanese cinema over 30 years ago.

The Actor

The Actor Film Poster
The Actor Film Poster

俳優亀岡拓次「Haiyuu Kameoka Takuji

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 a man who many 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. There will be an introduction and Q&A with Satoko Yokohama.

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.

A Cappella 「無伴奏, Dir: Hitoshi Yazaki, 132 mins. 」  is a drama which stars Riko Narumi (Shindo) as a high school girl named Kyoko living in 1969, a period when there was change in the air what with Japanese students involved in campus riots, anti-war rallies, and the growth of subcultures in music, cinema, literature, and theatre. Kyoko becomes influenced by these things and joins a rally at a university which gets violent. After she is wounded she shelters at a club called “A Cappella” and meets and falls in love with a college student, named Wataru (Sosuke Ikematsu). She undergoes a sexual awakening but the politics of the age puts their love in great danger…

Being Good「きみはいい子, Dir: Mipo O, 121 mins.」 Mipo O is a director/writer who tackles tough subjects as seen in The Light Shines Only There. Her latest film is the adaptation of the book Kimi wa ii ko (You’re a Good Kid). The book is by Hatsue Nakawaki which won the 2012 Tsubota Jōji Literature Award. The book is a collection of five stories about child abuse and people trying to prevent it, each story occurs in the same town and on the same rainy afternoon. The film adapts two stories into one: Santa no konai ie (The House where Santa Doesn’t Come) and Beppin-san (Pretty Girl). The first story sees Tasuku (Kengo Kora), an idealistic primary school teacher struggling to deal with his class and their parents especially when he discovers that one of his pupils is being abused by his parents. The second story is about Masami (Machiko Ono), a woman who appears to be a good mother, can’t help lashing out at her own child because of traumas she suffered as a child…

Director Mipo O is in town for a talk!

I Am a Monk

Boku wa Bosan Film Poster
Boku wa Bosan Film Poster

ボクは坊さん。Boku wa Bosan

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Yukinori Makabe

Writer: Kenya Hirata (Screenplay), Missei Shirakawa (Original Novel)

Starring: Atsushi Ito, Mizuki Yamamoto, Junpei Mizobata, Gaku Hamada, Miyuki Matsuda, Issey Ogata, Yoneko Matsukane,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Koen Shirakawa (Ito) is shocked by the death of his grandfather, a priest at a local temple. This event makes him reassess life so he quits his job at a bookstore and becomes a monk at a temple.

Artist of Fasting

Artist of Fasting Film Poster
Artist of Fasting Film Poster

断食芸人Dnjiki geinin

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 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…

Lowlife Love 「下衆の愛 , Dir: Eiji Uchida, 110 mins.」comes from Eiji Uchida (Greatful Dead 2013) and takes a cunical look at the film industry in Japan through its leading character, a young indie director named Tetsuo (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) who had one big hit and, well… not much else. He now lives with his mother and scrounges off anyone he can. A potential second shot enters his life when he meets a talented scriptwriter and a girl fresh from the countryside who wants to be an actor. He thinks he can make something special…

Director Eiji Uchida, actor Denden and producer Adam Torel (owner of Third Window Films) will be at the screening to introduce the film.

Three Stories of Love

Three Stories of Love Film Poster
Three Stories of Love Film Poster

恋人たち Koibito-tachi

Duration: 140 mins

Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi

Writer: Ryosuke Hashiguchi

Starring: Atsushi Shinohara, Toko Narushima, Ryo Ikeda, Ken Mitsuishi, Lily Franky

Website IMDB

Three Stories of Love has been topping the end of year lists for many critics who specialise in Japanese films. It looks like a heady combination of comedy and drama rooted in strong writing that gives us the everyday lives of three people experiencing romance and frustration.

Synopsis: Bridge inspector Atsushi is grieving for his wife, the victim of a cruel murder, housewife Toko is longing to escape her unsatisfying marriage, and gay lawyer Shinomiya fails to be as successful in his love life as he is in his job.

Hush! 「 ハッシュ!, Dir: Ryosuke Hashiguchi, 135 mins. IMDB」is the sophmore film from Ryosuke Hashiguchi and it has got great reviews as it takes in the lives of both gay and straight characters and the social pressures they face in critically succesful dramas. This story focusses on two adult gay guys named Naoya (Kazuya Takahashi) and Katsuhiro (Seiichi Tanabe) who are asked to help a slightly unhinged young woman (Reiko Kataoka) father a child.

The Magnificent Nine    

The Magnificent Nine Film Poster
The Magnificent Nine Film Poster

殿、利息でござる! Tono, Risoku de Gozaru! 

Running Time: 129 mins.

Release Date: May 14th, 2016

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura

Writer: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Kenichi Suzuki (Screenplay), Michifumi Isoda (Original Novel)

Starring: Sadao Abe, Eita, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Karen Iwata, Yudai Chiba, Kitaro, Mitsukoo Kusabue,

Website   IMDB

I have reviewed many films by Yoshihiro Nakamura such as The Snow White Murder Case (2014) and it is clear that he has become the king of adaptations in recent years. This film is based on a novel from 2012 and stars Sadao Abe (Dreams for Sale), Eita (The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker, Wild 7) and Satoshi Tsumabuki ( For Love’s Sake).

 

Synopsis: Juzaburo Kokutaya (Sadao Abe) and his fellows are working to meet impossible taxes and labour demands. To overcome their problems they plan to lend large amounts of money to a han (historical term for the estate of a warrior) and distribute the interest annually to the residents, but if they’re caught breaching social etiquette like this they will lose their lives.

Nagasaki: Memories of My Son 「 母と暮らせば, Dir: Yoji Yamada, 130 mins.」Yoji Yamada is a stalwart of the Japanese film industry having worked with Yasujiro Ozu as an assistant director and then becoming a director himself. His films win awards and tend to feature family stories. This one is described as a sad but hopeful one. Its story sounds hard. Nobuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) lives in post-war Nagasaki and works as a midwife. She survived the atomic bomb which killed her son Koji (Kazunari Ninomiya) three years earlier. She had already lost another son and her husband so she is alone. Then, one night, Koji appears again and gives comfort to his mother and they reminiscence about her painful past as well as pleasant times. Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise) is introducing this one!

Flying Colours

Biri Gal Film Poster
Biri Gal Film Poster

ビリギャル 「Biri Gyaru」

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Nobuhiro Doi

Writer: Hiroshi Hashimoto (Screenplay), Nobutaka Tsubota (Original Novel),

Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Atsushi Ito, Shuhei Nomura, Rie Minemura, Ken Yasuda, Airi Matsui, Yo Yoshida, Tetsushi Tanaka,

The film is based on the novel “Gakunen Biri no Gyaru ga 1 nen de Hensachi o 40 Agete Keio Daigaku ni Geneki Gokaku Shita Hanashi” by Nobutaka Tsubota (published December 26, 2013 by Kadokawa) and the novel is based on the true story of the author Nobutaka Tsubota, who runs a cram school, and his student Sayaka Kobayashi who went from academic zero to hero in the space of a year. This is a fun and revealing look at the Japanese education system with characters you come to love!

Synopsis: Blonde-haired “gyaru” Sayaka has always been more interested in fashion than her studies. Because of this, she now has the scholastic aptitude of a 4th grader as a second-year high school student. However, when she visits a cram school, lecturer Mr. Tsubota recognizes her innate intelligence. After an informal discussion, and with the support of her family, Sayaka becomes determined not only to improve her grades, but to spend her final year of high school working hard toward getting accepted into prestigious Keio University.

Bakuman   

Bakuman Film Poster
Bakuman Film Poster

バクマン。Bakuman

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Hitoshi One

Writer: Hitoshi One (Screenplay), Tsugumi Ohba, Takeshi Obata (Original Manga)

Starring: Takeru Satoh, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Nana Komatsu, Takayuki Yamada, Shota Sometani, Lily Franky, Kankuro Kudo, Hirofumi Arai,

Website   IMDB

Bakuman comes from Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the creators of Death Note. It is very popular and has been collected in over compiled volumes of manga and has been the basis of three television series produced by J.C. Staff since it was first published in Weekly Shounen Jump back in August, 2008. It has a star-laden cast and a director who has worked on indies and bigger budgeted films. It stars Takeru Sato and Ryunosuke Kamiki who worked together on Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno. Reviews for this have been super positive!

Synopsis: Moritaka Mashiro (Satoh) is a talented artist but after the death of his uncle, a manga-ka who died because of exhaustion, he resents art and wants to become an office worker. Then he meets and falls in love with a girl at school named Azuki Miho, an aspiring voice actress. Azuki tells Moritaka they can marry, but only after they both achieve their dreams. Moritaka then teams up with fellow classmate Akito Takagi (Kamiki), a talented writer, and they aim to publish their first manga.

 

Sayonara      

Sayonara Film Poster
Sayonara Film Poster

さよなら「Sayonara

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer:  Koji Fukada, Oriza Hirata (Screenplay),

Starring: Bryerly Long, Hirofumi Arai, Geminoid F, Makiko Murata, Yuko Kibiki, Nijiro Murakami,

Website   IMDB

The first ever movie with an android as one of the stars. It is a collaboration between Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata and the leading robotics scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro who works at Osaka University and the film was directed by Koji Fukada (Hospitalité, Au revoir l’été).

Synopsis: The population of Japan is being evacuated due to radioactive contamination. Tanya (Bryerly Long) is a foreign refugee with an illness so she will be among the last to leave while healthier Japanese escape. She has an android named Reona (Geminoid F) who supports her in her final days as everyone around her leaves.

The Shell Collector   

The Shell Collector Film Poste
The Shell Collector Film Poste

シェルコレクター「Sheru Korekuta 

Running Time: 89 mins.

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. Director Yoshifumi Tsubota and star Lily Franky are in town to do a Q&A.

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…

 

Mohican Comes Home

Mohican Comes Home Film Poster
Mohican Comes Home Film Poster

モヒカン故郷に帰る「Mohikan kokyo ni kaeru

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

This one was at the Osaka Asian Film Festival which I wrote about back in March. It has a great cast which includes Atsuko Maeda (Seventh Code) and Ryuhei Matsuda (The Great Passage, My Little Sweet Pea) and it’s directed by Shuichi Okita (The Story of Yonosuke, The Woodsman and the Rain).

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…

The Projects

Danchi Film Poster
Danchi Film Poster

団地 「Danchi」

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Junji Sakamoto

Writer: Junji Sakamoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Naomi Fujiyama, Ittoku Kishibe, Mari Hamada, Mayu Harada, Hikaru Horiguchi, Renji Ishibashi,

IMDB   Website

Synopsis: Hinako (Naomi Fujiyama) and Seiji Yamashita (Ittoku Kishibe) once owned a store that sold traditional Chinese herbal medicine but retired and moved into the local housing complex after selling their store. Old customers come calling and it provides something for Seiji to do until he runs in an election to select the next president of the housing complex. He shuts himself away under the floorboards of the apartment out of embarrassment and soon rumours spread that he has been killed by Hinako! Here’s a review at the Japan Times.

You can watch an early Junji Sakamoto film called Face「顔 , Dir: Junji Sakamoto, 123 mins.」which sees him on an earlier project working together with the cast from The Projects. Here’s more from the festival site: Face is a ripped-from-the-headlines tale of middle-aged seamstress Masako, set free from the emotional abuse and isolation of her family’s dry cleaning business in a shocking act of violence. Painfully shy and clumsy, she is an unlikely fugitive from the law when the nationwide manhunt for her is interrupted by the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. Masako’s life on the lam brings her in contact with a host of lonely characters, who see the face of this sympathetic killer change from humiliation to self-assurance. With Face, Junji Sakamoto sharpened his keen balance of violence and humor, moving from masculinist heroics to this unruly take on the fallen woman genre anchored by stage actress and comedian Naomi Fujiyama in her mesmerizing star debut.

Anime

Experimental Spotlight: Anime Vanguard

This part of the programme is dedicated to experimental anime shorts ranging from 3 – 14 minutes in length. Some are music videos, some have narratives and others are atmospheric surreal cascades of colours. You have major animators such as Mirai Mizue and more who regularly travel to other festivals such as Vancouver. The animator Onohana will be there to talk animation!

Sion Sono

There are three Sion Sono movies at the festival, two of which have been on the festival circuit while the third is a documentary released last month. Sion Sono and his wife Megumi Kagurazaka are in town so drop by and see a genius in Q&As!

The Sion Sono  

Sono Shion to iu ikmono Film Poster
Sono Shion to iu ikmono Film Poster

園子温という生きもの Sono Shion to iu ikmono 

Running Time: 97 mins.

Director: Shin Oshima

Writer: N/A

Starring: Sion Sono, Shota Sometani, Fumi Nikaido, Megumi Kagurazaka, Eri, Naoto Tanobe, Takuji Yasuoka,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: A documentary about the man, the legend, Sion Sono. We get to hear about his background, his early films and his current ones like Shinjuku Swan and Whispering Star. This documentary was shot by Shin Oshima, son of Nagisa Oshima.

 

The Whispering Star 「ひそひそ星, 100 mins. IMDBwas originally created and screened as part of an art exhibition which had the theme of dystopia running through it. The film was shot in different locations in Fukushima prefecture, turning the depopulated and irradiated areas into a futuristic landscape that speaks of hopelessness, pollution, and abandonment. It stars people who live in the areas and Sion Sono’s wife.

Synopsis: A spaceship shaped like a Japanese bungalow careens through the galaxy. It carries a humanoid robot named Yoko (Megumi Kagurazaka), a sort of interstellar UPS delivery person. Her job is simple: to distribute packages to human beings scattered across sundry planets. But with so much spare time between deliveries, Yoko begins to wonder what’s in those packages.

Love and Peace「ラブ&ピース , 117 minsis supposedly based on a script that Sono wrote many years ago, around the time of Suicide Club. Taking the lead is Hiroki Hasegawa, the mad cinephile in the yakuza movie comedy Why Don’t You Play in Hell? and Kumiko Aso, the waif running around in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s horror film Pulse. It’s getting a release in the UK at some point thank to the film distributor Third Window Films.

Love and Peace Film Image

Synopsis: The story is about a put upon salaryman who once had the dream of being a punk-rocker. He randomly buys a turtle and names it Pikadon. A series of events occur and Ryoichi’s dreams of being a rock star might be about to come true! However, it might also lead to the end of the world…

Documentaries

Three fascinating documentaries play out at the festival. I’d really like to see the first:

FAKE    

FAKE Film Poster
FAKE Film Poster

Running Time: 109 mins.

Director: Tatsuya Mori

Writer: N/A

Starring: Mamoru Samuragochi

IMDB   Website

 

Synopsis: A couple of years ago the deaf musician and composer Mamoru Samuragochi made the headlines when it was revealed that he wasn’t as deaf as he claimed after a series of articles drew doubts about his deafness and it was revealed that a man named Takashi Aragaki had served as a ghost writer for 18 years. This documentary looks at the man at the centre of the uproar and how he dealt with the press coverage. Here’s a fascinating article on the Japan Times website in which the director talks about the film.

 

A Room of Her Own – Rei Naito and Light   

A Room of Her Own – Rei Naito and Light Film Poster
A Room of Her Own – Rei Naito and Light Film Poster

あえかなる部屋 内藤礼と、光たち「ae ka naru Heya Naitō Rei to, kotachi

Running Time: 87 mins.

Director: Yuko Nakamura

Writer: N/A (Screenplay),

Starring:  Rei Naito, Hina Yukawa, Ran Yaniguchi, Keiko Oyama, Kyoko Tanaka,

Website IMDB

This was at the Aichi International Women’s festival last week and that’s where I got the synopsis from!

Synopsis: Contemporary artist Rei Naito is reputed for her work “Matrix” which is exhibited in Teshima Art Museum in Kagawa Prefecture on an island in the Seto Inland Sea. Highlighting the two-year communications between Naito, an artist who has never revealed her creating processes to the outside world, and director Yuko Nakamura, this film shows the quest of five women, all invariably enchanted by Naito’s art, as they explore her artistic world based on the question of whether it is in itself a blessing to be alive.

 

Mother, I’ve Pretty Much Forgotten Your Face   

Okaasan, iikagen anata no kao wo wasurete shimaimashita Film Poster
Okaasan, iikagen anata no kao wo wasurete shimaimashita Film Poster

お母さんいい加減あなたの顔は忘れてしまいました 「Okaasan Iikagen Anata no Kao wa Wasurete Shimaimashita」 

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Michiro Endo

Writer: N/A

Starring:  Michiro Endo, Mizuki Misumi, Takao Morishima, Takehara Pistol, Yoshihide Otomo

Website   IMDB

Synopsis:  The Stalin were a punk rock band formed in June 1980, by leader and vocalist Michiro Endo. It was disbanded in 1985 and Endo went on to make new bands but The Stalin remained very influential for many years. Endo turned sixty in 2011 and went on a tour. It was around the time that the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred. Michiro Endo is a native of Fukushima and a socialist activist according to Wikipedia and so he went back to his hometown and visited family to it, in the face of in Fukushima to survey the damage and was inspired to start the charity “PROJECT FUKUSHIMA!” This documentary chronicles his efforts.


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