The Japanese embassy screens films once a month and I used to report on them because many of these titles are the type that never leave Japan. I stopped once I actually arrived in Japan and became a huge tourist but now I’m getting back into writing about films I want to alert people to the latest screening before it disappears!
Here’s the information from the embassy’s events page:
This film was directed by Eizo Sugawa who is famous in the West for the crime film The Beast Shall Die (1974) and the musical You Can Succeed, Too (1964) which was included in a season of Japanese musicals programmed by Japan Society New York (which I published an article about almost a year ago to this day). It is based on the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel of the same name which was written by Teru Miyamoto. It’s a story of the friendships and first love of a fourteen-year-old boy and, according to the site, the title is literal since there is a “a spectacular scene of millions of fireflies brings the film to its climax.”
No trailer…
Synopsis from the embassy’s site: The story is set in beautiful scenery in Toyama prefecture, Japan’s Hokuriku region. During the winter of 1962, a junior high school boy, Tatsuo, is distracted from preparing for his high school entrance exams by thoughts about his dream girl, Eiko. To make matters worse, creditors descend upon Tatsuo’s house as his father, Shigetatsu, once a prosperous merchant, has failed in business. The family now lives in poverty. On a snowy day in April, Tatsuo and Eiko stroll together, repressing their burning desire for each other. Eiko remembers a piece of folklore she once heard from Shigetatsu: If heavy snow falls in April, a huge swarm of fireflies will appear at the upper reaches of the river which flows through the town, and any man and woman who chance to witness the scene together must eventually marry… Spring arrives in the north, but it robs Tatsuo of the two people closest to him.
The event takes place on March 30th at 6.30pm. The location is the Embassy of Japan in the UK, 101 – 104 Piccadilly, London W1J 7JT and you can find out how to book tickets with this link.
The Japan Foundation sent out information on a free film screening at the Prince Charles Cinema just off Leicester Square. Japan, film, and the filmmakers at a great cinema? And it’s all free? It looks like a fascinating event covering the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. It’s a documentary made by a pair of British directors who travelled to Sendai to see how a football team gave hope to people in the shattered area and the aftermath. The filmmakers will be present for a Q&A.
Here’s more information including a trailer:
Vegalta: Soccer, Tsunami and the Hope of a Nation
Japanese Release Date: February 18th, 2017
Running Time:64 mins.
Director: Douglas Hurcombe, Geoff Trodd,
Writer:Douglas Hurcombe, Geoff Trodd, Ben Timlett,
Starring:Brian Cox (Narrator), Kanako Abe, Shingo Akamine, Takeo Azumi, Sean Carroll, Hana Endo, Kana Endo, Kanta Endo, Masao Endo, Shinichi Endo, Jiro Kamata, Masamoto Katagiri, Kenta Kobori, Shoichiro Kumagai, Gary Lineker,
Six years after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 2011, the Japan Foundation presents a screening of Vegalta: Soccer, Tsunami and the Hope of a Nation, a documentary telling the story of how a Japanese football club and their legendary fans set out on the long road to rebuild their hometown.
On 5 March 2011, Vegalta Sendai, a professional football team based in the north-eastern region of Japan, opened their 2011 campaign. Still newly promoted to the top flight of Japanese football, the team’s focus was very much on survival. Six days later, the word took on a distinctly different meaning.
British filmmakers Douglas Hurcombe and Geoff Trodd travelled to Sendai to capture this remarkable story, following the response of both the team and its supporters in the aftermath of the disaster. Featuring interviews with the team’s staff, players and supporters, as well as former Japanese league player Gary Lineker OBE, the film demonstrates how the team’s activities both on and off the pitch not only helped give the city renewed hope, but would capture the imagination of the footballing world. In the run up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, this film illustrates how sports can be close to people’s hearts and be instrumental in bringing communities together.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the film’s producer Ben Timlett and co-director Geoff Trodd.
The event takes place at the Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London WC2H 7BY and the date is April 05th at 18:30. This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To book your place via Eventbrite, please click here
This might sound like damning a film with faint praise but, Love and Goodbye and Hawaii is a nicely shot simple tale about a woman slowly coming to the realisation that a relationship with her ex-boyfriend may well and truly be dead and she faces the decision of whether to resurrect it or move on.
The aforementioned woman is Rinko (Ayu Ayano), a bespectacled twenty-something who works in an office. She has been living with her ex-boyfriend Isamu (Kentaro Tamura), a graduate student, for three years. Indeed, the two have chosen to live together even after they broke up because their situation is comfortable. Although they separate their shared bedroom with a rack of clothes and sleep in different futons on opposite sides of the room, they interact with each other like a regular couple.Meals are a friendly affair complete with conversation that drifts between academia, work, and their past relationship. They exercise together at her behest as she struggles with a diet. He asks for advice about his thesis which he struggles with. She cooks for them, her meals proving to be popular with Isamu when she puts effort into them.
Rinko justifies staying in Isamu’s apartment as a way of saving money while she looks for somewhere else to move to but friends, family and the audience will see through that as an excuse. She still loves Isamu and these feelings are brought into sharp relief when Rinko finds out that a young student who studies with Isamu named Kasumi (Aoi Kato) has feelings for him and it seems Isamu is becoming attracted to her. Rinko wakes up to the tough decision of whether to let Isamu go or fight for her love.
Premiering in Osaka Asian Film Festival’s Indie Forum section, it went on to become the winner of the Japan Cuts Award which is given to a title that “displays the most exciting and unique vision.” Despite its unwieldy title (a direct translation from the Japanese), Western audiences might wonder what makes it so unique what with its rather humdrum storyline. Indeed, one might be forgiven for ducking out on this if faced with a busy schedule at a festival but Love and Goodbye and Hawaii is charming, a complete package of good direction, musical choices and a strong central performance that makes it a pleasant 94 minutes.
Matsumura works with his own script and ensures that the story features enough time spent with the couple and their friends and family to round them out as individuals. Isamu is charming in his geeky way, a gentle and sensitive soul who is pretty sociable when he is not lost in books about ancient poets. Kentaro Tamura imbues him with a guardedness and slight sentimentality that makes the moments when he and Rinko share a fun and laughter together a moment of bright and honest clarity and keeps the audience guessing as to his true feelings about his former love.
The film, however, rests on the loveable performance of Aya Ayano, a relatively new actress, who we follow on a journey from lackadaisical in love to focussed like a laser beam as she comes to realise she risks losing Isamu.
Pitched somewhere between hapless and helpless, she slowly discovers that her purpose is to get or get over Isamu through encounters with others. These encounters run from the often-seen drunk female whose moment of inhibition puts things in perspective, to a her younger sister who matter-of-factly laments her older sister’s situation. From Rinko’s early blasé behaviour borne by blindness to the passage of time, to her final determined push, Ayano’s cute face and gentle mannerisms carry proceedings and engagingly show strong signs of emotional developments which makes the film worth watching.
Her loving gestures of care which she shows to Isamu without him realising, her constant redefinition of the word maybe when asked about the state of her feelings for her ex show – sometimes it means something close to never in love and at others it means close to extremely in love – all rock against the craggy emotional shore of her inability to get over him while it is clear that Isamu might be drifting away from her. The look of contentment on her face, often shown in close-ups, is enough to tell this is the state of affairs which is why the moments when Ayano has realisations that the flow of time is separating them are affecting. She looks over old photographs of their courtship and discovers Kasumi’s love letter, it causes startling looks of genuine pain to cross her face. It hurts her and that feeling will be caught be anyone in an audience who has been in a similar situation or anyone capable of empathy. She won’t give up without a fight and this leads to some interesting “confrontations” with both Kasumi and Isamu. This being a film about gentle people, it plays out in a low-key way but the resolution is quietly beautiful.
This traipse through Rinko’s everyday love-life has the feel of Naoko Ogigami’s film Rentaneko (2012) or Daihachi Yoshida’s film, Permanent Nobara (2010). Both films feature female leads struggling to overcome the inertia of loves lost and cloudy aspirations and both have a similar laid-back tone that leads to a powerful ending. While Love and Goodbye and Hawaii isn’t in the same league as those two in terms of emotional punches, the way it has been put together for the screen suggests that director Shingo Matsumura has the potential to get there.
The airy spring-time cinematography from Raita Minorita gives a gentle and caring tone for the film which clearly respects its characters whom audiences will be allowed to empathise with. The overall feeling is calm despite the potential for emotional turmoil. It feels true to life but some may want something more exciting from the plot but as we watch Rinko be sweetly embraced by the sun as she cycles off at the end, audiences will surely be charmed by Ayano’s winning performance and they will want to embrace her as well. Love and Goodbye, indeed. What about Hawaii? That’s where happy people get married, or didn’t you know?
It’s 23:49 in Osaka and I want to go to sleep but I have important news! The Japan Film Festival Ireland has reached its ninth year and this year’s addition features anime, dramas, and mediums. There are 21 in all and each movie I would like to see. The screenings take place in Dundalk, Cork, Galway, Maynooth, Sligo, Limerick, Dublin, and Waterford and so people in Ireland will get to see really great examples of Japanese cinema.
Here’s the lowdown on the various films being screened. Click on the titles to be taken to the festival page which has more information:
I have been surprised by the power of this one as it tears through UK cinemas and earns lots of critical acclaim. There are many anime movies released in Japan but this one looks far more interesting than the rest of the pack. It is a story about a bully who tries to redeem himself by asking for forgiveness from his target, a girl who is deaf. This comes from Kyoto Animation (watch Hyouka, an awesome TV anime, to get to know them) and it’s directed by Naoko Yamada, one of the most promising female directors going. It has toured the UK as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme and it was at the Glasgow International Film Festival. I hope it’s programmed by the festival I work for.
Synopsis from the Japan Foundation festival site:Shoko, a young Deaf student, transfers to a new school where she is bullied by Shoya for her hearing impairment. While Shoya originally leads the class in bullying Shoko, the class soon turn on him for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other again, but Shoya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shoko once more to atone for his sins – but is it already too late?
I watched the first few episodes of this when it originally aired on Crunchyroll and dropped it so I have no real idea about what is happening with the story.
Synopsis:The year is 2026 and the popularity of Virtual Reality is in decline aspeople flock to games all featuring Augmented Reality (AR). A new AR machine called Augma is developed to compete against the VR machines like NerveGear and its successor, the Amusphere. The AUGMA is considered far more user-friendly than its rivals, making it an instant hit on the market and the most popular game on the system is “Ordinal Scale.” Kirito, Asuna, and their friends, having survived the experiences of VR will explore this new world and find themselves in danger when the lines between the virtual and the real begin to blur….
This was at the Tokyo International Film Festival when I was in the city but I didn’t get the chance to see it. Truth be told, I wasn’t that interested. Reviews for it paint a picture of a great family drama (this one for example), however, and it’s down to the actors Rie Miyazawa (Pale Moon, Twilight Samurai), Joe Odagiri (Bright Future, Mushishi), and Hana Sugisaki (Pieta in the Toilet).
Synopsis: Futaba and her daughter Azumi live in a house connected to their family-run bathhouse in a small town. Their used to be three people in their family but husband and father Kazuhiro left them for another woman and since then, the bathhouse has been closed. Everything changes when Futaba is diagnosed with terminal cancer, giving her only months to live. The approach of death fires her up to make the most of her remaining time. She develops a head of steam and becomes determined to reunite her family, reopen the bathhouse, and take care of her daughter. Her journey will uncover new friends and secrets as she makes peace with the world before leaving it.
Director Sunao Katabuchi is riding high on the global critical and box-office success of In this Corner of the World which, alongside A Silent Voice, has shown that anime is still a vibrant and important voice in the world of cinema. Long time fans will probably know him for his work on the TV anime Black Lagoon and Cardcaptor Sakura and the more hardcore will probably be familiar with his feature film, Mai Mai Miracle, which I absolutely adored. This particular anime is new to me but I’m excited to see that it will be released on DVD and Blu-ray across the UK in 2017 thanks to Anime Limited. Another potential pick-up for the festival I work for? Hopefully. The chance to see it in a cinema is not one to pass up so folks in Ireland should give it a shot.
Synopsis from the festival site:A curious young princess who finds herself cloistered by royal protocolusually watches the outside world from her window butsometimes she sneaks out of the palace and sometimes she escapes into the books she hides under her bed. Eager suitors, tasked with retrieving magical objects, come to court her, but do not charm her: “They will make you hate yourself if you listen to them for long enough,” warns a wise, old witch. When the princess’ father is tricked into giving her hand to a sorcerer, she is imprisoned in a tower. Will her blossoming friendship with a serving girl allow her to outfox the magician?
This is based on a collection of short stories by Yasushi Sato, a writer from Hakodate, Hokkaido. He is known for commiting suicide, something which may have happened because, despite being nominated for the Akutagawa prize and Mishima prize multiple times, he missed his mark and remianed relatively unknown. Not only that, he suffered autonomic ataxia, a neurological condition that causes all sorts of unwanted physical reactions. He committed suicide at the age 41 in 1990 and these short stories were collected and published posthomously. Apparently, they are set in a fictional city based on Hakodate. His name might be familiar to people in the UK and Ireland because another of his books, The Light Shines Only There, was adapted for the screen and toured the world including the British Isles.
This film was brought to the screen by the writer/director partnership of Kazuyoshi Kumakiriand Takashi Ujita (Watashi no Otoko, Blazing Famiglia) and stars a whole host of great actors and actresses.
Synopsis from the festival site: New Year’s Eve, Kaitan City. A worker is made redundant due to a downsizing of the city’s shipyard; an old woman refuses to leave her home even though it is in an area planned for redevelopment; a manager of the local planetarium suspects his wife of betrayal; a lonely tram driver tries to understand why his grown-up son never visits; the wife of a neglectful business owner directs her anger with her husband towards their son. Ordinary people, having to deal with the realities of their day-to-day lives, and taking solace in the small comforts that life presents.
This is another film that was at the Tokyo International Film Festival. I remember the evening I went to see it. I spent the day rambling around Yoyogi Park and the adjacent areas with a friend before going to get curry udon. Poolside Man was one of the hottest indie titles at the fest, getting better word of mouth than Japanese Girls Never Die. I had the pleasure of meeting and getting the autograph og Hirobumi Watanabe at Raindance a few years ago.
Synopsis from the festival site: Yusuke lives a lonely life in a suburb north of Tokyo. He eats breakfast, he drives to work at the local pool, he watches the TV news and listens to the radio. All the while, he barely says a word. Even when he is forced to drive his chatty co-worker Koji to a neighbouring pool, Yusuke just sits in total silence. Beneath this calm but cold exterior, however, there is something dark brewing within Yusuke. As he sits listening to news of atrocities from around the world, there is an anger brewing up inside this young, lonely man.
Confession time. Despite being a newly-minted fan of Miwa Nishikawa (I absolutely adored Wild Berries while I really liked Dear Doctor, Sway, and Dreams for Sale), I passed on the opportunity to see this film during ts release while I lived in Tokyo because I had neither the money or the time. I was in the process of figuring out which city to move to next (Urawa, a couple of months later) and needed to save money. I regret that now because Nishikawa is one of the most interesting filmmakers in Japan and this project has scored some excellent reviews. I’ll be keeping an eye out for its release at a UK festival but it won’t be as special as seeing it in Japan (despite the presence of English subtitles…).
Synopsis from the festival site: Sachio is a very successful but arrogant writer who is cheating on his wife Natsuko. During a trip away, Natsuko and her friend Yuki are killed in a bus accident. Sachio – whose celebrity status has led to media interest in the tragedy – initially finds himself unable to grieve. Ultimately, however, his life begins to fall apart as the reality of his wife’s absence hits him. During the public inquiries into the crash, he encounters Yuki’s husband Yoichi. Yoichi’s job as a truck driver has left him in a tight spot, unable to stay at home with his two young children. Sachio cautiously agrees to look after the kids while their father is out of town.
Koji Fukada’s latest film starsKanji Furutachi (au revoir l’ete, The Woodsman & the Rain)and the awesome Tadanobu Asano (Watashi no Otoko, Vital, Bright Future, Survive Style 5+) who has won awards thanks to his performance in this psychological mystery which has gripped critics from around the world.
Synopsis from IMDB:Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) and Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and their daughter Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa) live a quiet life operating a workshop that is part of their house. Their routine is disrupted when Toshio’s old-friend Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) shows up at the place without a home or a job. What’s the reason? He has just been released from prison. You would think that Toshio would consult Akie before hiring Yasaka and letting him stay in the place but it seems that the two men have history together and Yasaka wants something from Toshio. He begins to meddle in Toshio’s family life and threatens everything…
I have not seen this one and I desperately want to see it. That feeling comes from reading a review a friend of mine wrote many years ago (Alua of Otherwhere). It’s from Ryosuke Hashiguchi who has created two other dramas that are considered high quality: Hush! (2001) and Three Stories of Love (2015).
Synopsis from the festival site: Laid-back Kanao and controlling Shoko are married and have decided to start a family. Realising that his current casual job will not be sufficient to provide for a child, Kanao uses his art school background to obtain a position as a courtroom sketch artist. But just when everything seems to be falling into place for the couple, tragedy strikes. Shoko subsequently falls into a deep depression and while Kanao struggles to cope with how to help her, his career flourishes, resulting in a deepening void between the two.
This was the hot ticket at the Tokyo International Film Festival, a couple of months ago and the reviews at Variety and The Japan Times paint a compelling film full of Japanese pop-culture tropes and cultural criticism about the position of women in society. It later showed up at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. It was directed by Daigo Matsui (How Selfish I Am!).
Synopsis: Cryptic graffiti, featuring information from a missing person poster, begin to appear all over a suburban town. Haruko Azumi (Yu Aoi) is the subject and she has gone missing. She was stuck in a dead-end job and in a one-sided romance with her neighbour but now she has vanished and her disappearance has gone viral across the news and social media thanks to the graffiti cooked up by Manabu and Yukio, two wannabe graffiti artists. They’re soon joined by the giddy 20-year-old Aina, and within days the trio have unexpectedly transformed Haruko’s image into a pop culture phenomenon. After the disappearance of Haruko, a mysterious group of high school girls begins attacking men at random. These two incidents overlap. Are they connected? Witness scenes from the lives of Japanese girls.
Shunji Iwai has made many films across many genres but many of them deal with loneliness and this one is little different as it details the situation of a painfully shy teacher who finds her life becomes intertwined with actors who people hire to play family and friends. It was a great character piece which I reviewed on VCinema. I had the good fortune to see Shunji Iwai at the Tokyo International Film Festival at a screening of his film, Vampire, and the Q&A that followed.
Synopsis from the Festival Site:Nanami is a shy and lonely school teacher who meets Tetsuo online. The pair decide to get married, but Nanami’s lack of friends or relatives proves a source of frustration for her husband-to-be. She is put in touch with Amuro, who runs a business which offers ‘extras’ to pose as friends and fill out crowds at social events. Even though that allows the wedding to proceed, it turns out to be a short-lived marriage, and soon Nanami finds herself alone again. She herself decides to become one of Amuro’s actors, and at one event befriends Mashiro. It’s a friendship that will open up a new world for Nanami, and she is surprised to find herself as an unexpected caretaker for a lavish but vacant mansion…
I can remember writing about this back in November 2013 and not thinking much of the entertainment value but it has steadily wowed critics and earned its way onto various film festival programmes. It has turned out to be a bit of a sleeper hit and it is still going!
Synopsis: Laid-back baby boomer Yuichi (Ryo Iwamatsu) is a middle-aged manga artist and singer-songwriter when he isn’t at his salaryman day job or watching out for his elderly mother Mitsue (Harue Akagi). She is suffering from increasing dementia since her husband’s death and is a constant source of comic energy or annoyance for Yuichi but now he and his son decide to put her in a home for the elderly. The more time she spends in the place with its colourful residents, the more her memories come back. Jumping back in time, we see how Mitsue (Harada) survived the tumult of the latter half of the 20th century, being raised by her parents as one of 10 brothers and sisters, surviving the war, and having to push her alcoholic husband (Kase) along in life. We see the human behind the medical condition.
The film comes from the 2003 novel of the same name by the best-selling writer Keigo Higashino (his books like The Devotion of Suspect X have been published in the UK). It’s billed as a tear-jerker since its story is about two brothers, one a convicted killer and the other a student, their struggle to make better lives for themselves and the obstacles they face such as the shame of being connected to crime.
Synopsis: Tsuyoshi and Naoki are two brothers who have always looked out for each other since they lost their parents. When older brother Tsuyoshi becomes unemployed, he is driven to commit a robbery in order to help Naoki with his university tuition fees and accidently murders. Undergoing a rough life as the brother of a murderer, Naoki begins to despise his sibling for the trouble he caused.
I am curious about why people programme parts of the Monogatari franchise since it’s a labyrinthine story with some many different elements. I’ve watched different strands of the Monogatari anime adaptations but I need a guide to put it all in order since they were animated out of synch. I guess it’s a mark of the quality and how easy they are to understand that they can be taken out of synch and shown independently. The Kizumonogatari films are an adaptation of the third volume in NisiOisin’s Monogatari book series and it is a prequel to Bakemonogatari. Which is where people usually start with the franchise. The novel tells the story of how protagonist Koyomi encounters the female vampire that would turn him and his journey to return to his normal life.
Synopsis from the festival site: In anticipation of the final installment of the Kizumonogatari trilogy, which is premiering at JFF 2017, we present a back-to-back double bill of the acclaimed first two short anime features from the Kizumonogatari youth horror trilogy, which are based on a series of ‘light novels’ written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Vofan. One fateful evening, second year high school student Koyomi Araragi has a shocking meeting with the mysterious Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade, aka the “King of Apparitions”. Blindingly beautiful, yet chillingly terrifying, this legendary blonde and golden-eyed vampire cries out for Koyomi to help her as she lies in a pool of her own blood, all four of her limbs cut off. He must give her his blood to save her, but in doing so finds himself re-born as her vampire kin.
Spoilers for the events of the first two films in the synopsis.
Synopsis from the festival site: With help of Meme Oshino, Koyomi takes back the limbs of Kiss-shot after defeating the three vampire hunters: Dramaturgy, Episode and Guillotinecutter. On seeking out Kiss-Shot, with the intention of becoming human again, she reveals to Koyomi the cold truth of what it means to be a vampire – a creature of the night. Unable to take back what he has done, Koyomi feels nothing but regret and can only deny his dreadful fate. While Koyomi is struggling to face reality, his friend Tsubasa Hanekawa comes to him with a certain plan. Following hot on its Japanese theatrical release in January 2017, the wait is finally over for fans as we present the Irish premiere of Reiketsu, the final part of the Kizumonogatari trilogy.
Mipo O is a director/writer mentioned here, first in 2010 with Quirky Guys and Gals and The Light Shines Only There which was one of my favourite films of 2014/5 and it made its way into my top ten. Her latest film is the adaptation of the book Kimi wa ii ko (You’re a Good Kid). The book is by Hatsue Nakawaki which won the 2012 Tsubota Jōji Literature Award. The book is a collection of five stories about child abuse and people trying to prevent it, each story occurs in the same town and on the same rainy afternoon. The film adapts differet stories into one: Santa no konai ie (The House where Santa Doesn’t Come) and Beppin-san (Pretty Girl).
Synopsis: Okana (Kengo Kora) is a new primary school teacher struggling to deal with his class who is constantly on the receiving end of concerns from the children’s overly-protective parents. Despite feeling out of his depth, when he discovers that one of his pupils is being abused by their parents, he decides that he must do something to help. Akikio, an elderly woman with slight dementia who lives alone, is accused of shoplifting and finds her turned upside down but an encounter with an autistic child gives her a vital human connection that could right her world. Meanwhile in the same city, Masami (Machiko Ono), a housewife whose husband is at work all the time, appears to be a good mother but can’t help lashing out at her own child. Perhaps it is linked to her past with her own mother and the stress of single parenting…
I sawHappy Hour at the London film festival back in 2015 and gave it a review which was full of praise is a film unlikely to get licensed in the West. It did go on to travel across the festival circuit for quite some time and that’s due to it’s quality.
It’s a five hour seventeen minute running time dedicated to showing the lives of four middle-aged women and it has split my friends between those who are absorbed in the minutiae of everyday lives and those who find it goes on too long but I found it all worked.
Fumi (Maiko Mihara), Akari (Sachie Tanaka), Sakurako (Hazuki Kikuchi), and Jun (Rira Kawamura), are four friends. These ladies are in their late 30s and are in relationships of varying sorts but not everybody is happy and so when Jun reveals that she is getting a divorce, well, this kicks off a train of dramatic events that make the women re-evaluate their lives.
Destruction Babies is seemingly the anti-Happy Hour, what with its surging testosterone and predominantly male cast. It’s getting a release in the UK thanks to Third Window Films and I hope to have a review up soon. In the meantime, people in Ireland can watch it and decide what they think of it for themselves. It has a cast worth watching since it stars award-winning actors Yuya Yagira (Nobody Knows), Nana Komatsu (The World of Kanako), Denden (Cold Fish), Sosuke Ikematsu (How Selfish I Am!) and Masaki Suda (The Light Shines Only There, Princess Jellyfish).
Synopsis from Third Window Films: Taira, an unnervingly quiet delinquent teen, mysteriously leaves town right before the coming of age festival. His disappearance doesn’t worry anyone except for younger brother Shota, his only remaining family, who sets off to look for him amidst the faded downtown neon lights.
Taira aimlessly wanders through a nearby city, provoking fights with random bystanders. His violent streak intrigues high schooler Yuya who rallies him to beat up more people. As the night progresses, street-side scuffles soon turn into a sinister game, becoming even more mindless and indiscriminate. The two leave behind a trail of blood and mass confusion.
Shinya Tsukamoto is bringing his passion project, Fires on the Plain to cinemas. It is based upon the 1951 Yomiuri Prize-winning novel of the same name which was then adapted into a film in 1959 by Kon Ichikawa. It took Tsukamoto 20 years to bring his adaptation of the film to the screen and it’s a real passion project considering he has struggled to finance it (subject matter you see in this film isn’t that popular in Japan) and was in charge of many aspects of the filming including directing and acting. Here’s my review of the film.
Synopsis: The film Fires on the Plain follows a demoralised Japanese army in the Philippines. We see how bad things are for the Japanese troops through the desperate struggle of a conscript named Tamura (Tsukamoto) who is sick with TB and forced into the field by a commander who cannot waste resources on a dying man. Tamura doesn’t want to give up so easily and clings to life but it is a struggle that will lead him down a dark path that hint at some of the atrocities carried out by soldiers…
There was a period of the Second World War when many directors returning from combat gave stark and tough critiques of the atrocities that happened and a serious examination of the horror of war. That age has gone by and the Japanese film industry (like most, if we’re honest) is now in the business of producing many more tales of human tragedy such as this one. The venerable director Yoji Yamada brings a heartfelt story of a mother reuniting with her son in the ruins of Nagasaki which is sure to bring tears to the eyes of audience members regardless of politics.
Synopsis: Nobuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) lives in post-war Nagasaki and works as a midwife. She survived the atomic bomb which killed her son Koji (Kazunari Ninomiya), a medical student, three years earlier. She lives along apart from regular visits from Koji’s fiancee Machiko but one night, Koji appears again and gives comfort to his mother and they reminiscence about pleasant times. Their meetings continue and soon they become concerned with helping Machiko move on with life.
The documentary and its director had a very long tour of the UK as part of this year’s Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme. There’s no mention on the website if he will attend any of the screenings so it might be worth checking out the sites of the venues themselves since it’s not impossible.
Synopsis: Tsukiji fish market is famous around the world. It is the largest fish market around with 700 wholesalers selling a huge amount of high quality fish. It has been like this for 80 years. When it was announced that the market was to be closed back in 2014, director Naotaro Endo started shooting and he spent a year capturing the daily operations of the place.
This film appeared at the BFI London Film Festival last year and a lot of critics seemed to love it if the reviews I saw were anything to go by. Not only that but the BBC picked up on the band for a news report.
Synopsis:This is a rock documentary about X-Japan, one of the biggest bands working today. The group started out as childhood friends who formed a musical unit in 1982 and survived over thirty years of hard rock, death, cults, and stratospheric fame to continue today. With a worldwide fan-base, their rock music has captivated audiences worldwide thanks to the awesome music and their stylish costumes and stage sets and the doc ends with a show at Madison Square Garden in New York. Yoshiki, leader of the band, guides us through the history.
The London Korean Film Festival will have a special screening of E Oni’s 2016 thriller “Missing” at the Picturehouse Central cinema in London’s West End. This is the UK premiere and it will take place on Monday, April 10th at 18:30. It is one of two screenings in the lead-up to the next London Korean Film Festival held later in the year to tease audiences as to some of the great films that will be programmed.
Here are the details:
Missing
Running Time: 100 mins.
Director: E Oni/Lee Eon-Hee
Writer:Lee Eon-Hee, Hong Eun-Mi (Screenplay),
Starring:Uhm Ji-won, Kong Hyo-jin, Kim Hee-won, Kim Sun-Young, Park Hae-joon, Seo Eun-A, Jeon Suk-chan, Lee Sung-wook,
Synopsis: Ji-sun (Uhm Ji-Won) is a single mother who is in a fierce custody battle with her physician ex-husband over their daughter Da-eun. Despite the family drama, she still works for her PR company and does this with the help of a recently hiredKorean-Chinese nanny Han-mae (Kong Hyo-jin). After a day at work shereturns home to find that both Da-eun and the nanny are missing.Reluctant to go to the police because of her custody battle, Ji-sun starts searching but what she finds makes her desperate: her nanny has lied about her identity and this situation is far more serious than she had hoped…
To find out more about the film and to book tickets, please visit the site through this link.
This year will be the twelfth that CAMERA JAPAN has been in operation and it is great that the festival is operating since it offers one of the most comprehensive collections of current Japanese cinema. The 2017 festival dates have already been announced:
September 21st-24th Rotterdam September 29th – October 01st Amsterdam
In the run-up to the festival, CAMERA JAPAN are screening a grip of films and this week’s titles are interesting. To find out more about each individual screening, click on the titles/links:
I wrote about this one way back in 2014 and it’s great to see it appear at a festival. According to the site, this film has a universal message about the importance of pursing one’s dream and never giving up. Judging from the synopsis I wrote back then and adapted now, it’s true. The organisers behind CAMERA JAPAN are bringing in the chef Axel de Vries to make vegan Japanese curry for hungry film-goers. The film, curry, Japanese tea and dessert is only 15 euros but reservations for dinner must be made by sending an e-mail to rsvp@camerajapan.nl. QUICK! HURRY!
My first synopsis: AKB48 Team A Captain Yui Yokoyama narrates the story of a woman named Tomomi who who met 3 calves in her elementary school 26 years ago (at the time this was written, it was 2014) in a small and rural area in Niigata Prefecture and was inspired to follow her dream of becoming a vet. Tomomi and her friends took care of them and the children and animals grew to be just like good friends. Tomomi in particular cared for the calves and wanted to be a veterinarian for cattle when she grew up. Tomomi pursued her dream and years later, Tomomi earned her degree, a doctorate of veterinary medicine and became a deeply trusted and highly respected vet in the place she grew up in. Audiences will witness this story of someone who never gave up on her dreams!
Also being screened this week, on Tuesday April 4th and Friday April 7th is:
Search for this drama and you will find old entries dating back to 2011 and that is because the director Shoji Hiroshi made a short film of the same name and it travelled to different film festivals. From that short came this feature about two friends who deal in drugs. This has been picked up by Third Window Films for world sales and release in the UK.
Synopsis from JFDB: Ken (Kato Shinsuke) and Kazu (Maiguma Katsuya) are partners in crime who use a car repair shop as their front for dealing stimulants. Ken tries to make a clean break after his girlfriend Saki (Iijima Shuna) gets pregnant, but Kazu has a secret…
It looks like over-the-top splatter fun and it lasts 62 minutes so the balance sounds about right when compared to the overly-long and incredibly gory splatter-fests released by Sushi-Typhoon (some of which I reviewed during a Summer of Splatter – that burnt me out in terms of Japanese horror films…).
Reviews for this one from horror aficionados such as Ken Wynne over at Attack from Planet B, are glowing:
“Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell meshes the SFX style of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s cult horror Hausu (1977) with the comedy and splatter associated with Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead series.”
It’s well worth reading the rest of the review not least because it has more information on the director who runs his own movie site. Terror-cotta are really getting behind this one by including a lot of interesting extras such as two “behind-the-scenes” clips and a step-by-step look at the work of Graham Humphreys did in making the cover for this. He is a legendary horror movie poster/VHS cover illustrator (THE EVIL DEAD, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET) and his work here hits the mark. There are also the original Japanese trailers, an extensive behind-the-scenes photo gallery and two ‘making of’ video clips.
The film will be released on April 24th and this will be the first time it is available on DVD with English subtitles.
Here’s the trailer and more information from a press release:
Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell AKA The Japanese Evil Dead
地獄の血みどろマッスルビルダー「Jigoku no chimidoro Muscle Builder」
Synopsis: After a surprise phone call interrupts his daily workout, beefy body builder Shinji agrees to meet his photojournalist ex-girlfriend to help with her research on haunted houses. Accompanied by a professional psychic, they visit an abandoned house once owned by Shinji’s father. But inside the house a dark secret lingers and they find themselves trapped and tormented by a relentless ghost with a 30 year grudge …
From the land famous for cursed VHS tapes, comes a ‘forgotten video nasty’. Unleashed from a mysterious Tokyo cellar and available for the first time in the UK, the Bloody Muscle Body Builder invites fans of bizarro, lo-fi cinema on a far out journey … into hell.
DVD Special Features:
From Sketch to Scary: ‘Groovy’ Artwork by Graham Humphreys
Fans of Japanese films will know that one of the biggest and best film festivals in the world for such delights is held every May in Germany. It’s called Nippon Connection and this year’s event marks the seventeenth edition.
The Nippon Connection Film Festival takes place from May 23 to 28, 2017and it will be held in Frankfurt am Main. Exactly a month ago today, the organisers teased some of the 100+ short and feature length films that will be screened. You can count on there being a whole host of premieres and these will be shown in the presence of many directors and actors who will introduce their works to the audience for the first time. According to the organisers, this year’s focus is on documentaries but there are many great dramas that have already been announced.
Here is what has been released so far:
A Silent Voice
koe-no-katachi-film-poster-2
声の形 「Koe no Katachi」
Running Time:129mins.
Director: Naoko Yamada
Writer:Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay), Yoshitoki Ooima(Original Manga)
I have been surprised by the power of this one as it tears through UK cinemas and earns lots of critical acclaim. There are many anime movies released in Japan but this one looks far more interesting than the rest of the pack. It is a story about a bully who tries to redeem himself by asking for forgiveness from his target, a girl who is deaf. This comes from Kyoto Animation (watch Hyouka, an awesome TV anime, to get to know them) and it’s directed by Naoko Yamada, one of the most promising female directors going. It has toured the UK as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme and it was at the Glasgow International Film Festival. I hope it’s programmed by the festival I work for.
Synopsis from the Japan Foundation festival site:Shoko, a young Deaf student, transfers to a new school where she is bullied by Shoya for her hearing impairment. While Shoya originally leads the class in bullying Shoko, the class soon turn on him for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other again, but Shoya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shoko once more to atone for his sins – but is it already too late?
Her Love Boils Bathwater
湯を沸かすほどの熱い愛 「Yu wo wakasuhodo no atsui ai」
Running Time: 125 mins.
Director: Ryota Nakano
Writer:Ryota Nakano(Screenplay),
Starring: Rie Miyazawa, Hana Sugisaki, Taro Suruga, Aoi Ito, Tori Matsuzaka, Joe Odagiri, Yukiko Shinohara,
This was at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year and reviews like this one paint a picture of a great family drama thanks to the actors Rie Miyazawa (Pale Moon, Twilight Samurai), Joe Odagiri (Bright Future, Mushishi), and Hana Sugisaki (Pieta in the Toilet).
Synopsis: Futaba and her daughter Azumi live in a house connected to their family-run bathhouse in a small town. Their used to be three people in their family but husband and father Kazuhiro left them for another woman and since then, the bathhouse has been closed. Everything changes when Futaba is diagnosed with terminal cancer, giving her only months to live. The approach of death fires her up to make the most of her remaining time. She develops a head of steam and becomes determined to reunite her family, reopen the bathhouse, and take care of her daughter. Her journey will uncover new friends and secrets as she makes peace with the world before leaving it.
The Long Excuse
永い言い訳「Nagai Iiwake」
Running Time: 123 mins.
Director: Miwa Nishikawa
Writer:Miwa Nishikawa(Screenplay/Original Novel),
Starring:Masahiro Motoki, Eri Fukatsu, Pistol Takehara, Maho Yamada, Haru Kuroki, Tamaki Shiratori, Kenshin Fujita,
Miwa Nishikawa is one of the best directors working in Japan. Look at her filmography and you will find stand-out films like Wild Berries,Dear Doctor, Sway, and Dreams for Sale. Her latest one is on offer at Nippon Connection and it earned praised from critics. Just as exciting as seeing the film is seeing the director and Miwa Nishikawa will attend the festival!
Synopsis: Sachio is a very successful but arrogant writer who is cheating on his wife Natsuko. During a trip away, Natsuko and her friend Yuki are killed in a bus accident. Sachio – whose celebrity status has led to media interest in the tragedy – initially finds himself unable to grieve. Ultimately, however, his life begins to fall apart as the reality of his wife’s absence hits him. During the public inquiries into the crash, he encounters Yuki’s husband Yoichi. Yoichi’s job as a truck driver has left him in a tight spot, unable to stay at home with his two young children. Sachio cautiously agrees to look after the kids while their father is out of town.
This one was Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s first feature-length film shot outside Japan takes place in France but he returns to the realm of the supernatural which his early work mined for great stories such as Cure, Seance, and Pulse. His lead actor is Tahar Rahim who got his big-break in film with A Prophet. He is supported by good actors like Mathieu Amalric (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
Synopsis:Jean (Rahim) is a Parisian who stumbles into a job in a crumbling manor on the outskirts of Paris as the assistant of reclusive photographer named Stephane (Gourmet). After the death of his wife, Stephane lives with his 22-year-old daughter, Marie (Rousseau), an otherworldly blonde who bears a spitting image of her mother. She poses for her father as he takes photographs of her using the daguerreotype process – models must spend hours standing still with the aid of metal bars behind their back and limbs to help her keep their body in place. As Jean falls for Marie, he discovers that her father is obsessed with taking life-sized daguerreotypes and it may be connected to resurrecting the spirit of his dead wife…
Koji Fukada’s latest film starsKanji Furutachi (au revoir l’ete, The Woodsman & the Rain)and the awesome Tadanobu Asano (Watashi no Otoko, Vital, Bright Future, Survive Style 5+) who has won awards thanks to his performance in this psychological mystery which has gripped critics from around the world. Want a sign of its quality? Harmonium received the Jury Prize in the section “Un certain regard” at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.
Synopsis from IMDB:Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) and Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and their daughter Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa) live a quiet life operating a workshop that is part of their house. Their routine is disrupted when Toshio’s old-friend Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) shows up at the place without a home or a job. What’s the reason? He has just been released from prison. You would think that Toshio would consult Akie before hiring Yasaka and letting him stay in the place but it seems that the two men have history together and Yasaka wants something from Toshio. He begins to meddle in Toshio’s family life and threatens everything…
Destruction Babies is a disturbing and bleak film all about male violence. It offers no easy answers and lead actor Masaki Suda gives a chilling performance as a teen ready to destroy anything in his path. It was released in the UK thanks to Third Window Films earlier this week and I hope to have a review up soon. It has a cast worth watching since it stars award-winning actors Yuya Yagira (Nobody Knows), Nana Komatsu (The World of Kanako), Denden (Cold Fish), Sosuke Ikematsu (How Selfish I Am!) and Masaki Suda (The Light Shines Only There, Princess Jellyfish).
Synopsis from Third Window Films: Taira, an unnervingly quiet delinquent teen, mysteriously leaves town right before the coming of age festival. His disappearance doesn’t worry anyone except for younger brother Shota, his only remaining family, who sets off to look for him amidst the faded downtown neon lights.
Taira aimlessly wanders through a nearby city, provoking fights with random bystanders. His violent streak intrigues high schooler Yuya who rallies him to beat up more people. As the night progresses, street-side scuffles soon turn into a sinister game, becoming even more mindless and indiscriminate. The two leave behind a trail of blood and mass confusion.
Reboot of Nikkatsu Roman Porno films
In the 1970s and 1980s the so-called Roman Porno films from the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu served as a field of experimentation and a stepping stone for young directors and a way of sustaining Nikkatsu in an age where television was threatening the old studio system. Nikkatsu gave directors a small budget and tight shooting schedules of about a week, and freedom to make a film about what they want so long as they came with plenty of sexy softcore scenes. I’ve only reviewed one, A Woman Called Abe Sada, but the series is fondly remembered in Japan and abroad by many. For the 45th anniversary of that genre, the Nippon Connection Film Festival shows two instalments of the recent “Roman Porno Reboot Project” as German premieres.
This one was at the Locarno Film Festival where it collected reviews like this one that paint this as an entertaining film to watch!
Synopsis: Kosuke Takasuke (Tasuku Nagaoka) is a former playwright who has fled Tokyo to live a quiet life in the country after becoming romantically burnt out. His wish for a quiet life is soon interrupted when he is targeted for sex by Shiori (Yuki Mamiya) and a theatre troupe decamp at his place…
Having lived in Ikebukuro, I recognise some of the locations shown in the images and the trailer so it’s pretty exciting. The director, Kazuya Shiraishi worked on The Devil’s Path and Twisted Justice.
Synopsis: Masako, Yui, and Rie are three prostitutes who service all sorts of people from hikikomori to widowers. Through their eyes we see a variety of men from Tokyo and how prostitution has changed from the first film to this with the impact of the internet in what turns into character studies of the women.
Documentaries
At this year’s festival a special attention will be directed at documentary films. Among others, Atsushi Funahashi will present his film Raise your Arms and Twist, in which he observes the everyday life of Japanese pop idol singers of the group NMB48. The director skillfully combines social and media critique without degrading the stars or their fans. In her film 95 and 6 to Goyoung American filmmaker Kimi Takesue explores the history of her Japanese ancestors who emigrated to Hawaii, taking the conversations with her grandfather as a starting point. Steven Okazaki’s Mifune: The Last Samurai portrays the life and work of legendary actor Toshiro Mifune, who has written film history through his cooperation with Akira Kurosawa.
Mifune: The Last Samurai
Running Time:80mins.
Director: Steven Okazaki
Writers: Stuart Galbraith IV, Steven Okazaki
Starring: Keanu Reeves (Narrator), Toshiro Mifune, Kyoko Kagawa, Haruo Nakajima, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Koji Yakusho, Shiro Mifune,
Synopsis:Keanu Reeves narrates a documentary about one of the most famous, if not the most famous Japanese actor in the history of cinema: Toshiro Mifune. People who have watched him in Yojimbo and Throne of Blood will attest that he is a massive screen presence and we get to see what made him special through archive footage as well as enjoying the reminisces of collaborators and fans from around the world.
Raise your Arms and Twist DOCUMENTARY of NMB48
DOCUMENTARY of NMB48 Film Poster
道頓堀よ、泣かせてくれ！DOCUMENTARY of NMB48「LOVE! LOVE! SING! Ikite itoshite utau koto gekijouban」
The director is Atsushi Funahashi and he has directed films about the fallout from Fukushima like the drama Cold Bloom and two documentaries under the Nuclear Nation title. Atsushi Funahashi will present his film Raise your Arms and Twist, in which he observes the everyday life of Japanese pop idol singers of the group NMB48, the sister group of AKB48. NMB48 are based in Osaka but I never saw that much evidence of them while roaming around.
Synopsis: NMB48 is based in Namba, Osaka and it has been six years since their debut at Osaka Castle Hall. Atsushi Funahashi uses his skills as a documentarian to observe the everyday struggles, efforts, and successes of the idols and their fans and offers a critique of the whole social and media world that surrounds the group.
Director Kimi Takesue has made many documentaries and short films since the ’90s and this is her latest, an intriguing film that combines her family history with the filmmaking process.
Synopsis from the website: Filmmaker Kimi Takesue turns her camera on her resilient grandfather who has lived in Honolulu for nearly a century. As she captures the cadence of Grandpa Tom’s daily life he takes an interest in her stalled romantic screenplay and offers advice that is as shrewd as it is surprising. This advice turns into him sharing his story of immigration, love, love and endurance. Shot over six years, this intimate meditation on family and absence expands the vernacular of the “home movie” to consider how history is accumulated in the everyday and how sparks of humor and creativity can animate an ordinary life.
Cultural Programme
As well as the films, there is a diverse and extensive supporting cultural program gives visitors the chance to delve into the multi-faceted culture of Japan. Audiences will be able to take part and engage with a wide variety of workshops, lectures, and exhibitions such as participating in the manufacturing of kyogen masks in a wood carving workshop and learning about vital points of the human body and their application in the martial arts in the kyusho jitsu workshop. For the more literary-minded, the festival will be the venue where Ursula Gräfe, known as a translator of the works of Japanese star author Haruki Murakami, will give insight into various aspects of her work.
Children are also catered for with the Nippon Kids section where the puppet animation film Chieri and Cherry by Makoto Nakamura will be shown as a children’s film with German live dubbing and kids can have a go at traditional Japanese drums in the taiko workshop. Taruto Fuyama, professor at Tokyo University of the Arts in Yokohama, will show in his workshop how to create handmade painted animation films. Japanese food is glorious, as everyone knows (including many festivals who attach a Japanese food section to the programme), and children attending Nippon Connection can try out preparing tasty Japanese sweets in the panda dango cooking class.
The complete program as well as tickets will be available from April 29, 2017at the festival website: www.NipponConnection.comso stay tuned to this site because I’ll do one of my mammoth previews.
The documentaryBurmese on the Roofwill be screened at the Korean Cultural Centrein London on Thursday, April 27th at 19:00. This is the UK premiere of a film that has played at the Busan International Film Festival. It is one of six films selected by students attending the National Film and Television School. Each film was made in a different genre but all touch on the economic draw of Korea and it looks to be an interesting programme that will introduce audiences into the lives of a diverse array of characters. Burmese on the Roof is the first in this series of films.
Synopsis: Three immigrant workers from Burma who live together on a building’s rooftop in a prefab hut in the Masoek Furniture Industrial Complex reveal their everyday lives which mixes Korean and Burmese culture, exposing their loneliness and family ties back home, and their different backgrounds, tastes, and thoughts, the friendship and fractiousness that comes with being together. They become more than “immigrant workers.” They become individuals, ordinary guys who just happened to live in the same space temporarily.
Admission is free but you need to book. To find out more about the film and to book tickets, please visit the site through this link.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival (17th – 28th May) is the 70th edition of the event and the festival head Thierry Fremaux announced the Official Selection of films programmed last week. Critics are salivating over the fact that there are two Netflix films: the monster movie Okja by Bong Joon-ho (The Host) andThe Meyerowitz Stories by Noah Baumbach (writer on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissouand director of Mistress America). There will be two TV series for audiences to watch: David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake and lots more familiar faces such as Sofia (Somewhere) Coppola’s The Beguiled, Michael (Code Unknown/Cache) Haneke’s Happy End (knowing Haneke, it’s probably an ironic title…). More importantly, there are also nine first-time filmmakers getting their works screened.
Why is that important?
The Cannes Film Festival comes into 2017 with a need to find fresh blood and this is seemingly strong selection because may be it. Since this is the 70th anniversary of the festival and the fact that, last year, organisers faced fierce criticism last year for their lack of female directors, commentators identified that they needed to do a couple of things: broaden out its programme so that there are filmmakers other than the old guard (Campion, Haneke, Kawase, Haynes, the Dardennes brothers etc.) and increase the number of female-centric stories and female-led films across the programme. The old guard are back but just by glancing at the lists of announced films, it is clear that the festival has achieved some of its goals and will probably avoid the criticism it faced last year – hopefully, no high-heels and breast-feeding baby incidents will crop up). Things are a bit of a mixed picture when it comes to the Japanese films.
So far, there are four Japanese films programmed, and three come from festival regulars: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Naomi Kawase, and Takashi Miike. Two of the four are adaptations while the other two are original dramas. Out of the dramas, one is made by a seasoned professional while the shorter one at 45 minutes is from a student. The presence of a fresh director is always something to cheer when it comes to Japanese films at international festivals and this director is a lady to boot: Aya Igashi. She is a graduate from Toei Gakuen Film College’s movie production department and is already working on her third film.
So, while we can all sigh and shrug our shoulders at the lack of original content, we can take comfort in the fact that Aya Igashi is on the radar of people who programme the festival.
What are the films playing this year?
Before We Vanish (English Title) / Strolling Invader (Literal Title)
In between teaching the next generation of filmmakers at Tokyo University of Fine Arts, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has regularly been making films himself and his latest is based on a stageplay by Tomohiro Maekawa which was first performed in 2005. Its story has the feel of something like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its poster looks innocuous enough. It stars Ryuhei Matsuda (Nightmare Detective, The Great Passage, My Little Sweet Pea), Masami Nagasawa (Our Little Sister) and Hiroki Hasegawa (priceless as the mad director in Why Don’t You Play in Hell?). It has been selected to be screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival and it looks decent from the teaser.
Synopsis: Narumi (Masami Nagasawa) and her husband Shinji Kase (Ryuhei Matsuda) are having problems of the marital sort. Things may be bad but are they bad enough to justify Shinji disappearing for seven days? Masami is left wondering, especially because after his disappearance and return he seems like a totally different person, a kinder and gentler man who likes to go for a walk every day. This just happens to coincide with strange events in town and the brutal murder of a family. Masami begins to piece things together but Shinji surprises her again by telling her that he came to Earth to invade.
Naomi Kawase is a native of the city of Nara and shot her latest film there in October and November. It seems she is also a native of Cannes since she is constantly either having a film screened or one of the judges. She reunites with the actor Masatoshi Nagase who worked with her on An (2015), a film that appeared at Cannes 2015 and a whole host of other festivals before getting released in the UK and US amongst other foreign territories. I have been told that her films are good and I have met people who have worked with her and so I really need to check out her work.
Synopsis: Masaya Nakamori (Masatoshi Nagase) is a genius photographer. Hemeets Misako Ozaki (Ayame Misaki), a woman who is involved in a voice acting project for the visually impaired. The two initially don’t get on because Masaya has a cold attitude but when Misako sees a photograph of a sunset shot by him, she is inspired to look into Masaya’s life and discovers that he is losing his sight and their relationship changes.
Blade of the Immortal / The Inhabitant of Infinity (Literal Title)
Warner Bros. Japan have been cranking out live-action adaptations of anime and manga in recent years in order to capitalise on existing fan-bases and sell known names to audiences¹ and one of their go-to Japanese filmmakers is Takashi Miike who follows up the grisly and stupid Terra-Formars (2016) (based on an even more grisly and stupid manga) with a fantasy jidaigeki based on a manga by Hiroaki Samura. His next film is, wait for it, based on a manga. It’s Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable and it is released in August. Jojo’s fans everywhere let out a scream when the announcement was made because nothing will capture the manga but you never know, it may be good.
Miike has great form when it comes to jidaigeki considering he made 13 Assassins (2010) and Hara-Kiri Death of a Samurai (2011). Warner Bros have the financial muscle and a crew experienced in that genre considering they were behind the excellent Rurouni Kenshin(2012), Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Inferno(2014) and Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends.
Blade of the Immortal was shot in Kyoto from November, 2016 until January of this year. It stars Takuya Kimura (I Come with the Rain – a decent yet rather unheard of serial killer film – and 2046), Hana Sugisaki (Pieta in the Toilet), Chiaki Kuriyama (Shikoku, Exte: Hair Extensions), Min Tanaka (Maison de Himiko, Haruneko, and the Rurouni Kenshin films) and the charisma vacuum that is Sota Fukushi (almost entirely forgettable based on the performance I saw him give in Library Wars – I have a hard time remembering anything specific about him other than he was in the cast and made no impression on me and it looks like he’s just taking up space in this film).
Synopsis: Manji’s (Takuya Kimura) is a wandering swordsman. That’s nothing special but what makes him different is the fact that he was given eternal youth and immortalityby a mysterious woman after his sister was killed in front of him and he was left for dead but came back from the brink to kill their attackers. During his journey he encounters Rin Asano (Hana Sugisaki) whose parents were killed by a group of swordsmen belonging to “Itto ryu.”She desires revenge for her parents’ death and after seeing Manji in action she asks him to be her guard as they take on the “Itto ryu.”
Cannes came in for a lot of flack last year for its lack of inclusion for female filmmakers but 2017 is set to redress the balance somewhat. This film comes from Aya Igashi and it is her sophomore effort but it has already won the Pia Film Festival’s Special Jury Award for 2016 and it has been screened in cinemas across Japan. That’s no mean feat considering this director from Hokkaido is in her early twenties!
A lot of the more interesting Japanese films of recent years tend to have been made by women. Not only that but female directors tend to base their work on original scripts. It’s important that festivals support female filmmakers because of the gender imbalance in films and also because women will bring fresh and unique voices to tired old industries. The West would do well to learn from Japan and South Korea which have a better track record of producing female talent. Supporting it is another matter entirely but one hopes to hear of Aya Igashi again in the future for her feature films. The trailer is immediately more visually interesting than the others and so I am eager to see more work from her. Here’s an interview she gave at the Nara Film Festival (in Japanese).
Synopsis: Mako is a high school student who lives in a stiflingly small rural town. She feels the stress of school life, the secrets garnered from close friendships, and simply maturing. To relieve the stress she secretly jumps into a local river, something she is not supposed to do. One day, she is seen doing this by her older cousin Kotaro who is from Tokyo. His presence her her pent up ambitions fuse together to make her answer the question of whether she can be free if sheleaves from her home town.
And that’s it as far as the films go. If I missed any then I will update this post!
Here’s a list of my reviews of some of those films Warner Bros films that I have reviewed if you’re interested:
I am writing this on a coach heading from Hiroshima to Osaka. I am eating cookies and tired but happy that I can travel and write, meet new people. And eat cakes and biscuits. That’s also important!
The Japanese embassy in London regularly screens films that are hard to find in the West and they are an eclectic bunch. This one features the story of the Japanese literary giant Kenji Miyazawa and has animation. It’s from the 1990s but despite its vintage there were no trailers.
Here’s the information on the embassy’s film website:
Night Train to the Stars
わが心の銀河鉄道 宮沢賢治物語 「Waga kokoro no ginga tetsudou miyazawa kenji monogatari」
Synopsis from the embassy’ssite: A biographical film of Kenji Miyazawa, Japan’s most popular fantasy novelist.
Kenji is an idealist from an early age, forming a utopian vision with his friend Kanai Hosaka that inspires them to work for the happiness of farmers, although his pawnbroker father, Masajiro, objects to such idealism. Kanai is expelled from school for outlining his revolutionary plans in an essay. Meanwhile, Kenji develops a devotion to the Nichiren sect of Buddhism and goes to Tokyo. While proselytising on a voluntary basis, he continues writing his fantasy stories at night. Kenji urges Kanai to join his group but Kanai refuses, saying that it will not benefit the farmers, and makes a decisive break from Kenji. On top of this, the death of his biggest supporter, his beloved sister Toshi, hits Kenji hard. Subsequently he regains contact with Kanai, who is now farming in Yamanashi prefecture and has gone a long way toward realising their original vision. Encouraged by what Kanai has achieved, he returns to Iwate prefecture to start his own experimental school in the family summer house. A tragic rainstorm hits the northern area of Japan and ruins most of the crops as well as many of those at Kenji’s school. His efforts to develop new farming methods and help poor farmers only serve to undermine his health, forcing him to close the school. Kenji dies at the age of just 37. It is only after his death, through the help of his family, that his writings become widely read. The film was made in 1996 to commemorate the centennial of his birth.
The event takes place on May18that 18:30pm. The location is the Embassy of Japan in the UK, 101 – 104 Piccadilly, London W1J 7JT and you can find out how to book tickets with this link.
Bandhobi is a film by Dong-il Shin, a Korean filmmaker who I had the chance to meet and talk to at the Osaka Asian Film Festival when he brought over his latest title, Come, Together (2017). His films cover a variety of social issues and Bandhobi looks at issues of racism, illegal immigration and the stresses faced by young people in education and work and those from broken homes and he does this through two sensitively drawn characters.
Here’s information on the latest film as pulled from the website:
Synopsis: Min-seo (Jin-hee Baek) is a 17-year old girl from a home that is falling apart. Her father is absent and her relationship with her mother can be described as “rocky” at best. With her family falling apart she is developing a rebellious streak and pushes back against normal conventions which is why she finds friendshipwith Karim (Mahbub Alam), a 29-year old Muslim migrant worker from Bangladesh who is also an outsider. He is desperately trying to retrieve the unpaid wages from his employer. Both feel like they are disenfranchised from society and this sharedconnection through their dislocation helps them develop a friendship and question why society has to be as unfair as it is.
The Korean Cultural Centre are running a series of films exploring the migrant experience in South Korea throughout April and June and Bandhobi fits in perfectly. The screenings typically take place on Thursdays from 19:00 and end at 22:00. The location is:
Korean Cultural Centre UK
1-3 Strand
London
WC2N 5BW
United Kingdom
This post is a bit short notice but to find out more about the film and to book tickets, please visit this site to book tickets.
Scenery (2013)is a documentaryfilm by Chinese-Korean director Zhang Lu. He has many features to his name and has toured the international film festival circuit including Europe. One of the director’s other films, A Quiet Dream(2016) was recently reviewed over on Windows on Worlds.
Here’s information on the latest film as pulled from the website:
Synopsis: Chinese-Korean director Zhang Lu’s documentary involves him asking a group of migrant workers to reveal the most vivid dream that remains in their memory since arriving in Korea. From this seemingly innocuous question, Lu conjures an evocative reflection on South Korea’s evolving social landscape by contrasting the jobs these workers perform and the heavy equipment they use with the fragile dreams that they have which we discover. We learn about their backgrounds, their anxieties and nostalgia for childhood, their longing to return to their hometowns and reunite with their lost families and embrace their mothers and see the contrast between these hardened travellers and their softer inner lives.
The Korean Cultural Centre are running a series of films exploring the migrant experience in South Korea throughout April and June. The screenings typically take place on Thursdays from 19:00 and end at 22:00. The location is:
Korean Cultural Centre UK
1-3 Strand
London
WC2N 5BW
United Kingdom
To find out more about the film and to book tickets, please visit this site to book tickets.
Movie fans in London will have the chance to see the film on the big screen at Picturehouse Central for one night.The screening takes place on 17th May at 18.30pm and tickets are already on sale over at the Picturehouse website.
There are a small group of films which have almost universal praise and go down in cinema history as they transcend borders, languages, and cultures. Tampopo is one of them. It was written and directed by Juzo Itami just as he was entering the height of his creative powers. After an early career as an actor, he shifted to roles behind the camera and made a series of fondly remembered and critically acclaimed films starting with Tampopo and including A Taxing Woman.
Tampopo is all about the glories of food, the sexiness and spirituality that goes into making something as simple as ramen and while that may sound like one for foodies, it transcends that particular category to become a hilarious comedy thanks to its funny character-filled script which parodies and creates new tropes and genres. Everywhere I have been in Japan, the moment I mention Tampopo, people’s faces light up. “Ah! You know that one!” It seems to be universally loved.
I am guilty of throwing the word classic around with abandon but if you want to be convinced about this particular film’s greatness then here’s a paragraph from an excellent review from the excellent writings of Roger Ebert:
“Tampopo” is one of those utterly original movies that seems to exist in no known category. Like the French comedies of Jacques Tati, it’s a bemused meditation on human nature in which one humorous situation flows into another offhandedly, as if life were a series of smiles.
The 4K restoration of Juzo Itami’s classic ramen western Tampopowas released on blu-ray in the UK on May 01st of this year thanks to The Criterion Collection. Here’s the trailer:
Tampopo
タンポポ 「Tampopo」
Release Date: November 23rd, 1985
Running Time: 115 mins.
Director: Juzo Itami
Writer:Juzo Itami (Screenplay),
Starring:Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji Yakusho, Ken Watanabe, Rikiya Yasuoka, Hideji Otaki, Fukumi Kuroda, Mariko Okada,
Synopsis: Two truckers, Goro (Tsutomu Yamazaki) and Gun (Ken Watanabe) stop by a rundown ramen noodle store owned by a widowed woman named Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto). Her business is struggling and she has to look after her son. The two are harrassed by ne’er do wells in the local community who Goro takes on in a series of fights. Tampopo enlists Goro’s help for more important matters as she asks him to help her research the perfect noodle so she can rejuvenate the noodle bar. What ensues is a series comic vignettes as they try and succeed in their quest.
The Annecy International Animated Film Festival has been running since it was established in 1960. It is the world’s oldest and largest animation film festival and it has become one of the best places to glimpse early footage of upcoming anime. This year, it runs from the June12th to the 17th and the programme line-up has already been announced and there are many Japanese titles both in and out of competition.
I have been surprised by the power of this one as it tears through UK cinemas and earns lots of critical acclaim. There are many anime movies released in Japan but this one looks far more interesting than the rest of the pack. It is a story about a bully who tries to redeem himself by asking for forgiveness from his target, a girl who is deaf. This comes from Kyoto Animation (watch Hyouka, an awesome TV anime, to get to know them) and it’s directed by Naoko Yamada, one of the most promising female directors going. It has toured the UK as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme and it was at the Glasgow International Film Festival. I hope it’s programmed by the festival I work for.
Synopsis from the Japan Foundation festival site:Shoko, a young Deaf student, transfers to a new school where she is bullied by Shoya for her hearing impairment. While Shoya originally leads the class in bullying Shoko, the class soon turn on him for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other again, but Shoya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shoko once more to atone for his sins – but is it already too late?
Long-term readers will know that I am a fan of Tsutomu Nihei and I have written about his manga Abara, Biomega, and the anime adaptation of Knights of Sidonia. I am super-excited at seeing this Netflix funded anime that will be briefly shown in Japanese cinemas for a two-week period on May 20th while I am still in the country! People outside of Japan will be able to watch it through Netflix.
Anyway, Blame! is based on Nihei’s manga of the same name which is his first manga series . It was published in Kodansha’s Monthly Afternoon magazine from 1997 until it ended in 2003 and it has been published in many other countries around the world. This movie adaptation is from the team behind the TV anime adaptation of Knights of Sidonia and Ajin and it looks awesome as the trailer below reveals:
Synopsis (from the site):In the distant technological future, civilization has reached its ultimate Net-based form. An “infection” in the past caused the automated systems to spiral out of order, resulting in a multi-leveled city structure that replicates itself infinitely in all directions. Now humanity has lost access to the city’s controls, and is hunted down and purged by the defense system known as the Safeguard. In a tiny corner of the city, a little enclave known as the Electro-Fishers is facing eventual extinction, trapped between the threat of the Safeguard and dwindling food supplies. A girl named Zuru goes on a journey to find food for her village, only to inadvertently cause doom when an observation tower senses her and summons a Safeguard pack to eliminate the threat. With her companions dead and all escape routes blocked, the only thing that can save her now is the sudden arrival of Killy the Wanderer, on his quest for the Net Terminal Genes, the key to restoring order to the world.
Whilst this one won’t be high on my list of films to catch up on, it has gotten good reviews and it looks like an entertaining film for all of the family. Mark Schilling over at the Japan Times says,
“…the film’s animators have done an impressive job of making their cats walk, jump and otherwise behave like actual felines, when they aren’t comically acting human. And they have made Japan look three-dimensionally real in every finely observed detail…”
It is screened out of competition.
Synopsis: Rudolf is a cute cat currently enjoying a life of comfort and care in Gifu, Japan but when he lets his curiosity get the best of him he finds himself carried away to Tokyo in the back of a cargo truck. Alone in the metropolis, he faces new dangers but he befriends Ippaiattena (Japanese for Gottalot – got a lot…), a seasoned street cat who has a crucial and unusual skill that will help him find his way home: the ability to read the human language.
Mazinger Z The Movie has been made to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the original Mazinger Z manga and television anime series which was first serialised in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1972. The television anime series premiered at the same time and the franchise has spawned three more television series, at least nine movies, and several OAVs.
Audiences will be able to watch scenes and get a glimpse into the making of the film as the creator of Mazinger Z, Go Nagai, will be on stage alongside two others involved in the making of the film.
Synopsis:Mazinger Z, aka “iron castle”and his high school boy moster Kouji Kabuto battle Dr. Hell, a mad scientist bent on world domination!
Director Kenji Kamiyama has been a stalwart at Production I.G having helmed TV anime such as Eden of the East, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit. These three titles are some of the best TV anime of the 2000s so it’s exciting to see him take on a big screen film animated by one of Production I.Gs subsidiary studios. It was released in March in Japan.
Synopsis:Kokone Morikawa is a high school girl in Kurishiki,Okayama, inthe year 2020. It is three days before the start of the Tokyo Olympic games but despite this celebration of human physical achievement, the world dominated by machines. Kokonelives with her mechanic father and she should be studying for her university entrance exams, but she can’t seem to stay awake. This is problematic enough but hear dreams are home to strange visions of warring machines that seem to be connected to her family in some secret way. She will discover more as she travels between dreams and her waking life and she will find that the two realms are far more connected than she could have ever imagined.
Lu Over the Wall is released in Japan a day before Blame! On May 19thso that’s the end of the month sorted in terms of cinema trips…
Back to the film. It is directed by Masaaki Yuasa. Produced by his protege Eun young Choi, and animated by Science SARU and these folks are the geniuses behind Mind Game, Ping Pong: The Animation, and The Tatami Galaxy amongst other great artistic titles. It is their second film released this year following the release of Night is Short, Walk On Girl (夜は短し歩けよ乙女 Yoru wa Mijikashi Aruke yo Otome) back in April.
It has the look of the 2009 Ghibli film Ponyo if I were to make a glib comparison but the animation and style are pure Science SARU, a studio finally picking up fans in the mainstream. It’s good to see their latest work at Annecy after Yuasa and co have been guests in previous years. The script comes from Reiko Yoshida, a woman who has written many different anime such as A Silent Voice, Yowamushi Pedal, and Shirobako.
The film has been picked up for UK distribution by Anime Limited.
Synopsis:Middle school student Kai finds himself forced to move from Tokyo to the declining fishing town of Hinashi to live with his father and grandfather following his parents’ divorce. For a kid from the big metropolis, there’s little for him to do besides composing music and sharing it on the Internet. One day his classmates Kunio and Yuuho invite him to join their band, and when he reluctantly accompanies them to practice on Mermaid Island, the three of them meet a mermaid named Lu. Through meeting her and playing music, Kai is slowly able to open up about his emotions but calamity soon strikes the town and he must find a way to avert it with his new-found friends and community!
This is an award-winning film that I had the pleasure of seeing in Hiroshima, the setting for part of the film, a couple of weeks ago. It took the Animation of the Year award at the 40th annual Japan Academy and I am not surprised since it is a beautiful and stately film about an absent-minded artistic young woman trying to survive the hardship of war. I wasn’t the only one impressed since the film won the Hiroshima Peace Film Award at the Hiroshima International Film Festival in November last year and the film magazine Kinema Jump named In it the best Japanese movie of 2016. and it awarded Katabuchi the Best Director Award.
The film was orchestrated by Sunao Katabuchi who directed the awesome Mai Mai Miracle and the TV animeBlack Lagoon.It was animated by the studio MAPPA (Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, Terror in Resonance) and it will be released in the UK in June.
Synopsis: Suzu Urano is a Hiroshima girl from a close-knit family but when she marries a naval officer, she has to move from Hiroshima City to Kure, the city which launched the battleship Yamato and the site of one of Japan’s largest naval bases. As a new housewife, she encounters uncertainty in her new family, her new city, and her new world but she perseveres and finds happiness even as the war grinds on and comes closer to home.
Sawako Kabuki is back with another short film focussed on the vagaeries of relationships as seen from a scatalogical perspective. This is a graduation piece from her time at Tama Art University and the film has been at various festivals around the world and it’s on YouTube. The story is described thusly:
Painful events become memories over time. Still, we vomit and eat again. Life is eco.
Having sat through one of her films, I think audiences should anticipate a kaleidoscopic and surreal swirl of biomorphous blobs that take on the shapes of sexual organs squeezed together and ejected from other similar shaped blobs.
The Barbican are running an exhibition about Japanese homes and domestic architecture called The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945. It began on March 23rd and lasts until June 25th. As part of the exhibition there will be films screened. The first film in this exhibition is:
Director Hiroshi Teshigahara is a filmmaker a lot of people interested in Japanese cinema will be aware of. He was the son of Sofu Teshigahara, founder and grand master of the Sogetsu School of ikebana, and he followed in his father’s footsteps to become grand master himself. Despite these responsibilities he was also a filmmaker of reknown. He graduated in 1950 from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music and began working in documentary film, some of them covering ikebana. He is best known for his three films, Pitfall (1962), Woman in the Dunes (1964), and The Face of Another (1966). The three were released alongside a collection of short films on a now out of print box set by Criterion. Other than that, fans in the UK will have to buy other OOP DVDs to see his films.
Woman in the Dunesis probably his most famous film.Adapted by Kobo Abe from his existential novel, “this nightmarish film is set almost entirely inside and on the threshold of a single ramshackle wooden house that is at once prison and vital shelter.” That last bit was taken from the Barbican’s site and effectively sums up the film. Here’s the trailer and synopsis…
Synopsis:
An amateur entomologist arrives in a remote area of sand dunes with hopes of identifying an unclassified species of beetle. Night falls and the villagers offer him shelter in a hut at the bottom of a sand pit. Descent is possible only by means of a rope ladder; when he wakes, it is gone. His attempts to climb out repeatedly fail, and he comes to realise – first with incredulity, then outrage, then fear – that he must join his host in her Sisyphean nightly chore of shovelling away the sand that accumulates each day before it overwhelms the house… and themselves.
Director Hiroshi Teshigahara heightens this claustrophobic premise with an eerily dissonant soundtrack by Toru Takemitsu, and high contrast black-and-white photography which alternately scorches us under a blazing sun or engulfs us in a terrible darkness, with added skin-pricklingly intense close-ups of sand pouring into the house and sticking to our two sweaty captives.
The Japan Foundation are working with the Barbican Centre to make this exhibition come to life and they ran a talk about Toru Takemitsu back in January so anybody intrigued by what they heard there will be able to see this film and listen to the man’s compositions in an ideal space.
The London Korean Film Festival is hosting another of its teaser screeningsin the form of Queen of Walking, a hit comedy starring Shim Eun-kyung an actor most famous for her role in the 2014 box-office smashMiss Granny. The Regent Street Cinema is playing host to the UK premiere of the film on May 22nd while the Cambridge Picturehouse will screen it on May 29th.
Here are the details:
Queen of Walking
Release Date: February 20th, 2016
Running Time:93 mins.
Director: Baek Seung-hwa
Writer:Baek Seung-hwa (Screenplay),
Starring:Shim Eun-kyung, Park Joo-hee, Kim Sae-byuk, Heo Jung-do, Yoon Ji-won, Kim Kwang-kyu, Kim Jung-Young, Lee Jae-jin,
Synopsis: Man-Bok (Shim Eun-Kyung) is a high school student who spends four hours walking to and from school, because she can’t take the bus due to getting motion sickness. It is thanks to this that Man-Bok learns that she has talent for walking and joins her school’s champion ‘race walking’ team. She develops a passion for the sport and a lust for life thanks to her new routine and friends including a hip-hop obsessed crush, and the fiery athletics team captain and now she has a goal: compete in the national race walking competition. There’s just one problem… The bus-averse student will have make the 70km trip somehow…
The film will be screened at the Regent’s Street Cinema (tickets) on May 22nd at 19:30 and the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge (tickets) on May 29th at 18:30.
The Barbican are running an exhibition about Japanese homes and domestic architecture called The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945. It began on March 23rd and lasts until June 25th. As part of the exhibition there will be films screened. The next film in this exhibition is Yasujiro Ozu’s, An Autumn Afternoon on May 21st at 16:00 :
Yasujiro Ozu is a titan of Japanese cinema transcending the Golden Age and becoming a name known amongst many generations. He made a career spanning from crime films at the start to a stint in the military before finally chronicling middle-class Japanese life in the post-war period. He worked with many directors such as Shohei Imamura and Yoji Yamada and consequently, the younger generations either aspired to be him or question him. This is his last film and one of only four he made in colour. It is another family drama exploring the changes in Japan, the journey to wealth the nation was making, ageing parents and loyal children and, ultimately, an examination of family ties.
Nothing says autumn in Japan like the taste of sanma but in this film, one man in the autumn of his life must help his daughter break away from their family home and find happiness.
Synopsis: Shuhei Hirayama (Ryu) is a widower who, despite some reluctance, wants his loyal daughter Michiko (Iwashita) to get married because he realises that she would be miserable if she spent her life as a single woman looking after him. He comes to this decision after attending a school reunion and meeting his former secondary school teacher who also has a daughter in a similar position. The man is a drunk and the woman is at risk of turning in an embittered spinster. Can Shuhei release his daughter to the world and will she be able to find someone or something to give her life more meaning?
The Nippon Connection Film Festival takes place from May 23 to 28, 2017and it will be held in Frankfurt am Main. The organisers released details of the 100+ short and feature length films which will be screened and there are many top titles that will allow audiences to get a perfect snapshot of the myriad of stories and talents that the Japanese film industry is producing.
In terms of anime we have two of the most critically acclaimed movies in recent times in the shape of A Silent Voice and In This Corner of the World. There are also some CG and stop motion movies that might not normally get seen outside of festival spaces as well. Nippon Connection also continues its trend of highlighting new voices by working with the film academic Catherine Munroe Hotes and using her special programming skills to bring the latest in indie anime
What is on the programme, then? You can view trailers and more details for each on the films by clicking on the links:
This is an award-winning film that I had the pleasure of seeing with an audience in Hiroshima and there were tears aplenty towards the end of the film. I wasn’t the only one impressed since the film won the Hiroshima Peace Film Award at the Hiroshima International Film Festival in November last year and the film magazine Kinema Jump named it the best Japanese movie of 2016 and awarded Sunao Katabuchi the Best Director Award. Not only that, it took the Animation of the Year award at the 40th annual Japan Academy Awards. I am not surprised since it is a beautiful and stately film about an absent-minded artistic young woman trying to survive the hardship of war. beating the anime.
The film was orchestrated by Sunao Katabuchi who directed the awesome Mai Mai Miracle and the TV animeBlack Lagoon.It was animated by the studio MAPPA (Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, Terror in Resonance) and it will be released in the UK in June.
Synopsis: Suzu Urano is a Hiroshima girl from a close-knit family but when she marries a naval officer, she has to move from Hiroshima City to Kure, the city which launched the battleship Yamato and the site of one of Japan’s largest naval bases. As a new housewife, she encounters uncertainty in her new family, her new city, and her new world but she perseveres and finds happiness even as the war grinds on and comes closer to home.
Whilst this one won’t be high on my list of films to catch up on (there are too many to cover), it has gotten good reviews and it looks like an entertaining film for all of the family. Mark Schilling over at the Japan Times says,
“…the film’s animators have done an impressive job of making their cats walk, jump and otherwise behave like actual felines, when they aren’t comically acting human. And they have made Japan look three-dimensionally real in every finely observed detail…”
It is screened out of competition.
Synopsis: Rudolf is a cute cat currently enjoying a life of comfort and care in Gifu, Japan but when he lets his curiosity get the best of him he finds himself carried away to Tokyo in the back of a cargo truck. Alone in the metropolis, he faces new dangers but he befriends Ippaiattena (Japanese for Gottalot – got a lot…), a seasoned street cat who has a crucial and unusual skill that will help him find his way home: the ability to read the human language.
A Silent Voice
koe-no-katachi-film-poster-2
声の形 「Koe no Katachi」
Running Time:129mins.
Director: Naoko Yamada
Writer:Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay), Yoshitoki Ooima(Original Manga)
The other super-hot feature-length anime at the festival is this one! There are many anime movies released in Japan but this one has charmed critics and audiences around the world. It is a story about a bully who tries to redeem himself by asking for forgiveness from his target, a girl who is deaf. The film comes from Kyoto Animation (watch Hyouka, an awesome TV anime, to get to know them) and it’s directed by Naoko Yamada, one of the most promising female directors going.
Synopsis:Shoko, a young Deaf student, transfers to a new school where she is bullied by Shoya for her hearing impairment. While Shoya originally leads the class in bullying Shoko, the class soon turn on him for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other again, but Shoya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shoko once more to atone for his sins – but is it already too late?
“Poetic Landscapes” is a collection of indie animation and it lives up to its title by featuring films that “look upon the world through a poetic lens.” It’s curated by film scholar and journalist Dr. Catherine Munroe Hotes (here’s her excellent blog), someone who has worked closely with Nippon Connection in the past to highlight lesser known and some of the newest animation from Japan. She will be in town to showcase these films personally.
According to the Nippon Connection website, Tokyo University of the Arts is the oldest national art university in Japan and its Department of Animation was established in 2008. Since then, it has produced world beating animators who regularly appear at international festivals with new and innovative works. Nippon Connection continues to support these arts by presenting a selection of the best graduation shorts and the films are presented by Taruto Fuyama, a filmmaker and professor at Tokyo University of the Arts.
Here’s a trailer featuring clips from all of the films:
Makoto Nakamura has had a long career making TV anime such as Yuri Kuma Arashi, Coppelion, as well as OAVs and films such as GYO: Tokyo Fish Attack and Hotarubi no Mori e. Chier to Cherry is his directorial debut on an original work and it was inspired by ideas in Russian animator Roman Kachanov’s 1967 The Mitten short. After being partially funded through a crowdfunding campaign last year it made its debut at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
Synopsis:Chieri is a 6th grade elementary school girl. Her father died when she was little, so she lives with just her mother. The only friend of Chieri had been a stuffed doll Cherry which she found on a storehouse at the time of her father’s funeral. In Chieri’s world of fantasy, Cherry had talked and played with, and adviced and protected her in place of her father. Chieri visits her grandmother’s house for a first time in a while to attend her father’s remembrance ceremony. There, she finds a stray dog being about to give birth to puppies. But a crow and strange monster come trying to get the pups. Can Chieri and Cherry save their lives?
Venues
The events and screenings will take place at the following locations:
The Barbican are running an exhibition about Japanese homes and domestic architecture called The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945. It began on March 23rd and lasts until June 25th. As part of the exhibition there will be films screened. The third film in this exhibition is The Tale of Princess Kaguya.
This is a beautiful film helmed by Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, writer and director of Only Yesterday,Pom PokoGrave of the Fireflies and Little Norse Prince Valiant. It is an adaptation of a famous ancient Japanese folktale originally called Taketori Monogatari (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter) which is about a princess named Kaguya who is discovered as a baby inside the stalk of a growing plant by a bamboo cutter and adopted. While I wouldn’t rate it as my favourite Ghibli anime, it is visually stunning and this Barbican presentation comes with the Japanese voice track.
Synopsis: When a bamboo cutter discovers a miniature girl living inside of a shining stalk of bamboo, he names her Princess and raises her as his daughter. Growing into a beautiful young woman, the Princess is torn when she struggles with the responsibility of her nobility and her desire for a simple life.
