By the time you read this I’ll be in London enjoying the Terracotta far East Film Festival and meeting fellow cinephiles! The majority of posts on my blog covered a variety of festivals taking place in the UK such as the fact that Japanese director Atsushi Funahashi will be in London at the end of the month for a documentary festival, the announcement of the guests at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival and the Japanese films playing at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. I also posted my final First Impression from the Spring 2013 Anime Season with Red Data Girl. Next week I am going to be up to my elbows in reviews and previews for films and the Summer 2013 anime. Enough from me, here are all of the films getting a release this week!

HAL                                  

Japanese Title: ハル

Romaji: Haru

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 125 mins.

Director: Ryōtarō Makihara

Writer: Izumi Kizara (Screenplay),

Starring: Yōko Hikasa, Yoshimasa Hosoya

Ryōtarō Makihara makes his theatrical directorial debut with this near-future romance mixes souls and androids. Makihara has a lot of experience with TV anime like directing episodes of Tatami Galaxy, Monster, and Le Chevalier D’Eon. The seiyuu are lead by Yōko Hikasa (Occult Academy) and Yoshimasa Hosoya (Robotics;Notes.). The anime is produced by Wit Studio who are the guys behind the thrillingly dark and exciting Attack on Titan.

Kurumi (Hikasa) likes Haru (Hosoya) and the two seem happy life ends when a plane accident takes Haru from the mortal world. A robot version of Haru, Hal emerges as a substitute. As the two live together Kurumi gradually opens her memories and mind to him.

Blindly in Love (English Title) / Love of a Son who is in the Box (Literal Title)

Japanese Title: 箱入り　息子　の　恋      

Romaji: Hakoiri Musuko no Koi

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 117 mins.

Director: Masahide Ichii

Writer: Masahide Ichii, Takahiro Tamura (Screenplay),

Starring:  Gen Hoshino, Kaho, Sei Hiraizumi, Ryoko Moriyama, Ren Osugi, Hitomi Kuroki, Shuntaro Yanagi, Honoka, Kanji Furutachi, Miyako Takeuchi

I saw the trailer for this a couple of months back. It’s blend of romance and drama looked interesting primarily because of the two leading characters, one who is an introvert and the other who is blind. Around all of the shouting and crying looked to be a story where and it has some great comedy moments as the trailer reveals. It stars Gen Hoshino (Why Don’t You Play in Hell), Kaho (Beautiful World), Ren Osugi (Exte), Hitomi Kuroki (Kaidan, Dark Water), and Kanji Furutachi (The Woodsman and the Rain, GFP Bunny).

Kentaro Amanoshizuka (Hoshino) is a 35-year-old with no friends and a modest job in city hall. His life seems stuck in a rut as he still lives with his parents and there are of signs of him getting a promotion in work or socialising with anyone. His parents (Hiraizumi and Moriyama) worry and so they go to a parental matchmaking event hoping to find a woman for their son. Only one couple approaches them. The husband is Akita Imai (Osugi), a man who runs a successful company and after exchanging profiles with Toshi Amanoshizuka he believes that Kentaro is not worthy of his daughter who is blind. Kentaro and Kaho still meet up one fateful day. Can they be together?

A Pale Woman                                                

Japanese Title: 蒼白者 A Pale Woman

Romaji: Souhaku-sha A Pale Woman

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 90 mins.

Director: Takuaki Tsunemoto

Writer: Norio Kida (Screenplay),

Starring: Kim Kkobbi, Shugo Oshinari Keisuke Kimura, Yoko Chousokabe, Aki Miyata, Anna Nakagawa,

This is the directorial debut of Takuaki Tsunemoto and it stars Korean actress Kim Kkobbi (City of Violence, King of Pigs) who is acting alongside a Japanese cast that has been in a diverse range of films like Shugo Oshinari (All About Lily Chou-Chou), Yoko Chousokabe (Noroi: The Curse, Retribution) and Anna Nakagawa (Cure). It actually looks like it could be a pretty good genre film since it has decent acting in the trailer and the visuals are different.

To save the man she loves Kim travels to Japan from Korea when she discovers that her mother has lured him into the criminal underworld. She devises a dangerous plan to rescue him.

It’s a Beautiful Day                                      

Japanese Title: クソすばらしいこの世界

Romaji: Kuso Subarashii Kono Sekai

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 78 mins.

Director: Kayoko Asakura

Writer: Kayoko Asakura (Screenplay),

Starring: Kim Kkobbi, Nanako Ohata, Akihiro Kitamura, Shijimi

Ah, ironic title! A gory horror movie written and directed by a woman. Kayoko Asakura’s film looks like t has potential with its mix of character drama and mayhem. It also looks like it could be very derivative of western films like Funny Games and slashers. It looks like The Cabin in the Woods mixed with Friday 13^th with its teens under siege in the middle of nowhere scenario. What’s this? Kim Kkobbi stars in it as well? She’s joined by a lot of new actors including Shijimi, who is my new crush!

A-Joong (Kkobbi) is a Korean international student staying with some Japanese students in a cottage in a coutry town n the suburbs of Los Angeles. A-Joong is irritated that the Japanese students are partying but she’ll have bigger things to contend with when a murderous family target the students!

Miracle Apples                                   

Japanese Title: 奇跡のリンゴ

Romaji: Souhaku-sha A Pale Woman

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura

Writer: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Tomoko Yoshida (Screenplay),

Starring: Sadao Abe, Miho Kanno, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Tsumugi Hatakeyama, Mieko Harada, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi

Sadao Abe (Dreams for Sale), Miho Kanno (Sakuran) star as a husband and wife team who sell apples. Sounds awesome, right? Well it’s a little more complicated with characters struggling to grow the apples using natural processes and not chemicals. SO environment and economic themes about. It is based on a true story involving real life people Akinori Kimura and his wife Mieko. Yoshihiro Nakamura (Foreign Duck, See You Tomorrow, Everyone) is directing. It looks like one of those feel-good work hard and everything will turn out all right stories. How do we know everything turns out all right? Because the couple are still alive.

Akinori Kimura (Abe) and his wife Mieko (Kanno) open an apple orchad in their hometown of Hirosaki in Aomori Prefecture. Mieko is allergic to pesticides so Akinori grows his apples without chemicals. This causes all sorts of drains and the family resources and soon they are in financial difficulty with Akinori contemplating suicide. Then a miracle occurs…

The Yakuza Wives Neo                                

Japanese Title: 極道　の　妻たちNEO

Romaji: Gokudo no Tsuma-tachi Neo

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Hideyuki Katsuki

Writer: Shoji Yonemura (Screenplay),

Starring: Tomoka Kurotani, Natsuki Harada, Masayuki Imai, Gota Watabe, Rina Koike, Yoshihiko Hakamda, Ren Osugi, Renji Ishibashi, Kazushige Nagashima, Yasuhito Shimao

Awesome title, poor trailer. The film looks too serious. I was expecting girls battling each other and tearing clothes off not all this shouting and kissing lark. The synopsis also reads like some overly melodramatic novel.

Kotone (Kurotani) is the wife of the head of the Kiba gang Mitsuru Kiba (Nagashima). Her arch nemesis is Azami (Harada), wife of the head of the Kato gang, Kato (Imai). The two gangs are in the Saikyo Alliance but a grudge between the girls stretching back to Kotone having a deadly romance with one of Azami’s lovers is about to kick off a war, It all centres around a girl named Sakura Nishizawa (Koike) who is being chased by Azami.

Where’s the violence Hideyuki Katsuki, director of The Love Leading to Tomorrow? Okay, he doesn’t direct violent movies like Miike but Shoji Yonemura has penned decent thrillers like Doubles (2001). Well the Yakuza wives are kind of foxy (and bossy – a very unattractive trait for anybody) with Tomoka Kurotani and Natsuki Harada taking the lead roles. Anyway, wasn’t Yakuza wives the name of the film the girls were auditioning for in 2LDK?

The Star Hibari Misora                                       

Japanese Title: ザ　スター　美空ひばり

Romaji: Za Suta- Misora Hibari

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 108 mins.

Director: Toru Uehara

Starring: Hiroshi Tamaki (Narrator), Hibari Misora (Subject)

Thanks to the wonders of digital technoloqy, the hugely popular enka singer/actress Hibari Misora is back on the big screen that airs footage of The Star, a collection of her great performances and unaired footage and unreleased songs.

Dance Earth Beat Trip                

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Sato

Starring: USA, MATSU

A documentary following the dance group “EXILE” and their travels in Spain, Tanzania, Kenya, Bali, Jamaica and the US.

Rāmen yori taisetsunamono Higashiikebukuro daishōken 50-nen no himitsu

Japanese Title: ラーメンより大切なもの　東池袋大勝軒 50年の秘密

Romaji: Rāmen yori taisetsunamono Higashiikebukuro daishōken 50-nen no himitsu

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Inami Takashi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kazuo Yamagishi

A documentary focusing on Kazuo Yamagishi the owner of the ramen shop Taishoken, a pretty famous place in Tokyo. Yamagishi is the inventor of tsukemen (dipping ramen) where noodles and soup are served separately instead of together in a bowl. We get to see the state of the shop, the customer’s reactions to the ramen, the staff in action and the owner himself. We also get an insight into the creation of the shop. Jiro Dreams of Sushi? Kazuo Dreams of Ramen!

Rape Zombie Strikes Back, Rape Zombie 2 & 3 LUST OF THE DEAD & Akiba Empire

Japanese Title: レイプゾンビ2＆3 LUST OF THE DEAD アキバ帝国の逆襲

 Romaji: Reipu Zonbi 2 & 3 LUST OF THE DEAD Akiba Teikokunogyakushuu

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Naoyuki Tomomatsu

Writer: Yuko Momochi (Screenplay),

Starring: Alice Ozawa, Asami, Yui Aikawa, Saya Kobayashi, Ai, Miyamura, Ken Nakazawa, Tomoaki Sandan, Yuya Kiyama

Naoyuki Tomomatsu, one of the directors of Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl is here with a re-edit for the two sequels to Rape Zombie, a film released back in 2012 and screened at the Yubari Fantastic Film Festival. In this saga 90% of men around the world have become zombies  and women must organise themselves to protect themselves. It stars Alice Ozawa (Stripper 2012), Asami (Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead, Dead Sushi) and it looks as awful as it sounds.

Banana vs Peach Festival バナナ　vs ピーチ　まつり                             

Remember all of those short films from the Peach festival that cropped up in the past three weeks? Well they were created and showcased in the Peach Film Festival which supports female directors. Here is another festival where films by male and female filmmakers are showcased films together. The films revolve around themes like sin and pain (Sounds delicious. Sin and Punishment) and the directors use the same actors. The films star a mixture and new and veteran actors and they span genres from drama to comedy. There are a lot of interesting short films on offer but not all of them have trailers. Here they are. The festival is so cool it has its own promotional video and song!

Winter’s Record

Japanese Title: ウインターズ　レコード

Romaji: Uinta-zu Reko-do

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 25 mins.

Director: Wataru Hiranami

Writer: N/A

Starring: Hatsunori Hasegawa, Merii, Kota Satsunai

The theme is sin. Yuichi works in a record store and is in love but cannot express his feelings for the girl he loves who might just be crazy. Things get crazier when a guy dressed like Santa shows up

Accomplice

Japanese Title: 共犯者たち

Romaji: Kyouhan-sha Tachi

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 25 mins.

Director: Yukiko Sowate

Writer: N/A,

Starring: Hatsunori Hasegawa, Merii, Keigo Kasuya

The theme is sin. A husband and wife who have been separated for the last 10 years are in town attending the funeral of the aunt who opposed their marriage. They stay at the same hotel and in separate beds are they really so distant from each other?

Muscle Pain Girl

Japanese Title: 欽肉痛　少女

Romaji: Kin’nikutsuu Shoujo

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 17 mins.

Director: Tomoya Maeno

Writer: N/A

Starring: Megumi Harukawa, Taiga, Yaeko Kiyose, Kanako Mochida, Kojin Serizawa

The theme for this one is pain and it follows a high school girl named Kaoru who is on the verge of being late for class one morning because her body is wracked with pain. Soon it starts to spread to others…

Noise

Japanese Title: 雑音

Romaji: Zatsuon

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 18 mins.

Director: Yuki Uehara

Writer: N/A (Screenplay),

Starring: Megumi Harukawa, Taiga, Mayui Yokoyawa, Akio Nakadai

Another high school story but one where the decision of a girl causes her immense pain…

All is Vanity

Japanese Title: 色即是空

Romaji: Shikisokuzekuu

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 22 mins.

Director: Chihiro Amano

Writer: N/A

Starring: Aki Hashimoto, Eita Okuno, TAKU, Natsumi Suzuki

The theme for this short is world desires. The setting is the Buddhist altar room and the event is the chanting of sutras led by a Buddhist priest on the anniversary of the death of a grandfather. Things get a little hot when the worldly desires of the mother and the son start tingling.

Onerous Ability

Japanese Title: 煩能力

Romaji: Bon Noh Ryoku

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 23 mins.

Director: Debi Kobayashi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Eita Okuno, Aki Hashimoto, Yoshimi Aida

The theme for this one is worldly desires and unlike the comedy of the other short this one is all sci-fi where people with ESP head into the country to escape the law.

The World Feels Rough

Japanese Title: 世のなく　は　ざらざらしている

Romaji: Yononaka ha Zarazara Shite Iru

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 30 mins.

Director: Madoka Kumagai

Writer: N/A

Starring: Makiko Watanabe, Kondo Yoshimasa

The theme for this short is memory and it stars Makiko Watanabe (scary in Love Exposure). A man and a women met in the suburbs and travel together deciding whether they want to simply be friends or lovers.

Radio Days

Japanese Title: ラジオデイズ

Romaji: Rajio Deizu

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Hideyuki Katsuki

Writer: Shoji Yonemura (Screenplay),

Starring: Kondo Yoshimasa, Makiko Watanabe, Kanako Mochida, Gen Sato,

Again, the theme here is memory and there are the same actors. A middle-aged police officer is in love with the owner of a diner in a small town but there’s the issue of her estranged husband to deal with.

I was overjoyed when I saw Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s dorama Penance getting screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and Venice. It’s because it seemed that there would be a chance it would get screened in the UK. So I spend most of the second half of 2012 wishing that the film would show up at a UK festival and lo and behold it does, just not the one I’m attending, no. Penance is getting screened at the East End Film Festival at the end of June!!!

The East End Film Festival has an eclectic line-up of films but the only interesting ones (as far as I’m concerned) are an indie film named Kuro and Kurosawa’s dorama Penance. Here are the details! 

Click on the title o the film for more information and the location for tickets.

Penance                   

Japanese Title: 贖罪

Romaji: Shokuzai

Location: Barbican Cinema, Screening Dates: July 07^th, 5:00 PM

Running Time: 270 mins.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Script), Kanae Minato (Original Novel)

Starring: Kyoko Koizumi, Eiko Koike, Sakura Ando, Chizuru Ikewaki, Yu Aoi, Mirai Moriyama

Kiyoshi Kurosawa followed the magnificent Tokyo Sonata with this five-episode TV drama based on Kanae Minato’s novel of the same name (Minato also wrote the novel which the film Confessions is based on). It stars a collection of some of the best actresses in Japan including Kyoko Koizumi (Tokyo Sonata, Adrift in Tokyo), Sakura Ando (Love Exposure, Crime or Punishment?!?), Yu Aoi (Memories of Matsuko, All About Lily Chou-Chou), Eiko Koike (Kamikaze Girls, 2LDK) and Chizuru Ikewaki (Haru in The Cat Returns).

When a girl named Emiri moves from Tokyo to Ueda she makes friends with four girls named Sae, Maki, Akiko and Yuka. One day when the five girls are playing volleyball at school they are approached by a man dressed in work clothes who asks for their help in repairing the ventilation system. He picks Emiri. The two head towards the gym. When there is no sign of Emiri returning her friends head in the same direction and discover her dead. When questioned by the police they cannot describe the man which means leads to the investigation grinding to a halt. Several months later, Emiri’s mother Asako (Koizumi) invites the four girls to her house on Emiri’s birthday. It is there that she tells them that they will have to atone for their inability to describe the man and help in his capture. Fifteen years later, Sae (Aoi), Maki (Koike), Akiko (Ando) and Yuka (Ikewaki) are leading troubled lives and live in fear of the penance expected of them.

Kuro                                                  

Japanese Title: はなればなれに

Romaji: Hanare Banareni

Location: Rich Mix, Screening Dates: June 29^th, 8:30 PM

Running Time: 100 mins.                                              

Director: Daisuke Shimote

Writer: Daisuke Shimote (Screenplay),

Starring: Airi Kido, Yu Saitoh, Hideo Nakaizumi, Wakana Matsumoto

This one screened at last years Tokyo International Film festival where it accrued a series of mixed reviews like this from Megan Lehmann of the Hollywood Reporter,

A trio of Tokyoites jitterbugs through a series of absurdist set pieces on their way to self-discovery in Kuro, the self-consciously quirky debut feature by Japanese director Daisuke Shimote. Insubstantial but occasionally diverting, it’s a comic drama whose purely physical comedy comes in fits and starts, seemingly independent of the narrative.

After watching the trailer, that excerpt from review seems to be a good summary.

Three people recently traumatised meet up: Kuro once had dreams of being a baker until she was fired, Eito has recently broken up with his fiancé and Gou’s career as a theatre director is in imminent danger of dying when the lead actress of his own play goes missing. The three retreat from the world to a remote seaside hotel where a schoolgirl named Momo falls in with them and they all indulge in silly games.

I got back from London and the Terracotta Far East Film Festival where I watched four films and met up with fellow bloggers/cinephiles. The films were:

A Story of Yonosuke,

See You Tomorrow, Everyone,

The Berlin File,

The Land of Hope,

Expect reviews for three of the films starting next week. Why three films? Well when it comes to the top three films in the list I’m clear in what I think about them but I’m holding my fire on The Land of Hope so I can analyse it when I’m in a better frame of mind (read: not tired after having lots of fun with fellow cinephiles!).

I’d also like to mention the David Bowie Exhibition at the V&A which I visited twice!!!). Very excellent!

As someone who works for a gallery I was impressed and inspired by the high quality of the exhibition, the use of mixed media and the attention to detail. There was everything Bowie from costumes (his suit from the video Life on Mars? for instance) and sheet music and lyric books to music videos, clips from movies  he has starred in. The interactive headphones worked a treat relaying excellent music and quotes and changing depending upon the area I was in! Bowie was influenced by Japan and there are a great many things that reflect that like the costumes designed by Kansai Yamamoto.

I’d like to thank Alua and Tired Paul for being great hosts and having awesome conversations with and introducing me to bubble tea, and I’d like to thank Terracotta/Third Window Films for continuing to screen interesting Asian films.

Hmm, how to end this post… With an awesome music video (not Bowie but it’s God-tier)!

I love Polysics and great Japanese films.

Kiki’s Delivery Service                         

Japanese Title: 魔女　の　宅急便

Romaji: Majo no Takkyubin

Release Date: Spring, 2014

Running Time: N/A

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Writer: Eiko Kadono (Original Novel), Satoko Okudera (Screenplay)

Starring: Fuka  Koshiba

I know Takashi Shimizu as one of the big names of J-hora guy with titles like the Ju-On series, Marebito and Reincarnation so when Alua ran a story about Shimizu directing the upcoming live-action adaptation of Eiko Kadono’s novel Kiki’s Delivery Service I was surprised and unsure how to interpret it because his filmography is filled almost exclusively with yurei tormenting cute Japanese women and not heart-warming coming-of-age tales. Perhaps he’s expanding his range into the more family friendly area. Whatever the case a production video has been released showing the cast filming scenes on Shōdo Island and giving interviews.

Kiki (Koshiba) has turned 13 and must leave home to start her apprenticeship in witchcraft and become independent. She hops on her broom with her cat Jiji and bids farewell to home, friends and family and settles in a coastal city where she must decide what sort of area in the witching profession she should specialise in. The trouble is her only skill is flying her broom…

To be fair, I am only familiar with Kiki’s Delivery Service from the Ghibli film which I have watched dozens of times (and love) because it regularly gets aired on UK television so I cannot comment too far on how true to the source novel Shimizu will be but this looks like a straight adaptation since Koshiba looks cute, the setting looks beautiful and the sets look normal.

Nope, no yurei here.

Actually this could be pretty good because the script is penned by Satoko Okudera who has written the screenplays for great anime like The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Wolf Children, two titles that mixed magical-realism with coming-0f-age stories. Perfect for this film.

Who plays the eponymous witch? Fuka Koshiba, a former figure skater who has had a role in the dorama Breathless Summer which starred Emi Takei. You can see more of her and the other cast members and director Shimizu in the gallery of pictures below (which I got from Twitch).

This week has been spent writing, writing, writing. I got back from London at the beginning of the week and since then I have been writing up review notes from the Terracotta Far East Film Festival 2013 and, if I’m honest, from two films from the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Programme which I really need to get done. Writing up the Anime UK News Summer Anime Preview for 2013 and writing up this trailer post which took longer than expected. I caught up on the anime I missed and watched one film set in Japan – Dream Cruise.

Posts this week include a look at the East End Film Festival, a post about Terracotta and a production video from the set of the live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service.  Expect anime and movies next week.

Here are the trailers for the films released this weekend.

Screaming Class                  

Japanese Title: 絶叫学級

Romaji: Zekkyou Gakkyuu

Release Date: June 14^th, 2013

Running Time: 77 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Sato

Writer: Emi Ishikawa (Original Manga),Uiko Miura (Screenplay),

Starring: Haruna Kawaguchi, Alice Hirose, Mayu Matsuoka, Louis Kurihara

Do you know what has been missing these last few weeks? A horror film. Here’s one. This mid-budget effort is based on a 2008 manga series of the same name by Emi Ishikawa which I looked up and it’s kind of alright… Really, no one does horror like Junji Ito but anyway… It stars a bunch of up and coming actresses like Alice Hirose (Soup), Mayu Matsuoka (Kioshita Keisuke Story, The Kirishima Thing, Love Exposure, Lesson of the Evil, Potechi), and Haruna Kawaguchi who has been in a haunted high school movie in P.O.V. – A Cursed Film. Ghosts in a girls school? It sounds a lot like the Whispering Corridors films (Memento Mori is the best in that sequence) but it looks like a lot of fun!

When high school student Kana (Kawaguchi) has her photograph selected for a magazine she becomes the victim of a bully named Rio (Hirose) who is a popular student. Kana hears rumours of a ghost of a former student who died in an accident which resides old school building. This ghost can grant wishes but at the cost of something important. Kana is desperate and decides to see if it exists. The next day she is part of Rio’s gang but Kana’s friend Erika (Matsuoka) ends up getting bullied. Things get even hairier than this.

Figua na Anata                                

Japanese Title:　フィギュア　あなた

Romaji: Figyua Anata

Release Date: June 08^th, 2013

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director: Takashi Ishii

Writer: Takashi Ishii (Screenplay/Original Manga),

Starring: Emoto Tasuku, Sasaki Kokone, Naoto Takenaka, Rina Sakuragi, Yuki Mamiya, Rumi Kazama

Ah, Takashi Ishii, a manga artist, writer and movie dude who has written and directed quite a few films I know like Black Angel and Gonin. He is here this week with an adaptation of a manga of his which can be described as an erotic love fantasy. With nudity and otaku and a doll that comes to life it could also be described as male wish-fulfilment. It stars Tasuko Emoto, son of Akira Emoto (Starfish Hotel) and husband of Sakura Ando (Ai to Makoto), who has been in lots of quality films like Yellow Elephant but it is his work in Air Doll makes him particularly suited for the role of the lonely otaku at the heart of the story. His doll is the gravure idol Sasaki Kokone. The trailer makes this look better than the synopsis and details involved. Action, sexy girls, excellent visuals and some decent looking drama prove this isn’t T&A drivel. No, it’s sleazy but aims for something higher.

Kentaro Uchiyama (Emoto) is a lonely otaku who is fired from his job. Feeling sorry for himself he heads to a bar and drowns his sorrows but things turn bad when he is chased by group of thugs into an empty building. Things then turn strange when he s rescued by a girl wearing a sailor suit. He takes her home with him but in the morning she turns into a figure. The mysterious transforming girl and the Otaku live together but how will their relationship work?

I’ve Done My Best                                           

Japanese Title: 俺はまだ本気出してばいだけ

Romaji: Ore wa Mada Honki Dashite nai Dake

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 105 mins.

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

Writer: Yuichi Fukuda (Screenplay), Shunju Aono (Original Manga)

Starring: Shinichi Tsutsumi, Ai Hashimoto, Katsuhisa Namase, Takayuki Yamada, Gaku Hamada, Renji Ishibashi

Bakuman for adults? Shunju Aono’s manga about a normal guy striving to be a manga artist gets the movie adaptation treatment and the trailer for this comedy shows that it looks to be very funny. The bathetic image of the central loser who initially lacks the drive and ideas to actually do anything about his ambitions and would rather play videogames. It reminds me of Fine, Totally Fine with its cast of dreamers. It is directed by Yuichi Fukuda (HK: Hentai Kamen) and it stars a whole host of great actors like Shinichi Tsutsumi (One Missed Call, Monday, Space Brothers), Ai Hashimoto (Another, The Kirishima Thing), Takayuki Yamada (Thirteen Assassins), Gaku Hamada (Foreign Duck, See You Tomorrow, Everyone) and Renji Ishibashi (Ninja Kids!!!).

Middle-aged Daikoku (Tsutsumi) is a bit of a sad-sack father whose high school daughter Suzuku (Hashimoto) has given up on him. Living with his father Shiro (Ishibashi) he decides to follow the slogan “Find your true self!” and quits his job at a company to become a manga artist. Soon, all those around him become a part of his quest.

The Serialist                                                         

Japanese Title: 二流　小説家　シリアリスト

Romaji: Niryuu Shousetsuka Shiriarisuto

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 115 mins.

Director: Nobuaki Izaki

Writer: Nobuaki Izaki, Kenichi Onishi, Yoko Ito, Yukiko Mishima (Screenplay), David Gordon (Original Novel)

Starring: Takayama Kamikawa, Shinji Takeda, Nana Katase, Aya Hirayama, Rina Koike, Tomoka Kurotani, Denden, Keiko Toda, Hirotaro Honda

From David Gordon’s post-modern murder mystery novel of the same name comes a Japanese film running under the title Second-rate Author The Serialist (Niryuu Shousetsuka Shiriarisuto). The plot sounds interesting enough and the trailer looks almost exciting. The poster has a Saul Bass look to it as well. Actually its displays of research into the death of women and running around forests reminds me of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Director Nobuaki Izaki has worked on television crime dramas like Aibou. There are some familiar faces in the cast like Hirotaro Honda (Zero Focus) and Shinji Takeda (Pulse).

Ippei Akabane (Kamikawa) is an unpopular second-rate novelist who gets an interesting offer from death row inmate Daigo Kurei (Takeda): let us have an interview and you can write my memoirs. Daigo is on death row for killing four women by decapitating them and sending pictures of the bodies with flower decorations to the police. Scenting a chance to break into the best-seller list Ippei takes Daigo up on his offer but when women start getting decapitated again he finds himself the main suspect and must work to clear his name!

Space Battleship Yamato 2199   Chapter VI Reach! Large Megellan

Japanese Title: 宇宙戦艦ヤマト2199 第六章　‘到達！大マゼラン’

Romaji: Uchū Senkan Yamato 2199 Dairokushō ‘Tōtatsu! Dai Mazeran’

Release Date: April 13^th 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 101 mins.

Director:  Yutaka Izubuchi

Writer: Hiroshi Onoki, Sadayuki Murai, Shigeru Morita

Starring: Daisuke Ono (Susumu Kodai), Houko Kuwashima (Yuki Mori), Kenichi Suzumura (Daisuke Shima), Takayuki Sugo (Captain Jūzō Okita), Aya Hisakawa (Lt. Kaoru Niimi), Rie Tanaka (Ensign Akira Yamamoto), Rina Satou (Makoto Harada)

Another one… The sixth in the series. Aren’t they back on Earth yet? I have to admit that I’ve lost track but it does what the last bunch of films have by splicing together  a bunch of episodes (19-22 out of 26) and this is definitely the fifth time that I have copied and pasted the following (with some added info to reflect changes in storyline)…

In 1974 Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999, Captain Harlock) and Yoshinubu Mishizaki created Space Battleship Yamato which became a massive hit. Thirty-nine years later we see the latest part of the anime movie adaptation released. This is actually the sixth part but the staff and voice actors remain the same. The role of director is taken up by Yutaka Izubuchi is a veteran designer in the anime industry having worked on anime like RahXephon and the brilliant anime Patlabor. Nobuteru Yuki (Escaflowne) acting as character designer and animation director.

There are a lot of veteran seiyuu involved with Daisuke Ono (Shizuo Heiwajima in Durarara!!), Kenichi Suzumura (Uta no Prince Sama), Aya Hisakawa (Yoko Yuzuki in Mōryō no Hako), Rina Satou (Mikoto Misaka in A Certain Magical Index), and Rie Tanaka (Sammy in Time of Eve). The animation is produced by Xebec (Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos) and AIC (Burn Up). 

In the year 2199, the human race has lost a war against alien invaders named Gamilos and have been driven underground due to the threat of radiation. Scientists give humanity a year before it is destroyed. When young officers Susumu Kodai and Daisuke Shima retrieve a capsule from a ship that crash landed on Mars they set off to Iscandar on the other side of the Magellan Galaxy which has the technology to smash the Gamilos and save Earth. The battleship Yamato is sent on a mission to get that technology. In this instalment, the Yamata has come out of warp space and aims to avoid a large Gamilos fleet on its way to collect the weapons.

Bond (Bond) A Stone’s Taste                         

Japanese Title: 紲（きずな）　庵治石の味

Romaji: Kizuna (Kizuna) Ajiseki no Aji

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Hideaki Kataoka

Writer: Hideaki Kataoka(Screenplay),

Starring: Takahiro Sato, Marie Ono, Keijirou Shiga, Tsutomu Takahashi,

Every week I try and translate titles and grimace with damn near most results because my Japanese is way too literal and I can miss the true meaning or the poetry in words. This title seems right but then again… That’s why I provide the Japanese, so you can look it up by its original. Anyway this is the debut feature for Hideaki Kataoka and it takes stone carving and family ties as its subject matter. The trailer is all about respecting traditional arts and doing one’s best. It stars Takahiro Sato who was that wretched school kid in Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Retribution and Marie Ono who was in the cool sounding Spirit World Street View (霊界の扉　ストリートビュー). Ghosts and Google Maps? Awesome!

Takamatsu in Kagawa Prefecture is known for its production of a particular type of granite. Shota Suzuki (Sato) is the son of a stone craftsmen named Hideyuki (Takahashi) who is in Tokyo attending art school with the intention of being an architect. When his father dies, Shota returns home for the funeral for the first time in years and witnesses another stone craftsman named Genjiro (Shiga) at work. Shota is impressed and decides to stay with Genjiro at his cabin and become an apprentice for the summer holiday.

Movie Version BUCK-TICK Firecrackers Phenomenon I 

Japanese Title: 劇場版BUCK-TICK バクチク現象I

Romaji: Gekijouban BUCK-TICK BakuChiku Genshou I

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yuichiro Iwaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: Atsushi Sakurai, Hisashi Imai, Hoshino Hidehiko, Yutaka Higuchi, Thor Yagami

BUCK-TICK are an immensely popular rock band and this is part of a documentary trilogy produced to commemorate their 25^th anniversary. It includes footage from their December 2011/12 performances at the Nippon Budokan and their tours and album recordings.

Picture of the Ryuukyuu Sky Habatake Yuki-Kun,      

Japanese Title: 琉球の空へ　羽ばたけ天使君！

Romaji: Ryuukyuu no Sora e Habatake  Yuki-Kun

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 71 mins.

Director: Yasuhiro Kitabatake

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yuki Kohatsu

Yuki Kohatsu is a landscape painter with down syndrome who lives in Nishihara in Okinawa. Since the age of six he has been painting and his art has impressed many. This documentary captures the creative process and the struggles he faces everyday as well as the bonds he has with his family.

Mongolia Youth Baseball Chronicle           

Japanese Title: モンゴル　野球　青春記

Romaji: Mongoru Yakyuu Seishunki

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Takeshi Masaharu

Writer: Shin Adachi (Screenplay)

Starring: Takuya Ishida, Hiroshi Okochi, Mizuno Katsuhito, Tomoyo Maeno, Shingo Mizusawa

The film centres on Atsushi. He’s unemployed and a backpacker and for four years he has taught baseball to children in Mongolia. Despite all of the problems in trying to get the game off the ground he manages to get his team to the Asian Championships where they will face a Japanese team.

Non Metal Night                

Japanese Title: 非金属の夜

Romaji: Hikinzoku no Yoru

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 72 mins.

Director: Kei Nakata

Writer: Kei Nakata

Starring: Airi Tsukamoto, Shintaro Akiyama, Ikki Funaki, Hisanori Sato, Misaki Ayame, Mira Chiba, Kayo Machida, Saori Shimoda, Masayuki Yamamoto Nobu Morimoto

Kei Nakata was an actor in Goth: Love of Death and now he is directing films like “COOL GIRLS Cool Girls” and “World of Butch”, youth dramas that take a look at the dark heart of city life. This particular one is set in Shibuya after an earthquake. Death is all around and people let fate decide what happens to them. Cool trailer.

BANK,

Japanese Title: BANK

Romaji: N/A

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Akio Murahashi

Writer: Akio Murahashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Hiroyuki Nishio, Fumi Oka, Keita Katsumata, Mitsuhiro Takahashi, Michinari Hayashi, Nami Yuasa, Aoki Sanae, Masaaki Kitazawa, Nami Mnami, Mami Ito

BANK is a comedy that takes place entirely in a bank which is being held up by a bunch of losers who fail to anticipate the swift response of the police. Now they have to take hostages. Let the comedy begin! Well, as soon as a trailer is found…

Naoko’s Room,

Japanese Title: 直子の部屋

Romaji: Naoko no Heya

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Naomichi Aimori

Writer: Naoyuki Sumita (Screenplay),

Starring: Yumeno Hosoi, Miho Ishikawa, Shuhei Handa, Eiji Shimabukuro

Aimori is a graduate of Tokyo university and has won prizes at the 2010 Short Shorts Film Festival and has worked as assistant director on indie feature BAD COMMUNICATION by rising talent Haruhi Oguri.

Naoko (Hosoi) works in a video-rental shop and her sister Maho (Ishikawa) stays at home all day doing nothing which really irritates her. Naoko finds herself wishing that she would move back into their parent’s home especially when some characters connected to her sister show up.

School Girl – 1936,　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Japanese Title: 女生徒―1936

Romaji: Onna Seito 1936

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 106 mins.

Director: Yuzu Fukuma

Writer: Yuzo Fukuma (Screenplay), Osamu Dazai (Original Collections)

Starring: Miho Shibata, Mina Kawarasaki, Takeshi Masago, Yuki Okamoto

This film adapts  Osamu Dazai’s short stories Grasshopper, Waiting, Schoolgirl and Lantern. He is one of modern Japan’s most important writers and this trailer seems respectful enough. It takes place from 1937 up to World War II and the story is told from the perspective of school girls caught up in the drama of history. Cast and crew are new to me but one of the actors is Takeshi Masago who was in the farming drama The Sound of Light.

The Sango Ranger                           

Japanese Title: サンゴレンジャー

Romaji: Sangorenjā

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Yuji Nakamae

Writer: Yuiko Mirua, Maki Takahashi (Screenplay), Tamaki Sakai (Original Play)

Starring: Sho Aoyagi, Kei Tanaka, Nozomi Sasaki, Fujiki Hayato, Fumiyo Kohinata, Tetsuhiro Ikeda, Kenji Mizuhashi

The title Sango Ranger literally means “Coral Ranger” which is perfect for this environmental comedy set on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture, a popular spot for tourists due to its beaches and coral reefs.  It stars Sho Aoyagi (Love for Beginners), Kei Tanaka (See You Tomorrow, Everyone, Rent-a-Cat) and Nozom Sasaki (Afro Tanaka). Environmental comedy? Sounds dubious. I can’t think of any decent ones and this trailer doesn’t look all that good to me.

Ishigaki Island s about to have a massive bridge built but it will damages the reefs around the election. Yajima (Aoyagi) is a conseration official for the Ministry of the Environment and he declares “I am absolutely opposed to this bridge construction! I will protect this beautiful coral reef by becoming a Coral Defense Ranger!” Fellow civil servant Kishitani (Tanaka) joins the cause alongside a school teacher named Risa (Sasaki).

Far Away So Close,                                               

Japanese Title: 遠く　で　ずっと　そば　に　いる

Romaji: Toku de Zutto Soba ni Iru

Release Date: June 15^th, 2013

Running Time: 108 mins.

Director: Masahiko Nagasawa

Writer: Kyoko Inukai (Novel & Screenplay),

Starring: Kana Kurashina, Yuta Nakano, Kana, Kurumi Shimizu, Yoshimi Tokui, Seiji Rokkaku

The last trailer for today looks like a sensitive drama which looks a lot like that recent US flick The Vow. I was going to write something snide about the music but then I discovered it was by Shunji Iwai and anyway, I shouldn’t make fun of people who can pay the piano better than me. It stars Kana Kurashima (Saki in See You Tomorrow, Everyone) Kurumi Shimizu (The Kirishima Thing) and Seiji Rokkaku (Crime or Punishment?!?, Thirteen Assassins).

Sakumi Shimura (Kurashina) lost her memory at the age of 17 because of a car accident. Now she’s 27 and can only remember event up to when she was 17. Despite putting on a brae face she is bothered by the loss of her memories and tries to remember with the help of Yoshihiko, a man who claims to be her boyfriend since high school.

Back in March I posted about Sion Sono’s latest project which is an adaptation of Santa Inoue’s Tokyo Tribes manga, a seinen title that mixes US street culture with a future dystopian reading of Tokyo where different gangs control different territory. Sono created a YouTube channel for the film where both he and Santa Inoue recorded messages about the project and instructions on how one can audition. The rules were:

To audition you must introduce yourself, “describe and demonstrate a special skill, act out a scene that includes their favourite character from the series, and give a message to the director.” Successful auditions at this point will get to audition in person.

So, bypass casting directors and going straight to the people!

Well I gave it time and the auditions are coming thick and fast. I sat through the ones you’ll see here (and more) and there are no disasters – although there is a naked guy shadow-boxing – lol at the random person wandering in to shot and hurrying away. In fact there’s a nice mix of people although some don’t seem to adhere to the rules like acting out a scene with a favourite character! There are a lot of audition vids where the applicant simply talks direct to camera. Any trends? A lot of college/university students (there’s one studying in Berlin!) have sent videos in while guys with facial hair seem to go straight for humour.

The videos run from the earnest and dedicated:

To the amusing:

The surprising:

There are some really inventive with music soundtracks, voice overs, on-screen text and fancy editing techniques, ones where the actors capture the look of the characters… 

Some are just plain silly (although her acting at the end was kind of okay – love the glowering):

There are even Americans getting in on the action!

Black Samurai? He was pretty good and he’s going for a bit-part, too! Maybe we’ll see him in the final cut…

I’ve selected three that I think are really good. It’s partly the fact that they have created semi-professional videos (with the help of others) which shows how determined they are but it’s mostly the acting.

Kazuya Tanabe who is trying out as Mera, one of the main characters. This guy goes all out with the action. With that look of determination and the shouting you’d think he was some outlaw boss and then we get the end of the video where he seems a happy chap. I can see him fitting in with the movie because he has presence and he definitely has the martial arts moves.

Motoki Mabuta, he’s 24 years old, he can rap in English and he figures he can be Kai Deguchi, the main character. What I like about this is that the guy has some acting skills and he makes an effort to go to different locations including a public toilet for some odd reason… He comfortably wears the urban fashion of the manga and you can imagine him living the sort of lifestyle the character in the manga does – a popular guy but he can wield a baseball bat when necessary – and that little hair flick at the end was funny.

Kyo Suzuki 20 years old, lives in New York, and she’s studying English and, of course, she likes the Tokyo Tribe manga. She’s a pretty good actress. She can dance, do comedy and sexy and if the director could mix up the shots then she’d look even more elusive and smouldering and… Crumbs, I just remembered she she can read English. I better stop before I come off as too creepy! Too late…

The open and public nature of YouTube means that these audition videos are up there for all to see which must be pretty frightening if you submit one because the whole world can judge you (like I just did, apologies to anybody offended). To be quite frank I wouldn’t have the guts to submit a video (plus nobody would want to see me ;_;) These guys are brave.

All I have to say to anybody who has submitted a video is good luck.

がんばって

Here’s some Japanese hip-hop for you:

Well my holiday came to an end and it was back to work and I haven’t been as busy as this week had me. I got a bit of a surprise this week as well when I collected my post and excitedly got my Bakemonogatari DVD (just released in the UK) then checked my emails and saw a press release from the UK distributor asking AUKN to report that the Bakemonogatari set has the wrong discs in thanks to a mix up with the manufacturer. I now have Shakugan no Shana II instead of Bakemonogatari. It’s pretty bland. I want my Bakemonogatari. I want Hitagi Senjougahara.

The week opened with my Summer Anime Season Picks on this blog and on Anime UK News. I feel sad about the spring season passing but the summer shows I picked look pretty good. I followed up with a post showing the auditions for Sion Sono’s latest film Tokyo Tribes and a lot of the trailers were fun rather than cringe-worthy.

What films are released today?

The Ravine of Goodbye               

Japanese Title: さよなら渓谷

Romaji: Sayonara Keikoku

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 116 mins.

Director: Tatsushi Omori

Writer: Shuichi Yoshida (Novel), Tatsushi Omori (Screenplay)

Starring: Yoko Maki, Shima Onishi, Nao Omori, Arata, Hirofumi Arai, Anne Suzuki, Jyo Hyuga

Tatsushi Omori is an interesting director. He’s worked on The Whispering of the Gods and Tada’s Do-It-All House, two interesting films, the first a drama and the second a comedy. His latest flick is Bozo which stood out as being a grim take on the real life incident of a loser who goes on a murder-spree. Omori’s name should be better known amongst cinephiles. This is his latest film and he’s adapted a novel by Shuichi Yoshida, the man who wrote Villain, Parade and A Story of Yonosuke, all three of which were turned into films (Yonosuke review to come). As the trailer shows this is going to be an emotionally intense film full of tears and shouting. The plot sounds really melodramatic and it makes me want to see this on the big screen! I’m also interested because the acting talent is immense with the director’s brother, Nao Omori who is a bloody good actor considering his roles – Ichi the Killer, Vibrator, Mushishi,  Rampo Noir – Yoko Maki (Infection, The Grudge) Anne Suzuki (she had a bit-part as a waitress in Himizu but was so beautiful I remember her clearly!) and Arata (After Life).

In a valley dense with trees a baby is killed and it’s mother, Satomi Tachibana (Suzuki) is the primes suspect. As the police are investigating the murder they are informed that Satomi is romantically involved with her next door neighbour Shunsuke Ozaki (Onishi) by Shunsuke’s lover Kanako (Maki). Magazine reporter Watanabe (Omori) digs into the case and discovers that Kanako was the victim of a rape 15 years ago and Ozaki was involved in the case…

To Cry a 100 Times                               

Japanese Title: 100 回　泣くこと

Romaji: 100 Kai Naku Koto

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 116 mins.

Director: Ryuichi Hirok

Writer: Shuichi Yoshida (Novel), Ko Nakamura, Izumi Takahashi (Screenplay)

Starring: Tadayoshi Okra, Mirei Kiritani, Rie Tomosaka, Shugo Oshinari, Haru, Ren Osugi, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Jun Murakami

And now for something completely different. This looks incredibland to me, a person who has grown up on horror and action. I guess regular dorama viewers will fit in perfectly but the trailer and plot put me off. The central couple looks so cute. The settings are picture perfect. The music is a cheesy ballad. The strange thing is that fact that it’s directed by Ryuichi Hiroki (River, April Bride) who usually makes more interesting dangerous films so forgive me if I say that this looks like a project designed to buy him a new boat. But maybe I’m wrong. There are great actors here like Jun Murakami (Land of Hope), and Ren Osugi (Exte) and recent discoveries like Haru (See You Tomorrow, Everyone) and Yoshiko Miyaaki (Detroit Metal City)… This could be secretly great and another look at the trailer will convince me… Or maybe they all want boats as well. Perhaps they all have memberships at the same yacht club. I’m not convinced. The next trailer better be an awesome action movie.

Shichichi (Okura) had a motorcycle accident 4 years ago and slost a year from his memory. While at a friend’s wedding, Shuichi meets Yoshimi (Kiritani) and the two fall for each other. Shuichi even considers trying to wife Yoshimi until she becomes sick and reveals a sad truth lost in Shuichi’s memory…

No action movies. I just checked the rest of the releases and it’s all dramas and documentaries. They look good.

Shady                                                                            

Japanese Title: かしこい狗は、吠えずに笑う

Romaji: Kashikoi Inu wa, Hoezu ni Warau

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 94 mins.

Director: Ryohei Watanabe

Writer: Ryohei Watanabe (Screenplay)

Starring: mimpi * β, Izumi Okamura, Isao Nakazawa, Gota Ishida, Ayumi Seko

The first post Alua made for 2013 contained the trailer for this film and I commented on it stating that:

“I liked the trailer for Shady. It reminds me of the K-horror Memento Mori. I’ll make Gifs out of that…” Genki Jason 

Ah, the things I promise to do. Well I have made a Gif which is at the bottom of this post. What? You want to know about the film that reminded me of Memento Mori?

Okay, this is an award winning youth drama about Misa Kumada (mimpi * β), an outcast at her school who hates the place but would like to get closer to Izumi Kiyose (Okamura). The two develop bonds of friendship but the seemingly angelic Kiyose has quite a dark side. Do I still want to see it? Yes. Thankfully Third Window Films have acquired it for UK distribution!

Remiges                                                  

Japanese Title: 風切羽　かざきりば

Romaji: Kazekiribane ka Zakiriba

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Masato Ozawa

Writer: Masato Ozawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Mika Akzuki, Junki Tozuka, Maiko Kawakami, Osamu Shigematu, Yuki Terada, Futoshi Sato, Nobuyuk Ishida, Michiko Godai

Remiges? A flight of feathers of a bird’s wing. A bleakie road movie… I have to invoke the name of Alua again because this is her type of film. Abuse, bullying, horrible parents and the trauma that has created in lead character Sayako which leads to an interesting character study. It looks to get even more interesting when Sayako hooks up with another outcast named Kenta. The film actually gets a bit of a playful tone when he enters but such things don’t last in the real world. With its outsider pair it reminds me of Aku no Hana only Kenta isn’t a spineless nothing like Kasuga. Damn, I want to Gif this as well. Lead actress Mika Akizuki starred in Another while lead actor Junki Tozuka appeared in Helter Skelter. Those two look really good (especially when compared to that film about crying 100’s of times or whatever…)

Sayako (Akizuk) was abused by her mother as a young child and has lived in a foster care facility with the emotional scars since then. She’s now a senior in high school and wants to attend a ballet school but she needs her parents to pay the tuition fees and so she turns to her father but he betrays her and pushes Sayako over the edge. She skips out on the foster care facility to search for her mother and sister but runs into another lost soul named Kenta (Tozuka) who cycles through town asking random people if they know him.

Seimei (inochi) no kotodzuke shibō-ritsu 2-bai shōgai no aru hito-tachi no 3. 11                                             

Japanese Title: 生命（いのち）のことづけ　死亡率2倍　障害のある人たちの3.11

Romaji: Seimei (inochi) no kotodzuke shibō-ritsu 2-bai shōgai no aru hito-tachi no 3. 11

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 37 mins.

Director: Kentaro Hayase

Writer: Kentaro Hayase (Screenplay)

Starring: N/A

From what I can make out of the synopsis it seems to be a video made for people with a wide range of disabilities to prep them for natural disasters. Spurred on by the 3.11 disaster there are facts collected by local government and media organisations and interviews with disabled people plus there are multiple ways of understanding the info from subtitles, audio description and sign language.

Disabled People Who Failed to Escape the Great East Japan Earthquake

Japanese Title: 逃げ遅れる人々　東日本大震災と障害者

Romaji: Nige okureru hitobito Higashinihon daishinsai to shōgaimono

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 74 mins.

Director: Motoharu Iida

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

We’ve had 3.11 documentaries about children, old people, and animals and now we get one about disabled people. This depicts what happened to people with disabilities, the problems they had evacuating, the problems being housed in temporary shelters and the stories of those who were left behind in the Fukushima area after the nuclear accident. It comes from Motoharu Iida who did the doc on animal survivors of 3.11. No trailer.

Ghost in the Shell: Arise border 1 Ghost Pain                           

Japanese Title: 攻殻機動隊　ARISE border 1 Ghost Pain

Romaji: Koukaku Kidoutai ARISE border 1 Ghost Pain

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 59 mins.

Chief Director:  Kazuchika Kise, Episode 1 Director: Masahiko Murata

Writer: Tow Ubukata (Screenplay)

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

If I had to pick a favourite anime genre then it would be cyberpunk. I grew up on 80’s/90’s anime and I’m a big Ghost in the Shell (GitS) fan… Well, the Mamoru Oshii films rather than Shirow Masamune’s manga and the Stand Alone Complex TV anime. Oshii has a unique existentialist take and knows how to create worlds and I mention this is because the latest adaptation of Shirow Masamune’s title is out courtesy of Production I.G. Here’s the first eight minutes.

Character designs come courtesy of the series director Kazuchika Kise but I’m always up for an adventure with Kusanagi. The first episode is directed by Masahiko Murata (Serial Experiments Lain) and the series is overseen by Kazuchika Kise, a Production I.G. vet who has been in everything from Patlabor to A Letter to Momo. The one point of interest is that it is written by Tow Ubukata who has created fascinating works like Samurai Astronomer Tenchi, Mardock Scramble and Le Chevalier D’eon. Plus there is music by cool DJ Cornelius. Anyway, this instalment introduces Kusanagi and Public Security Section 9… because a new audience needs to be reacquainted with old heroes.

Movie Version BUCK-TICK Firecrackers Phenomenon II

Japanese Title: 劇場版BUCK-TICK バクチク現象II

Romaji: Gekijouban BUCK-TICK BakuChiku Genshou I

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yuichiro Iwaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: Atsushi Sakurai, Hisashi Imai, Hoshino Hidehiko, Yutaka Higuchi, Thor Yagami

This is part two of a trilogy of documentaries celebrating BUCK-TICK, an immensely popular rock band celebrating their 25^th anniversary. Like the last one it includes footage from past performances, their tours during the year 2012 and album recordings.

It’s a Glass Mask But… Love of a Woman Spy!    

Japanese Title: ガラスの仮面ですが THE MOVIE 女スパイの恋！

Romaji: Garasu no Kamen Desu ga THE MOVIE Onna Supai no Koi!

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 55 mins.

Director: Eri Asahi, Yukari Shinohara (Screenplay),

Writer: Yukiko Nonomura (Screenplay), Suzue Miuchi (Original Work)

Starring: Kumiko Nakane, Haruka Shiraishi, Shinya Takahashi, Hiroki Goto, Ikumi Hayami

The shoujo romance manga has been adapted into a gag anime TV series by DLE Inc., the company behind the Thermae Romae anime. The original characters have been reimagined as “yankee” (Delinquent) girls who both want to lead the “Crimson Godess” gang.

Vegetable Fairy Quiz Theatre                  

Japanese Title: やさいのようせい　クイズげきじょう

Romaji: Yasai no Yousei Kuizu Gekijou

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 45 mins.

Director: Yoshitaka Amano

Writer: N/A

Starring: Tomoyo Harada, Miyu Matsuki (Narration)

Final Fantasy illustrator Yoshitaka Amano has made films before with Ten Nights of Dream and this is his latest, a children’s anime adventure featuring fairy vegetables from a New York Salad teaching kids and singing nursery rhymes in a kitchen in New York. Narration by Tomoyo Harada (Tokyo Oasis, Bread of Happiness).

Minami Haruo Special Cinema Performance 

Japanese Title: 三波春夫「歌藝（うたげい）　終り無きわが歌の道」特別シネマ公演

Romaji: Minami haruo `uta gei (uta-ge i) owarinaki waga uta no michi’ tokubetsu shinema kōenRelease Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: Haruo Minami

It has been twelve years since the death of Haruo Minami and now we get concert footage which has not been recorded on DVD and has been given the HD remaster treatment. He was a popular enka singer who led a dramatic life surviving a Russian POW camp and performing the theme song for the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo which is included in the film.

For 13 days of roaring and Muneoizumu love 

Japanese Title: ムネオイズム　愛と狂騒の13日間

Romaji: Muneoizumu ai to kyōsō no 13-kakan

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Yu Kaneko

Writer: N/A

Starring: Muneo Suzuki, Chiharu Matsuyama, Masaru Sato, Yashiro Eita, John Muruaka

A documentary about the controversial politician Muneo Suzuki, a former member of the Liberal Democratic Party and a pretty big-wig who was convicted of corruption and set to prison for a brief spell.

Starting Over                                                

Japanese Title: スターティングヴァー

Romaji: Su-tatingu Ovu-a

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Goto Toshihiro

Writer: Goto Toshihiro (Screenplay)

Starring: Toru Katayama, Yuko Narisawa, Yuria Hidaka, Yuki Ikushima, Daisuke Iijima, Yoichi Okamura,

Goto Toshihiro, director of Monochrome Girl and The Melancholy of Vermeer, is back with his latest feature which is a relationship drama starring Toru Katayama (Watch the Birdie) and Yuria Hidaka (Siren X). Looks a bit dull.

Taro and Yoko have been in a relationship since high school and have lived together for 10 years but when Taro gets into an incident with another woman Taro and Yoko realise their feelings for each other have changed.

Senkaku Rock                          

Japanese Title: 尖閣ロック

Romaji: Senkaku Rokku

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 60 mins.

Director: Eito Sonoda

Writer: N/A

Starring: TOKMA, Minehiro Fukuzawa

September 18^th, 2012 and a week has passed since the Senkaku islands have been bought by the Japanese government from their Japanese owner. Nationalist demonstrations take place across China and the Chinese government refuses to recognise Japan’s claim on the islands. Tensions mount between China and Japan and while all this is going on in China two Japanese men land on the islands and spend 36 hours there. Their intention is to show the love and pride of modern Japanese. One of those men is the rock artist TOKMA and this is his experience.

Enough with the politics. Here’s the Gif:

I love film festivals. They are an important way of watching films you would never ordinarily see on the big screen, meeting industry types and getting in contact with other cinephiles who remind you that it’s okay to obsess over the performance of a favourite actor/actress or a scene from some obscure film. Since starting this blog I have been to about five which isn’t that many but I have been covering Japanese films at international festivals for a lot longer so people can experience the latest in Japanese cinema. Here’s information on an event organised by the Japan Foundation which sounds perfect for anybody interested in film festivals and Japanese films.

International film festivals have long provided a platform for films from all over the world to be showcased, and it is currently estimated that today over 100 film festivals are held in the United Kingdom. With such a flourish of film festivals of different size, type and focus taking place, what is it that makes a festival ‘international’, how do they present diverse cultures and indeed, what is their purpose?

Reflecting on this wealth of international film festivals in the UK, this special event at the Japan Foundation intends to explore the issues surrounding festivals presenting cultural identities by bringing together a selection of those who programme and curate respected festivals from in the UK. Joining the panel will be Chris Fell (Director of Leeds International Film Festival), Andrew Simpson (Programmer at East End Film Festival and Pan-Asia Film Festival), Hussain Currimbhoy (Programmer at Sheffield Doc/Fest), David Gillam (Director of Wales One World Film Festival) and chair Nick Walker (film programmer and writer), who together will discuss the role and aim of international film festivals and to what degree presenting films from all over the world is regarded to be a significant part of their programme.

With Japanese cinema as a focal point they will also talk about the position of Japanese cinema in their ‘international’ context and how they present and how they wish to present it for future festivals to come. Following on from last year’s ‘Stepping into the Unknown – Curating and Appreciating Lesser-known films’ this event will provide a fascinating insight into the workings behind film festivals around the UK from those who directly realise them.

Date: 12 July 2013 from 6.30pm

Venue: The Japan Foundation, London

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

Tune in Wednesday as I post an exceedingly long review for a film I saw at the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Festival.

Zero Focus                                            

Japanese Title: ゼロ　の　焦店

Romaji: Zero no Shoten       

Release Date: November 14^th, 2009

Running Time: 131 mins.

Director: Isshin Inudo

Writer: Seicho Matsumoto (Novel), Isshin Inudo, Kenji Nakazono (Screenplay)

Starring: Ryoko Hirosue, Miki Nakatani, Tae Kimura, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Takeshi Kaga, Tetta Sugimoto, Hiromi Sakimoto, Toru Nomaguchi, Fukumi Kuroda, Hirotaro Honda, Hana Matsumoto, Yoshie Ichige, Shunta Watanabe, Kansai Eto

The final film I saw at the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Programme was the sold out screening of Zero Focus where the film’s director Isshin Inudo was present and gave an enlightening Q&A at the end (and I had my picture taken with him!). Part of the reason for my selection is because I like a good mystery but I had no idea how popular the source novel was in Japan. Lengthy review with some slight spoilers.

Sadako (Hirosue) has just married Kenichi Ubara (Nishijma) after meeting him through a matchmaker. The two know little about each other apart from surface details like the fact that she can read and write English and adores the classic English novel Jane Eyre and he enjoys swimming, he was wounded in war and now works for Toyo Advertising and is stationed in Kanazawa in the snowy north of the country. His marriage means that he asks for a transfer back to Tokyo. Despite not knowing each other they feel comfortable together and look forward to starting a new life.

1 week later, December 01^st, 1957

Sadako is at Ueno Station with Kenichi. He must depart for Kanazawa to wrap up his business dealings and pass on contracts to his replacement. “It’s only a week,” he assures her but he never returns. He just vanishes.

Against the advice of her brother-in-law Sotaro (Sugimoto), Sadako heads to Kanazawa where Kenichi’s replacement Yoshio Honda (Nomaguchi) guides her around a town which undergoing tumultuous political changes thanks to a woman named Sachiko Murota (Nakatani) the wife of a powerful industrialist named Gisaku (Kaga). Sachiko is helping a woman become the first female mayor of the city. With her organisational skills, money and her influence it could happen. Sadako approaches Sachiko for help when she learns that her husband once worked with Kenichi. Sachiko and her husband Gisaku comply but they seem to be hiding something.

Whilst at Murota’s company, Sadako encounters a receptionist named Hisako Tanuma (Kimura) who seems to act oddly around her and has poor secretarial skills. As Sadako meets these people she learns that they are connected to Kenichi in more ways than she could ever have imagined and she knew so little about him.

Seichi Matsumoto’s novel comes from the early days of Japanese detective fiction. His works dispensed with formulaic plot devices and used human psychology and contemporary politics. Zero Focus is one of the biggest selling books of all time in Japan and it has been made into a drama six times and made into a film twice. The first was in 1961 and this is the second film adaptation and it was made to mark the centenary of the birth of Matsumoto. To give his film something to make it distinctive from previous versions, Isshin Inudo chose to add material in the form of the mayoral elections in order to expand the focus on the massive cultural changes going on around the characters, the differences between the generations and the emergence of women as a force in Japan and the way people scramble to become a part of a modern Japan.

The film is beautifully shot and the mise-en-scene is highly atmospheric thanks to the sense of history and period details seen in the set design. There is plenty of mystery in the plot but the most compelling thing is the way the intrigue of the central mystery surrounding Kenichi’s disappearance is linked directly to darker aspects of Japan’s recent history in unexpected ways and the way past and present are intelligently mixed in every scene so the audience witnesses a nation’s uneasy transition from past to future.

It opens with black and white footage from a farewell ceremony for students conscripted into the army and graphic images of death mixed in with cheering crowds and the destruction suffered by Japan after the war. The film then cuts to the first meeting between Sadako and Kenichi where old begins to mix with new. Kenichi, a former soldier, is about to start a new life with a woman ten years his junior in an arranged marriage being conducted in one of Tokyo’s new high rise offices.

As the two look out of the window of the high rise they see a Tokyo rapidly modernising. Distractedly, Kenichi says “So much more neon these days,” and the crowded skyline is reflected in glass. The comment may sound fearful but reading the demeanour of the two actor’s one can sense a calmness and, in Kenichi, relaxation and hope as if he is letting go of something. He is a survivor from a generation shattered by war and she offers him new hope. They stare into a brighter future together.

The journey between old and new continues in a montage of newspaper headlines and film reels which take the audience through the transformations of the nation. Colour comes in again as we see Sadako in her modern home setting up a traditional Japanese meal while listening to The Platters Only You on her record player. As she comes to realise that Kenichi has disappeared she ignores advice from her older home-maker sister-in-law and ditches acting like a traditional woman who would stay at home and wait for news and heads out north to Kanazawa by herself to investigate.

The further north Sadako goes from Tokyo the more the country changes, as if she is going back in time, and the film takes a much darker turn.

The journey is a dramatic one with great shots of the train plunging through a snowy landscape to Kanazawa, a place which clings to a brutal coastline made up of sharp rocks and cliffs with sheer drops. It is sublime in the gothic sense of the word but still romantic. The sets change from modern Tokyo to a snowbound city with much more traditional architecture¹. Does the average house in Kanazawa have central heating like Tokyo? Not likely. Probably roaring fires and the inhabitants huddled together! The people are brusque, noisy and nosey as Sadako experiences when she finds an audience joining her as she views a corpse but she is unperturbed and presses on

Her growing independence as a woman is matched by what is happening in the town with the prospect of a female mayor. More traditional, older men are derisive of the idea while men from a younger generation seem more relaxed. The mixed reaction forces the women on the campaign to work closely together due to the occasional hostility but one can sense a real change and the national press soon flood into town.

For Sadako, this is merely a sideshow as she pushes on trying to clear up the mystery and she realises that people are not being honest with her. She also realises that she never knew Kenichi but as she discovers more he becomes less of an absence and more of a person in unexpected ways and a new aspect of the Japan’s past is revealed to her and the audience. As Sadako’s investigation begins to threaten people the film turns into a bit of a subdued giallo thriller what with a serial killer bumping off people with knives and poison.

The film could coast along on these themes of old and new and the gorgeous historical accuracy but Inudo’s decision to focus on the role of women in Japan is key in what makes it so interesting and is seen clearly in the way different generations have been affected by the war and the way the female characters have survived it and try and make new lives for themselves. (Slight Spoilers in the Next Paragraphs)

Sadako is characterised as a more independent and modern woman who is willing to grapple with unpleasant aspects of life in her investigation. She has an inner-strength and at every point she defies advice to go home or duck the hard tasks until she is personally satisfied she has found answers. She is also clearly not as affected by the war as others and is naïve when she is placed against women from an older generation who are haunted by the war’s after-effects because they were forced into desperate circumstances. There is the more aggressive and intelligent Sachiko and the mayoral candidate Yasuko who have clearly been hurt by men and intend to change the modern world for the betterment of women while there is also the submissive and good-natured but desperate Hisako who has little control of her life. The plot that reveals Kenichi’s involvement with these women brings this all out and the resulting death and melodrama shows how the war has affected them so profoundly. This is brought into stark clarity by the sharp and assured characterisation and acting.

There are great male actors like the gruff and highly masculine Tetta Sugimoto who is amusing as the loquacious and confident brother-in-law and Takeshi Kaga as the hyper-arrogant Murota, a character who radiates confidence and a reassuringly old-fashioned tough and ambitious masculinity. The two men are easily at home in this new modern Japan but ultimately they are upstaged and undone by the female characters/cast members who have the most importance and give the best performances. They are the heart of this new adaptation as the movie posters and adverts signal so well.

Ryoko Hirosue is the figure who leads us through the tale through her narration and the fact that she has most of the screen time. She can easily play a loyal and innocent wife as her turn in Departures shows but she can also do comedy as revealed in Key of Life. Here she goes from innocence and naivety to determined and vengeful in a believable way with no melodramatics. She is a real more independent and outgoing woman and one capable of transforming herself and she remains a sympathetic and engaging lead throughout the twisting narrative. (slight spoilers in the next paragraph)

She is ably assisted by Tae Kimura and Miki Nakatani (especially) who have the devastating histories of their characters to power their performances and they get the more headline grabbing moments. Nakatani has played innocents in Loft and Ringu 2: Spiral and eccentric geniuses in Keizoku but she is totally different from the way I perceived her. She is ice cold and dominant and presents a brilliant façade and her abilities to modulate her acting in subtle degrees is fantastic and one is never certain of her. She gets a number of barn-storming scenes which Inudo captures in great long takes. Kimura is beautiful and tragic and delivers a sort of hopeless naivety in her own role that makes her endearing.  End of Potential Spoiler

Whether the audience is familiar with the mystery or not, the film has a bite thanks to the atmosphere. The verisimilitude of the sets, the costumes and the acting gives the feeling that this is a real insight into Japanese history and the sharp analysis of women creates a gripping tale fraught with many twists. There are weaknesses in the script like certain character motivations but overall the tale is entertaining and classily shot that gives a fascinating take on a time full of chaos which is given strength through its use of female characters. As Inudo explained in the post-film Q&A, 1957 was officially considered the end of the post-war years in Japan, where the war was officially consigned to history and people looked forward to a new era. Zero Focus zeroes in on those who have to make the transition and the traumas that give them the impetus to act.

4.5/5

¹The location is actually in Korea!

The week started with a post about a talk about film festivals hosted by the Japan Foundation. I then followed it up with a rather late review for Zero Focus, a film I saw back in February. This was my first film review since April which was quite a surprise but then I have been focussing on anime as of late. As far as my film viewing goes I watched World War z during the week and I enjoyed it a lot. Monday sees July start which means that it’s the beginning of the summer anime season and I will get more film reviews in and I’ll probably get a wrap-up post for the spring anime done at some point. Enough from me, here are the trailers.

Midsummer Formula                    

Japanese Title: 真夏の方程式

Romaji: Manatsu no Houteishiki

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Nishitani

Writer: Masato Ozawa (Screenplay), Keigo Higashino (Original Novel)

Starring: Masaharu Fukuyama, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Anne Watanabe, Kazuki Ktamura, Gin Maeda, Jun Fubuki, Hikaru Yamazak

Oh great, another Keigo Higashino adaptation! He writes great modern detective thrillers and this one looks pretty good. The trailer opens with a very cool looking Masaharu Fukuyama calmly dealing with a very vocal Anne Watanabe before being drawn into a murder mystery by the sea. It looks like a lot of fun what with all the sun, sea and murder and the staff/cast list assures me that this will be solid at the very least. Both the director Nishitani, lead actor Fukuyama  and supporting actor Kazuki Kitamura were involved in the adaptation of Higashino’s novel Suspect X. The police detective in the trailer is Yuriko Yoshitaka who was really impressive in Noriko’s Dinner Table, Adrift in Tokyo and A Story of Yonosuke, three great films from totally different directors/genres. I can’t leave without mentioning Jun Fubuki who is fantastic in Séance and Rebirth.

Manabu Yukawa (Fukuyama) is in the port city of Harigaura to take part in a discussion on submarine mineral resource development. He’s staying at an inn run by his aunt’s family and things seem to be going smoothly until one of the guests is found dead. He teams up with detective Kishitani (Yoshitaka) and a schoolboy on summer break named Kyohei (Yamazaki) to solve the case!

Princess Sakura: Forbidden Pleasures    

Japanese Title: 桜姫

Romaji: Sakura Hime

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Hajime Hashimoto

Writer: Hajime Hashimoto, Masahiro Yoshimoto (Screenplay)

Starring: Kyoko Hinami, Munetaka Aoki, DenDen, Yuma asami

Whoa, what a poster! I was almost sold but I’m not a complete sucker and I won’t fall so easily for a pretty face (and sexy body). What’s the trailer like? Whoa, what a trailer! It is pretty fun and colourful and sexy. This is going to be racy stuff with little left to the imagination but there does appear to be an equal amount of “antics”. The plot sounds silly but it is based on a kabuki place called Sakura Hime Azuma Bunsho which was written by Nanboku Tsuruya back in 1817. The gorgeous girl is Kyoko Hinami who is a new actress but she is very beautiful and will probably feature in more films. Munetaka Aoki (Fly with the Gold), Denden (Cold Fish) and the AV actress Yuma Asami (Siren X).

When Princess Sakura (Hinami) is attacked by a mysterious assailant she falls in love with him. The only way she can identify him is a tattoo on his body. In order to find the chap she gets the same tattoo and gives up her former life as a princess to work as a prostitute… Yeah. Anyway, the man who caused the princess to lose her mind is called Gonsuke (Aoki) and he is the target of assassins because he stole a scroll.

Uzumasa Jacopetti                      

Japanese Title: 太秦ヤコペッティ

Romaji: Uzumasa Jacopetti

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Moriro Miyamoto

Writer: Moriro Miyamoto, Toshihiko Matsunaga (Screenplay)

Starring: Shinji Wada, Kiki Hanaka, Masaki Kitahara, Shishimaru Ozawa, Seizo Fukumoto, Donpei Tsuchihira

The plot sounds crazy, the trailer features actors who look crazy, this could be the greatest film of 2013. It premiered at this year’s Nippon Connection so I went searching for some reviews and Midnight Eye came to the rescue and there was this ntriguing description:

Despite what its title suggests, Uzumasa Jacopetti plays less like Kansai mondo than a downtown version of Jeunet and Caro’s surreal slaughterhouse comedy Delicatessen.

The trailer looks so funny but there is gore so you have been warned.

The story is set in Uzumasa, Kyoto and it follows Shoji Hyakkan (Wada),a man who gives up his job to make a house held together by magnets for himself, his wife and son. When he’s caught stealing and killing a cow for its hide by a police officer (Kobayakawa) he isn’t locked up. No, in fact he’s given an interesting offer involving his dismemberment skills and local hoodlums. It’s an indie production from first-time director Moriro Miyamoto.  Please someone, release this in the west!

God’s Tongue Kiss Championship THE MOVIE  

Japanese Title: ゴッドタン　キス我慢選手権 THE MOVIE

Romaji: Goddotan kisugaman senshuken THE MOVIE

Release Date: June 28^th, 2013

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director: Nobuyuki Sakuma

Writer: Nobuyuki Sakuma, Okura (Screenplay)

Starring: Shogo Kawashima/Hitori Gekidan, Hiroaki Ogi, Ken Yahagi, Osamu Shitara, Yuki Himura

God Tongue, the TV Tokyo late-night variety show chaos is on the big screen with plenty of erotic action in this spy thriller starring Shogo Kawashima who has lost his memory and is paired up with a sexy woman to take down an evil organisation who use erotic tricks to beat their enemies. Sounds awful. I mean awfully fun. It stars Hitori Gekidan (Rebirth, Dororo).

Ami? Amie? Tsukiatteneeyo                                  

Japanese Title: ami? amie? つきあってねーよ！

Romaji: ami? amie? Tsukaitteneeyo!

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: 52 mins.

Director: Tomohiko Iwasaki

Writer: Tomohiko Iwasaki (Screenplay)

Starring: Koichiro Takami, Yuka Yoshino, Riko Matsui, Tomoko Hayakawa, Ikeshima Yutaka

This short drama comes from Tomohiko Iwasaki and was screened at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. The tagline on the poster reads, ‘Boy meets girl, girl meets girl…’ and the trailer looks like fun. In this story, Gumi (Yoshino) and Tetsu (Takami) might be lovers. Or not because when a woman named Keiko (Matsui) shows up, Gumi gets second thoughts.  Midnight Eye describes it as being… “clunky but also possessed a certain charm, largely thanks to an engaging young cast.” Watch the trailer and judge for yourself.

Moon Dream　　　　　　　　　

Japanese Title: ムーン　ドリーム

Romaji: Mu-n Dori-mu

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: 105 mins.

Director: Bobby Ologun, Keiji Miyano

Writer: Masato Ozawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Bobby Ologun, Nao Minamisawa, Naomasa Musaka, Thane Camus, Yayoo, Dante Carver, Toshikazu Fukawa, Akira Nakao, Guts Ishimatsu

This is the directorial debut of Bobby Ologun who is one of those talent dudes who turns up on panel shows. I won’t say anything snide because he’s also a mixed martial artist and famous in Japan. I am neither of those things and so I have to fear and respect his achievements in that order. This is his autobiographical film in which he plays himself and it is based on his experiences in Japan as he aims to become famous, the realities of prejudice shown to foreigners that some show and the kindness of others – especially Sayuri (Minamisawa), a foxy lady who helped him out. The film has a lot of foreign actors like Dante Carver and Thane Camus. The film trailer looks pretty good and seeing a non-Western perspective on Japan is quite a rare thing.

Trail　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Japanese Title: トレイル

Romaji: Toreiru

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Shuhei Hatano

Writer: Shuhei Hatano (Screenplay)

Starring: Yosuke Yamaguchi, Eiji Mitomi, Toru Fujimoto, Risa Tokmasa

This is the feature-length debut film of Shuhei Hatano. It’s about a group of creative types – a painter, a musician, a poet and… a girl, not sure what her skill is – who travel around forests and villages and encounter a writer of folklore from Argentina. The trailer doesn’t inspire any reaction from me. Characters lead us somewhere, their backs to us. Hardly engaging until the very end when the girl stares defiantly back into the camera.

I mean… What’s the deal? Why are you looking at me?? STOP IT!!! I’m the viewer!!!!

New Theatre Version of Hanako of the Toilet 

Japanese Title: トイレの花子さん　新劇場版

Romaji: Toire no Hanako-san Shin Gekijouban

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Masashi Yamada

Writer: Kokoya Anzu (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuka Ueno, Misaki Ayame, Ai Kiyoshi, Hitomi Tanaka, Rina Yamakawa

I had to do a double-take on the title because it reads strangely. Hanako-san of the toilet. A quick search revealed that it’s an urban legend and I do know of it. Here’s Wikipedia’s take:

According to the legend, a person who goes to the third stall in the girls’ bathroom on the third floor and knocks three times before asking “Are you there, Hanako-san”, will hear a voice answer “I’m here”. If the person enters the stall there will be a small girl in a red skirt.

Hanako-san is a popular and widespread urban legend, often played by school children as a rite of courage, or a method of hazing for new students, similar to the Bloody Mary urban legend in Western schools.

This is the third feature film to be based on the legend and the first film to be made in 15 years. It stars Yuka Ueno and is directed by Masashi Yamada, ace expert at making horror films set in schools as X-Game 2 and Scary Hide and Seek Alone attest. Here’s a creepy anime where Hanako is a character overseeing the grisly fate of a poor victim.

Sayo Nagasawa (Ueno) has moved to a rural town in the country to stay with her grandmother. She finds herself in the nightmare position of being the new transfer student in her high school but makes a friend in Maho. When Maho turns up dead in a toilet stall, Sayo finds herself in the middle of a series of grisly deaths. Love the J-pop happy opening before the blunt introduction of misery and horror in the trailer. The film looks better than a lot of low-budget J-horror I have reviewed.

Movie ‘Candidacy’                                   

Japanese Title: 映画　「立候補」 

Romaji: Eiga “Rikkouho”

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Fujioka Toshimitsu

Writer: N/A

Starring: Shinzo Abe, Toru Hashimoto, Mak Akasaka, Koichi Toyama, Hideyoshi Hasiba Seizo

This documentary looks at different politicians like Mac Akasaka, a fringe politician from the Japan Smile Party who has contested various elections and lost them all (and his 3 million yen deposit). What makes him special is his flamboyant speeches and costumes. I guess the other candidates in this film are strange and/or controversial like Toru Hashimoto who the American woman seems shocked by.

Classic Cinema Kabuki

Japanese Title: シネマ　歌舞伎　クラシック

Romaji: Shinema Kabuki Kurashikku

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Running Time: Various

Director: Masato Ozawa

Writer: Kokoya Anzu (Screenplay)

Starring: Utaemon Nakamura,  Kanzaburo Nakamura, Shikan Nakamura

The Kabuki-za is a famous theatre in Tokyo which has played host to Kabuki shows since 1889. In 2010 the structure was demolished amid concerns about its ability to survive earthquakes (something the film Intermission picked up on) but in March, 2013, the theatre was recently reopened. To celebrate the reopening, four classic Kabuki plays with titles like Sumida River which is about a mother who is searching for her lost son I have little knowledge of Kabuki but the film company and owners of Kabuki-za, Shochiku, have put together this handy website. Each screening lasts somewhere between 20 and 60 minutes.

World War Z                                                

Release Date:  June 21^st 2012 (UK)

Running Time: 116 mins.

Director: Marc Foster

Writer:  Max Brooks (Original Novel), J Michael Straczynski (Original Screenplay), Matthew Michael Carnahan (First Rewrite), Drew Goddard (Second Rewrite)

Starring: Brad Pitt, James Badge Dale, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz, Matthew Fox, David Morse, David Andrews, Elyes Gabel, Fana Mokoena, Peter Capaldi, Elyes Gabel, Ruth Negga

World War Z has been on my radar for a long time. In 2010 I read the novel and liked it, in 2011 I posted a video of location shooting in Glasgow  and in 2012 I posted about the film’s trailer. It is 2013 and it has finally hit UK cinema screens and I watched it and quite enjoyed it.

Gerry Lane (Pitt) is a former U.N. investigator who quit his job working in dangerous places like Liberia and Sri Lanka to be with his wife Karin (Enos) and their two daughters in Philadelphia.

When the family get caught up in a zombie attack they make their way north to New York where they witness the spreading chaos, death and destruction. The east coast of America looks like a war-zone and they only escape thanks to Gerry’s old boss, Thierry Umutoni (Mokoena), the under-secretary of the U.N. who gets them on board the Argus, a U.S. Navy ship which leads a task-force picking up people who can make a difference in a war against zombies.

Gerry Lane and his family are only guaranteed a place on the ship if he joins a team searching for the source of the outbreak and so he races across the world to locations such as South Korea, Israel and Wales to find answers.

I went into this film with an open mind. It was clearly not going to be like the book and it has been well-reported about how the film went through a prolonged development process due to numerous rewrites of the script which was not even finished when filming started. You can tell from the rather perfunctory plot with dumb logic, the massively different changes in tone and the simplistic ending which feels tacked on. That written, whatever criticisms of the script are lost in the fun of this tight little action thriller.

The film’s plot is simple. It starts with happy Hollywood family scenes’ showing Brad Pitt being the ideal house-husband (he can cook, be loving and look sexy!)

And then normality gets rocked off its axis as a zombie apocalypse takes a bite out of life. Said apocalypse is light on gore but still full of action and thrills as the handsome and reliable Pitt travels the world in order to save the day. He does so with some random observations (done in slow-motion and flashback for the audience) and huge leaps of faith that only work in Hollywood films.

The structure of the story is totally different from the book which was an ensemble piece showing the apocalypse from different viewpoints in different nations with some satire thrown in. I still miss that multi-narrative aspect but having a central protagonist to follow works in the film’s favour since it creates a solid arc for the audience to follow throughout a story where action scenes dominate and horror shambles far behind.

The film feels like a cross between 28 Days Later with its fast-zombies and music and Resident Evil 6 with its action sequences where Gerry and a bunch of marines travel from one level to the next expending lots of ammo with some stealth bits where they have to avoid the zombies in tight and dark corridors. It has a few jump-scares but it does not build an atmosphere of dread. Night of the Living Dead, this is not but it does present the spectacle of a zombie apocalypse very well as the most effective zombie action sequences happen during the daytime with huge crowds of zed-heads.

What these sequences get right is the sense of panic and chaos felt in the headlong rush to get away from a stampede of zombies and the disorientation of being engulfed by people. There are many overhead shots and long shots which show lots of people running and it is pretty staggering to watch. Then there will be panicked close-ups as characters swim amidst the moving bodies caught on hand-held camera and it gets pretty exhausting. Movement is life, Gerry says at points, and the chaos movement can create can be pretty stomach churning.

The Jerusalem section has an impressively staged set-piece where Pitt has to flee an onslaught of zombies with a cadre of Israeli soldiers and it is at this moment where it is tensest because you get a sense of what it would be like to be there. You cannot tell who is who or if they are infected. It was bloody disorientating to see it and one could get a sense of how impossible it would be to maintain control.

The 3D helped to deliver these feelings with zombies and object hurtling at the screen but it was the more quiet moments I liked such as the cell/crematorium in Camp Humphreys where ash floats around.

Like the plot, the characters are uncomplicated and maybe a touch bland. Pitt fits in with the proceedings well, looking confident and providing a decent protagonist one would want to follow. It was down to supporting characters like James Badge-Dale’s wry soldier and David Morse’s mad-prophet CIA agent to provide some interesting flavours.

Overall I’d say this is a fun action movie and a decent zombie film. It is not the scariest or most original zombie film by any stretch but an enjoyable way to pass the time.

3.5/5

Apparently it did so well it’s getting a sequel. Sign me up for a viewing.

The Berlin File                                                             

Release Date: January 29^th, 2013 (South Korea)

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Ryoo Seung-Wan

Writer: Ryoo Seung-Wan

Starring: Ha Jung-Woo, Gianna Jun, Han Suk-Kyu, Ryoo Seung-Bum, Lee Kyoung-Young

I love spy films as my reviews of Skyfall, and Salt reveal. I also liked the Korean spy thriller Shiri. When the chance to see The Berlin File at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival came up I leapt for it.

The film opens stylishly with grainy footage and rapid cutting of espionage activities such as the creation of fake passports, code breaking and physical violence. It all begins to focus on a menacing man walking down grim streets and into his apartment where he self-administers medication. He is Pyo Jong-Sung (Ha Jung-Woo), the number one North Korean agent in the service and known as “the Hero of the Republic”.

Three hours ago he was at the Grand Westin Hotel with a Russian arms broker and a terrorist from the Independent Arab League. The meeting is being monitored by South Korean NIS agents led by veteran spy Jung Jin-Soo (Han Suk-Kyu). Just as the transaction is about to go ahead Mossad agents burst in and a gunfight ensues. Amidst all of the chaos Pyo Jong-Sung attempts to escape the hotel but Jung Jin-Soo pursues him and the two fight on the hotel roof. Jung Jin-Soo loses his prey but this just increases his determination to take him out even if his bosses are losing confidence in him.

Blowing the operation would be bad enough for Pyo Jong-Sung but when he learns that Dong Myung-Soo (Ryoo Seung-Bum), a rival from home, has been sent by Pyongyang to Berlin in order to investigate the possibility of a defector working at the North Korean embassy he finds himself in a deadly situation that threatens to drag his wife Ryun Jung-Hee (Gianna Jun), an embassy translator, into harm’s way. His loyalty as a husband and spy are tested to the extreme as a series of betrayals and defections unfold and the NIS, CIA and North Korean spy agencies tussle over Pyo Jong-Sung and his wife who are trying to flee Berlin.

Visually the film falls in line with most spy thrillers. It looks and plays out a lot like The Bourne Supremacy with its wintry visual take on Berlin, all concrete and glass and shadowy alleys which brings out a melancholy greys and blues and mysterious blacks. It recreates a sense of the history of espionage in the city, all of the mistrust and east vs west politics that has taken place since the end of World War 2 when the city was split between democracy and communism. Placing modern spy powers like North and South Korea, Russian gun-runners and the CIA who all have mobiles and laptops updates things for a new age.

The characters operating in this new age of espionage are more pumped up action spies than what the old school  Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy types but the plots are just as much about surveillance, paranoia and isolation.

“The most trustworthy is the one who should be watched the most.”

This line is delivered by Dong Myung-Soo with chilling menace but with everybody spying on everybody else (including their own bosses and subordinates) the film’s plot spins off into different areas and while never totally confusing (everything falls into place at the end) it becomes a barrier to actually identifying with the characters. Ultimately the plot is smart but it becomes so overloaded with events and angles that any attempts to build an emotional core to engage the viewer come off as weak and characters are all surface.

Pyo Jong-Sung could be a carbon copy of Jason Bourne with his direct and highly efficient persona but he is given little else to do except take a battering and look troubled. Likewise Gianna Jun is rather wasted as a wife at the end of her tether at being in this brutal world. Actually, all of the characters felt rather generic apart from Jung Jin-Soo who gets some very funny lines. More could have been made of the personal battle faced by Pyo Jong-Sung over how to deal with accusations of disloyalty aimed at him and his wife or about the issue of the families left behind in North Korea and under threat from the regime to add a more human element to capture interest. Bourne was gripping because the agent was very vulnerable thanks to his memory loss and his isolation. Bond was interesting because it was about him growing old as a character. The relationship between the central couple in The Berlin File could have been explored more but the very nature of the film with its focus on a means that the emotional moments lack the potency to suffuse events with any greater meaning so all we’re left with is action. Thankfully I cannot fault it on this side.

The Berlin File has a lot of excellent bone-crunching action scenes and thrilling gun-fights. Like many Korean action films such as The Man From Nowhere, the technical aspects like the editing, camera work are clean and energetic. They display the fights as fierce battles between pros who know how to use their bodies, the environment and nearby objects. We see the actors look totally cool and tough as they engage in some of the most brutal and stylish fights in recent cinema. The hand to hand combat is done with enough force and speed that it comes off as real, hard and spontaneous and the final fight in a wide open field is a real highlight. You have to respect the vision of the choreographers and the actors performing this stuff. The audience laughed and gasped at different moments and don’t expect to look at a can of food again without seeing a deadly weapon.

Ultimately This tale of North and South Korean agents in Berlin tangled up in a Bourne style multi-agency web of deceit is undeniably highly stylish but dull. Where it fails is the byzantine plot which, while being rather intelligent, feels bloated and created distance instead of any real emotional engagement. I was genuinely surprised at how little I felt at the end of events.

3/5

This week has been very busy for me. A promotion… or maybe a sideways move between departments… at work means I get more hours at the gallery and less time watching films and anime and writing. I’d cry but it places me in the rather unique position of possibly getting sent to Japan on business… Fingers crossed, this actually works out!

I spent most of this week watching the final episodes of Red Data Girl, My Youth Rom-Com and Aku no Hana and wrote up reviews for World War Z and The Berlin File and desperately trying to whip together a review for See You Tomorrow, Everyone which is proving harder than expected. In a post film discussion with Alua and Tired Paul I was certain about what I thought but putting it into words has been tough.

What films are released today?

GFP Bunny                                                   

Japanese Title: GFP BUNNY タリウム少女のプログラム

Romaji: GFP Bunny Tariumu Shoujo no Puroguramu 

Running Time: 82 mins.

Director: Yutaka Tsuchiya

Writer: Yutaka Tsuchiya

Starring: Yuka Kuramochi, Kanji Furutachi, Makiko Watanabe, Takahashi,

Trailer of the week. Heck, I’ve wanted to see this film for so long it hurts. I don’t need to see the rest. I so want to see this film and the chances of it coming to the UK seem slim but one can always hope. It sounds so twisted and it seems to push the medium plus it has some great actors. It has appeared at the Rotterdam International Film Festival which I reported on and where the following blurb comes from…

Yutaka Tsuchiya is considered one of the more interesting names amongst indie film makers in Japan and scored major kudos with his film Peep “TV” Show. He has been largely silent since then but now he has released this interestingly titled film which stars Kanji Furutachi who has appeared in trashy genre pieces like Dead Waves and great films like The Woodsman & the Rain and Dreams for Sale. He is supported by Sion Sono regular Makiko Watanabe (Himizu, Love Exposure).

Apparently based on a true story (with some key facts changed), we follow the actions of Thallium Girl (Kuramochi) who is slowly poisoning her mother with thallium and records her detached world view in her diary. It is clear she has some mental problems which are exacerbated by bullying at school. This just causes her to retreat from reality into a darker place.

Final Gintama: The Movie – Be Forever Yorozuya   

Japanese Title: 劇場版　銀魂　完結篇　万事屋よ永遠なれ

Romaji: Gekijouban Kanketsuhen Yorozuya Yo Eien Nare

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yoichi Fujita

Writer: Hideaki Sorachi (Screenplay)

Starring: Tomokazu Sugita (Gitoki Sakata), Rie Kugimiya (Kagura), Daisuke Sakaguchi (Shinpachi Shimura), Akira Ishida (Katsura Kotarou), Fumiko Orikasa (Yagyuu Kyuubei), Kenichi Suzumura (Sogo Okita)

This is billed as the final Gintama movie. It’s based on one of those anime series that has 100+ episodes and lots of battles. Kind of like Naruto. I must admit I haven’t seen it but I’m not into shounen anime so there. Actually the setting sounds interesting – a ronin who is engaged as an odd-jobs sort of chap in Edo era Japan under alien domination. This new film is written by original manga-ka Hideaki Sorachi and directed by Yoichi Fujita, the man who handled a lot of the television episodes as well as the comedy Binbogami Ga! The seiyuu from the TV anime are returning with Tomokazu Sugita (Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) reprising the role of Gitoki, Rie Kugimiya (Masako in Ghost Hunt) voicing Kagura and Daisuke Sakaguchi (Hyou in Mononoke) voicing Shinpachi.

Final Girl: Last Girl Standing                                   

Japanese Title: 終焉少女 Last Girl Standing

Romaji: Shuuen Shoujo Last Girl Standing

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 35 mins.

Director: Kentaro Yamagishi

Writer: Sho Kubota (Screenplay)

Starring: Suzuka Morita, Hitomi Miyake, Naomi Anzai, Keina Koshino, Yukie Kawamura

I’m used to seeing cute idols getting scared to death in horror movies but this is ew. Die Hard 2 crossed with AKB48! Gore, guns and girls! I loe it. When terrorists take over a school it is up to the students to rescue. Said students are idols in groups like PASSPO ☆. It looks as silly as it sounds but hey, the school girl fetish in anime has resulted in creating shows about school girls and tanks and assault rifles so why not? The only cast member I recognise is Yuki Kawamura (Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, Carved 2).

I Did Not Go on the Trip              

Japanese Title: ボクが修学旅行に行けなかった理由

Romaji: Boku ga Shuugakuryokou ni Ikenakatta Riyuu

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 40 mins.

Director: Shogo Kusano

Writer: Shogo Kusano (Screenplay)

Starring: Karin Ogino, Mayu Tomita, Mio Masui, Ai Negishi, Koji Yamamoto, Saeko Makita, Maki Fukumi, Miyu Inamori

Remember that trailer about school girls shooting up terrorists? You should, it was just aboe. Well, if you didn’t find that distasteful, here’s another genre flick starring the idols from P ☆ GIRLS who sneak into their performing arts school at night and reveal pent up emotions. No ghosts. No violence. Just fun and games and talking. This one is directed by Shogo Kusano who is best known from his 2012 film Empty.

Ninja Kids!!! 2 Summer Mission Impossible      

Japanese Title: 忍たま　乱太郎　夏休み　宿題　大作戦！　の段

Romaji: Nintama Rantaro Natsuyasumi Shukudai Daisakusen! No Dan

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Ryuta Tasaki

Writer: Masayuki Ikeda (Screenplay)

Starring: Seishiro Kato, Roi Hayashi, Hiroki Uchi, Ken Nishida, Renji Ishibashi

Ninja Kids!!! is back for a sequel!!!. Rantaro and friends must take extra courses during their summer vacation to stay in Ninjutsu school but when a mysterious castle appears out of nowhere he finds himself in a quest to retrieve a demon blade with immense powers. While I enjoyed the antics of the Ninja Kids!!! in the Miike film the trailer doesn’t leave me too enthusiastic for their forthcoming adventures. It’s directed by Ryuta Tasaki (Salvage Mice).

Shin Usagi Yasei no Tohai                

Japanese Title: 真・兎 野性の闘牌

Romaji: Shin Usagi Yasei no Tohai

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Yuichi Onuma

Writer: Makoto Ito (Original Manga), Yuichi Onuma (Screenplay)

Starring: Kazuma Sano, Ayame Misaki, Hideo Sakaki, Ayu Higashi, Yutaro Imai, Haruka Kurosawa, Marika Fukunaga, Kenjia Matsuda

Makoto Onuma’s gambling manga gets a big screen adaptation nearly two decades since it was first published in 1996! It is directed by Yuichi Onuma who is also helming the Schoolgirl Complex manga to movie adaptation which will get released later this year. It stars a lot of pretty young actors like Haruka Kurosawa (Vampire Heaven) and Marika Fukunaga (Ju-On: Old Lady in Black) but there are some older actors in the shape of Hideo Sakaki and Kenji Matsuda who have appeared in titles like Versus and Ju-On: The Grudge.

High school student Shun Takeda (Sano) is the victim of bullies. When he is forced to play Ikasama Mahjong he bolts when he realises he has a bad hand. His actions attract the attention of Ai Yamaguchi (Misaki) who notices his skill at Mahjong and tries to get him to join the gambling group called ZOO.

Jukai: Mount Fuji Suicide Forest       

Japanese Title: 樹海のふたり

Romaji: Jukai no Futari

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 124 mins.

Director: Hideya Yamaguchi

Writer: Hideya Yamaguchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Toshiyuki Itakura, Atsushi Tsutsumishita, Kumiko Endo, Setsuko Karasuma, Kitaro, Yumiko Fujita, Tsubasa Inoue

Mount Fuji as a suicide spot only came to my attention because of the Kurosawa Corpse Delivery Service manga. The reason why people commit suicide there is that it’s so quiet. Hanging is a favourite method due to wild creatures disfiguring bodies. It’s pretty distressing stuff when you consider how hopeless one must feel to opt out of life. There are plenty of suicide films but few that I know of set somewhere famous like Mount Fuji. This drama changes that by sending characters to the location and showing the impact it has on them while satirising TV. The only actor I recognise is Kitaro (A Story of Yonosuke, Fine Totally Fine).

Takeuchi (Itakura) and Abe (Tsutsumishita) are TV directors who make a documentary where they interview people who want to commit suicide on Mount Fuji. Their documentary is a success and the TV company wants a sequel but exploiting the suicidal for ratings causes guilt in the two.

Soreike! Anpanman: Tobase! Handkerchief of Hope 

Japanese Title: それいけ!アンパンマン とばせ!希望のハンカチ

Romaji: Soreike! Anpanman: Tobase! Kibo no Handkerchief

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Takashi Yanase

Writer: Tomoko Konparu (Screenplay)

Starring: Keiko Toda, Ryusei Nakao, Mikio Date, Takeshi Tomizawa,

Takashi Yanase is the creator of Anpanman and, until last year, he was head of the Japan Cartoonists association. He’s back with the latest film involving his massively popular children’s superhero. The film is written by Tomoko Konparu and she has handled series composition for things like Chi’s Sweet Home and written the scripts for Master Keaton and Dirty Pair. All bases covered! In this tale Anapanman teams up with an elephant named Pao who lives in the clouds and the two try to clean up the air using a handkerchief or something… On top of this film there will also be a short one about mischievous ghosts and cuddling. This is clearly kids stuff but it looks nice. From the images. Couldn’t find a trailer.

Taiwan Identity                                          

Japanese Title: 台湾アイデンティティー

Romaji: Taiwan Aidentiti-

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 102 mins.

Director: Mitsuko Sakai

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Mitsuko Sakai has been mentioned on this blog before with her documentary about Taiwanese architect Guo Maolin. She’s back with another doc on Taiwan. Taiwan Identity is a documentary exploring the views of six people a generation of people who lived under Japanese rule which stretched from 1895 to 1945. It explores issues like the end of World War 2, the 228 Incident and independence as well as views on Japan. This is a follow-up to Mituko’s doc Taiwan Life (2008)

GOGO Ikemen 5                                          

Japanese Title: GOGO♂Ikemen 5

Romaji: GOGO♂イケメン5

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Sakurako Fukuyama

Writer: Ibuki Sakura (Original Manga), Sakurako Fukuyama (Screenplay)

Starring: Young Min, Min Woo, Dong Hyun, Jung Min, Hyun Seong, Kwang Min, Maari, Sintaro Akutsu, Sara Takatsuki, Eisuke Sasai

OMYGOD! REAL LIFE BISHIES!! THESE BOYS ARE LIKE SO KAWAII DESU NE!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE TOTEMO SUGOI AS HELL! <3

This stars the Korean idol band Boyfriend and is actually based on a light novel series. Well, I’ve seen worse. I’m not a female so in the absence of love and adoration over their pretty boy features I can only watch this feeling jealousy. Utter, intense, hatred-grade jealousy.

Five pretty boys who are mobbed by female high school students (the lucky swine, if only I was that popular ;_;) are tired of girls who only care about their appearance (I can deal with them if you want guys…) so they give up on finding real love until they meet Kanna who is pure and natural. They all fall in love with her and fight each other for her affection (seriously guys, send me some of those pretty and shallow women if you find them a problem).

Election                                

Japanese Title: 選挙

Romaji: Senkyo

Release Date: July 06^th, 2013

Running Time: 149 mins.

Director: Kazuhiro Soda

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kazuhiko Yamauchi

Kazuhiro Soda’s documentary follows Kazuhiko Yamauchi’s attempts to get a place on Kawasaki City Council as part of the Liberal Democratic Party on a Nuclear Power agenda after the Great East Japan Earthquake. 

It finally happened. My ego was too big for one blog. I started a new one.

Actually I have been thinking about doing it for a while but I finally took the plunge when I had a lazy five minutes at home and created a slideshow using my random images in my download folder and played some Touhou music to it. It looked awesome. Imagine all of the anime, film images and posters and manga that came up in a haphazard way… Glorious.

Anyway, my computer is stuffed full of images and I want to do more than have them take up space on my hard drive. They can now take up space on the line… I mean online. Every film/anime review on this blog will be accompanied by a flurry of images on my Tumblr. I’ll also make Gifs to put on there because I like making them but I rarely use them here. There will also be random stuff like Jonathan Meads and video games. I’ll also start uploading a film poster a day so people can track down their favourites. I may also highlight certain films. This week, it’s GFP Bunny.

What is the Tumblr called? It is called Genkinahito. How inventive. Time to shine.

Dog and Scissors (Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou)       

Director: Yukio Takahashi,  Series Composition: Toshizo Nemoto, Character Designer: Yōko Satō

Voice Actors: Takahiro Sakurai (Kazuhito), Marina Inoue (Kirihime), Ai Kakuma (Hami), Chiwa Saito (Sara), Maaya Uchida (Sakura)

Studio: Gonzo 

This s a story about books. Of writing and dying. A Story of writing and reading.

The anime begins in a richly furnished home where a woman sits typing and a dog sits reading. A narrator informs us of who he is:

I, Harumi Kazuhito am a dyed-in-the-wool idiot for books. I’m not just any dog, either. Until recently I was human!

Yes, that dog reading is the narrator and he was a bibliophile high school boy in his former life. His favourite author was Shinobu Akiyama, who appeared out of nowhere seven years ago, and has gone on to conquer Japan with her seven deadly sins novel series which Harumi adores. Harumi was desperately waiting for the final novel, Lust, to come out but found that destiny was going to deal him a bit of a strange hand by turning him into a dog.

Why is Harumi a dog? He was present during a robbery of a diner. A mentally unstable man threatened to kill a fellow patron of the diner, a woman too engrossed with writing a book. Harumi stepped in and put up a fight but it ended badly.

During that special moment when he is in the afterlife he expressed his desperate desire to live and found a body that would accept his soul. It just happens that the body was that of a dog rescued by a pet store owner with a huge afro.

Despite being reborn as a dachshund, Harumi is still obsessed with reading books and he’s still obsessed with Shinobu Akiyama. He soon finds himself bought by the woman who got him killed. She turns out to be Natsuno Kirihime but Harumi knows her quite well through her pen name Shinobu Akiyama.

This might be awesome situation except she is majorly irritated that she can hear all of Harumi’s thoughts, has a scissor fetish and carries a pair strapped to her thigh. She’s also a bit of a dom and so the two clash.

The two settle down into a life full of reading and writing, bondage and cutting. Why is Natsuno taking care of Harumi and will Harumi finally get to read the final volume of the Seven Deadly Sins series, Lust? All will be revealed… Hopefully…

The title Dog and Scissors is one that immediately makes me think of Menchi from Excel Saga. Animals under threat from crazy women! That’s pretty much what the first two episodes struck me as. There is no plot thread emerging but there are a whole bunch of crazy characters and weird situations revolving around books, dogs and scissors which is best exemplified by the opening and ending themes which are colourful assaults on sanity and reason. Just enjoy the colours, chaos and coordinated dancing and wait for videos of people imitating the damn things.

I’m not a big fan of the theme tunes but I do like the dancing. Totally overcooked and joyous. And the general madness of flying giant scissors around.

I’ve watched the first two episodes and I laughed quite a few times. It’s not the most sophisticated anime out there but it is bizarre enough and delirious enough at points to keep my interest. What I like most about it is the fact that most of the jokes revolve around books.

When Harumi sees his life flash before his eyes it is all meaningless, parents, friends, hot glasses wearing girlfriend, cute maids. Then he gets to books and cries I can’t die without reading this first. Everything from his sexuality to his social contacts boil down to books. When he’s finally back in the land of the living he comes out with the priceless line, “I came back to life. I can… I can read!”

Yep, he’s obsessed.

A lot of jokes also revolve around Natsuno being flat-chested but I can overlook those cheap gags. She’s a great as a cracked character who exists in a world of her own. So far she modulates between super confident and competent (great) and overly emotional (bad). The inconsistent characterisation only works because the anime has no real serious tone and revels in smut and surreality.

Her book titles are so damn awesome so there’s comedy to be mined from that. Witness this glorious tome.

Anyway, the banter between Harumi and Natsuno is quite funny but it’s the delivery from the seiyuu which gives the lines that lift that makes me laugh. The chemistry between Takahiro Sakurai as Harumi and Marina Inoue as Natsuno is somewhere between bubbling and explosive as they throw insults back and forth at each other without missing a beat. Frankly, Marina Inoue is completely bloody sexy in the role when she uses her low and sultry voice and, flat-chested or not, I think Natsuno’s character design is gorgeous.

The animation is nothing spectacular. There are a lot of static shots and direction is rather dull but at least the character and art designs are solid, bordering on the crazy. I mean, if this were an art-house film I could talk about each shot being a tableaux and other pretentious things but when you have the crazy fun situation of the show and weird looking characters like these guys…

… Well, you might as well just sit back and enjoy it as a fun way to spend 25 minutes.

I’m going to take to calling this Dachshund x Dominatrix purely because all of the jokes revolve around him being a dog and her being a perv with a pair of scissors and a S&M dress sense. I haven’t read Shunsuke Sarai’s original works but the randomness feels a lot like Excel Saga and I liked that a lot because it was just plain crazy and full of otaku references. This is similar therefore it has potential to get better. Plus we have yet to be fully introduced to all of the characters like this diva.

3/5

Well with my new position in work I am in the gallery longer than is legal (I think) which explains why this post is late but I still have time to watch anime and dorama! Alright, not as much as I like but at least I’m going to get paid. This week I watched Gatchaman Crowds (which is awesome and made me happy), Dog and Scissors, It’s Not My Fault I’m Not Popular (tragically funny) and two episodes of Penance (intriguing and a reminder that Eiko Koike is a fox!). Four totally different shows and all pretty good. I also tried watching Free! but lost interest because I’m not a girl. I wrote up my first impression for Dog and Scissors and announced the arrival of my Tumblr blog. I hope to continue my first impressions going next week. 

A lot of films released this week and few of them are all that spectacular. The Berlin File is also released… So yeah, a bit slow.

The Fighting Men’s Chronicle Elephant Kashimashi Movie Version 

Japanese Title: The Fighting Men’s Chronicle エレファント　カシマシ Gekijouban

Romaji: The Fighting Men’s Chronicle Erefanto Kashimashi Gekijouban

Release Date: July 12^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita

Writer: Kosuke Sakoda, Rama Nishikura (Screenplay)

Starring: Kouji Miyamoto, Toshiyuki Ishimori, Yoshiyuki Tominaga, Ken Yokoyama

Nobuhiro Yamashita, director of the Drudgery Train is back with a rock documentary about Elephant Kashimashi. This documentary that plumbs everything from their debut to recent work in 2012. Expect interviews with the band and collaborators and behind the scenes footage.

Dilemma of Sacrifice                   

Japanese Title: 生贄のジレンマ

Romaji: Ikenie no Jirenma

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 82 mins.

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Shinjiro Dobashi (Original Novel), Hirotoshi Kobayashi (Screenplay)

Starring: Kenta Suga, Seika Taketomi, Minhiro Kinomoto, Hikaru Yamamoto, Rio Kanno, Nana Seino, Toshi Takeuchi

The day of graduating from high school should be a happy one for Junichi Shinohara (Suga) and his friends but when a voice over the school’s intercom announces that everyone will die in an hour it is understandable that people are pretty terrified. Terror turns into desperation as the prospect of survival is handed to students as they are given a way out by sacrificing one of their number.

 Danganronpa, anyone?

New S&M Theatre Version                   

Japanese Title: 新　ＳとＭ　劇場版

Romaji: Shin S to M Gekijouban

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 99 mins.

Director: SHUN

Writer: Mio Murao (Original Manga), SHUN, Makoto Tachibana (Screenplay)

Starring: Tomomi Miyauchi, Ida Kunihiko, Asumi Miwa, Rike Kawamura, Tsutomu Niwa,

Type Mio Murao into Google and you can see the clean bits of the mind of an S&M obsessed manga-ka. I haven’t read her but there’s a lot of girls in peril and tied up and it all sure as hell comes under the S&M. She must be popular because this is the second live-action film adaptation of her S&M erotic suspense manga where a chap named Toda (Miyauchi) has managed to save his company and his marriage from the ruin of an affair with Saya Amami (Kawamura) but Amami isn’t finished with him yet and she’s going to use someone close to Toda to take him down! Warning foxy Japanese women in steamy positions ahead.

Festival of our Shadow         

Japanese Title: 影たち　の　祭り

Romaji: Kagetachi no Matsuri

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Taku Oshima

Writer: N/A

Starring: Shuichi Iida, Aika Ichinose, Kayo Kikumoto, Kei Goto, Seiki Ishii,

This documentary takes a look at the Kakashi-za shadow theatre company who are celebrating their 60^th anniversary. The group use their hands to create a range of animals for their plays and we get to see some of their performances during their Hand Shadows Animare tour.

Under the Nagasaki Sky              

Japanese Title: 爆心 長崎の空

Romaji: Bakushin: Nagasaki no Sora

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Taro Hyugaji

Writer: Yuichi Seirai, Hirofumi Harada (Screenplay)

Starring: Kie Kitano, Izumi Inamori, Yuya Yagira, Minayo Watanabe, Tetta Sugimoto, Junko Miyashita, Renji Ishibashi, Chizuru Ikewaki

University student Shimizu Kadota (Kitano) lives with her parents and is dating a medical school student named Kota (Hojo). She is happy but when she has an argument with her mother and her mother dies from a heart attack Shimizu feels intense guilt.

Saori Takamori (Inamori) lost her daughter over a year ago but still feels deep sorrow. She comes from a family of Catholics and her parents Ryoichi (Ishibashi) and Takie (Miyashita) are trying to overcome the sense of loss of their grandchild by seeing it as God’s will. When Saori realises that she is pregnant she feels a mixture of emotions because she wants another child but she’s afraid she will lose it. Saori’s husband Hiroyoshi (Sugimoto) tries to support her but she is suffering.

Saori and Shimizu meet in a Catholic Church. Will they help each other overcome their emotional demons and move on?

Jinjin                                            

Japanese Title: じんじん

Romaji: Jinjin

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 82 mins.

Director: Daiki Yamada

Writer: Durian Sukegawa (Original Novel), Katsue Sakaue (Screenplay)

Starring: Yasuo Daichi, Misaki Komatsu, Kie Nakai, Masahiro Inoue, Mayumi Wakamura, B-saku Sato

Ginzaburo Tateishi (Daichi) is a street performer who has a daughter. When she was six-years-old, Ginzaburo divorced from his wife and lost contact with her. Some time in the future, Ginzaburo visits a farm run by his childhood friend who is also hosting four female high school students undergoing agricultural training. The girls like him except for Ayaka who has a secret…

Garden of Sinners/Recalled Out Summer 3D            

Japanese Title: 空　の　境界：　未来　福音

Romaji: Bakushin: Kara no Kyoukai: Mirai Fukuin

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Ei Aoki

Writer: Misaki Hiramatsu (Screenplay)

Starring: Maaya Sakamoto, Kenichi Suzumura, Honda Takako, Ayumi Fujimura, Rie Tanaka

Garden of Sinners…. I have read and watched some of it and I haven’t gelled with the franchise. I like the trailer for this. Spooky chanting and lullaby music, slow build up with lots of still-images – blood, cute crying characters, and a strong-voiced woman. The whole thing feels mystical. If I started with this instead of the manga then I’d be more of a fan. I reported about this film around this time last year on Anime UK News. Going under the title Gospel in the Future, it adapts a novel and three short manga and is animated in 3D. It stars the seiyuu  Maaya Sakamoto as Shiki Ryougi and Kenichi Suzumura as Mikiya Kokutou

Möbius Ring – Seo Shizune and Kuramitsu Meruka are both psychics who can foresee the future. This has led to the two having different feeling about their powers. Shizune is sick of her predictable boring life while Meruka has taken advantage of his ability to become a professional bomber. When Shizune met Mikiya and when Meruka met Shiki, their immutable futures start to change.

Möbius Link – This takes place ten years after the events of Kara no Kyoukai, Mana Ryougi, Shiki’s daughter, spends the day with Kamekura Mitsuru.

Feline – Shiki takes care of a cat for Mikiya.

Daylight – Fujino Asagami helps a friend of one of Kirie Fujou’s victims get over her death.

Say Grace – Shiki asks Mikiya out on New Years.

Fate/Zero Café                                     

Japanese Title: Fate/ゼロカフェ

Romaji: Fate/Zero Kafe

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: N/A

Writer:  N/A

Starring: N/A

The Fate/Zero franchise has been reimagined as a café comedy where chibi characters do funny things. The café is run by Saber. This will be shown alongside the Garden of Sinners film.

ExtremeSpeed Genesect: Mewtwo Awakens    

Japanese Title: 劇場版ポケットモンスター ベストウイッシュ 神速（しんそく）のゲノセクト ミュウツー覚醒

Romaji: Gekijō-ban pokettomonsutā besutōisshu shinsoku (shin soku) no genosekuto myuutsū kakusei

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Yuyama Kunihiko

Writer: Hideki Sonoda (Screenplay)

Starring: Emiri Kato, Masaharu Satou, Takehito, Reiko Takashima, Chinami Nishimura, Koyasu, Yuuki Kaji, Ikue Otani, Yuki Midori, Atsuko Maeda

This is the 16^th Pokemon anime film and it covers the story of Metwo who is looking for a place to live and Team Plasma who are causing havoc in a city modelled on/actually New York. There are new character, Basil, voiced by Yuuki Kaji, Anna, voiced by Emiri Kato and Dunc, voiced by Takehito Koyasu.

Father’s Mistress         

Japanese Title: 父の愛人

Romaji: Chichi no Aijin

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 38 mins.

Director: Kosuke Sakoda

Writer: Kosuke Sakoda, Rama Nishikura (Screenplay)

Starring: Tomomi Kono, Izumi Miwako, Shusaku Uchida, Megumi Asaoka

This short film is a family drama that follows Sachiko, a girl who grew up in an unhappy house due to her father having a mistress. When her father is taken to hospital, Sachiko meets the mistress for the first time. Her name is Atsumi and she invites Sachiko over to her house…

Shin Kaidan Mimibukuro Nagurikomi! Gekijōban Makai-hen Zenpen

Japanese Title: 怪談新耳袋殴り込み！劇場版　魔界編　前編

Romaji: Shin Kaidan Mimibukuro Nagurikomi! Gekijōban Makai-hen Zenpen

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Rikio Ichikawa, Aoki Katsunori

Writer: N/A

Starring: Ginti Kobayashi, Go Goto, Aoki Katsunori, Rikio Ichikawa, Yukihiko Yamaguchi, Ichiro Nakayama

The guys behind the Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro Nagurikomi! Series are back with the 5^th movie edition of their ghost hunting exploits. Their popular show sees them explore the most haunted places across Japan. In this one, they are exploring hotels, ruins and other places Okinawa looking for ghosts from the Pacific War.

Apple of Life                                              

Japanese Title: いのち　の　林檎

Romaji: Inochi no Ringo

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 115 mins.

Director: Isao Fujisawa

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Apple of Life is a documentary that explores the issue of chemicals used in everyday life. Chemicals in food, farming and construction. A Two women search for a place devoid of chemicals.

Ada Zetsubou Hen                               

Japanese Title: 讐 ADA 絶望篇

Romaji: Ada Zetsubou Hen

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Koji Shiraishi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Minami Sengoku, Ayano Sato, Itsuki Sagara, Haruna Murakami, Aya Maikawa, Maki Itoh, Akari Saho

Last week saw an action and comedy from some Hello! Project Idols, this week sees  a horror suspense film directed by Koji Shiraishi, (Noroi the Curse) and it is a two-parter showing the same story from two different perspectives. It stars the idols from a group called Up Up Girls, LinQ, Lyrical School and Caramel ☆ Ribbon.

Miho has committed a murder! What happened??? Told from the vantage points of two characters. SOMEONE SAVE THE IDOL GIRLS! THEY ARE THE ONLY HUMANS WORTH SAVING!

Gatchaman Crowds        

Director: Kenji Nakamura , Series Composition/Scripts: Toshiya Ono, Animation Character Designer: Yuichi Takahashi

Voice Actors:  Maaya Uchida (Hajime Ichinose), Ryota Ohsaka (Sugune Tachibana), Daisuke Namikawa (Jo Hibiki),  Aya Hirano (Paiman), Ayumu Murase (Rui Ninomiya), O.D. (Daisue Hosomi), J.J. Robinsoun (Katsuji Mori), UTsu-Utsu (Kotori Koiwa)

Studio: Tatsunoko Productions

It is the year 2015 and the place is Tachikawa City, the “second metropolis” of the Tokyo area.

The city has a population of 180,000 people and rumour has it that amongst these people are beings known as “Gatchaman”. Nobody believes this because they have never been seen.

Hajime Ichinose is a strange school-girl with a love of notebooks, something her friends don’t quite get.

Actually, there’s a lot that’s strange about Hajime but she’s about to get stranger when she meets an alien named J.J. Robinson.

Don’t let the name fool you because he’s genuinely an alien. He’s as tall as a house and has the ability to reach into people’s souls and bring out latent superhero abilities.

People like Hajime Ichinonose.

She is now a “Gatchaman”, a warrior with a special suit powered by “NOTE”, a notebook which is the manifestation of special powers in living beings or, as one character describes it, their soul.

A Gatchaman can use the NOTE like a tablet, send messages, contact others and even make little doodles. It is through these NOTEs that a Gatchaman get their orders from.

 They are commanded by J.J. Robinson, an extra-terrestrial being to protect Earth from alien criminals. The Gatchaman face a mysterious entities known as “MESS”, alien creatures that are criminals and like absorbing humans.

Hajime witnesses Sugane Tachibana, another Gatchaman and a student at the same school as her, in action with his katana.

With the guidance of Sugane, Hajime will come face to face with MESS and have fun being a super hero.

Going into the summer season there were few titles that I saw which struck me as being as good as something like Mawaru Penguindrum, my anime high-watermark of the last five years, but Gatchaman Crowds had potential not least because the director is Kenji Nakamura. As I mentioned in my summer preview

“he has worked on great weird anime titles like tsuritama and Mononoke. They surge with strange stories and are adorned with gloriously inventive visuals. Even with the super sentai concept I can’t see this being a straight adaptation. And even if it is, it’ll still be insane…”

Well, it’s nice for my predictions to come true.

Gatchaman Crowds is visually and aurally awesome. The inventiveness and fun is on display everywhere from the characters on display to the funky disco beat that plays when Hajime transforms into her superhero form and we hear “GATCHAMAN!” sung out loud. Playful is the word. The whole thing is entertaining. The city is bright and colourful and the colour-schemes are always light from the sky-blue punctuated by white clouds.

The latte browns of underground malls.

Even the alien rubik’s cubes are colourful.

Gatchaman headquarters even more so.

It looks like someone was let loose with a selection of paint and an surrealist furniture catalogue.

The school has grass on top of it for crying out loud!

The CG neon coloured Gatchman uniforms are fun to watch. Just totally groovy, right?

The characters are equally cool with their long limbs and cool poses. Their clothes are kind of stylish and even a girl prancing around in her bikini is kind of cool but what really pulls everything together is the characterisation and voice acting.

Hajime Ichinose is our route into the world and she is a basket case. She comes across as a bit like a genki girl or Ed from Cowboy Bebop, somewhat divorced from reality but totally there. When all others are being serious and secretive, she’ll be skipping around with a smile singing, “Gatcha-Gatchaman!”

Maaya Uchida is cute but restrained enough to make sure her performance doesn’t grate. Her happy-go-lucky performance fits in with the overall exuberant style of the show but it is the way the rest of the team react to her which makes the whole thing gel.

Ryota Ohsaka fresh from his role as Sadao in Hataraku Maou-Sama is voicing the straight-guy Sugane and is a great counter-weight to Hajime’s lilting tones.

Daisuke Namikawa as Jo Hibiki is too cool for but then he’s had lead roles in stuff like Persona 4, Black Lagoon and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. He only gets a few lines in the episode but his refusal to shake Hajime’s hand and his lazy persona is a further indication that far from being the solid team seen in the original Gatchaman, there’s a vein of mischief going on. Ah, there’s even some heritage going on because the original voice actor for Ken Washio (Katsuji Mori) is voicing J.J.

The original Gatchaman might have been strait-laced and earnest and full of team work against evil but this is 2013 so the anime doesn’t take itself too seriously and is quite affectionate with the whole.

Based on the first episode alone, if the quality is maintained, this is my highlight of the season.

Love the OP and ED as well.

4.5/5

The summer anime have started and I’ve already watched the first episode from all of my picks so now it’s time to round up what I thought of the spring season titles I watched with some AMVs.

How was the spring season?

I thought it was pretty damn good. It’s the first time I have finished more than one show I started watching and I never felt like I was forcing myself to the end of the ones I watched all the way through. Red Data Girl, My Youth Rom-Com, Aku no Hana. Attack on Titan is on-going but I’m totally up to date. After about a few episodes of these I was caught by the appeal of intelligence and great animation and even nostalgia over my youth.

The only spring season casualties are Devil Survivor which I dropped and Hataraku Maou-Sama where I have stalled on episode 9. Perhaps I’ll finish it one day but not for now. What did I finish?

Red Data Girl was the last title I finished watching. It was gorgeous and the music was great but what concerned me was the writing.

It looked really obtuse at the start, so much so I figured it would have difficulty telling Izumiko’s story in one series and revealing all of the aspects of her world and bringing In lots of Japanese folklore. The writers probably thought the same thing when it came to adapting Noriko Ogiwara’s series of books so they didn’t bother going into any more detail than Izumiko and her school days over the short series. With its slow start and the pacing issues it could have been a disaster but it ended on a nice note and it was always beautiful to watch as the next picture reveals.

Izumiko blossoms as a character. She is a nice character and one you can follow with ease. The final episode featured far more supernatural action than the rest of the series combined as Izumiko’s supernatural abilities came to the fore. There was no way that she was going to turn into a kick-ass heroine who blasts people with magic but she matures enough so that she recognises she has some strengths and needn’t be as submissive and scared as she started out as. There’s still scope for her to grow but even if there’s no second season you can still imagine her growing up into a person comfortable with her powers and being able to step between the worlds of mortals and gods. And what about Miyuki? The romance really blossomed as well. Awww. A touching ending.

4/5

My Youth Rom-Com is very intelligent.

I keep saying I hate school-based comedy anime. They usually pander to the audience with otaku references, awful female characters who fall into clichéd archetypes like tsundere/meganekko or, even worse, moeblobs so the audience can drool over the one they chose to be their waifu being kawai desu ne and buy character-related body-pillow or whatever.

I grew up on dark and violent 80’s/90’s cyberpunk anime so I hate that stuff, RAWR.

My Youth Rom-Com caught my attention because the main protagonist Hikigaya Hachiman was a viciously cynical and sarcastic loner who was comfortable being the outsider. Now that’s not original in itself but it uses his views to create an insightful look at the way people act in society.

Avoiding the typical route of the genre of gathering a harem of girls who teach the protagonist to be someone who can fit into the mercilessly demanding social world of school by conforming to demands of others and changing himself, Hikigaya Hachiman stands DEFIANT. Through his deadpan narration, he sees through all of the positivity and friendship crap spewed out by other anime and manga and reveals the reality that relationships are not always equal and not everyone will fit in and find a place with others. Every episode had a situation where his views are explored.

This would be enough in itself but thanks to the girls in the series, who are all well-written and more than just cardboard cut-outs, there are other views on Hachiman’s arguments. Hachiman’s beliefs are analysed and instead of being debunked they are given a place amongst other beliefs and viewpoints. They are seen as both strengths and weaknesses but give more of an insightful look at human relationships than many other titles in the genre.

Visually, the anime was fine. The character designs were the highlight but it’s really the writing that wins through. Hikigaya is a great character to follow and the anime was lots of fun not least because I identified with his cynicism because I was like that in school and just wanted the world to shut up so I could watch films like Lady Snowblood.

4/5

Aku no Hana was a real deviant of a show.

I expected ecchi junk like High School of the DXD and got a show that defied cliché and anime stereotype to deliver the drama to be found in overblown feelings of teenage angst through the animation and smart direction, editing, cinematography and a script capable of depicting and balancing the overblown emotions found in an angst-ridden teenage world view with the bitterly mundane comedown of reality.

These teenagers were recognisable in their uncertainty, histrionics and selfishness but we never forgot that they were essentially kids exploring the world and trying to actualise something like a stable personality and affect their circumstances in the way they wanted to. It was full of pathos and bathos and enjoyable to watch.

More than that I took to watching Aku no Hana for the enigma that is Sawa Nakamura.

Every week I would watch the show and wonder how Kasuga was going to be tormented by Nakamura and enjoy seeing the little worm wriggle.

I loved seeing Nakamura tug at Kasuga’s emotional boundaries and leave him floundering. Her mere presence was enough to leave him quaking and it was understandable because next to the normal girls who he knows she is just insane. Aggressive to adults and other kids and threatening to flameout with her barely suppressed anger.

Nakamura initially seemed like some sort of twisted monster but by the end of the show she is somewhat humanised as being as equally immature as everyone else when we see her diary. My prediction that Nakamura really felt a connection to Kasuga was bang on target and while her behaviour is never really explained I’m okay with that because real life people aren’t so clean cut and motivations aren’t easily defined.

The final episode was a let-down. After all of the careful build-up and tension the final rushing flash-forward was poorly done. Did it represent Kasuga imagining a future together with Nakamura as chief-Deviant and he fulfilling the role of her sh*tty doll or a teaser for the second season for the show? If it’s the latter, why give all of the major plot points away? The best aspect of the show was waiting to see what Nakamura would do next. I’ve got her whole damn criminal record lodged in my memory now. Maybe it’s telling us to read the manga…

Anyway, second season or not, I thought this was a superior show. Totally different from all the moeblob/mecha crap I veer away from. A really bitter and funny take on adolescence and the way we feel everybody is a sh*thead without realising that we’re just as bad.

4.5/5

Attack on Titan is my anime of the season. It’s so damn exciting and while it hasn’t finished I’m going to give it a short look.

From episode 1 I was hooked. The atmosphere is fantastic. Great character designs and short, sharp, unique characterisation creates people we care about or at least can recognise before they get eaten by horrific titans. Eren misses a lot of the battles so the side characters and the tactics they deploy get developed and the tension just keeps rising. Fantastic animation and design which, even if the quality dips, always delights the eye and seeing the characters fly through the air will never get tired.

And that soundtrack. That glorious f*cking soundtrack full of choirs wailing, trumpets surging and electronic screeching. It was perfect. Just when you thought your emotions couldn’t soar any higher during an inspiring speech or seeing characters zip through the air, or plunge any lower at the terror of seeing some freakish looking Titan pluck a human from the ground and munch them, Hiroyuki Suwano’s soundtrack will take you on an epic emotional ride.

From the end of episode 4 to episode 13 we have had one long battle where people have thrown themselves into the fray knowing it could all end badly. There has been a lot of despair but by the end of the battle people have proven themselves and humanity has shown that it can fight back. The anime will now expand its world and I can only imagine it getting better.

Plus more Rivaille (눈‸눈)

4.5/5

I actually started watching Suisei no Gargantia and I have been pretty impressed with the first six episodes but I might not finish it. I found this awesome AMV so here it is:

Ah! Summer. Although I hate the heat I feel the potential of life now more than ever before. This week has been quite a good one. Nice weather, eating out and work has been fun because I met a gorgeous Japanese woman and a gorgeous Spanish woman during/after work while I was all dressed up kind of like Ryan Gosling in Only God Forgives, white shirt, black trousers, tie and all. Speaking of work (and getting back to films), I joined the film club and have managed to talk the organisers into screening anime and Japanese short films! Potential!

It’s weeks like these I appreciate life and what I have so I’ll try and up the work rate. I managed a good rate of anime with Sunday Without God episode 2, Attack on Titan episode 14 and It’s Not My Fault I’m Unpopular episode 2. I watched some indie Japanese flicks and Source Code. Even better and I even got to watch Pacific Rim which was fun and appealed to the mecha fan in me and it reminded me that Rinko Kikuchi is a great actress and a goddess. Expect more first impressions and film reviews as I round-up reviews from the Terracotta Far East Film Festival (at the insistence of someone important) and start covering newer Japanese films and doramas. This week I posted about Gatchaman Crowds which is awesome and did a spring 2013 anime round-up.

What’s released today in Japan? J-HORROR!!!!

Pet Peeve (English Title) / Seeds of Anxiety (Literal Title)

Japanese Title: 不安の種

Romaji: Fuan no Tane

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 87 mins.

Director: Toshikazu Nagae

Writer: Masaaki Nakayama (Original Manga), Toshikazu Nagae (Screenplay)

Starring: Anna Ishibashi, Kenta Suga Koudai Asaka, Kanji Tsuda

J-HORROR! This looks so damn awesome! Ah, a horror manga adaptation! This omnibus movie comes from Toshikazu Nagae (Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night) who is adapting Masaaki Nakayama’s horror manga collection which is full of creepy tales. How do I know? I actually remember some of them, so they must have been effective. It stars Anna Ishibashi (Milocrorze – A Love Story), Koudai Asaka (The Kirishima Thing, Lesson of the Evil) and Kanji Tsuda who has worked with great directors like Beat Takeshi, Takeshi Miike and SABU.

When a motorbike accident occurs it unleashes a series of strange phenomenon which Yoko (Ishibashi) can see.

The Flower of Shanidar                            

Japanese Title: シャニダール　の　花

Romaji: Shanidaru no Hana

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 87 mins.

Director: Gakuryu Ishii

Writer: Gakuryu Ishii, Hiroaki Jinno, Tomoaki Tanaka (Screenplay)

Starring: Gou Ayano, Haru Kuroki, Kanji Furutachi, Ayumi Ito, Rio Yamashita, Yuiko Kariya

I have reviewed two films by Gakuryu Ishii and they were both hugely different. Isn’t Anyone Alive? Was a slow moving quiet Armageddon film while Angel Dust was a deliciously twisting serial killer thriller. Unlike someone like Kiyoshi Kurosawa who is quite easy to identify from his visuals, Ishii’s diverse range of films are hard to categorise. This one is even more different than expected, a quiet sci-fi romance. It stars Gou Ayano (A Story of Yonosuke), Haru Kuroki (Tokyo Oasis, The Great Passage, The Wolf Children), Kanji Furutachi (The Woodsman and the Rain), Ayumi Ito (Penance)

The Shanidar Institute is is home to a strange process where a beautiful flower blooms on a selected woman’s body. These flowers go under the name Shanidar  and when they are n full bloom they are harvested and sold to drugs companies for high costs. A rookie botanist named Otaki (Ayano) and his colleague Kyoko (Kuroki), who is a therapist, both work for the Shanidaru Institute. They come to question their employer when it comes to light that constantly harvesting these flowers causes great strain on and even the death of the women hosting these plants.

The Wind Rises                              

Japanese Title: 風立ちぬ

Romaji: Kaze Tachi Nu

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 126 mins.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Writer: Hayao Miyazaki (Screenplay)

Starring: Hideaki Anno, Miori Takimoto, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Masahiko Nishimura, Steven Alpert, Morio Kazama, Keiko Takeshita,

This is the big release for many. It has been five years since Hayao Miyazaki’s last film, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea. Since then he has written scripts and manga. He’s back with a new film which tells the story of Jirou Horikoshi, the designer of Japan’s famous Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane of World War II. We witness his upbringing and his struggles with poverty, an earthquake and war and his relationship with a woman named Naoko Satomi who is suffering from tuberculosis. Jirou Horikoshi is voiced by Evangelion creator Hideaki Anno. He is surrounded by live-action actors like Hidetoshi Nishijima (Zero Focus), his co-star Miori Takimoto (Sadako 3D 2, Rinco’s Restaurant). UPDATE: Alua posted the full trailer which will be found below.

With the full trailer I get a better sense of the film and the story I’m more excited about it than I previously was.

Short Peace                                                           

Japanese Title:　ショート　ピース

Romaji: Sho-to Pi-su

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 68 mins.

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo, Shuhei Morita, Hiroak Ando, Hajime Katoki

Writer: Shuichi Ohara

Starring: Saori Hayami, Yuki Midori, Takeshi Kusao, Fuka Haruna, Ryotaro Okiayu, Akio Otsuka,

Short Peace is an omnibus film which collects four short films directed by four different directors. The biggest name is Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Steamboy) who also directed Mushishi. Other directors attached to the project include Shuhei Morita who handled part of the freedom OVA, Hiroaki Ando who was CGI director on Steamboy.

The stories are all about the theme of Japan and stretch from a tale of a controversial marriage that ends in a fiery blaze in Edo era Japan to the tale of a man lost deep in the mountains who encounters Mononoke, a terrible demon during the Sengoku period. The other stand out looking tale is a sci-fi one set in Tokyo in the near future where a platoon of soldiers encounter a mysterious weapon.

Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro Nagurikomi! Gekijōban Makai-hen kōhen         

Japanese Title: 怪談新耳袋殴り込み！劇場版　魔界編　後編

Romaji: Shin Kaidan Mimibukuro Nagurikomi! Gekijōban Makai-hen Zenpen

Release Date: July 13^th, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Rikio Ichikawa, Aoki Katsunori

Writer: N/A

Starring: Ginti Kobayashi, Go Goto, Aoki Katsunori, Rikio Ichikawa, Yukihiko Yamaguchi, Ichiro Nakayama

The guys behind the Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro Nagurikomi! Are back again after last week’s foray to Okinawa. This tie they are hunting for ghosts on Miyako Island in Okinawa prefecture.

Things Left Behind/Those Who Were Bereaved by Hiroshima    

Japanese Title: ひろしま　石内都・遺されたものたち

Romaji: Hiroshima Ishiuchi-to Nokosa Reta Mono-tachi

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 80 mins.

Director: Linda Hoaglund

Writer: N/A

Starring: Miyako Ishiuchi

Linda Hoaglund is an American director/producer who was born and raised in Japan by her missionary parents. She has many links to the country’s film industry including the fact that she was subtitler for Tokyo Sonata and Bright Future, Spirited Away and After Life, four awesome films! Her documentary (according to IMDB), Things Left Behind explores the effect of Hiroshima through an international art exhibit devoted to the atomic bomb that took place at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, Canada. It featured 48 large-format colour photographic prints of clothing once worn by victims of the bomb. These pictures were taken by Miyako Ishiuchi who went through the Hiroshima Peace Memorial archive to get the pictures. Here’s a video from the exhibition that gives an insight into what might be seen. Here’s Linda in an interview about the film.

Children of Soleil                                               

Japanese Title: ソレイユ　の　こどもたち

Romaji: Soreiyu no Kodomo-tachi

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 104 mins.

Director: Yoichiro Okutani

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

A bit of psycho-geography! Floating along the Tama River in Tokyo is an old man and a boat load of dogs. Said old man repaired a motorboat and lives with his dog Soleil and sail up and down the river which flows out into Tokyo Bay. We see his world view and the changes in the landscape.

CULT                                        

Japanese Title: カルト

Romaji: Karuto

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Koji Shiraishi

Writer: Koji Shiraishi (Screenplay)

Starring: Mayuko Iwasa, Yu Abiru, Mari Iriki, Natsumi Okamoto, Mari Hayashida, Hajime Inoue, Ryosuke Miura,

J-HORROR! Koji Shiraishi loves scaring idols in his horror films. Noroi the Curse featured idols, White Eyes featured idols and the Ada Senritsu hen/Ada Zetsubou hen films released last week featured idols. Seeing pretty girls get chased by ghosts can be pretty fun. In this film  Mayuko Iwasa (Milocrorze – A Love Story) is a reporter who covers the exorcism of a mother and daughter. NEO is the psychic conducting the exorcism but the spirit proves far more powerful than anybody anticipated. This looks like fun.

GARO Side Story: Whistle of the Phantom Peach  

Japanese Title: 牙狼外伝　桃幻の笛

Romaji: Kibaōkami Gaiden Momo Maboroshi no Fue

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 61 mins.

General Director: Keita Amemiya, Director: Akira Ohashi

Writer: Keita Amemiya (Original Work), Hisako Tohei (Screenplay)

Starring: Yasue Sato, Mary Matsuyama, Masahiro Kuranuki, Kanji Tsuda

I posted a GARO trailer earlier this year and it has proven to be quite popular. Keita Amemiya’s tokusatsu title gets a sequel. This is the fourth movie according to the GARO wikia and it is set after the events of Makai Chronicles and concurrently in Demon Dragon of the Blue Cries (the last GARO film), this story focusses on the adventures of the Makai Priests, Jabi (Sato) and Rekka (Matsuyama), masters of magic and medicine, as they journey towards the northern forests to protect the mystical Whistle of the Phantom Peach.

The End of the Beginning and the Beginning of the End     

Japanese Title: ハジマリノオワリ　おわりのはじまり

Romaji: Hajimari no Owari Owari no Hajimari

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Satoshi Takagi

Writer: Satoshi Takagi (Screenplay)

Starring: Takashi Yuki, Nobushige Suematsu, Masayuki Maekawa, Kohei Takamura, Masaki Sunaoshi, Erika Nagamine

Not too sure about my translation but from the details this is that it’s a collection of stories about the last moment in the lives of various people. It’s directed by Satoshi Takagi who wrote the screenplay for the horror flick WiLD ZERO (wow, that’s going back some years) and stars Takashi Yuki (Tokyo Island, Into a Dream) amongst others.

Summer Begins                              

Japanese Title: 夏がはじまる

Romaji: Natsu ga Hajimaru

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 55 mins.

Director: Shin Togashi

Writer: Megumi Matsumoto, Ai Igarashi (Screenplay)

Starring: Emi Saito, Toshihiko Sakuma, Ryoko Asakura, Setsu Hashimoto, Rino

Shin Togashi is directing the big screen adaptation of Oshin which will be released later this year. That’s a historical drama. Before that, he gets this short film out with a bunch of unknown actors. This is a very contemporary tale about a dysfunctional family. It all starts when the parents’ divorce and the kids are split up with the grandmother looking after them until she is put into a care home with dementia. People marry, get into debt and the main protagonist simply longs to move away to Tokyo to get away from it all.

Pacific Rim                                                        

Japanese Title:　パシフィック　リム 

Romaji: Pashifikku Rimu

UK Release Date: July 04^th, 2013

Running Time: 132 mins.

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Writer: Guillermo del Toro, Travis Beacham

Starring: Charlie Hunnan, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Burn Gorman, Max Martini, Robert Kazinsky, Clifton Collins Jr., Mana Ashida

I like Guillermo del Toro films. I’ve seen Hellboy 1 & 2, The Devil’s Backbone, Chronos and Pan’s Labyrinth in a cinema. Deep down he’s a fanboy like me, a guy who grew up reading and watching everything from anime to gothic fiction. Pacific Rim reflects his love for the distinctly Japanese mecha and kaiju-eiga genres. Giant robots vs giant monsters. Think Gigantor vs Godzilla. I know my mecha. I grew up in love with tales like Patlabor, Evangelion, Gasaraki and Macross (not so much Gundam) and I’m partial to a bit of giant monster carnage so trust me when I tell you that this genre mash-up is God-tier.

Warning, this is a long babbling review listing loads of stuff I loved and loads of Gifs that I created to celebrate it.

Kaiju: Japanese for giant beasts, Jaeger: German for hunter

Humanity expected alien life to come from the stars but instead it came from an inter-dimensional portal in the Pacific Ocean. These aliens were giant monster who caused widespread destruction as they attacked San Francisco, Manila and other coastal cities around the world. They were termed Kaiju.

Humanity responded with the Jaeger programme, giant nuclear-powered walking robots that could equal the power of the Kaiju. Controlling these machines placed a tremendous mental strain on a single pilot so two pilots were needed to share the mental load by joining their minds together in a connection established by The Drift, a mind meld that shares memories and thoughts. The stronger the connection between the two pilots, the better the performance of the Jaeger.

Raleigh (Hunnan) and Yancy Becket are brothers and hot-shot superstars in their Jaeger Gipsy Danger but a tragic event happens in battle leaving Raleigh the sole survivor. Things get worse as more and more Kaiju are teleporting in and destroying the Jaegers while Earth’s governments are cutting funding of the Jaeger programme. Raleigh is devastated by his loss and he retreats from the world but is called back by his former commander Stacker Pentecost (Elba) and Mako Mori (Kikuchi) who are pulling together the last of the Jaegers to Hong Kong for a last ditch attack on the portal in the Pacific. Raleigh is faced with having to get over the loss of his brother and has to work quickly with Mako Mori to get back into the fight as humanity makes its last stand.

First of all, the visuals are like a sugar-rush overload for an otaku and anyone who loves a spectacle. I was frothing at the mouth because the world of Pacific Rim, from set design to cinematography, is delivered with visual aplomb and such great attention to detail that it beats Hollywood films like Avatar in terms of its looks. The visuals are bright and dazzling and blaze with life. Although a lot of action takes place in the sea or at night, there are always different shades of light and dark and seeing them mix creates flashy highly charged tone that pulses with energy with all sorts of colours picking out details in the dark and keeping track of the action is never a problem.

The sense of scale is brought home magnificently in every shot. Most commonly it is given by the way the mecha and monsters travel through neon cityscapes. Imagine seeing huge monsters striding over you as they toss debris like cars and bridges around them (usually at the camera) and carve their way through modern cities. It can be pretty dizzying. Now imagine seeing towering robots heft a huge oil-tanker for a sword before beating the monster into a pulp. It can be pretty awesome. The camera is always in the right place to convey the scale of the action from the coolest point available. There is also so much military porn going on from the ranks of assembled soldiers to jets and helicopters airlifting the Jaegers that the little boy in me was too excited. The Shatterdome, the base which houses the Jaegers, is well-realised and like a more industrial NERV headquarters with its huge hangers, and its control room packed full of colourful computers.

The end is coming, do you want to die here or do you want to die in a Jaegar?

The Kaiju are some of the most imaginative beasts seen on the big screen in a long time. Forget the monster in Cloverfield, these precision-engineered weapons that range from category-1 to 5 and are all modelled on the plodding heavyweight sea beasts and dragons seen in classic kaiju-eiga. Quite frankly, watching these things in action was gut-churning not least because their sense of scale and destructiveness was so well-captured. Just because they come from the sea doesn’t mean that they are stuck there. The whole roster is made up of brutal brawlers and there are large differences in terms of the way they each move and fight. Some have thick armour with protruding spikes, some spit acid and shoot electro-magnetic energy and all have no problem tearing through a city and getting into a wrestling match! Seeing these blighters square up for a round of destruction is truly terrifying especially given the high impact the visual and aural aspects of the film. They crash and bash their way through cities and let out screeching cries and can be quite intimidating to watch.

Thankfully humanity has an answer to this alien onslaught in the form of Jaegers and their brave pilots. With cool World War II sounding names like Gipsy Danger, Crimson Typhoon and Striker Eureka, these giant mecha reflect the country that built them with the Russian Jaeger looking like a Soviet era factory, huge fists and heavy armour and the American one looks flashy and stylish. They also have a variety of weapons like chainsaws and plasma cannons but tend to go in with fists (propelled by rockets!) flying. It’s totally fun watching the giant combatants fight and satisfying when seeing Gipsy Danger and the other Jaegers deliver a haymaker. Expect to hear much metal grinding and crashing! It wasn’t all about looking cool though as a real sense of danger and vulnerability was felt on the part of the pilots during the fights. The monsters strike hard and unexpectedly and seeing humanity’s defenders panic and get overwhelmed was pretty grim stuff. One of the themes of the film is humanity working together and the designs and ideas in the show come together perfectly as can be seen in the next image.

The visual splendour and detail extends to the insides of the Jaegers with different styles depending up the type. The pilots suit up in sexy plug suits that rival anything in anime. If the giant robots were to be built in real life then this is a pretty convincing demonstration of how they can be controlled with the harness systems and an AI that sounds straight from the videogame Portal 2. Seeing two pilots work as one in their harnesses was cool and it brought home the amount of synchronism that would be required. Seeing their moves replicated by the Jaegers was even cooler.

Let’s be clear now, this is a beat-em up not a bleakie or a high class drama. Giant robots and monsters battle and it looks totally cool. Do we care? Thanks to the pilots, we do!

Jaegers are only as good as their pilots

The cast is pitch-perfect. For once in a big screen blockbuster I cared about the cast as much as the visuals and action. Another thing that I really liked about the film was the genuinely international cast with all sorts of nations like the US, UK, Australia, Japan, China and Russia represented. It’s a very diverse group and it’s not just square-jawed military types as well as we get black-marketeers (del Toro regular Ron Perlman in a humorous role), a toff English scientist (I say!) and normal citizens from Hong Kong. Seeing all of their stories gave a greater sense of the world which reinforced the feeling of being under siege and having to unite.

The entire cast of characters are likeable and have cool names. Charlie Hunnan as Raleigh Becket is probably one of the most likeable heroes in a big special effects movie I have seen. He’s a good-natured and good-looking without being bland. A relatable guy who you root for and believe could pull the world from the brink of an apocalypse.

Idris Elba as Stacker Pentecost is both fierce and intelligent but can convey enough vulnerability to humanise his character. He gave of Gendo Ikari vibes with his enigmatic behaviour but he is capable of making mistakes and seeming uncertain. Fortunately, he can also listen to others around him. After witnessing his strong physical presence (who else could square up to Charlie Hunnan?) and after listening to his speeches, I think you’ll agree that we would want him to be the guy leading humanity’s resistance.

Rinko Kikuchi as Mako Mori has to be one of the best female protagonists going in recent sci-fi. She is just as tough, dependable, intelligent and as fierce as the men and is not reduced to just being the girlfriend in a tossed together love story. She is an equal to the guys and actually surpasses many, if not all of them. Although the narrator is Raleigh Becket and we follow his story, we get more of an idea of Mako Mori and her background. She gets to go through a training arc, overcome personal demons, struggle and survive against all sorts of emotional and physical turmoil. She also gets to ogle Raleigh when he’s half-naked instead of it being the other way around. She’s a strong female! Rinko Kikuchi convinced me that she was a brilliant actress in Norwegian Wood and she has now ascended to the top of my favourite female protagonists with her performance here. On top of looking good in a plug suit, she comfortably displays a range of emotions ranging from dutifulness and diligence to a good-natured crush.

The whole ensemble are perfect!

Overall I enjoyed the movie so much I have been dreaming about it. I can imagine people expecting Pan’s Labyrinth will be disappointed but then they should have watched the trailer. The film has more heart and intelligence than your average sci-fi blockbuster like Transformer and Avatar and is a good-natured and earnest attempt at bringing too seriously cool and overlooked film genres to a mainstream audience. Everything flows smoothly and the visuals are spectacular. Guillermo del Toro has created a film dripping with love for classic monsters and robots, a great live-action anime. If Evangelion were to be made, del Toro would be the man for the directing job. Don’t expect anything too complex from the script, just go in for the action and spectacle and have fun!

4/5