Genkinahito

銃「Juu」

Release Date: November 17th, 2018

Duration: 97 mins.

Director: Masaharu Take

Writer: Masaharu Take, Hideki Shishido (Screenplay), Fuminori Nakamura (Original Novel)

Starring: Nijiro Murakami, Alice Hirose, Lily Franky, Kyoko Hinami, Risa Niigaki, Junpei Goto, Moemi Katayama, Amane Okayama,

Website IMDB

Masaharu Take has a knack of making good character-driven dramas as exemplified by 100 Yen Love (2015) which cemented Sakura Ando as a real headlining acting talent after she spent years impressing auds with steady work in smaller semi-comedic roles (For Love’s Sake, Love Exposure) and indie dramas (Our Homeland, 0.5mm). This film, an adaptation of a novel, offers Nijiro Murakami (Destruction Babies) a meaty role to make a name for himself.

“Last night, I found a gun.”

The film opens with what appears to be a suicide one rainy night. Blood pours out of a shattered skull onto a rain-sodden riverbank. The titular gun, a .357 Magnum Lawman Mk III, is lying next to the body. The camera caresses its smooth, short, shiny and curved form and soon someone will lavish the same attention on it.

University student Toru Nishikawa (Nijiro Murakami), a nice-looking kid who lives by himself, is the new owner. He seems well-adjusted and self-assured on the surface, and that attracts girls who he has one-night stands with, but soon the gun overtakes everything and reveals a sickness lurking in his personality.

Instead of turning the gun in to the police he takes it home and becomes fixated with it. He gets a sense of euphoria over having it. The sense of possibility and power it confers on him manifests itself in the way he treats it like a venerated object, stroking it, cleaning it and posing with it like Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. His behaviour is something which gives him thrills and the audience chills as his increasingly deranged narration shows his descent into madness and he plots a murder.

Nijiro Murakami’s acting and narration are really good in this regard as his calm demeanour and handsomeness clutch the audience by the elbow and slowly walks them into his head-space where something darker lurks. At first we luxuriate but soon sour over the loveless one-night stands he engages with, the empty friendships with his irritating sex-crazed friend Keisuke (Amane Okayama) and glimpse the meaningless of everything that nihilists see.

Taking place in Tokyo’s Itabashi Ward near the Arakawa River, it’s a less glam part of the city with little to distract people from the everyday humdrum aspect of life and there is a general sense of malaise that seems to infect the world fostered by the way the film is shot in a humid summer and almost entirely in black and white to create a claustrophobic atmosphere which is where we see abusive human relations and everyday cruelties brew up. News reports and university studies about violence seen in the film paint an age where people have been inspired to casual violence after losing sight of the preciousness of life and as the narrative lolls forward Toru fixates on a neighbour who beats her child and that Freudian death drive seems to replace the pleasure drive that started the film.

We are shown how, despite having life’s advantages, direction is hard for the kid to find as he is sucked into a whirlpool of emotional darkness and the gun is the gleam of light that he heads towards. Flashbacks he experiences furnish us with a justification for his mental malady as they take us to his time in an orphanage, how the experience has scarred him and his perspective on human relations and Murakami’s performance is superlative as we see Toru compartmentalises everything and detaches himself from life. Toru’s cynicism shows he considers life is cheap, a sense exacerbated by his callowness and pretentiousness so it explains his behaviour from the start and presents a pretty pathetic protagonist who, while unlikeable, does evoke sympathy thanks to Murakami’s layered performance.

As he disassociates from reality and focuses on his obsession over the gun, the film shows him with increasingly violent behaviour and intercuts some idyllic fantasy where its just him and the gun but people try to bring him back to his humanity. A pretty girl on the same campus, Yuko Yoshikawa (Alice Hirose) comes in with a intervention, “I know you are in a fragile state. I really care about you.” A canny detective (Lily Franky) with a parasol whose honesty can be disarming offers him a way out in a tense series of negotiations and some life advice and we, the audience who have entered Toru’s mind, sweat in the claustrophobic atmosphere and gasp over the tension in the film as we wonder whether he will hurt someone else and kill his neighbour…

Welcome to the weekend.

I hope everyone is feeling good.

My coverage of some of the festival films screened in New York is over so I’ve got time to do other things like read books and practice Japanese. Well, instead of doing that, I watched a bunch of Seijun Suzuki films!

Anyway, here the week started with the publishing of an interview I did with Takuji Suzuki, the director of the film Randen: The Comings and Goings on a Kyoto Tram. I did it at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. It was also published on VCinema. I then followed that up with news on Naomi Kawase coming to the UK in September to take part in the Open City Documentary Festival where she will present her films and an extended talk and Q&A. The final post of the week was a review of The Gun which screened at the New York Asian Film Festival.

What is released this weekend?

Melancholic

メランコリック「Merankorikku」

Release Date: August 02nd, 2019

Duration: 113 mins.

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) which played at the New York Asian Film Festival) 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 and it has a great performance by Yoji Minegawa. It’s a real treat with a great lead performance from Yoji Minagawa. It played at this year’s Japan Cuts where it went down well with audiences. 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…

Dragon Quest: Your Story

ドラゴンクエスト　ユア・ストーリー　「Doragon Kuesuto Yua Suto-ri-」

Release Date: August 02nd, 2019

Duration: 103 mins.

General Director: Takashi Yamazaki, Director: Ryuichi Yagi, Makoto Hanafusa

Writer: Jun’ichi Fujisaku (Screenplay), Yuuji Horii (Original Creator)

Starring: Takeru Satoh (Ruka), Takayuki Yamada (Papasu), Kasumi Arimura (Bianca), Kentaro Sakaguchi (Prince Harry), Ken Yasuda (Pusan), Haru (Flora)

Website IMDB

Synopsis: When Ryuka was a young boy, he travelled with his father, Papasu, in order to save his mother, Martha, who was taken away by the demons led by the mage Gema. Unfortunately, during a battle, Papasu perishes and Ryuka is left to fend for himself. Ten years later, Ryuka has become a different person, a fighter and adventurer in his father’s mould. When he discovers the old man’s diary he gains a new determination to save his mother…

Yojouhan Trilogy (when you say yojouhan, I think Tatami Galaxy)

Ikebukuro’s Cinema Rosa hosts screenings of short and medium-length films made over the last two years by the director Tomoyuki Ito while he worked on the NHK Education slot with the show “Shakiin!” and at a film school. Here’s where to find more info:

YouTube Channel Twitter Feed

Yasashii shatsu kanatasoutarou no tabi

優しいシャツ　カナタソウタロウの旅　「Yasashii shatsu kanatasoutarou no tabi」

Release Date: 2017

Duration: 18 mins.

Director: Tomoyuki Ito

Writer:

Starring: Kohei Mori, Kei Imai, Mizuki Ooeda, Erika Oota, Souichiro Tanaka, Yuki Sugawara, Miho Suzumasa, Yoko Hattori,

Synopsis: Tomoyuki Ito met actors at a workshop and made this is short film in an apartment in Koenji, Tokyo.

The Devil’s Dance

悪魔の舞を手に入れし者　「Akuma no mai o te ni ireshi mono」

Release Date: August 03rd, 2019

Duration: 18 mins.

Director: Tomoyuki Ito

Writer: Jun’ichi Fujisaku (Screenplay),

Starring: Kohei Mori, Kei Imai, Mizuki Ooeda, Erika Oota, Souichiro Tanaka, Yuki Sugawara,

Synopsis: More action from the apartment.

Emoshonaruremon tabidachi wa itsumo remon no aji ga suru, anata wa don’na aji ga suru?

エモーショナルレモン　旅立ちはいつもレモンの味がする、あなたはどんな味がする？　「Emoshonaruremon tabidachi wa itsumo remon no aji ga suru, anata wa don’na aji ga suru?」

Release Date: August 03rd, 2019

Duration: 46 mins.

Director: Tomoyuki Ito

Writer:

Starring: Kikuyo, Kei Imai, Kyuichiro Nakayama, Souichiro Tanaka, Yuki Sugawara,

Synopsis: A sequel to the apartment antics.

Give Me the Sun

太陽がほしい　劇場版　「Taiyou ga hoshii gekijouban」

Release Date: August 03rd, 2019

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Tomoyuki Ito

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kikuyo, Kei Imai, Kyuichiro Nakayama, Souichiro Tanaka, Yuki Sugawara,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: The director of this film has made documentaries about Chinese “comfort women” in the past. This work recorded the testimonies of seven women who were subjected to sexual violence by the Japanese Army during World War II. It is estimated that over 100 thousand women were taken to be “comfort women” but what is little known about are the “bunker women” who were trapped in fortified bunkers and farmhouses. Seven ex-Japanese Army soldiers and a handful of Chinese collaborators testify in the film about what happened. More importantly, some of the women who were subjected to this horrific treatment were given the chance to testify. Find out more about the film on the IMDB page.

Tokyo Trial – International Military Tribunal for the Far East 4K Digital Restoration

東京裁判　「Tokyo Saiban」

Original Release Date: June 04th, 1983

Duration: 277 mins.

Director: Masaki Kobayashi

Writer: Masaki Kobayashi, Kiyoshi Ogasawara, Shun Inagaki (Story),

Starring: Kei Sato

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A chronicle of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East that held the generals and politicians who took Japan to war accountable for their actions. It was put together from half a million feet of Pentagon film dealing with the Tribunal and the war.

Dear Mr. Yasuo Otsuka

飄々　拝啓、大塚康生様　「Hyōhyō haikei, ōtsuka yasuo-sama」

Release Date: August 03rd, 2019

Duration: 66 mins.

Director: Hidenori Ushiro

Writer:

Starring: Yasuo Otsuka, Masaki Oosumi, Yoichi Kotabe, Atsuko Tanaka,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Yasuo Otsuka is a veteran animator who worked with the likes of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahataon films like The Little Norse Prince, Panda Kopanda and Lupin III. The film gathers testimonies from people who knew him, including Takahata. It will be screened at the cinema Yuziku Asagaya in August 2019. I used to live about a 15 minute walk away from there.

Summer Girl

夏少女　「Natsu Shoujo」

Release Date: 1996

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Tokihisa Morikawa

Writer: Akira Hayasaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Kaori Momoi, Kanbei Hazama, Asako Yazaki, Takashi Fujioka, Hitomi Kageyama,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Apparently, this film was completed in 1996 but has not been released ever. This is the first theatrical release. It is a fantasy depicting the encounter a 12-year-old boy named Mamoru has with a beautiful girl who seems to link Hiroshima’s past and present. Mamoru lives on a small island in the Seto Inland Sea with a population of 3000. Mamoru’s mother is a captain on a postal ship, and his father runs a general store and each carries the scars of war. Mamoru’s days are quiet but filled with history and emotions that are locked up until the beautiful girl shows up…

Watashitachi ha,

私たちは、「Watashitachi ha,」

Release Date: August 03rd, 2019

Duration: 67 mins.

Director: Yuu Katsumata

Writer: Yuu Katsumata (Script),

Starring: Takeuchi Shino, Koko, Kanae Hirohashi, Miyabi Mizuhara, Ami Yuuki, Kanon Hanakage, Reina Fuji,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A movie / documentary that depicts the days of five high school girls. The first half is a documentary depicting the efforts of the five girls who will be part of the cast to be part of the film. The second half is the short film part, a youth road movie that depicts the journey of five girls who hate acting as adults, which they play.

The Venice International Film Festival is here for its 76th edition and it will run from August 28th to September 07th. There are a couple of features and four VR experiences as Venice continues to go down the VR route. Without further ado, here are the films!

La Vérité (The Truth)

真実　「Shinjitsu」

Release Date: October 11th, 2019

Duration: 106 mins.

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda (Screenplay),

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Clementine Grenier, Ludivine Sagnier,

Website IMDB

Following on from his win of the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival with Shoplifters, Kore-eda graces the Competition Section of this year’s Venice Film Festival with a film based in France and starring some of the luminaries of French cinema with Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche and Ludivine Sagnier as well as Ethan Hawke, a truly talented American actor. This is the director’s first work set outside Japan but it features the sort of family narrative he is famous for as a clan is reunited in Paris and go through a cycle of lies, resentment, love and reconciliation.

Synopsis: Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) is a star of French cinema with the power to charm the men around her. When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Lumir (Juliette Binoche) returns from New York to Paris with her husband (Ethan Hawke) and their young child and a reunion between mother and daughter kicks off a confrontation that leads to truths being told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed.

The next film plays adjacent to Venice’s programme in the Giornate degli Autori event which is modelled on the Directors’ Fortnight’ of the Cannes Film Festival.

They Say Nothing Stays the Same

ある船頭の話　「Aru sendou no hanashi」

Release Date: September 13th, 2019

Duration: 137 mins.

Director: Joe Odagiri

Writer: Joe Odagiri (Screenplay),

Starring: Akira Emoto, Ririka Kawashima, Nijiro Murakami, Masatoshi Nagase, Haruomi Hosono, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Mitsuko Kusabue, Isao Hashizume,

Website IMDB

This is Joe (Mushishi, Adrift in Tokyo) Odagiri’s sophomore feature film as a director and he has hired a good team in getting Christopher Doyle – Wong Kar-Wai’s frequent collaborator – working cinematography and Emi Wada designing costumes – she won an Oscar for her costuming on Akira Kurosawa’s epic Ran and is responsible for costumes in lush historical dramas such as Samurai Marathon 1855, Hero, Gohatto, and House of Flying Daggers.

Synopsis: Toichi is a boatman who ferries people across a river. Despite ferrying people across, the only person he really communicates with is his young neighbour Genzo. When a large bridge is begins to be constructed to help people cross the river it looks like Toichi will be made redundant but then he meets a mysterious young girl who appears to be an orphan. Toichi takes her in and from that moment, his life begins to change…

Shout out to Hayley over at Windows on Worlds for notifying me about that film!

There are also a number of VR films:

Ghost in the Shell: Ghost Chaser (Hiroaki Higashi, 8 mins.)

A Life in Flowers (Dir: Armando Kirwin, 20 mins. JP/US)

Inori (Dir: Liu Szu-ming, Takahashi Kisei, 17 mins. JP/Tai)

Feather (Dir: Keisuke Itoh, 12 mins.)

Ghost in the Shell: Ghost Chaser

攻殻機動隊GHOST CHASER　「Kōkaku Kidōtai Ghost Chaser」

Release Date: October 11th, 2018

Duration: 8 mins.

Director: Hiroaki Higashi

Writer: Jun’ichi Fujisaku (Screenplay), Shirow Masamune (Original Creator)

Starring: Kira Buckland, Kaijli Tang, Stephanie Sheh (Japanese Cast: Maaya Sakamoto – Motoko Kusanagi, Kenichirou Matsuda – Batou, Miyuki Sawashiro – Logicoma)

Website ANN

So this is based on an arcade ride that can take 12 people on a wild ride into the world of GitS. It was released late last year in Tokyo and the trailer looks stunning.

Synopsis from the creators: This story is set in the Kuzan Republic. The defense minister, who will take part in a meeting of the Next-generation Weapon Coordination Council, has ordered an advance onsite inspection. Ride participants are tasked with providing escort while securing an inspection route in Public Security Section 9, where Motoko Kusanagi serves as leader. Riders will use the hexaRide vehicle to enter cyberspace and, serving as a Public Security Section 9 agent, join in an attack on revolutionary movement forces.

Here is past coverage of the festival:

Venice International Film Festival 2018

Venice International Film Festival 2017

Venice International Film Festival 2014

Venice International Film Festival 2013

Venice International Film Festival 2012

The Fable

ザ・ファブル　「Za Faburu」

Release Date: June 21st, 2019

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Kan Eguchi

Writer: Yusuke Watanabe (Screenplay), Katsuhisa Minami (Original Manga)

Starring: Junichi Okada, Fumino Kimura, Koichi Sato, Mizuki Yamamoto, Kai Inowaki, Jiro Sato, Sota Fukushi, Ken Mitsuishi, Yuya Yagira, Ken Yasuda,

Website IMDB

Katsuhisa Minami’s seinen manga The Fable has been serialised in Weekly Young Magazine since 2014 and it won the general category of the 41st Kodansha Manga Awards in 2017. Its straight shooting story of a hit-man’s travails is mostly down-to-earth in art style and narrative for a manga. Its hard-boiled nature is supported by characters drawn with natural proportions engaging in fisticuffs and gunfights, the seriousness subverted by dashes of satire thanks to unique personality traits harboured by different people. A movie version is a natural progression but to make it engaging it will need a cast and crew to capture the comedic and action parts of the story.

The Fable (Junichi Okada) is actually the name of a contract killer operating in the Tokyo underworld. His ability to kill is almost preternatural and it is shown with visual pizzazz in the bombastic opening where he takes out two gangs in a fancy sky-rise restaurant. Efficient shooting and movement, short and sharp physical strikes and an aura of something unstoppable is what defines him and overpowers his opponents. All tumble down before him in action scenes excitingly delivered by director Kan Eguchi who favours quick editing, kinetic camerawork and exploding sets to bolster the slick action choreography. Eguchi doubles-down on the style by showing the mental calculations Fable makes through cute on-screen text and illustrations that get shattered by the bullets the killer sends flying.

With this impressive opening, audiences understand why Fable is an urban myth that other hit-men like Fudo (Sota Fukushi) want to challenge so it stands to reason when Fable’s boss (Koichi Sato) wants the killer and his handler Yoko (Fumino Kimura) to lie low for one year in Osaka until the heat dies down. There is the caveat that Fable must avoid killing anyone. Helping them out in that regard is the Maguro yakuza group run by Hamada (Ken Mitsuishi) and Ebihara (Ken Yasuda), two middle-aged middle-manager types who have their soldiers on a payroll to keep them out of trouble. They offer the two a quiet nondescript place to stay so they can get jobs and blend in with the community. However trouble is about to emerge as Ebihara’s vicious blood brother Kojima (Yuya Yagira) is released from prison and he is eager to engage with an internecine gang war with equally vicious rival Sunagawa (Osamu Mukai).

The action slows down considerably for the middle-section as Fable and Yoko relocate to Osaka (as represented by a shot of Shinsekai and the Tsutenkaku Tower) and the plot manoeuvres various characters into position with the introduction of Misaki (Mizuki Yamamoto), a young woman Fable develops a crush on, and her subsequent peril at the hands of the gang. The high-octane John Wick style film audiences will be hooked by turns into a low-key character comedy reliant on humour to keep the mood buoyant and mild threat to Fable’s potential love interest to add tension and this is where the fun performances from Junichi Okada and Fumino Kimura come in as they make for a mischievous duo.

There is a great cast assembled to grace the screen and each of the actors capture the look of the manga’s characters, especially Junichi Okada and Fumino Kimura who fit their roles perfectly. Kimura imbues her hard-drinking Yoko with a charming joie de vivre as she tricks and charms her way through the film’s roster of characters a little like Fujiko Mine in the Lupin III stories. Okada delivers a perfectly deadpan performance for his absurd behaviour, always keeping a straight face as his unique way of thinking and acting and his lack of experience in social settings causes him to make mistakes and behave oddly. Even before any flashbacks to Fable’s background Okada’s performance essays the mental arrested-development of the hit-man which cements the truly tragic plight of this excellent killer who bursts with peals of laughter over the schoolboy comedy of his hero Jackal Tomioka and reacts to the world with some innocence and earnestness that show the boy inside which his boss wants to shield. The broader physical humour and facial expressions (or lack of them) and his severe case of ‘Nekojita‘, a tongue super-sensitive to hot food, become an amusing recurring joke that softens his character and makes audiences to laugh out loud.

In supporting roles, Yuya Yagira and Osamu Mukai broil with intense levels of hatred and their side characters feel like they have a lot of depth, more than Sota Fukushi’s contract killer since he lacks the same burning presence. Their violent conflict is throwaway but a great excuse to unleash Fable on the Osaka gang in a no-kill final confrontation which reignites the film’s thrills after so much set-up. Okada displays himself as a top-notch fighter with Jackie Chan levels of agility and bursts of speed in some impressive wall jumping and parkour that one might see in a Police Story film. While the final battle doesn’t quite have the punch of the opening, the characters are really compelling thanks to the actors and audiences will want to see more adventures of The Fable!

My review was first published on VCinema on June 27th.

Happy weekend, everyone.

I hope you are all well.

Summer has been flowing nicely and it is now stormy and rainy. I’m at the end of a 12 day work week so I can relax a little. I’ve posted news on the Japanese films playing at the Venice Film Festival this year and a review for the action film The Fable.

What is released this weekend?

Demolition Girl

JK エレジー「JK Ereji-」

Release Date: August 09th, 2019

Duration: 88 mins.

Director: Genta Matsugami

Writer: Yoshitaka Kasui, Genta Matsugami (Screenplay),

Starring: Aya Kitai, Hiroki Ino, Yota Kawase, Haruka Imo, Yura Komuro,

Website IMDB

Winner of the JAPAN CUTS Award at this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival, Demolition Girl is a great slice of socially-conscious film-making as it shows the lives of working-class people in Japan and the options open to them in terms of social mobility. It has a great lead performance from Aya Kitai who is a natural screen presence. Here’s my review and an interview I did with the director Genta Matsugami.

Synopsis: Cocoa Umeda lives in a small rural city of Kiryu, Gunma Prefecture. It feels like a slow and tranquil place where the biggest events are the seasonal festivals but for Cocoa and her friends things are getting intense as they approach their final exams and high school graduation. Cocoa could go on to higher education because she has potential but her options are limited by her financial situation. With a gambler for a father and a lazy brother sponging off her, Cocoa is resigned to spending the rest of her existence in her hometown but when she discovers her mother left her money to go to university, she begins to dream of an escape.

Tsumugi’s Radio

つむぎのラジオ、「Tsumugi no Rajio」

Release Date: August 10th, 2019

Duration: 84 mins.

Director: Akiyoshi Koba

Writer: Akiyoshi Koba (Script),

Starring: Yo Hasegawa, Narumi Yonezawa, Yusuke Nakayama, Kazuma Fujiwara, Shinichiro Oosawa, Rinko Komiya,

Website

Akiyoshi Koba is an indie film director who I met and interviewed at the Osaka Asian Film Festival after watching and enjoying his latest film Nunchaku and Soul. I have seen some of his earlier films including this one which was made in 2017 and is likeable and laidback drama about mental illness and regrets which has charming characters.

Synopsis: Koyori (Narumi Yonezawa) is on a beach alone during the day. Her boyfriend (Yusuke Nakayama), who was just behind her 10 seconds ago, has gone missing. She’s angry and it has something to do with her childhood friend Tsumugi (Yo Hasegawa) who showed up after many year’s absence. Their meeting seemed random what Koyori doesn’t know is that Tsumugi is pulling the strings of her life and it is all down to a heavy sense of guilt over an incident from when they were kids. The truth comes out as the radio broadcast that Tsumugi hears in her head gets worse…

One Piece Stampede

劇場版 ONE PIECE STAMPEDE　「Gekijouban ONE PIECE STAMPEDE」

Release Date: August 09th, 2019

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Takashi Otsuka

Writer: Takashi Otsuka, Atsuhiro Tomioka (Screenplay), Eiichiro Oda (Original Creator)

Starring: Mayumi Tanaka (Monkey D. Luffy), Kazuya Nakai (Roronoa Zoro), Akemi Okamura (Nami), Kappei Yamaguchi (Usopp), Kotono Mitsuishi (Boa Hancock), Yuriko Yamaguchi (Nico Robin), Ikue Otani (Tony Tony Chopper),

Animation Production: Toei Animation Studio

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: The mysterious Buena Festa has set up The Pirates Festival and has invited the Straw Hat Crew to the festivities where so many pirates are in a festive spirit and the action at the fest promises to be big.

Lying to Mom

鈴木家の嘘「Suzukike no Uso」

Release Date: November 16th, 2018

Duration: 133 mins.

Director: Katsumi Nojiri

Writer: Katsumi Nojiri (Screenplay),

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

Website IMDB

Katsumi Nojiri has had a long career working as an assistant director on a diverse array of films such as the comedies Seto and Utsumi (2016) and Thermae Romae II (2014) as well as dictionary drama The Great Passage (2013). For his directorial debut he harnesses a touch of comedy to craft a heartfelt film that is sadly inspired by the death of his own brother. In Lying to Mom, he unpacks all of the difficulties surrounding suicide felt by one suburban family and captures some of the difficult dynamics that play in addressing sensitive topics.

The suburban family at the heart of the story are the Suzuki clan which consists of father Sachio (Ittoku Kishibe), mother Yuko (Hideko Hara), son Koichi (Ryo Kase) and daughter Fumi (Mai Kiryu). They seem normal with Sachio being a bit of a hands-off patriarch, Yuko running the household as a devoted mother and Fumi being a university student but Koichi is a hikikomori and, apart from brief spells in odd jobs, has struggled to step outside of his room after graduating from university. One day, whatever is weighing him down finally becomes too much to bare and he hangs himself in his room.

The film opens with this shocking act and then the camera watches Yuko who goes to check on him, panics, tries to save him and gets into an accident which results in her entering a coma which last for nearly 50 days. When she awakens in hospital she has lost her memory but is surrounded by everyone from her immediate family including her laid-back younger brother Hiroshi (Nao Omori) who works for a company which has just started importing shrimp from Argentina. On doctor’s orders they have to keep Yuko calm so when she naturally asks where Koichi is there is an awkward silence and Fumi lies to her in order to preserve her mental state. That lie is pretty big: Koichi stopped being a hikikomori because of her accident and now works in Argentina. How does one keep up that lie?

The set-up is slightly akin to the German comedy Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) and the audaciousness of the lie is so outrageous as to make the film sound like a black comedy. There is a comedic tone maintained throughout the early scenes of characters concocting all manner of silly stories and a stream of postcards from Argentina to keep the lie real but this initial humour proves to be a bit misleading because there is a tragedy underpinning everything and as the film’s story progresses it sheds the awkward laughter for a mood of creeping tension generated by whether someone will reveal the truth to Yuko and it also brings up the mystery as to why Koichi committed suicide.

The portrayal of Koichi’s mental anguish as performed by Ryo Kase is pretty multilayered considering his short screen time and he gives his co-stars and the film ample room to show a realistic range of reactions from his family as they try to coax him out of his mental isolation. Ittoku Kishibe captures the hapless and stoic aspects of Sachio while Hideko Hara, who essays a mother’s unfaltering love for her children, draws the most sympathy through the hopeful looks and joy she gives over every lie misleading her into thinking her son is alive and living his best life because of her accident but also reveals an inner strength that is needed to pull the family together. Mai Kiryu provides a lot of the emotional push for the film as she reveals how her character is being slowly eaten away by guilt over the lies she tells and her regret over her own relationship with her brother. Her inability to speak about her own anguish and the evident trauma over the death creates a mental conflict that gives the film direction and allows her to have a big emotional blow up which almost draws things together.

The reasons behind Koichi’s ending his own life are initially promised as the emotional effects of living with him, a hikikomori, are unpacked with fragmentary flashbacks and drip-feed information from various family members. This gradually fills in the backstory to a certain extent and shows some of the pressures and social stigma of mental health issues. The film also offers up a subplot involving a search for a soapland worker which could have magically wrapped things up but this goes nowhere. Ultimately we are left with an unsatisfying absence of information and emotional resolutions that death often brings.

This is an assured debut from Nojiri although the script could have benefited from some revisions because the film doesn’t quite know how to finish. Towards the end there are multiple scenes that feel like natural conclusions but the narrative keeps going until things fizzle out. Death is like that, however. People regard it as such a climactic thing but for those left behind, things carry on, uncertainly and falteringly at first, but they do carry on. Stay for the credits for a poignant final shot of the Suzuki family at the very end.

The L’Etrange Festival runs for its 25th edition from September 04 to 15 in Paris and it continues in its mission to show genre cinema and exult in strange delights from some of cinema’s greatest minds. The Japanese focus features familiar live-action films and some animation, some of which I have reviewed. The biggest film here is the newest Takashi Miike, Hatsukoi, which was at Cannes earlier in the year and will be released in Japan next year, and there’s also Branded to Kill, the super hitman film from Seijun Suzuki.

What Japanese films are programmed at L’Etrange this year?

Takashi Miike features in the International Competition!

First Love

初恋「Hatsukoi」

Release Date: 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Masaru Nakamura (Screenplay)

Starring: Becky, Masataka Kubota, Jun Murakami, Nao Omori, Sakurako Konishi, Sansei Shiomi, Seiyo Uchino, Shota Sometani,

IMDB

There are reviews out for this one from when it played at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes but I’m avoiding them so I can go into the film fresh. The actors include Masataka Kubota, who worked with Miike on 13 Assassins (2010), Nao Omori, the titular Ichi in Miike’s classic Ichi the Killer (2001), Shota Sometani, who appeared in Miike’s As the God’s Will (2014) and Lesson of the Evil (2013). Forget those recent films, from the details and the trailer this one looks to harken back to his late 90s/early 2000s output of the man. Here is the trailer and some extracts:

Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Director’s Fortnight)

Synopsis: Leo (Masataka Kubot) is a boxer whose career and life have hit the rocks. Losing fights and with a developing brain tumour, he is almost out for the count but then he meets his ‘first love’ Monica, a call-girl and an addict who is unwittingly caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme. Fate places them at the centre of a night-long chase where the two are pursued by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin sent by the Chinese Triads.

Mondovision has some incredible-sounding films such as The Lighthouse, which I am eager to see. There are two Japanese films and one American film directed by Werner Herzog which is set in Tokyo.

Family Romance, LLC

Release Date: May 18th, 2019 (Cannes)

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Werner Herzog

Writer: Werner Herzog (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuichi Ishii, Mahiro Tanimoto,

Website IMDB

Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Nosferatu, Bad Lieutenant Port of Call: New Orleans) filmed this during a brief stop in Japan. His film is about people who rent themselves out to play roles in life: work colleagues, friends etc. It’s something seen in Sion Sono’s film Noriko’s Dinner Table (2006). A lot of reviews for this hype up the “weird Japan” angle but it seems like a perfectly normal service for a society that is becoming atomised. Anyway, this service and the man in the film was featured on a funny bit for Conan O’Brien.

Synopsis: Yuichi Ishii is the focus of the film. He is one of the actors employed by an agency called Family Romance. We see him on various jobs but the one role that is shown throughout the film is pretending to be the missing father for a teenage girl named Mahiro Tanimoto. Their interactions in this fantasy provide ground for the moral quandries he feels which he voices between jobs.

The Fable

ザ・ファブル　「Za Faburu」

Release Date: June 21st, 2019

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Kan Eguchi

Writer: Yusuke Watanabe (Screenplay), Katsuhisa Minami (Original Essay)

Starring: Junichi Okada, Fumino Kimura, Koichi Sato, Mizuki Yamamoto, Kai Inowaki, Jiro Sato, Sota Fukushi, Ken Mitsuishi, Yuya Yagira, Ken Yasuda,

Website IMDB

I have been reading the manga of The Fable on and off for a year and I was sceptical that the film version would live up to the hard-boiled story it does with the actors capturing the look of the characters and piling on the action. The movie version is led by a strong performance from Junichi Okada taking the lead and a great supporting cast with the likes of Ken Mitsuishi, Koichi Sato (Starfish Hotel), Ken Yasuda, Yuya Yagira (Destruction Babies) taking roles. There’s also Sota Fukushi. He starred with Okada in the Library Wars live-action adaptations.

This film was screened at the New York Asian Film Festival. Here’s my review.

Synopsis: Fable is a legendary contract killer who was trained to be a killer when he was a young boy. He is ordered to lay low for one year and tries to live a normal life in Osaka as an ordinary person with the name of Akira Sato but there’s always someone ready to drag him back…

Diner

ダイナー　「Daina-」

Release Date: July 05th, 2019

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Mika Ninagawa

Writer: Hirohito Goto, Yoshikazu Sugiyama, Mika Ninagawa (Screenplay), Yumeaki Hirayama (Novel)

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Tina Tamashiro, Masataka Kubota, Kanata Hongo, Shinji Takeda, Takumi Saito, Erika Sato, Shun Oguri, Anna Tsuchiya, Miki Maya, Eiji Okuda,

Website IMDB

Director/fashion photographer Mika Ninagawa makes her return to the screen following Helter Skelter and Sakuran with this film with a cast list rich with stars and it looks super camp and full of a variety of over-saturated colours based on the post alone.

Synopsis: Kanako Oba (Tina Tamashiro) was looking for a decent paying job but didn’t use the usual channel of Hello Work so she ends up being sold to the owner of a diner called Diner. This fancy place with an anonymous name is has a clientele consisting of colourful contract killers and Kanako has no choice to provide good service or she will be killed. The place is run by the rather flamboyant Bombero (Tatsuya Fujiwara). Impeccable manners are demanded from all, especially Kanako who has to serve the sometimes extreme needs of the customers…

In terms of animation, in the Special Sessions is a new entry in the filmography of the Quay Brothers. Mirai Mizue’s The Dawn of Ape plays in the Short Film Competition. In the New Talents strand are two short films by Saku Sakamoto – Fisherman and Makafushigi – and his debut feature animation:

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.

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.

Branded to Kill will be screened on September 11th as part of Carte Blanche – 25 Years, 25 Choices – it’s a classic!

Branded to Kill

殺しの烙印　「Koroshi no rakuin」

Release Date: June 15th, 1967

Duration: 91 mins.

Director: Seijun Suzuki

Writer: Hachiro Guryu, Mitsutoshi Ishigami, Takeo Kimura, Chusei Sone, Atsushi Yamatoya (Screenplay),

Starring: Joe Shishido, Annu Mari, Mariko Ogawa, Koji Nanbara, Isao Tamagawa, Hiroshi Minami,

IMDB

Seijun Suzuki is a real artist. Instead of cranking out familiar films, he went all arty and it cost him his job at Nikkatsu. The film that finished him was Branded to Kill (1966), a title regarded as Suzuki’s best and a real hoot as he films gun fights and double-crosses with panache and has a fantastic performance from Joe Shishido to power everything.

Synopsis: The story follows an assassin named Goro Hanada (Joe Shishido), the No. 3 killer in Japan, who is tasked with assassinating a foreigner by the mysterious and death-obsessed Misako Chujo (Annu Mari). It goes wrong and he finds himself hounded by other killers including the No. 1 killer in Japan, a scary figure who nobody knows anything about. Goro goes on the run, fighting for his life, getting betrayed and looking for a chance to save Misako who is also in danger as mind games and bullets wear down his resolve.

Here’s my coverage of last year’s event: l’etrange 2018

Happy weekend, everyone.

I hope you are all well.

I’m midway through a 12-day week and I’ve cushioned each day with films – an 80s horror in the morning and a yakuza movie in the evening. I’ve finished writing initial PR for a film festival that will launch in October and now it’s a case of practising Japanese for guests who will be attending.

This week I posted a review of the film Lying to Mom and a preview of l’Etrange Festival.

What is released this weekend?

Dance With Me

ダンスウィズミー　「Dansu Uizu Mi-」

Release Date: August 16th, 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

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!

Black Maiden: Chapter A

黒い乙女A　「Kuroi Otome A」

Release Date: August 16th, 2019

Duration: N/A

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…

Aesop’s Game

イソップの思うツボ 「Isoppu no Omoutsubo」

Release Date: August 16th, 2019

Duration: 87 mins.

Director: Shinichiro Ueda, Naoya Asanuma, Yuya Nakaizumi,

Writer: Shinichiro Ueda (Script),

Starring: Ruka Ishikawa, Hiroe Igeta, Guama, Yoichiro Saito, Koji Kiryu, Yota Kawase, Makiko Watanabe

Website IMDB

This one was written by Shinichiro Ueda, the man behind One Cut of the Dead, and co-directed with staff from that film. It’s a revenger’s game movie which has a cool poster at the very least.

Synopsis: Miwa (Ruka Ishikawa) is an introverted university student who only counts a turtle as a friend. In complete contrast, Saori (Hiroe Igeta) is the daughter of a celebrity family and acts pretty entitled. Koyuzu (Guama) is different again as she works for her father’s shady business which employs the three girls to get revenge, something which causes chaos for them as sometimes deception and backstabbing is necessary.

Cherry Blossoms and Demons

命みじかし、恋せよ乙女 「Inochi mijikashi, koiseyo otome」

Release Date: August 16th, 2019

Duration: 117 mins.

Director: Doris Dorrie

Writer: Doris Dorrie (Script),

Starring: Golo Euler, Aya Irizuki, Kirin Kiki, Felix Eitner, Hannelore Elsner, Elmar Wepper,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: In 2008, Doris Dorrie made the drama of love Cherry Blossoms – Hanami in which a Bavarian chap named Rudi (Elmar Wepper) travelled in the footsteps of his late wife to Japan and encounters a woman named Yu. This film takes place ten years after Rudi’s death and his son Karl is experiencing a crisis: he has lost his job and his marriage has broken down. Fast becoming an alcoholic it looks like he has hit rock bottom and then Yu turns up at his doorstep in Munich and persuades him to visit his parent’s grave. She is lonely but helps him gain some balance in his life and he helps her, following her to Japan where he meets her grandmother, the landlady of an inn in Chigasaki (Kirin Kiki).

Matsunaga Tenma Murder Case

松永天馬殺人事件 「Matsunaga Tenma Satsujin Jiken」

Release Date: August 17th, 2019

Duration: 117 mins.

Director: Tenma Matsunaga

Writer: Tenma Matsunaga (Script),

Starring: Tenma Matsunaga, Ami Tomite, Anna Yanagi, Minori Mikada, Yuni Hong, Sumire Ueno – The NOMAKES girls),

Website IMDB

Synopsis: The musician Tenma Matsunaga is also a writer and actor and has now become the director, screenwriter, star, composer and editor of his own film. With the help of Ami Tomite (Antiporno) and Noboru Iguchi, he makes a movie about his being murdered by someone, and detective Ami Tomite pursuing the criminal in what turns out to be a confusing investigation.

Summer of Horror Hiho is an event running from August 23rd to September 06th where horror flicks get screened in cinemas in east, central and western Japan – Tokyo: Kineka Oomori in Shinagawa ward; Nagoya: Cinema SKHole in Nakamura ward; Osaka: Theater Seven in Yodogawa ward. Can you remember Vampire Clay? That horror movie was featured as part of this horror movie festival and since then it has travelled around the world and is easily available on legal streaming services so it’s worth keeping an eye on this festival to see what other discoveries there are. This weekend sees another edition of the fest and some of the films have already been shown at western festivals.

What are the film’s in this year’s line-up?

On top of having seminal 70s horror flicks Driller Killer (1979) and The Crazies (1973) there are these films:

Zan’nen’na aidoru wa zonbimeiku ga yoku niau

残念なアイドルはゾンビメイクがよく似合う「Zan’nen’na aidoru wa zonbimeiku ga yoku niau」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Kei Morikawa

Writer:

Starring: Aki Morita, Ruri Shinato, Ari Kadomae, Yui Umemura, Yuki Tsumuraya, Saki Shiraishi, Nana Fujii, Saroahi Morikawa,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Kei Morikawa, the director of one-room comedy Make-up Room (2016) where auds got to see behind-the-scenes of a pink film shoot, has made something of a series using that limited location concept and this is the third instalment. It’s another slapstick situation comedy sending up the film industry but this one doesn’t feature an AV production, no, this takes place at the site of a horror movie starring an idol.

VAMP

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: Kazuya Konaka

Writer: Kazuya Konaka (Script/Original Creator),

Starring: Shion Nakamaru, Mayu Takahashi, Makoto Tanaka, Shiyo Watanabe, Mitsutoshi Shundo, Ren Matsuzawa, Rinko Hayasaka,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Miina has suffered a life of abuse at the hands of her father and she lost hope. This is when a beautiful stranger named Rei appears and murders the man, slitting his throat and glugging down his blood. Rei She calls herself “Hematophilia” and tells Miina that she kills men who don’t deserve to live and siphons out their blood. From this meeting Rei, grows up in the shadow of a beautiful vampire, entering a shadow world of violence and feeling conflicted with every change…

When You Wish Upon A Star

星に願いを「Hoshi ni negai wo」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 118 mins.

Director: Katsumi Sasaki

Writer: Kazuya Konaka (Script/Original Creator),

Starring: Ibuki Kaneda, Kimika Masada, Toshikazu Ozeki, Yuki Hatakeyama,

Website IMDB

This one played at the Japan Film Fest Hamburg and Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2019.

Synopsis: A young prostitute named Eve is hooked on drugs and anger but the feelings they generate mask despair which is slowly overtaking her life. One night she meets a naive young woman in a bar and sees her fall into the clutches of a group of unscrupulous pimps. Eve decides to fight to free the woman from the horrific world they inhabit.

Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro Gmen Kotou hen

怪談新耳袋Gメン　孤島編「Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro Gmen Kotou hen」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: N/A

Director: Kohei Taniguchi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Naoto Tanobe, Tsuyoshi Goto, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Yukihiko Yamaguchi,

Website IMDB

No trailer

Synopsis: This is another one of the popular horror documentary “Kaidan Shin-Ear Bag Ruri!” series where a bunch of guys are chasing ghosts.

Shiori no Inmu

シオリノインム「Shiori no Inmu」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: Amane Sato

Writer: Amane Sato (Script/Original Creator),

Starring: Chihiro Matsukawa, Nagiko Tsuji, Ren Furuya,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Shiori has broken up with her lover and is heartbroken. This is the start of nightly dreams of a mysterious man. These dreams gradually become indecent and bewitch her. However, Shiori’s dream man turns into a nightmare and finally appears in the real world to physically torment her… Chihiro Matsukawa does her first nude and sex scenes in this film…

Beyond Blood

Release Date: August 25th, 2019

Duration: 92 mins.

Director: Masato Kobayashi

Writer: Masato Kobayashi (Screenplay)

Starring: Alexandre Aja, Beatrice Dall, Julien Maury, Alysson Paradis, Xavier Gens, Coralie Fargeat,

Website IMDB

This film has already played at Sitges, amongst other international fests.

Synopsis: Beyond Blood is a documentary by the critic and writer Masato Kobayashi and it looks at the wave of horror films from France in the early 2000s that is called New Wave of French Horror. If you were paying attention to what was happening, it was truly horrific with films like Martyrs and Frontier(s) taking body-horror to new sickening heights.

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 05th to the 15th and they have announced their selection of films. There is a great slate of titles from some of the big hitters in the industry with both live-action and anime getting represented. Yes, it’s an auteur-driven selection although Contemporary World Cinema has an award-winning indie drama by newbie director Hikari. It’s joined in that strand by a drama by Koji Fukada which was at Locarno along with a film in the strand Masters which has Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest, To the Ends of the Earth. Special Presentation has Makoto Shinkai’s Weathering with You and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth. There are Japanese inclusions in the documentaries Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema and Dads and Midnight Madness features Takashi Miike’s latest work!

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

First Love

初恋「Hatsukoi」

Release Date: 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Masaru Nakamura (Screenplay)

Starring: Becky, Masataka Kubota, Jun Murakami, Nao Omori, Sakurako Konishi, Sansei Shiomi, Seiyo Uchino, Shota Sometani,

IMDB

Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Director’s Fortnight)

37 Seconds

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Hikari

Writer: Hikari (Screenplay),

Starring: Mei Kayama, Makiko Watanabe, Yuka Itaya, Shunsuke Daito, Misuzu Kanno,

Website IMDB

This one looks really interesting. It is a drama about people with cerebral palsy that is stacked with good actors like Makiko Watanabe (Love Exposure) and it goes a step further by having people with the condition portray characters. It mixes drama and humour and the 37-second teaser promises it will be worth watching. That was my blurb from the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year and, guess what… it won the Berlinale Audience Award.

Synopsis from Berlinale: Yuma is a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo. When she commutes by train to her job in a manga studio, her face is at hip height to the other passengers standing up. Yuma uses a wheelchair on account of cerebral palsy. Her deformed limbs only allow her to crawl – and to hold a pencil. The fact that her boss, a successful comic artist and blogger named Sayaka, who has a penchant for garish Fairy Kei attire, passes Yuma’s drawing ideas off as her own, dismays the talented ‘mangaka’. Even worse, her overprotective mother hardly lets her out of her sight and refuses to talk about her father. As Yuma attempts to live a more independent life, she stumbles across adult comics – manga porn – and toys with the idea of drawing some herself. The publisher advises her to gain some personal experience first. But what happens when a woman in a wheelchair asks a tout in Tokyo’s red light district to fix her up with a sex date?

A Girl Missing

よこがお　「Yokogao」

Release Date: July 26th, 2019

Duration: 111 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada, Kazumasa Yonemitsu (Screenplay),

Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Mikako Ichikawa, Sosuke Ikematsu, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Hisako Okata, Ren Sudo, Miyu Ogawa,

Website IMDB

Back in March when I was in Japan I posted a clutch of reviews for Koji Fukada’s films:

Human Comedy Tokyo (2008)

Hospitalite (2010)

Au revoir l’ete (2013)

Sayonara (2015)

Harmonium (2016)

The latter won the Prix du Jury in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival of that year. It stars Mariko Tsutsui who has been doing stellar work as seen in Jam (2018) and Antiporno (2016) and she returns here with a bonkers cast including Mikako Ichikawa (Rent-a-cat (2012)), Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Cold Fish (2011)) and two newbies both in NDJC 2019 films, Ren Sudo (Last Judgement) and Miyu Ogawa (Quiet Hide-and-Seek). This has awards potential as it lets Tsutsui off the leash and looks like it has decent direction but Fukada will have to present a reigned-in story!

Synopsis: Ichiko (Mariko Tsutsui) is a visiting nurse who has earned the trust of her patients. She has been helping Motoko (Mikako Ichikawa) study for the purpose of becoming a care worker. Ichiko is the only person with whom Motoko is open with. One day, Motoko’s younger sister Saki (Miyu Ogawa) disappears. A week later Saki returns home unharmed, but the person arrested for her kidnapping is an unexpected person and Ichiko is suspected of being involved in the abduction. This causes Ichiko to collapse…

MASTERS

To the Ends of the Earth

旅のおわり世界のはじまり　「Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari」

Release Date: June 14th, 2019

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, Shota Sometani, Tokio Emoto, Adiz Rajabov,

Website IMDB

Kiyoshi Kurosawa teams up with a great cast to make a movie which is a co-production between Japan and Uzbekistan to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Two of the leading actors have worked in his films, Atsuko Maeda being the lead in Seventh Code and Shota Sometani having a supporting role in Real.

Synopsis: Yoko (Atsuko Maeda) is a reporter for a TV variety program and her assignment is to find a mythical fish in a huge lake in Uzbekistan, a country that once flourished as the centre of the Silk Road. Things don’t quite go according to plan for Yoko and her crew and, one day, drawn by a mysterious voice, she departs from their company and loses herself in the wonders of the country…

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

The Truth

真実　「Shinjitsu」

Release Date: October 11th, 2019

Duration: 106 mins.

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda (Screenplay),

Starring: Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke, Clementine Grenier, Ludivine Sagnier,

Website IMDB

Weathering With You

天気の子　「Tenki no ko」

Release Date: July 19th, 2019

Duration: 116 mins.

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 centres 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.

That’s it for now. I’ll update it if any other films are added.

Here is past coverage:

Toronto International Film Festival 2011

Toronto International Film Festival 2012

Toronto International Film Festival 2013

Toronto International Film Festival 2014

Toronto International Film Festival 2015

Toronto International Film Festival 2017

Toronto International Film Festival 2018

“OP PICTURES + Fes 2019” is back for another year, screening between August 23-September 5 at Theater Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Just like last year’s event, this is a collection of pink films produced by the movie production company, Okura Movie, with the racy bits cut out to secure the R15 rating to open it up to a wider audience. Familiar names grace the staff and cast lists although one director from mainstream and indie cinema makes his debut here in a pink film as director and actor. Whether or not he gets up to some steamy action will only be found out by the people that watch these films. There are 15 titles in total and their release pattern is spread out over two weeks and they are screened two per evening.

It goes without saying that this stuff is NSFW so you have been warned.

Here’s the information that is available so far plus a trailer:

Here are the films:

Ienai Kimochi ni Futa o shite

言えない気持ちに蓋をして　「Ienai Kimochi ni Futa o shite」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Takehora

Writer: Hiroko Fukazawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Nanami Kawakami, Yurina Aizawa, Rie Kawasaki, Kenji Iwaya, Atsushi Tsuda, Takuya Sakurai,

Website

Synopsis: Miwa (Nanami Kawakami) is a shy girl who hides. One day, while at a shrine, she hears the voice of a middle-aged man and she finds it and him attractive starts conversations with him. With each day, she becomes a little braver…

Itsuka…

いつか…　「Itsuka…」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Hidekazu Takahara

Writer: Hidekazu Takahara, Hidenori Shishido (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuna Ogura, Toko Namiki, Kana Suzuna, Naho Yamada, Takash Naha,

Website

Synopsis: A girl who dropped out of high school meets an old teacher and his wife and finds new hope in studying under the two…

Sekkusu no Kisetsu

セックスの季節　「Sekkusu no Kisetsu」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Hirohisa Sasaki

Writer: Hirohisa Sasaki (Screenplay)

Starring: Noa Eikawa, Misuzu Kawana, Chie Hasegawa, Shijimi, Hotaru Kosaka,

Website

Synopsis: Nana had gone to Tokyo to become an actress but wasn’t able to make a debut and now she spends days being treated as a “pillow salesperson” (a euphemism!)…

Yaritai Futari

やりたいふたり　「Yaritai Futari」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Kohei Taniguchi

Writer: Kohei Taniguchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Natsuki Yokoyama, Aina Nagase, Sakura Kirishima, Koji Seki, Yoshio Hosokawa,

Website

Synopsis: Manga artist Ai Kosaki interviews a couple to write a work based on real experiences of sex. She listens to the husband and wife separately and it is clear they have their difference of opinion…

Ano ko no shitatari

アノコノシタタリ　「Ano ko no shitatari」

Release Date: August 25th, 2019

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Kyoya Tsunoda,

Writer: Kyoya Tsunoda (Screenplay)

Starring: Airi Natsume, Eri Kato, Hinata Seno, Tomoya Masuda, Yota Kawase,

Website

This asks the burning question we’ve all thought about: would I make out with a demon girl?

Synopsis: A man moves into a cheap property where previous owners have suffered “accidents”. One day, a beautiful young woman suddenly appears in front of him and he feels something strange about her…

nagasaki-ka no houkai

長崎家の崩壊　「nagasaki-ka no houkai」

Release Date: August 25th, 2019

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Takehora

Writer: Toho Vocal (Kosuke Komatsu) (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuko Shiraki, Ryo Minami, Mirei Yokoyama, Tadashi Mizuno, Yoshio Hosokawa, Kenji Iwayama,

Website

Synopsis: A father who has neglected his family faces decides to retire to the countryside after getting tired of working in a company and decides to do so without asking his wife and children…

Tawawana Kimochi

たわわな気持ち　「Tawawana Kimochi」

Release Date: August 26th, 2019

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Takeshi Furusawa

Writer: Takeshi Furusawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Nanami Matsumoto, Akemi Miu, Tsubaki Kato, Yota Kawase, Tkashi Furusawa,

Website

Synopsis: A glimpse at the life of a timid writer named Aya who works for an erotic magazine and has a annoying boyfriend.

Snack Akemi

スナックあけみ　「Sunakku Akemi」

Release Date: August 27th, 2019

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Daisuke Yamauchi

Writer: Daisuke Yamauchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Sakura Kirishima, Kizuna Sakura, Ayumi Kuroki, Yota Kawase, Yoko Satomi, Shijimi,

Website

Synopsis: “Snack Akemi” is always crowded with regular customers. In the past, Akemi was saved by a man named Goro, who helped set her up with the place…

Heisei Fuzoku-shi

平成風俗史　「Heisei Fuzoku-shi」

Release Date: August 27th, 2019

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Takehora

Writer: Toho Vocal (Kosuke Komatsu) (Screenplay)

Starring: Ayaka Tomoda, Airi Natsume, Saryu Usui, Maria Wakatsuki, Rin Azuma, Yui Tatsumi,

Website

Synopsis: A couple share their love for each other, a single man who likes sex, and an office lady who is a shopping addict. These people who live in the same apartment block give us a look at lives in the Heisei era.

Cha no matsuka no ma

ちゃのまつかのま　「Cha no matsu ka no ma」

Release Date: August 28th, 2019

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Takehora

Writer: Toho Vocal (Kosuke Komatsu) (Screenplay)

Starring: Rin Azuma, Yui Tatsumi, Ayaka Tomoda, Airi Natsume, Saryu Usui, Maria Wakatsuki,

Website

Synopsis: It is the last night of the Heisei era and a group of people who live in a company dormitory share stories.

Marika Marika Marika

まりかマリカまりか　「Marika Marika Marika」

Release Date: August 28th, 2019

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Daisuke Yamauchi

Writer: Daisuke Yamauchi (Screenplay)

Starring: Ayumi Kimito, Yukine Sakuragi, Kyoko Maki, Shotaro Izumi, Hirokio Ando, Manzo Shinra,

Website

The music in this trailer makes me think of JRPGs – I’ve just entered a port town and have to complete some tasks before I can hop on a shop and travel to another continent to continue the game!

Synopsis: A mysterious man appears in front of Marika, a housewife who suspects her husband is cheating and even though she has no idea of who he could be, Marika talks to him and tries to figure him out…

Gekijouban Etsuraku Kurinikku! Rinko no midarana bouken

劇場版・悦楽クリニック！　凛子の淫らな冒険　「Gekijouban Etsuraku Kurinikku! Rinko no midarana bouken」

Release Date: August 29th, 2019

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Hirohisa Sasaki

Writer: Hirohisa Sasaki (Screenplay) Annu Takigawa (Original Story)

Starring: Mizuki Hayakawa, Nina Nishimura, Shijimi, Yuki Sakrami, Yo Takahashi,

Website

Synopsis: A female doctor named Rinko inherits a hospital from her recently disappeared father and finds it has been changed into a place of debauchery …

Otona no dokyusei

大人の同級生　「Otona no dokyusei」

Release Date: August 31st, 2019

Duration: 82 mins.

Director: Tetsuya Takehora

Writer: Hiroko Fukazawa (Screenplay)

Starring: Airi Natsume, Ai Kayama, Tsubaki Kato, Yoshio Hosokawa, Atsushi Tsuda, Kenji Iwaya,

Website

Synopsis: Rei and Sumire both shared the same feeling of love for their classmate Reiji but never told him. He returns to their hometown for a reunion…

Man Naka You’re My Rock

まん・なか You’re My Rock　「Man Naka You’re My Rock」

Release Date: August 29th, 2019

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Hidekazu Takahara

Writer: Hidekazu Takahara, Ayano Ukami (Screenplay)

Starring: Misaki Enomoto, Riri Kuribayashi, Kana Suzuna, Noriaki Yoshida

Website

Synopsis: A writer of sensual novels struggles with the difference between her public persona and her true self…

Shinitaku naru yo to yoru naku tanishi

死にたくなるよと夜泣くタニシ　「Shinitaku naru yo to yoru naku tanishi」

Release Date: August 29th, 2019

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Daisuke Goto

Writer: Daisuke Goto (Screenplay) Kazumi Ohba (Original Work)

Starring: Misa Wada, Akari Shinmura, Yurina Aizawa, Seiji Nakamitsu,

Website

This pink film combines live-action and animation.

Synopsis: A woman named Shizuka is bullied at work. Whenever she is bullied, she checks on snails in a tank. One morning, after she awakes, she finds her body has transformed…

Here’s the schedule from the website:

Happy weekend, everyone.

Autumn is approaching!

I’m at the end of a 12-day working week. I watched a looooot of films. Usually one in the morning (horror/thriller) and then one in the evening (yakuza). I also watched Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood – thoughts on that next week. I have to pack in doing PR for the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival which launches in October.

This week I posted about two festivals taking place, Horror Hiho, which is dedicated to horror movies, and OP Pictures pink film festival, which is self-explanatory. There are too many films from both to put in the trailer posts so they got their own separate posts. I also did my preview for the Japanese films at the 2019 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival – lots of master film-makers present.

What films are playing this weekend?

Kakou no Futari

火口のふたり「Kakou no Futari」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Haruhiko Arai

Writer: Haruhiko Arai (Script), Kazufumi Shiraishi (Novel),

Starring: Tasuku Emoto, Kumi Takiuchi,

Website IMDB

Tasuku Emoto (And Your Bird Can Sing, Dynamite Graffiti) and Kumi Takiuchi (Greatful Dead) take the lead in this drama that looks absolutely steamy and sexy.

Synopsis: When don’t you want to attend an ex-lover’s wedding (seriously, when do you?)? When you are reeling from your own divorce and job loss. Kenji Nagahara (Tasuku Emoto) cannot resist, however, as he is drawn to attend the wedding of his ex-lover Naoko Sato (Kumi Takiuchi) in their home town of Akita. When she proposes they have a final one night stand, of course, their passion lasts longer than that and we see the extent of their obsession with each other…

Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead

劇場版おっさんずラブ LOVE or DEAD 「Gekijouban Ossanzu Rabbu Love or Dead」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 117 mins.

Director: Toichiro Ruto

Writer: Koji Tokuo (Script),

Starring: Kei Tanaka, Kotaro Yoshida, Kento Hayashi, Nene Otsuka, Jun Shison, Rio Uchida, Ikki Sawamura, Shuko Ito,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Soichi Haruta (Kei Tanaka) has returned to the real estate office after his year-long stint in Hong Kong and Shanghai and his co-worker Musashi Kurosawa (Kotaro Yoshida) still has feelings for him. A bunch of new faces show up but so does Ryota Maki (Kento Hayashi) who also has feelings for Soichi Haruta. This straight man is a big hit with the other guys in the office as competition heats up between different teams in the company and Musashi suffers an accident…

Ni no kuni

二ノ国　「Ni no kuni」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Yoshiyuki Momose

Writer: Akihiro Hino (Screenplay/Original Creator)

Starring: Kento Yamazaki (Yu), Kenjiro Tsuda (Gabaras), Maaya Sakamoto (Saki/Velsa), Koichi Yamadera (Balton), Mamoru Miyano (Yoki), Yuuki Kaji (Danpo),

Animation Production: OLM

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: High school boys Yuu and his friend Haru both have feelings for their mutual friend Kotona but they have bigger things to think about as they hop between this world and another world, Ni no Kuni as they get caught up in a life-threatening adventure.

Revival II Ai to biseibutsu

蘇生II 愛と微生物「Sosei II ai to biseibutsu」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 91 mins.

Director: Tetsu Shiratori (IMDB)

Writer: Kensaku Watanabe (Script),

Starring: Teruo Higa, Matsunori Nara, Kim Young-Kyu, Natallia I. Tsimokjina, Alexander N. Nikitin, / Drama cast: Koyo Maeda, Shigeyuki Nakamura, Shoichi Asano

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A sequel to a 2015 film which combines drama with documentary. The focus is on how science can be used to clean up radiation and pollution with a particular reference to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Experts from around the world are talked to and one solution seems to be Effective Microorganisms being sprayed to reduce radiation.

The website has an English side so please read that for more information.

How to Identify the Correct Bus

正しいバスの見分けかた「Tadashii Basu no Miwakekata」

Release Date: November 15th, 2015

Duration: 25 mins.

Director: Natsuki Takahashi

Writer: Natsuki Takahashi (Script),

Starring: Ayami Nakajo, Amane Okayama, Minori Hagiwara, Shono Hayama,

IMDB

A short film produced in 2015 and starring Ayami Nakajo, a popular model who has gone on to become a popular actor. It was written and shot by Natsuki Takahashi who was a third-year high school student at the time and it netted her some awards.

Synopsis: Takashima is a quirky high school girl who tends to be inconspicuous to everyone at school except her classmate Fujita since he has a crush on her. Hosokawa, another boy in their class, knows Fujita’s thoughts but is caught up in feelings of his own for Nakajima, a friend of Takashima. When Hosokawa hears that Takashima recently saw an alien, he tells Fujita the story and the boy falls in love…

Narenai Futari

なれない二人「Narenai Futari」

Release Date: August 23rd, 2019

Duration: 51 mins.

Director: Konosuke Higuchi

Writer: Konosuke Higuchi (Script),

Starring: Yuki Izumisawa, Shogo Furukawa, Riho Takada,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Shindo longs to be a professional entertainer but the day before his live show he meets and falls in love with a married woman. Then there’s Katsuta, a freelancer who is aiming to win a prize at a show to repay a debt.

I’m Crazy

アイムクレイジー「Aimu Kureiji-」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: Masaaki Kudo

Writer: Yuuiko Kato, Masaaki Kudo (Script),

Starring: Yutaro Furutachi, Yuki Sakurai, Shinya Hamada, Seiki Sasaki, Ayaka Nakata, Soran Tamoto, Kenji Iwaya,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Yuki is a musician who is on the verge of quitting when he is hit by a car on the day of his last gig. The car was being driven by a woman named Michiko who is a composer and performer but is stuck in a bad situation since she is effectively a single-mother raising her autistic song Hiroshi alone. Michiko is positive and confident despite her harsh reality and her behaviour gradually changes Yuki.

I Want to Be a Farmer

お百姓さんになりたい「Ohyakushosan ni naritai」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 104 mins.

Director: Masaki Haramura

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yutaro Furutachi, Yuki Sakurai, Shinya Hamada, Seiki Sasaki, Ayaka Nakata, Soran Tamoto, Kenji Iwaya,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: This documentary carefully follows Akashi Farm which grows 60 kinds of vegetables in a 2.8 hectare field. The owner moved from Tokyo to Saitama, at the age of 28, to start organic farming, believing in natural cultivation without using fertiliser. People with various backgrounds such as pastry chefs and photographers come to Akashi Farm as trainees. People with disabilities working in agricultural welfare cooperatives and children participating in agricultural experience events are also welcomed at the farm.

The man most feared by the US military

米軍（アメリカ）が最も恐れた男　カメジロー不屈の生涯「Beigun (Amerika) ga mottomo osoreta otoko Kamejirō fukutsu no shōgai」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 128 mins.

Director: Tadahiko Sako

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kamejiro Senaga

Website IMDB

Synopsis: This film depicting the life of Kamejiro Senaga (Wikipedia link) shows a politician who fought against the oppression of the US military in occupied Okinawa after the war. He began his political career as mayor of Naha and then as a member of the House of Representatives, representing the interests of Okinawa before and after it was returned to Japan and into retirement. The documentary looks into the many diaries left by Kamejiro, detailing his daily life with his wife and daughters, as well as his work as a politician.

Seisyun Kaleidoscope

青春カレイドスコープ「Seishun Kareidosuko-pu」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 128 mins.

Director: Noriko Yuasa, Tomoyuki Kamimura, Yuuji Abe,

Writer: Noriko Yuasa, Tomoyuki Kamimura, Yuuji Abe, Kijin Nishi (Script),

Starring: Okaeri Kakko: Riria Kojima, Honoka Yoneyama; Ashita Kitto Motto: Miori, Mirei Tanaka, Yu Miyazawa, Masako Wakui; Natsuiro no Mafura-: Suzuka Chinzei, Haruka Momokawa,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: An omnibus movie composed of youth stories played out by young actresses and written/directed by up-and-coming directors. “Okaeri Kakko” (director: Noriko Yuasa – Ordinary Everyday, Girl, Wavering) who has issues with her vision and seeing red/green which causes her world to have vivid colours. “Ashita Kitto Motto” ( Tomoyuki Kamimura) is about a girl who dreams of being a voice actor. She works with a colleague who likes cosplay and they draw characters. Natsuiro no Mafura (Yuuji Abe) depicts friendships and first loves.

Mugen Foundation

無限ファンデーション「Mugen Fande-shon」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 102 mins.

Director: Akira Osaki

Writer: N/A (Script),

Starring: Sara Minami, Nanoka Hara, Rin Onoka, Kosame Nishiyama, Nanami Hidaka,

Website IMDB

A youth movie in which Akira Osaki, director of Obon Brothers, spins out a tale based on teenage girls heading to the future. It’s an improvisational play based on the song “To the Future” by Kosame Nishiyama and it was produced as part of the 2018 run of MOOSIC LAB.

Synopsis: One day, a high school girl named Nanoka who is not good at socialising, is led by a clear singing voice she hears from a recycling facility to meet a mysterious girl, Koyame. This spurs Nanoka to join the theatre club as a costumier and her future opens up.

Hoshi o sutete

星を捨てて「Hoshi o sutete」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 68 mins.

Director: Mankichi Maeda, Kyohei Kikuchi,

Writer: Mankichi Maeda, Kyohei Kikuchi, (Script),

Starring: Kiwa Kyono, Ayaka Sugawara, Miki Kurutani, Kacho Tadano, Kisaki Shirasaki,

Website

Synopsis: A youth drama set in Akihabara where a high school girl named Yayoi Mizushima practically lives. She’s an outsider in her real life but loves walking around Akihabara and she is invited to become a member of an underground idol unit. This is at a time when there are rumours of a man from the future who predicts the destruction of mankind and it looks like Yayoi will make her debut on the day of destruction…

Riben guizi Japanese Devils Confessions of Imperial Army Soldiers from Japan’s War Against China

日本鬼子（リーベン・クイズ）　日中15年戦争・元皇軍兵士の告白「Nihonkishi (rīben kuizu) nitchū 15-nen sensō moto kōgun heishi no kokuhaku」

Release Date: December 01st, 2001

Duration: 126 mins.

Director: Minoru Matsui

Writer: Minoru Matsui (Script),

Starring: Yoshio Tsuchiya, Yoshio Shinozuka, Takeshi Ebato,

Synopsis taken from a university website: Fourteen veterans break Japan’s unspoken code of silence, remembering their brutal war crimes as enlisted men in China from 1931 to 1945

Ayakucho no Tonae no Chichibu no Yama

アヤクーチョの唱と秩父の山　「Ayakucho no Tonae no Chichibu no Yama」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 60 mins.

Director: Takashi Honma

Writer:

Starring:

Synopsis: This is the first music documentary film by Takashi Honma, a photographer and documentary film-maker. He goes to Ayacucho, a town located in the mountains of the Andes Mountains in southern Peru, with the singer Irma Osno who comes from there but lives in Chichibu in Saitama. Ayacucho means “place where the dead gather” in Quechua and in the past, Ayacucho was dominated by the violence of the “Shining Path” guerrillas but locals resisted through culture and Irma is going back for the first time in years.

The Vancouver International Film Festival 2019 runs from September 26th to October 11th and it has a fantastic selection of East Asian films with one particular highlight being the HK flick, Still Human, winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival. There is a nice compliment of Japanese films, three of which are found in the Gateway strand while Melancholic and Still Human are in Dragons and Tigers. Here’s the round-up of Japanese films.

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

Friends who have seen this say that it’s utterly beautiful.

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.

Every Day A Good Day

日日是好日「Nichinichi Kore Kojitsu」

Release Date: October 13th, 2018

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Tatsushi Ohmori

Writer: Tatsushi Ohmori (Screenplay), Noriko Morishita (essay)

Starring: Haru Kruoki, Mikako Tabe, Kirin Kiki, Shingo Tsurumi, Mayu Tsuruta, Mayu Harada, Saya Kawamura, Chihiro Okamoto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Noriko (Haru Kuroki) is a 20-year-old university student who has lost her way in life. Noriko’s mother suggests that she attends a Japanese tea ceremony near her house with her cousin Michiko (Mikako Tabe). Michiko is enthusiastic about it but Noriko doesn’t seem so certain. However, once there, Noriko learns from the teacher, Takeda (Kirin Kiki) and experiences a whole new world. It stays with Noriko throughout her life, during frustrations while job hunting, moments when she suffers a broken heart, and during the death of someone important. The tea ceremony always offers her something to return to…

Melancholic

メランコリック「Merankorikku」

Release Date: August 02nd, 2019

Duration: 113 mins.

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 as it looks at differences between generations to the workplace and it has a great performance by Yoji Minegawa. It’s a real treat with a great lead performance from Yoji Minagawa. It played at this year’s Japan Cuts where it went down well with audiences. Here’s my review.

Hard-core

ハード・コア「Ha-do Koa」

Release Date: November 23rd, 2018

Duration: 124 mins.

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

Director Nobuhiro Yamashita (The Drudgery Train) is a director who can bring out all sorts of different tones in stories which are often about oddballs and losers and he does so for this one which is truly bizarre but also sorrowful. It was produced by Takayuki Yamada (13 Assassins) who used his star power to bring this unconventional film about misfits to the big screen to create something unique. He is joined by Takeru Satoh (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno) and YosiYosi Arakawa (Fine, Totally Fine) and Takako Matsu (Dreams for Sale). Here’s my review.

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.

Here’s my coverage of Vancouver from previous years:

Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood

Release Date: August 14th, 2019 (UK)

Duration: 161 mins.

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Writer: Quentin Tarantino (Screenplay)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley,

Website IMDB

Quentin Tarantino is, without a doubt, one of Hollywood’s best movie makers. He has cemented his place by making violent cinematic spectacles that are riffs on genre conventions replete with references and re-purposed iconic imagery from older genre films to synthesise entertaining experiences. The style is often the substance and it often feels like being in a closed world as thinly sketched characters act out their tales surrounded by callbacks to older entertainment. Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood feels like his most mature film to date because it is more of an open world. It speaks to more than just narrow sets of film fans as it relies upon and subverts the shared cultural memory of a wider audience who grew up with 50s and 60s Americana because the film is a melancholy love letter to a lost age in Hollywood where the transition from the fading allure of westerns to the glamorous swinging 60s was about to be knocked off course by the grisly fate of Sharon Tate, something that signalled the end of an era of innocence.

This slice of American belle epoque takes place in 1969 while the Vietnam war is happening but you wouldn’t know it because we’re in Hollywood and seeing the showbiz life as experienced by three characters: Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), the former star of the (fictional) TV western Bounty Law who is struggling to make the leap to movies; Cliff Booth (Pitt), Rick’s stunt-double and best friend, a war veteran with a bad rep after having killed his wife; Sharon Tate (Robbie) who, along with her husband Roman Polanski, has just moved next door to Rick in the Hollywood Hills. Their story-lines run parallel to each other as they experience the ins and outs of the movie industry before entwining neatly at the end. We live with them for a few days amidst the exciting and glamorous surrounds of film productions, negotiations and parties all while Sharon’s real-life death casts a pall over everything as we wait for how it will be told by Tarantino.

Typical for the film obsessive that Tarantino is, he captures the atmosphere with what looks like a faithful reconstruction of 60s Hollywood through costumes, sets and locations full to the brim with all sorts of period details, excerpts from contemporaneous TV shows and a soundtrack full of hits designed to strike the right emotions. The camera captures it all, often with beautiful tracking shots along city streets as people drive along the boulevards and highways (because you can’t get anywhere in California without a car). Indeed, many sequences are just spending time with Rick and Cliff as they drive, the camera sometimes positioned in the backseat as we cruise the streets and boulevards with them and enjoy the ambience. By steeping the audience in the location and all of its style we feel part of their lives. This has led to criticisms of pacing which probably come from those less enamoured with Tarantino’s style because I found myself wanting to hang out with the characters.

Although she doesn’t get as much screen time as the guys, the bright-eyed and bushy tailed optimism of Margot Robbie’s performance imbues her character with a effervescence and defines the film with a grace and meaning: she is innocence and wonder and enjoying all that Hollywood can give as she slinks around groovy parties and we enjoy being with her. Her spirit is the spirit of the age as translated through Robbie, and we are moved seeing her especially during a scene where she watches an actual Sharon Tate performance in a cinema and Tarantino focuses the camera on Robbie’s look of innocent delight at seeing her character. We’re all revelling in her evident pride for making it on the big screen and the bright future that awaits her, something which makes the tragedy we anticipate all the more poignant.

While Tate represents a girl on the rise, Rick Dalton represents the old guard being displaced. Leo’s acting test is to capture the contrary emotions of the coolness of an experienced actor while also hinting at his fear of being replaced by younger stars. This comes out in a showy stutter but becomes breathtaking when he rages and gets wrathful self-critical monologues. Watching these moments, well, he has the air of Jack Nicholson – see that snarl he gives in the shattered wing mirror in one of his TV appearances – but DiCaprio’s best moment comes when his character arc puts him in his greatest acting test with a girl who practises method-acting (another stylistic challenge to old guard Hollywood) who brings out his best. This sequence and the emotional payoff, and the Tate cinema moment are dialogue free and the emotions of the characters come through loud and clear. Indeed, a commendable aspect of the film is how Tarantino tones down his dialogue and the quiet moments are the ones where you appreciate how the actors inhabit their roles by looking at their faces. As the laid-back Cliff, Brad is perfect with a confident swagger and drawl, and a face with the steady gaze and resigned look of a guy packing so much experience but as cool as a summer’s breeze so you can see how he became the confidant for Rick as he acts as stability for his friend.

There is emotional weight to the characters rather than just coolness and snark thanks to the actors but there is also real life which the film draws on and the ominous references – the scandal around Polanski’s behaviour and the Manson family – are used by Tarantino to tease moments of high tension before subverting everything for his own end which makes the movie a surprise and turns it into a fairy tale (hence the title) but this may not work for all audiences.

Often times, Tarantino makes movies in a closed world where movie fans get the most out of endless references¹ but this one is more open and speaks to a wider cultural zeitgeist for certain generations. Younger audiences more ignorant of history may be put off. The one weakness of the film is that you have to know the story of the Sharon Tate murder for everything to work. I feel that my generation might be the last to have grown up with it being part of our cultural memory, likewise with the type of shows and movies that Rick, Cliff, and Sharon work in and so the film’s ending is a violent yet sweet farewell to that age, where hippies and the older generation could get along. Other potential drawbacks are the Bruce Lee scene which does feel a tad disrespectful and anybody expecting a full-on #MeToo mea culpa for Tarantino’s treatment of Uma Thurman and female characters in previous films best look elsewhere. There are some jarring moments where the tone switches to hardcore violence after so much restraint and the laidback atmosphere but Tarantino is a genre film-maker and anybody familiar with, say giallo movies of the 70s, won’t be too phased and the film is good enough that you go with it because we’re already sucked into the milieu and for those in the audience who know of the Manson family, well, there’s little sympathy for their characters.

For those familiar with that form of Americana and movie culture, this films with its verisimilitude and likeable characters is truly a moving farewell to that era and one of Tarantino’s best.

¹There are many references to other films especially in vignettes where DiCaprio is CGI’d into scenes from real films like spy flick Operazione Dyn-O-Mite! to completely made-up films that capture the manic B-movie action as seen in 14 Fists of McCluskey, a Dirty Dozen-alike. Once Upon a Time is littered with references to obscure and lost cult gems such as Luke Perry wearing a replica costume from, and talking about The Bengal Lancers which is an actual film that has been lost in protracted legal disputes (shout out to a friend for telling me).

The 2019 edition of the Raindance Film Festival takes place from September 18th to the 29th and features a small but interesting selection of Japanese films. Without further ado, here they are. Click on the title links to be taken to more information:

Demolition Girl

JK エレジー「JK Ereji-」

Release Date: August 09th, 2019

Duration: 88 mins.

Director: Genta Matsugami

Writer: Yoshitaka Kasui, Genta Matsugami (Screenplay),

Starring: Aya Kitai, Hiroki Ino, Yota Kawase, Haruka Imo, Yura Komuro,

Website IMDB

Night Cruising

ナイトクルージング　「Naito Kuru-jingu」

Release Date: March 30th, 2019

Duration: 144 mins.

Director: Yuichi Hibi

Writer: Yuichi Hibi (Screenplay),

Starring: Hideyuki Kato, Koichi Yamadera, Nobutoshi Canna, Mamiko Noto, Hiroya Ishimaru, Arno LeGall, Toshimitsu Kokido,

Website IMDB

Night Cruising was also featured at this year’s Japan Cuts.

Synopsis: NIGHT CRUISING follows congenitally blind musician Hideyuki Kato as he pursues the realisation of an expansive sci-fi short called Ghost Vision, a film within its own making-of documentary. Working with a media production team and wide range of collaborators—including colour experts, facial roboticists, hair stylists, voice actors, fight choreographers and VFX engineers—Kato directs the execution of his story about a non-sighted fighter and a telepath searching for a mysterious ghost in a future world. His pursuit becomes a deep interrogation of how sensory environments are perceived and rendered, offering new ways for viewers to think through their own assumptions about cinema and imagination. Check out the website which has a neat effect: initially black, your cursor will sweep away the darkness and reveal the options beneath.

My Dearest Sister

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 74 mins.

Director: Kyoka Tsukamoto

Writer: Kyoka Tsukamoto, Ingrid Berzins Leuzy (Screenplay)

Starring: Kyoka Tsukamoto,

Website

Synopsis: This self-documentary tracks the director, Kyoka Tsukamoto, as she returns to Japan. She had left the country and emigrated to Canada in the 90s while her sister, Akane, an acclaimed potter, stayed behind and set up shop in Fukushima. The two women have been separated geographically, culturally and emotionally for many years and once reunited their differences come out and form the terrain that Kyoka navigates as she explores a family history of abuse and oppression and helps Akane come to terms with the negative impact of the father and wider societal issues in Japan.

A Dobugawa Dream

ドブ川番外地　「November 23rd, 2018」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 82 mins.

Director: Asato Watanabe

Writer: Asato Watanabe, Junpei Miyazaki (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuwa Kitagaki, Takahiro Fujita, Tatsuro Kawano, Haruka Kinami, Izumi Uemura,

Twitter IMDB

“A Dobugawa Dream” has been nominated for BEST DISCOVERY . The September 23rd screening is with the director Asato Watanabe lead actor Yuwa Kitagaki who will be there for a Q&A. Third Window Films highly rates this film so check it out.

Synopsis: A young man named Tatsumi was so traumatised by a friend’s suicide he shut himself in at his parent’s home but, one day, he snaps and flees with nowhere in particular on his mind. Wandering around the streets, he meets an eccentric vagrant named Tsuchiro who takes Tatsumi under his wing and introduces him to a strange adoptive family where his fracture psyche is influenced.

Here’s past coverage of the festival:

Raindance Film Festival 2013

Raindance Film Festival 2014

Raindance Film Festival 2015

Raindance Film Festival 2017

Raindance Film Festival 2018

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all feeling good.

I am midway through a long week of work and I’m continuing with my “two films a day” routine with Japanese and Italian films from the 70s and also running press for a film festival. I also watched the Amazon series, The Boys and was impressed by how the studio adapted the comic book into a series that can go on and get a sequel. It has perfect world building to give depth to everyone and the set-up so that I was eager to watch each new episode to find out how the story would unfold and now I am eager to watch the second season. This week saw me post about the Japanese films at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2019 and the line-up for Raindance 2019 as well as a review for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

What is released this weekend?

Samurai Shifters

引っ越し大名！　「Hikkoshi Daimyo!」

Release Date: August 30th, 2019

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Isshin Inudo

Writer: Akihiro Dobashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Gen Hoshino, Gaku Hamada, Yutaka Matsushige, Issey Takahashi, Mitsuki Takahata, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Masahiko Nishimura, Mitsuhiro Oikawa, Yasuko Tomita,

Website IMDB

This one was at Japan Cuts 2019 and seemed to have gone down well. It is a comedy that has an able cast with Gen Hoshino (Why Don’t You Play in Hell?, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl), Yutaka Matsushige (The Guard From Underground) and Mitsuki Takahata (Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura) taking leading roles.

Synopsis from Japan Cuts because it’s brilliant: In 17th century Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate ensures political dominance by forcing lords to move their clans from domain to domain. When the Echizen Matsudaira clan is called upon to make a particularly tough relocation, the undesired role of relocation officer falls to Harunosuke Katagiri (Gen Hoshino), a socially inept samurai librarian. Under the threat of forced harakiri, Harunosuke takes to the near impossible task with the help of a loudmouth swordsman (Issey Takahashi) and the former relocation officer’s daughter (Mitsuki Takahata).

Prison 13

プリズン13 「Purizun 13」

Release Date: August 30th, 2019

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Kensaku Watanabe

Writer: Kensaku Watanabe (Script),

Starring: Mayu Hotta, Ken Nakajima, Kenshiro Iwai, Yuka Yano, Shohei Uno, Mamiko Ito, Nao Okabe, Tateto Serizawa, Tomomi Itano, Moeko Konno, Chihiro Okamoto,

Website IMDB

This movie was inspired by the “Stanford Prison Experiment” which took place in 1971 where test subjects split between prisoners and warders eventually fell into tribalism and acts of cruelty. The film seems to take place in one location. It comes from the director of the bittersweet comedy Emi-Abi, Kensaku Watanabe.

Synopsis: A popular online personality named Sophia sets up a seven-day experiment in a prison where 12 people are split into groups of prisoners and prison officers to see how things will turn out. Mari (Mayu Hotta), a university student, is a warder and, you guessed it, the experiment turns violent.

Koisuru Antihero The Movie

恋するアンチヒーロー THE MOVIE 「Koisuru Anchihi-ro- The Movie」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Tsuyoshi Koizumi

Writer: Tsuyoshi Koizumi, Shu Hani (Script), Shu Hani (Original Work)

Starring: Shouta Takasaki, Shouhei Hashimoto, Yuu Takahashi, Kensuke Takahashi, Kandai Ueda, Masakazu Nemoto,

Website

Synopsis: So, a warrior for an evil secret society bent on dominating the world falls for a cafe worker named Nana but her being a fan with a superhero causes him all sorts of headaches when it comes to his colleagues…

Niji no Kiseki

ニジノキセキ「Niji no Kiseki」

Release Date: August 31st24th, 2019

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Park Yeong-I, Kim Kon-chul

Writer:

Starring: Kim Sa-ri

Website

Synopsis: Korean schools face political and financial pressure in Japan with funds cut from the government and the rise in discrimination directed at Koreans. What do Koreans in Japan think of that reality? This documentary reveals the reality of the situation. Through close contact and cooperation with the teachers of a Korean school in Hyogo Prefecture, the film shows the daily reality faced by staff and students that the media neglects to show. In order to look at the present and towards the future, the film also looks to the past and interviews people about the “4.24 Hanshin Educational Struggle” that occurred in 1948, which is indispensable for talking about the history of Korean schools.

Hikari au seimei (inochi). Kokoro ni yorisou. 2

光り合う生命（いのち）。　心に寄り添う。2 「Hikari au seimei (inochi). Kokoro ni yorisou. 2」

Release Date: August 30th24th, 2019

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Takayuki Okutsu

Writer:

Starring: Rin Kijima, Yurin Watanabe,

Website

Synopsis: Rin Kijima and Yurin Watanabe host this documentary which covers people with problems and disabilities such as bullying and truancy. Here, they look at the religious organisation Happy Science and their university which runs a course named “What is life?” which is taught by a 95-year-old woman. Speakers on the course include senior citizens, such as women who are suffering from incurable diseases and who are passionate about overseas support. These guests help people with problems by sharing their stories and giving a new perspective on life.

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! Kurenai Densetsu

この素晴らしい世界に祝福を！紅伝説　「Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o! Kurenai Densetsu」

Release Date: August 30th, 2019

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Takaomi Kanasaki

Writer: Makoto Uezu (Screenplay), Natsume Akatsuki (Original Creator)

Starring: Akeno Watanabe (Sylvia), Jun Fukushima (Kazuma), Sora Amamiya (Aqua), Maria Naganawa (Komekko), Sayuri Hara (Luna), Rie Takahashi (Megumin), Ai Kayano (Darkness),

Animation Production: J.C. Staff

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Kazuma was a shut-in student in Japan but when he died in a traffic accident he met the goddess Aqua and was given the chance to reincarnate in a fantasy world and can keep one thing with him. He chose Aqua and she accompanied him to their new lives where they go on quests along with the sorceress Megumin and swordswoman Darkness. It’s a struggle just to earn enough money to live for the four, but at least they have each other and in this film they head to Megumin’s home town.

This year’s London Film Festival runs from October 02nd to the 13th and they have announced their selection of films. It’s a solid slate of films which has Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest, To the Ends of the Earth and Takashi Miike’s latest work, First Love! There are a couple of left-field titles such as 37 Seconds and Family Romance LLC, the latter from Werner Herzog. There’s also the American film Earthquake Bird which is set in Tokyo. There’s also the Korean film Maggie which I saw in March and reviewed here.

Here’s what is programmed:

First Love

初恋「Hatsukoi」

Release Date: 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Masaru Nakamura (Screenplay)

Starring: Becky, Masataka Kubota, Jun Murakami, Nao Omori, Sakurako Konishi, Sansei Shiomi, Seiyo Uchino, Shota Sometani,

IMDB

Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (Director’s Fortnight)

37 Seconds

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Hikari

Writer: Hikari (Screenplay),

Starring: Mei Kayama, Makiko Watanabe, Yuka Itaya, Shunsuke Daito, Misuzu Kanno,

Website IMDB

Synopsis from Berlinale: Yuma is a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo. When she commutes by train to her job in a manga studio, her face is at hip height to the other passengers standing up. Yuma uses a wheelchair on account of cerebral palsy. Her deformed limbs only allow her to crawl – and to hold a pencil. The fact that her boss, a successful comic artist and blogger named Sayaka, who has a penchant for garish Fairy Kei attire, passes Yuma’s drawing ideas off as her own, dismays the talented ‘mangaka’. Even worse, her overprotective mother hardly lets her out of her sight and refuses to talk about her father. As Yuma attempts to live a more independent life, she stumbles across adult comics – manga porn – and toys with the idea of drawing some herself. The publisher advises her to gain some personal experience first. But what happens when a woman in a wheelchair asks a tout in Tokyo’s red light district to fix her up with a sex date?

Family Romance, LLC

Release Date: May 18th, 2019 (Cannes)

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Werner Herzog

Writer: Werner Herzog (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuichi Ishii, Mahiro Tanimoto,

Website IMDB

To the Ends of the Earth

旅のおわり世界のはじまり「Tabi no Owari Sekai no Hajimari」

Release Date: June 14th, 2019

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Screenplay),

Starring: Atsuko Maeda, Ryo Kase, Shota Sometani, Tokio Emoto, Adiz Rajabov,

Website IMDB

That’s it for now. I’ll update it if any other films are added.

Here’s past coverage of the London Film Festival:

London Film Festival 2011

London Film Festival 2012

London Film Festival 2013

London Film Festival 2014

London Film Festival 2015

London Film Festival 2016

London Film Festival 2017

London Film Festival 2018

This year’s Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival has 8 feature films packed with adventure, emotions, action and awesome animation, all of which should entertain a wide audience. Alongside the film screenings are the marketplace and raffle and we welcome two special guests from Japan.

The festival begins on October 04 at 18:00 at Chapter Arts, Cardiff, with a screening of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection, the reintroduction and continuation of the Code Geass mecha saga where giant robots and political intrigue provide the drama. This will be followed by the Reception and an Anime Song Disco hosted by DJ Ryojin at 20:00 where guests can mingle and show off their moves on the dance-floor.

The festival continues on October 05 at 11:00 with Birthday Wonderland, a family adventure where a shy girl from Japan gets taken to a fantastical world under threat from dark forces. At 13:30 we welcome our two special guests, the award-winning director and stop-motion animator Takeshi Yashiro and his producer Satoshi Akutsu, who are in Britain to present the International Premiere of their film, Gon, The Little Fox. They have kindly travelled to Kotatsu to present a Masterclass with our special guest Robin Lyons where they will talk about their careers in the animation world and how they work. The films continue at 16:00 with Tamako Love Story, the first of our two titles programmed as a tribute to the studio Kyoto Animation who suffered a tragedy earlier this year. The film is a love story that will serve as a reminder of their ability to create sweet and loveable stories filled with characters that audiences are sure to care about. The Saturday evening slot is reserved for darker stories and this is where there are two horror inflected action films, Fate / Stay Night – Heaven’s Feel Film 1 at 18:00 and Calamity of a Zombie Girl at 20:15, the first featuring heart-stopping action scenes and gory action while the second is a more tongue-in-cheek B-movie experience with creative death scenes.

The final day of the festival begins at 11:00 with the critically-acclaimed adventure Penguin Highway where a precocious schoolboy and an intriguing older woman investigate the source of an invasion of penguins in their town. Running alongside this film, from 11:00 to 16:00 is a stop-motion animation workshop conducted by our guest Takeshi Yashiro. It is open to people from the age 8 and up at the cost of £27 (for booking please contact the festival info@kotatsufestival.com) and attendees will have the chance to animate their own scene with professional puppets which Takeshi uses in his works. The next film to be screened is Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution which tells a new variation of the popular franchise’s story where two teens pilot a giant robot. This takes place at 14:00. Just before the final film screening the results of the ever-popular raffle will be announced with prizes on offer with some gifts being brought over from Japan by our guests. The Kotatsu festival in Cardiff then closes with a screening of A Silent Voice at 17:00. This is the second time that Kotatsu will have screened the film, the first in 2017. There was no hesitation in our choosing this title because it is a beautifully told heartfelt story of overcoming painful moments that went down well with the audience and we trust it will go down well again as we screen it as a tribute to Kyoto Animation.

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

The festival will then continue in Aberystwyth with a selection of films from the Cardiff run plus one extra, Miss Hokusai, a period drama about O-Ei, the daughter of the artist Katsushika Hokusai, a talented painter in her own right and one that has recently been subject to docudramas. It proved to be a hit with audiences at Kotatsu when we screened it in the past and we are sure it will go down well. There will also be the raffle for people to have the chance of winning some excellent goods.

Here are the films programmed:

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection

コードギアス復活のルルーシュ「Code Geass: Fukkatsu no Lelouch」

Release Date: February 09th, 2019

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director: Goro Taniguchi

Writer: Ichiro Okouchi (Screenplay),

Starring: Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku Kururugi), Yukana (C.C.), Ami Koshimizu (Kallen Stadtfeld), Ayumu Murase (Shario), Keiko Toda (Shamuna),

Animation Production: Sunrise

ANN MAL Website

Synopsis: When Lelouch vi Brittannia died the world found peace but a terrorist attack threatens everything as his sister Princess Nunnally is kidnapped. Fate, and the immortal witch C.C., once again brings the legend of Lelouch back to save everyone in a film that reunites old characters for a new beginning full of mecha action and political intrigue.

Birthday Wonderland

バースデー・ワンダーランド「Ba-sude- Wanda-rando」

Release Date: April 26th, 2019

Duration: 115 mins.

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”. The director is Keiichi Hara (Miss Hokusai).

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.

Gekijouban Fate/stay night Heaven’s Feel I. Presage Flower

劇場版 Fate/stay night Heaven’s Feel I. presage flower 「Gekijouban Fate/stay night Heaven’s Feel I. lost butterfly」

Duration: 120 mins.

Release Date: October 14th, 2017

Director: Tomonori Sudo

Writer: Akira Hiyama (Screenplay), Kinoko Nasu, TYPE-MOON (Original Creator),

Starring: Ayako Kawasumi (Saber), Noriaki Sugiyama (Shirou Emiya), Jouji Nakata (Kirei Kotomine), Sakura Matou (Noriko Shitaya), Kana Ueda (Rin Toosaka), Mai Kadowaki (Illyasviel von Einzbern),

Animation Production: ufotable

ANN MAL Website

Synopsis: We are in the middle of The Holy Grail War, where Masters and Servants fight to claim the Holy Grail, something which can grant the wishes of the one who possesses it. The war takes the form of people, or Magi, who are aided by warriors who have the spirits of great people from history. Fuyuki City is the battleground and the protag is Shirou Emiya and his servant Saber. They find themselves followed by one of Zouken Matou’s summoned spirits, the Servant, True Assassin.

Penguin Highway

ペンギン・ハイウェイ「Pengin Haiuei」

Release Date: August 18th, 2017

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Hiroyasu Ishida

Writer: Makoto Ueda (Screenplay), Tomihiko Morimi (Original Script)

Starring: Kana Kita (Aoyama), Yuu Aoi (Mysterious Lady), Hidetoshi Nishijima (Aoyama’s Father), Megumi Han (Hamamoto), Naoto Takenaka (Hamamoto’s Father),

Animation Production: Studio Colorido

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Aoyama is an elementary school student who makes notes in his diary every day. His town is quiet but his heart races every so often because he has a crush on a mysterious older woman who works as a dental assistant. One day, a group of penguins appears in his quiet suburban neighbourhood and Aoyama and the older lady want to discover the reason for their appearance.

Eureka Seven Hi-Evolution

交響詩篇エウレカセブンハイエボリューション「Kokyo shihen Eureka sebun Hai eboryu-shon 1」

Release Date: September 16th, 2017

Duration: 109 mins.

Chief Director: Tomoki Kyoda

Director: Hisatoshi Shimizu

Writer: Dai Sato (Screenplay),

Starring: Kaori Nazuka (Eureka), yuko Sanpei (Renton Beams/Renton Thurston), Aya Hisakawa (Ray Beams), Juurouta Kosugi (Charles Beams), Tohru Furuya (Adrock Thurston), Michiko Neya (Talho Yuuki),

Animation Production: BONES

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: It has been ten years since the “First Summer of Love” rocked the world and Renton, who lost his father during the event, now attends the army school of the United Federation of Predgio Towers located in the town of Bellforest. Because his late father is still praised as a hero, Renton feels unable to live up to the man’s reputation and his days are boring. Then one day, things change dramatically when a ship called Nirvash, the world’s oldest LFO, appears in front of him and the pilot, a girl named Eureka, emerges from the cockpit. This was the beginning of the future of humans and Scub Coral, another intelligent life-form.

Calamity of the Zombie Girl

あるゾンビ少女の災難「Aru Zombie Shōjo no Sainan 」

Release Date: August 30th, 2019

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Hideaki Iwami

Writer: Kenichi Kanemaki (Screenplay), Ryo Ikehata (Original Creator)

Starring: Saori Hayami (Euphrosyne Studion), Yui Ogura (Alma V), M.A.O (Yui Minagawa), Miyuki Sawashiro (Sayaka Kamoshida), Tomokazu Sugita (Shuichiro Takanashi)

Animation Production: GONZO

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis:It’s a summer holiday so lessons are over but some students seeking treasure are in the university library where they discover two sets of female antique mummies from Italy. One student, Sayaka, spies and steals a fancy stone. Little does she realise it is a “stone of life” which gives the two mummies super strength and eternal life. Having stolen the stone, the girls have awakened ferocious flesh-eating enemies that attempt to retrieve what was once theirs…

Tamako Love Story

たまこラブストーリー「Tamako Rabu Suto-ri-」

Release Date: April 26th, 2014

Duration: 83 minutes

Director: Naoko Yamada

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay),

Starring: Yuri Yamashita (Shiori Asagiri) Aya Suzaki (Tamako Kitashirakawa), Atsushi Tamaru (Mochizou Ooji) Juri Nagatsuma (Kanna Makino),

Animation Production: Kyoto Animation

Website

Synopsis: Third year high school girl Tamako has never really thought long term. She figures she will continue to work at her family’s mochi shop. Her neighbour and long-time admirer Mochizou, on the other hand, is planning to go to a university in Tokyo, leaving behind everyone he knows, including his beloved Tamako who he is desperate to confess his feelings to. Will she understand?

A Silent Voice

声の形 「Koe no Katachi」

Release Date: April 26th, 2014 (Japan)

Duration: 129 mins.

Director: Naoko Yamada

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Screenplay), Yoshitoki Ooima (Original Manga)

Starring: Miyu Irino/Mayu Matsuoka (Shouya Ishida), Saori Hayami (Shouko Nishimiya), Aoi Yuuki (Yuzuru Nishimiya),

Animation Production: Kyoto Animation

Website MAL ANN

I have been surprised by the power of this one as it tears through UK cinemas and earns lots of critical acclaim. There are many anime movies released in Japan but this one looks far more interesting than the rest of the pack. It is a story about a bully who tries to redeem himself by asking for forgiveness from his target, a girl who is deaf. This comes from Kyoto Animation (watch Hyouka, an awesome TV anime, to get to know them) and it’s directed by Naoko Yamada, one of the most promising female directors going. It has toured the UK as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme and it was at the Glasgow International Film Festival. I hope it’s programmed by the festival I work for.

Synopsis: Shoko, a young Deaf student, transfers to a new school where she is bullied by Shoya for her hearing impairment. While Shoya originally leads the class in bullying Shoko, the class soon turn on him for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shoko and Shoya do not speak to each other again, but Shoya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shoko once more to atone for his sins – but is it already too late?

Welcome to the weekend, everyone.

I hope you are well.

I’ve spent less time this week watching films since I’ve been doing a little more press and social media for the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival and working my regular job. I’ve put together posts about the London Film Festival and the Kotatsu Festival for this week.

What films are released this weekend?

Startup Girls

スタートアップ・ガールズ　「Suta-toappu Ga-ruzu」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 93 mins.

Director: Chihiro Ikeda

Writer: Izumi Takahashi (Screenplay) Yutaka Kono (Novel)

Starring: Mone Kamishiraishi, Hirona Yamazaki, Meisha Brooks, Koji Yamamoto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Two women with different philosophies on life meet in this film when free-spirited university student named Hikari creates a startup company which gets invested in by a big company the more straitlaced Nozomi works in. She is someone who has always followed the “correct” path, giving up on many things to make a stable life and advance her career. They don’t get along at first but soon begin to understand that they can integrate each other’s values into the way they work.

Violet Evergarden Side Story: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll

ヴァイオレット・エヴァーガーデン外伝 –永遠と自動手記人形–　「Baioretto Eba-ga-den Gaiden: Eien to Jidou Shuki Ningyou」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Haruka Fujita

Writer: Takaaki Suzuki, Tatsuhiko Urahata (Screenplay), Reiko Yoshida (Series Composition), Kana Akatsuki (Original Creator)

Starring: Yui Ishikawa (Violet Evergarden), Aoi Yuuki (Taylor Bartlett), Minako Kotobuki (Isabella York), Aya Endo (Cattleya Baudelaire), Takehito Koyasu (Claudia Hodgins),

Animation Production: Kyoto Animation

Website ANN MAL

This side story to the television series is a forerunner to the theatrical film that gets released next year. The arson attack at Kyoto Animation was devastating and the company is still recovering while working on their projects. This film was finished the day before the fire and all of the staff involved are listed in the credits as living proof that they existed.

Synopsis: Following the end of the Great War, Violet Evergarden, a young girl raised to destroy the enemy, was left with a shattered body and only words from the person she held dearest, but with no understanding of their meaning. She finds new purpose acting as an “Auto Memory Doll,” amanuenses that transcribe people’s thoughts and feelings into words on paper and travels the world in an adventure that will reshape the lives of her clients and hopefully lead to self-discovery.

In this film she meets Isabella, the heir to a noble house who attends a school for well-groomed young women, under a “contract” with her father. Isabella feels like a bird in a gilded cage and has given up hope for her future but an encounter with Violet gets her to reconsider things.

Sleep in the Shadows / Kage ni dakerete nemure

影に抱かれて眠れ　「Kage ni dakerete nemure」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Masahide Ichii

Writer: Masahide Ichii (Screenplay)

Starring: Masaya Kato, Toshio Matsumoto, Shinsuke Katou, Asami Kumakiri, Kimiko Yo, Shohei Hino,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Fuyuki is an artist who runs two bars in Yokohama. One day, he gets involved with his hero, Shinji, a member of a charity group which looks after troubled young girls. Shinji has been hurt by Yakuza for helping an underage girl out of their prostitution business. While this is going on, Fuyuki learns that his beloved Kyoko has a very short time to live and he feels a strong desire to express his love for her in a painting…

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War

かぐや様は告らせたい～天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦～　「Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensaitachi no Renai Zunosen」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 113 mins.

Director: Hayato Kawai

Writer: Yuichi Tokunaga (Screenplay), Aka Akasaka (Manga)

Starring: Sho Hirano, Kanna Hashimoto, Hayato Sano, Natsumi Ikema, Nana Asakawa, Mayu Hotta, Jiro Sato, Masahiro Takashima

Website IMDB

Synopsis: There is an elite high school that the smartest students in Japan attend and the best of the best run the school’s student council. The president is Miyuki Shirogane (Sho Hirano) and the vice-president is Kaguya Shinomiya (Kanna Hashimoto). They are attracted to each other and have been for a long time, but, out of stubborn pride, refuse to confess their feelings for each other because they don’t want to be seen as weak. They are in a cold war to see who will confess first.

Inakunare Gunjo

いなくなれ、群青　「Inakunare Gunjo」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Akina Yanagi

Writer: Minato Takano (Screenplay) Yutaka Kono (Novel)

Starring: Ryusei Yokohama, Marie Iitoyo, Honoka Yahagi, Koudai Matsuoka, Riho Nakamura, Yumi Ito, Moemi Katayama, Kiyo Matsumoto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Nanakusa (Ryusei Yokohama) is a new guy on the mysterious Kaiden Island, a place for the abandoned. He reunites with childhood friend Yuu Manabe (Marie Iitoyo) since both are high school students and they unravel the mystery of the island.

Taro the Fool

タロウのバカ　「Tarou no Baka」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 119 mins.

Director: Tatsushi Omori

Writer: Tatsushi Omori (Screenplay)

Starring: Yosihi, Masaki Suda, Taiga, Eita Okuno, Sasha Ueda, Ellie Toyota, Jun Kunimura,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Taro (Yoshi) has dropped out of society. He is someone who has never even been to school. When he meets two troubled guys named Eji (Masaki Suda) and Sugio (Taiga), they form a tight-knit gang but when they come across a pistol it signals a change as the boy’s troubles escalate…

Kamen Rider Build NEW WORLD: Kamen Rider Grease

ビルド NEW WORLD 仮面ライダーグリス　「Birudo Nyū Warudo Kamen Raidā Gurisu」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 64 mins.

Director: Shojiro Nakazawa

Writer: Shogo Muto (Screenplay), Aka Akasaka (Manga)

Starring: Kaho Takada, Kohei Takeda, Tateto Serizawa, Eishin, Takuya Yoshimura,

Website Kamen Rider Wiki

Synopsis: Kamen Rider Grease is the only Kamen Rider left standing after an attack by the terrorist organisation “Downfall”. With the Kamen Riders defeated and Misora Isurugi kidnapped, it turns to Kamen Rider Grease to fight the terrorists.

Sayounara

左様なら　「Sayounara」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: Yuho Ishibashi

Writer: Yuho Ishibashi (Screenplay), Gomen (Original Manga)

Starring: Haruka Imou, Kirara Inori, Amon Hirai, Taichi Kodama, Nanami Hidaka,

Website IMDB

Yuho Ishibashi’s film is based on an SNS manga of the same name by the artist Gomen, This was at the Osaka Asian Film Festival in March this year and my review was published on V-Cinema. Essentially, Ishibashi took four characters and a few frames of the original and expanded its world to create a coming-of-age tale that is familiar in so many elements and yet a good example of a textured exploration of one person coming to terms with grief as life carries on around her.

Synopsis: High school student Yuki (Haruka Imou) is a quiet girl who lives in a sleepy coastal town. The loudest noises are those of the waves of the sea and the laughter she shares with her best friend Aya (Kirara Inori), a cryptic girl who is soon to leave town because her mother has remarried. Their friendship is strong and a kiss snatched by Aya opens up all sorts of emotions in Yuki. Tragedy strikes when Aya commits suicide. In response, Yuki dives deep into herself and turns away from any turbulent emotions. Her classmates are also caught in the ripples of the event and react differently, some showing respect while others spread rumours.

Typhoon Family

台風家族　「Taifu Kazoku」

Release Date: September 06th, 2019

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Masahide Ichii

Writer: Masahide Ichii (Screenplay) Yutaka Kono (Novel)

Starring: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Megumi, Machiko Ono, Erika Osanai, Tatsuya Fuji, Rumi Sakakibara,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: The Suzuki family name fell into disrepute when parents Mitsuko Suzuki (Rumi Sakakibara) and Ittetsu (Tatsuya Fuji) robbed a bank. Their kids, eldest child Kotetsu (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi), second child Kyosuke (Hirofumi Arai), third child Rena (Megumi) and youngest child Chihiro (Tomoya Nakamura), find their lives derailed and dreams cancelled as they are shunned around town. 10 years later, and with no sign of their parents ever coming back, the children gather in order to hold their parents’ imaginary funeral and divide their property. Rivalries emerge.

Kazoku Awase

かぞくあわせ　「Kazoku Awase」

Release Date: September 07th, 2019

Duration: 93 mins.

Director: Atsushi Hasegawa (Left-arm Psychedelic), Takayuki Ohashi (Best Partner), Keita Taguchi (Before You Separate)

Writer: Atsushi Hasegawa (Left-arm Psychedelic), Takayuki Ohashi (Best Partner), Keita Taguchi (Before You Separate) (Screenplay)

Starring: Harumi Shuhama, Takehiko Fujita, Konomi Kikutsu, Keita Taguchi, Asami Kuroda,

Website IMDB

This stars Harumi Shuhama from One Cut of the Dead. She, alongside Takehiko Fujita, takes on the main role in each story in this three-part omnibus which takes place within a seaside wedding hall on the Kanagawa coast over three days.

Synopsis: The first story, Left-arm Psychedelic, is about parents whose daughter disappears on her wedding day and it turns out there is a mysterious reason. The second story, Best Partner, follows two company workers who try to set up their subordinates at a party and it seems like the supervisors might also fall in love. The third story, Before You Separate, is about a middle-aged couple who have decided to divorce and their daughter doesn’t want them to.

Sayounara

左様なら 「Sayounara」

Running Time: 86 mins.

Release Date: 2019

Director: Yuho Ishibashi

Writer: Yuho Ishibashi (Screenplay), Gomen (Original Manga)

Starring: Haruka Imou, Kirara Inori, Amon Hirai, Taichi Kodama, Nanami Hidaka,

Website IMDB

http://www.oaff.jp/2019/en/program/if05.html

Naturalistic acting, specifically using pastel colours and lovingly shot images of the sea are what dictate the ebb and flow of the drama in Yuho Ishibashi’s film Sayounara. Originally based on an SNS manga of the same name by the artist Gomen, Ishibashi took four characters and a few frames of the original and expanded its world to create a coming-of-age tale that is familiar in so many elements and yet a good example of a textured exploration of one person coming to terms with grief as life carries on around her.

The muted visual tone of the film matches the temperament of the main protagonist of the film, high school student Yuki (Haruka Imou), a quiet girl who lives in a sleepy coastal town. The loudest noises are those of the waves of the sea and the laughter she shares with her best friend Aya (Kirara Inori), a cryptic girl who is soon to leave town. Their friendship is strong and a kiss snatched by Aya opens up all sorts of emotions in Yuki. Tragedy strikes when Aya commits suicide. In response, Yuki dives deep into herself and turns away from any turbulent emotions. Her classmates are also caught in the ripples of the event and react differently, some showing respect while others spread rumours.

The narrative floats along as Yuki finds herself coming up against class bullies led by one particularly vicious girl named Yuka (Nanami Hidaka), a true representation of a vile queen bee who takes exception to Yuki’s withdrawn nature. Their conflict is mostly Yuki suffering being ostracised with some testy physical encounters but it takes in the whole class and even Aya as we see how everyone labours under Yuka’s influence and the fallout from the death allows everyone to reset their positions and re-examine their lives in a fairly quiet way or, in the case of a fellow classmate named Keita (Amon Hirai) who is in love with Yuki, reach out before it’s too late.

There are no melodramatic fireworks, this is a group of students and the occasional adult navigating social situations by trying to maintain some sort of facade so everything will go smoothly even if they are hurting inside or afraid of being bullied or simply trying to study and worried about disruption. Yuki is the biggest actor of all, seemingly being in a near depressive state at times but really just being distant. Audiences will see through everything and wonder when the false image will break but the atmosphere remains subdued and quiet.

The narrative broadens out to include many characters, not originally in the manga. Director Yuho Ishibashi scripted the new people, complete with backstories, to extend the story and she carefully picked actors, many new talents, who could bring the characters to life. She allowed them to deliver lines and scenes in their own style to make things as naturalistic as possible which fits in with the subtle visual style.

The narrative is made up of small events that culminate in something better. There are tentative romantic overtures, worries about tests, jockeying for position in the school’s pecking order and arranging meetings at live shows and each interaction inspires some sort of reaction as people in the social group watch and change their interpretation of individuals. We get a sense of observing real teens through some excellent camera movement where the camera floats around the classroom and catches the students as they look on. We are aware they surround Yuki and buffet her somewhat, but the focus is on her own mind state as she rises and falls along with the sound of the waves that is constantly awash over the soundtrack and through interacting with them and through examining herself, Yuki gradually emerges from her stupor.

Ishibashi’s script astutely relays the dynamics of the class and community and captures the sense of Yuki’s distance from death which is gradually closed until she is made her face the world and deal with her grief with sincerity, a moment told in a montage of shots taken from earlier scenes that allows some emotional relief that loops back to that kiss Aya stole.

This title is another quiet school story set in Japan but the film’s aesthetics, its ethereal visuals and emotional journey makes this a textured examination of grief. Director Yuho Ishibashi employs pastel visuals and many long-shots and a quiet atmosphere to sensitively depict different shades of tender emotions so we can see a gradual understanding of loss. Not necessarily the most exciting thing to watch, it is a good introduction to a new generation of actors.

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Japanese Films at the Venice International Film Festival 2019

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Japanese Films at the Toronto International Film Festival 2019 (05th-15th September)

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Japanese Films at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2019

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Japanese Films at the BFI London Film Festival 2019

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Startup Girls, Kazoku Awase, Violet Evergarden Side Story: Eternity and the Auto Memories Doll, Sleep in the Shadows, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Typhoon Family, Kage ni dakerete nemure, Taro the Fool, Inakunare Gunjo, Sayounara, Kamen Rider Build NEW WORLD: Kamen Rider Grease Japanese Film Trailers

Sayounara 左様なら Dir: Yuho Ishibashi (2018) Osaka Asian Film Festival 2019