Kotatsu Japanese Animation Film Festival 2018

Cardiff                                                                                         Aberystwyth

Chapter 28th – 30th September      Aberystwyth Arts Centre 20th – 21st October

So I work as a writer for the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival and it’s going to launch soon. More than 10 feature films have been programmed to present the wide variety of stories and styles in Japanese animation. This year, we welcome two guests from Japan who will treat audiences to special events.

The festival gets off to a start on September 28 at 14:00 at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, with a screening of the Masaaki Yuasa’s latest film Lu Over the Wall.

Lu Over the Wall   

夜明け告げるルーのうた 「Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta」

Running Time: 112 mins.

Release Date: May 19th, 2017

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Writer: Masaaki Yuasa, Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay)

Animation Production: Science SARU

Starring: Kanon Tani (Lu), Shota Shimoda (Kai), Akira Emoto (Grandfather), Minako Kotobuki (Yuuho), Shinichi Shinohara (Lu’s father), Souma Saitou (Kunio),

Website ANN MAL

Lu Over the Wall was huge last year where it picked up awards including at Annecy, where it took the “Cristal for a Feature Film”. It was directed by Masaaki Yuasa with a script written by Reiko Yoshida, a woman who has written many different anime such as A Silent Voice, Yowamushi Pedal, and Shirobako. It was produced by Yuasa’s protege (and a highly talented animator) Eun young Choi, and animated by Science SARU and these folks are the geniuses behind Mind Game, Ping Pong: The Animation, and The Tatami Galaxy amongst other great artistic titles. 

It has the look of the 2009 Ghibli film Ponyo if I were to make a glib comparison but the animation and style are pure Science SARU, a studio finally picking up fans in the mainstream. The film has been picked up for UK distribution by Anime Limited.

Synopsis: Middle school student Kai finds himself forced to move from Tokyo to the declining fishing town of Hinashi to live with his father and grandfather following his parents’ divorce. For a kid from the big metropolis, there’s little for him to do besides composing music and sharing it on the Internet. One day his classmates Kunio and Yuuho invite him to join their band, and when he reluctantly accompanies them to practice on Mermaid Island, the three of them meet a mermaid named Lu. Through meeting her and playing music, Kai is slowly able to open up about his emotions but calamity soon strikes the town and he must find a way to avert it with his new-found friends and community!

With a perfect combination of fantastic animation and a sublime story full of magical characters and great music, the film is perfect for the family.

The day continues with screenings of Momotaro – Sacred Sailors, a rare chance for audiences in Wales to see how anime was used for propaganda in World War II. The evening arrives with a screening of the emotionally powerful drama, Fireworks, which takes us into an intense relationship between teenagers during a memorable summer. With characters voiced by the hottest talent in live-action Japanese cinema and with a script based on the work of Shunji Iwai, this will prove to be an emotional show-stopper. The day then ends with Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, a modern horror classic from Madhouse.

A diverse festival programme will await the audience on Saturday, September 29 along with the Japanese marketplace and a selection of wonderful events with special guests:

After a successful Q&A last year graciously conducted by Professor Yuichi Ito, Kotatsu is excited to announce we have two award-winning animators making a trip to Wales when Tsuneo Goda and Hirokazu Minegishi will present a master-class and conduct workshops and an autograph signing session. This is a very rare and unique opportunity to learn more about the craft of stop-motion animation from the creators of the highly popular Domo-kun which was aired by Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) and Nickelodeon in 2007, and Komaneko: The Curious Cat. They will bring beautiful, expressive models and a wealth of experience and advice and will interact with audience members in what is sure to be a fun and informative event open to the whole family.

We have three films directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, Mary and the Witch’s Flower and, two made at Studio Ghibli, When Marnie Was There and Arrietty programmed to help celebrate cultural and artistic ties between Britain and Japan in the year of British animation as part of Anim18, a celebration of British animation.

When one thinks of Ghibli, strong female characters come to mind and Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms provides that with a tale of pure love in trying circumstances as an elfin teenage girl who doesn’t age takes care of a human boy who does. This fantasy tale comes from Mari Okada, a veteran writer who used her skills to direct what many consider one of the finest animated movies of 2018.

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

さよならの朝に約束の花をかざろう 「Sayonara no Asa ni Yakusoku no Hana wo Kazarou」

Running Time: 115 mins.

Release Date: February 24th, 2018

Director:  Mari Okada

Writer: Mari Okada (Screenplay),

Starring: Manaka Iwami (Maquia), Miyu Irino (Ariel), Misaki Kuno (Medmel), Tomokazu Sugita (Izol), Hiroaki Hirata (Barlow), Yoko Hikasa (Dita), Rina Satou (Mido),

Animation Production: P.A. Works

Website ANN MAL

The film will be the directorial debut of anime screenwriter Mari Okada (The Anthem of the Heart, The Dark Maidens) and it will be animated at P.A. Works.

Synopsis: Maquia, comes from the elfin lolf race. They stop ageing in their mid teens. She isn’t as brave as Leilia, the most beautiful girl in her clan and the person she idolises. Although her days are peaceful she feels lonely, maybe because she has no parents and Leila has attracted the attention of Clear, the boy Maquia has secret feelings for. When an army of dragon-riding bandits invades seeking the legendary women who stop ageing, Maquia is able to escape, but she loses her friends and her home. Wandering alone in the forests of the outside world, a place she was warned to avoid, she finds Erial, a baby boy who has lost his parents. Unable to leave him behind, she adopts him, initially untroubled by the fact he will age like a human while she won’t…

The day then ends with a screening of the live-action adaptation of the super-popular manga Tokyo Ghoul in our traditional horror/mature slot. Sui Ishida’s dark-horror manga is brought to life with CG and features some top-class actors bringing the characters to life in a tale full of horror and action that is sure to sate the appetites of fans of the franchise.

The final day of the Kotatsu festival in Cardiff on September 30 opens with When Marnie Was There and then Hirokazu Minegishi and Tsuneo Goda will be conducting stop-motion animation demonstrations and a workshop to show people how they animate their films. These events will be followed by Q&A sessions.

The films continue with Psychic School Wars, a beautifully animated adaptation of a well-known Japanese sci-fi tale that is sure to delight a wide audience.

Psychic School Wars     

ねらわれた学園 「Nerawareta Gakuen」

Release Date:  October 19th, 2012 (Japan)

Running Time: 106 mins

Director: Ryousuke Nakamura

Writer: Taku Mayumura (Original Story), Yuko Naito, Ryosuke Nakamura (Screenplay)

Starring: Mayu Watanabe, Yuutaro Honjou, Kana Hanazawa, Daisuke Ono

Synopsis: It is spring and another new school year and another school for 8th grade junior high school student Ryoichi Kyogoku (Ono) who has recently moved to Kamakura. Things might be boring but Kyogoku is a telepath and has been ordered by his father to use this ability to scan other people’s minds and take over the school.

Being good looking and charismatic, he wins major popularity at the school which allows him to initiate his plans. He secretly manipulates his followers and pushes aside anyone who gets in his way but there is one student who seems unaffected – Seki. Does Seki have what it takes to save everyone?

The day closes with a screening of the immensely popular Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening, which takes audiences back into the thrilling and gruelling fight for humanity’s survival in a world full of man-eating giants.

Attack on Titan : The Roar of Awakening
at a Secret Location

劇場版 進撃の巨人 覚醒の咆哮 「Shingeki no Kyojin Movie 3: Kakusei no Houkou」

Running Time: 120 mins.

Release Date: January 13th, 2018

Chief Director:  Tetsuru Araki, Director: Masashi Koizuka,

Writer: Hiroshi Seko, Yasuko Kobayashi, (Screenplay), Hajime Isayama (Original Creator)

Starring: Yuuki Kaji (Eren Jaeger), Yui Ishikawa (Mikasa Ackerman), Marina Inoue (Armin Arlelt), Hiroshi Kamiya (Levi), Daisuke Ono (Erwin Smith),

Animation Production: Wit Studio

Website MAL ANN

I used to be a huge fan of this show. I read the manga, a light novel or two, and watched the anime. Now, I barely watch anime at all… This is a compilation film consisting of episodes from the second season.

Synopsis from My Anime List: Eren Yeager and others of the 104th Training Corps have just begun to become full members of the Survey Corps. As they ready themselves to face the Titans once again, their preparations are interrupted by the invasion of Wall Rose—but all is not as it seems as more mysteries are unravelled. As the Survey Corps races to save the wall, they uncover more about the invading Titans and the dark secrets of their own members.

Running alongside the film screenings and the animation workshops will be a series of Japanese-themed events and a Japanese marketplace which sells things such as food, model kits, video games and manga and other goods from Japan.

We also have festival raffle to win lots of prizes such as signed goods from Tsuneo Goda and Hirokazu Minegishi and Aardman.

The festival launches in the beautiful coastal town of Aberystwyth at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Saturday, October 20 at 10:00, with a screening of the Studio Ghibli When Marnie Was There. This will be followed by the family film Lu Over the Wall at 12:30 before the cinematic delights finish with a 15:00 screening of Psychic School Wars.

The Kotatsu raffle will be held throughout Saturday with goods from Japan on offer to people who take part.

Sunday, October 21 opens with Mamoru Hosoda’s latest eagerly-anticipated title, Mirai, which is a magical tale of the time-travelling antics.

Mirai of the Future    

未来のミライ 「Mirai no Mirai」

Running Time: 100 mins.

Release Date: July 20th, 2018

Director:  Mamoru Hosoda

Writer: Mamoru Hosoda (Screenplay/Original Work)

Starring: Haru Kuroki (Mirai-chan), Moka Kamishiraishi (Kun-chan), Gen Hoshino (Father), Koji Yakusho (Father), Kumiko Aso (Mother), Mitsuo Yoshihara (Mysterious Man), Yoshiko Miyazaki (Grandmother)

Animation Production: Studio Chizu

Website ANN MAL

Probably film of the week by a long-shot. The reviews from this year’s Cannes film festival paint this to be a home-run for Mamoru Hosoda.

Synopsis: A family living in a small house in a corner of a Yokohama dotes on a spoiled four-year-old boy named Kun-chan. When he gets a little sister named Mirai, he feels that his new sister stole his parents’ love from him. Jealousy and resentment well up until he meets an older version of Mirai, who has come from the future and takes him on an adventure.

The film got its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and will be screened at the BFI London Film Festival and Kotatsu is proud to be bringing it to Wales when it screens in Aberystwyth at 13:45.

The next film to follow is the emotionally powerful drama, Fireworks at 15:35, and the final day of Kotatsu 2018 closes with Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening.

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope everyone is feeling great.

Overtime at work is going to calm down for a bit and I’ve just finished a big otome game project so I can breathe a little easier. I managed to watch over 130 films over the last month or so but mostly for fun. I am still doing all sorts of things such as the on-going social media/writing for the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival which starts next weekend. I’ll be able to meet two animators who are jetting in from Tokyo to the UK so that will be cool. I posted a review for The Hungry Lion (2017) and I’m going to get back to reviewing live-action films soon and watching let’s plays of survival horror games as October approaches.

What is released in Japan this weekend?

Eating Women    

食べる女 「Taberu Onna」

Running Time: 111 mins.

Release Date: September 21st, 2018

Director: Jiro Shono

Writer: Tomomi Tsutsui (Screenplay/Book)

Starring: Kyoko Koizumi, Erika Sawajiri, Atsuko Maeda, Alice Hirose, Yu Yamada, Charlotte Kate Fox, Mitsu Dan, Kyoka Suzuki,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Kyoko Koizumi plays Atsuko Mochitsuki, a lady who runs an old book store in a traditional Japanese house. The store is named “Mochi no Ie” and it is here a group of women played by some of the most famous actors in Japan, gather to eat food and talk about their loves. These women have a lot of interesting stories to tell considering their wide variety of experiences from working on drama productions to clothing stores and we see them reveal their personalities through what they eat and say.

Okko’s Inn    

若おかみは小学生！ 「Waka Okami wa Shōgakusei!」

Running Time: 94 mins.

Release Date: September 21st, 2018

Director:  Kitaro Kosaka

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Script), Asami, Hiroko Reijou (Original Creator)

Starring: Seiran Kobayashi (Oriko “Okko” Seki), Etsuko Kozakura (Suzuki), Nana Mizuki Kaji (Matsuko Akino), Satsumi Matsuda (Makoto “Uri-bō” Tachiuri),

Animation Production: Madhouse

Website ANN   MAL

This was at Annecy earlier this year

Synopsis: “Okko” is a girl who has lost her parents in a traffic accident. Since she is in the sixth grade of elementary school, she moves to her grandmother’s hot spring inn “Haru no Ya” (Spring House) where she begins training to take over running the establishment. She finds it tough at first but discovers she can see ghosts and soon begins to enjoy herself with the help of the ghost “Uri-bō” and other mysterious friends.

Café Funiculi Funicula (English title) / Before the Coffee Gets Cold (Literal title)   

コーヒーが冷めないうちに 「Kohi ga Samenai Uchi ni」

Running Time: 116 mins.

Release Date: September 21st, 2018

Director: Ayuko Tsukahara

Writer: Satoko Okudera (Screenplay) Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Novel)

Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Kentaro Ito, Haru, Kento Hayashi, Motoki Fukami, Wakana Matsumoto, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Yo Yoshida, Yutaka Matsushige, Yuriko Ishida,

Website

Synopsis: The cafe “Funiculi Funicula” which is run by Nagare Tokita (Motoki Fukami) has a reputation for having a strange feature: people who sit in a particular can travel back in time. There are rules to this such as, “what happens in the past won’t affect the present” and “you have to wait your turn” and, more importantly, “you can only stay from the time coffee is poured into a cup until said coffee gets cold”. Kazu Tokita (Kasumi Arimura) who works at the cafe meets the various customers and even finds out something about herself…

My Dad is a Heel Wrestler   

パパはわるものチャンピオン 「Papa wa Warumono Chanpion」

Running Time: 111 mins.

Release Date: September 21st, 2018

Director: Kyohei Fujimura

Writer: Kyohei Fujimura (Screenplay), Masahiro Itabashi, Hisanori Yoshida(Picture Book)

Starring: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yoshino Kimura, Riisa Naka, Kokoro Terada, Yo Oizumi, Ryohei Otani,

Website

Synopsis: Professional wrestler Hiroshi Tanahashi stars as Takashi Omura, a man who was once a hero in the wrestling ring but after suffering an injury, he is forced to play a villain and wears a cockroach mask to do his bad guy routine. He and his wife Shiori (Yoshino Kimura) haven’t told their son Shota (Kokoro Terada) what papa does for a living so the young lad has the shock of his life when he discovers he is a pro-wrestler and a villainous one at that! The little boy feels a sense of shame…

Think Again, Junpei    

純平、考え直せ 「Junpei, Kangaenaose」

Running Time: 95 mins.

Release Date: September 22nd, 2018

Director: Toshiyuki Morioka

Writer: Rumi Tsunoda, Takashi Kimura, Nami Yoshikawa (Screenplay), Hideo Okuda (Novel)

Starring: Shuhei Nomura, Yurina Yanagi, Katsuya Maiguma, Amane Okayama, Manaka Kinoshita, Yuu Yashiro,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Junpei (Shuhei Nomura) is a yakuza thug in Kabuki-cho and, at the age of 21-year-old, still a newly-minted adult. He is pretty low down in the hierarchy and desperate to be seen as a man and he thinks he has his chance when his boss orders him to kill a high ranking yakuza from a rival group. Junpei leaps at the assignment. It seems that fate is leading him in this direction when he meets an office lady named Kana (Yurina Yanagi) and spends the night with her but when he tells her about his plans, she feels a mixture of fear and excitement. With a lot of yen and a gun, the two hang out over three days as anxiety, bravado, and passion are felt in the lead-up to the hit. Maybe even love? Will Junpei go through with it or will the presence of Kana get him to think again.

Double Drive: Ryuu no Kizuna   

ダブルドライブ　龍の絆 「Daburu Doraibu Ryuu no Kizuna」

Running Time: 74 mins.

Release Date: September 22nd, 2018

Director: Takashi Motoki

Writer: Masao Ikegaya (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryuji Sato, Yuria Kizaki, Kazuki Namioka, Rei Fujita, Tomohiro Waki,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Junya Igarashi (Ryuji Sato) works at his family’s scrap yard but in order to pay off a debt, he steals cars. One luxury car has a package in the trunk, a woman named Arisa (Yuria Kizaki) who has been tied up.

Takaramono no daki kata   

宝物の抱きかた 「Takaramono no daki kata」

Running Time: 84 mins.

Release Date: September 22nd, 2018

Director: Sakura Enomoto

Writer: Sakura Enomoto (Screenplay), Hideki Murakami (Novel)

Starring: Sakura Enomoto, Hiromi Nagayama, Yoshinori Sakagawa, Sanae Yuuki, Ryo Ushimaru, Yu Toyama,

Website

Synopsis: Writer, director and lead actor Sakura Enomoto stars as Toru Sakurai. He has returned to the family home after 10 years away and he brings with him a five year-old boy named Yuuki. Running the family home and business is Toru’s older brother Naoya who sacrificed his own desires to take on the mantle of responsibility while his younger sibling got to lark around Tokyo. There is tension between the two but the presence of Yuuki lightens the atmosphere and the brothers relax.

Seido no Kirisuto

青銅の基督 「Seido no Kirisuto」

Running Time: 75 mins.

Release Date: September 22nd, 2018

Director: Akihara Hokuin

Writer: Yukie Ochiai (Screenplay), Yoshiro Nagayo (Original Work)

Starring: Tokio Emoto, Ryo Yoshimura, Makotoha Hiroyama, Yoji Matsuda, Mitsuho Otani, Kotomi Takahata,

Website

Synopsis: An artisan in Nagasaki marries a secret Christian at the time when Christians were being persecuted. He is ordered to make a fumi-e, a bronze image of Christ, something people were forced to step on to prove they weren’t Christians… This is a remake of a 1955 film starring Eiji Okuda which was based on a novel by Yoshiro Nagayo.

Konya Shinjuku de, Kanojo wa

今夜新宿で、彼女は、 「Konya Shinjuku de, Kanojo wa」

Running Time: 30 mins.

Release Date: September 22nd, 2018

Director: Kana Yamada

Writer: Kana Yamada (Screenplay),

Starring: Makotoha Hiroyama, Masaki Kusaka, Yusuke Ueda, Honoka, Bobumi Hidaka, Keita Yoshimura,

Website

Synopsis: A woman locked out of her ex-boyfriend’s home is determined to get back in but has to do a lot of roaming around in Shinjuku to find a solution.

This is the year when I try and give a little boost to smaller film festivals and the Japannual Japanese Film Festival in Vienna deserves one. The Austrian-Japanese Society is trying to bring some great films to the nation’s capital.

This could turn into a laborious cut-and-paste job from previous festival’s I’ve covered because I have information on all but four films but I’ll spare you by giving the highlights.

The program has a mix of classic titles restored to new and shiny life, to contemporary films still being talked about in film groups. Some of these have been on the festival circuit for a while there are others that pop up rarely. There are indies that need a push and anime that are too good to miss. I’m going to highlight independent cinema and hard to see classics as well as an anime that is guaranteed to put a smile on everyone’s face.

INDIES AND FEATURES

Indie titles come thick and fast with a diverse array of stories and styles on offer from the excessively arty anti-war pic Hanagatami which set out on its festival tour a year ago at Tokyo, to the fresh and fun One Cut of the Dead, an award-winning zombie film where a horror production gets jumped on by real zombies. It is a film which has wowed audiences wherever it has played.

Amiko    

あみこ 「Amiko」

Running Time: 66 mins.

Release Date: September 01st, 2018

Director: Yoko Yamanaka

Writer: Yoko Yamanaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Ai Sunohara, Hiroshi Oshita, Mineo Maiko,

This special gem won the Audience Award and Hikari TV Award at the Pia Film Festival and was featured at the Berlin International Film Festival and it will be at Japan Cuts this month as well. It’s an excellent debut film from Yoko Yamanaka and shows a filmmaker who is unafraid to use the camera and her actors in distinctive and, crucially, fun ways to deliver a quirky comedy about a sucky first love. My review for this film was published some time ago! All I have to say is…

SEE THIS FILM!!!

Synopsis: 16-year-old Amiko is convinced that “the Japanese are unable to dance spontaneously.” She’s just tried it out herself, with some strangers in a Tokyo underground passage. Believing that she’s had more than her fair share of days where she’d do absolutely anything, she’s left behind the provincial city of Nagano to head to the capital and take her heartthrob Aomi to task. A year before, she took a long winter’s walk with him and thought she’d met her soulmate, someone else like her who wonders in which phase of life there’s actually room for being happy. But then he disappeared, headed for Tokyo, together with Amiko’s nemesis Miyako of all people, the very “epitome of mass culture”, quite unlike her anti-bourgeois and wildly romantic self.

Our House    

わたしたちの家 「Watashitachi no ie」

Running Time: 80 mins.

Release Date: January 13th, 2018

Director:  Yui Kiyohara

Writer: Yui Kiyohara, Noriko Kato (Screenplay),

Starring: Kazuki Kasai, Yukiko Anno, Mari Ozawa,

Website

This film comes from Yui Kiyohara, a graduate student at the Tokyo National University of the Arts and has studied with Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It took top prize at the The Pia Film Festival Award Winning Film and was at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year. It looks fascinating and mysterious!

Synopsis from the festival site: A mother named and daughter live on a boat in the city of Kure. They exist in two separate worlds in their house but as the two worlds start to merge, confusion develops.What will happen when they connect to each other?

Zan (Killing)     

センセイ君主 「Zan」

Running Time: 80 mins.

Release Date: November 24th, 2018

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Writer: Shinya Tsukamoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Sosuke Ikematsu, Yu Aoi, Shinya Tsukamoto, Tatsuya Nakamura, Ryusei Maeda

Website    IMDB

Shinya Tsukamoto is back writing, directing, editing and producing his own films after a short spell acting in features like Shin Godzilla and Over the Fence. I’m a big fan of his works thanks to Nightmare Detective(2007), Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Tokyo Fist (1995), and Vital (2003) and his film A Snake of June, which was given the Special Jury Prize at the 2002 Venice Film Festival. This was at Venice and Toronto earlier this year.

Synopsis: The ronin Mokunoshin Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu) is alive during the end of the Edo period where many samurai like him are finding their way of life losing its edge as the country exists in a state of peace. He lives in the suburbs of Tokyo where he helps out farmers and is acquainted with one farmer’s son named Ichisuke (Ryusei Maeda) who dreams of being a samurai. Tsuzuki spends his days farming and sparring with Ichisuke but, despite the tranquillity, Tsuzuki’s heart is in tumult because he is concerned about the questions of whether he could follow a lord’s orders and kill a man and, more importantly, passions are brewing as he is falling in love with Ichisuke’s sister Yu (Yu Aoi). Passions from further afield are also growing as the country is on the verge of a civil war when a mild-mannered and skilful ronin Jirozaemon Sawamura (Shinya Tsukamoto) arrives in town looking for warriors to take to Edo.

Bad Poetry Tokyo      

東京不穏詩 「Tōkyō fuon uta」

Running Time: 114 mins.

Release Date: 2018

Director: Anshul Chauhan

Writer: Anshul Chauhan, Rand Colter (Screenplay), Anshul Chauhan (Original Story)

Starring: Shuna Iijima, Orson Mochizuki, Takashi Kawaguchi, Nana Blank, Kohei Mashiba, Kento Furukoshi,

Website    IMDB

Bad Poetry Tokyo is a stunning human drama with a tone reminiscent of The Light Shines Only There (2014). It is lead by a powerful performance from Shuna Iijima who has to deal with heavy issues and does so with a grace that is breathtaking. Her performance won her the Best Actress award at this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival and I can tell you now that it will keep you riveted to the screen. Here’s my review of the film and an interview with the director and cast. Highly recommended.

Synopsis: Jun Fujita is 30 years old. She majored in English at Tokyo University. That is the lie she tells people when she applies for acting jobs. In reality, she works as a hostess at a shady club. Life hasn’t turned out the way she wanted when she escaped home back in Nagano Prefecture five years ago. Still, she dreams of being an actress and is about to touch her dream when she is betrayed by her lover and things go wrong at the club. Broken and made savage by the experience, she heads back to her sleepy hometown in the countryside to lick her wounds. Things haven’t changed much there and she reconnects with an old flame but there are ugly truths about her past that lurk beneath the surface …

I think people who are paying attention to Japanese cinema would have noticed that Takumi Saitoh is, as well as starring in films, steadily building his experience as a writer and director with writing work on an animated short and directorial work on a live-action short. This time last year, he had his film Blank 13 screened at the London East Asian Film Festival and it has steadily toured the world. That’s a family drama about a man who had been missing returning to his family but in a hospital bed as he’s about to kick the bucket. His family find out what happened to him. Another family drama, and one I can recommend, is Dear Etranger which features some great performances from a cast led by Tadanobu Asano and Rena Tanaka as a couple trying to make their current marriage work while juggling responsibilities and people from past relationships. It doesn’t flinch from showing the selfish side of people and how people have to swallow pride and anger and it doesn’t flinch from showing the rewards that love can bring.

Another film that premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival a year ago is Akiko Ohku’s dramedy Tremble All You Want which has earned plaudits for its relationship shenanigans. There’s also a major scoop for the festival with another Akiko Ohku film that isn’t even supposed to be released until next year!

Marriage Hunting Beauty

美人が婚活してみたら 「Bijin ga Konkatsu Shite Mitara」

Running Time: 93 mins.

Release Date: 2019

Director: Akiko Ohku

Writer: Jiro (Original Screenplay), Arako Toaru (Original Manga)

Starring: Mei Kurokawa, Asami Usuda, Tomoya Nakamura, Kei Tanaka,

IMDB

Synopsis: Takako (Mei Kurokawa) is a beautiful designer who has hit thirty and is desperate to get hitched. She’s cautious despite this because she has been let down by a guy before but this time will be different! She’s got herself registered on a marriage site. Keiko (Asami Usuda) is in a similar boat and the two end up quarrelling as well as helping each other…

There are supernatural adventures with yokai and a private detective in Destiny: A Tale of Kamakura and a more realistic crime thriller based on a novel by Kanae Minato, Homecoming.

Pumpkin and Mayonnaise    

南瓜とマヨネーズ 「Kabocha to Mayone-zu」

Running Time: 93 mins.

Release Date: November 11th, 2017

Director:  Masanori Tominaga

Writer: Masanori Tominaga (Screenplay), Kiriko Nananan (Original Manga)

Starring: Asami Usuda, Taiga, Joe Odagiri, Ryuya Wakaba, Koudai Asaka, Ritsu Otomo, Kurumi Shimizu, Ken Mitsuishi, Sario Okada, Emina Kondo,

Website IMDB

Masanori Tominaga (Rolling) assembles a great cast with Asami Usada (The Woodsman and the Rain) in a love triangle with Joe Odagiri (Mushishi) and Taiga (Japanese Girls Never Die).

Synopsis: Tsuchida (Asami Usuda) lives with her boyfriend Seiichi (Taiga). He is an aspiring musician but he has no job and is struggling to write new songs. Tsuchida decides to work at a hostess club to support them both but doesn’t inform Seiichi. Things blow up when she gets herself involved with her customer Yasuhara (Ken Mitsuishi) and Seiichi finds out. Arguments ensue and he decides to get a job but around this time, Tsuchida runs into her ex-boyfriend Hagio (Joe Odagiri)…

Other dramas include the motor vehicle insurance drama Recall and manga-inspired Teiichi: Battle of Surpeme High and “aftermath of 3-11”-inspired drama Side Job. There is also Passage of Life, a topical film about immigration.

With the sad passing of Kirin Kiki, auds might be interested in seeing one of her last roles, Mori: The Artist’s Habitat in order to see her talent at work.

ANIME

I mentioned anime earlier and here it is! It’s freaking awesome! It’s the phenomenal…

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl

夜は短し歩けよ乙女 「Yoru wa Mijikashi Aruke yo Otome」

Release date: April 07th, 2017    

Running Time: 93 mins.

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Writer: Masaaki Yuasa, Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay) Tomihiko Morimi (Original Novel),

Animation Production: Science SARU

Starring: Kana Hanazawa (Kurokami no Otome), Gen Hoshino (Senpai), Kazuya Nakai (Seitarou Higuchi), Yuuko Kaida (Ryouko Hanuki), Nobuyuki Hiyama (Johnny), Aoi Yuuki (Princess Daruma), Junichi Suwabe (Nise Jougasaki),

MAL     IMDB    Website

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is probably the join-first best work from Masaaki Yuasa (the first being Mind Game). I can guarantee you will have a good time with this one having seen it with an audience of anime fans who were totally absorbed in its fantastic story. Others seemingly agree since it took top awards. The 41st Ottawa International Animation Festival was where it won Best Animated Feature and the 41st Japan Academy Prize Animation of the Year went to the film. This film is the very definition of the word exuberant in terms of story and style and should cement Yuasa as one of the best anime directors around. Here’s my review!

SEE THIS FILM!

Synopsis: The narrative is simple: A black haired girl (voiced by the ubiquitous and super-talented Kana Hanazawa) is attending the wedding reception of a friend. As far as she is concerned, the party doesn’t have to end there and she walks around the streets of Kyoto at night from the alleyways and izakayas of Pontocho to the university campus, following the Komagawa river and making detours along the way. She is pursued by a male admirer, Sempai (Gen Hoshino), who tries to catch her attention by appearing before her as often as possible. As this rather one-sided romantic dance unfolds, they experience surreal magical-realist moments that grow increasingly absurd thanks to a cast of unique characters, all of which tests Sempai’s resolve in love and the girl’s capacity for drink and fun because all the while, everyone keeps drinking and having a good time.

DOCUMENTARIES AND EVENTS

Goh Harada presents his films and a workshop. His works are both narrative and experimental cinema that are, to quote the site:

“equally accessible to audiences interested in practice and theory alike. HARADA does not focus on people as privileged actors or performers, but he does rather on the emotional network of relationships between the elements “technology” and “physical living worlds”. HARADA’s 16mm works captivate his craftsmanship without neglecting the lyrical aspects. If, for example, he makes a black pigment image surface meet a white one, he brings the materials onto the transparent film, image by image, with his fingertips. And exactly this film then chases 17,000 black and white images through the projector, generating  feverish movements, not contradicting those films in which HARADA documents an afternoon in Tokyo in the 2000s: cooking a favourite soup, washing dishes, listening to the radio and strolling through the park. His current video works combine different images with non-affiliated sounds (at a first glance), but then synchronize a time lapse within their montage and their interplay.”

There’s a music doc with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Coda, which came out a year ago.

Ramen Heads   

ラーメンヘッズ 「Ra-men Hezzu」

Running Time: 93 mins.

Release Date: January 27th, 2018

Director:  Koki Shigeno

Starring: Shota Iida, Kumiko Ishida, Katsuya Kobayashi, Yuki Ohnishi, Tom Takahashi, Osamu Tomita,

Website IMDB

Synopsis from IMDB: In ‘Ramen Heads,’ Osamu Tomita, Japan’s reigning king of ramen, takes us deep into his world, revealing every single step of his obsessive approach to creating the perfect soup and noodles, and his relentless search for the highest-quality ingredients. In addition to Tomita’s story, the film also profiles five other notable ramen shops, each with its own philosophy and flavour, which exemplify various different aspects the ramen world. Mixing in a brief rundown of ramen’s historical roots, the film gives viewers an in-depth look at the culture surrounding this unique and beguiling dish. This is a documentary record of 15 months in the lives of Japan’s top ramen masters and their legions of devoted fans.

Inland Sea  

 港町 「Minatomachi」

Running Time: 122 mins.

Release Date: April 07th, 2018

Director:  Kazuhiro Soda

IMDB     Website

This one was at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Synopsis: Documentarian Kazuhiro Soda has been touring around the world based on films like The Oyster Factory (2015). Here, he brings his camera to the fishing village of Ushimado on the coast between Honshu and Shikoku. It is famous for being the place Shohei Imamura shot two features but now it has an ageing population but fishermen and fish-traders who tour the village and knows the local’s habits and lives. With insiders leading the way, including the film’s producer Kiyoko Kashiwagi whose family hails from the village, many tales emerge.

Life Goes On    

一陽来復 Life Goes On 「Ichiyouraifuku Life Goes On」

Running Time: 81 mins.

Release Date: March 03rd, 2018

Director: Mia Yoon

Writer: N/A

Starring: Norika Fujiwara, Koichi Yamadera (Narration)

Website IMDB

Synopsis: This is a documentary looking at the people of Iwate si years on from the Great East Japan Earthquake. A farmer who works near a nuclear power plant, a couple who lost their children, and a child growing up in the area.

CLASSICS

There are three classics on offer with Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu and Sansho Dayu appearing. These two are bonafide classics so if you consider yourself a movie fan or a person of culture, get yourself down to them!!! There are also two films by the female director Kinuyo Tanaka, and these are rarely screened!

The Eternal Breasts 

乳房よ永遠なれ 「Chibusa yo eien nare」

Release Date: November 23rd, 1955

Running Time: 106 mins.

Director: Kinuyo Tanaka

Writer: Sumie Tanaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Yumeji Tsukioka, Ryoji Hayama, Yuko Sugi, Junkichi Orimoto, Choko Lida, Masayuki Mori, Hiroko Kawasaki

IMDB

Synopsis: Not only one of Japan’s greatest actresses, Kinuyo Tanaka was also the director of six features, including this powerful, frank film about the poet Fumiko Nakajo, who died of breast cancer aged 31 in 1954. Tanaka brings an unmistakeably female perspective to recounting Nakajo’s life – from divorce through single motherhood, illness and her growing independence in life and love as her literary reputation grows

Love Letter   

恋文 「Koibumi」

Running Time: 98 mins.

Release Date: December 13^th, 1953

Director: Kinuyo Tanaka

Writer: Keisuke Kinoshita (Screenplay), Fumio Niwa (Original Novel)

Starring: Masayki Mori, Yoshiko Kuga, Jukichi Uno, Juso Dozan, Kyoko Kagawa,

IMDB

Synopsis: Reikichi Mayumi (Masayuki Mori) is one of many struggling to make ends meet at the end of World War II. He finds a job where he will write love letters for other people but his own love life is far from the beautiful odes he creates for others and we see it when he rediscovers his former girlfriend, Michiko (Yoshigo Kuga), a woman who has also struggled with the war and the US occupation…

I could have included trailers and information for all but three films and Harada’s event but this post is long enough. It’s interesting seeing things I wrote a year ago and even further back and wondering how my writing style has changed. This is prep for a long post that is coming soon…

I hope I haven’t bored you! Thanks for taking the time to read the post.

Film fans who love Japanese cinema are spoiled for choice over the next month as Raindance will launch today and we have the BFI London Film Festival with a smattering of Japanese titles and then we have the London East Asian Film Festival.

The organisers announced their programme last week and there will be a lot of films to see from October 25th to November 04th and they have assembled an impressive line-up of titles from over 12 countries including Singapore, South Korea, and more. There are familiar titles from the international festival circuit plus a surprise collaboration with the Nara International Film Festival providing some indies. On a side note, I’ve seen a couple of the non-Japanese films and have even reviewed The Thieves (2012). There is a lot to watch!

Here is the festival’s trailer:

Here are the details:

Yocho  (Foreboding)     

予兆　散歩する侵略者　劇場版  「Yocho Sanpo Suru Shinryakusha Gekijoban」

Running Time: 140 mins.

Release Date: November 11th , 2017

Director:  Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Hiroshi Takahashi (Screenplay), Tomohiro Maekawa (Original Stageplay),

Starring: Kaho, Shota Sometani, Masahiro Higashide, Ren Osugi, Taro Suwa, Yukino Kshii, Eriko Nakamura, Makoto Nakamura, Makiko Watanabe,

Website IMDB

Yocho is an edited version of the WOWOW drama series Yocho Sanpo Suru Shinryakusha and boils down the five 40 minute episodes into a film that lasts 140 minutes. It was shown in cinemas for 2 weeks and was made as a tie-in for the film, Before We Vanish (2017).

Synopsis: When Etsuko Yamagiwa (Kaho) gets involved in what seems to be an emotional crisis faced by co-worker Miyuki Asakawa (Yukino Kishii), little did she expect she could be facing the end of humanity. One day, Miyuki tells Etsuko that she has seen a ghost in her father, that the way the sky seems to be different and even the way people’s behaviour is changing are all signs of something. Etsuko is worried and arranges for Miyuki to be sent to the psychiatric hospital where her husband Tatsuo (Shota Sometani) works. There, Miyuki receives a diagnosis that she lacks the concept of “family.” It is also there that Miyuki becomes disturbed by the presence of Dr. Jiro Makabe (Masahiro Higashide) and Etsuko also has misgivings because the strangely unemotional man is working with Tatsuo. The growing paranoia may not be unfounded because, one day, Etsuko hears Dr. Jiro Makabe state “I came to Earth to invade.” Before that takes place, he just needs to steal some concepts like “family” and “dignity”…

River’s Edge   

リバーズ・エッジ 「Riba-zu Ejji」

Running Time: 118 mins.

Release Date: February 16th , 2018

Director:  Isao Yukisada

Writer: Isao Yukisada (Screenplay),

Starring: Fumi Nikaidou, Ryo Yoshizawa, Aoi Morikawa, Shuhei Uesugi, Sumire, Shiori Doi,

Website   IMDB

Isao Yukisada has made a lot of films. Go is his 2001 teen action film which was nominated for over 50 international awards and is best-known by foreigners but his biggest film in Japan is Crying Out Love in the Center of the World  which reached an audience of 6.2 million, making it Japan’s most commercially successful film of 2004. I’ve reviewed two of his works, Parade (2010) and Aroused by Gymnopedies (2016). This was at the Berlin Film Festival.

Synopsis: This is a film told from a variety of perspectives, all linked up to show a generation and their experiences with extreme emotions. Stories consist of a bulimic model who gorges herself on food every night, a gay highschooler who is bullied by classmates who discovers something gruesome in a polluted river, a girl who pushes the boundaries of rough sex to frightening levels, and an introvert who reads her pregnant sister’s diaries.

10 Years Japan    

十年Ten Years Japan 「Juunen Ten Years Japan」

Running Time:99 mins.

Release Date: November 03rd, 2018

Producer: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Website IMDB

Three years ago, we had the award-winning indie omnibus film 10 Years Hong Kong (wikipedia) which offered some speculative fiction about the island territory’s future 10 years in the future. It was made at the time of student protests over the encroaching power of Mainland China so the stories have a mostly dystopian setting. Other Asian countries have got in on the act with Thailand and now Japan being up next.

Here, Hirokazu Kore-eda helps produce the stories of five young directors who bring different episodes together into one film that will be released in November.

The Air We Can’t See (Sono Kuki wa Mienai その空気は見えない)

Director: Akiyo Fujimura

Writer: Akiyo Fujimura (Screenplay)

Starring: Chizuru Ikewaki

Akiyo Fujimura was at the 2016 Osaka Asian Film Festival with Eriko Pretended (2016), a drama that got great reviews. I saw one of her short films recently and was impressed by the drama. Her story is about a girl named Mizuki who has been forced to relocate underground with the rest of the population of Japan due to pollution. She dreams of the surface world when one of her friends goes missing.

Four Our Beautiful Country (Utsukushii Kuni 美しい国)

Director: Kei Ishikawa

Writer: Kei Ishikawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Taiga, Hana Kino

Kei Ishikawa is probably famous for Gukoroku – Traces of Sin (2017), a disturbing crime drama. Here he is examining a Japan with conscription into the military is compulsory for everyone and the moral dilemma an advertising agency worker named Watanabe has when he is given the assignment of designing a poster.

PLAN 75

Director: Chie Hayakawa

Writer: Chie Hayakawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Satoru Kawaguchi, Kinuwo Yamada, Kazue Mitani, Motomi Makiguchi,

This story takes place in a Japan struggling to cope with the elderly. The government implements Plan 75 whereby elderly people who are sick or poor are recommended for death by public officials. One man, Itami, struggles with this while his wife is dealing with her own mother who has Alzheimer’s.

Mischievous Alliance (Itazura Domei いたずら同盟)

Director: Yusuke Kinoshita

Writer: Yusuke Kinoshita (Screenplay)

Starring: Jun Kunimura, Seiya Okawa, Bako Tsujimura, Ryu Nakano,

A group of schoolboys living in an area that has been transformed into a special IT zone play a prank on an old horse that is about to be put down.

DATA

Director: Megumi Tsuno

Writer: Megumi Tsuno (Screenplay)

Starring: Hana Sugisaki, Tetsushi Tanaka, Oshiro Maeda, Masaki Miura,

A girl inherits the digital memories of her mother and discovers a different side to her.

Festival Focus: Nara Internatioal Film Festival

At the time of writing this post, the Nara International Film Festival has reached it’s penultimate night.

NIFF is a film festival that takes place every two years. It was set up by Naomi Kawase to boost filmmaking in her home prefecture. Under her direction, it screens films with the historical backdrop of Nara and its shrines and temples adding some magic to proceedings. The festival welcomes filmmakers from around the world to screen their works and take part in workshops. Some of these filmmaker on to make films in the prefecture. Japanese filmmakers sometimes get their start here and crop up with films.

Reflecting this background, LEAFF has a selection of Kawase’s films and some works from new talent, the Nara-Wave, if you will.

NAOMI KAWASE

Embracing

につつまれて 「Nitsutsumarete」

Running Time: 40 mins.

Release Date: 1992

Director: Naomi Kawase

Writer: N/A

Starring: Naomi Kawase, Uno Kawase,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A documentary about Kawase’s search for her father, the man who left her when she was a small child and never attempted to make contact. She tracks down a person who she has never seen and reveals how his non-presence created parts of her identity, her dreams and imagination, and how she regards the world. Kawase uses the power of cinema to access these realms.

Katatsumori

かたつもり 「Katatsumori」

Running Time: 40 mins.

Release Date: 1994

Director: Naomi Kawase

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: Katatsumori is a film about Kawase’s grandmother, the woman who stepped in to be her foster mother. Kawase uses the camera to capture their close relationship, the love, loss, and loneliness between them as Kawase begins to find her own place in the world. In a surprising move, the old lady gets in on the act as they connect through cinema…

EMERGING TALENT AT NARA

The Wind From Persia

ペルシャからの風 「Perusha kara no kaze」

Running Time: 35 mins.

Release Date: N/A

Director: Misaki Matsui

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Synopsis: I had the pleasure of meeting Misaki Matsui at the 2014 edition of the Raindance Film Festival where she showed a music video, White Sea, that screened before a feature film and since then she has done some documentary and fiction shorts and photography work. She has work at NIFF with a making-of documentary that tracks the work that went into another film at NIFF, The Nikaido’s Fall, which was shot by the Iranian film director, Ida Panahandeh, the first woman to win the Golden Shika Award at the 2016 Nara International Film Festival.

Good Afternoon

グッド・アフタヌーン 「Guddo Afutanu-n」

Running Time: 30 mins.

Release Date: N/A

Director: Akira Yamamoto

Writer: Yohei Yamazaki (Screenplay/Book)

Starring: Io Haiki, Kyoko Kudo, Shoichi Okano, Nairu Masaki, Supika Yufune, Masana Hirabuki, Naruaki Onishi,

Born in Hiroshima in 1991, Akira Yamamoto entered Tokyo Zokei University to study film. After graduating, he directed Cycling, which was filmed in his hometown and whose character was his grandfather. Cycling won a prize in the Pia Film Festival (PFF) and was screened in Hong Kong. After that he went to study at the Tokyo University of the Arts for a Master’s degree, majoring in Film, studying under Nobuhiro Suwa and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Synopsis: A junior high school girl in Yokohama travels with her family to a reunion during Obon. They meet her aunt’s family and everything seems friendly at first, but when the conversations turn to who will take care of the grandfather, relations start to break down…

The Girlfriend

昔の恋人 「Mukashi no Koibito」

Running Time: 28 mins.

Release Date: N/A

Director: Saki Michimoto

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Director Saki Michimoto is a graduate of the Osaka Visual Arts College and has a film entered into this year’s Pia Film Festival.

Synopsis: Mami doesn’t get along with her mother who won’t talk to her at all. There’s her father, but he is totally wrapped up in his wife. Until he dies. This twist marks the moment that Mami bails out on home and goes in search of an ex-girlfriend her father talked fondly about in the hope of finding something she is missing.

Kofukuna

幸福な、 「Koufukuna」

Running Time: 39 mins.

Release Date: N/A

Director: Ayane Nakasu

Writer: Ayane Nakasu (Screenplay)

Starring: Momona, Naoko Takaki, Natsumi Mori,

Ayane showed this at the Kanazawa Film Festival and Nara.

Synopsis From Nara’s festival site because it’s interesting and polite: I’ve never had a feeling of being in love with another person in the twenty years that I ‘ve lived. I have loved only my mother, who works and lives for me, and I have also lived for my mother. I have depended on the person who loves me for nothing. The film is about a woman reflected in another woman’s eyes. It is ugly, confused and frantic, and it has only an impulse. Please come and see the film.

Closing-Gala Film

Ramen Shop      

Running Time: 89 mins.

Release Date: March 29th, 2018

Director:  Erik Khoo

Writer: Erik Khoo (Screenplay),

Starring: Takumi Saitoh, Seiko Matsuda, Mark Lee, Tsuyuoshi Iharam Jeanette Aw, Tetsuya Bessho, Beatrice Chien,

 IMDB

Synopsis: Masato is a young ramen chef in the city of Takasaki in Japan who has just lost his emotionally distant father. His Singaporean mother died when he was ten and he has no idea about his family history so he is completely adrift. After he discovers a red notebook – filled with musings and old photos – left behind by his mother, he decides to head to Singapore and uses it to track down his missing background. With the help of Miki, a Japanese food blogger and single mother, he discovers a whole side of his family including his grandmother Madam Lee who is still alive know more about the story of his parents. Through the power of cooking, Masato gets in touch with his Singaporean family and his own history.

Quite the line-up!

Happy weekend, people!

I hope you are well!

This trailer post is a rush job because I have been working this weekend at an anime film festival. The 2018 Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival seemed to go well. Everyone was happy. Everyone had fun. I spoke to the two Japanese animators, Tsuneo Goda and Hirokazu Minegishi, almost entirely in Japanese. We all watched great films. In truth, the work went on for most of the year. I posted info about two film festivals this week, Japannual in Austria and the London East Asian Film Festival.

What are the films on display this weekend?

Samurai’s Promise    

散り椿 「Chiri Tsubaki」

Running Time: 112 mins.

Release Date: September 28th, 2018

Director: Daisaku Kimura

Writer: Takashi Koizumi (Screenplay), Rin Hamuro (Original Novel)

Starring: Junichi Okada, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Haru Kuroki, Sosuke Ikematsu, Kumiko Aso, Naoto Ogata, Kyoko Yoshine, Hirofumi Arai, Yuya Yagira,

IMDB Website

Synopsis: Shinbei Uryu (Junichi Okada) is expelled from his hometown after bringing up his boss’s corruption. His sick wife Shino (Kumiko Aso) makes him promise to go back and help his old friend Uneme Sakakibara (Hidetoshi Nishijima), the man he beat to wed Shino. This is something hard for Shinbei to do because Uneme Sakakibara is also related to Shinbei Uryu’s exile but a promise is a promise, especially when it’s to your wife.

Gekijouban Linked Horizon Live Tour “Shingeki no Kiseki” Souin Shuuketsu Gaisen Kouen    

劇場版 Linked Horizon Live Tour 「進撃の軌跡」総員集結　凱旋公演 「Gekijouban Linked Horizon Live Tour “Shingeki no Kiseki” Souin Shuuketsu Gaisen Kouen」

Running Time: 75 mins.

Release Date: September 28th, 2018

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: REVO

Website

Synopsis: You may know Linked Horizon Live Tour from their work on the Attack on Titan opening theme. Well they are 5 years old and to celebrate reaching that milestone, they held a tour. It took place last year and encompassed 34 performances inside and outside Japan. The “SHINGEKI NO KISEKI” Souin Shuuketsu Gaisen Kouen tour film features footage from places like the Yokohama Arena, where they performed a concert featuring people from past and present who made Linked Horizon what it is today.

DTC Yukemuri Junjo Hen from HiGH & LOW   

DTC 湯けむり純情篇 from HiGH&LOW 「DTC yukemuri junjō-hen furomu HiGH& LOW」

Running Time: 102 mins.

Release Date: September 28th, 2018

Director: Daisaku Kimura

Writer: Takashi Koizumi (Screenplay), Rin Hamuro (Original Novel)

Starring: Taiki Sato, Kenjiro Yamashita, Kanta Sato, Yuko Fueki, Masayasu Yagi, Tomoki Hirose,

Website

Synopsis: Dan, Tettsu, and Chiharu (DTC) are facing leaving their youthful adventures behind and having to grow up. But not just yet. They take one last roadtrip by motorcycle to look for fun and girls. Alas, that costs money and they have to stop midway and get jobs at a hot spring resort where they meet and mother and daughter who run the place and help them make money…

Fooly Cooly Progressive    

フリクリ　プログレ 「Furikuri Purogure」

Release Date: September 28th, 2018

Running Time: 136 mins.

Chief Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro, Director: Hiroshi Ikehata, Kei Suezawa, Kazuhito Arai, Yuki Ogawa, Yoshihide Ibata, Toshihisa Kaiya,

Writer: Hideto Iwai (Screenplay),

Starring: Inori Minase (Hidomi), Megumi Hayashibara (Haruhara), Jun Fukuyama (Ide), Kikuko Inoue (Hinae), Reiko Suzuki (Tami Hanae), Miyuki Sawashiro (Jinyu),

Animation Production: Production I.G, NUT, Revoroot,

Website  ANN MAL

Synopsis: This is the second of two FLCL OVAs which tell the story of 14-year-old Hidomi, her classmate Ide, and two otherworldly beings, “Jinyu” and “Haruha Raharu,” who will unlock their hidden potential whilst dodging an all-powerful force known as “ATOMSK” by way of a gorgeous vintage car and a certain Vespa Scooter.

Girls Und Panzer 63rd National High School Sensha-dō Tournament Compilation    

ガールズ＆パンツァー　第63回戦車道全国高校生大会　総集編 「Ga-ruzu & Pansha- Dai 63 Kai Sensha-dō Zenkoku Kōkōsei Taikai Sōshūhen」

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Running Time: 122 mins.

Director: Tsutomu Mizushima

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay/Series Composition),

Starring: Ai Kayano (Saori Takebe), Mai Fuchigami (Miho Nishizumi), Mami Ozaki (Hana Isuzu), Kana Ueda (Momo Kawashima), Yuka Iguchi (Mako Reizei),

Animation Production: Actas

Website  ANN

Synopsis: Imagine a bunch of Yamato nadeshiko high school girls going to school and training in the venerable art of tank warfare and you have Girls und Panzer, a long-running franchise which is back next year for another TV series. This film is a compilation which summarises the TV anime and the OVA This is a Real Anzio War!

Natsume Yujin-cho the Movie: Ephemeral Bond    

劇場版 夏目友人帳 ～うつせみに結ぶ～ 「Natsume Yūjin-Chō: Utsusemi ni Musubu」

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Running Time: 104 mins.

Chief Director: Takahiro Omori, Director: Hideki Ito

Writer: Sadayuki Murai (Screenplay), Yuki Midorikawa (Original Work)

Starring: Hiroshi Kamiya (Takashi Natsume), Akemi Okamura (Hinoe), Akira Ishida (Shuichi Natori), Kazuhiko Inoue (Nyanko-sensei), Kyoko Chikiri (Kappa), Rina Satou (Toru Taki), Kengo Kora (Rio Tsumura)

Animation Production: Shuka

Website  ANN MAL

Synopsis from ANN: Natsume has been able to see yokai since he was little. This makes him a bit of an outsider when it comes to people and he doesn’t particularly get along with yokai. Things change when he inherits a Yūjin-Chō (“Book of Friends”) from his grandmother and finds that book is actually full of contracts that his grandmother made to trap yōkai. As one yōkai after another shows up, Natsume tries to release or help them — even while many of them seek vengeance on him. In this story, he meets a woman and her son who have links to his past.

Please Be My Slave Chapter 2 Please Call Me Master.   

私の奴隷になりなさい第2章　ご主人様と呼ばせてください 「Watashi no dorei ni nari nasai dai 2-shō goshujinsama to yoba sete kudasai」

Running Time: 103 mins.

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Director: Hideo Jojo

Writer: Hitoshi Ishikawa, Hideo Jojo (Screenplay), Shu Satami (Original Work)

Starring: Katsuya Maigumi, Aika Yukihira, Sayuri, Masaki Miura

Website

Synopsis: This is the sequel to the sensual movie “Become My Slave” where a man named Meguro meets a married woman named Akeno and is roped into “training” her when her husband threatens Meguro’s social standing.

At the Children’s Restaurant    

こども食堂にて 「Kodomo shokudō nite」

Running Time: 115 mins.

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Director: Sho’on Sano

Writer: Sho’on Sano (Screenplay), Shu Satami (Original Work)

Starring: Hano Honshita, Sawako Kitahara, Tomoko Hirata, Mariko Takahashi, Nobunaka Daichi,

Website

Synopsis: The “Children’s Restaurant” is where Sunshine, a movie production team which specialises in works on children’s social care themes, gathers various children. Chieko who started volunteering at “Children ‘s Restaurant” is driven to join because she suffered from abuse at the hands of her parents. There are more stories than just abuse as children from poor families attend the place for food, there are children who live alone, and also single mothers who attend. A small community has formed and Chiaki gets involved in their stories…

Tarinae    

タリナイ 「Tarinae」

Running Time: 93 mins.

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Director: Shiori Ookawa

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: The Marshall Islands was one of the battlefields of WWII and the man at the centre of it travels to see where his father died of starvation due to supplies being cut off. He has diaries and wills written by his father and his comrades before his death. The son was 74 when he travelled to the islands in 2016 to see where it all happened.

Tower of the Sun    

太陽の塔 「Taiyo no To」

Running Time: 112 mins.

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Director: Kosai Sekine

Writer: N/A

Starring: Norio Akasaka, Reiji Ando, Shigesato Itoi, Shingo Ueda, Koji Osugi, Hideo Kasami,

Website

Synopsis: The last time I was in Osaka, they were hoping to hold the World Expo (either Osaka or Kansai), and this documentary looks at the work of Taro Okamoto and his “Tower of the Sun” which was made for the 1970 Osaka World Expo, so 48 years ago. The theme was “Progress and Harmony of Mankind” and was made at a time when the Japanese economy was in overdrive. What was the message that this alien-like structure was meant to convey? Find out in the documentary.

Ai to, sakaba to, ongaku to (Love and a Bar and Music)    

愛と、酒場と、音楽と 「Ai to, sakaba to, ongaku to」

Running Time: 95 mins.

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Director: Kai Inowaki, Masato Oki, Kenichi Ebisawa, Sara Ogawa,

Writer: Kai Inowaki, Masato Oki, Sara Ogawa,

Starring: Kai Inowaki, Masato Oki, Sara Ogawa, Yoshio Saiga, Gen Kuwayama, Yuji Miyazaki, SHIHO, Toshihiro Fumoto, Yuu Sakuma,

Website

Synopsis: This anthology film comes from four young directors who provide three different stories:

LOVE WITHOUT WORDS

BOURBON TALK

BEATOPIA

Seven Girls   

セブンガールズ 「Sebun Ga-ruzu」

Running Time: 144mins.

Release Date: September 29th, 2018

Director: David Miyahara

Writer: David Miyahara

Starring: Ai Sakazaki, Hotena Horikawa, Sachiko Kawahara, Naoko Fujiim Kazuki Saito, Mai Higuchi,

Website

Synopsis: This film is about the Pan Pan girls who sold themselves to US servicemen to survive in the rubble of Tokyo. Despite their hardship, these girls refuse to give in and try to live their lives to the fullest. It’s based on a stage-play that was first brought to life in 2004 and it has the original cast.