Happy weekend!

Get hyped!

Time to watch films. I have four Korean titles lined up for this weekend, one of which I watched well over a decade ago (The Host). I tried watching some films earlier in the week but didn’t get far into them before turning them off due to other demands. Anyway, a news story and an interview I did were published over at Anime UK News at the tail end of last week and two reviews I wrote for V-Cinema were also published – Minidoka and Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066. I also posted a review of the short film Slowly here and then an interview I did with the director and producer of that film, Momoko Fukuda and Jumpei Inoue.

What is released this weekend?

According to Our Butler   

うちの執事が言うことには 「Uchi no Shitsuji ga Iu Koto niwa」

Running Time: 103 mins.

Release Date: May 17th, 2019

Director:  Shinji Kuma

Writer: Takeshi Aoshima (Screenplay), Shiina Takasato (Original Novel)

Starring: Ren Nagase, Sho Kiyohara, Yuta Jinguji, Mio Yuki, Fuju Kamio, Toshihiro Yashiba, Jun Murakami, Hideko Hara, Mitsuru Fukikoshi,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Kaei Karasuma (Ren Nagase) is the scion of a great family and subject to a deadly plot, but with the help of his butler Soma Kisaragi (Sho Kiyohara), he and his family will be protected from the conspiracy.

The Confidence Man JP: The Movie 

コンフィデンスマンJP 「Konfidensu Man JP the movie」

Running Time: 116 mins.

Release Date: May 17th, 2019

Director:  Ryo Tanaka

Writer: Ryota Kosawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Masami Nagasawa, Masahiro Higashide, Fumiyo Kohinata, Yuko Takeuchi, Haruma Miura, Lisa Oda, Yosuke Eguchi, Atsuko Maeda,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Dako (Masami Nagasawa), Boku-chan (Masahiro Higashide) and Richard (Fumiyo Kohinata) are professional con artists who have travelled to Hong Kong to attempt to steal a diamond from Ran Riu (Yuko Takeuchi), a member of the Hong Kong triad. They have a rival in a handsome conman Jessie (Haruma Miura) who tries to get in on the action.

Iwane: Sword of Serenity   

居眠り磐音 「Inemuri Iwane」

Running Time: 121 mins.

Release Date: May 17th, 2019

Director:  Katsuhide Motoki

Writer: Yuki Fujimoto (Screenplay), Yasuhide Saeki (Original Novel)

Starring: Tori Matsuzaka, Fumino Kimura, Kyoko Yoshine, Tasuku Emoto, Pierre Taki, Akira Emoto, Naomi Zaizen,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Iwane Sakazaki (Tori Matsuzaka), Kinpei Kobayashi (Tasuku Emoto) and Shinnosuke Kawade (Yosuke Sugino) are childhood friends who have risen to the rank of samurai together. Their bond is strengthened by the fact that Kinpei’s younger sister Mai is married to Shinnosuke and Iwane will marry Nao (Kyoko Yoshine). Their bond is shattered when Shinnosuke kills Mai after hearing allegations of an affair and then Kinpei takes revenge. The final act is to be Iwane Sakazaki executing his friend…

Fafner THE BEYOND   

蒼穹のファフナー THE BEYOND 「Soukyuu no Fafner THE BEYOND」

Release Date: May 17th, 2019

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Takashi Noto

Writer: Tow Ubukata (Screenplay),

Starring: Satsumi Matsuda (Kaguya Minashiro), Souma Saitou (Maris Excelsior), Risae Matsuda (Sakuya Minashiro),

Animation Production: XEBECzwei

ANN MAL Website

Synopsis: “Fafner” are humanoid mobile weapons “Fafner” and their pilots are teens who battle creatures called “Festum” It’s a long-running franchise and a new series is starting so the first three episodes of the 12 episode series will be screened. 

Masui 

魔睡 「Masui」

Running Time: 121 mins.

Release Date: May 17th, 2019

Director:  Kazuto Kuramoto

Writer: Tomomi Ikeda (Screenplay), Mori Ogai (Original Story)

Starring: Kazuko Iwamoto, Yuki Nakamura, Masami Suga, Yohei Nozaki, Natsuko Kimura, Mizuho Yoshida,

Synopsis: This one reminds me of the film Cure considering its story is based on a novella written by the writer, Mori Ogai, on the theme of crime using hypnosis, this is a story of a university professor whose wife, Yuriko, is being hypnotised by a student at the university. His evidence is how his wife is becoming increasingly vague during the day and suffers strange dreams at night…

Saihate Risutorante   

最果てリストランテ 「Saihate Risutorante」

Running Time: 91 mins.

Release Date: May 18th, 2019

Director:  Keita Matsuda

Writer: Keita Matsuda (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryota Murai, Jun Q, Hazuki Mamiya, Takayuki Suzuki, Anna Konno, Yuuki Izawa, Mei Sakai,

Website

Synopsis: Ryota Misaki (Ryouta Murai) and Han Ji-Seok (Jun Q) run a mysterious restaurant that people normally visit only once in their lives when they are about to eat their last meal. This is based on a TV series of the same name.

Boku to Keanin to obaachan-tachi to.   

僕とケアニンとおばあちゃんたちと。 「Boku to Keanin to obaachan-tachi to.」

Running Time: 70 mins.

Release Date: May 18th, 2019

Director:  Kosuke Sasaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: A documentary at a nursing facility in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture depicting the care workers and the residents they help try to live happy lives.

Moratorium   

モラトリアム 「Moratoriaumu」

Running Time: 85 mins.

Release Date: May 18th, 2019

Director:  Shinichiro Sawa,

Writer: Shinichiro Sawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Makoto Shinada, Aki Nakagawa, Minae Omi, Chie Oiishi, Shino Uemura,

Website

Synopsis: A university student who struggles to interact with people finds inspiration in a clown who performs in a park. Seeing an audience laugh at the figure makes the student return time and again to see the performance but one day the clown is gone. Instead, the student meets a man who asks if she would like to be a clown. In order to better communicate with others, she decides to give it a go…

The Landlady   

雪子さんの足音 「Yukiko-san no Ashioto」

Running Time: 112 mins.

Release Date: May 18th, 2019

Director:  Sachi Hamano,

Writer: Houki Yamazaki (Screenplay) Kumi Kimura (Original Story)

Starring: Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Nahana, Hisako Ookata, Manzo Nomura, Kenta Kiguchi, Masaaki Takarai,

Website

Synopsis: A story of a group of people who are drawn to a western-style house where there is a place for them to gather. It is run under the auspices of a woman named Yukiko.

Documentaries and animation meet in a special event called World Animation Theater (WAT2019).

13 animated documentary films by female directors from Japan, Korea and Sweden will be screened in a number of venues across Japan, starting in Tokyo before heading west throughout 2019/20. The stories cover a wide range of experiences from the deeply personal to global politics.

JAPAN

Birth – Weaving Life and Birth -Dancing Life is an animated documentary omnibus film based on six experiences of child delivery as told by different women during interviews. The films have been directed by Arisa Wakami, Chie Arai, Atsuko Koguma, Bak Ikeda and Hirofumi Ohashi. Three of the films come from a 2016 omnibus called “Birth: Tsumugu inochi” (IMDB) while the other three are from “Birth: Odoru inochi”.

KOREA

8 shorts from South Korea:

You Are My Sunshine – Dir: Hwangbo Sae-byul – A love story for a beloved dog and the owner’s reaction after it suddenly dies.

My Father’s Room Dir: Jang Nari – A woman abused by her father also has some compassion for him in this short.

A Hole in the Door – Dir: Ha Soohwa – A beautiful paint-on-glass animation for commemorating the director’s dead grandmother.

Hopebus a Love Story – Dir: Park Sung-mi – A stop-motion animation story showing solidarity displayed by female workers in a real labor via LEGO blocks.

Mrs. Romance – Dir: Han Byung-a – A dream or a fact? a middle-aged housewife meets a good-looking Italian boy on a trip.

A Letter That Bloom Flowers – Dir: Jude Kang – The real voices of two young women who have escaped from North Korea and now live in South Korea.

The River – Dir: Kim Hee-seon – A young director interviews people along the border of North and South Korea to examine lives lived in the divided peninsula.

Feruza – Dirs: Kim Ye-young and Kim Young-geun – A road movie chronicling the meeting between a couple of Korean film directors and an Ethiopian girl who dreams to go to Korea and continuing her studies after graduating from junior high school but got married. How will the directors change her life?

SWEDEN

“Unkilled, Chapter 1” – Dirs: Hanna Heilborn & David Aronowitsch.

A documentary film project told in chapters about the global system of detention of migrants that has evolved from their previously animated documentary films “Hidden”, “Slaves” and “Sharaf”. It has been animation by Kaoru Furuko.

“Andra stranden” and “Still Born” – Dir: Åsa Sandzén (Japan Premiere)

This is an animated documentary of a spiritual world where death is encountered firsthand. Kaoru Furuko took part in the animation production.

To find out more, head over to the site.

The films will first be screened in Tokyo‘s Shimokitazawa Tollywood from June 29 through to July 26, 2019 – details already available – and then the event will tour Kyoto (Kyoto Demachiza), Himeji (Himeji Animation Runs!) and Nagoya (Nagoya Theater Cafe) until the end of June 2020 – no details announced as of yet.

This collection of unique examinations of social issues points to an exciting burst in creativity and diversity in the type of filmmakers bringing their work to the screen and the organisers point to the #MeToo movement as being a catalyst. Indeed, the Korean animations in particular have a heavy political focus as they address a lot of issues in animated form, although animated documentaries have a bit of a longer history in Europe as exemplified by the filmography of Hanna Heilborn who specialises in interviewing young people who have fled conflict and poverty and found themselves refugees trapped in immigration systems. To get the inside story, it’s best to go to the events because some of these animators/directors will be at some of the screenings.

This leads neatly into the next point because there is a crowdfunding campaign underway at Motion Gallery to help with WAT2019’s theatrical release. Funds will be used to cover travel costs and operation expenses, publicity and possibly add another venue the films will be screened at.

To help gather funds there are a series of rewards look like tickets to the events including director talks, a clear folder and other stationary with illustrations from the animators, postcards with an autograph and other things. The biggest reward will be helping these animators in their careers as they can show their films far and wide to more audiences.

To find out more, head to the official website – Japanese / English

Nippon Connection returns to the German city of Frankfurt from 28th May to 2nd June and the organisers have programmed around 100 feature and short films as well as many cultural activities. It is a veritable feast of things to do and see and eat so I’m going to list things and offer some highlights, films that might be to find outside of the festival. Tickets are already on sale so, without further ado, here are the films on offer.

Nippon Cinema

There is a rich variety of stories about love for people to get lost in. Love at Least features a lead character with bipolar disorder trying to fix her relationship with her boyfriend while Marriage Hunting Beauty sees a woman with poor taste in men look for a husband. There is a downbeat Yasushi (writer of Sketches of Kaiten City, Over the Fence) Sato story in And Your Bird Can Sing where the friendship of three friends falls apart. Asako I & II is also about wayward romance as a young woman finds herself torn between two guys who both look the same. At the bombastic end of the scale is Fly Me to the Saitama, a colourful comedy fro where the people of Saitama are oppressed by Tokyoites.

There are plenty of youth stories such as the historical drama Dare to Stop Us takes auds into the radical atmosphere of the 60s with a young woman who works with Koji Wakamatsu on films while Dawn Wind in my Poncho features three friends take a last roadtrip before graduating from college. The characters of It’s Boring Here, Pick Me Up want to hit the road and escape small town Japan while in Ramen Shop, a ramen chef travels to Singapore to find out more about his late mother. And then there’s a shogi film from Toshiaki Toyoda in The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan.

Here are the ones I’d like to highlight!

Another World

半世界 「Hansekai」

Running Time: 120 mins.

Release Date: February 15th, 2019

Director:  Junji Sakamoto

Writer: Junji Sakamoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Goro Inagaki, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Hiroki Hasegawa, Chizuru Ikewaki, Miyako Takeuchi, Aki Sugawara, Keisuke Horibe, Renji Ishibashi,

Website IMDB

This one was at the 2018 Tokyo International Film Festival and it took the Audience Award. It is by veteran director Junji Sakamoto (Face, The Projects) and has a good cast especially Chizuru Ikewaki who is great in Being Good and The Light Shines Only There. She is partnered with Hiroki Hasegawa who is so good in Love and Peace, Why Don’t You Play in Hell? and Double Life as well as Before We Vanish. They support Goro Inagaki, a former member of SMAP.

Synopsis: Hiroshi (Goro Inagaki) listlessly lives his life in a small town in Japan after taking over his father’s charcoal kiln. He uses it as an excuse to ignore his wife (Chizuru Ikewaki) and his teenage son who is going through a rebellious phase. To take his mind off things, he goes drinking with childhood friend Mitsuhiko (Kiyohiko Shibukawa), a laidback guy who sometimes tells Hiroshi off for ignoring his gamily. One day, Hiroshi’s ex-friend Eisuke (Hiroki Hasegawa) comes back to his hometown after a long time in the self-defense force. Eisuke brings a truckload of old wounds back for Hiroshi but he has worries about the soundness of his own mind following his job which makes Hiroshi look at his life again…

Room Laundering 

ルームロンダリング 「Ru-mu Rondaringu」

Running Time: 109 mins.

Release Date: July 07th, 2018

Director: Kenji Katagiri

Writer:  Kenji Katagiri, Tatsuya Umemoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Elaiza Ikeda, Joe Odagiri, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Miho Tsumiki, Eri Watanabe, Tomorowo Taguchi, Kaoru Mitsumune,

Website    IMDB

Tsutaya, the film rental company are involved with backing this title from a newbie director. It looks quirky as heck and features a fantastic cast including Elaiza Ikeda (Minna Espa Dayo!) and Joe Odagiri (Mushishi),

Synopsis: Miko Yagumo (Elaiza Ikeda) has a strange job: she stays in the apartments of people who have just died in them. Murder, suicide, she’ll stay there. Why? Landlords must tell potential tenants if someone has died in the property they are planning to rent but the law is a bit fuzzy as to how many people down the line landlords need to inform. So in steps Miko, at the behest of her uncle Goro (Joe Odagiri) who got her into the gig, and she spends time at these places. Lately, she has begun to see ghosts. It kinda makes sense because Miko’s recently-disappeared mother had the same ability. Miko begins to act as an exorcist and a councillor for a variety of people who aren’t quite ready to give up the ghost on their apartments…

The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine

菊とギロチン　女相撲とアナキス 「Kiku to Girochin Onnazumo to Anakisuto」

Running Time: 189 mins.

Release Date: July 07th, 2018

Director: Takahisa Zeze

Writer:  Takahisa Zeze, Toranosuke Aizawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Hanae Kan, Masahiro Higashide, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Maho Yamada, Takashi Yamanaka, Yoko Kamon, Shun Sugata, Shohei Uno, Yota Kawase,

Website    

Synopsis: This is billed as Takahisa Zeze’s first original project in eight years and takes place in Tokyo in the Taisho era, immediately after the Great Kanto Earthquake. A group of women join a female sumo wrestler stable to escape bad backgrounds such as domestic violence and prostitution and they practice hard with the intention of “becoming stronger and living with their own power”. Anarchist groups and those who advocate “an equal society without disparity” are fascinated by the female wrestlers’ fighting and support them.

Inuyashiki

いぬやしき 「Inuyashiki」

Running Time: 127 mins.

Release Date: April 20th, 2018

Director: Shinsuke Sato

Writer: Hiroshi Hashimoto (Screenplay), Hiroya Oku (Original Manga)

Starring: Noritake Kinashi, Takeru Satoh, Kanata Hongo, Fumi Nikaido, Yuki Saito, Yusuke Iseya, Mari Hamada, Ayaka Miyoshi, Nayuta Fukuzaki,

Website IMDB

This is based on a manga series by Hiroya Oku, the guy who created the super-disturbing horror sci-fi Gantz. Inuyashiki was turned into an anime that turned out to be pretty good. The live-action version is a fun spectacle and a change of pace from the other highlights. Takeru Satoh (Rurouni Kenshin and Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno) stars as the bad guy. Here’s my review.

Synopsis: Ichiro Inuyashiki (Noritake Kinashi) is a salary-man on his way out. Unappreciated at work and at home and freshly diagnosed with cancer, his life looks miserable but things take a drastic turn when he is involved in an explosion. When he regains consciousness, he discovers that he has been transformed into a cyborg. Far from freaking out, he has a new lease of life and decides to use his powers to help those in need. Meanwhile, Hiro Shishigami (Takeru Satoh), a high school student, was also involved in the very same explosion and has gained the very same the powers. He just wants to see the world burn. Two super-powered people do battle in Japan!

Legend of Stardust Brothers

星くず兄弟の伝説 「Hoshikuzu kyodai no densetsu 」

Running Time: 100 mins.

Original Release Date: June 15th, 1985

Director: Macoto Tezuka

Writer: Macoto Tezuka (Screenplay), Haruo Chikada (Original Story)

Starring: Ryosuke Miura, Kohei Takeda, Tadanobu Aasano,, Shingo Kubota, Kan Takagi, Kyoko Togawa, Issay, Kiyohiko Ozaki, Miwako Fukushima, Mie Akatsuka, Motoko Arai,

Website IMDB

This one has been licensed by Third Window Films and it has played at a couple of festivals already and anyone following their twitter feeds will see that audiences really love the experience. As the release dates above show, it originally came out in 1985 and got a re-release in Japan last year. It was directed by Macoto Tezuka, son of manga legend, Osamu Tezuka.

Synopsis from Third Window Films: In 1985, Macoto Tezuka met musician and TV personality Haruo Chicada who had made a soundtrack to a movie which didn’t actually exist: The Legend of the Stardust Brothers. At the time Macoto was just 22 years old, a film-student with many short experimental films under his belt, but, with Chicada as producer, Tezuka would make his feature-film debut by adapting this “fake soundtrack” into the real movie story of “The Stardust Brothers”.

With inspiration from “Phantom of the Paradise” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show”, Tezuka assembled a cast of some of Japan’s most famous musicians of the time, including such greats as Kiyohiko Ozaki, ISSAY, Sunplaza Nakano and Hiroshi Takano, alongside many famous names in Manga such as Monkey Punch (Lupin the 3rd), Shinji Nagashima (Hanaichi Monme), Yosuke Takahashi (Mugen Shinsi) and even many upcoming film directors of the time such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Tokyo Sonata, Cure) and Daihachi Yoshida (The Kirishima Thing, The Scythian Lamb). The resulting film “The Legend of the Stardust Brothers” is the exact definition of a cult film. Despite the huge array of talent on board with a large budget, the film is totally unknown even to this day in both Japan and worldwide. More than 30 years since its release, The Stardust Brothers will finally make itself known worldwide with a new master and a brand new Director’s Cut!

Lying to Mom 

鈴木家の嘘 「Suzukike no Uso」

Running Time: 133 mins.

Release Date: November 16th, 2018

Director:  Katsumi Nojiri

Writer: Katsumi Nojiri (Screenplay),

Starring: Ittoku Kishibe, Hideko Hara, Mai Kiryu, Ryo Kase, Nahoko Yoshimoto, Shohei Uno, Chiaki Kawamo, Nao Omori, Kayoko Kishimoto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: The Suzuki family is pretty modest. There is father Yukio (Ittoku Kishibe), mother Yuko (Hideko Hara), son Koichi (Ryo Kase) and daughter Fumi (Mai Kiryu). Koichi is a hikikomori but at least he’s alive. Then, one day, he tries to commit suicide and ends up in a coma which throws everyone into confusion. Yuko is so shocked by her son’s state that she loses her memory which leads Fumi to lie to her in order to preserve her sanity. That lie is pretty big, “Koichi stopped being a hikikomori, got better and now works in Argentina”. How does one keep up that story???

jam   

Running Time: 102 mins.

Release Date: December 01st, 2018

Director:  SABU

Writer: SABU (Screenplay),

Starring: Sho Aoyagi, Keita Machida, Nobuyuki Suzuki, Shintaro Akiyama, Mariko Tsutsui, Yuta Ozawa, Kanta Sato,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Members of the entertainment group EXILE take the lead roles in a film. The first is Hiroshi (Sho Aoyagi), an idol who wows his non-existent fans on the stage and feels empty inside. One fan named Masako doesn’t care about his psychological condition because she captures him and takes him home. Then there is Takeru (Keita Machida) whose partner was in a terrible accident. He prays for her recovery and performs good deeds every day in the hopes she will wake up. Last but not east is Tetsuo (Nobuyuki Suzuki), a man who wants to take revenge on the yakuza who sent him to prison. Due to the fact that they live in the same city, their stories will cross from time to time.

Hard-core 

ハード・コア 「Ha-do Koa」

Running Time: 124 mins.

Release Date: November 23rd, 2018

Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita

Writer: Kosuke Mukai (Screenplay), Takashi Imashiro (Original Manga),

Starring: Takayuki Yamada, Takeru Satoh, YosiYosi Arakawa, Kei Ishibashi, Suon Kan, Takako, Matsu, Kisetsu Fujiwara,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Deep in the hills and mountains of Gunma Prefecture dwells a pure hearted man by the name of Ukon Gondo (Takayuki Yamada). Ukon has a handsome brother, Sakon (Takeru Sato), who works for a trading company but Ukon prefers to be free from society and tries to make a living by mining for gold. He finds it difficult to communicate with others apart from another man who joins him in his excavations, Ushiyama (YosiYosi Arakawa). They are soon to be joined by a third teammate, a robot they discover at an abandoned factory that Ushiyama lives in. Once their team is complete, they resolve to change their lives.

Films by Shinya Tsukamoto, 2019’s Nippon Honour Awardee

Tetsuo: The Iron Man and Tokyo Fist will be screened in celebration of Shinya Tsukamoto and there will also be a screening of his latest film. Here’s my biography of the man.

Killing

斬、 「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. 

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.

Nippon Visions

So I often talk up diversity a lot and in the indie film section we get a nuclear power plant-based black and white horror film in Ahum, Ren Osugi’s last role in The Chaplin where he plays the eponymous prison chaplain, illegal immigrant drama Complicity and Sea where a man is plagued by guilt over not doing anything to prevent a rape. Also playing is Jesus where a 10-year-old boy is forced to attend a Christian school and doesn’t really like it and then there is Life Finds a Way, the latest from Hirobumi Watanabe where we see his struggles with creativity.

Also in this strand are a special screening of Memento Stella, PIA Film Festival Shorts, Nippon Connection Shorts, and the Skip City D Festival Shorts

Here are the highlights:

Tourism    

Running Time: 77 mins.

Release Date: 2018

Director: Daisuke Miyazaki

Writer: Daisuke Miyazaki (Screenplay),

Starring: Nina Endo, Sumire, Takayuki Yanagi,

IMDB    Website

Daisuke Miyazaki is a director to watch. With a distinct set of indie films that includes Yamato (California) (2017) and Tourism, Miyazaki has something to say about modern life and youth culture and he shows no signs of stopping. Tourism was the second of a two-part video installation commissioned by the ArtScience Museum in Singapore and Singapore International Film Festival that blossomed into a feature film that could be the first instalment of a longer series. It’s quirky and features a winning performance by Nina Endo. Here’s my review of the film and here’s a link to an interview I did with him.

Synopsis: Nina and Sue live with a male room-mate in a sharehouse somewhere in Yamato City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Life is quiet and somewhat uninspiring for the three. Like many young people, they work part-time in stores like Tsutaya and Book-Off, study in their spare time, and chase vague dreams of a better life. However, some excitement enters their world when Nina wins two tickets for a free trip abroad. A different locale might usher in some excitement.

Melancholic 

メランコリック  「Merankorikku」

Running Time: 113 mins.

Release Date: N/A

Director: Seiji Tanaka

Writer: Seiji Tanaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Yoji Minagawa, Yoshitomo Isozaki, Mebuki Yoshida, Makoto Hada, Hiroko Shinkai, Keiji Yamashita, Takanori Minagawa

Website IMDB

Seiji Tanaka’s debut feature Melancholic won him a share of the best director prize in the Japanese Cinema Splash section at last years Tokyo International Film Festival (Masaharu Take also won for his film, The Gun (2018)) and one can see why as it manages to combine a number of tones and genres to create a film that feels fresh and original as well as socially conscious. It’s a real treat with a great lead performance from Yoji Minagawa. Here’s my review.

Synopsis: Kazuhiko (Yoji Minagawa) graduated from the prestigious halls of Tokyo University you would expect him to be in some high-flying job but since leaving academia he has moved back home with his parents and lived the life of a slacker. A chance encounter with a girl he knew at high school at a bathhouse leads to him taking a job there as an attendant and he quite likes it, not least because he can talk to the girl. However, what seems like a normal onsen turns out to be a killing space for yakuza-ordered hits and when Kazuhiko stumbles upon this he ends up getting dragged into the criminal underworld…

Blue Hour   

ブルーアワーにぶっ飛ばす 「Buru- Awa- ni Buttobasu」

Running Time: 92 mins.

Release Date: October 11th, 2019

Director:  Yuko Hakota

Writer: Yuko Hakota (Screenplay),

Starring: Kaho, Shim Eun-Kyung, Daichi Watanabe, Denden, Kaho Minami, Kyusaku Shimada, Daisuke Kuroda, Yusuke Santamaria,

Website IMDB

I’ve seen a couple and a half of roadtrip movies this year and this one has caught my attention based purely on the trailer and a desire to see what newbie writer/director Yuka Hataoka can turn in.

Synopsis: Sunada (Kaho) is a 30-years-old CM director living in Tokyo. She is unhappy about the direction of her life and decides to return to her hometown of Ibaraki where her grandmother is in hospital. Accompanying her is her best friend Kiyoura (Shim Eun-Kyung).

Call of Zon   

ゾンからのメッセージ「Zon Kara no messe-ji」

Running Time: 117 mins.

Release Date: August 11th, 2018

Director: Takuji Suzuki

Writer: Takeshi Furusawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryudai Takahashi, Ryo Nagao, Shogo Ishimaru, Masahito Karakama, Maya Ino, Ritsuko, Hiromi Furukawa, Kenji Yamauchi,

Website

Here’s a film from someone else with something to say. I met Takuji Suzuki at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2019 and interviewed him for the upcoming release of Randen and found him to be a very thoughtful and philosophical guy intent on pushing the boundaries of indie cinema. This looks to be a very unique title.

Synopsis: In this sci-fi film, the inhabitants of a small town full of nostalgia-inducing things found their habitat surrounded by a mysterious phenomenon called “zon” 20 years ago. Now they live in a dream-like village where it is as if time has stopped. This is down to “zon” because the weird atmosphere represented by the strange flickering patterns in the air act as a barrier. People who cross it, never come back, and now there is nobody willing to go beyond “zon” and nobody knows what the outside world looks like. Things begin to change when a mysterious VHS tape arrives in their little world.

Nippon Animation

Nippon Animation brings some of the top titles released over the past year and the big guest is director Hiroyasu Ishida who will present his debut feature film Penguin Highway as well as a selection of his earlier short films. Okko’s Inn promises to show some supernatural fun for kids. There are more great titles on offer from more Naoko Yamada and Mamoru Hosoda and two short film programmes, Transience – The Best of Recent Indie Animation and the regular Tokyo University of the Arts: Animation Shorts, which aims give an insight into Japan’s independent animation scene.

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

This charmed audiences at last year’s Cannes film festival. Much like his compatriot, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Hosoda delivered a film that pretty much takes all of the themes and animation techniques he has worked with in the past and wrapped it up into an easy to understand story about family. I guess you can call him the anime equivalent of Kore-eda.

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.

Liz to Aoitori   

リズと青い鳥 「Liz to Aoitori」

Running Time: 110 mins.

Release Date: April 21st, 2018

Director:  Naoko Yamada

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Script),

Starring: Atsumi Tanezaki (Mizore Yoroizuka), Nao Toyama (Nozomi Kasaki), Ayaka Asai (Hazuki Kato), Chika Anzai (Reina Kosaka), Yuri Yamaoka (Yuuko Yoshikawa), Moe Toyota (Sapphire “Midori” Kawashima), Shiori Sugiura (Ririka Kenzaki),

Animation Production: Kyoto Animation

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Mizore Yoroizuka and Nozomi Kasaki are best friends who are both in their school’s brass band club. Mizore plays the oboe and Nozomi plays the flute. Despite being in the final year of high school, they are so very happy–until the club begins to practice songs inspired by the fairy tale Liz und ein Blauer Vogel (Liz and the Blue Bird). Immersed in this story, they begin to realise that there may be no such thing as being together forever.

Nippon Docs

Nippon Docs goes into all sorts of issues which are affecting us all, from ageing and Alzheimer’s in Naoko Nobutomo’s affecting film about her parents, I Go Gaga, My Dear to death in Sending Off, the latest work from Ian Thomas Ash which looks at a doctor and her team who offer hospice care to patients in their homes. LGBT representation in Japanese society gets a look through the photographer’s lens in Portraits of the Rainbow and From All Corners is about the unique cardboard-based art of a young man. Tower of the Sun look at Taro Okamoto’s Tower of the Sun in Osaka and lastly are the Japanese Documentaries Presented by NHK World-Japan, the first following Hayao Miyazaki over 10 years while the second is about a Syrian musician’s discovery of a piano which survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Here are some highlights.

Boy Soldiers: The Secret War in Okinawa

沖縄スパイ戦史 「Okinawa Supai Senshi」

Running Time: 114 mins.

Release Date: July 28th, 2018

Director: Chie Mikami, Hanayo Oya

Website   

Synopsis: The battle of Okinawa claimed 240,000 lives, both American and Japanese. It was hard-fought on both sides not least because many Okinawans committed suicide rather than be captured. This documentary which looks absolutely fascinating talks about an unknown or little-known aspect of the battle, the Gokyotai, Okinawan teenage boys who were drafted into guerilla units led by officers from the mainland and tasked with attacking US forces. These units were cruel, making the boys execute the wounded and sick or anyone considered to be a spy. There are also other stories of how people were forcibly moved by Japanese forces to islands known for disease. It’s all told in archive footage, still-photographs and interviews with the veterans which makes this powerful stuff, especially since it gets information from both sides, civilians and military, too. Mark Schilling gave it a glowing review.

Mawari Kagura – Kagura Troupe on the Beat

廻り神楽 「Mawari Kagura」

Running Time: 94 mins.

Release Date: January 20th, 2018

Director: Mirao Osawa, Kano Endo

Website

Synopsis: Kagura is a traditional performance done by people across Japan. The community at the heart of this film are on the Sanriku coast of Iwate prefecture and they suffered due to the Great East Japan Earthquake. Despite this, the troupe travel around the beaches, performing in honour of the dead and the Gods who have existed in the land and the sea for hundreds of years.

Shinjuku Tiger

新宿タイガー　 「Shinjuku Taiga-」

Running Time: 83 mins.

Release Date: March 22nd, 2019

Director: Yoshinori Sato

Starring: Shinobu Terajima, Norito Yashima, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Midori Suiren, Noboru Iguchi, Shinji Kubo

Website IMDB

Receiving its world premiere at the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) 2019, Shinjuku Tiger details a colourful character in Shinjuku. Here’s my review and here’s an interview I conducted with the director.

Synopsis: Tokyo has many colourful characters who have become internet sensations but the Shinjuku Tiger (a.k.a. Tiger Mask) is one that many international audiences may not have heard of. Tokyoites are more familiar with the chap because he has been a feature of Shinjuku since he found his tiger mask at Kabukicho’s Inari Kiou Shrine in 1972 and decided to wear it every day to bring some joy to the world. Yoshinori Sato follows Tiger as he goes through his daily routines. 

Ayako Wakao – Magnificent Icon of Japanese Cinema

Ayako Wakao is one of the banner actresses of Japanese cinema. A recipient of the Kinema Junpo Award along with the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Actress in the years 1962 and 1966, in 2010 she was proclaimed “All Time Best Actress” by the Japanese film journal Eiga Hiho. Initially a girl next door figure, her beauty and character drew admirers and, for those easily scared by ambition, haters, as she picked more complicated roles such as calculating single-mothers, abused wives and independent women that described the ever-changing precarious position of women. She worked with some of the great directors of the Golden Age and those who made the leap into the New Wave.

The focus is on Ayako Wakao’s frequent collaborations with Yasuzo Masamura, with films like The Goddess of Mercy, where a bored middle-class housewife falls for someone who she meets at art class – played by Wakao – to The Red Angel where she is a nurse during the war and Seisaku’s Wife, about a young woman who falls in love with a soldier after a life spent as an outsider. She also collaborated with Yuzo Kawashima (Room for Let) in geisha dramedy Women are Born Twice and she worked with Ozu on Floating Weeds. The three I am highlighting are from three major directors and show her range as an actor.

The Blue Sky Maiden (aka The Cheerful Girl)

青空娘  「Aozora Musume」  

Release Date: October 08th, 1957

Running Time: 88 mins.

Director: Yasuzo Masamura

Writer: Yoshio Shirasaka (Screenplay), Keita Genji (Original Novel)

Starring: Ayako Wakao, Keizo Kawasaki, Kenji Sugawara, Ryuji Shinagawa, Yuko Yashio, Keiko Fujita,

IMDB

Synopsis: This colourful, cheerful satirical Cinderella story was the first in a string of collaborations between Ayako Wakao and Yasuzo Masamura. She plays an illegitimate daughter who travels to Tokyo to live with her father, only to find his house a seething nest of suspicion and resentment.

Elegant Beast

しとやかな獣　 「Shitoyakana kedamono 」

Running Time: 96 mins.

Release Date: December 26th, 1962

Director:  Yuzo Kawashima

Writer:  Kaneto Shindo (Screenplay),

Starring: Ayako Wakao, Yunosuke Ito, Hisano Yamaoka, Manamitsu Kawabata, Yuko Hamada, Eiji Funakoshi, Kyu Sazanka, Chocho Miyako, Hideo Takamatsu,

IMDB

This is one of Kawashima’s best films, a breathtakingly cynical analysis of post-war Japanese social mores and a decline in morality.

Synopsis: The film almost exclusively takes place in the fifth floor apartment of the Maeda’s, a seemingly traditional and stable family unit of two conservative parents (who wear kimono and listen to traditional music) and their hip son and daughter (who are frequently out on the town in Ginza’s bars) but as the narrative unfolds we see the depth of their duplicity, selfishness, and materialistic behaviour which unites them as they scam people in their social circle but, as the narrative unfolds, the it turns out that they will meet their match in a single mother that the son has designs on.

An Actor’s Revenge

雪之丞変化   「Yukinojo Henge」

Release Date: January 13th, 1963

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Kon Ichikawa

Writer: Otokichi Mikami (Newspaper Serial), Daisuke Ito, Teinosuke Kinugassa (Adaptation), Natto Wada (Screenplay),

Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa, Fujiko Yamamoto, Ayako Wakao, Eiji Funakoshi, Saburo Date, Kikue Mori,

IMDB

Kon Ichikawa’s take on this classic tale is not the first and the film marked the 300^th film appearance of the actor Kazuo Hasegawa. Ichikawa was quite visually inventive and here he mixes illusion and reality, historicity and contemporaneity via use of vivid colours and unique sets where the stage setting is kept but the boundaries between on- and offstage become blurred and he soundtrack blends tradition music with jazz.

Synopsis: Set in 1863, main character Yukinojo (Hasegawa), is become a well-known ‘onnagata’ (a man playing female roles) in a travelling Kabuki troupe which heads to Edo (the old name of Tokyo) where he discovers and sets out to take revenge on three local officials who drove his parents to suicide. He wants to ruin them and aiding him is the daughter of one of the officials who has fallen for him…

As mentioned earlier, Nippon Connection takes place in Frankfurt, Germany from 28th May to 2nd June and tickets are already available via the official website where you can also find full details on all the films.

Happy weekend!

I hope everyone is fine!

I’m in the middle of a 12 day week after going back to doing fun overtime in work but I managed to do a lot of writing as well. I posted about a special screening of animated documentaries by female directors – World Animation Theatre 2019 – and also a preview for Nippon Connection 2019.

A real mixed bag of trailers this week.

RANDEN: The Comings and Goings on a Kyoto Tram

嵐電 「Randen」

Running Time: 114 mins.

Release Date: Summer 2019

Director:  Takuji Suzuki

Writer: Takuji Suzuki, Hiroshi Asari, (Screenplay),

Starring: Arata Iura, Ayaka Onishi, Tamaki Kubose, Satoko Abe, Kenta Ishida, Hiroto Kanai,

Website   IMDB

I saw this at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2019 and interviewed the director. I enjoyed it a lot as my review shows and I hope others enjoy it as well.

Synopsis: A writer from Kamakura named Eisei Hiraoka (Arata Iura) is researching supernatural stories but finds himself revisiting memories from a previous visit to his wife’s home town. Kako Ogura (Ayaka Onishi), a shy local woman, is asked to help an actor from Tokyo practice speaking with Kyoto intonation and after the lesson, he asks her to show him around Arashiyama. Nanten Kitakado (Tamaki Kubose), a high school girl from Aomori, shows a one-track mind when she falls for a train nerd who sees nothing but trams. The love of three couples is carried along together by the famous trams and a little of Kyoto’s special magic and folklore. The course of true love rarely runs smooth but if fate places you on a Randen tram, then you will at least get a scenic ride amidst the history and wonderful sights of the city in this charming fairy-tale film that breathes the culture and atmosphere of the city.

Violence Voyager         

バイオレンス・ボイジャー　「Baiorensu Boijya-」               

Release Date: 2019 (Japan)

Running Time: 84 mins.

Director: Ujicha

Writer: Ujicha (Screenplay)

Starring: Aoi Yuki, Naoki Tanaka, Shigeo Takahashi, Tomorowo Taguchi, Daisuke Ono, Saki Fujita,

Kyoto Saga Art University graduate Uji Cha is a talented animator. His last work was The Burning Buddha Man (2012) which I wrote about back in 2013. It went on a festival tour because of its impressive creation. Ujicha used hand-made and painted paper cutouts, animated by hand, to tell a horror story. He has dubbed it “Geki-mation” and directs, writes, draws, edits, his own work and it is clear to see his skill is undeniable. It’s good to have him back with Violence Voyager. This played at Japan Cuts last year.

Synopsis: An American boy named Bobby and his friend Akkun head to the mountains to build a secret base but when they encounter a group of scared kids stuck in a mysterious amusement park called Violence Voyager, they soon find themselves under attack by robot-like humanoids!

Aircraft Carrier Ibuki   

空母いぶき　 「Kuubo Ibuki」

Running Time: 134 mins.

Release Date: May 24th, 2019

Director: Setsuro Wakamatsu

Writer: Yasuo Hasegawa, Kazunori Ito (Screenplay), Kaiji Kawaguchi (Manga)

Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Tatsuya Fuji, Jun Murakami, Hiroshi Tamaki, Koichi Sato, Tsubasa Honda, Mai Fukagawa,

Website IMDB

It doesn’t happen so much these days but in the past Chinese fishing fleets would often act as a vanguard for a military force or as a “militia” operating on behalf of the government (link). This manga may have been inspired by that. It does look very jingoistic and it looks kind of bad on the basis of the trailer…

Synopsis: The Japanese government has ordered Aircraft Carrier Ibuki to head to the southernmost islands of Japan after a coastguard crew are detained by the owners of fishing boats who have occupied some land.

Musashi   

武蔵　むさし　 「Musashi」

Running Time: 120 mins.

Release Date: May 25th, 2019

Director: Yasuo Mikami

Writer: Yasuo Mikami (Screenplay),

Starring: Yoshihiko Hosoda, Ken Matsudaira, Maki Mizuno,

Website IMDB

Synopsis:  The story of Musashi Miyamoto and his rivalry with Kojiro Sasaki.

Sadako   

貞子　 「Sadako」

Running Time: 120 mins.

Release Date: May 24th, 2019

Director: Hideo Nakata

Writer: Noriaki Sugihara (Screenplay), Koji Suzuki (Novel)

Starring: Elaiza Ikeda, Takashi Tsukamoto, Hiroya Shimizu, Himeka Himejima, Ren Kiriyama, Rie Tomosaka,

Website IMDB

It has been six years since films had Sadako crawling out of screens. The monster, once so terrifying, has lost her edge but has she been rehabilitated? The cast doesn’t look like it’s made up of serious actors, the plot has been updated to give a nod towards current viewing habits of teens and the poster is awful. However, Hideo Nakata is back on board! Although it has been a while since he made a good film… What does the trailer say? I’m not in any hurry to see this one.

Synopsis: A girl with amnesia (Himeka Himejima) is being treated by a psychologist named Mayu (Elaiza Ikeda) who is trying to find out more about her background. Mayu’s younger brother Kazuma (Hiroya Shimizu) is a YouTuber eager for views who, on the advice of a friend, heads to a burnt out apartment where 5 people died which is the scene of psychic trauma and he accidentally catches Sadako. Mayu must stop a new curse from breaking out.

Little Love Song   

小さな恋のうた　 「Chiisana Koi no Uta」

Running Time: 123 mins.

Release Date: May 24th, 2019

Director: Kojiro Hashimoto

Writer: Kenya Hirata (Screenplay),

Starring: Hayato Sano, Yuki Morinaga, Anna Yamada, Gordon Maeda, Jin Suzuki, Claire Tomiko, Misa Shimizu, Hiroko Nakajima, Kozo Sato, Kazuhiko Kanayama,

Website IMDB

Japan’s fascination with high school films produces the occasional good title but speaks to a myopia amongst creatives and their financial backers. The only thing that makes this stand out is the setting of Okinawa and the presence of a mixed-race actor which broadens things out. 

Synopsis: A high school band from a small town in Okinawa are having a good time charming their neighbours with their music and things only get better when they get a record deal with a major label based in Tokyo but a car accident causes a tragedy. When a girl from the nearby US military base appears with a demo tape of a song, things change for the better…

Promare   

プロメア 「Puromea」

Release Date: May 24th, 2019

Running Time: 111 mins.

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi

Writer: Kazuki Nakashima (Screenplay/Original Work),

Starring: Ayane Sakura (Aina Ardebit), Kenichi Matsuyama (Galo Thymos), Taichi Saotome (Lio Fotia), Ami Koshimizu (Ellis Ardebit), Arata Furuta (Deus Prometh), Mayumi Shintani (Lucia Fex),

Animation Production: Trigger

ANN MAL Website

Synopsis: The anime’s protagonist is Galo, a new recruit in a rescue team. The anime will have mechs called “Matoi-Tech,” named after the “matoi” banners that Edo-period firefighting units used.

Tannisho wo Hiraku   

歎異抄をひらく 「Tannishou wo Hiraku」

Release Date: May 24th, 2019

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Kazuhisa Ouno

Writer: Kiyoto Wada (Screenplay), (Original Work),

Starring: Koji Ishizaki (Shinran), Toshiki Masuda (Yuien), Kentaro Ito (Meihobo), Mitsuhiro Ichiki (Gonpachi), Rina Honnizumi (Asa),

Animation Production: Paradise Cafe

ANN MAL Website

Synopsis from My Anime List: An official website launched for an anime movie adaptation of Tannishou wo Hiraku (Tannisho). The movie will premiere in Japanese theaters on May 24. This is the second movie in the Naze Ikiru Series, following Naze Ikiru: Rennyo Shounin to Yoshizaki Enjou which premiered in May 2016.

Tannishou wo Hiraku is a buddhist reference book by Tenritsu Takamori published in 2008. It is based on Tannishou, which was written in the Kamakura period, happening between 1185 and 1333, and follows Yuinen as he contemplates why bad people are spared more often than good people. He studies under the Buddhist monk Shinran and records his teachings. Since then people from around the world have followed Tannishou, Takamori included. He details Tannishou in Tannishou wo Hiraku, which is separated into three parts; The first includes original text and translation, the second is explanation, and the third is original text only.

Monchan

もんちゃん 「Monchan」

Running Time: 30 mins.

Release Date: February 24th, 2018

Director: Jinhong Kim

Writer: Jinhong Kim (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuuki Ito, Tsuyoshi Ito, Yuuki Sato, Mami Hashimoto,

Website

Synopsis: A young boy is picked up by his father’s lover when he falls ill in school. When he slips out of the house, he encounters strange girls.

Seiyuu yururi tabi ~ Furukawa Makoto no ki nasse! Kumamoto   

声優ゆるり旅　古川慎の来なっせ！熊本　 「Seiyuu yururi tabi ~ Furukawa Makoto no ki nasse! Kumamoto 」

Running Time: 61 mins.

Release Date: May 24th, 2019

Director: Kojiro Hashimoto

Writer: Kenya Hirata (Screenplay),

Starring: Makoto Furukawa, Daiki Kobayashi,

Website

Synopsis: Makoto Furukawa invites voice actor Daiki Kobayashi from Osaka to take a trip around Kumamoto, his hometown. The two voice actors see famous places such as Kumamoto Castle and Mt. Aso as well as eat local cuisine and visit hot springs. A DVD version of this journey is released in a month’s time.

Portrait of Brothers   

兄消える　 「Ani Kieru 」

Running Time: 104 mins.

Release Date: May 25th, 2019

Director: Nobuhiro Nishikawa

Writer: Akito Inui (Screenplay),

Starring: Shinichi Yanagisawa, Choei Takahashi, Takako Tsuchiya, Toru Emori,

Website

Synopsis: Tetsuo (Choei Takahashi) is a  76-year-old man and single who has just buried his father. Then, one day, his  older brother Kinnosuke (Shinichi Yanagisawa) returns home out of the blue and with a younger woman Juri (Takako Tsuchiya) and they live together…

Sakubee-san to Nihon o horu   

作兵衛さんと日本を掘る　 「Sakubee-san to Nihon o horu」

Running Time: 111 mins.

Release Date: May 25th, 2019

Director: Hiroko Kumagai

Writer: Akito Inui (Screenplay),

Starring: Fumi Inoue, Tadatoshi Inoue, Emi Ogata, Kazue Morisaki,

Website

Synopsis: Fukuoka has a strong coal-mining tradition and Sakubei Yamamoto comes from a mining family who worked in the pits at the height of the industry. He later turned to art after a career underground and his art depicted the lives of workers even after Japan weaned itself off coal and onto other energy source.  You can see more about him, the subject of this documentary, in this UNESCO webpage.

Hitori no Dansu   

1人のダンス　 「Hitori no Dansu」

Running Time: 58 mins.

Release Date: May 25th, 2019

Director: Ryo Anraku

Writer: Ryo Katayama (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryo Anraku, RYUICHI, Shunsuke Idekura, Mutsumi Sato, Mizuho Osu, Ryo Katayama, Masashi Omiya,

Website

Synopsis: The story depicts the clash between friends, both creatives, but one of whom is an MV director who has lost sight of what he wants to do in life and his own creativity. 

Shinjuku Tiger 

新宿タイガー　 「Shinjuku Taiga-」

Running Time: 83 mins.

Release Date: March 22nd, 2019

Director: Yoshinori Sato

Writer: N/A

Starring: Shinobu Terajima, Norito Yashima, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Midori Suiren, Noboru Iguchi, Shinji Kubo

Website IMDB

http://www.oaff.jp/2019/en/program/if06.html

Receiving its world premiere at the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) 2019, Shinjuku Tiger (2019) is a return to the world of documentary filmmaking for director Yoshinori Sato. Although he has a background in television documentaries, he will probably be best known for his 2016 sophomore feature about capital punishment and guilt, Her Mother, an intense film where the mother of a murder victim seeks to prevent the execution of the murderer. It won plaudits for the acting at different festivals including Busan 2016 and OAFF 2017. After a fairly bleak and heavy drama about coming to terms with murder, Sato steps back into documentaries with a film about a flamboyant guy who is all about spreading love and happiness.

Tokyo has many colourful characters who have become internet sensations but the Shinjuku Tiger (a.k.a. Tiger Mask) is one that many international audiences may not have heard of. Tokyoites are more familiar with the chap because he has been a feature of Shinjuku since he found his tiger mask at Kabukicho’s Inari Kiou Shrine in 1972 and decided to wear it every day to bring some joy to the world.

His ethos is “love and peace” and his method in spreading these feelings is to dress in bright colours and wear accessories like a pink-feather headdress, fake flowers, stuffed animals and his distinctive yellow tiger mask. He does so whenever in public, whether while doing his newspaper delivery job or while partying it up with pretty women in one of the many bars of Shinjuku’s Golden Gai district. This man is also a film fan who often goes to the cinema even while dressed as a Tiger. He has spent decades doing this and has built a network of friends and acquaintances, especially amongst the bar owners and film creatives who hang out at the same spots he does. His efforts have caught the attention of onlookers and advertising execs alike and he has become a fondly thought-of person.

Audiences will be wondering just who he is and why he does these things and while the film offers a peek behind the man’s mask to give some answers, it resists being anything like an expose as Sato chooses to celebrate the Tiger as a character and what he means to the area and the city.

Shot over the course of a year and sculpted into form from 200 hours of footage, the film displays Shinjuku Tiger’s four core passions: films, beautiful women, sake and romance. These passions become themes that allow the film to have structure as it becomes segmented through showing the Tiger pursuing these things as Sato and crew track him and the people he encounters with handheld cameras during his delivery job as well as when he goes to the cinema, performs epic bar crawls that last well into the morning with plenty of karaoke and drinking, and talks romantically to beautiful women. Why he performs as this character remains something of an enigma and could be troubling to some audience members who take exception to the way he behaves but it is clear that the people who Shinjuku Tiger interacts with are on easy terms with the man and the people who pass him by during their everyday routines take delight in his presence, although some do look at him suspiciously.

Audiences may initially be suspicious too but should enjoy listening to him as he talks love, life and films and by focussing on that, the filmmakers fulfil their intention not to reveal the truth behind the persona. It is clear that he has established relationships with everyone and everything on screen as seen in numerous interviews with celebrities and bar owners and the fact that Tiger leads the filmmakers into a variety of bars, cinemas, theatres and other entertainment places in Shinjuku and Asakusa. This gives an interesting insight into the nightlife of Tokyo and the entertainment world, although one gets the sense that with 200 hours of footage, what isn’t shown may have been equally fascinating! The film also uses his character to approach the history of Shinjuku from a unique angle.

Shinjuku Tiger’s reminiscences of Tokyo’s social history gives the film something of an air of historical document and Sato laces in culturally and politically important moments. Tiger, alongside other interviewees, express enough thoughts on them to give a fuller sense of the changes and, far from being convoluted, the film remains interesting and sleek thanks to having Tiger as the lead character. Indeed, delving into different decades gives the film its unique music score, cool jazz by Osaka-based musicians Riku Horimoto and Misaki Umase which allows the film to slide along smoothly and matches Tiger’s character, something helped, no doubt, by Shinobu Terajima’s delightful tone as she narrates things.

Overall, Sato and his team perfectly put together an easy-to-follow documentary through excellently captured moments shot on location as well as with interviews with a variety of people from filmmakers to JR Shinjuku Station workers whose opinions help to explain the appeal of the man so even if we don’t understand every aspect of his character, we can still enjoy his full persona. The abiding image of the film will be of a man who clearly enjoys life and the sight of his happy face in a cinema as he watched Roman Holiday is truly moving.

The Yoshinori Sato’s desire to celebrate Tiger as a persona captures him at his most energetic whilst also ensuring he remains enigmatic because to life the mask too much would spoil the magic.

I interviewed a number of people at the Osaka Asian Film Festival and these interviews are being published over at V-Cinema. This interview was the first to go online on March 28th.

Yoshinori Sato was born in Aichi, Japan on February 1975. After graduating from high school, he travelled to the US to study filmmaking at the University of Southern California. Since graduating, he has worked as a director in Japanese television while also making independent films. His film credits include Bad Child (2013) and Her Mother, which played at international film festivals including the 21^st Busan International Film Festival and the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2017.

Sato returned to Osaka to give the world premiere of his documentary, Shinjuku Tiger, a fascinating look at a flamboyantly dressed and inspiring man who wears a tiger mask and, since the 70s, has practically lived in the bars and cinemas of Shinjuku as he pursues good films, beautiful woman, and delicious sake. It is all part of a fiction he has created to “spread love and peace” and the film shows the character in action as he works his normal job in newspaper delivery and goes on epic bar crawls that rope in celebrities and friends. This films borders on hagiography but gains depth as Sato uses the life of the man to examine the changes and events that Shinjuku has seen through the decades so we get some sense of the culture of one of Tokyo’s most famous wards.

Sato kindly gave an interview after the Q&A that followed the second screening of Shinjuku Tiger at the festival. The interview was conducted in English but we were joined by interpreter Keiko Matsushita who offered some interesting questions and insights.

Jason Maher: Thank you for making the film and thank you for agreeing to do this interview. When I watched Shinjuku Tiger, I was immediately dazzled by the man’s energy, his lust for life. I had never heard of him before. How did you discover him?

Yoshinori Sato: My producer found him. My producer goes to the cinema in Shinjuku a lot and every time he went there, he saw Shinjuku Tiger and he became interested in finding out what kind of guy he is. Actually, my producer is the one who distributed Her Mother and he told me, it would be great to make a documentary about him.

You’ve directed dramas in the past, is this your first documentary film?

Yes.

Did you have any concerns about making a documentary?

Actually, I directed some documentaries for TV before, so I kind of know how to make documentaries but this time I shot over almost a year. That’s a long period. For TV, I only worked over a short period so I had a lot of time to think about it while shooting. So I observed him. When it comes to fiction, I make it in my head but in documentary I observed him and I tried to find out what he’s thinking.

You shot over the course of a year, how long was an average day with the Shinjuku Tiger?

Five or six hours a day.

How many days a week?

Actually, the Shinjuku Tiger remembers how many days I spent shooting the film and he told me it was 36 times. (LAUGHTER) He remembered. I don’t remember.

Presumably you have hundreds of hours of footage.

I have 200.

Was it difficult to find a unifying theme for the film?

He is very talkative so it was hard to find a theme so I watched the footage many times and I tried to write down a plot, connections. I got four main themes and then I connected the conversations to those four main themes.

Movies, sake, and beautiful women. Did you ever go to his home?

He didn’t want me to enter his room.

So Shinjuku Tiger is a performance and he just wants people to see the performance?

Actually, at first, I wanted to know what kind of person he is like as a human but when I was editing, I began to think I didn’t want to know him as a human, I wanted to protect his vision, what he’s doing. He’s living in fiction. I wanted to protect his fictional world.

What do you think he symbolizes?

He said love and peace, right? To be honest, I don’t know how serious he is about that. It’s like art, right? It depends upon how people feel about him but one thing I am sure about is he is, I don’t know if this is the right word, but he is against common sense.

His appearance is almost absurd. His costume and bright pink hair and the dolls are very eye-catching and to live like that is very brave because he stands out.

He has a peaceful and cheerful way to express himself. For example, if he thinks he is a tiger and wants to express it, he doesn’t do so directly, he wants to make people think.

Through the positive energy he gives out?

Yeah, that’s right. He doesn’t want to be negative. He’s always positive.

Which is pretty hard to maintain when you’re tired or frustrated, so he must have a lot of energy.

He’s 71 years old and very energetic.

Was it very exhausting keeping up with him when he was going to bars all night long?

I was so exhausted. One time he started drinking from 6pm to 4pm (laughter). At 3am, he was singing karaoke. 30 songs.

Was it difficult to keep your positivity up in those situations? (laughter)

Yes, it was very hard.

He must be really inspirational, as well. Did you ever encounter anybody with a negative opinion about him?

When he started wearing his costume, he said people were against him and there was a guy who smashed a beer bottle over his head but he never fought back.

One scene that stood out was the actor Shibukawa Kiyohiko’s random appearance. It seemed like he was surprised. How did that encounter happen?

It was by accident. When Shinjuku Tiger was collecting money for the newspapers, I was following him and then Shibukawa was riding along on a bicycle and the Tiger said, “Hey!” It was very surprising.

Such a funny scene but the Shinjuku Tiger has the energy to make it a fun scene. Why did you get Terajima Shinobu to narrate?

My producer worked with her before and he asked her to add narration. Shinjuku Tiger is weird for people who don’t know about him so I think the producer wanted someone with a voice we can trust to do the narration.

She has a good voice that fits the film. The music also fits the film. Could you explain a little more about the selection?

I wanted to use jazz for the music because this movie is also about the 60s and 70s in Shinjuku and a lot of people at that time listened to jazz. Do you know Charles Mingus? His jazz music has a very dubious atmosphere and the Shinjuku Tiger is kind of a dubious guy at first. Charles Mingus makes jazz music that feels a little dubious.

Who did you get to compose the music?

They are students, a guy and a girl, [Riku Horimoto and Misaki Umase]. They are like 22, 23. I met them when I screened Her Mother here in Osaka and so I asked them for music and they gave me a demo. I liked their music and I asked if I could use it.

It’s a very interesting way of looking at the history of Tokyo. Did you find having Shinjuku Tiger made it easy to examine the changes over the decades?

He has lived in Shinjuku for almost 50 years so I thought I could describe the history of Shinjuku as well as his story.

He acts as a focal point in the film for you to look at figures like Wakamatsu Koji and the student protests.

He said that he didn’t join the student protests. I think he was affected by the student movement but he didn’t join. I think his way of living is like the yakuza way. Like a Ken Takakura movie. Ken Takakura played a yakuza who protected people but he has his own way of behaving. I think Tiger lives in that way.

Shinjuku Tiger is like a movie character.

He’s very influenced by movie characters. There are many movies that describe the ideal person and when we see a movie, it’s great if we can live like that but we never try because it’s too hard and we think, “ah, that’s fiction so he can live that way”. In the real world, it is hard to live that way but he lives like that. Very pure.

He’s admirable. Could you ever imagine someone of our generation or a younger generation becoming the next Shinjuku Tiger or is he totally unique?

I hope someone tries to be like Tiger but I think he’s the only one who can do that. We can learn from how he lives, his beliefs. I am influenced by him. I don’t put on a tiger mask but I want to live like him. I hope that when people see this movie, there are some who want to live like him. I think he’s a rare person and I like him a lot.

Irreplaceable.

Yes.

Thank you very much for the interview. Hopefully people will be inspired by Shinjuku Tiger.

Shinjuku Tiger was shown on March 10 and 14 at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all well!

I have just completed a 12-day work week and have two days off so I’m going to spend this weekend watching films. I went out with work colleagues/friends to a Chinese restaurant and a bar, the first time I’ve done that in months, and it felt good. I’ll be going out more now that proofing work has died down and film work has gone back to various things I have watched although I still have reviews and interviews from the Osaka Asian Film Festival to go. No films watched this week, just a review for Shinjuku Tiger and an interview with its director, Yoshinori Sato.

Here’s what’s released this weekend.

Orphan’s Blues     

オーファンズ・ブルース　 「O-fanzu Buru-su」

Duration: 89 mins.

Release Date:May 31st, 2019

Director: Riho Kudo

Writer: Riho Kudo (Screenplay),

Starring: Yukino Murakami, Takura Kamikawa, Nagiko Tsuji, Sion Sasaki,Tamaki Kubose, Yu Yoshii,

Website

This one has played at the Nara International Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival and has received a strong review over at the Hollywood Reporter after taking the Grand Prize at the Pia Film Festival 2018.

Synopsis: A young woman named Emma lives by herself and works as a bookseller. Recently she has become forgetful. As her memory loss progresses she takes notes to record every little thing and she also becomes desperate. One day, she gets a painting from her childhood friend Jang, who has been long missing. They grew up together in an orphanage and he was her best friend and possibly more… Emma decides to search for him and encounters various people connected to him all while her memory continues to fade away…

Jesus

僕はイエス様が嫌い 「Boku ha Iesu sama ga kirai」

Duration: 76 mins.

Release Date: May 31st, 2019

Director:  Hiroshi Okuyama

Writer: Hiroshi Okuyama (Screenplay),

Starring: Yura Sato, Kenichi Akiyama, Mari Hatsumi, Yuko Kibiki, Masayasu Kitayama, Chad Mullane, Kouichi Nihei, Hinako Saeki,

Website IMDB

Synopsis from the Japan Film Festival Ireland site: When nine-year-old Yura moves from the city to a small town, he immediately feels lonely and isolated in his new environment. All that changes during a school prayer session. Yura opens his eyes, and spots a small, silent Jesus Christ dancing on the altar. The miniature Jesus, who nobody else can see, quickly becomes a regular presence in the young boy’s life. He also starts answering Yura’s prayers – including one for a new friend. However, the miraculous changes in Yura’s fortunes don’t last forever. After events take an unexpected turn for the worse, he finds himself questioning how effective his prayers really are.

Parallel World Love Story   

パラレルワールド・ラブストーリー　 「Parareru Warudo Rabusutori」

Duration: 108 mins.

Release Date: May 31st, 2019

Duration: Yoshitaka Mori

Writer: Lion Hitoshizuku (Screenplay), Keigo Higashino (Novel)

Starring: Yuta Tamamori, Riho Yoshioka, Shota Sometani, Michitaka Tsutsui, Rie Mimura, Hiroya Shimizu, Ron Mizuma, Nicole Ishida, Tomorowo Taguchi,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Takashi (Yuta Tamamori) and Tomohiko (Shota Sometani) have been close friends since university and both work together at a company which does brain research. One day, Tomohiko introduces his girlfriend Mayuko (Riho Yoshioka) to Takashi who is astonished because, when he was in university, he would see her riding a train everyday and became attracted to her. Things take a twist because, one day, Takashi wakes up and he is greeted by his girlfriend Mayuko. It’s like he has slipped into another reality, one where he and Mayuko live as a couple. It seems too perfect to be true and Takashi begins to have doubts and when Tomohiko disappears, he soon can’t discern if his memory is real or imaginary.

Farewell Song   

さよならくちびる　 「Sayonara Kuchibiru」

Duration: 116 mins.

Duration: May 31st, 2019

Director: Akihiko Shiota

Writer: Akihiko Shiota (Screenplay),

Starring: Nana Komatsu, Mugi Kadowaki, Ryo Narita, Skinobu Shinoyama, Marika Matsumoto, Takaya Aoyagi, Makita Sports, Yukiko Shinohara,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Haru-Reo are an indie band made up of Haru (Mugi Kadowaki) and Reo (Nana Komatsu) and their roadie Shima (Ryo Narita). Just as they hit the height of their popularity they decide to break up and go on one last tour. During this period, the feelings that Haru has for Reo come out…

A Long Goodbye   

長いお別れ　 「Nagai Owakare」

Duration: 127 mins.

Release Date: May 31st, 2019

Director: Ryota Nakano

Writer: Ryota Nakano, Toshiya Ono (Screenplay), Kyoko Nakajima (Novel)

Starring: Yu Aoi, Yuko Takeuchi, Chieko Matsubara, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Yuito Kamata, Rairu Sugita, Tomoya Nakamura, Yukiya Kitamura, Akiko Kurano, Kurukmi Shimizu,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Shohei (Tsutomu Yamazaki) is a retired middle school principal who has just hit 70 and found out that he has Alzheimer’s disease. He tells his wife Yoko (Chieko Matsubara), eldest daughter Mari (Yuko Takeuchi), a housewife, and youngest daughter Fumi (Yu Aoi), a singleton seeking a path in life. The three women can only think of themselves and their own lives and are embarrassed for Shohei who is losing his memory but he still remembers what they have forgotten, precious family memories which are brought out as his memory fades and he regresses back to an earlier time.

Black Maiden: Chapter Q   

黒い乙女Q　 「Kuroi Otome Q」

Duration: 116 mins.

Release Date: May 31st, 2019

Director: Sakichi Sato

Writer: Sakichi Sato (Screenplay), Kyoko Nakajima (Novel)

Starring: Nana Asakawa, Kana Kita, Soko Wada, Yoko Mitsuya, Ryota Matsushima, Harumi Syuhama, Toshifumi Muramatsu, Natsu Ando, Ririne Sasano,

Website

Synopsis: The wealthy and kind Uda family has adopted an orphan girl named Mei (Nana Asakawa). She lives with them and gains a new sister in the shape of their other adopted daughter Rana (Kana Kita). When the Uda family’s business collapses, love becomes hate since they can only keep one of the daughters. Cue violence…

Lupin the IIIrd: Mine Fujiko no Uso   

LUPIN THE IIIRD 峰不二子の嘘　 「Lupin the IIIrd: Mine Fujiko no Uso」

Duration: 56 mins.

Release Date: May 31st, 2019

Director: Takeshi Koike

Writer: Yuuya Takahashi (Screenplay), Monkey Punch (Original Creator),

Starring: Miyuki Sawashiro (Fujiko Mine), Kanichi Kurita (Lupin III), Kiyoshi Kobayashi (Daisuke Jigen), Mamoru Miyano (Binkam), Tomoe Hanba (gene),

Animation Production: Telecom Animation Film

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: This is the latest in the “Lupin III” spin-off movies which focusses on the side characters. This one has Fujiko Mine calling the shots who gets involved in a heist that reveals a twisted family history…

Life on the Longboard 2nd Wave   

ライフ・オン・ザ・ ロングボード 2nd Wave　 「Raifu on za rongu bo-do 2nd Wave」

Duration: 112 mins.

Release Date: May 31st, 2019

Director: Ichiro Kita

Writer: Ichiro Kita, Hiroko Kanasugi (Screenplay),

Starring: Hisashi Yoshizawa, Fumika Baba, Karina, Ken Tateishi, Hisako Ookata, Shigeru Izumiya, Nayu Matsubara,

Website

Synopsis: Kotaro Umehara is a middle-aged man who has quit his job and followed his passion for surfing off the coast of Tanegashima. He followed an old surfer like a disciple but when the old man dies, Kotaro and the old man’s daughter Mika come into conflict…

Zubu nurete inukoro   

ずぶぬれて犬ころ　 「Zubu nurete inukoro」

Duration: 100 mins.

Release Date: June 01st, 2019

Director: Takayoshi Honda

Writer: Fumiko Yamaguchi (Screenplay), Kenichi Yokota (Original Work)

Starring: Kenta Kiguchi, Souta Moriyasu, Takashi Nishina, Keiko Yagi, Kaho Harada,

Website

Synopsis: Souta Moriyasu plays a junior high school student who faces extreme bullying but thanks to haiku and the inspiration of a priest of True Pure Land Buddhism, he changes his life.

Ninomiya Kinjirou   

二宮金次郎　 「Ninomiya Kinjirou」

Duration: 113 mins.

Release Date: June 01st, 2019

Director: Sho Igarashi

Writer: Michio Kashiwada (Screenplay), Michio Mitooka (Original Work)

Starring: Masashi Koda, Misato Tanaka, Atsushi Narita, Kyo Hasegawa, Makiya Yamaguchi,

Website

Synopsis: A biographical drama depicting a lesser-known half-life of Kinjiro Ninomiya, a legend in Japanese history who arose from a peasant family and profoundly changed the way of life of so many people, placing farming and community at the centre of his work as he rose through the ranks of society. One of the episodes depicted in this film is him fighting against conservative reactionaries and moneyed interests, he played a big role in staving off a famine that would have been borne by normal people.

“If I had to name one country with a true culture of animation, it would definitely be Japan.”

This quote was made by French director Georges Lacroix in 1999, the year when the Annecy Festival celebrated Japanese animation for the very first time. Since then, the fest has been packed with Japanese animation, many of which have often taken awards, and now, twenty years later, Annecy celebrates Japan again by packing in classics and new titles and giving space for much of the talent working today to shine.

The Annecy International Animation Film Festival is back from June 10th to the 15th and it’s packed with anime feature films, TV anime, and conferences because the organisers have chosen this year to celebrate 100 years of Japanese animated films (1917 – 2017). This celebration spans classic shorts never before seen outside of Japan to forthcoming works that are being pitched to producers and distributors around the world. Netflix has a presence here thanks to their positive contribution to anime and the student graduation works look equally enticing. With WWII propaganda films, adaptations of classic western novels, animated documentaries, 80s sci-fi, and more going to be screened, festival-goers are in for an exceptional and exciting collection of films that shows what Japan can do.

As per usual, titles contain links to the festival and sources used for information range from the festival site itself to My Anime List (MAL) and Anime News Network (ANN). Let’s start with…

Feature Films in Competition

Ride Your Wave   

きみと、波にのれたら　 「Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara」

Duration: 94 mins.

Release Date: June 21st, 2019

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay/Original Creator),

Starring: Rina Kawaei (Hinako Mukaimizu), Ryota Katayose (Minato Hinageshi), Honoka Matsumoto (Yoko Hinageshi), Kentaro Ito (Wasabi Kawamura)

Animation Production: Science SARU

Music: Michiru Oshima

Website   ANN   MAL      

Synopsis: Hinako moves to a coastal town to attend university. While there she can indulge her passion for surfing, something which washes away her uncertainty about her future. When a fire wreaks havoc in the town, Hinako encounters the young firefighter Minato. As they surf and spend more time together, Hinako feels drawn to someone like Minato who devotes himself to helping other people. Hinako also holds a special place in Minato’s heart, and when he suddenly drowns while out surfing alone, he comes back to her as a ghost trapped in water. As everyone else gets over Minato’s death and tries to move on, Hinako comes to depend on his spirit.

Birthday Wonderland     

バースデー・ワンダーランド 「Ba-sude- Wanda-rando」

Duration: 115 mins.

Release Date: April 26th, 2019

Director: Keiichi Hara

Writer: Miho Maruo (Screenplay), Sachiko Kashiwaba (Original Creator)

Starring: Mayu Matsuoka (Akane), Akiko Yajima (Doropo), Anzu (Chi), Keiji Fujiwara (Xan Gu), Kumiko Aso (Midori),

Website MAL ANN

This is a movie adaptation of the 1981 children’s book “Chikashitsu kara no Fushigi na Tabi”. Director Keiichi Hara (Miss Hokusai) and character designer Ilya Kuvshinov will be present for a signing session.

Synopsis: Akane Uesugi is a shy 6th grader who has trouble telling other people how she feels. The day before her birthday, her mother, Midori, sends her on an errand: to go get her birthday present from her free-spirited Aunt Chi’s antique shop. But a strange man named Hippocrates the Alchemist, who calls her the “Green Goddess”, together with Pipo the fairy, takes her on a journey to “The World Beyond” from a door in the basement where she embarks upon an adventure to save a land in crisis.

Relative Worlds 

あした世界が終わるとしても 「Ashita Sekai ga Owaru Toshitemo」

Release Date: January 25th, 2019

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Yuhei Sakuragi

Writer: Yuhei Sakuragi (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuuki Kaji (Shin Hazama), Maaya Uchida (Kotori Izumi), Yoshiki Nakajima (Other Shin), Sayaka Senbongi (Kotoko Izumi), Aoi Yuki (Miko), Nana Mizuki (Yuri), Inori Minase (Riko)

Animation Production: Craftar

ANN MAL Website

Synopsis: Shin and Kotori have been friends since childhood but ever since Shin lost his mother he has developed a tendency to close himself off from others. These two high-schoolers find themselves confronted with other versions of themselves when two teens from another Japan appear in front of them.

Feature Films Contrechamp in Competition

This is a sort of “Out of Competition” section to acknowledge various different voices in animation.

Children of the Sea   

海獣の子供　 「Kaijuu no Kodomo」

Duration: 111 mins.

Release Date: May 19th, 2019

Director: Ayumu Watanabe

Writer: Daisuke Igarashi (Screenplay/Original Creator),

Starring: Mana Ashida (Ruka Azumi), Hiiro Ishibashi (Umi), Seishuu Uragami (Sora), Goro Inagaki (Masaaki Azumi), Yuu Aoi (Kanako Azumi), Win Morisaki (Anglade),

Music: Joe Hisaishi

Animation Production: Studio 4°C

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Ruka is a young girl whose parents are separated and whose father works in an aquarium. When two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs, are brought to the aquarium, Ruka feels drawn to them and begins to realize that she has the same sort of supernatural connection to the ocean that they do. Umi and Sora’s special power seems to be connected to strange events that have been occurring more and more frequently, such as the appearance of sea creatures far from their home territory and the disappearance of aquarium animals around the world. However, the exact nature of the boys’ power and of the abnormal events is unknown, and Ruka gets drawn into investigating the mystery that surrounds her new friends.

TV Films in Competition

Dino Girl Gauko “Dad’s Secret” – Akira Shigino Naoko Watanabe is a typical 14 year old, except that she possesses a strange gift and curse. When her anger exceeds a maximum level she turns into Gauko, the fire breathing dinosaur girl!

Commissioned Films in Competition

Powder “New Tribe” by AC-bu This is supposedly based on the true life story of Powder, a Tokyo-based dance music producer and DJ, who is leading a double life: as a corporate employee during the day, and working as a musician at night.

There are a number of competition sections featuring Japanese short films such as Off-Limits where Leaking Life by Shunsaku Hayashi and the main competition section where Mirai Mizue’s Dawn of Ape, the world’s first animation made to be watched by chimpanzees, is amongst other titles.

Graduation short Films in Competition has Japan-based animator Jari Vaara (TAMA ART UNIVERSITY) has a tale of a Hunter’s day going wrong in Hunter and then there’s romance dying in Somewhere Soft by Satoe Yoshinari (GEIDAI) which is her interpretation of heartbreak. Also from GEIDAI is Takahiro Shibata’s Keep Forgetting is all about learning to accept not being accepted by others and then there is The Act of Breathing by Hana Yamazaki who is based in Hungary an a graduate of VOLDA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.

The most interesting-looking title in this section is Bath House of Whales from Kiyama Mizuki (GEIDAI), an animator who uses paint on glass and has worked on the end credit animation for Mob Psycho 100. She uses her background to depict the differences in behaviour between Japanese and Koreans in bath houses.

Screening Events

Ponoc Short Films Theater: Volume 1 – Modest Heroes   

劇場版 七つの大罪 天空の囚われ人 「Chiisa na Eiyū – Kani to Tamago to Tōmei Ningen」

Release Date: August 24th, 2018

Duration: 54 mins.

Director/Writer: Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Kanini & Kanino), Akihiko Yamashita (Invisible), Yoshiyuki Momose (Samurai Egg)

Starring: Fumino Kimura (Kanini), Rio Suzuki (Kanino), Joe Odagiri (Invisible Man), Machiko Ono (Mama). Min Tanaka (Blind Man), Sota Shinohara (Shun), Kentaro Sakaguchi (Doctor, The Father),

Animation Production: Studio Ponoc

MAL ANN Website

Synopsis: Modest Heroes consists of three short films lasting around 15 minutes each and they were made by three directors:

“Kanini & Kanino” is a fantasy adventure story about two crab siblings.

“Samurai Egg” is about the love between a mother and a boy.

“Invisible” is about the struggle of an invisible man.

Human Lost 

人間失格　 「Ningen Shikkaku」

Duration: 116 mins.

Release Date: July 19th, 2019

Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro

Writer: Tow Ubukata (Screenplay), Osamu Dazai (Original Creator), 

Starring: Mamoru Miyano (Yozo Oba), Haruka Chisuga (Tsuneko), Jun Fukuyama (Takeichi), Kana Hanazawa (Yoshiko Hiiragi), Miyuki Sawashiro (Madam),

Animation Production: Polygon Pictures

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Tokyo, 2036, and society is deeply divided between the rich and poor. It is only the rich who can access a revolutionary medical discovery involving the use of nanomachines to prolong human life to 120 years and remove the possibility of illness. A poor man by the name of Yozo has no hope of accessing this. However when he joins a friend’s biker gang he finds himself drawn into a conspiracy that unlocks new parts of him…

Special Programmes contains all sorts of sections such as one dedicated to food which is where the 2012 short Futon by Yoriko Mizushiri is located and more:

Annecy Classics is a strand that features shorts in a section called 100 Years of Japanese Animation and one feature and recently restored animated films such as Tadanari Okamoto’s Tabi wa Michizure Yo wa Nasake (1973), Taku Furukawa’s Carigraphity (1982), Renzo Kinoshita’s Pica-don (1978), and Phenakistoscope (1975).

Venus Wars   

ヴィーナス戦記　 「Bi-nasu Senki」

Duration: 100 mins.

Release Date: March 11th, 1989

Director: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

Writer: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Original Creator/Manga/Screenplay), Yuichi Sasamoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Katsuhida Uekusa (Hiro), Eriko Hara (Susan), Houchou Ohtsuka (Will), Yuuko Mizutani (Maggie), Yuko Sasaki (Miranda), Konami Yoshida (Cathy), Daisuke Gouri (Game Announcer), Goro Naya (Gary),

Animation Production: Triangle Staff

Music: Joe Hisaishi

ANN MAL

Synopsis: Following the collision of an ice asteroid, Venus was terraformed and colonists from Earth tamed the hostile world and have thrived for four generations but after peace for so long a war is about to break out amongst the settlers. The country of Ishtar launches an attack on Aphrodia and it draws in people such as Hiro Seno, a hotshot motorcycle jockey, and a journalist from Earth named Susan who wants to document everything.

The White Snake Enchantress 

白蛇伝 「Hakujaden 」

Release Date: October 22nd, 1958

Duration: 78 mins.

Director: Taiji Yabushita

Writer: Shin Uehara, Taiji Yabushita, Seiichi Yashiro (Screenplay)

Starring: Hisaya Morishige, Mariko Miyagi,

Animation Production: Toei

MAL Website IMDB

This is the first animated feature film in colour from Japan and it has been given a 4K scan and restoration job by Toei Animation Company and the National Archive of Japan to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Japanese animation and 60th anniversary of this film’s original theatrical release. Only two voice actors were cast for the film which would be one of the first three anime features released in North America.

Original negative, 35mm print, tape materials, and animation cels were used by Toei lab tech and Toei digital centre to produce restored data which is in 2K. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

Synopsis from ANN: As a young boy, Xu-Xian is forced to free his pet, a small snake. Unbeknownst to him, the snake is actually a young snake goddess named Bai-Niang and she is in love with him. Many years later, when they are both adults, the princess is magically transformed into a human and sets out to find her love. But the local wizard believes her to be a vampire, and banishes Xu-Xian from the village in order to save him. Xu-Xian’s pet pandas Panda and Mimi set out to save him and bring him, in the process becoming leaders of an animal gang.

The Little Norse Prince     

太陽の王子 ホルスの大冒険　 「Kaijuu no Kodomo」

Duration: 82 mins.

Release Date: July 21st, 1968

Director: Isao Takahata

Writer: Kazuo Fukazawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Hisako Okata (Hols/Horus), Etsuko Ichihara (Hilda), Mikijiro Hira (Grunwald), Asako Akazawa (Piria), Eijirou Touno (Ganko), Hisashi Yokomori (Hols’ Father. Toto the White Owl),

Animation Production: Toei Animation

ANN MAL

Synopsis from ANN: As a baby, Horus was saved by his father from their burning northern village, after the village was attacked by a powerful demon. Several years pass, and on his deathbed the father bids Horus to return to his people. Horus goes on a journey and quickly finds a village plagued by a monster. After slaying the monster, he one day finds, in another ruined village, a cute girl, singing in a heavenly voice. He brings the girl to his new home, but soon finds that there was a good reason for her being alone in the wasteland…

Midnight Specials

Midnight Specials are strands festivals dedicate to the extreme and bizzaro films and Annecy has assembled some features and shorts including Shota Shimizu’s Good Luck Yonpey (which you can watch on the Shimizu’s Vimeo channel) and Sawako (queen of weird animation) Kabuki’s Gokiburi Taisou  or Cockroach Callisthenics in English. Here’s a truly unnerving trailer where you can get mesmerised by the dancing cockroaches (shudder):

No Sawako Kabuki, no animation festivals, I once said. It’s good to see her back. She features again in the Annecy programme.

Here are the features in the Midnight Specials strand:

Promare   

プロメア 「Puromea」

Release Date: May 24th, 2019

Duration: 111 mins.

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi

Writer: Kazuki Nakashima (Screenplay/Original Work),

Starring: Ayane Sakura (Aina Ardebit), Kenichi Matsuyama (Galo Thymos), Taichi Saotome (Lio Fotia), Ami Koshimizu (Ellis Ardebit), Arata Furuta (Deus Prometh), Mayumi Shintani (Lucia Fex),

Animation Production: Trigger

ANN MAL Website

Synopsis from Annecy: After burning half of the planet to the ground, Mad Burnish, a terrorist group of ruthless pyromaniacs, has decided not to stop there. To counter their attacks, an elite brigade of firefighters is created and equipped with latest generation of mechas. This is the “made in Japan” scientific decor that Studio Trigger designed for their latest creation. With Hiroyuki Imaishi at the helm, known for his work on speed, shapes, and colors, Promare stays true by providing explosive and fast-paced excitement. A blazing nighttime screening for sure.

Aragne: Sign of Vermillion      

アラーニェの虫籠 「Aragne no Mushikago」

Release Date: August 18th, 2018

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Saku Sakamoto

Writer: Saku Sakamoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Kana Hanazawa (Rin), Ayana Shiramoto (Nasuha), Yosuke Ito (Tokiyo), Fukujuurou Katayama (Saion), Shuogo Batari (Mikaya)

Animation Production: zelicofilm

Website   ANN Kickstarter

Saku Sakamoto has taken on direction, writing, composing the music, CG and more roles to get this film made. It’s an epic undertaking that looks different from the usual anime not least because of the animation style and designs, some of which are extremely creepy.

Synopsis: Rin (Kana Hanazawa) is an 18-year-old university student who is shy and anxious and a new arrival at her apartment complex. It’s a rundown and unfriendly place where crimes are occurring. There’s something darker stirring in the place, something supernatural and sinister and Rin begins to investigate instead of moving the heck out.

Tribute to Japanese Animation

“To celebrate its 100 years of existence, the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) has created ANIME NEXT 100. Centered around themes like heritage, training and the industry’s future, the project is totally dedicated to promoting the diverse possibilities that Japanese animation has to offer.”

This is a major strand that features some of the oldest animated films to come from Japan to some of the new talent emerging and everything in between. It’s a veritable hodgepodge.

Anne of Green Gables 

赤毛のアン グリーンゲーブルズへの道　 「Akage no Anne: Green Gables e no Michi」

Duration: 100 mins.

Release Date: 1989

Director: Isao Takahata

Writer: Akira Isomura, Shigeki Chiba, Seijirou Kouyama, Isao Takahata (Screenplay), Lucy Maud Montgomery (Original Novel)

Starring: Eiko Yamada (Anne Shirley), Fumie Kitahara (Marilla Cuthbert), Ryuuji Saikichi (Mathew Cuthbert), Michio Hazama (Narrator),

Animation Production: Nippon Animation

Website ANN MAL

A recap film of the first 6 episodes of the TV series. 

Synopsis from MAL: Anne is an orphan full of imagination. When she arrives at her new home she learns that sometimes you have to be a sensible person too; at the same time her unique character changes, or at least attracts, the people around her. The story covers Anne’s growth from about eleven to seventeen years old as she makes friends, goes to school and studies. At a difficult point in her life, Anne will have to make a hard choice and perhaps find a new dream.

There are plenty of shorts spanning from 1917 to the newest titles showing us the range of methods and voices throughout Japanese animation history.

Treasures from Early Japanese Animation (1917-1946) has 9 titles including Jun-ichi Kouchi’s charming chambara comedy The Dull Sword. Japan also has a history of puppet animation and that is brought to the screen in a tribute to Tadahito Mochinaga (1919-1999) and Tadanari Okamoto (1932-1990). There is a tribute to two animators who have been winning awards more recently:

A tribute to Atsushi Wada shows 10 different films dedicated to an artist who, to quote the website,

“creates more than just animated stories, he makes viewers feel movement, emotion, and jolts to their subconscious. Through minimalist works derived from Noh theater, and based on music and dance, the director unveils a poetic look at human relationships. He uses only what is essential, nothing superfluous, and nothing extra.”

There are two stand-out films amidst the 10, the first, In a Pig’s Eye, won the Excellence Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival. The second, The Great Rabbit, won the Silver Bear award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Tribute to Japanese Animation: Kôji Yamamura: “Mt. Head”, and afterwards? has 12 films on offer. He should be famous for his short film Mount Head which was winner of the ‘Best Animated Short Film’ Cristal at Annecy and nominated for ‘Best Animated Short Film’ Oscar in 2003. He has had many more projects since then although I only first encountered him at a post for the London International Animation Festival.

We get to the newer directors with Anime Tamago which was established to replace Anime Mirai which was established by the Japanese government as a training ground for young animators and a way of staving off outsourcing of work to overseas studios. They’d be better off tackling bad pay in the industry. A Board Overview of Contemporary Japanese Animation newbie directors and still-students and it’s an eclectic mix of styles and topics. New Motion – Directors has four people already in the industry and there are four shorts/TV anime episodes with Hiroko Utsumi presenting Banana Fish and Kiyotaka Oshiyama presenting an episode of Space Dandy amongst others. Honestly, SPACE DANDY IS THE BEST!

New Motion – Shorts Films

This section is dedicated to inventive, ambitious, and experimental shorts that push the boundaries of taste and imagination and are very unique. , we encourage you to explore the limits of this truly singular format. There are twelve films, including these two gems:

Rabbit’s Blood (UK/Japan 2017 Dir: Sarina Nihei 5 mins)  Website.

Tokyo-based Sarina Nihei is a graduate of London’s Royal College of Art and now works as a freelance animator and illustrator. She has won awards and her RCA graduate work, Small People with Hats was the first student film to win the Ottawa International Animation Festival’s top prize for short films. She is inspired by entertaining and surreal films and lists the work of David Lynch and David Cronenberg as favourites in this  interview. Check out her Vimeo channel.

This was made for Channel 4 in the UK.

Two rival groups battle for survival underground – sinister cloaked men and neutralist rabbits.

Waaah「えーん, 2018, Dir: Sawako Kabuki, 1 min.」Website

Everyone is born crying and as they grow up they continue to cry. And then what? There is no substitute for the ultimate pacifier.

Open-Air Screenings

Imagine seeing the following classics on the big screen in such a beautiful locations… Well, Jin-Roh may work better in a cinema, but imagine seeing that on the big screen!

Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro

ルパン三世　カリオストロの城 　「Rupan Sansei Kariosutoro no Shiro」

Release Date: December 15th, 1979

Duration: 96 mins

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Writer: Yasuo Otsuka (Screenplay), Haruya Yamazaki, Hayao Miyazaki (Script), Monkey Punch (Original Manga)

Starring: Yasuo Yamada (Arsene Lupin III), Makio Inoue (Goemon Ishikawa), Kiyoshi Kobayashi (Jigen Daisuke), Goro Naya (Inspector Zenigata), Eiko Masuyama (Fujiko Mine), Sumi Shimamoto (Lady Clarisse de Cagliostro)

Website

This is one of those Miyazaki films that was animated before the formation of Studio Ghibli but it features collaborators and techniques he would work with in the following years. This is a super-fun tale of cat burglars (descended from his French namesake) and princesses which you can take the family to see.

Synopsis: Lupin and best-pal/partner in crime Jigen, search for a counterfeiter who has rendered their latest casino heist a waste of time. They discover that the counterfeiter is in the secluded country of Cagliostro and that a wicked count is holding a beautiful and innocent princess in a tower…

Mary and the Witch’s Flower  

メアリと魔女の花 「Meari to Majo no Hana」

Running Time: 102

Release Date: July 08th, 2017

Director:  Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Writer: Riko Sakaguchi, Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Screenplay), Mary Stewart (Original Novel),

Starring: Hana Sugisaki (Mary), Ryunosuke Kamiki (Peter), Yuki Amami (Madam Mumblechook), Fumiyo Kohinata (Doctor Dee), Hikari Mitsushima (The Red-Haired Witch), Eri Watanabe (Miss Banks), Shinobu Otake (Great-Aunt Charlotte),

Animation Production: Studio Ponoc

Website ANN MAL IMDB

Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Arrietty, When Marnie Was There) and animated by the talented people at Studio Ponoc, many formerly from Studio Ghibli, this is a solid family fantasy.

Synopsis: When Mary is sent to live with her great aunt in the countryside she had no expectations about going on a magical adventure but when she ventures into the woods with her loyal cat Tib, she discovers a mysterious blue flower that only appears once every seven years, and an old broomstick which can fly. Soon Mary is soaring through the sky and deposited at the door of the Endor College of Magic which is run by the mysterious Madam Mumblechook. It seems like a nice place at first but she discovers dark experiments and Tib’s life is in danger!

Jin-Roh – The Wolf Brigade   

人狼　 「Jin Roh」

Duration: 101 mins.

Release Date: June 06th, 2000

Director: Hiroyuki Okiura

Writer: Mamoru Oshii (Screenplay/Original Creator),

Starring: Yoshikatsu Fujiki (Kazuki Fuse), Sumi Mutoh (Kei Amemiya), Hiroyuki Kinoshita (Atsushi Henmi), Yoshisada Sakaguchi (Hachiroh Tohbe), Eri Sendai (Nanami Agawa)

Animation Production: Production I.G

 ANN    MAL

Synopsis: After witnessing the suicide bombing of a terrorist girl, Constable Kazuki Fuse becomes haunted by her image, and is forced to undergo retraining for his position in the Capital Police’s Special Unit. However, unknown to him, he becomes a key player in a dispute between Capital and Local Police forces, as he finds himself increasingly involved with the sister of the very girl he saw die.

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem   

インターステラ5555　 「Inta-sutera 5555」

Duration: 67 mins.

Release Date: December 01st, 2003

Director: Leiji Matsumoto, Kazuhisa Takenouchi

Writer: N/A

Starring: The music of Daft Punk and the animated character designs of Leiji Matsumoto/Masaki Sato

Animation Production: Toei Animation

Music: Daft Punk

ANN MAL

Synopsis: Back in the early 2000s, the French electro duo Daft Punk were releasing music videos featuring four blue-skinned alien musicians to go with their album “Discovery”. These videos were from a film inspired by their childhood love for anime and was the result of their collaboration with Leiji Matsumoto. Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem is the result and has a story of an extraterrestrial adventure where the musicians have been kidnapped by an unscrupulous music executive who uses them as the Crescendolls, forcing them to take on human appearances and play a concert tour… Until a mysterious groupie tries everything in his powers to save them!

Works in Progress

This section has two anime, Eden which is a sci-fi show set in the far future where humans have vanished and robots have created the perfect utopian society. Things are going swimmingly until a human baby is discovered… Then there is Makoto Shinkai’s latest work:

Weathering With You   

天気の子　 「Tenki no ko」

Duration: 116 mins.

Release Date: July 19th, 2019

Director: Makoto Shinkai

Writer: Makoto Shinkai (Screenplay/Original Creator), Kyoko Nakajima (Novel)

Starring: Nana Mori (Hina Amano), Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka Morishima),

Animation Production: CoMix Wave Films

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: “This is a story about the world’s biggest secret. The secret that only she and I know.” The story centers around a boy and a girl choosing their own way to live through the twist and turns of fate in the world where the climate is losing its balance.

There is a Masterclass with veteran animator Yoichi Katabe as well as a talk about his work with Isao Takahata on the TV anime 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (Anime News Network link) Looking for Marco and a class about Correcting Sakuga by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, animation director on shows like Space Dandy and Dennoh Coil as well as films like A Letter to Momo.

There are numerous talks about Japanese animation such as the recent boom in shows, a key reason being Western studios who are investing in IP and, reflecting this, is a discussion about how Netflix has changed the anime landscape which will involve a range of talkers including Shinji Aramaki and Kenji Kamiyama in a studio focus slot. There’s also one dedicated to Spider-man: Into the Spider Verse from Sony Studio.

Looking to the future, there is a talk with Japan, the New Generation where four young Japanese filmmakers — Ryo Orikasa, Sarina Nihei, Keita Onishi and Kiyotaka Oshiyama — talk about their influences, production conditions making short films in Japan and their visions of the future.

MIFA has lots of industry talks and pitches and there’s a lot going on. One event has six celebrated Tokyo-based animation studios showcase their newest works at Mifa 2019 in Focus on Tokyo. The newest of the new, the stuff that will be seen on screens in the months to come, will be at the Feature Film and Market Screenings section and titles include Pandora & Akubi and sci-fi ninja actioner Black Fox.

All good festivals have something cultural to go along with the film screenings and there is the Japannecy event where kids can get involved with manga, origami and watch the stop-motion adventures of Tsuneo Goda and Hirokazu Minegishi’s wonderful Komaneko. There is also Japanohara, which is in the Exhibitions section.

Celebrating the land of the rising sun, the Annecy Festival 2019 edition is exhibiting the works of four Japanese artists at the haras. In collaboration with the Annecy association imagespassages, a local player who is actively involved in the moving images’ contemporary art field, the exhibition “Japonohara” presents four artists with four different universes of video works all offering unique experiences:

• Yuki Kawamura and her surrealist work Nova in My Hand, an immersion between the depths of the ocean and to the Milky Way

• Ikuru Kuwajima and his experimental exploration of Kazan in City of Transformers

• Akino Kondoh and her animated nostalgic childhood themes in KiyaKiya

• Momoko Seto and her organic film to experience in VR, Planet ∞

Past coverage:

Annecy International Animation Festival 2015

Annecy International Animation Festival 2016

Annecy International Animation Festival 2017

Anime wins awards at Annecy 2017

Annecy International Animation Festival 2018

The Edinburgh International Film Festival takes place between 19th and 30th June. There are around 121 new features from 42 countries across the globe. Japan makes up a tiny fraction, perhaps the smallest. It could be that I have missed titles in the line-up but I did scour the catalogue. The films do look good, though.

Here they are:

Samurai Marathon 1855   

サムライマラソン 「Samurai Marason」

Duration: 104 mins.

Release Date: February 22nd, 2019

Director:  Bernard Rose

Writer: Hiroshi Saito, Bernard Rose (Screenplay), Akihiro Dobashi (Manga)

Starring: Takeru Satoh, Shota Sometani, Mirai Moriyama, Nana Komatsu, Munetaka Aoki, Hiroki Hasegawa, Etsushi Toyokawa, Naoto Takenaka, Danny Huston, Junko Abe, Mugi Kadowaki, Mariko Tsutsui,

Website IMDB

Whoa! Bernard Rose, the guy who directed Candyman and Paperhouse has travelled to Japan to do this jidaigeki! It’s produced by Jeremy Thomas (Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) and has a score by American composer Philip Glass! There’s an awesome star-studded cast who should need no introduction, as well. Here’s some background on the film over at Variety. It’s also based on real history (link).

Synopsis: It is the 1850s and feudal Japan is thrown into chaos as Americans led by Commodore Perry (Danny Huston) have parked their battleships off the coast and demanded the country open up. Katsuaki Itakura (Hiroki Hasegawa) is a feudal lord who runs Annaka-han and to toughen up his warriors for potential attacks, he holds a marathon that runs along a mountain path for about 58 kilometres. Samurai of all stripes are expected to take part but so has the lord’s rebellious daughter, Princess Yuki (Nana Komatsu) who escapes the castle to take part in the dangerous marathon. What is a simple exercise is mistakenly viewed as an act of treason by the central Edo government. Jinnai Karasawa (Takeru Satoh) is a ninja who has infiltrated Annaka to masquerade as a samurai in the service of Katsuaki Itakura and spy but he realises the mistake by his government and tries to stop assassins already making their way to the lord’s castle.

Ponoc Short Films Theater: Volume 1 – Modest Heroes 

劇場版 七つの大罪 天空の囚われ人 「Chiisa na Eiyū – Kani to Tamago to Tōmei Ningen」

Release Date: August 24th, 2018

Duration: 54 mins.

Director/Writer: Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Kanini & Kanino), Akihiko Yamashita (Invisible), Yoshiyuki Momose (Samurai Egg)

Starring: Fumino Kimura (Kanini), Rio Suzuki (Kanino), Joe Odagiri (Invisible Man), Machiko Ono (Mama). Min Tanaka (Blind Man), Sota Shinohara (Shun), Kentaro Sakaguchi (Doctor, The Father),

Animation Production: Studio Ponoc

MAL ANN Website

Synopsis: Modest Heroes consists of three short films lasting around 15 minutes each and they were made by three directors:

“Kanini & Kanino” is a fantasy adventure story about two crab siblings.

“Samurai Egg” is about the love between a mother and a boy.

“Invisible” is about the struggle of an invisible man.

There are also two international co-productions involving Japan on offer in the short strand Image is Memory here.

Here’s coverage of past Edinburgh International Film Festivals:

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2014

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2017

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018

The Japan Foundation in London have set up their annual Summer Explorers films season with a fun build-up of titles that feature titles from masterful directors both old – Takeshi Kitano and Seijun Suzuki – and new – Masaaki Yuasa. There is even a fun indie film thrown in. It’s really diverse and totally free! All you need to do is book your place!

Here’s some hype and information from the Japan Foundation:

“From wacky time-travel to ancient Rome (Thermae Romae) and a musical extravaganza set in feudal Japan (Princess Raccoon), to a slapstick twist on the film noir genre of the 60’s (Murder Un-Incorporated) – our annual Pre-Summer Explorers season aims to make you shake and cry with laughter while presenting the multi-faceted and unique sense of humour in Japanese cinema!”

Dates: 26 June 2019 – 30 June 2019
Venues:
Screen 1, The Soho Hotel, 4 Richmond Mews, W1D 3DH London

and

Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BY London

See the Japan Foundation website for more information or click on the links below.

What are the films?

June 26th

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    

Duration: 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 the latest film from anime auteur Masaaki Yuasa and his studio Science Saru. One of two award-winning movies he released in 2017 (the other being Lu Over the Wall which took top prize at Annecy), 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. This is my second recommendation for the film festival. It was programmed at a fest I work for and I can say, without a doubt, that the audience has a riot of a time! Here’s my review!!!

Book tickets here

Synopsis: The narrative is simple: a girl with black hair (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 follows the Komagawa river and walks around the streets of Kyoto at night. From the alleyways and izakayas of Pontocho to the university campus, she makes detours along the way to many hidden events. She is pursued by a male admirer, Sempai (voiced by the musician Gen Hoshino who also played the hapless lover of Fumi Nikaido’s gangster girl in Why Don’t You Play in Hell?), 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.

June 29th

Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats      

福福荘の福ちゃん  「Fukufuku-sou no Fuku-chan」

Release Date: November 08^th,  2014

Running Time: 111 mins.

Director: Yosuke Fujita

Writer: Yosuke Fujita (Screenplay)

Starring: Yosiyosi Arakawa, Miyuki Oshima, Yuuki Tokunaga, Asami Mizukawa, Takeshi Yamamoto, Kanji Furutachi,

Website    IMDB

Fine, Totally Fine (2008) is one of my favourite films ever. It is so funny with characters I can relate to so when I was at the Raindance Film Festival a few years ago and I went to see Fuku-chan of FukuFuku Flats, which is by the same director Yosuke Fujita, I was super excited. The film did not disappoint and is a real contender for my film of the year thanks in no small part to a fantastic performance from Miyuki Oshima and some classic songs. Even better is the fact that I got to talk to Yosuke Fujita and tell him how much I loved Fine, Totally Fine. I just wish I asked better questions! Anyway, this is packed with comic stars like Yosiyosi Arakawa who was in Fine, Totally Fine as well as the very funny in the 2014 comedy Judge!. Here’s my review.

Book tickets here

Synopsis: Tatsuo is a nice guy and has the nickname ‘Fuku-Chan’. He lives and works in “FukuFuku Flats”, a run-down apartment complex where he paints kites as a hobby. Despite being such a nice fellow he finds it hard to socialise with people and, despite his friend Shimacchi trying to set him up with a girl, he refuses all attempts at romance. This is down to the fact he suffered a prank in junior high school and the reappearance of a girl named Chiho who was at the centre of the prank signals that he may change…

Princess Raccoon   

オペレッタ狸御殿　 「Operetta Tamekigoten」

Release Date: May 28th, 2005

Duration: 111 mins.

Director: Seijun Suzuki

Writer: Yoshio Urasawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Ziyi Zhang, Joe Odagiri, Hiroko Yakushimaru, Mikijiro Hira, Taro Yamamoto, Saori Yuki, Miwako Ichikawa, Hibari Misora,

IMDB

Seijun Suzuki’s charming and off-beat operetta stars Zhang Ziyi and Joe Odagiri (Mushishi) in a magical and fun romance

Book tickets here

Synopsis: Princess Tanuki (Zhang Ziyi) and her romance with Prince Amechiyo (Joe Odagiri). They meet deep in the Sacred Mountain, where he was abandoned by his father Lord Azuchi Momoyama (Mikijiro Hira) after the man learns that his son will soon be more handsome than he. The young couple are soon madly in love but various obstacles arise, not least the differences between humans and spirits. 

Thermae Romae

テルマエ・ロマエ　「Terumai Romai」

Release Date:  April 28th, 2012 (Japan)

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Hideki Takeuchi

Writer: Mari Yamazaki (manga), Shogo Muto

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Aya Ueto, Masachika Ichimura, Kai Shishido, Kazuki Kitamura

IMDB

The live-action adaptation of Mari Yamazaki’s fun manga of the same name has time travel, culture clash comedy and a great set of actors. It was partly filmed in Cinecitta in Rome but features Japanese actors playing Roman characters. This looks like a lot of fun and the anime adaptation wasn’t too bad.

Book tickets here

Synopsis: Roman bath house architect Lucius (Hiroshi Abe) is a perfectionist and traditionalist who gets fired from his architectural practice. In order to cheer him up, a friend takes him to a bathhouse but Lucius slips through a time portal and ends up in modern day Japan. Although initially bewildered Lucius takes inspiration from modern day Japanese baths and implements the designs in his Roman bathhouses. This sees him become favoured by Emperor Hadrian (Ichimura) but clash with emperor-in-waiting Antoninus (Kazuki Kitamura). Lucius soon finds himself caught up in political intrigue in between his time travel adventures but it is not all bad as he has met a beautiful aspiring manga artist named Mami (Ueto) who loves to sketch him.

Getting Any?   

みんな～やってるか！ 「Minna~ Yatteru ka」

Release Date: February 11th, 1995

Duration: 108 mins.

Director:  Takeshi Kitano

Writer: Takeshi Kitano (Screenplay),

Starring: Dankan, Moeko Ezawa, Takeshi Kitano, Susumu Terajima, Kanji Tsuda, Yurei Yanagi, Ren Osugi, Taka Guadalcanal, Hakuryu, Yojin Hino, Yoneko Matsukane,

IMDB Website

Takeshi Kitano is an auteur known for films like Fireworks, Kikujiro and Dolls, but many fans in Japan preferred to see him as Beat Takeshi, the comedian. In response to the insistence on seeing his funny side he came up with this series of bizarre, over the top and absurd slapstick sketches full of silliness and never ending gags that stem from one guy’s quest to get laid. Getting Any? embraces the spirit of Kitano’s early stand-up and television work and as such it offers a genuine inside look into his true personality while working as a satire of Japanese society and popular cinema. Here’s my review.

Book tickets here

Synopsis: The story follows the lazy middle-aged guy named Asao (Dankan), a professional daydreamer, whose one and only goal in life is to get laid. Asao embarks on a series of slapstick adventures in search of fulfilling his ultimate fantasy – having wild passionate sex with a woman. His quest for sex lands him in a series of absurd situations, involving armed robbery, chambara movie productions, yakuza wars and a scientific experiments with unexpected results…

June 30th

Murder Un-Incorporated   

大日本殺し屋伝　 「Dainippon koroshiya den」

Release Date: August 25th, 1655

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Noguchi

Writer: Kobako Hanato, Akira Saiga (Screenplay),

Starring: Jo Shishido, Kon Ohmura, Kiyoshi Hitomi, Taro Hiratsune, Juro Sacho, Toru Yuri, Yoko Yamamoto, Kanbi Fujiyama, Juro Sasa,

IMDB

Book tickets here

Synopsis from the Japan Foundation: When the mysterious ‘Joe of Spades’ (Jo Shishido) assassinates one of the bosses of a powerful crime syndicate, the rest of its leadership, fearing they’ll meet a similar fate, call on the services of an assassin agency. The ragtag cadre of hired guns begin hunting down the unknown executor and employ some of the most peculiar killing tactics with mixed results… A rare opportunity to see the most famous Japanese comedians of the time on one screen.

Happy weekend!

We made it to another one!

I’m starting the post with a great AMV. I used to make those, once upon a time.

We had big news at the start of the week with the marriage of Yu Aoi to the comedian Ryota Yamasato. It caught everyone off-guard because their dates went under the radar but they’ve known each other for a long time. Her smiles say a lot so let’s hope they continue to be happy.

In terms of this blog, I wrote about the Japanese films at this year’s Annecy International Animation Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival. I also wrote about the Japan Foundation’s Pre-Summer Explorer’s film event where a selection of great titles including The Night is Short, Walk on Girl, Getting Any? and Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats are going to be screened.

What is released this weekend?

Children of the Sea   

海獣の子供　 「Kaijuu no Kodomo」

Release Date: May 19th, 2019

Duration: 111 mins.

Director: Ayumu Watanabe

Writer: Daisuke Igarashi (Screenplay/Original Creator),

Starring: Mana Ashida (Ruka Azumi), Hiiro Ishibashi (Umi), Seishuu Uragami (Sora), Goro Inagaki (Masaaki Azumi), Yuu Aoi (Kanako Azumi), Win Morisaki (Anglade),

Music: Joe Hisaishi

Animation Production: Studio 4°C

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis from ANN: Ruka is a young girl whose parents are separated and whose father works in an aquarium. When two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs, are brought to the aquarium, Ruka feels drawn to them and begins to realize that she has the same sort of supernatural connection to the ocean that they do. Umi and Sora’s special power seems to be connected to strange events that have been occurring more and more frequently, such as the appearance of sea creatures far from their home territory and the disappearance of aquarium animals around the world. However, the exact nature of the boys’ power and of the abnormal events is unknown, and Ruka gets drawn into investigating the mystery that surrounds her new friends.

The Garden Apartment    

ガーデンアパート 「Ga-den Apa-to」

Release Date: June 07th, 2019

Duration: 77 mins.

Director: Umi Ishihara

Writer: Umi Ishihara (Screenplay),

Starring: Yukari Shinomiya, Kaori Takeshita, Kiyoshiro Ishida, Yu Suzumura,

Website    IMDB

Umi Ishihara is an artist whose award-winning work has been featured around the world from Brazil to Australia and Japan. Some words straight from her website:

“The major themes of her work centre around love, personal memories and society. Her work adopts a mix of documentary and fiction, muddying the waters of believability.”

This one was at last year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival in the Indie Forum section.

Synopsis: Hikari has just gotten pregnant with Taro who is cohabiting with her. Their relationship seems to be floundering because, since both have graduated from university, they have had trouble finding employment. As financial problems emerge, so do further relationship problems. Taro has a secret. He relies on his “aunt” Kyoko who has been acting strangely since she lost her husband at a young age. When Hikari meets her for the first time, it seems they may not get along but Hikari starts to visit Kyoko in secret and is introduced to a world where lost young people are free to act out their wild side. This could spell doom for her relationship with Taro as Hikari attracts the attention of Kyoko’s young boyfriend…

Almost a Miracle   

町田くんの世界　 「Machidakun no Sekai」

Release Date: June 07th, 2019

Duration: 119 mins.

Director: Yuya Ishii

Writer: Yuya Ishii, Sho Kataoka (Screenplay), Yuki Ando (Manga)

Starring: Kanata Hosoda, Nagisa Sekimizu, Takanori Iwata, Mitsuki Takahata, Atsuko Maeda, Taiga, Sosuke Ikematsu, Erika Toda, Koichi Sato,

Website IMDB

This is a super-amazing cast of talents and actors. Sosuke Ikematsu, Mitsuki Takahata and Taiga (both great in Japanese Girls Never Die), Atsuko Maeda (Seventh Code), Koichi Sato, and Erika Toda. They have all been assembled by Yuya Ishii (The Great Passage, The Tokyo Night Sky is Always the Densest Shade of Blue).

Synopsis: High school student Hajime Machida (Kanata Hosoda) is a bit flaky when it comes to studies and sports but he’s a lovable guy who gets along well with other people. His polar opposite is classmate Nana Inohara (Nagisa Sekimizu) who doesn’t like people. Opposites attract as they begin to have feelings for for each other.

Erica 38   

エリカ38　 「Erika 38」

Release Date: June 07th, 2019

Duration: 103 mins.

Director: Yuichi Hibi

Writer: Yuichi Hibi (Screenplay),

Starring: Miyoko Asada, Miu Suzuki, Kirin Kiki, Nahana, Juri Manase, Hajime Yamazaki, Shizuo Yamazaki, Hinako Saeki, Takehiro Hira,

Website IMDB

This, I believe, is the last role we will see Kirin Kiki after her passing and it’s an interesting looking drama.

Synopsis: Satoko Watabe (Miyoko Asada), a 60-year-old con woman, and her new lover Ikuo Hirasawa (Takehiro Hira) defraud people in an investment scam and make a lot of money but the deceiver is deceived when she discovers that her boyfriend has other girlfriends. Satoko Watabe ups and leaves with the cash and goes to Thailand and passes herself off as a 38-year-old woman named Erica before returning to Japan where she cons an elderly man out of a large house and calls her mother (Kirin Kiki) at a nursing home to live with her but Erica cannot continue her crooked ways…

Rent A Friend   

月極オトコトモダチ　 「Tsukigime Otoko Tomodachi」

Release Date: June 08th, 2019

Duration: 78 mins.

Director: Mayu Akiyama

Writer: Mayu Akiyama (Screenplay),

Starring: Eri Tokunaga, Atsushi Hashimoto, Sumire Ashina, Tomoko Nozaki, Hiroaki Morooka, Kana Yamada,

Website

There are a slew of Moosic Lab 2018 dramas and they all look good. I only saw one, this year, Sayounara, and it was okay. The others that have been released like Life Finds a Way, Hitori no Dansu, and this one, look more interesting to someone of my nature.

Synopsis: Nasa Mochizuki (Eri Tokunaga) works as an editor for a web magazine. One night, at a bar, she meets Sota Yanase (Atsushi Hashimoto), who tells her that he makes a living by renting himself out as a friend and refuses to have romantic relationships. In order to test his claim, Nasa rents Sota Yanase as a friend.

Saint Young Men Second Century   

聖☆おにいさん　第II紀　 「Sei oniisan dai II nori」

Release Date: June 06th, 2019

Duration: N/A

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

Writer: Yuichi Fukuda (Screenplay), Hikaru Nakamura (Manga)

Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Shota Sometani, Yuuki Yamada, Umi Yamano,

Website

The live-action adaptation of Hikaru Nakamura’s popular manga Saint Young Men gets a movie instalment executive produced by Takayuki Yamada (actor in 13 Assassins). It stars, Kenichi Matsuyama (Shindo, Detroit Metal City) and Shota Sometani (Himizu) who play Jesus and Buddha respectively. The manga has already been subject to an anime movie adaptation.

Synopsis: In this slice-of-super-saintly-life comedy, the dynamic duo, who share a room in Tachikawa, Tokyo, go to Akihabara, a sacred place for otaku and somewhere “computer-geek” Jesus has always wanted to visit. Miracles happen and comedy ensues.

Voice Actor Bowling Grand Prix 3   

声優ボウリングランプリ 3 「Seiyuu Bouringu Guran Puri 3」

Release Date: June 07th, 2019

Duration: 70 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: Atsushi Abe, Tsubasa Yonaga, Kento Hama, Takuya Sato, Yuki Iwai,

Synopsis: Voice actors do some competitive bowling with punishment games involved in the third bowling grand prix of this type. This is a limited release ahead of a DVD.

99-sai haha to kuraseba   

99歳　母と暮らせば　 「99-sai haha to kuraseba」

Release Date: June 08th, 2019

Duration: 92 mins.

Director: Akira Tanimitsu

Writer: N/A

Starring: Chieko Tanimitsu, Ken Tanimitsu, Akira Tanimitsu, Ikuko Tanimitsu,

Website

Synopsis: This documentary was made to capture the final days between Chieko Tanimitsu, a 99-year-old woman who has dementia. She lives with her son, Akira (a documentarian last featured here in 2014), who takes care of her and we see the hardships as well as the good times, love and care between them.

Mangetsu no yoru ni wa omoidashite   

満月の夜には思い出して　 「Mangetsu no yoru ni wa omoidashite」

Release Date: June 08th, 2019

Duration: 68 mins.

Director: Yumeki Kawakita

Writer: Yumeki Kawakita (Screenplay),

Starring: Erika Tokiyoshi, Momoko Takeuchi, Kenya Nojima, Tomomi Shindo, Mina Otsuki, Tomoki Kimura,

Website

This is another work from MOOSIC LAB 2018 and it comes from Yumeki Kawakita whose previous work, Kawaranai de. Hyakunichisou, was at the Kanazawa Film Festival 2017.

Synopsis: Three university kids and their friends who are part of the film club, theatre club and music club are making a final film before graduation but face the decision of whether to chase their dreams or face reality and get a normal career.

Bad Women Good Job   

悪い女はよく稼ぐ　 「Warui onna wa yoku kasegu」

Release Date: June 08th, 2019

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Takahito Hara

Writer: Kanako Kizaki, Hiroshi Kashiwabara (Screenplay),

Starring: Naomi Hase, Asami Kumakiri, Haruyuki Mizuguchi, Koji Nishiyama, Ooshiba Ru, Emi Aoki,

Website

Synopsis: Naomi Hase and Asami Kumakiri play international con-artists who find themselves back in Japan and forced to work together to defraud another con-artist.

The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil   

악인전　 「Akinjeon」

Release Date: May 15th, 2019

Duration: 110 mins.

Director: Lee Won-Tae

Writer: Lee Won-Tae (Screenplay),

Starring: Ma Dong-Seok, Kim Moo-Yul, Kim Sung-Kyu, Yoo Seung-Mok, Choi Min-Chul, Kim Yoon-Sung, Heo Dong-Won, Oh Hee-Joon, Kim Gyu-Ri,

IMDB

“Don’t let the devil win!” reads the tag-line of the film and it’s down to two bad guys to catch the worst man in this glossy thriller where a gangster and a loose-cannon of a cop team up to catch a serial killer.

Apparently based on a true story, the film is set in 2005/6 (best shown by the flip-phones and stubby cameras) and opens with the Devil (Kim Sung-Kyu) cruising the streets of Cheonan city looking for a victim for his murderous impulses. We see his M.O. of rear-ending cars on lonely roads and viciously knifing the unsuspecting driver when pretending to check on their safety. The narrative then shuffles him into the background to quickly sketch out the rivalry between two rogues, hulking gang boss Jang Dong-Su (Ma Dong-Seok aka Don Lee) and loud-mouth Detective Jung Tae-Seok (Kim Moo Yul). Jang Dong-Su is seen amidst business negotiations and turf rivalries, usually settling things with his boulder-like fists, while Jung Tae-Seok is a brash character who refuses bribes and has keen detective skills as evidenced by the fact he is the only one to sense that a serial killer is on the loose.

Their workplace travails play out to show the line between the criminal underworld and the cops isn’t so clear and it is something only guaranteed to get murkier after Jang Dong-Su is violently attacked by the killer on a rainy night. It’s a nervy fight as the mobster battles back from repeated stabbings and barely escapes with his life. What doesn’t survive is his reputation as a feared gangster which is shredded by the killer. The only way to restore his image is to find his attacker and exact revenge and to do this Jang teams up with Jung Tae-Seok to find the assailant who they name “K”.

Having morally compromised characters chase someone pure evil is hardly new territory with Na Hong-Jin’s 2008 film The Chaser coming to mind but while that film resolutely remained grim viewing writer/director Lee Won-Tae’s film ducks and dives between genres with a breathless ease. The film is built like a serial-killer thriller but contains a gangster politics with every big brawl that breaks out amidst the business of running illegal gambling parlours and then there will be elements of a police procedural with squad rivalries and forensic shenanigans involving crime scene investigator Cha Seo-Jin (Kim Gyu-Ri from Memento Mori). Sometimes the film slows at these more precise moments but the narrative layers add important details to keep the plot twisting and to keep audiences on tenterhooks as to whether the devil can be defeated. More satisfying than the police work is seeing how Detective Jung is forced to use Jang’s gangster resources to track down the killer which leads to some funny culture clash moments as police and mobsters team up. Everything meshes together well to vary the tone and keep the audience guessing what will happen next as the “heroes” go to extreme lengths to catch the killer.

The biggest thrills come with moments of extreme action staged with flare typical of Korean cinema in fights involving blades and fists. The damage is very visceral as people dance into and out of range of flurries of stabs and punches and in this aspect it is Ma Dong-Seok who makes the biggest impact. Audiences will probably be most aware of him from Train to Busan (2016) in which his tough and noble character clears out carriages of zombies. Here he plays the bad guy with a sense of honour and does a great job of showing how his character has to calculatedly channel every fibre of his being into the persona of a mob boss to maintain his reputation and stay in control. His massive physicality is a screen-stealing plus as he gets into frequent fights and dominates proceedings, literally swatting opponents out of the air as if they were flies at times. Not even doors stop him from punching in the face of a target in the film’s most satisfying fight. Kim Moo Yul provides a fun and sparky counterpart and their rough-and-tumble and blackly comic dynamic adds a lot of fizz-bang flavour. Kim Sung-Kyu’s serial killer is more lightly sketched although he does have an air of menace as he physically comes off a little like a younger and more active version of Anton Chigurh from the film No Country for Old Men (2007).

This is writer/director Lee Won-Tae’s sophomore film and it shows a lot of confidence and panache in staging. He is adept at inter-cutting between characters and there are the occasional notable long takes as the camera moves in and out of the crime scene and we see detective Jung demonstrate his skills and then there are the many fight scenes and foot chases that take place in the neon-lit streets and karaoke boxes of Cheonan city but the real highlight is a breakneck-speed and car chase through narrow alleys involving the three characters.

Korean filmmakers often have the canny ability to sneak some social commentary into their films but not here. This is more of a popcorn film and in that regards it succeeds thanks to the bravura lead performance from Ma Dong-Seok who steals scenes in the more energetic action sequences. A Hollywood remake is coming soon courtesy of Sylvester Stallone’s Balboa Productions and that involves Ma Dong-Seok. See the original and for a cool action fix.

My review was first published on VCinema on June 08th.

Whole

Duration: 45 mins.

Release Date: 2019

Director: Bilal Kawazoe

Writer: Usman Kawazoe (Screenplay),

Starring: Usman Kawazoe, Aoi Ibuki, Kai Hoshino Sandy,

Website IMDB   OAFF

This review was first published on V-Cinema on March 14th

In recent years, the rise of mixed-race Japanese has become a hot topic with “hafu”, a word which is taken from the English word “half”, becoming more visible thanks to sports and entertainment personalities like tennis champ Naomi Osaka and 2015’s Miss Universe Japan Ariana Miyamoto. Even if Japan is pretty ethnically mixed, hafu are visibly different and are often presented as glamorous and fashionable by advertising execs. This ignores the reality of discrimination and ostracisation they face, something which Bilal Kawazoe’s film, WHOLE examines as one of the few recent Japanese efforts to look at this issues surrounding being biracial in a homogeneous society.

There are two protagonists living in the pretty cosmopolitan city of Kobe whose travails make the whole of the movie. The first is Haruki, a biracial student from the suburbs who has quit his overseas college course and returned to Japan to find his identity. Unfortunately, this has been something he has long struggled with and having parents who, judging by the dialogue which indicates they are mostly absent even if they are there, don’t take the time to support him. He bottles things up as can be seen on his downhearted face. Haruki then meets Makoto, a construction worker raised in the projects of Kansai who is also biracial. Ostensibly more confident, he has two guys he hangs out with and shows less fear when travelling in public, laughing off accusations he is a foreigner and joining in with the “banter”. Although Haruki and Makoto are complete opposites in terms of personality and class, they quickly form a friendship full of understanding and sympathy which helps them bridge the gap across the emptiness of being an outsider so they can go from being half a person to a whole.

The tone of the film is clear and concise, told with tight direction and confidence in its spare design and writing which makes it a perceptive evocation of searching for an identity.

The narrative has them almost becoming the best friend that they needed at just the right time. Their camaraderie isn’t immediate and it has some form of pity but the two are on the same wavelength and help each other gain some self-esteem in what could be seen as a harsh environment as shown by Kawazoe’s direction which astutely captures the sense of being an outsider with it observing people observing the protagonists and the looks of alienation on their faces. There is a range of situations to let audiences understand that prejudice can take on all manner of forms from the typical “micro-aggressions” that Westerners take to social media to lament such as praise for fluency in Japanese and using the chopsticks and then there are the galling scenes where someone will display the flat-out disbelief that these two kids could be anything but Japanese. With every scene, we see ways people are made to feel like outsiders and a lot of comments, even if no ill-will is meant, are clearly draining for the characters as shown by the way the two actors display disconsolate faces, “shouganai” shrugs of the shoulders and forced humour. Throughout the story, Makoto’s inner struggles mount so he can no longer laugh off the prejudice and opens up to Haruki who initially took things more to heart but finds a constructive output thanks to his friend. More than that, the film is not afraid to speak up and challenge society, most potently shown in a scene where Haruki vents his frustrations. The dialogue and performances are nuanced and clear enough to get across the longing to find a settled identity without being too blunt.

One thing worth pointing out are the two supportive characters, Makoto’s mother and Haruki’s female friend. Equal parts stern and caring, they keep the guys on an even keel and it is people like these who can make the difference in life just by being there.

Ultimately strength comes from knowing your roots or being prepared to be an individual in a society, something not easy to do in a country where the group mentality is everything, but the film ends on an open and hopeful note as the two young men are able to sincerely face these issues thanks to their friendship with each other and support from two loyal women.

Identity is not solely about how we look but that is something many people struggle to understand. This film helps with that process. After premiering in Osaka, who knows where this film will go next, but the film has international resonance and can travel outside of the specialist festivals dedicated to Japan. Most importantly, Bilal Kawazoe tries to create something affecting and relevant in our age of miscommunication and conflict and in the field of Japanese films dealing with the mixed-race experience, it is a welcome addition.

Japan Cuts 2019 is back with its annual showcase of the latest in Japanese films carefully curated by its team of programmers. It is due to kick off in New York in a month’s time and runs from JULY 19–28. The selection looks good and there’s a handy trailer to build up anticipation by revealing a glimpse of all the films on offer!

There is a distinctly youthful and fresh feeling to the roster of directors and writers as well as the stories they tell. Lots of directors are, or were, making their debuts after cutting their teeth in various production roles or they are at the indie end of the spectrum and under-exposed on the festival circuit. Then there is a lot of youth-oriented stories with a lot of coming-of-age tales. That’s not to say that the older generations are forgotten as a documentary and some legendary filmmakers are also on board with Shinya Tsukamoto in New York to show Bullet Ballet as well as his latest film Killing and there is also a doc called I Go Gaga, My Dear about an elderly couple which is getting a lot of play at different fests so that’s a good sign. I’ve seen quite a few of these films, mostly at this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival, and so I’ll put links to my reviews if you want to read them.

Some of these films are going to be accompanied by directors and actors and a full list plus bios can be found here. This year’s recipient of the CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film is Shinya Tsukamoto, one of the first directors I went and wrote a biography for and reviewed a whole bunch of his films (my favourite being Vital). He is just one of many guests so please check the official website to find out more.

All information comes from old trailer posts and the JAPAN CUTS website.

Here is what has been programmed!

Friday, July 19th

Japan Cuts 2019 opens on Thursday, July 19th, with Dance With Me, a lovely-looking musical number:

Dance With Me   

ダンスウィズミー　 「Dansu Uizu Mi-」

Release Date: June 07th, 2019

Duration: 103 mins.

Director: Yuichi Hibi

Writer: Yuichi Hibi (Screenplay),

Starring: Ayaka Miyoshi, Yuu Yashiro, Chay, Takahiro Miura, Tsuyoshi Muro, Akira Takarada,

Website IMDB

Q&A with director Shinobu Yaguchi and star Ayaka Miyoshi

Synopsis: Shizuka is a salarywoman preparing for a big meeting but after visiting a shady hypnotist and left under a spell which causes her to break into song and dance whenever she hears music, even if it’s just a ringtone. Shizuka needs to get her head fixed for the meeting and goes on the hunt for the hypnotist who has disappeared and so starts a road-trip musical!

Saturday, July 20th

The Island of Cats   

ねことじいちゃん 「Neko to Jiichan」

Release Date: February 22nd, 2019

Duration: 103 mins.

Director:  Mitsuaki Iwago

Writer: Fumi Tsubota (Screenplay), Nekomaki (Manga)

Starring: Shinosuke Tatekawa, Kou Shibasaki, Kaoru Kobayashi, Tasuku Emoto, Yuki Katayama, Toshie Kobayashi,

Website IMDB

Seasoned thesps such as Kaoru Kobayashi and Toshie Kobayashi work alongside the quietly brilliant Kou Shibasaki here.

Synopsis: Daikichi (Shinosuke Tatekawa) is a 70-year-old widower who lives on a small island with his cat Tama. The island is overrun with cats and mainly populated by the elderly so it’s an easy-going place. Daikichi’s son Tsuyoshi (Takashi Yamanaka), who lives in Tokyo, is worried about his father living alone on the island, especially as his physical condition worsens with age. Daikichi and Tama’s daily life begins to change when a woman named Michiko (Kou Shibasaki) opens a cafe for the island’s mostly elderly residents…