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 that will be screened and there are many top titles that audiences can see to get a perfect snapshot of the myriad of stories and talents that the Japanese film industry is producing. There are a whole host of premieres and these will be shown in the presence of many directors and actors who will introduce and talk about their work to the audience.
This post deals with NIPPON RETRO which is a special section of Nippon Connection which presents nine films by those the directors Noboru Tanaka and Tatsumi Kumashiro. On May 26, at 15:00., the film academic Jasper Sharp, author of Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, will give a lecture on “Nikkatsu Roman Porno and Japanese Erotic Cinema” and the director Akihiko Shiota will talk about some of the titles.
The First Wave and the Reboot of Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno films
The Roman Porno series was launched in 1971 by the film studio Nikkatsu and the label remained active until 1988. Thousands of glossy sexploitation films were released as Nikkatsu battled the increasing popularity of television which was threatening the old studio system. It is said that these sexy films saved Nikkatsu.
The studio used its considerable resources and professional staff to offer stylish and sexy stories that were better in quality than the average pink film. Nikkatsu gave directors a 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. A myriad of stories and styles were executed and some of these films have gone down as classics. Many of the films star Junko Miyashita, a woman who went on to be regarded as a great actress and “Queen of Roman Porno.” For her on-screen efforts, she won many awards. There is also Renji Ishibashi, an actor who came from the stage and specialised in playing psychologically unhinged characters.
For the 45th anniversary of that genre, the Nippon Connection Film Festival presents two instalments of the recent “Roman Porno Reboot Project” as German premieres and there will be classics screened alongside them.
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.
Synopsis: The sex lives of a variety of people, from yakuza to salarymen, in Tokyo are seen through the eyes of three sex workers in a bathhouse who experience fleeting relationships and different emotions.
This is a satire on pink films with plenty of behind-the-scenes sequences and talking to generate comedy.
Synopsis: Juzo is a pink film director and has recently lost the leading actress from his film after she became pregnant. Desperate for a replacement he becomes obsessed with finding a woman whose moaning he captured secretly at a dentist’s office to star in the film instead. He soon comes across Naomi Tani and shooting resumes on the film but not as he expected…
This film stars famous real-life stripper Sayuri Ichijo who appears as herself in this fictional account of her daily life. It is considered one of the best films in the Roman Porno series and in 1999 Japanese critics voted it one of the 100 best Japanese films of the 20th century.
Synopsis: The story involves Sayuri who is the top act at the club in Osaka. Her greatness brings her a legion of fans and plenty of rivals, especially a younger stripper named Harumi who goes to extreme lengths to win over the crowds. She begins performing increasingly outrageous acts on stage which brings the equally increasingly harsh attention of the police and also two guys, her lover Daikichi and her pimp Isamu…
A Woman Called AbeSadais based on the infamous story of a real woman named Abe Sada that took place in 1936. The case is so well-known it has been turned into film multiple times, the most famous being Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses (1976). Here’s my review of Tanaka’s film.
Synopsis: Abe Sada (Junko Miyashita) is a geisha who has been locked in a passionate affair with and Kichi, the owner of a hotel she works in. They have spent a month travelling between machiai (teahouses) where they stay for a few days of sex and drink while geisha sing. Sada is deeply in love with Kichi and her love is so profound it will lead to an astoundingly deadly and infamous ending that will be remembered for generations…
Watcher in the Attic is based on a famous story by Edogawa Rampo and incorporates elements from his other stories. It is the middle entry in Noboru Tanaka’s “Showa Era Trilogy”, which includes A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975) and Beauty’s Exotic Dance: Torture! (1977).
Synopsis: Somewhere in Tokyo is a cheap boarding house run by a man named Goda. He has a hobby: he loves to roam through the attic and spy on people through peepholes in their ceilings, savouring various steamy encounters. One day, he observes a prostitute murder one of her clients and he feels that he has found his soulmate…
Synopsis: It is the day before the abolition of licensed brothels in 1958 and a group of prostitutes in Kofuku, a brothel in the Tamanoi district of Tokyo, go to work for the last time. One amongst their number, Naoko, attempts to break the record of 26 customers in one day set by Shigeko, a prostitute who is past her prime. There is also Shimako who has a useuless gambler for a boyfriend who she keeps giving money and there is Kimiko, a former prostitute who is visiting because she wants to. This film focusses on telling the stories of these women without judging or romanticising them.
This film, along with The World of Geisha, critiques censorship through the use of the tools that censors’ use purposely to ridicule the practice. Kumashiro purposefully scratched the film to cover up genitals in certain scenes and created a ridiculous look which actually draws attention to what the scratches should be hiding.
Synopsis: A young man named Katsu returns to the small coastal town he grew up in after years of wandering around Japan. Despite it being his hometown, he constantly denies his identity and starts to cause trouble. It goes from starting an affair with his boss and spying on a couple having sex to attempting to rape a young woman.
This film is often regarded as Kumashiro’s best work. It’s described as “a bleak drama garnered many awards,” by the folks at Nippon Connection. Here’s the intro of the film:
Synopsis:Kozo and Takao are rough construction living at the bottom of society. After raping their boss’s daughter she gets pregnant and asks Takao to marry her but Kozo meets a mysterious red-haired woman on the road and starts a relationship with her. They spend their days experimenting in erotic acts in his shabby flat but she refuses to give her name. Takao takes an interest in her which leads to some conflict…
Synopsis:The year is 1918 and the world is reeling from the chaos of the First World War and, in Japan, riots over the inflationary price of rice, and the military expedition to Siberia in 1918 following the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia. Despite this chaos, a man named Shinsuke and six other people spend their days in a geisha house, seemingly safely cosseted from the social upheaval of the outside world in the arms of geisha who have been reduced to little more than prostitutes.
Venues
The events and screenings will take place at the following locations:
The Japanese embassy in London regularly screens films that are hard to find in the West and they are an eclectic bunch. The latest one programmed is one from the venerable director Yoji Yamada. It’s called A Class to Remember and it’s from the 1996 and was Japan’s submission to the 69th Academy Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film category but it was not accepted as a nominee (source: Wikipedia).
Here’s the information and here’s the link to the embassy’s page:
Yoji Yamada has had a long career in the movies as a writer and director ever since 1954, the year he joined Shochiku as an assistant director. I have only reviewed Twilight Samurai (2002) but I have written previews for plenty of titles because he keeps getting invited to international festivals such as Berlin.
This film and it features Masatoshi Nagase, a great actor with a diverse filmography ranging from American movies like Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train (1989) to Suicide Club (2002) and Yoji Yamada’s samurai movie The Hidden Blade (2004). Also amongst the cast is Toshiyuki Nishida who voiced a character in A Letter to Momo (2011), and acted in The Uchoten Hotel (2006) and pop star Ayumu Hamasaki.
Synopsis: Ryuhei Aoyama (Nishida) is a teacher at a special high school for learning-impaired children in Hokkaido. With graduation coming up soon, two of his students, Takashi and Yuya, just disappear. While he has his own problem with a daughter living separately with his ex-wife, he has to set out to look for them with his fellow teacher Daisuke Kobayashi. As they drive to Asahikawa, Ryuhei recalls the behaviour of the students. Takashi was initially a happy student but was severely bullied and became a recluse. Yuya was out of control and violent. Why have the two disappeared? Aoyama is on a journey to find out and during this journey he will discover the feeling that teaching is not just about instructing students but involves reciprocating when they give the teachers something.
The event takes place on May 23rdat 18:00pmwhen the doors open. The film will be screened from 18:30. Booking is free but reserve a seat early. 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 by using this link.
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 that will be screened and there are many top titles that audiences can see to get a perfect snapshot of the myriad of stories and talents that the Japanese film industry is producing. There are a whole host of premieres and these will be shown in the presence of many directors and actors who will introduce and talk about their work to the audience.
This post deals with documentaries that will be screened at the festival. They cover a wide variety of topics from the reactor meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in Abandoned Land and the evacuees to reclaim their hometown to Raise your Arms and Twist, in which the director Atsushi Funahashi observes the everyday life of the Japanese pop idol singers of the group NMB48. The director skillfully combines social and media critique without degrading the stars or their fans. 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 whilein her film 95 and 6 to Go young 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.
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.
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.
There will be the short film To Find the Day of the 21st
(Dir: Kieko Ikehata, Japan 2017, 13 min) screened with this film.
I lived in this area of Osaka for nearly four months so there’s a bit of nostalgia here for me. I wrote about the film the year before so I’m glad that it has travelled to a big festival like Nippon Connection.
Synopsis: Director Yoshiki Shigee studied at Osaka College of Visual Arts. After his graduation he worked for a video production company. In 2008 he was a volunteer at the “Children’s Village” in Nishinari and it was at this time that he started shooting this film, his directorial debut. this documentary is about a special children’s area called “Kodomo no sato” which is a home away from home for kids growing up in an environment where many people face poverty, unemployment, or even homelessness. Tomoko Shoho founded established the facility that evolved into Kodomo no Sato in 1977. As the executive director she sometimes has harsh words for the children, but she has remained their steadfast ally over the years. Shigeehas accompanied the social workers, parents, and children with his camera for almost three years, painting a touching portrait of people who do not give up hope.
This European premiere will happen in the presence of the director and of the producer Eijun Sugihara.
Synopsis:Go Shibata and the members of the band GUI AIUEO:S travel the landand on their journey, they search for UFOs, meet odd hermits, and are introduced to the sustainable toilet. During their journey, the gang use their sound and film equipment like musical instruments and create an audiovisual work of art.
There will be the supporting short film The Interpreter (Dir: Noriko Okaku, UK, 2015, 6 min).
Gilles Laurent (IMDB profile) worked as a sound engineer for numerous documentary and feature film productions. This film is his directorial debut. Unforutnately, his life was cut short when he died in the terror attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016.
Synopsis:The town of Tomioka in Fukushima Prefecture was evacuated after the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011 but one resident named Naoto Matsumura refused to leave. Years later, people are returning and the former inhabitants of Tomioka revisit their houses in preparation for their move back to their hometown. This is a snapshot from a couple of years ago of a town that refuses to die.
There will be the supporting short film What Happens Before War? (Dir: NOddIN, Japan 2015, 8 min).
Ayako Imamura was born deaf and that has informed her filmmaking. After studying sign language at Aichi University as well as film and deaf culture at California State University, she has been shooting documentary films about the everyday life of deaf people in Japan. Her mission is to raise awareness about the discrimination of deaf people in Japan through lectures and film screenings. She also teaches sign language at Japanese universities. She has made many documentaries but this is the first where she is the subject.
Synopsis:Facing profound grief and despair following the death of her mother and grandfather, director Ayako Imamura decided to overcome those feelings by combining cycling and communication in one film. She travelled with her cameraman across Japan from Okinawa to Hokkaido, a total of 3,824 kilometers in 57 days, by bicycle over the course of the summer of 2015. Her goal was to confront and record issues deaf people face when communicating with hearing people and problems she felt that she had in this regard. While exploring her country she also discovered elements of herself and proceeded to grow as a person which can be seen in this documentary road movie.
There are three films and a talk and admission to each of these events is totally free:
What You Taught Me About My Son (Dir: Takuya Maruyama, 2014, 59 min) is an award-winning documentary about a Japanese boy with severe autism who wrote one of the most extraordinarily candid books on life with the condition.
Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (Dir: Kaku Arakawa, 2017, 70 min) is an observational documentary following Studio Ghibli co-founder and all-around animation genius Hayao Miyazaki, a man whose work is never-ending. He recently came out of retirement to work on his first-ever CG film.
The Phone of the Wind: Whispers to Lost Families (Dirs:Tomohiko Yokoyama, Ryo Urabe, 2016, 49 min) is all about a telephone booth known as the “Phone of the Wind” which stands on a hill in northern Japan. It is not connected, but many people go there to “call” their loved ones lost in the 2011 tsunami.
Boys for Sale「売買ボーイズ , Dir: Itako, 76 mins. Website」is adocumentary produced by the American Ian Thomas Ash all about the world of gay prostitution in Tokyo. The crew travelled to Shinjuku 2-chome, a neighborhood is considered to be “the gay center of Asia” and a place with a connection to prostitution since the 17th century. Here you can find the highest density of establishments catering to homosexual customers in the world, a place where many young and mostly straight boys sell their bodies. The documentary looks at a number of subjects and gets their backgrounds, how they were recruited, and how they live now.
Venues
The events and screenings will take place at the following locations:
The Japan Society in London has organised another screening in London and this one looks like it will be a moving subject.
One of the films in my list of titles covering the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (which I need to update…) finally reaches the UK after it was released in 2015. The film is a documentary all about the animals who were abandoned and the people who rescue them and it will be screened at the Phoenix Cinema on May 31st. Not only that, there will be a Q&A with the director Akane Yamada and representatives of organisations featured in the film.
Here’s more on the director from the organisers: “Akane Yamada has over 30 years experience as a film and television director. Recent productions include The Happiness of Mucchan (NHK, 2014) which tracks Mucchan, a dog abandoned in the 20 kilometer ‘red zone’ around the Fukushima nuclear reactor, and The Woman Who Sleeps with 1,000 Cats (Fuji Television, 2015) featuring Yuri Nakatani, of NPO Minashigo Dogs and Cats Rescue in Hiroshima.”
Synopsis: A film maker struck by the grief she feels over the death of her beloved golden retriever. She decides to channel that grief into making a documentary about people who work at an animal protection centre and those who help rescue the animals left to fend for themselves after the Great East Japan Earthquake – in other words, those with no one to care for them. These animals are in a number of adoption centres and shelters around Japan, some of which are struggling to care for their new occupants after rescuing lost dogs and cats in the 20-kilometre ‘red zone’ around the Fukushima nuclear reactor. She meets and interviews many involved in such organisations and sees anew the power of our bonds with these animals and our responsibilities should we opt to care for them.
Tickets cost £10 and they can be booked through the Phoenix Cinema box office here or by calling the Phoenix Cinema box office on 020 8444 6789.
The film starts at 18:30 and there are no trailers before the event begins so make sure you get there on time!
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 that will be screened and there are many top titles that audiences can see to get a perfect snapshot of the myriad of stories and talents that the Japanese film industry is producing. There are a whole host of premieres and these will be shown in the presence of many directors and actors who will introduce and talk about their work to the audience.
The short film selectionoffers audiences a chance to see what new and emerging talents on the indie scene are capable of producing when it comes to this short form style of cinema. Many of these filmmakers have seen their films travel to other festivals and it looks to be a strong selection:
Six filmmakers use the camera lens to capture different views of Tokyo in the TKY2015 Short Film Series. The folks at Nippon Connection say that this collection of films “presents a variety of perspectives on the people and lifestyles of this unique city.”
Since its founding in 2004, the SKIP CITY INTERNATIONAL D-Cinema FESTIVAL in Saitama has brought the latest in short films from promising Japanese filmmakers. Nippon Connection are presenting four of these films from the 2016 line-up. I have seen one but the others look promising:
I saw this one at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2017 and talked briefly with the director. It’s a well-shot drama that should and will be expanded into a feature-length film.
Synopsis: A young woman (Elisa Yanagi) who is sexually harassed at her workplace by her seriously creepy boss (Tateto Serizawa). His hands are all over her at the office and she does her best to ignore the. She finds solace by playing ping pong at a club every day after work. She takes out all of her pent-up frustrations on the laminated top of the table, often playing against a ball machine rather than a human being. All she does is practice hard by herself as if she’s trying to escape reality. Change in her life comes following a chance meeting with a Chinese girl thug…
Synopsis from the festival site:A bakery that has been in business for 50 years finally closes its doors today. The father bakes bread and the mother takes care of the customers as they always do. Their estranged son who lives far away suddenly comes home unannounced.
Vanish
Running Time:18 mins.
Director: Yusuke Hatai
Writers: N/A
Starring:Shinji Matsubayashi, Yasutomo Yamaguchi, Miku Shimura, Shah Haque, Asad Kanie, Kanji Tsuda
Yusuke Hatai works in film, television and advertising and has acted as first director on the film How Selfish I Am (2013). You can find more of his work on his Vimeo page.
Synopsis:When a man whose job is to take care of dead bodies and a secretive man living a solitary life meet, a strange relationship develops and somehow they begin to see hope.
Synopsis:Chieko is an English teacher. Mikako is a mother of one child. Shoko is an inspiring novelist. Three women tell little lies about themselves, but what are the consequences of those little lies?
You can find out more about the films screened at Skip City by going directly to the website.
Two feature shorts, made by students and staff members of the Graduate School for Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts, depict the various facets of Japanese family life.
I saw this at the Osaka Asian Film Festival and I wasn’t a particular fan. It was well-shot but the story fell flat due to an absence of character development, comedy, and credibility. But that’s just my taste and I was a bigger fan of other films. I would be interested in finding out why this rather than Renkon no Yoru was selected.
Synopsis:A father visits the country for the wedding ceremony of his son after having been away from the family. It will be an awkward reunion because the bride is a foreigner who cannot speak Japanese while the mother is a free-spirited woman with no inhibitions. This is the story of an awkward family.
Rina Tanaka will be at the screening of this work.
Synopsis:Three generations of women give their views of family life. Yoh is an illustrator whose career doesn’t live up to her hopes. Her mother Yumi is in an unfulfilling marriage. Yoh’s grandmother Kazuko deals with her impending death.
Venues
The events and screenings will take place at the following locations:
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 that will be screened and there are many top titles that audiences can see to get a perfect snapshot of the myriad of stories and talents that the Japanese film industry is producing. There are a whole host of premieres and these will be shown in the presence of many directors and actors who will introduce and talk about their work to the audience.
There are some really great films to be seen and a couple of head-scratchers based on the quality but there should be something for everyone. On top of the films, there are also many cultural events to be had at the festival which will be detailed below along with some brief information on the venues.
What is on the programme, then? This is a quick preview but there’s a lot. I’ll break it down into sections and you can view trailers and more details for each on the films by clicking on the links:
Tokyo is home to many world famous parks such as Yoyogi and Ueno but when I lived in the mega-metropolis I developed a soft spot for Inokashira Park out in the fashionable area of Kichijoji. It may not be as big as the others but I found it an equally wonderful serene green space with lots of interesting features. It recently reached its 100th anniversary and the film “Parks” was commissioned to commemorate the special occasion.
Synopsis: Divided into chapters, the story follows three friends trying to recover a love song recorded at Inokashira Park in the ‘60s. It all begins with a university student named Jun (Ai Hashimoto) who lives near Inokashira Park. Having recently broken up with her boyfriend and struggling to find the creativity to complete her university course, she muddles her way through life. When a high-spirited high school girl named Haru (Mei Nagano) knocks on her door, it seems things may change. Haru may be a stranger but she hasn’t appeared at random. She was searching through her late father’s personal effects when she discovered a letter from and photograph of an ex-girlfriend who lived in the exact same apartment that Jun lives in and, in the name of preserving her father in her memory, Haru wants to find out more about him from the ex-girlfriend.
Poolsideman「プールサイドマン,Dir: Hirobumi Watanabe 117 mins.」 This was one of the hottest indie films at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. The story involves a lonely man namedYusuke who lives a lonely life in a suburb north of Tokyo. He barely says a word to anyone except his computer screen as he sits listening to news of atrocities from around the world. 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.
Yuya Ishii was one of the first directors I started tracking on my blog thanks to his films getting UK releases thanks to the bravery and good taste of Third Window Films. Sawako Decides (2010), Mitsuko Delivers (2012), and The Great Passage (2013). He has gone from indie kid to award-winning adaptations and kept a certain level of quality in his incisive look at human nature, regardless of genre and who the stars are. Here, he works with newbie actors like Shizuka Ishibashi and Ryo Sato. He pairs them up with the more experienced Sosuke Ikematsu (How Selfish I Am!), Mikako Ichikawa (Rent-a-neko), Tetsushi Tanaka (Exte, One Missed Call, Quirky Guys and Gals, Cure), and Ryuhei Matsuda (Nightmare Detective, My Little Sweet Pea) who was the lead in The Great Passage. The actors all portray characters caught up in the brutal world of Tokyo, alienated, stressed, failing to cope and looking for relief from the everyday grind. It is shot with “lightness,” “enchanting visual ideas,” and “candour.” It’s only 108 minutes as well, so it shouldn’t drag. I’m definitely interested in this one.
Synopsis from the Berlin International Film Festival Site: Mika (Shizuka Ishibashi) works as a nurse by day; by night she entertains covetous men at a girls’ bar. Shinji (Sosuke Ikematsu) is blind in one eye and ekes out a living as a construction worker. Young and grown-up at the same time, they both lead a lonely existence, but somehow their paths keep miraculously crossing under the Tokyo sky. Can loneliness be experienced together?
Synopsis: A mysterious man named Kanzaki (Masatoshi Nagase) arrives in a quiet small town. He brings with him a strange invention: an odd-looking helmet that he claims is a happiness machine. To prove it works, he uses the helmet on an elderly shopkeeper and as soon as he activates the device, the woman remembers long forgotten happy memories and becomes much more cheerful. The mayor becomes enthusiastic about the machine and asks Kazaki to stay. Soon, the entire town is allowed to experience the machine, but why does Kanzaki look so sad and what is his true agenda?
When you mention the director SABU to me, I immediately think of his acting role in Ichi the Killer (2001) and the recently reviewed Don’t Look Up (1996). I actually have some of the films he has directed but I have not reviewed them yet which is a shame because I’d like to talk more about his work which strings together crime tales like Dangan Runner and Monday with sentimental comedies like Usagi Drop. He’s versatile and a great director and this one is exciting since he’s working with Jet Tone/BLK 2 pictures, Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-Wai’s outfit. This one is described as, “Seamlessly stringing together the rugged vernacular of gangster films with the tender moments of a burgeoning love story, his new work combines perfectly choreographed outbreaks of violence with contemplative cooking scenes and surprising moments of slapstick comedy.”
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.
Writer/director Katsuya Tomita has been busy working on the indie scene making a couple of films with Saudade (2011) being an award-winner (here’s an interesting review over at the Hollywood Reporter. He has a fascination with Thailand considering the influences the country and its people seem to exert on the story of that film and this current one which gets a German premiere involving the associate producer Terutaro Osanai.
Synopsis: Deep in Bangkok’s red-light district is a woman named Luck. She lives a lavish and luxurious lifestyle while also providing for her family in a rural province. One day she meets Ozawa, a Japanese ex-soldier with whom she once was in love and their worlds intersect again.
I saw this one at the Osaka Asian Film Festival and had a good time. It’s an easily accessible story that involves adults and children who dream of nothing but wrestling as a way of making sense of the world and it was filmed with support from the Dotonbori Pro Wrestling League – so real wrestlers and the real feel of pro-wrestling. Solidly shot, easily accessible in terms of story, and with entertaining performances from the cast (especially the children) this is an easy one to recommend.
Synopsis: Hiroto lives in the quiet city of Izumi in Osaka prefecture. He has no particular hopes or dreams unlike his classmates and this causes him to feel a deep sense of crisis. Consider the crisis over when he sees a wrestling match with popular masked fighter named Dynamite Wolf. Hiroto becomes a mega-fan and discovers that even Dynamite Wolf has failed dreams and he can help out.
The reviews for this one generally seem good. German premiere with the director/writer Yujiro Harumoto and one of the lead actors, Masahiro Umeda.
Synopsis: Asahi is a boxing trainer in Tokyo. He grew up in an orphanage but now he is going to start a family with Kaori because they plan to marry soon despite the fact that Kaori’s mother looks down on her prospective son-in-law because of his background and job. When Asahi’s best friend Hiroto is scammed by a shady businessman he has to make a difficult choice between the two closest people in his life.
Playwright and director Kenji Yamauchi premiered his film At the Terrace during the 2016 edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival where it garnered positive buzz from critics for its mix of sensuous and caustic comedy of manners. Based on one of his plays, Trois Grotesques, Yamauchi refuses to cleave away too far from his source and keeps things simple with a film shot in a single location with a cast of seven actors, all of whom were players in the preceding play itself which explains why their comic performances are so perfect. The film opens at a lavish house somewhere in the suburbs of Tokyo. The house is owned by Mr Soejima (Kenji Iwaya), the director of a company, and his wife Kazumi (Kei Ishibashi), both of whom are hosting a night-time party which drags on for a small group of guests because the more they drink the more they feel the need to linger behind and explore some bitter feelings and bad behaviour bubbling away underneath their polite Japanese exteriors.
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…
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…
Destruction Babies「ディストラクション・ベイビーズ , Dir: Tetsuya Mariko, 108 mins.」 Destruction Babies is a disturbing and bleak film all about male
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violence and the nihilism that develops when a society offers little future prospects to its young people. It offers no easy answers but packs fine performances such as the one given by lead actor Masaki Suda who is chilling as an amoral pugilistic devil stalking a small city rife with tough guys and scheming women. performance as a teen ready to destroy anything in his path. 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). The director will be at the screenings so audience members will be able to ask questions, many no-doubt surrounding the troubling philosophy and ending of the film and the director’s impressions of Japan’s future and the future of its youth.
Harmonium「深田晃司, Dir: Koji Fukada,118 mins」is psychological mystery about a man freshly released from prison who calls upon an old acquaintance for a job and a place to stay. Ostensibly, that’s his reason but what develops is a dark and dangerous game as the intruder threatens his old pal, his fried’s wife and daughter. It has been featured on this blog so many times because it has toured the international festival circuit and accrued a number of awards such as the Jury Prize in the section “Un certain regard” at the2016 Cannes Film Festival. It starsKanji Furutachi (au revoir l’ete, The Woodsman & the Rain)and Tadanobu Asano (Watashi no Otoko, Vital, Bright Future, Survive Style 5+).
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.
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.
“Writer-director Miwa Nishikawa’s somber reflection on the strains of marriage and parenthood is punctuated with beautiful existential undertones.” (Maggie Lee, Variety). The trailer works, it just has no thumbnail:
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.
The Emperor in August「日本のいちばん長い日, Dir: Masato Harada, 136 mins.」 This is the story of the chaotic and potentially calamitous days after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when the nation was gripped by the high drama and extremely tense politics that went into the final decision of the surrender of Japan to Allied Forces. The question of what to do with the Emperor seems quaint when it is placed against the drama that a cadre of army officers were prepared to sacrifice the lives of millions by refusing to surrender while some in the civilian government was desperate to bring the conflict to a conclusion. This year’s Nippon Honour award winner Koji Yakusho (Cure, Charisma) will be present at the screening to talk about what the festival organisers describe as “one of the most captivating performances of his long career” as he plays the Minister of the Army, General Korechika Anami, a man trying to decide whether to follow his loyal and passionate men or avert the death of many civilians.
I Am a Herois a Tokyo-based zombie story that was first published in 2009 and in the years since it was launched it has over 4 million copies in print, a spin-off set in Osaka and growing international recognition. I am one of the many fans around the world. My review of the manga shows how much I like it and here’s a preview I wrote for the film. There are lots of reviews that paint this as an entertaining film:
“Just hyperkinetic enough to create suspense yet willing to slow things down to allow the characters to breathe, the pic is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser.” (Elizabeth Kerr, Hollywood Reporter)
“I Am A Hero” careens along in a giddy, bloodsoaked, immensely pleasurable rush, propelled by an enthusiasm as infectious as a bite from the undead, that makes even the hoariest beats of the plot seem dipped in bright, bloody newness.” (Jessica Kiang, Variety)
Synopsis:Hideo Suzuki (Yo Oizumi) is a manga artist assistant who is struggling to get his own manga made. As he struggles with life a mysterious virus spreads throughout Japan and the rest of the world. People with the virus are known as ZQN and they turn into zombies with super speed and strength and attack other people. One of the victims of the virus is Hideo’s girlfriend Tetsuko (Nana Katase) who comes down with the virus and attacks him. Hideo flees Tokyo and heads out into the country.
During his escape he meets a high school girl named Hiromi Hayakari (Kasumi Arimura) but she has been bitten by a ZQN, a baby without teeth, so her infection isn’t as bad. During their escape they head to a mall where a group of survivors lead by NEETs are hiding on the roof. There they meet Nurse Yabu (Masami Nagasawa) who hopes she can draw an antibody from Hiromi.
Shin Godzilla 「シンゴジラ, Director: Hideaki Anno, Shinji Higuchi, 120
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mins.」I am the one person on the planet that hasn’t seen ShinGodzilla, despite being in Tokyo when the big beast cameback for the record-breaking box office reboot of Toho’s kaiju classic. It looks great based on the trailer, an update set in present-day Japan with a cast of great actors. The story follows the original for the most part: an unexplained seismic event has occurred off the coast of Shinagawa, causing destructive effects all the way to the capital. Ministers scramble to figure out what’s going on but only cabinet secretary Rando Yaguchi (and the audience) knows the truth: Godzilla has returned and Tokyo faces destruction unless its peoples pull together. It was directed by Hideaki (Neon Genesis Evangelion) Anno and Shinji Higuchi (recent live-action Attack on Titan films).
The Projects「団地, Dir: Junji Sakamoto, 103 mins」showed up at various
Danchi Film Poster
film festivals last year including Japan Cuts and it has impressed critics. The cast are mostly veteran performers and they seem to work well with Junji Sakamoto (A Chorus of Angels, HumanTrust). The story involves Hinako (Naomi Fujiyama) and Seiji Yamashita (Ittoku Kishibe), an elderly married couple who once owned a store where they sold traditional Chinese herbal medicine but they retired and moved into the local housing complex after the death of their son. Old customers come calling and it provides something for Seiji to do, otherwise, he barely leaves their apartment. Things change when he runs in an election to select the next president of the housing complex but due to various misunderstandings with his neighbours, he shuts himself away under the floorboards of the apartment out of embarrassment and soon rumours spread that he has been killed by Hinako! Here’s a review at the Japan Times and the Asahi Shimbun.
Eriko, Pretended is part of the 12th CO2 Grant-recipient Film section of the 2016 edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival and has since gone on to tour the international film festival circuit. It was the subject of an international crowd funding campaign and it features a group of experienced crew who have worked on other films.
Synopsis:Eriko (Haruka Kubo) moved to Tokyo to become an actor but after ten years of trying she hasn’t quite made it. When her sister dies, Eriko returns home to attend the funeral where she delivers a eulogy. After the event she has to answer awkward questions about her acting career but, more importantly, she states that she will care for her sister’s ten-year-old son Kazuma…
Death Note – Light Up the New Worldデスノート Light up the NEW world「デスノート Light up the NEW world, Dir: Shinsuke Sato, 135 mins.」WebsiteIMDBTheDeath Note franchise continues ten years after the original when a new Death Note has been found on Earth and it has been used to orchestrate mass murders in New York and Japan. Itsemergence coincides withmysterious cyber terrorist attacks. A new generation of detectives led by Tsukuru (Higashide) and Ryuzaki (Ikematsu) will have to use their deduction skills to stop the person behind this new threat.
Synopsis from the festival site: Tony TAKITANI, a middle-aged man, has long been used to living alone, but his whole life changes after falling in love with a beautiful young woman, Eiko. She evokes long-lost feelings in him, and he asks for her hand in marriage. Their life together couldn’t be more perfect, until he discovers Eiko’s extreme fondness for expensive designer clothes.
I saw this one as part of the Osaka Asian Film Festival and found it charming enough to write a review. Other critics have lavished praise on it.
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 twentysomething 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.
The short film The Lost Breakfast (Dir: Q-Rais, 7 min, 2015) will be shown with this feature. Love and Goodbye and Hawaii
Synopsis from the Osaka Asian Film Festival Site: Sakura is a moody teenage girl living close to the US military base in the city of Yamato, a town north of Tokyo. She wants to become a musician like the American rappers she admires, but is held back by stage-fright when faced with performing in front of a live audience. Then she meets Rei, the half-Japanese half-American daughter of her mother’ s American soldier boyfriend. Rei has flown from California to visit for the summer. Sakura dislikes her immediately, but Rei’ s familiarity with American Hip Hop becomes a bridge between the two girls as they spend an unforgettable time together exploring, arguing over and bonding through the mix of Japanese and American culture in the unique landscape of Yamato. Though their adventures and quarrels may lead Sakura into danger, they may also let her face her fears and participate in the city’s music competition.
Synopsis from the festival site: From one moment to another the world goes dark in a catastrophic power outage. The Suzuki family decides to leave the struggling megalopolis of Tokyo and learns to survive in the Japanese countryside. Shinobu YAGUCHI’s charming film effortlessly mixes comedy, drama, and adventure genres while at the same time asking serious questions about the way we live.
Synopsis from the Osaka Asian Film Festival site: Kaori and Tamaki broke up three years ago but continue to live together, not as family, friends or lovers, just together. They live in the same house but it is split by a boundary with clearly defined rules. One day, Tamaki is asked out to dinner by her colleague Hiroshi while Kaori receives a lascivious look from his colleague Kimi. Tamaki’ s aunt and uncle visit them to see what is going on. The time to decide whether they have truly split up has arrived, but they begin to examine what it means to separate.
Synopsis: Mitsuo was one of those brave souls who answered the call for volunteers to clear out the debris left behind by the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. The strain of the task proved to be too much and he spent three years in psychiatric care. Upon his release, Mitsuo finds solace in reuniting with his brother and his nieces Chie and Itsuki. But a tragic accident soon disrupts the newly found happiness when the two girls are left in his care and Itsuki is killed. Though he had no direct involvement in the incident, Mitsuo is blamed and he must deal with the burden of guilt and the struggle for atonement.
The short film Jungle Taxi (Dir: Hakhyun Kim, 8 min, 2016) will be shown with this feature.
Synopsis: Narumi and Gin are seemingly ordinary middle school students but there home lives are anything but regular. Narumi is a girl whose abusive mother forces her to do all of the housework and beats her while Gin has just found out that his father has fallen in love with a man and he is confused about his own feelings after he rejects Narumi’s confession of love. When Narumi finds out that her mother is about to sell her into prostitution, she decides to flee to Tokyo and Gin joins her. The two leave their hometown to search for a better future but will they find it?
The short film Hidden In Plain Sight (自販機の光にふらふら歩み寄りごめんなさいってつぶやいていた, Dir: Kiyoshi Sugita, 37 min, 2017) will be shown with this feature.
Synopsis: Kyoko, a jogging enthusiast working part-time at a gas station finds her love life twists and turns as she comes into contact with her co-worker Takayuki and a musician named Shotaro.
Synopsis from the film festival site: This film tells the true story of Satoshi Murayama, who devoted his life to his two greatest struggles: against shogi (Japanese chess) master Yoshiharu Habu and against an incurable disease. Through his love of shogi he developed an astonishing strength of will, but ultimately, it cost him his life.
Synopsis: In the USA, cheerleaders are true high school stars. In Japan, however, they reside at the bottom of the pecking order. The demanding teacher Kaoruko plans to change that and wants her cheer-dancing team, led by new arrival Hikari, to win the U.S. championship. From the producers of FLYING COLORS comes the ultimate teenage comedy with laughs, great choreography, and pom poms. Guaranteed to make you feel happy!
Synopsis from the film festival site: Several years after the brutal, unsolved murder of a Tokyo family, ambitious reporter Tanaka attempts to find the perpetrators of the crime. Step by step, he comes close to discovering what really happened.
Up next are two films by Nobuhiro Yamashita. I’m a fan despite having only reviewed The Drudgery Train(2012). They were on in cinemas the month after I arrived in Tokyo but I never watched them. A friend of mine did and he said that they were great:
Synopsis: Shiraiwa (Odagiri) is a recently divorced man and newly arrived in Hakodate, Hokkaido. He attends a vocational college to learn carpentry to continue receiving unemployment benefits. He is trapped in a routine and he is not along as there are other students who are in the same boat as he. This connection leads his classmates to invite him to join them at a hostess club where Shiraiwa meets a strangewoman who is passionately imitating the courtship dance of an ostrich. It turns out that she likes Shiraiwa and although he is irritated with her at first, he begins to like him. Her name is Satoshi (Aoi) and the two fall in love.
Synopsis: Yukio’s uncle is a part-time philosophy professor and a full-time freeloader. He lives with his brother’s family and spends his days loafing around when he isn’t working on a long drawn-out doctoral thesis but when he meets a beautiful Japanese-American named Eri, his life is thrown off course. This momentous occasion happens when his nephew Yukio has been given a school report to write on a particular family member. The two soon go on an adventure to Hawaii…
I think that’s about it. It’s a good line-up yet again. I hope these guides have helped you in some way!
Venues
The events and screenings will take place at the following locations:
The East Winds Film Festival is back after a hiatus of a couple of years (the last one was in 2014). Words about the films was released before the event but I’m a bit late in covering it. It started on May 15th and ends on May 21stand the programme consists of some of the latest award winning titles from the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea and other nations and regions. The only one I have seen all the way through is Tam Cam: The Untold Storywhich I reviewed for V-Cinema.
Anyway, here’s a press release from the organisers:
Coventry and Birmingham to Celebrate East Asian cinema at the East Winds Film Festival
19 FILMS. 11 EUROPEAN PREMIERES. 6 UK PREMIERES. 2 SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS. 7 COUNTRIES. 2 SPECIAL GUESTS. 2 VENUES. 2 MAJOR LOCATIONS.
The East Winds Film Festival returns with the best East Asia has to offer, introducing the UK to an eclectic mix of popular cinema from the region, from star-studded action smash hits, intriguing cyber thrillers and chilling found footage horrors, to slapstick comedies and endearing romantic films.
This year’s programme features productions from Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan and South Korea, and will see a return of the East Winds Chills strand, highlighting a collection of horrors that are sure to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.
Festival Director Spencer Murphy commented: “After a break of a couple of years, we knew how important it was to come back bigger and better than before. For our fifth edition, we really wanted to expand our scope, not just in terms of the films, but in terms of the festival’s reach in the West Midlands. We are really delighted that we will be showcasing such a broad range of films and genres from across East Asia”.
“Whilst we have our usual mix of horror, comedies and action, a real highlight for me this year is the inclusion of Jerome Tarog’s outstanding ‘Bliss’ – a film which for me encapsulates what we try to achieve with our programming at the festival, a film that takes genre tropes and conventions, and pushes the boundaries of audience expectations. I’m also delighted we are showcasing the visual skills of Pedring Lopez with “Darkroom”, another venture for us into Philippines genre cinema”, he continued.
The Opening Gala and Reception will officially kick off the 2017 festival with the UK Premiere of Alan Mak and Anthony Pun’s action-packed Chinese blockbuster ‘Extraordinary Mission‘, which follows an undercover police officer infiltrating a drug cartel only to be hit with a blast from the past.
Before this, audiences can warm up with Derek Yee’s martial arts extravaganza ‘Sword Master’, playing for the first time in the UK in spectacular 3D to tell the story of a powerful swordsman haunted by the destructive impact of his deadly talents.
The second day starts with the UK Premiere of the highly anticipated action fantasy film ‘Tam Cam: The Untold Story’ from Vietnam. Part of the East Winds Chills strand, the European Premiere of psychosexual Filipino thriller ‘Bliss’ will play in the evening, following the endless nightmare of a crippled actress trapped in a house filled with bizarre phenomena.
The first late night screening of the festival will see a special presentation of one of the most celebrated genre films to emerge from the Philippines in recent memory, Pedring Lopez’s ‘The Entity: Nilalang’.
Purporting to be the first film in the world to feature the controversial cyber currency, Ham Tram’s Ocean’s Eleven Vietnam style action thriller ‘Bitcoin Heist’ kicks things off on Wednesday; less a film and more of a calling card for the potential of contemporary Vietnamese cinema.
East Winds Chills takes over afterwards with the European Premieres of Thai horrors ‘Grace’ and ‘School Tales’, which will be introduced by rising star Latkamon Pinrojkirati and followed by exclusive audience Q&As where attendees can gain a behind the scenes look at the world of acting in Thailand.
Lightening things up the following day is Thai romantic comedy ‘A Gift’, playing for the first time in Europe and bringing to life three different love stories linked together through music by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
In the evening, another star will shine on the red carpet; Parkpoom Wongpoom arrives at the festival to introduce drama ‘Kitarajanipon’ as one of the four directors creating four beautiful short films who interpret four songs from His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej’s royal songbook. The European Premiere of the production will be followed by an audience Q&A, giving attendees the opportunity to gain an insight into filmmaking.
Heo Seo Hyeong will then take audiences in a different direction with the outrageously violent thriller ‘Collision’, in which characters are hacked at an alarming rate; a real treat for fans of South Korean revenge cinema.
Friday sees the last screenings in Coventry, starting with Thai romantic comedy ‘One Day’. From previous East Winds special guest Banjong Pisanthanakun, the film tells the story of a man whose wish to be with his dream girl comes true after she suffers temporary memory loss.
Featuring a stellar performance by former action star Kara Hui, The European Premiere of Hong Kong suspense thriller ‘The Mysterious Family’ follows in the evening, a dark and twisted film inspired by a series of true grisly events which took place in Fujian, China.
In East Winds spirit, the Closing Gala ends the 2017 edition on a wonderfully humorous note with the European Premiere of Taiwanese comedy ‘The Village of No Return’. Starring award-winning actress Shu Qi, the film shows a village that is turned upside down after a mysterious Taoist priest brings a magical device that can erase one’s memory.
The festival moves to The Mockingbird Cinema & Kitchen for the weekend, playing host to 3 horrors as part of East Winds Chills on Saturday. A special presentation of the classic and extremely popular Thai film ‘Phobia 2’ featuring 5 horror stories from 5 different directors sees Parkpoom Wongpoom in attendance once again to chat with Birmingham audiences.
In the evening, the Found Footage Horror Double Bill brings the European Premieres of ‘Darkroom’ from the Philippines, where terrible events unfold as a group of teenagers visit an abandoned house while ghost hunting, and Thai film ‘The Lost Case’, based on the popular show ‘Ghost Doctor TV’.
The final day of the festival sees Pedring Lopez’s horror ‘Binhi The Seed’ arrive in Birmingham as part of East Winds Chills. With more than a touch of ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, Lopez takes his creepy premise in some surprising directions, turning the film into a stylish entry in the Asian horror cycle.
Another fine example of South Korean cinema, Kim Yong-woon’s feature debut ‘Malice’ will delight fans of the under-appreciated Bridget Fonda vehicle ‘Single White Female’ as the final screening at The Mockingbird Cinema on Sunday.
As the only major film festival of East Asian cinema outside of London and the first of its kind in the Midlands, East Winds aims to promote and celebrate East Asian cinema and culture of one of the most exciting and influential industries in the world.
“We’re incredibly proud to have the most European Premieres the festival has ever boasted, with some incredibly strong films from across all genres. We are sure our audience will find something in the programme to excited them!”, said Festival Director Spencer Murphy.
I’m currently in Japan and I had meant to cover this festival and the Chinese Visual Festival but in between travelling from Hiroshima to Osaka and back to Tokyo and starting a temporary teaching job I ran out of time. Apologies to the organisers and any readers who were interested in finding out more. There’s still time to watch films At East Winds since it ends on the 21st of May!
Yo Ota is a film maker from Tokyo who has produced a body of work consisting of short films that mix together the realism found in landscape films with some manipulation of time and movement and spatial awareness to create genre straddling works of experimentalism that ask the audience to question the way that films display things. Subjects and locations have been as diverse as Catholicism and the pilgrimage to Lourdes Cathedral and a woman dancing in slow motion and the movement of cars and pedestrians in Paris.
He is new to me and I had to do some quick research on this site where you can view some of his films. If, however, the Anthology Film Archives in New York are holding a presentation on May 21st at 19:30. These guys are an international centre “for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema.” It sounds as if Yo Ota fits right in. Here’s more information from the site itself:
CLOUDED VISION: THE FILMS OF YO OTA
“Clouded Vision” is a program of short films by the Japanese filmmaker, Yo Ota. A former student of Peter Kubelka, Ota has been working in experimental film since the late 1970s. His films centre on the exploration of time and space, employing diverse technical effects to trouble the moving image’s presumed realism and create alternative spatio-temporal forms. Existing at the intersections of experimental documentary, the landscape film, and structural film, his work combines contemplative depictions of natural and manmade environments with complex – yet playful – examinations of filmic representation.
“Clouded Vision” gathers together films that span four decades of Ota’s artistic career. The program foregrounds works in which Ota utilizes experimental techniques (varying frame rates, matte work, etc.) to reorganize the viewer’s perception of the world. It also features a number of films that respond creatively to the work of contemporary Japanese artists in other disciplines, such as sculpture, painting, and installation. Recurring at intervals throughout the program, Ota’s characteristic time-lapse footage of cloud formations situates his subjects within an expansive durational field uniquely visible to cinema.
Curated by Josh Guilford and Tomonari Nishikawa.
If you understood all of that and live in the area, then this may be the sort of thing for you. Here are two examples of what will be screened over approximately 85 minutes:
ULTRAMARINE (2014, 5 min, 16mm) “The ‘exhibition’ held by ‘artist’ Katsuhiro Fujimura in Tokyo during the very hot summer of 2013 was one that made viewers suffer. The ‘painting’ that stood leaning against the window had very faint colors and regular scratches that could not be seen very well because of the light streaming in from the outside. The light changed with the time of day, and the surface of the painting also shifted. The paint on the front of the panel can only be perceived as ‘color’ by reflecting light. The fact that if the light changes what is seen also changes is quite obvious, but because it is a ‘painting’ viewers find this hard to accept.”
NEBUKAWA (2012, 4.5 min, 16mm) “There was an art event at a closed school, Kataura Junior High School, in Nebukawa, Kanagawa Prefecture. If I did not participate in this event to show my films, I would never have got off at Nebukawa Station. I saw the sea from the school building. The installation by Tetsuya Iimuro was placed in a science room at the school, where one could see the ocean through the windows.”
The films stretch from the 1980s to more contemporary times and so they will act as an interesting time capsule in many ways. It’s definitely the sort of thing that I need to study and watch more because I mainly focus on narrative cinema rather than the more experimental end of film-making.
The Korean Cultural Centre is continuing its season of films concerned with migration in South Korea. These titles have been programmed by students from the Film Studies Programming and Curation MA programme at the National Film and Television School and from.
Here’s information on the latest film as pulled from the website:
The Journals of Musan
Running Time: 127 mins.
Director: Jung-bum Park
Writer:Jung-bum Park (Screenplay),
Starring:Jung-bum Park, Yonguk Jin, Eunjin Kang, Jin-won Seo, Si-heub Sung, Yougdeok Park,
The Journals of Musan Director-star Park Jung-bum learned the particulars of filmmaking as assistant director on the films of Lee Chang-dong (Oasis, Poetry), and while Park’s debut feature doesn’t
Synopsis: Jeon Seung-chul (Park Jung-bum) is a North Korean refugee who has defected to South Korea. Despite his best efforts in trying to adjust to life in Seoul, he discovers that his status as a defector makes it difficult to find a good job due to discrimination and he find it hard to get along with people despite acting in a shy and submissive way. When Seung-chul is harassed by the authorities, he takes a new job at a karaoke bar to gain stability, an appropriate income, and less prejudice for being a defector. He turns to religion and goes to Church as a way of overcoming his isolation and finding some brightness in life.
The Korean Cultural Centre will run this screening on Thursday, July 01st, and it takes place from 19:00 until 22:00. Admission is free but you must book a place. 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.
SeoulSearching (2015)is a coming-of-age drama that melds the tropes of a John Hughes teen comedy like The Breakfast Club with the true story about summer camps that took place in 1980s in Korea where foreign-born Korean teenagers learn about their cultural heritage. Since it takes place in the 1980s, a lot of the music comes from there and since it is a film in the mould of something John Hughes might do, expect memorable characters trying to find their own identities amidst comedic situations.
Alas, the trailer sank any interest in the film for me what with the plot being spoiled and the glimpses of the ugly appropriation of black culture which made me uncomfortable. While I don’t have an issue with people of different races experimenting in cultures, it has to be done with respect and a review on Black Nerd Problems has put me off the film entirely due to its dismissive attitude to race. Maybe I might feel differently after watching it for myself.
Here’s information on the latest film as pulled from the website:
Synopsis: It is the 1980s and the Korean government has started a special summer camp for “gyopo” or foreign born teenagers where they will spend their summer in Seoul and learn about their “motherland.” This brings together the Korean diaspora so people from different cultures come together and this inevitably leads to culture clashes exarcebatted by the youth, some ofwhom are trying to manage their own wild impulses.
The Korean Cultural Centre are running a series of films exploring the migrant experience in South Korea since April and it is continuing into 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
Screenings are free but places must be reserved. To find out more about the film and how to book tickets, please visit this site.
The Korean Cultural Centrewill bring its season of films concerned with migration in South Korea to a close in just over a week’s time with the light-hearted comedy, He’s On Duty. These titles have been programmed by students from the Film Studies Programming and Curation MA programme at the National Film and Television School and it has been a diverse programme made up of documentaries and dramas. This screening also has karaoke and a drinks reception so it’s worth going to!
Here’s information on the latest film as pulled from the website:
He’s on Duty
Running Time: 110 mins.
Director: Yook Sang-Hyo
Writer:Yook Sang-Hyo (Screenplay),
Starring:Kim In-kwon, Kim Jung-tae, Shin Hyun-bin, Bang Dae-han,
I have not seen this one but I am familiar with the actors Kim In-kwon, who appeared in Peppermint Candy (2000)and My Wife is a Gangster (2001), and Kim Jung-tae who appeared in Friend (2001) and Duelist (2005). The trailer looks funny.
Synopsis: Bang Tae-sik is a perennially unemployed South Korean man who, based on his physical appearance, could pass for a foreigner. This particular trait means that he is picked on. One day he decides to take advantage of his own situation and adopts a fake foreign accent and pretends his name is Bang-ga and he is from Bhutan. He gains confidence little by little and becomes more and more influential among his friends and co-workers. He also starts romancing the lovely Jang-mi who works in the same factory as him. Will his ruse last?
The Korean Cultural Centre will run this screening on Thursday, June15th, and it takes place from 19:00 until 22:00. Admission is free but you must book a place. 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.
The London Korean Film Festival has revealed the fourth of its teaser screenings in the form ofThe King,a film billed as the Korean Wolf of Wall Street. Audiences will be able to enjoy seeing the rich and powerful wallow in their avarice and the drama in seeing them rise and fall. The trailer looks flashy enough!
Here are the details:
The King
Release Date: January 18th, 2017
Running Time:134 mins.
Director: Han Jae-rim
Writer:Han Jae-rim (Screenplay),
Starring:Zo In-sung, Jung Woo-sung, Bae Sung-woo, Ryoo Joon-yeol, Kim Eui-sung, Kim A-joong, Jung Eun-chae,
Synopsis from the LKFF: After seeing his small-time crook father humiliated by a visiting prosecutor, juvenile delinquent Tae-su (Cho In-sung) realises where the real power in this world is found. When, after years of study, the long hours and meagre pay offered by his position don’t provide the life he desires, Tae-su puts his morals aside and takes up with the most powerful prosecutors in the country, led by the charismatic Han Kang-sik (Jung Woo-sung). Introduced into a world of money, parties and long-sought after power, Tae-su enjoys life at the top but with a career built upon a web of corruption, and with violent gangsters, a wronged wife and shady friends all gunning for him, how long can it last?
The film will be screened at the Picture House Central (tickets) on June12th 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. I’ve already written about Princess Kaguya, An Autumn Afternoon, and Woman in the Dunes, and this one is straight from left-field since it comes from Sogo Ishii (now known as Gakuryu Ishii) while he was still in his punk period! It’s called The Crazy Family and it was released in 1984. It will be screened on June 11th at 16:00.
This was one of the last films produced by the Art Theatre Guild, a production company that operated between 1961 and 1984 which made films by New Wave directors like Shohei Imamura and Koji Wakamatsu. The fact that Sogo Ishii was one of the last directors to work in the auspices of this company is fitting since he represented a new generation that included Sion Sono. Many of that new generations films were on tour around the world last year in places such as the Berlin International Film Festival. I’ve reviewed a couple of other films by Sogo Ishii: Angel Dust and Isn’t Anyone Alive; and one other film from the Art Theatre Guild: Disciples of Hippocrates.
There are no decent trailers but this clip is fun!
Synopsis:The Kobayashi family consists of hard-working Katsuhiko, his loving wife Saeko and their two kids, Erika and Masaki and their pet dog. They have hit a patch of good fortune. Erika has got a record company audition while Katsushiko has finally got them a nice house in the suburbs far away from their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment. Alas, things start to fall apart (almost literally) since the suburban house of their dreams is infested by termites and their unwanted grandfather Yasukuni moves in and starts getting World War II flashbacks. The family begin to fall to pieces as well as Masaki studies obsessively for an exam and Erika is equally obsessed with her audition. Katsuhiko becomes so worried about his family’s “sickness” that he thinks can only be cured by boarding up the doors and windows and getting everybody to perform group suicide… This is the start of a fight in which everyday objects become weapons in a battle for survival…
The Japanese Embassy in London has a 16mm print of Shinji Somai’s 1993 film Ohikkoshi and there will be a free screening of it on June 23rd. This film isa touching story about a girl dealing with the divorce of her parents and while it is floating about on the internet, nothing beats seeing films as part of an audience and on a screen bigger than a laptop/PC. There is also a special talk which will make the screening even more interesting.
The event is free to attend but anyone interested in being part of the audience must book in advance to secure a place (which you can do through this link).
Shinji Somai was one of the biggest directors in Japan in the 1980s and 90s and made around 13 films before his death in 2001. Despite the popularity of his films, he was lesser known in the West until he netted his biggest festival spot in 1993 when Ohikkoshi was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. Despite that, his works are still hard to find on DVD and Blu-Ray but they are popular as the viewer count on illegal YouTube videos will attest. More recently, he has been the subject of a revival in interest thanks to retrospectives at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and Nippon Connection and some of his films getting screened at various Japan Foundation events.
Ohikkoshi is one of his most popular and deals with one of his most utilised stories, that of a dislocated adolescents and the turbulent emotions that some feel. It features sensitive writing and direction that allows the child actors to really get into their roles.
The film has a winning performance from child actor Tomoko Tabata who has grown into a fine leading lady with performances in films like The Cowards Who Look to the Sky. Screenwriter Satoko Okudera’s first noted work on a screenplay came with this film. She has subsequently become known for her collaborations with anime director Mamoru Hosoda on The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and The Wolf Children. She also wrote the screenplay for Permanent Nobara.
Synopsis: Renko is in the sixth grade when her parents decide to separate. Initially she is happy about the situation, not having had any idea that they might divorce, and enjoys the fact that she now has two homes. She begins feeling uneasy when her mother tries to draw up a ‘contract’ for their life together, which asserts their independence from her father while he cannot provide any satisfactory answers about why they divorced. Renko also becomes concerned about what will happen at school if her classmates find out, given that they already tease another girl whose parents have divorced. Renko’s boyfriend at school, Minoru, draws up a surefire plan to bring her parents back together but will it work?
The event takes place on June 23rdand starts at 18:00. There is a special talk at 18:30 and the film starts at 19:00. 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 Barbican is 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. There will be films screened as part of the exhibition. I’ve already written about Princess Kaguya, An Autumn Afternoon,Woman in the Dunes, and Sogo Ishii’s (now known as Gakuryu Ishii) The Crazy Family.It is time for another Ghibli film and it is the quietly spectacular, Whisper of the Heart which will be screened on June 17th at 16:00.
Whisper of the Heart is based on a 1989 manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi. It was the first and last film directed by Yoshifumi Kondo who tragically died at the age of 47 three years after its release. He had a long career in anime starting with Nippon Animation and he worked as an animation director and worked on key animation on many pre-Ghibli anime titles that Miyazaki and Isao Takahata directed such as Future Boy Conan, Anne of Green Gables, and Sherlock Hound. He continued on in those roles on Ghibli classics like Kiki’s Delivery Service, Only Yesterday and Princess Mononoke. Whisper of the Heart was his biggest work and stands as a testament to the talentof the man who was expected to become one of the top directors at Studio Ghibli, alongside Miyazaki and Takahata.
This film captures the joys of teen life. Whether it is the stumbling steps towards finding a creative outlet or first love, it sensitively captures the emotions and the explorations of its two teen protagonists perfectly. It’s beautiful and I can watch it over and over. Having the chance to see it on the big screen is too much to pass up and so I hope my writing about this can help lead people to this wonderful experience. I bet people in the audience will get emotional when Country Road plays…
Synopsis from the Barbican:Over the summer holidays 14-year-old Shizuku determines to read as many books as possible in preparation for her future career as a writer. After meeting a boy named Seiji, Shizuku discovers an antique shop whose array of fantastical items inspires her to start writing a book starring the shop’s most intriguing artefact, a top-hatted cat figurine called The Baron.
It has been a while since I last did a review round-up of any festival but fellow cinephile and Twitter-user FelixAguirre regularly collects links to reviews and alerts them to me and with such a treasure-trove of opinions from the most recent Cannes Film Festival on offer, I’d be mad to turn them down. First up…
When it comes to Takashi Miike writers regularly reach for the same words: prolific, extreme and controversial. His career has definitely lived up to the definitions as he has carved out an international reputation as an auteur unafraid of accessing the darker side of humanity with horror titles like Audition, gangster films like Shinjuku Triad Society, and musicals like The Happiness of the Katakuris. Lately, he has adapted anime and manga for the big screen and he has hit his 100th feature-length film with another adaptation, Hiroaki Samura’s manga about a samurai who cannot die no matter how badly he gets cut up.
Blade of the Immortal / The Inhabitant of Infinity (Literal Title)
Warner Bros. Japan have been cranking out anime and manga adaptations 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 (mostly of anger) when the announcement was made because nothing will capture the manga but you never know, it may be good (trailer for the JoJo’s movie).
Miike has great form when it comes to jidaigeki considering he made 13 Assassins (2012) and Hara-Kiri (Death of a Samurai) (2013). Warner Bros have the financial muscle and a crew experienced in that genre considering they were behind the excellent Rurouni Kenshin, Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Inferno 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).
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 immortalityyounger by 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” and her parents’ fencing studio was destroyed. 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”.
Reviews from Cannes generally follow the same story – talk about Miike’s long career and then segue into talking about his latest by comparing it to his 2013 remake, Thirteen Assassins and then talk about how great action sequences that utilise the grisly premise of an unkillable samurai make for a good adaptation of the lengthy source material.
“The answer, of course, is yes, and it leads to one stylised showdown after the other, many of which are savagely funny. If you have a healing factor, and you find yourself chained up by the wrist, why not just lop off your hand?” Jordan Hoffman – The Guardian
“The story’s supernatural elements enable Miike to take huge liberties with chanbara, the oldest genre in Japanese cinema, and break free from rigid traditions of choreographing swordplay sequences — to the extent that the film’s free-form combat moves and creative, Gothic weaponry serve to accentuate the renegade spirit of Anotsu’s and Shira’s rival schools.” Maggie Lee – Variety
The next review gives away a couple of the plot twists but continues in the same vein:
“The director’s 100th feature, Blade of the Immortal shows Miike to have lost none of the madcap energy and wit that characterize his best work. And while this is not that, it’s still got more style to burn than almost any recent Hollywood actioner.” Harry Windsor – Hollywood Reporter
Generally speaking, the actors who play the villains get the best reviews, especially Erika Toda and Sota Fukushi (much to my shock). Considering this is based on a manga that started life in 1993, there’s a lot to adapt but reviewers praise him and his writer for tackling things head on and turning the film into a series of inventive fights. However, while the action may be a lot of fun and inventive viewers might get tired of just how much of it there is:
“When kicking off with a whole lot of combat and then offering a lot more of the same, it sets the audience up for a lot of combat fatigue. Miike and crew try to obviate that outcome by focusing on the particularities of each Ittō-ryū assassin – all them have wildly different costumes, personalities and fighting styles – and by thinking of new ways to mangle the main hero’s body… Even at two hours, the film would feel awfully repetitive; at nearly two and half, even the ostensibly thrilling end battles feel like a drag.” Ben Croll – IndieWire
Overall, critics liked what they saw and it has a rating of 7.7/10 on IMDB
“The extent of Takashi’s Miike’s prolific output is nothing if not stunning, and Mugen No Jūnin, the Japanese director’s 100th film, also stuns in its particular way. It’s difficult not to leave the cinema with your body slightly heavier, your head a little lighter. The pace is relentless, the violence consuming and the death toll, if going by sheer number, needs to be reduced by the power to be comprehended.” Joseph Owen – The Upcoming
While I prefer the more fantastical side of Studio Ghibli’s output, I recognise that Isao Takahata’s realistic dramas are pretty powerful. I recognise them as powerful because I cried hard when watching them and Only Yesterday, a film aimed at evoking nostalgia in Japanese women had me in tears in its final scenes. According to Wikipedia, the film’s power was pretty great:
“The film was a surprise box office success, attracting a large adult audience of all genders and becoming the highest-grossing Japanese film of the year in the country.”
Also according to Wikipedia, and here’s interesting film facts and not just my opinion, Takahata had troubled adapting the episodic stories of the source manga and so he created the framing narrative of the main character travelling to Yamagata Prefecture and falling in love. Here is a trailer to give you a taste as to why audiences loved it:
Synopsis from the Barbican:A 27 year old office worker, Taeko Okajima (Miki Imai), leaves the city for her first extended trip outside of Tokyo.
Visiting her sister in rural Yamagata, she daydreams about her younger self and is forced to reflect on her hectic life when she meets a handsome young farmer.
The 2017 edition of the Edinburgh International Film Festival takes place from June 21stuntilJuly 02ndand the films have been announced. There is a mix of titles that give a good indication of what is happening with the Japanese film industry – the best film is an anime, all the rest are adaptations of books and familiar stories.
This is the UK premiere of an award-winning film that I had the pleasure of seeing in Hiroshima, the setting for part of the film, a couple of months 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 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).
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.
I remember being sat in a cinema in Urawa talking to a friend while the trailer for this played on a loop. I wasn’t particularly interested in the first one and the sequel looked dire but the reviews for it have been pretty good as seen in this one from Variety.
Synopsis: Reiji is back for a second film and finds himself re-infiltrating the yakuza gang from the first movie and acting as a bodyguard for the boss and his sexy wife and daughter. Reiji has to watch his rampant libido but he also has to watch out for the police who think he has turned traitor and a girlfriend who suspects he’s not being faithful. Worse still are the Chinese syndicate trying to take over the gang’s territory. Reiji will find his priorities split as he heads to Hong Kong for a showdown.
This is an updated and atmospheric retelling of an ancient Japanese ghost story which was collected by Lafcardio Ahern about the titular Snow Woman. Rising star Kiki Sugino (a luminous presence in the flesh – I was dazzled by her (and her sparkly dress)! – , much like the titular Snow Woman of her film), wrote and produced and directed this film and also takes on the lead role as the ghostly snow woman. The writing process started while she was in hospital after a car accident and she showed the resulting film a year later in the Tokyo International Film Festival. I had the good fortune to watch it and found it interesting but not terribly gripping. I started to review it while I lived in Asagaya but I never finished the review due to a lack of time and motivation. Perhaps I shall do so this week.
Synopsis: The story sees a hunter (Munetaka Aoki) and his mentor encounter the snow woman (Kiki Sugino) during a snowstorm, with her frostbite-inducing breath killing the mentor, but sparing the hunter. He later meets the mysterious Suki (also Sugino), who resembles the snow woman and marries her. But the supernatural world haunts them, and spirits and superstition eventually impact on their rural idyll.
When I first arrived in Tokyo, posters for this film were everywhere:
A shot of the posters for “Nanimono” and “Ikari” taken at Shinjuku Station
I never watched it because I didn’t have time but it definitely looks really good, a dark dive into the recesses of the human soul. Viewers better brace themselves for some negative feelings as the worst of humanity is said to be explored and it will probably be powerful. The reason I say this is because the film is based on a novel by Shuichi Yoshida and he has had many of his books (many of which are fascinated with the idea of evil and people hiding their true identities) turned into films and they are almost all available in the UK thanks to Third Window Films: A Story of Yonosuke (2013), Villain (2010), Parade (2010) The Ravine of Goodbye (2013) isn’t one of them but it was at the London Film Festival. Sang-il Lee handled the big-screen adaptation of Villain (2010) and crafted a good drama. Rage looks to be on a par. It contains a stellar cast who have been in many films.
Synopsis: A a married couple is brutally murdered by someone. The only clues are that the murderer is a man and he wrote the word “Ikari” (“Anger”) with the blood of the couple. The killer undergoes plastic surgery and flees and Japan is gripped by the crime and whenever a male stranger appears in a community, the people there suspect that the stranger might be the murderer.
People such as Yohei Maki (Ken Watanabe) who works at a harbour in Chiba. He is concerned that the man his daughter Aiko (Aoi Miyazaki) is dating, Tetsuya Tashiro (Kenichi Matsuyama), might be the killer, because Tetsuya is not his real name.
An advertising executive named Yuma Fujita (Satoshi Tsumabuki) falls for a man named Naoto Onishi (Gou Ayano) and they begin to live together but Yuma soon develops suspicions that Naoto is the killer.
Izumi Komiya (Suzu Hirose) and her mother (Urara Awata) move to an isolated island in Okinawa and Izumi meets a backpacker named Shingo Tanaka (Mirai Moriyama) who is hiding a secret.
Three different communities across Japan, three different stories involving different people, all linked by one murder.
There are a number of short films and anime in various sections like:
Ylion and Callysia (Dir: Takashi Nakamura, 2017, 7 mins)
Negative Space (Dir: Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata, 2017, 6 mins)
Camouflage (Dir: Yuka Sato, 2017, 8 mins) is a short film in the Black Box strand dedicated to ideas surrounding movement and how it is captured on camera and displayed on screen. The festival’s page for this film has the following description:
Movements frozen, moments stilled: the mysterious presence of a female dancer is the focus of this understated and sensitively observed film.
Also in the same section is Soramimi (Dirs: Julia Laird, Daisy Dickinson, 2016, 4 mins), a UK-Japan co-production that was shot on Super 8 deep in the forests on a mountain in Japan. The focus of the film is how dance and costume are used to channel different energies.
Dog in the Shade (Dir: Ei Toshinari, 2016, 11 mins) is another short and it’sin the Waking Dream section whichis a collection of shorts that thrust the audience deep into the darker realms of the human consciousness. Dog in Shade is a collection of “episodes and conversations almost forgotten”, that are dredged up and excavated in an “attempt to make the absent, tangible”.
Update (an hour after posting): Thanks to film programmer Irene Silvera, one of my film friends on Twitter, for alerting me to this British documentary directed by a Japanese woman named Kyoko Miyake!
Synopsis from the filmmaker’s website: “IDOLS” has fast become a phenomenon in Japan as girl bands and pop music permeate Japanese life. Tokyo Idols – an eye-opening film gets at the heart of a cultural phenomenon driven by an obsession with young female sexuality and internet popularity.
This ever growing phenom is told through Rio, a bona fide “Tokyo Idol” who takes us on her journey toward fame. Now meet her “brothers”: a group of adult middle aged male super fans (ages 35 – 50) who devote their lives to following her—in the virtual world and in real life. Once considered to be on the fringes of society, the “brothers” who gave up salaried jobs to pursue an interest in female idol culture have since blown up and have now become mainstream via the internet, illuminating the growing disconnect between men and women in hypermodern societies.
With her provocative look into the Japanese pop music industry and its focus on traditional beauty ideals, filmmaker Kyoko Miyake confronts the nature of gender power dynamics at work. As the female idols become younger and younger, Miyake offers a critique on the veil of internet fame and the new terms of engagement that are now playing out IRL around the globe.
Here’s an interview with the director:
That’s a decent line-up. Tickets are already on sale and selling fast!
The Barbican’s exhibition about Japanese homes and domestic architecture, The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945, began on March 23rd and it finishes on June 25th with this special film which is one of Ozu’s earliest and his held in high regard by film critics.
Actually, every film screening has been well-picked and seems well-placed to compliment the exhibition by giving a myriad of stories connected to the Japanese home and show different living environments. The films that have been screened so far arePrincess Kaguya, An Autumn Afternoon,Woman in the Dunes,The Crazy Family,Whisper of the Heart, and Only Yesterday.The final film is Yasujiro Ozu’s 1932 black-and-white silent film I Was Born, But… and it will be screened on June 25th at 16:00. What makes this screening even more special is that there will be benshi at the screening.
This is one of Yasujiro Ozu’s earliest films and was made at a time when films were silent but cinemas hired Katsudo-Benshi and musicians to play live music and narration to help provide life to the action on the big screen. Benshi – narration and voice acting and commentary – survives to this day and in recent years it has become an event that has garnered a lot of interest from film fans and Japanophiles. There will be live piano and benshi narration at this film screening.
Synopsis from the Barbican:This early comedy from Yasujirô Ozu focuses on the Yoshii family – dad Kennosuke, his homemaker wife, and two sons Keiji and Ryoichi – who have just moved from Tokyo’s crowded city centre to a suburban development.
Straight away the two boys start slugging it out to find a place in the pecking order among the neighbourhood kids. One of those deposed by their wily antics is Taro, son of Mr Iwasaki, the owner of the company where Kennosuke works as a humble salaryman.
Then one night the Yoshii family are invited round to the Iwasaki’s, where the boys are mortified to see their dad dutifully kowtowing to his boss: “You tell us to become somebody, but you’re nobody. Why do you have to bow so much to Taro’s father?” Kennosuke’s attempts to explain the realities of the adult world to his sons leads to some soul-searching of his own.
One of the few surviving examples of Ozu’s silent period filmmaking, like his later films this one focuses on the internal dynamics of a single family unit as a way of drawing out broader generalisations about contemporary Japanese society, and uses the low-angle camera shots of domestic interiors that would become his stylistic trademark.
This event is preceded by another on June 23rdwhich is all about the art of live narration for silent films. It’s called…
How to become a Benshi! Silent Cinema and the Art of Live Narration
Silent cinema was never truly silent. In Japan, silent films were accompanied not only by live music but also by Katsudo-Benshi. Providing live narration, on-screen voice acting and original commentary, Benshi became an influential and integral part of Japanese silent cinema.
In conjunction with the Barbican’s screening of Yasujiro Ozu’s I was Born, But… organised as part of The Japanese House exhibition, the Japan Foundation is delighted to present a special evening exploring the art of Benshi. Following an introductory talk by silent cinema specialist Pamela Hutchinson, Katsudo-Benshi Hideyuki Yamashiro and Silent Film Pianist Mie Yanashita will perform a clip from Orochi (1925) recreating an authentic Benshi experience. As part of his illustrated talk, Yamashiro will discuss Benshi as a contemporary occupation as well as the unique appeal of Japanese silent cinema.
This fascinating event will also offer a few audience members the chance to take to the stage and perform the role of Benshi under instruction from Yamashiro himself!
The event takes places at Foyles Bookshop, Level 6, 107 Charing Cross Rd, London, WC2H 0DT at June 23rd at 18:00. To book a place, click here.
The 16th New York Asian Film Festival takes places from June 30th until July 16th. There are almost 60 films on the programme with many highlights from Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, China, South Korea and elsewhere.
This year’s festival features a new Main Competition from which seven films from first- and second-time directors are receiving their Nort American premiere and the festival will honour many actors such as the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement awardee Tony Leung Ka-fai (Hong Kong).
I am interested in the Japanese films on the bill and have watched a few. All of the Japanese films screen in July and there are some really good titles on offer. Not only that but some directors and an actor will be in town. People, if you love films and want to find out more, go see Naoko Ogigami when she does her Q&A.
Here are more details (click on the titles to be taken to the festival page for the film you want to find out more about):
I remember being sat in a cinema in Urawa talking to a friend while the trailer for this played on a loop. I wasn’t particularly interested in the first one and the sequel looked dire but the reviews for it have been pretty good as seen in this one from Variety.
Synopsis: Reiji is back for a second film and finds himself re-infiltrating the yakuza gang from the first movie and acting as a bodyguard for the boss and his sexy wife and daughter. Reiji has to watch his rampant libido but he also has to watch out for the police who think he has turned traitor and a girlfriend who suspects he’s not being faithful. Worse still are the Chinese syndicate trying to take over the gang’s territory. Reiji will find his priorities split as he heads to Hong Kong for a showdown.
Rage looks like a dark dive into the recesses of the human soul. Viewers better brace themselves for some negative feelings as the worst of humanity is said to be explored and it will probably be powerful. The reason I say this is because the film is based on a novel by Shuichi Yoshida and he has had many of his books (many of which are fascinated with the idea of evil and people hiding their true identities) turned into films and they are almost all available in the UK thanks to Third Window Films: A Story of Yonosuke (2013), Villain (2010), Parade (2010) The Ravine of Goodbye (2013) isn’t one of them but it was at the London Film Festival. Sang-il Lee handled the big-screen adaptation of Villain (2010) and crafted a good drama. Rage looks to be on a par. It contains a stellar cast who have been in many films.
Synopsis: A a married couple is brutally murdered by someone. The only clues are that the murderer is a man and he wrote the word “Ikari” (“Anger”) with the blood of the couple. The killer undergoes plastic surgery and flees and Japan is gripped by the crime and whenever a male stranger appears in a community, the people there suspect that the stranger might be the murderer.
People such as Yohei Maki (Ken Watanabe) who works at a harbour in Chiba. He is concerned that the man his daughter Aiko (Aoi Miyazaki) is dating, Tetsuya Tashiro (Kenichi Matsuyama), might be the killer, because Tetsuya is not his real name.
An advertising executive named Yuma Fujita (Satoshi Tsumabuki) falls for a man named Naoto Onishi (Gou Ayano) and they begin to live together but Yuma soon develops suspicions that Naoto is the killer.
Izumi Komiya (Suzu Hirose) and her mother (Urara Awata) move to an isolated island in Okinawa and Izumi meets a backpacker named Shingo Tanaka (Mirai Moriyama) who is hiding a secret.
Three different communities across Japan, three different stories involving different people, all linked by one murder.
Destruction Babies「ディストラクション・ベイビーズ , Dir: Tetsuya Mariko, 108 mins.」 Destruction Babies is a disturbing and bleak film all about male
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violence and the nihilism that develops when a society offers little future prospects to its young people. It offers no easy answers but packs fine performances such as the one given by lead actor Masaki Suda who is chilling as an amoral pugilistic devil stalking a small city rife with tough guys and scheming women. performance as a teen ready to destroy anything in his path. 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). The director will be at the screenings so audience members will be able to ask questions, many no-doubt surrounding the troubling philosophy and ending of the film and the director’s impressions of Japan’s future and the future of its youth.
Synopsis: A mysterious man named Kanzaki (Masatoshi Nagase) arrives in a quiet small town. He brings with him a strange invention: an odd-looking helmet that he claims is a happiness machine. To prove it works, he uses the helmet on an elderly shopkeeper and as soon as he activates the device, the woman remembers long forgotten happy memories and becomes much more cheerful. The mayor becomes enthusiastic about the machine and asks Kazaki to stay. Soon, the entire town is allowed to experience the machine, but why does Kanzaki look so sad and what is his true agenda?
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.
“Writer-director Miwa Nishikawa’s somber reflection on the strains of marriage and parenthood is punctuated with beautiful existential undertones.” (Maggie Lee, Variety). The trailer works, it just has no thumbnail:
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.
Synopsis from the Nippon Connection festival site: From one moment to another the world goes dark in a catastrophic power outage. The Suzuki family decides to leave the struggling megalopolis of Tokyo and learns to survive in the Japanese countryside. Shinobu YAGUCHI’s charming film effortlessly mixes comedy, drama, and adventure genres while at the same time asking serious questions about the way we live.
Synopsis from the Nippon Connection: Several years after the brutal, unsolved murder of a Tokyo family, ambitious reporter Tanaka attempts to find the perpetrators of the crime. Step by step, he comes close to discovering what really happened.
This one was at the Locarno Film Festival where it collected reviews like this one that paint this as an entertaining film to watch!
Q&A with director Akihiko Shiota and actress Yuki Mamiya
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.
Naoko Ogigami is one of Japan’s interesting female directors, quietly working away making good films one after the other. She has international recognition but I might have missed her if two friends of mine hadn’t recommended her works, Yoshino’s Barber Shop (2004), Kamome Diner (2006) and Glasses (2007). The only one that I have reviewed is Rent-a-Cat (2012) and I adored it so I’m looking forward to seeing what she has to offer with this one which takes a look at gender roles, family norms and alternative family units. It all centres on a transsexual bonding with her step-daughter, so to speak.
Q&A with director Naoko Ogigami
Synopsis from the Festival Site: Eleven-year-old Tomo is pretty much left to her own devices. Unwashed dishes are piling up in the sink and supermarket onigiri are all there is to eat again. Tomo’s single mother usually comes home late, and drunk. When she leaves her daughter for good one day the girl has to rely on help from her uncle, who takes in Tomo to live with him and his girlfriend Rinko. At their first meeting Tomo is flabbergasted to discover that Rinko is a transsexual. Rinko immediately sets about taking care of Tomo; not only does she lovingly prepare meals but she also succeeds in creating a new home for the girl. But before long cracks appear in their perfect nest.
This is the debut movie of Norihiro Niwatsukino and it premiered at last year’s Vancouver international Film Festival before moving on to Tokyo FILMeX. It’s billed as a hilarious take on ancient Japanese history with many comedic and visual surprises.
Synopsis: Ninko is a virtuous Buddhist monk in ancient Japan. Because of his holy vows, he suffers something many men would love – he’s irresistible to many women (and some men). In order to “purify” himself and learn how to rebuff sexual advances, he goes on a journey during which he meets a samurai named Kanzo and hears of a village decimated by the rapacious mountain goddess Yama-onna, who kills men to absorb their energy. Ninko sees defeating her as part as part of his quest.
Isao Yukisada has directed a variety of films such as the psycho-drama Parade (2010), the romance Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World (2004) and the teen action drama Go (2001). The story is lead by Itsuji Itao who has appeared in all sorts of interesting and cult features such as Tamami: The Baby’s Curse (2008) and Love Exposure (2009), One Missed Call Final (2006) and Why Don’t You Play in Hell (2013). He gets to bed a bevvy of beauties (sorry, I couldn’t resist the alliteration) and most are new actors such as Izumi Okamura who appeared in the utterly amazing indie film Shady (2013).
Synopsis: A has-been director named Shinji Furuya (Itao) gets a variety of women into bed and to give him money as he seeks to exorcise himself of an emotional burden and finance his latest film which his lead actress has walked out of… That’s it. That’s the story. It manages to get a decent number of sex scenes from it.
Yoshiyuki Kishi is a new director on the scene but he assembled a good cast for this interesting-looking drama of a student who becomes obsessed with her neighbour. For those wanting a psychological film, this looks like just the ticket!
Synopsis: Tama (Mugi Kadowaki) is a graduate student who lives with her boyfriend Takuya (Masaki Suda). When her professor Shinohara (Lily Franky) begins to teach her class about the French writer Sophie Calle, Tama becomes influenced by the philosopher/photographers infamous misadventures following strangers (try reading Suite Vénitienne) and she begins to stalk her neighbour Ishizaka (Hiroki Hasegawa) who is leading a double-life. Her behaviour continues to become strange and it affects those around her…
This is the latest film from Eiji Uchida, director of Greatful Dead (2014) and Lowlife Love (2016). This review by Elizabeth Kerr from The Hollywood Reporter makes it sound like a worthwhile watch full of great performances from its young cast:
“…Love and Other Cults packs a boggling amount of narrative into its lean 95 minutes. At times it can feel like too much, but Uchida juggles his characters’ various arcs efficiently, making every frame and line of dialogue count. An energetic pop-punk sensibility keeps the film moving at a breezy clip…“
Synopsis: Ai’s (Sairi Itoh) has never had a stable home. Her religious mother stuck her in a cult and then she lands with a gang of drug-users and dropouts, a traditional nuclear family and worse. While she bounces around different environments, her classmate Ryota (Kenta Suga) follows a similar path as he falls in with a gang of wannabe yakuza. They harbour feelings for each other but will they be able to express them? It turns out that the two are star-crossed lovers of sorts, destined to meet each other in unsavoury circumstances
This was the hot ticket at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival and it has cropped up at other international film festivals. 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 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 is the subject and she has gone missing. Her disappearance goes viral across the news and social media. 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.
That’s it for the Japanese films at the New York Asian Film Festival.
Tickets go on sale June 15 (today!!!), and they cost $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for Film Society members. See more and save with a 3+ film discount package and All Access Pass. Learn more at filmlinc.org.
