Happy weekend!

I hope you are all well.

I have the weekend off work so I’m happy. This week, I’ve been focusing more on movies with prep work for a lot of reviews and actually watching films. I also went to see 1917 after work with some colleagues.

In terms of this blog, I posted reviews for My Dad and Mr. Ito (2016) and The Graceful Brute (1962). My reviews for Her Sketchbook (2017) and The Actor (2016) were also posted on VCinema.

What is released this weekend?

Signal 100

シグナル 100　 「Shigunaru 100」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 88 mins.

Director: Lisa Takeba

Writer: Yusuke Watanabe – Gantz (Script), Arata Miyatsuki (Manga)

Starring: Kanna Hashimoto, Yuta Koseki, Toshiki Seto, Ayano Kudo, Shido Nakamura, Saya Mikami, Karen Masaki, Yui Kitamura,

Website IMDB

Lisa (The Pinkie, Haruko’s Paranormal Laboratory) Takeba ventures from the indie movie realm to helm this adaptation of a death game manga and her screenwriter is an experienced hand at adaptations, Yusuke Watanabe (The Fable, Gantz, 20th Century Boys).

Synopsis: Rena Kashimura (Kanna Hashimoto) and her fellow classmates are hypnotised by their teacher. When they come to, they learn that there are 100 signals that can trigger them commit suicide. The signals could be any ordinary behaviour like crying and laughing. Rena Kashimura and the other kids have to find a way to avoid dying before times runs out… 

Saint Young Men Third Century 

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

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 55 mins.

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

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

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

Website    IMDB

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

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

The Phone of the Wind   

風の電話　 「Kaze no Denwa」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 139 mins.

Director: Nobuhiro Suwa

Writer: Nobuhiro Suwa, Kyoko Inukai (Script) 

Starring: Serena Motola, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tomokazu Miura, Toshiyuki Nshida, Makiko Watanabe, Shoko Ikezu,

Website IMDB

The review for this one at the Japan Times website makes the drama sound powerful. It has been selected for this year’s Berlinale so expect to see it travel around the world.

Synopsis: Haru is 17 years old and has lived in Hiroshima with her aunt ever since losing her family in the Great East Japan Earthquake. When her aunt (Makiko Watanabe) falls ill, Haru is left with nobody to take care of her and so she goes back to her hometown of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture. It is there she hears of the “Wind Telephone” It is a white phone booth with a disconnected black telephone inside. With it, the living can contact the dead. As Haru journeys to the phone, she encounters various people and discovers others who have lost something or someone… 

Our 30 Minute Sessions   

サヨナラまでの30分　 「Sayonara made no 30 pun」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Kentaro Hagiwara

Writer: Satomi Oshima (Script) 

Starring: Mackenyu Aratam Takumi Kitamura, Sayu Kubota, Riho Makise, Yutaka Matsushige, Sho Kiyohara,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Sota Kubota (Takumi Kitamura) is a shy university student but he undergoes the most radical personality change when he picks up a cassette tape left by Aki Miyata (Mackenyu Arata), a confident musician who died a year ago: Sota becomes able to play a guitar in front of others. It turns out that Aki takes over Sota’s body and Aki wants to reunite his band and see his former girlfriend Kana (Sayu Kubota). The only hitch is that the possession time lasts for only 30 minutes and time begins to run short with each session… 

His   

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 127 mins.

Director: Rikiya Imaizumi

Writer: Atsushi Asada (Script) 

Starring: Hio Miyazawa, Kisetsu Fujiwara, Sakura Sotomura, Wakana Matsumoto, Honoka Matsumoto,

Website IMDB

Here’s an interview over at the Japan Times with lead actor Hio Miyazawa.

Synopsis: When Shun (Hio Miyazawa) went on a class trip to Enoshima as a high schooler, he met and fell in love with Nagisa (Kisetsu Fujiwara) and their relationship lasted all the way through to university when Nagisa told Shun that he didn’t see a future with them together. They decided to break up. 13 years later and Shun lives alone in the countryside but, one day, Nagisa shows up with his six-year-old daughter Sora (Sakura Sotomura). Shun is scared to come out as gay but after living a lonely life in the countryside, the presence of his ex and Sora brightens his life. However, difficulties arise as Nagisa and his ex-wife fight for custody of Sora… 

Romance Doll   

ロマンスドール　 「Romansu Do-ru」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Yuki Tanada

Writer: Yuki Tanada (Script/Novel) 

Starring: Issey Takahashi, Yu Aoi, Kitaro, Eri Watanabe, Pierre Taki, Kenta Hamano, Toko Miura, Koji Ookura,

Website IMDB

Yuki Tanada, director of My Dad and Mr Ito is back with this highly-rated film and you can read an interview with her and a review of this work at the Japan Times.

Synopsis: When Tetsuo Kitamura (Issey Takahashi) and Sonoko (Yu Aoi) met, it was as part of a project where he wanted a mould of her breasts but it became love at first sight and they quickly married. It was a sweet romance that seemed destined but soon their relationship became sexless as Tetsuo got absorbed in his job. What Sonoko doesn’t know is that Tetsuo took a mould of her breasts because, ever since graduating from an art university, he has worked in a factory that makes Dutch wives. He is committed to his work and has met with success but faces trouble at the factory. Sonoko, a kindhearted woman, also has her own secret that she confesses…

This is a Paradise for Fermentation   

いただきます　ここは、発酵の楽園　 「Itadakimasu koko wa, hakkou no rakuen」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 81 mins.

Director: Vin Oota

Writer: N/A

Starring: Toshimichi Yoshida, Akinori Kimura, Ryoichi Kikuchi, Shuichi Sugiyama, Taro Yamamoto,

Website 

Synopsis: A documentary about an elementary school in Yamagata Prefecture known for food education. This is the second in a series and it shows the children tending to a field nursery where they do rice planting, rice harvesting and rice cooking. Local farmers also run workshops about how to grow organic food. 

Prison Circle   

プリズン・サークル　 「Pursizun Sa-kuru」

Release Date: January 25th, 2020

Duration: 136 mins.

Director: Kaori Sakagami

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A documentary that took six years to authorise and two years to film due to it being set in a prison in Japan. It is set in Shimane Asahi Rehabilitation Promotion Center, a new public-private prison and the only prison in Japan that has introduced a program called “TC (Therapeutic Community)” that seeks out the causes and cures of crime through engaging prisoners in dialogue in a system that encourages rehabilitation. This is one of a number of educational programmes at the prison and one where prisoners must face their past. Audiences of this documentary will see the causes of crime the, bitter memories of childhood, such as poverty, bullying, abuse, and discrimination, as well as the crimes they committed, such as theft, fraud, robbery, injury and death. The camera follows the four prisoners in prison and shows them gaining new values ​​and ways of living through TC. Directed by Kaoru Sakagami, who has worked with American prisoners.

RADWIMPS「ANTI ANTI GENERATION TOUR 2019 the Film」

Release Date: January 23rd, 2020

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Satoshi Tani

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yojiro Noda, Akira Kuwahara, Yusuke Takeda, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Aimyon,

Website

Synopsis: A documentary about Radwimps and their ANTI ANTI GENERATION TOUR 2019 which ran from June to Audust. The rock band are seen on stage performing songs including the theme songs for Your Name and Weathering With You. 

Eiga Okaasan to issho Surikae ka men o Tsukamaero! FUN FUN STUDIO: LET’S CATCH THE SWITCHEROO MASK!   

映画　おかあさんといっしょ　すりかえかめんをつかまえろ！　 「Eiga Okaasan to issho Surikae ka men o Tsukamaero!」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 65 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: Atsuko Ono, Yuichiro Hanada, Makoto Fukuo, Azuki Akimoto, Yoshihisa Kobayashi, Risa Uehara,

Website

Synopsis: This is the second film of the NHK program “Okasan to Issho”, which has been broadcast since 1959 and recently celebrated its 60th anniversary on NHK. 

OFFICE AUGUSTA presents SHORT FILM「Me and You」   

OFFICE AUGUSTA presents SHORT FILM「ボクと君」　 「OFFICE AUGUSTA presents SHORT FILM「Boko to Kimi」」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 139 mins.

Director: Hiro Kanai

Writer: Kensaku Kojima (Script) 

Starring: Sho Aoyagi, Kana Kita, Kika Kobayashi, Riko Nagase,Wakana Matsumoto, Daikichi Sugawara,

Website

Synopsis: A series of short films based on the songs of artists who belong Office Augusta including stories where a junior employee cares about her after he crashes out of a company drinking party and misses the last train.

Cine Rosa in Ikebukuro are screening a programme of four films by Akihiro Takeshi as a series of late-night screenings. Here’s the trailer for the programme:

Orusuban no Aji

おるすばんの味。　 「Orusuban no Aji」

Release Date: 2017

Duration: 10 mins.

Director: Akihiro Takeshi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Nanami Honda, Reiko Kataoka, Mai Hiraoka, Mariko Kobayashi, Toshimitsu Maeda,

Synopsis: When Miyuki was a child, she lived with her mother but since the lady was always working, she was rarely home after school. All Miyuki had to eat was curry that her mother made and kept warm. She hated it. 20 years later and Miyuki is living alone and her mother has passed away. She thinks back on her late mother’s curry.

Chichi Kaere! Father Away

父、かえれ！　 「Chichi, Kaere!」

Release Date: 2018

Duration: 20 mins.

Director: Akihiro Takeshi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Hitomi-chang, Ryoka Neya, Kanyou Umezawa, Ai Kishimoto, Michael Fanconi, Reiko Kataoka

Synopsis: Sena’s boyfriend Yuki want to propose but between them and wedded bliss is Sena’s father, Shigeru who was expelled from the family home 14 years ago. He crashes back into her life much to everybody’s surprise (and Sena’s displeasure) but his personality wins people over… 

Cha-han

チャーハン　 「Cha-han」

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 31 mins.

Director: Akihiro Takeshi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Sodai Kadota, Ku Ijima, Ryoka Neya,

Synopsis: A drama about a man who has lost his job and the confusion his presence in a house.

Ashita Kaeru Tame ni, Kyo Okiru

明日かえるために、今日おきる。　 「Ashita Kaeru Tame ni, Kyo Okiru」

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 31 mins.

Director: Akihiro Takeshi

Writer: N/ A

Starring: Touma Kawai, Yuu Chitose, Masamichi Hagiwara, Minami Umezawa, Sonrei Yoshioka,

Synopsis: Naohiro regularly oversleeps and cannot go to school or his part-time job. He has lost his place in the world which is when a mysterious girl that only he can see appears. 

Her Sketchbook   

世界は今日から君のもの　 「Sekai ha Kyou Kara Kimi no Mono」

Release Date: June 15th, 2017

Duration: 106 mins.

Director: Masaya Ozaki

Writer: Masaya Ozaki (Script) 

Starring: Mugi Kadowaki, Takahiro Miura, Yu Hirukawa, Junpei Yasui, Ryusuke Komakine, Makita Sports, You, Takeaki Shima,

Website IMDB

Japan is a densely populated country and in order to survive living there it is important to make connections with others as well as finding your niche. Achieving both can be exhausting, especially for those who lack confidence and find themselves in schools and workplaces where fierce competition drives everything. With so much pressure many people drop out of society and become hikikomori or NEETs. Her Sketchbook dramatises this for a story about a young woman making incremental improvements to her life, usually at odds with those around her, to find her voice and integrate with the regular world.

The sophomore directorial effort of veteran screenwriter Masaya Ozaki, Her Sketchbook centres on the character of Mami Konuma (Mugi Kadowaki), an introverted twenty-something who tries to limit contact with others. Aside from her father Eisuke (Makita Sports) and a local boy she has known since her school days, she doesn’t often engage with many people. Flashbacks show she has been a person put-upon by others since she was a child and not given the confidence by her parents, her father too reticent and her hard-to-please mother (played by single-named actress YOU) too distant – so much so, she left the family.

Shy Mami has clearly been hurt by others and their lack of consideration for her which has resulted in struggling with being a hikikomori. Her chief defining feature, which she tries to hide, is that she is a fully-fledged otaku with a passion for drawing. Her worried father gets her a job debugging video games. It seems like a genius idea since it doesn’t require much interaction with other people but her drawings soon get her noticed in the company by a handsome production director named Ryotaro (Takahiro Miura) and his encouragement of her inspires all sorts of new feelings but it isn’t easy for the socially awkward girl as she continues to struggle to define her place in the wider world and find her voice.

The film’s atmosphere aims for feel good as the narrative generates some light workplace comedy, exults in Mami’s passion for art and her success, and teases romance but Masaya Ozaki resists going to obvious places as he places the emphasis on Mami’s search for the strength to express herself.

As we get involved with Mami’s day-to-day life we notice who dominates the dialogue and how people often speak for her, her opinionated mother and soft father alternately dismissing or praising her art without regard for what it means to her while Mami’s relationship with Ryotaro is shown to be based on her naivete and his need for an artist. Everybody but Mami talks and nobody really asks her what she wants. It seems every decision made was all for their convenience and from their point of view rather than with any regard for her. Although these characters are gently essayed and have a sense of humour, their relentlessness becomes suffocating and so we understand Mami’s reluctance to engage with others as well as her desire to escape and, through Mugi Kadowaki’s acting, we feel her struggle to resist and break free.

Mugi Kadowaki has emerged as a fine leading lady with a penchant for roles involving quiet characters whose facades hide murky emotions, whether as a young woman caught in an illicit and morally wrong affair in historical drama Hanagatami (2017) or a student in modern-day psycho-sexual tale Double Life (2016). She has range and having done musicals and acted as a party girl in murder-mystery Chiwawa (2019). Her Sketchbook is seemingly undemanding as Kadowaki plays an introverted, reticent character through stilted movement and hesitant speech and the inability to look people in the eye. It approaches being overly-mannered but stops just short. She still feels like a girl who lacks confidence even if we are aware of a certain theatricality.

Her movement provides grounds for comedic social faux pas and works on a thematic level because she has found the world difficult to navigate. Kadowaki’s aura allows us to feel her vulnerability, how she has allowed herself to be buffeted by the people around her and taken comfort in a solitary pursuit like art and so we root for her to find her independence and her own artistic voice even as others push her to go in different directions and thoughtlessly destroy her confidence. It tugs at the heartstrings when she faces her inner and professional crisis and we enjoy it when her hidden passion in her heart is unlocked by friends who genuinely care and prompt her to achieve more. The camera often rests on Kadowaki and tender emotions come out and the narrative succeeds in working. The one fly in the ointment is a misjudged rape joke which the film tries to play off for laughs. It serves no purpose, it is jarring and acts as a contradictory note in believability for the character who attempts it.

Other aspects are better. Using the real-life studio of game development company Mages, famous amongst otaku for visual novels Robotics;Note and Steins;Gate, and showing the environment and the games being played and the variety of people making them adds realism to the film and some subculture bonafides.

The music from Kenji Kawai is immediately identifiable as his, a lavish orchestral sound boosted by synths. One musical leitmotif really adds to the sentimentality of the film, a gentle and insistent piano-driven piece which gives a sense of immense talent hiding away in Mami just waiting to be found.

Overall, the film is cute but what makes it compelling is the performance of Mugi Kadowaki who captures a sense of naivete and hopefulness as well as uncertainty and fear. This gives the film its heart and soul as she seeks to express herself when all around her would dictate the direction of her life. Ozaki gives Mami an emotional journey that is not to dissimilar to Kiki, the titular witch from Studio Ghibli’s Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) wherein a female breaks away from her family home to find her calling in life as well as her self-confidence free from the influence of others, only Her Sketchbook shows the real world magic of patience and gradually drawing people out of their shells.

The Actor

Release Date: January 30th, 2016

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Satoko Yokohama

Writer: Satoko Yokohama (Screenplay), Akito Inui (Original Novel)

Starring: Ken Yasuda, Kumiko Aso, Shohei Uno, Yoshiko Mita, Shota Sometani, Hirofumi Arai, Youki Kudoh,

Website    IMDB

It is fair to say that most people go into acting with the expectation that they will be cast in a leading role at some point. However, not everyone can be centre stage and some are relegated to a career of supporting roles. In a profession where acting in the limelight is what actors pursue, how does being in the shadows feel? This is a question that the titular actor, Takuji Kameoka, faces when a mid-career crisis meets an existential crisis as he takes stock of his life in this melancholy comedy, or should that be, melancomedy.

Takuji Kameoka (Ken Yasuda) is a lonely thirty-something bachelor who plays bit-parts in movies and dramas. His only interest outside of cinema is drinking. One day, on a shoot in snowy Nagano, he gets drunk and sadder than usual at an izakaya where a woman named Azumi Murota (Kumiko Aso) runs the bar in her father’s stead. Takuji and Azumi talk while sharing saké. He quietly falls in love with her and it happens just at the point he begins to wonder if he will ever be the leading man in his own life and in the acting profession.

Based on a novel by Akito Inui, this stars a whole host of actors regularly seen in supporting roles and it is adapted with grace by Satoko Yokohama. It is her second feature film after a career of shorts and she and her cast achieve a familiar intimacy as we get involved in the acting life of Kameoka.

The first third of the narrative segues between life on set, which Kameoka commits to with diligence and talent, to the lonely drudgery around his shoots before the story enters his search for meaning in his life and career.

In reality, he is a small figure. His voice drops to a whisper when talking to others and he awkwardly moves around. Despite this, he is skilled at acting small parts and he can transform into any character and carry scenes and is seen as a reliable performer by the people who hire him. However, the stage is totally different where he has to dig deep inside himself, something much demanded by the tough but fair director of the play he signs up for.

Whether he can or not forms the tension of the film. A meandering middle unfurls as Kameoka experiments with method acting and takes on the stage role to test himself and evolve.

His actor’s journey is tracked steadily, on and off stage, training and going to casting calls, and all comes together during a boozy night out with a fellow player (portrayed by another experienced character actor, Shohei Uno) where Kameoka tells his compatriot how things are going. Here, Yokohama intercuts between different temporal and spatial moments which allows a compare and contrast of the techniques involved in film and theatre. She also allows Kameoka’s dreams and reality to mix together in the narrative as he begins to test his capacities as a thespian, dreams more ambitious things and dives into his love for film, and comes to realise his need to confess his feelings to Azumi in a romance he soon imagines like a movie.

Yokohama’s smart adaptation and the fluid editing allows viewers an intimate look into Kameoka’s life while her directorial choices, the wide shots used and how she places her actors, allows us to enjoy the minutiae of the scenes and the glitz and glamour of the movies.

The theatricality of films is highlighted with canned sound effects, a sudden rain shower, spotlighting, shadow plays, rear projection and more martialled on screen for playful moments of movie magic that spices up reality.

The details of the day-to-day work is also shown, the way cast and crew members move during a jidaigeki or yakuza film shoot, the tape on the ground indicating the marks Kameoka has to hit, the mundanity of sitting on a film set between takes smoking a cigarette, sitting in a cafe alone, riding a train alone, drinking beer alone  – we notice the lonely lifestyle especially as Ken Yasuda is relegated to one corner of the screen where he radiates a certain melancholy and we sympathise with him. We also recognise Kameoka’s skill as an actor by seeing how he transforms into different characters, shedding his melancholy self for a fierce yakuza persona and winning praise for his efforts and we see how it might work on the stage. At points they intersect and diverge and there is comedy as he tries to make scenes work and sometimes fails, sometimes succeeds. He may overact and certain method acting strategies may turn out catastrophic but we root for him and are aware of his progress and also hope his romance works out.

Whether he can grasp the lead role in life and on stage will be for audiences to discover.

The ending of his actor’s journey comes after wandering through a very physical desert wilderness which doubles as a metaphor for Kameoka’s career and life. He finds himself and his existential angst is over. Whether or not he can take top billing in films is left open but it is clear he has found his niche and some peace. Stay during the credits to see his satisfaction.

The film may focus on the craft of acting but it houses a universal message about finding a place in the world, a niche of ones own. Kameoka’s journey shows there is satisfaction in learning a craft and doing it to the best of your ability. Very few people get work doing what they like and if you can, you should count your blessings, much like Kameoka does.

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all well!

I managed to make it through the week with very little sleep and worked on film stuff as well as doing my regular job. I’ve reviewed Her Sketchbook and The Actor for VCinema and then posted the reviews on my blog.

What’s released this weekend?

We Make Antiques! Kyoto Rendezvous   

嘘八百　京町ロワイヤル　 「Usohappyaku Kyomachi Rowaiyaru」

Release Date: January 31st, 2020

Duration: 106 mins.

Director: Masaharu Take

Writer: Shin Adachi, Masako Imai (Script) 

Starring: Kiichi Nakai, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Tomochika, Aoi Morikawa, Tomoya Maeno, Shohei Uno, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Ami Tomite,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Our antique forging boys Norio Koike (Kiichi Nakai) and Sasuke Noda (Kuranosuke Sasaki) are dragged into a scheme centered on Kyoto and Sakai in Japan’s Kansai region when they get involved in replicating the tea ceremony master Shigenari Furuta’s chaki (containers used in tea ceremony) at the behest of a mysterious woman named Shino (Ryoko Hirosue).

AI Amok   

AI崩壊　 「AI Houkai」

Release Date: January 31st, 2020

Duration: 131 mins.

Director: Yu Irie

Writer: Yu Irie (Script) 

Starring: Takao Osawa, Kento Kaku, Alice Hirose, Takanori Iwata, Sei Ashina, Tina Tamashiro, Tomokazu Miura, Kimiko Yo,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: In 2030, Artificial Intelligence dominates peoples lives and the most trusted AI is the NOZOMI system. When it begins to run amok, tech engineer and creator Kosuke Kiryu (Takao Osawa) must stop the system from selecting and killing people it deems medically unfit.

Goblin Slayer: Goblin’s Crown   

ゴブリンスレイヤー GOBLIN’S CROWN　 「Goburin Sureiya- Goblin’s Crow」

Release Date: February 01st, 2020

Duration: 60 mins.

Director: Takaharu Ozaki

Writer: Hideyuki Kurata, Yousuke Kuroda (Script), Kumo Kagyu (Original Creator)

Starring: Yuichiro Umehara (Goblin Slayer), Yui Ogura (Priestess), Maaya Uchida (Guild Girl), Yoko Hikasa (Witch), Sumire Uesaka (Noble Fencer),

Production: WHITE FOX

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: A spin-off from the TV anime in which an adventurer who specialises in killing goblins in a fantasy world enters a mountain range to rescue a missing adventurer. 

Maeda Construction Fantasy Sales Department   

前田建設ファンタジー営業部　 「Maeda Kensetsu Fantaji- Eigyoubu」

Release Date: January 31st, 2020

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Tsutomu Hanabusa

Writer: Makoto Ueda (Script) Maeda Kensetsu Fantaji Eigoubu (Nonfiction Essay)

Starring: Makoto Takasugi, Chikara Honda, Yusuke Kamiji Motodaiki, Yukino Kishii, Jundai Yamada, Taku Suzuki,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: This is based on a true story from 2003 in which volunteers inside Maeda Corporation created the Fantasy Sales Department as a public relations project, intended to drum up interest in the construction industry. They used anime and examined just how much it would cost to construct the gigantic buildings that appear in animations like Gundam and Mazinger Z. They  then published their findings on the web and that attracted media attention and this film was made…

Rolling Marbles   

転がるビー玉　 「Korugaru Bidama」

Release Date: January 31st, 2020

Duration: 93 mins.

Director: Kenichi Ugana

Writer: Kenichi Ugana, Noriko Kato (Script) 

Starring: Ai Yoshikawa, Minori Hagiwara, Yui Imaizumi, Sho Kasamatsu, Ito Ono, Ami Tomite, Kyoko Hinami, Momoko Tanabe,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Shibuya is the fashion and youth district of Tokyo and there is major redevelopment is in progress. Three girls who live in an old house in a corner of Shibuya, Ai, Mizuho and Erika, spend their days worrying, struggling, laughing and crying while pursuing their dreams. One day, a notice of eviction is sent to their house because it will be demolished…. What they obtain is not a dazzling “jewel” or something, but a missing “marble” from somewhere. 

Last Lover   

Last Lover ラストラバー　 「Rasuto Raba-」

Release Date: January 31st, 2020

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Yusaku Okamoto,

Writer: Yusaku Okamoto (Script) 

Starring: Saki Yuumi, Keiichi Ando, Keita Arai, Mayu Kanakubo, Ryoka Neya

Website Film Freeway

Synopsis: Koki usually sleeps next to Miyu but, one morning, he leaves early. Miyu is surprised and thinks it is a joke but then she hears news that Koki died while asleep behind the wheel of his car. Since then weird things started to happen around Miyu including a co-worker getting killed by someone. Believing these cases were related, Miyu talks about it with her co-worker, Konishi. Unlike Koki, Konishi is a hardworking and friendly man. Miyu starts to develop feelings for Konishi  but then, one day, Koki comes back as a ghost and makes things difficult for Miyu…

Watch out for Patriots! Kunio Suzuki   

愛国者に気をつけろ！鈴木邦男　 「Aikoku-sha ni kiwotsukero! Suzuki kunio」

Release Date: February 01st, 2020

Duration: 78 mins.

Director: Mayu Nakamura

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kunio Suzuki, Karin Amamiya, Masao Adachi, Mitsuhiro Kimura, Reika Matsumoto,

Website 

Synopsis: A documentary about the right-wing political activist, Kunio Suzuki (more info here). Masao Adachi, a movie director closely related to the Red Army, is one person interviewed about the man.

Doko e dashite mo Hazukashii hito 

どこへ出しても恥かしい人　 「Doko e dashite mo yasakashii hito」

Release Date: February 01st, 2020

Duration: 64 mins.

Director: Ikuno Sasaki,

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kazuki Tomokawa, Toshiaki Ishizuka, Masato Nagahata,

Website

Synopsis: A documentary that follows Kazuki Tomokawa, a cult artist and singer, painter, and poet, who has been crazy about horse racing. He made his record debut in 1974, and later began his career as a painter, holding his first solo exhibition in 1985. His various activities have attracted many artists and cultural figures such as writer Kenji Nakagami and film director Nagisa Oshima, but he was not widely accepted by the public, and he still lives quietly in a small apartment in Kawasaki. 

Friday   

Release Date: February 01st, 2020

Duration: 88 mins.

Director: Shikai Keitei

Writer: N/A

Starring: Junichi Isohara, Ken Yokoyama, Crazy Ken Band, Sho, Masakazu Kawato, Sakae Fukamachi,

Website

Synopsis: A music documentary about “FRIDAY”,  a 40-year-old music venue in Yokohama. Located on the 3rd floor of a multi-tenant building, it has just 50 seats and the Crazy Ken Band who are just one of a number of groups that take to the stage. 

Cinema Rosa in Ikebukuro continues to support indie directors with late-night slots purely for their films. Ryo Katayama gets a go this week.

Ikiru, rikutsu   

生きる、理屈　 「Ikiru, rikutsu」

Release Date: February 01st, 2020

Duration: 78 mins.

Director: Ryo Katayama

Writer: Ryo Katayama, Ryo Anraku (Script), 

Starring: Ryo Katayama, Nagiko Tsuji, Ryo Anraku, Mizuho Osu, Shuichi Mine, Nobu Morimoto, Takashi Nishina,

Synopsis: The story follows a man named Shibata who works for a real estate agent. He refuses to help others based on principle but when he is in need of help he finds the situation impossible and begins to examine his life… 

Icchorai

いっちょらい　 「Icchorai」

Release Date: February 01st, 2020

Duration: 27 mins.

Director: Ryo Katayama

Writer: Ryo Katayama, (Script),

Starring: Shinji Matsubayashi, Akemi Uno, Tomoko Taniguchi, Yuusen Taniguchi, Kazuo Miyata,

Synopsis: The director shot a short film set in his hometown in Fukui Prefecture in 2018 and the story concerns Tetsuya, a man who runs a Chinese restaurant in a shopping district in front of Fukui Station. Things are going badly in his personal and professional life and he meets his ex-girlfriend who is now married to the son of the shopping district chairman after they had an affair… 

Meisojuushi

名操縦士　 「Meisojuushi」

Release Date: February 01st, 2020

Duration: 8 mins.

Director: Ryo Katayama

Writer: Ryo Katayama, (Script),

Starring: Nobu Morimoto, Yuki Tayama,

Synopsis: This is a short film from 2018 where a couple’s relationship dynamics play out over the cleaning of a toilet…

Here’s a press release for a fantastic looking event fit for foodies who love films:

The New York Asian Film Festival ushers in the new decade with the second annual edition of its Winter Showcase. Held at Chelsea’s SVA Theatre over Valentine’s weekend, this year’s showcase celebrates our love of Asian films by turning the spotlight on food cultures through cinema. At a juncture when America still obsesses over Bong Joon-ho’s award winning Parasite, and some of its more minute plot points such as the wonders of Ram-Don (jjapaguri), it is timely to show that when it comes to putting food front and center, Asian movies do it best.

To celebrate a time-honored tradition of storytelling and the romantic holiday, this year’s lineup brings together trends-and-time-transcending classics as well as some remarkable foodie films of recent years, spanning several decades and different strands of filmmaking: regardless of where and when they are from, these stories pack in full plates of heart and soul, feasts for the eyes, and more than a few surprises demanding to be seen on the big screen.

And what food film festival would be complete without some opportunity for the audience to add actual gastronomy to the visual delights by chowing down after the screenings? In addition to the seven mouthwatering films, each day will close with a selection of delicious treats from across the continent represented by a plethora of great New York Asian restaurants.

Samuel Jamier – Executive Director
“With the second Winter Showcase, we decided to continue to explore repertory programming in the most fun way possible – with a lineup that connects food and film, and shows that they transcend borders. It’s a great occasion to relish different Asian food cultures, and the food itself! But for the more attentive viewers, it’s also an occasion to discover why cooking and eating are so central to so many Asian films. How they address themes of family, morality, mortality, ambition and finding one’s way through the crossed wires of building romantic connections.”

David Wilentz – Programmer
“Having seen more than our fair share of Asian cinema, we’ve long observed it’s salient obsession with food and eating and how that underlines themes of humanity in multiple ways – from tragic to comic. So we knew an Asian food film event was a perfect idea!”

Friday night kicks off with Korea’s massive hit Extreme Job (second highest grossing movie of all time in South Korea!), about a crew of undercover cops whose front as a fried chicken place turns into a surprise success. We pair up the blockbuster film with a big night of our version of ‘chimaek’ – Korea’s beloved combo of Korean style fried chicken and beer. For our festival, our wonderful friends at Koreatown’s popular BBQ Chicken Ktown will debut their brand new “Galbi” fried chicken to coincide with the film’s smash hit “Suwon Galbi” flavor. Expanding the experience, we add a range of tasty delectables like New York mainstays The Halal Guys and Chapati Man. Throw in some chilled Hite beer, Jinro soju and try out the brand new makgeolli brewers Makku and you’ve got the perfect opening night for fans of NYAFF.

Saturday gets cooking with what is possibly the ultimate foodie film, Itami Juzo’s groundbreaking and delectable masterpiece, Tampopo.

Combining ingenious vignettes that conjure pure cinema from Chaplin to Preston Sturges with a delicious genre pastiche, this classic was proclaimed as the first ‘ramen western’ and is a glorious celebration of life through food that transcends all borders. After enjoying the film, stay on for “Tampopo” tonkotsu ramen by Brooklyn Ramen that will surely satisfy whatever urges are brought up from watching this essential piece of cinema!

Before he became an aficionado of frame rates and ultra realistic filmmaking, Ang Lee worked on telling personal tales about East vs West culture clashes within traditional Chinese families. Eat Drink Man Woman was the final film in Ang Lee’s ‘father knows best’ trilogy, and the first shot in his native Taiwan.

This bittersweet, tender multi-generational coming of age tale about a top chef father trying to reconnect with his daughters through sumptuous culinary creations established Lee as a true auteur with a film that’s as exquisitely constructed as the succulent dishes it displays. What better way to enjoy the taste of Taiwan than with one of NY Magazine’s Best of 2019 restaurants, 886 serving up Taiwanese casual food with a hint of Manhattan flair.

Saturday night concludes with the arch classic, ultra-wacky Hong Kong opus by King of Comedy Stephen Chow (Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle) – The God of Cookery.

Chow feeds the screwball comedy paradigm his patented formula of hyper-slapstick and irreverence, making this one of the funniest films to ever come out of Asia. Chow stars as a fallen sham chef, who rises from the ashes of his own folly like a ‘dragon and phoenix’ to create dishes such as “Pissing Beef Balls” and “Sorrowful Rice”. Inspired by the food onscreen Asian fusion specialists Char Sue offer up a delicious special version of their “Char Siu Rice” (Roast Pork Rice) giving you a guaranteed mind-blowing gastronomic good time not to be missed!

Our Sunday late brunch starts with the Indian box-office phenomenon The Lunchbox. One of the best reviewed films to come from South Asia, this critical darling tells the tale of how a food delivery mixup surprisingly kick starts a surreptitious friendship between a lonely housewife (Nimrat Kaur) and an aging office worker (Irrfan Khan). Writing wistful comforting notes to each other over unassumingly fabulous midday meals, eggplant and chili peppers never looked so enticing as in Ratesh Batra’s romantic debut film. After the screening, we pair the flavors of the country with the cult UK Spicy Indian Wraps of Chapati Man, making sure to satisfy your savory needs!

Back by popular demand, Sunday continues with the NYAFF 2014 audience award winner, Zone Pro Site: The Movable Feast. This wild and colorful farce about a woman who desperately joins a cooking competition, is born from Taiwanese street food and blooms into a neverending banquet of culinary extravagance and zany antics. Leaving you hungry for more, the 886 gang return with food inspired by the film just for you!

The NYAFF Winter Showcase 2020 concludes with First Supper, an appetizing new Japanese film that truly is comfort food for the soul.

In this Ozu-flavored slice of ‘mono no aware’ (the pathos of things) a family convenes for their patriarch’s funeral. As they remember him through the food he cooked from various shared meals, stormy past secrets and repressed emotions come to the surface. Japanese home cooking, from rice omelets to miso soup and fried mackerel have never looked so lovingly elegiac and glorious. Bringing a taste of home cooking is the wildly popular Japanese takoyaki bites of Karl’s Balls. Since it’s our final screening, we’ve invited back our various wonderful vendors and food sponsors to share their dishes and prizes to our loyal and hopefully hungry audience.

FULL LINEUP:
– EXTREME JOB (Lee Byeong-Hun, 2019, South Korea, 111min) – Friday February 14th, 7PM
– TAMPOPO (Itami Juzo, 1985, Japan, 114min) – Saturday February 15th, 1PM
– EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN (Ang Lee, 1994, Taiwan, 123min) – Saturday February 15th, 3:30PM
– GOD OF COOKERY ( Stephen Chow, 1996 , Hong Kong, 92min) – Saturday February 15th, 6:30PM
– THE LUNCHBOX (Ritesh Batra, 2013, India, 105min) – Sunday February 16th, 1:00PM
– ZONE PRO SITE: THE MOVEABLE FEAST (Chen Yu-hsun, 2013, Taiwan, 145 min) – Sunday February 16th, 3:30PM
– THE FIRST SUPPER (Tokiwa Shiro, 2019, Japan, 127 min.) – Sunday February 16th, 6:30PM

Earlier today, the organisers of the 2020 edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival announced their opening and closing films, both of which are completely different in form and content. Here’s the information direct from the festival website.

Everything kicks off on March 06th with the Malaysian film, The Garden of Evening Mists, a historical drama featuring a pan-Asian cast and crew who have adapted the award-winning novel by Twan Eng Tan.

The Garden of Evening Mists   

夕霧花園　 「Yugiri Hanazono」

Release Date: January 16th, 2020 (Malaysia)

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Tom Lin

Writer: Richard Smith (Script) Twan Eng Tan (Novel)

Starring: Angelica Lee, Hiroshi Abe, Sylvia Chang, Julian Sands, John Hannah, Serene Lim, David Oakes,

IMDB

The opening film of the 2020 Osaka Asian Film Festival is a handsomely shot historical drama that takes place in three periods of time in Malaysia’s history. It stars Angelica Lee who will be beset remembered for her work in the horror movie, The Eye (2002). She is joined by Hiroshi Abe (After the Storm, Still Walking, Survive Style 5+) and veteran director and actress Sylvia Chang.

Synopsis: 1950s Malaysia, a young woman named Teoh Yun Ling (Angelica Lee) travels to a British tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands to meet a famous but reclusive gardener named Aritomo Nakamura (Hiroshi Abe) in the hope of commissioning him to build a garden as a memorial for her late sister who died during the war. Aritomo declines the request, but proposes Yun Ling becomes his apprentice. Initially hesitant, Yun Ling eventually devotes herself to gardening and an attraction to the taciturn Aritomo takes root. Stronger emotions blossom but the two are entangled in the bitter history of the war and the unfolding Communist insurgency. 30 years later, Yun Ling (Sylvia Chang) returns to the garden to unearth a mystery surrounding Aritomo as she digs through painful memories of her past.

The event comes to a close on March 15th by looking to the future with the omnibus movie, Kamata Prelude. This features a wealth of new talent who have been making waves at fests like the Tokyo International Film Festival and more.

Kamata Prelude

蒲田前奏曲　 「Kamata Sensoukyoku」

Release Date: Autumn 2020

Duration: 115 mins.

Directors: Ryutaro Nakagawa, Mayu Akiyama, Yuka Yasukawa, Hirobumi Watanabe

Writers: Ryutaro Nakagawa, Mayu Akiyama, Yuka Yasukawa, Hirobumi Watanabe (Script)

Starring: Urara Matsubayashi, Kotone Furukawa, Ren Sudo, Sairi Ito, Mayuko Fukada, Noa Kawazoe, Ryutaro Ninomiya, Ryutaro Kondo,

The directors involved are a new generation of talent from the Japanese movie industry including Ryutaro Nakamura whose work ranges from Plastic Love Story to Silent Rain, the latter of which was screened at both the 2019 Busan International Film Festival and Tokyo Filmex where it won the Audience Award. Mayu Akiyama’s debut work, Rent a Friend, won the MOOSIC LAB Grand Prix and was screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2018. Hirobumi Watanabe’s film Cry won Best Director at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2019 in the Japanese Cinema Splash section. Yuka Yasukawa was one of a number of emerging talents tapped to helm one of the shorts from 21st Century Girl which has been screened around the world.

Urara Matsubayasji, the film’s producer and one of its cast, is a rising star active on the stage, TV drama, and on film. She will be most familiar with her performance in The Hungry Lion which was screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and New York Asian Film Festival in 2018. She is joined by many seasoned actors, including Sairi Ito (Love & Other Cults) and Kumi Takiuchi (Side Job, Greatful Dead) and Ren Sudo (Last Judgement).

Synopsis: A four-part film done in the unique style of each director, Urara Matsubayashi gives a portrayal of a struggling actress named Machiko who lives in Kamata. Machiko is the central axis of the movie as the film comically depicts what it means to be a “woman” and an “actress” in society through showing the patterns of life as conducted by her and the people that surround her.

I’ll be heading to Osaka to cover the festival so stay tuned!

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope everybody is fine and dandy!

I am in a zero time dilemma, as ever, as I try and fit in copious amounts of writing around my normal work routine so this trailer post is going to be short and sweet despite having so many titles. I posted about the Winter Showcase of foodie movies from the New York Asian Film Festival and I posted about the opening and closing films of the Osaka Asian Film Festival which takes place next month.

What is released this weekend?

37 Seconds 

Release Date: February 07th, 2020

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 trailer promises it will be worth watching. That was my blurb from the Berlin International Film Festival from last 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?

It Stopped Raining   /A Quiet Rain

静かな雨　 「Shizukana Ame」

Release Date: February 07th, 2020

Duration: 99 mins.

Director: Ryutaro Nakagawa

Writer: Eiji Umehara, Ryutaro Nakagawa (Screenplay), Natsu Miyashita (Novel)

Starring: Taiga Nakano, Misa Eto,

Website

Ryutaro Nakagawa has been making films for a while now (I first wrote about him with a Kickstarter for Plastic Love Story) and each has been a quiet success on the festival circuit.

Synopsis: Bio-archaeology sounds like hard thinking work and one bio-archaeology research assistant named Yukisuke (Taiga) often buys taiyaki (a fish-shaped pastry) at a taiyaki store near his university to power his brain. He is served by the owner, s young woman named Koyomi (Misa Eto) and the two build up a rapport as they begin to talk regularly but, one morning, Koyomi gets into a traffic accident and falls into a coma. Yukisuke continues to visit Koyomi at the hospital and, eventually, Koyomi regains consciousness, but she soon realises that she has problems with her memory. She remembers everything up to the accident, but her short term memory can’t remember anything beyond the present day.

Howling Village   

犬鳴村　 「Inukai Mura」

Release Date: February 07th, 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Writer: Takashi Shimizu, Daisuke Hosaka (Script), 

Starring: Ayaka Miyoshi, Ryota Bando, Renji Ishibashi, Reiko Takashima, Masanobu Takashima,

Website IMDB

Takashi Shimizu of Ju-on / Ju-on 2 fame brings to life a cursed village.

Synopsis: Inunaki Village is a haunted place and a clinical psychologist named Kanae (Ayaka Miyoshi) is drawn there when her older brother Yuma and his girlfriend Akina go missing there. It’s a good thing Kanae can see spirits…

Fancy 

ファンシー　 「Fanshi-」

Release Date: February 07th, 2020

Duration: 102 mins.

Director: Masaoki Hirota

Writer: Takayuki Imanara, Masaoki Hirota (Script), Naoki Yamamoto (Original Manga)

Starring: Masatoshi Nagase, Masataka Kubota, Sakurako Konishi, Tomorowo Taguchi, Eriko Sato,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Akira Takasu (Masatoshi Nagase), a carver and a postman, hangs out with a poet named Penguin (Masataka Kubota) and the two battle yakuza with the help of one of Penguin’s fans, Moonlit Night’s Star (Sakurako Konishi).

Under the name of Samurai-Japan National Baseball Team SAMURAI JAPAN 800 days-   

侍の名のもとに　野球日本代表　侍ジャパンの800日　 「Samurai no na no moto ni yakyūnihondaihyō samuraijapan no 800-nichi」

Release Date: February 07th, 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Shintaro Miki

Writer:

Starring: 

Website

Synopsis: A documentary about the Japanese national baseball team known as “Samurai Japan”. Recording started after former pro-ball player Atsushi Inaba took over managing the team in 2017.

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku   

ヲタクに恋は難しい　 「Wotaku ni Koi ha Muzukashii」

Release Date: February 07th, 2020

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

Writer: Yuichi Fukuda (Script), Fujita (Original Webcomic)

Starring: Mitsuki Takahata, Kento Yamazaki, Nanao, Takumi Saito, Kento Kaku, Tsuyoshi Muro, Jiro Sato,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: An office lady named Narumi Momose (Mitsuki Takahata) meets her old childhood friend Hirotaka Nifuji (Kento Yamazaki) at the new company she works for and Hirotaka has blossomed into a handsome and talented guy. However, he is also a video game otaku. That’s okay because Narumi is secretly a fujoshi into reading boys’ love manga. She can finally reveal her secret side to someone and the two start dating as an otaku couple.

Fake Plastic Planet   

フェイクプラスティックプラネット　 「Feiku purasutikku puranetto」

Release Date: February 08th, 2020

Duration: 73 mins.

Director: Kenichi Sono

Writer: Kenichi Sono (Script), 

Starring: Kasumi Yamaya, Kei Ichihashi, Tomokazu Koshimura, Taeko Gomi, Maya Hasegawa,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Shiho (Kasumi Yamaya) lives in an internet cafe. She encounters a blind fortune teller who insists that they had met 25 years ago but that cannot be since Shiho is 25! She spends the rest of the movie searching for her identity.

Cinema Rosa is showing more Ryo Katayama films this weekend. This time he worked with the Alice Project idols.

Tsumugu   

つむぐ　 「Tsumugu」

Release Date: February 08th, 2020

Duration: 32 mins.

Director: Ryo Katayama

Writer: Ryo Katayama (Script), 

Starring: Seri Suzumura, Mayu Kusunoki, Mao Morishita, Yuri Kinoshita,

Synopsis: A movie in which Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, where the Kamen Joshi girls take part in a story involving the areas famed textile industry. The lead character had wanted to work in the media in Tokyo but various events serve to keep her home and with more traditional work…

Mirai no Uta   

未来の唄　 「Mirai no Uta」

Release Date: February 08th, 2020

Duration: 51 mins.

Director: Ryo Katayama

Writer: Ryo Katayama (Script), 

Starring: Moa Tsukino, Fue Mizuno, Anan Sekiguchi, Doka Sakurano, Ryo Katayama,

Synopsis: Another short film involving the Kamen Joshi girls but this one is about Echizen lacquerware, a traditional industry in Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture. This art has been around for more than 1,500 years and is characterised by separate craftsmen handling each process from cutting wood to producing products. A girl chooses to follow her grandfather into the industry.

Cinema Rosa is also showing two films by Satoshi Ono.

Pick it up and throw it away!   

拾って捨てろ！　 「Hirotte sutero!」

Release Date: February 08th, 2020

Duration: 45 mins.

Director: Satoshi Ono

Writer: Yuto Hori (Script), 

Starring: Mineo Maiko, Noriko Sakamoto, Hitoshi Kuno, Fumiko Sakai, Koichi Ishikawa,

Synopsis: Mineo Maiko, the co-star of Amiko takes the lead in this film where she plays an OL who loves picking up litter, finds out about a volunteer group called “TOKYO SOYLENT GREEN” that is cleaning up parks for the Tokyo Olympics. They are caught in a battle with a bad group that tries to destroy parks. Hiroko finds herself pitching in with the good guys.

Soft Season

やわらかい季節　 「Yawarakai kisetsu」

Release Date: February 08th, 2020

Duration: 35 mins.

Director: Satoshi Ono

Writer: Satoshi Ono, Yuto Hori (Script), 

Starring: Fumiko Sakai, Riku Tanaka, Mizuki Ooeda, Naoki Murata, Hideo Seki, Onomichi,

Synopsis: Satoshi Ono’s second short film follows a woman named Yukiko who has been invited by a friend, Shinko, to join a campaign against a popular drink. Peaceful protest turns violent.

Are the last two films Millennial takes on the United Red Army? Groups dedicated to fancy drinks and litter picking cannibalising each other in internecine battles?

Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger VS Lupinranger VS Patranger the Movie   

劇場版 騎士竜戦隊リュウソウジャーVSルパンレンジャーVSパトレンジャー　 「Gekijōban Kishiryū Sentai Ryūsōjā Bui Esu Rupanrenjā Bui Esu Patorenjā」

Release Date: February 08th, 2020

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Katsuya Watanabe

Writer: Junko Komura, Naruhisa Arakawa (Script), Saburo Yatsude (Original Webcomic)

Starring: Hayate Ichinose, Keito Tsuna, Ichika Osaki, Yuito Obara, Tatsuya Kishida, Haruka Kudo,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: This features the casts of Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger and Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger and the story involves them meeting up and fighting each other at various points because a surviving member of the Gangler named Ganima Noshiagalda and the Druidon interferes with their lives.

Majin Sentai Kira Major II Episode ZERO

魔進戦隊キラメイジャー　エピソードZERO　 「Ma Suzumu sentai kirameijā episōdo zero」

Release Date: February 08th, 2020

Duration: 45 mins.

Director: Kyohei Yamaguchi

Writer: Naruhisa Arakawa, Yumi Shimoa (Script), Saburo Yatsude (Original Creator)

Starring: Rio Komiya, Rui Kihara, Yume Shinjou, Atomu Mizuishi, Mio Kudo,

Website

Synopsis: Five people selected as warriors for a beautiful gem will fight against a dark army corps trying to rob people of hope and radiance. Each stone resonates with the warrior’s personality and transforms into a giant vehicle.

The Glasgow Film Festival (February 26th – March 08th) will launch for its 16th edition at the end of the month and there are quite a few good anime titles plus one special indie which leads at the top of this post.

Here is what is on offer:

Kontora   

コントラ「Kontora」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 145 mins.

Director: Anshul Chauhan

Writer: Anshul Chauhan (Script) 

Starring: Seira Kojima, Wan Marui, Hidemasa Mase, Takuzo Shimizu, Taichi Yamada,

Twitter IMDB

This is a distinct and impressive sophomore feature from Anshul Chauhan after his debut, Bad Poetry Tokyo (2017) with its gorgeous monochrome sheen and absorbing dramatic acting and mysterious story. It won the Grand Prix at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and it is one I am looking forward to seeing at the Osaka Asian Film Festival n March.

Synopsis:  When Sora’s (Wan Marui) grandfather passes away she loses the last person she feels she can communicate with. Her relationship with her father is very uneasy and so, when Sora discovers her grandfather’s wartime diary which hints at hidden treasure, she hides it in the hopes it can provide some outlet for herself. At this time a mysterious mute vagrant who only walks backwards appears in town and his presence provides a catalyst for change between father and daughter.

Ghost Master 

ゴーストマスター　 「Go-suto Masuta-」

Release Date: December 06th, 2019

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Paul Young

Writer: Ichiro Kusuno (Script) 

Starring: Riko Narumi, Takahiro Miura, Mizuki Itagaki, Mariya Nagao, Motohisa Harashima, Hisayuki Teranaka, Yota Kawase, Yuki Shibamoto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A no-talent assistant director named Akira Kurosawa is working on yet another low-budget romance story in an abandoned school. His hopes of turning his script for the movie “Ghost Master” into a real film directed fails yet again and this rejection sends him flying into a rage that transfers evil energy into his script which takes over the romantic film he was working on. A demonic spirit possesses the lead actor, Yuya and crew members are picked off one by one in increasingly gory ways, Kurosawa has to figure out how to stop the curse before it’s too late!

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 the 2018 Cannes Film Festival with Shoplifters, Kore-eda newest film is based in France and starring some of the luminaries of French cinema with Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche (Certified Copy) and Ludivine Sagnier joined by 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.

Reviews have painted this one as another good Kore-eda film. It recently played at Busan where Kore-eda won Asian Filmmaker of the Year.

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.

Millennium Actress   4K Remaster

千年女優 「Sennen Joyuu」

Release Date: September 14th, 2002

Duration: 83 mins.

Director: Satoshi Kon

Writer: Satoshi Kon (Screenplay),

Studio: Madhouse

Starring: Fumiko Orikasa (Chiyoko Fujiwara), Shouzou Iizuka (Genya Tacibana), Masaya Onosaka (Kyouji Ida), Kouichi Yamadera (Man of the Key),

IMDB MAL ANN

Synopsis: One very obvious way the movies have changed the world is by giving us the movie star.

Issues of stardom – and fandom – are at the heart of this sweeping Japanese animation by Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Perfect Blue). Actress Chiyoko Fujiwara, an icon of 1950s cinema but now retired and living in seclusion, is visited one afternoon by a devoted fan wanting to make a documentary about her career. As they – and we, the audience – plunge back into her past, we hop between events in her real and her on-screen life in roles in a variety of genres and time-periods.

Conceived as a homage to the samurai epics, domestic dramas, space odysseys and monster movies of post-WW2 Japanese cinema, the film sets up further resonances in the character of Chiyoko herself who recalls both Hideko Takamine, an icon of hope for post-war Japanese filmgoers, and Setsuko Hara, one of Yazujiro Ozu’s favourite actresses, who disappeared from the public eye at the height of her stardom.

A movie studio is being torn down, and TV interviewer Genya Tachibana has tracked down its most famous star, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who has been a recluse since she left acting some thirty years ago. Tachibana delivers a key to her, and it causes her to reflect on her career; as she’s telling the story, Tachibana and his long-suffering cameraman are drawn into her story as an actress, the decades spent acting across various genres and eras.

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 later this year. The arson attack at Kyoto Animation last year was devastating and the company is still recovering. Projects are now underway again but lives were lost. 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.

Yui Ishikawa will be taking part in a Q&A after the screening on March 1 according to Anime News Network.

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. 

Here’s coverage of Glasgow from past years:

GIFF 2019

GIFF 2018

GIFF 2017

GIFF 2016

GIFF 2015

The Berlin International Film Festival launches at the end of this week and runs from February 20th to March 01st. There are a fair few films from Japan on display with two classics mixed in with contemporary titles. If there is a general theme, it is the deconstruction of family as each of the titles looks at that topic from a particular angle. There is also a special talk event featuring Ang Lee and Hirokazu Koreeda with the film After Life screened.

What are the Japanese films programmed?

The Phone of the Wind   

風の電話　 「Kaze no Denwa」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 139 mins.

Director: Nobuhiro Suwa

Writer: Nobuhiro Suwa, Kyoko Inukai (Script) 

Starring: Serena Motola, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tomokazu Miura, Toshiyuki Nshida, Makiko Watanabe, Shoko Ikezu,

Website IMDB

The review for this one at the Japan Times website makes the drama sound powerful. It has been selected for this year’s Berlinale so expect to see it travel around the world.

Synopsis: Haru is 17 years old and has lived in Hiroshima with her aunt ever since losing her family in the Great East Japan Earthquake. When her aunt (Makiko Watanabe) falls ill, Haru is left with nobody to take care of her and so she goes back to her hometown of Otsuchi in Iwate Prefecture. It is there she hears of the “Wind Telephone” It is a white phone booth with a disconnected black telephone inside. With it, the living can contact the dead. As Haru journeys to the phone, she encounters various people and discovers others who have lost something or someone… 

Seishin 0   

精神0　 「Seishin 0」

Release Date: May 2020

Duration: 128 mins.

Director: Kazuhiro Soda

Writer: Naruhisa Arakawa, Yumi Shimoa (Script), Saburo Yatsude (Original Creator)

Starring: Masatomo Yamamoto, Yoshiko Yamamoto,

IMDB

Synopsis: Returning to the subject of his film Seishin, Kazuhiro Soda revisits Dr. Yamamoto, a pioneering psychiatrist who is about to give up his practice at the age of 82. We see that his wife, now with dementia, will be the last person he cares for after we see him say goodbye to his patients for the last time and close his practice in this film which documents everybody’s behaviour to paint a humanistic story of people accepting decline.

Cruel Tale of Bushido   

武士道残酷物語　 「Bushido zankoku monogatari」

Release Date: April 28th, 1963

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Tadashi Imai

Writer: Naoyuki Suzuki, Yoshikata Yoda (Script), Norio Nanjo (Original Book: Hiryo no keifu / Genealogy of Slaves)

Starring: Kinnosuke Nakamura, Satomi Oka, Kyoko Kishida, Misako Watanabe, Yoshiko Mita

IMDB

Cruel Tale of Bushido was awarded the Golden Bear at the 1963 Berlin International Film Festival and the world premiere of the digitally restored version happens at Berlinale 2020.

Synopsis: The attempted suicide of his fiancée prompts a Japanese salary-man to read his family chronicles and look back at the life of his ancestors. The annals stretch back through the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate and he sees that they were samurai who were made to commit horrendous acts by their feudal lords and were duty-bound to do so. The salary-man realises he is repeating history.

The Ceremony   

儀式　 「Gishiki」

Release Date: June 0th, 1971

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Nagisa Oshima

Writer: Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Nagisa Oshima (Script), Saburo Yatsude (Original Creator)

Starring: Kenzo Kawarazaki, Atsuko Kaku, Atsuo Nakamura, Akiko Koyama, Kei Sato

IMDB

Synopsis: The fall of the house of Sakurada after World War II, which Oshima depicts via showing how his protagonist Masuo remembers a series of ritual family gatherings that take place at different points in the past and present. The grandfather pulls the strings of the family, forcing strange situations to arise, most of which damage the younger generation.

Abstracted / Family

魔進戦隊キラメイジャー　エピソードZERO　 「Gishiki」

Release Date: February 08th, 1971

Duration: 110 mins.

Director: Koki Tanaka

Writer: N/A

Starring: Claudia Shimoji, Ai Nakagawa, Kiyoshi Hashimoto, Naoto Yasuda, Lawrence Yoshitaka Shimoji

Synopsis: The artist/director Koki Tanaka is back exploring nationality, race and, for this one, the idea of a family by questioning what makes a family, whether it goes beyond blood relations. For this film, Tanaka assembles four people of different backgrounds but are native Japanese and gives them a character to act out where they try to work as a group, thus, making reality and fiction mix together.

The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)  

Release Date: February 27th, 2020

Duration: 480 mins.

Director: C.W. Winter, Anders Edström

Writer: C.W. Winter, Diary entries by Tayoko Shiojiri (Script), 

Starring: Tayoko Shiojiri, Hiroharu Shikata, Ryo Kase, Mai Edström, Kaoru Iwahana

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Shot over a 14 month period in a village populated by 47 people in the mountains of Kyoto Prefecture, it is a depiction of the lives of farmers over five seasons. There will be intermissions in the film.

Also screening are the shorts Akiya (Dir: Jonna Kina, 5 mins.), and Citizens of the Cosmos (Dir: Anton Vidokle, 30 mins.)

Here is past coverage I have offered on the festival:

Berlin Film Festival 2019

Berlin Film Festival 2018

Berlin Film Festival 2017

Berlin Film Festival 2016

Berlin Film Festival 2015

Berlin Film Festival 2014

Berlin Film Festival 2013

Berlin Film Festival 2012 Competition Results

The Temple of Wild Geese    

雁の寺　 「Gan no Tera」

Duration: 96 mins.

Release Date: December 26th, 1962

Director:  Yuzo Kawashima

Writer:  Kazuo Funabashi, Yuzo Kawashima (Screenplay), Tsutomu Minakami (Original Novel)

Starring: Ayako Wakao, Masao Mishima, Kuniichi Takami, Isao Kimura, Ganjiro Nakamura, Kunikazu Takami, Ryoko Kamo, Mineko Mandai, Kiwami Sazanka,

IMDB

One of the chief ironies of life is that those who profess to be the most morally upstanding often end up being the most immoral. With this in mind, director Yuzo Kawashima, chief satirist of post-war Japan, finds great material to work with when it comes to those in the religious orders. However, instead of laughs it is all menace as dark passions surge out of control. His film’s dark material finds its match with its aesthetic, a charcoal-like texture and look and foreboding music which make this a chilling film as we venture into the moral hypocrisy of the inhabitants in a Buddhist temple, all of which affects one boy’s warped mentality.

Satoko Kirihara (Ayako Wakao) is the object of desire and catalyst for said hypocrisy in this drama set in 1920s Kyoto. She is a courtesan hired by Nangaku Kishimoto (Ganjiro Nakamura), the head priest of the Rakuhoku Temple on Mount Kinugasa. He is a renowned artist who is working on his latest commission, a scene of wild geese spread across screens which we see in the film’s opening credits but the next thing we know he is on his deathbed and making a request to the portly and jovial abbot of Koho Temple, Jikai Kitami (Masao Mishima), to take the young woman in. Despite professing to have discarded all worldly connections Kitami needs little prompting and jumps at the opportunity to hire Satoko and jump on the beauty.

So, from her apartment above a flower shop in western Damachi to the cloistered world of Koho Temple, Satoko moves to become Kitami’s play-thing. She finds herself in a more austere and down-at-heel location where there is a single novice monk, a teenager named Jinen (Kuniichi Takami), who is cruelly treated by Kitami. His life is tough as befits a Zen Buddhist monk with endless work and physical punishments but the moral hypocrisy and casual cruelty of his increasingly overbearing master makes it harder to bear.

The young disciple becomes unsettled by Satoko’s presence partly because the lusty old abbot seems to enjoy bullying him when Satoko is around but there are hints that the teen is attracted to her. It cannot be denied that Satoko is drawn to him out of a sort of maternal concern, often standing up for him in the face of cruelty. Soon, perhaps sensing that they are in the same position of both being at the mercy of the abbot, Satoko sees a kindred spirit in the brooding teen and lets slip her own sad past in a moment of empathy but this, along with her mere touch, further drives the novice monk into confusion and as her offers of motherly comfort turn sensual their relationship risks becoming something of a menage-a-trois.

She sparks a serious moral crisis that reveals something far darker is eating away at the poor novice’s sanity, something connected to his background that tortures him, and as Satoko digs deeper to understand him she inadvertently sets off a shocking and scandalous event…

Taking Tsutomu Minakami’s semi-autobiographical story as its basis we get a pretty bleak film where foreboding music, black-and-white cinematography, brooding lighting and tight framing in a cramped temple creates a menacing and flinty atmosphere that emphasises the darkness in the characters. The polished floors may shine and the light colours of the sliding doors offer some art for the eyes but they only serve as a contrast to the deep blacks from which Jinen emerges and disappears in the temple’s warren of corridors. While trips outside of the temple offer some respite the immorality continues and there’s a sense that Jinen is trapped wherever he goes. The ending is as pessimistic as it could be and the build-up is masterfully done through the acting as well as the brilliant world-building and acting of his co-stars.

The film takes place in 1920s Japan and militarism is rife and most ordinary folk live modest lives. Irony and moral weakness runs rife as people skimp on paying for loved one’s funerals, Buddhist initiates are being trained for war, and women have to use a man or their wits to survive and we discover Kitami is just one of a network lascivious head priests located around Kyoto, exploiting their positions as shown in amusing scenes of boring meetings where shop talk turns to the latest acquisitions in lust. Satoko and Kitami’s relationship is normal in this context.

Masao Mishima as Kitami acts the perfect hypocrite in this role, laughably lazy and lustful as he buys the latest furnishings for Satoko, including a western style bed so he can enjoy her, and condemnable as a cruel spendthrift in charity when it comes to his own work treating the community and his relationship with the novice who he abuses and misuses, something which he claims has a genuine purpose: to build up character.

Wakao, so much the arch-manipulator who is all insouciance and stoicism in films by the likes of Yasuzo Masamura is more innocent here but still capable of sending men round the twist with her mere physical presence. She is a natural beauty with an alluring sensuality but renders her character more complex by adding heartfelt delivery of a piercing earnestness, melancholy and cheerfulness which she shows when aiding the novice while not realising it is driving him into a corner.

Actor Kuniichi Takami does well to flip between sullen spells and manic behaviour that stems from a confusion over his desire to follow Buddhist precepts and reality where the lusts of life can alter a person. It is rooted in a disconnect in his background, a terrible existential quandary which makes his behaviour become alarming and consequently the temple and its immorality becomes claustrophobic as he struggles to make sense of things whilst battling his own human nature.

While the set-up and characters suggest a bawdy comedy the execution is a little more dour and definitely darker than Kawashima’s more famous works, comedies such as Bakumatsu Taiyoden and Room for Let. This is, when coupled with The Graceful Brute which was released the same year, a caustic look at Japanese society. It’s mostly in the execution, that mise-en-scene that hints at the murky nature of the characters and the idea that something terrible will occur at the end of the film and the story definitely delivers it.

Earlier this month, the organisers of the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) 2020 announced the full line-up for the festival which takes place from March 6-15. This is the best event to see a cross-section of Asian cinema and nearly all of the films will have English subs – the only exceptions we know so far are “Birthday”, ” House of Hummingbird”, and “Malmoe The Secret Mission”.

Despite the issues surrounding Coronavirus, the festival is still going ahead but one section, the co-hosted event “Come to Life! vol.2 Gutai and Nakanoshima”, has been cancelled due to the decision of the co-host organiser. This means six films have been removed which brings the number of selected films screened from a record 64 to 58 in total. This number includes 12 World Premieres, 12 International Premieres, and 3 Asian Premieres with films submitted from countries and regions such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Poland, South Korea, Japan, and South East Asia.

Continuing on from previous editions of the festival, OAFF remains a beacon of progressive programming as 25 female directors find their works selected with over half the films in the Competition section directed by women. The festival programme features characters from across the world contesting with issues such as war, crime, bullying, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and unionising in the workplace. OAFF continues to give a platform to filmmakers who face challenging issues, whether the films reckon with historical injustice or paint a brighter future through showing diverse characters navigating their way in our tumultuous world.

Please check the full line-up of OAFF 2020 which can be found here. Tickets for the films screening at the fest are already on sale.

● The opening and closing films have bee previously mentioned here but, to summarise, OAFF 2020 will open with the Japan Premiere of the historical drama, The Garden of Evening Mists, directed by Tom Shu-yu LIN and featuring an international cast. The closing work is the World Premiere of Kamata Prelude, an anthology film produced by and starring MATSUBAYASHI Urara and directed by four of the brightest talents from a new generation of filmmakers, NAKAGAWA Ryutaro, AKIYAMA Mayu, YASUKAWA Yuka and WATANABE Hirobumi.

World Premiere Films
OAFF will give the first ever theatrical screenings to 12 titles, including Kamata Prelude (Japan), a four-part film done with the distinct styles of the directors, Your Name Engraved Herein (Taiwan), a romantic drama that is emblematic of the changing fate of LGBTQ+ people in Taiwan, and On the Edge of Their Seats (Japan), a coming-of-age drama centred on baseball from veteran director JOJO Hideo.

International Premiere Films
There are 12 international premieres picked from across Asia at OAFF 2020 with award-winners such as Write about Love which mixes music and romance. It won seven awards at the 45th Metro Manilla Film Festival including the Jury Special Award. Other titles include Apart, a sweeping romantic drama produced by Herman YAU that takes place in the middle of the Hong Kong democracy protests.

Asia Premiere Films
Anshul CHAUHAN returns to Osaka following Bad Poetry Tokyo (screened at OAFF2018) with his latest film Kontora (Japan). The winner of the Grand Prix at the 23rd Black Nights Film Festival, it is a unique family drama that is shot in monochrome and features strong performances. It will be screened alongside, Mariko BOBRIK’s The Taste of Pho, an international co-production involving Germany and Poland that depicts the life of a Vietnamese chef struggling to fit in while living in Poland. Famous cinematographer and actor KISHI Kentaro screens his short Hammock (Japan) about a young girl coming to terms with changes to her family following her father’s death.

●In addition to the permanent Competition and Indie Forum sections, a new “Spotlight” section has been established this year. With the careful consideration of programming director TERUOKA Sozo, OAFF will shine a light on movies that may not have become popular yet but feature talents and movements in cinema that audiences and creatives will want to pay particular attention to in the future.

● There are other special events that will feature the films of “Now” from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. To mark the 101st anniversary of the birth of Korean cinema, OAFF will show a selection of works that tell the stories of important moments in the social history of Korea. These films are:
“Birthday”, “Children Gone to Poland”, “House of Hummingbird”, and “Malmoe The Secret Mission”

●Returning Directors
While there are no special events to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the festival, 14 directors who have had films screened at OAFF in the past are returning. So far the names include:
Tom Shu-yu LIN, YASUKAWA Yuka, Derek TSANG, Nawapol THAMRONGRATTANARIT, Anshul CHAUHAN, YANG Lina, KIM Tai-sik, FUJIMOTO Akio, MISAWA Takuya, IMAOKA Shinji, MIYAZAKI Daisuke, LEE Cheuk Pan, Amos WHY, Khyentse NORBU

Here is a run-down of the films at the festival with links to each of the English-language pages:

Opening

The Garden of Evening Mists (Tom Lin, 2019, Malaysia)

Closing

Kamata Prelude (Ryutaro Nakagawa, Mayu Akiyama, Yuka Yasukawa, Hirobumi Watanabe, 2020, Japan)

Competition

Apart (Chitman Chan, 2020, Hong Kong),

The Girl with the Gun (Rae Red, 2019, Philippines)

Better Days (Derek Tsang, 2019, Hong Kong and China)

Happy Old Year (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, 2019, Thailand)

Heavy Craving (Hsieh Pei-ju, 2019, Taiwan)

Kontora (Anshul Chauhan, 2019, Japan)

Lucky Chan-sil (Kim Cho-hee, 2019, South Korea)

My Prince Edward (Wong Yee-lam, 2019, Hong Kong)

The Odds (Megha Ramaswamy, 2019, India)

Spring Tide (Yang Lina, 2019, China)

The Taste of Pho (Mariko Bobrik, 2019, Germany and Poland)

Way Back Home (Park Sun-joo, 2019, South Korea)

Wisdom Tooth (Liang Ming, 2019, China)

Write about Love (Crisanto Aquino, 2019, Philippines)

Your Name Engraved Herein (Liu Kuang-hui, 2020, Taiwan)

Spotlight

Alikis (Emetjen Memet, 2019, China)

Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (Khyentse Norbu, 2019, Nepal and Mexico)

Mariam (Sharipa Urazbayeva, 2019, Kazakhstan and Germany)

Roam Rome Mein (Tannishtha Chatterjee, 2019, India and Italy)

New Action! Southeast Asia

Bee, My Friend (Cheng Thim Kian, 2020, Malaysia)

California Dreaming (Meas Sreylin, 2019, Cambodia)

Hit & Run (Ody C. Harahap, 2019, Indonesia)

LSS (Last Song Syndrome) (Jade Castro, 2019, Philippines)

Metamorphosis (Jose Enrique Tiglao, 2019, Philippines)

Miss Andy (Teddy Chin, 2020, Malaysia and Taiwan)

Sunday (Kris Ong, 2019, Singapore)

Sunshine Family (Kim Tai-sik, 2019, Philippines and South Korea)

Indie Forum

Bleached Bones Avenue (Akio Fujimoto, 2020, Japan)

For Rei (Yukari Sakamoto, 2019, Japan)

Good-bye (Aya Miyazaki, 2020, Japan)

Hammock (Kentaro Kishi, 2018, Japan)

The Modern Lovers (Atsuro Shimoyashiro, 2019, Japan)

The Murderer of Oiso (Takuya Misawa, 2019, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea)

On the Edge of Their Seats (Hideo Jojo, 2020, Japan)

reikoiruka (Shinji Imaoka, 2019, Japan)

VIDEOPHOBIA (Daisuke Miyazaki, 2019, Japan)

Woman of the Photographs (Takeshi Kushida, 2020, Japan)

Special Screenings

Made in Bangladesh (Rubaiyat Hossain, 2019, France, Bangladesh, Denmark and Portugal)

Yan (Keisuke Imamura, 2019, Japan)

Our Lights and Shadows: Celebrating 101 Years of Korean Cinema

Birthday (Lee Jong-un, 2019, South Korea)

Children Gone to Poland (Choo Sang-mi, 2019, South Korea)

House of Hummingbird (Bora Kim, 2018, South Korea)

Malmoe The Secret Mission (Eom Yu-na, 2019, South Korea)

Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2020

A Cockerel’s Tale (Hsieh Pei-ju, 2019, Taiwan)

The Gangs, The Oscars, and the Walking Dead (Kao Pin-chuan, 2019, Taiwan)

Nobody (Lin Chun-hua, 2020, Taiwan)

RPG (Shih Chun-han, 2019, Taiwan)

Temple of Devilbuster (Wang I-fan, 2020, Taiwan)

Heavy Craving (Hsieh Pei-ju, 2019, Taiwan)

Your Name Engraved Herein (Liu Kuang-hui, 2020, Taiwan)

Miss Andy (Teddy Chin, 2020, Malaysia and Taiwan)

Special Focus on Hong Kong 2020

Fagara (Heiward Mak, 2019, China and Hong Kong)

The Fallen (Lee Cheuk Pan, 2019, Hong Kong)

Four Times Four (Amos Why and Nora Lam, 2019, Hong Kong)

Apart (Chitman Chan, 2020, Hong Kong)

Better Days (Derek Tsang, 2019, Hong Kong and China)

My Prince Edward (Wong Yee-lam, 2019, Hong Kong)

Housen Cultural Foundation: Support for film study and production

Bring Light to the Kobe (Misa Takai, 2019, Japan)

Daffodils (Takuma Osugi, 2020, Japan)

Naked Uncle (Nobukazu Aoki, 2020, Japan)

setsuko (Pilone Zon, 2020, Japan)

stay (Naoya Fujita, 2020, Japan)

This article was originally posted on V-Cinema on February 17th. Stay tuned for my coverage of the festival over the next few months which will be split between here and V-Cinema.

Happy postponed weekend!

This should have come out two weekends ago but I was busy writing for a film festival and I am going to continue being busy for the next two months so please bear with me if you like the trailer posts. I posted a few things since the last trailer post:

Japanese Films at the Glasgow Film Festival

Japanese Films at the Berlin International Film Festival

Programme Announcement for the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020

The Temple of Wild Geese

What was released last weekend?

The Book of Shadow   

影裏　 「Eiri」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 134 mins.

Director: Keishi Ohtomo

Writer: Shinsuke Numata (Story) 

Starring: Gou Ayano, Ryuhei Matsuda, Mariko Tsutsui, Tomoya Nakamura, Ken Yasuda, Jun Kunimura,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Konno (Gou Ayano) and Hiasa (Ryuhei Matsuda) live and work in Iwate and are best buds who do everything together but when Hiasa quits the job, the two drift apart and Hiasa disappears. Konno goes looking for him and discovers a secret…

Goodbye: Life Comedy of Starting From a Lie   

グッドバイ　嘘からはじまる人生喜劇　 「Guddobai: Uso kara Hajimaru Jinsei Kigeki」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 106 mins.

Director: Izuru Narushima

Writer: Satoko Okudera (Script), Keralino Sandrovich (Original Novel)

Starring: Yo Oizumi, Eiko Koike, Ai Hashimoto, Tae Kimura, Nobue Iketani, Asami Mizukawa, Yoji Tanaka, Gaku Hamada, Yutaka Matsushige,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Post-war Japan, Shuji Tajima (Yo Oizumi) is the chief editor for a literary magazine and a bit of a ladies man who is having trouble breaking up with his girlfriends. Enter Kinuko Nagai (Eiko Koike), a woman left devastated by the war and in dire need of cash who he hires to act as his wife.

Roar   

轟音　 「Gouon」

Release Date: February 15th, 2020

Duration: 99 mins.

Director: Ryo Katayama

Writer: Ryo Katayama (Script), 

Starring: Ryo Anraku, Mie Oota, Shoji Oomiya, Mari Kishi, Takuya Nakayama,

Website 

Synopsis: The first feature film directed by Kei Katayama (he had his short screened at Cinema Rosa earlier this month) and it’s about a guy named Makoto whose brother committed a crime and whose father tried to commit suicide, ON THE VERY SAME DAY, no less! Makoto has nowhere to turn to so turns on himself as he goes on a self-destructive journey but things change when he encounters a tramp. The main character is played by Ryo Anraku, who directed and starred in the movie Hitori Dansu for which Katayama wrote and appeared.

Thank You for Coming   

サンキューフォーカミング　 「Sankyu- Fo- Kamingu」

Release Date: February 15th, 2020

Duration: 93 mins.

Director: Mayuka Yoshida

Writer: Mayuka Yoshida (Script), 

Starring: Giko, Akemi Nagaoka, Taeko Kanai, Daichi Tomioka, Futoshi Imaya,

Website

Synopsis: The first feature film directed by Mayuka Yoshida after a career of making short films is about a 28-year-old woman named Mei who has followed her parents commands her entire life. One day, when her father learns that Mei has been sexually harassed by her boss, he forces her to quit her job. After working part-time at a boutique in the neighbourhood, Mei happens to meet a former senior from university and the two hit it off despite the fact he is married and the two have an affair which leaves Mei pregnant…

Gekijouban seiyuu danshi desu ga…? Kore kara no seiyuu jinsei no hanashi o shiyou   

劇場版　声優男子ですが…？　これからの声優人生の話をしよう　 「Gekijouban seiyuu danshi desu ga…? Kore kara no seiyuu jinsei no hanashi o shiyou」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 91 mins.

Director: Ayumi Suzuki

Writer: Gorgeous Someya, Hajime Nasa (Script), 

Starring: Yuuto Uemura, Yuuichiro Uehara, Keisuke Kawamoto, Yuusuke Kobayashi, Yusuke Shirai, Yutaro Honjo, Kazutomi Yamamoto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A theatrical version of the Seiyuu danshi desu ga…? (Even Though I’m a Male Voice Actor…?) a TV variety show featuring male voice actors training, working, and undertaking various physical challenges. The boys go camping in this film…

Hanshin Tigers THE MOVIE: The Great Tiger Myths     

阪神タイガース THE MOVIE 猛虎神話集　 「Hanshin Taiga-su The Movie Mouko Shinwashu」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 97 mins.

Director: Hideo Ishibashi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Koji Ishizaka (Narrator)

Website

Synopsis: This is the team’s first official documentary movie produced to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the founding of the “Hanshin Tigers”. Various legendary moments throughout the team’s history are looked back upon as well as interviews with players past and present.

The Dignified Death of Shizuo Yamanaka   

山中静夫氏の尊厳死　 「Yamanaka Shizuo-shi no songenshi」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 109 mins.

Director: Akio Murahashi

Writer: Akio Murahashi (Script), Keishi Nagi (Original Novel)

Starring: Baijaku Nakamura, Kanji Tsuda, Misato Tanaka, Miyoko Asada, Atsuko Takahata,

Website

Synopsis: 62-year-old Shizuo Yamanaka was told he had terminal cancer and one month left to live so he returned to his hometown to face the end. He admits himself to the hospital, thinking only about dying peacefully without pain. Imamura, a doctor who watches over Shizuo’s last stage, suffers from depression because he has seen too many deaths and yet he continues to think about the possibility of a dignified death for human beings.

MAN WITH A MISSION THE MOVIE TRACE the HISTORY 

阪神タイガース THE MOVIE 猛虎神話集　 「Hanshin Taiga-su The Movie Mouko Shinwashu」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 81 mins.

Director: Tsukagoshi Chenko

Writer: N/A

Starring: Man with a Mission: Tokyo Tanaka, Jean-Ken Johnny, Kamikaze Boy, DJ Santa Monica, Spear Rib,

Website

Synopsis: The first documentary of the five-member rock band “MAN WITH A MISSION” who suddenly appeared on the music scene in 2010 and have since gone on worldwide tours, made anime themes and played at Nippon Budokan. Expect interviews, performance footage and behind-the-scenes.

Sei no gekiyaku   

性の劇薬 「Sei no gekiyaku」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Hideo Jojo

Writer: Hideo Jojo (Script), Yuki Mizuta (Original Manga)

Starring: Sho Watanabe, Takashi Kitadai, Seiki Chiba, Ruri Shinato,

Website

Synopsis: Katsuragi was once an elite office worker but after his career fell apart and he attempted suicide, he became the sex slave of a seriously depraved man named Yoda…

Bye Bye Vamp 

バイバイ、ヴァンプ！ 「Bai Bai, Banpu!」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 107 mins.

Director: Takashi Ueda

Writer: Takeshi Ueda, Kei Nakamura (Script), Yuki Mizuta (Original Manga)

Starring: Kento Hiramatsu, Mio Kudo, Aya Marsh, Nene Mitsuki, Kairu Takano, Raiga Terasaka,

Website IMDB

Jocular Synopsis: A horror movie starring the Matsuri 9 boys from Nagoya who play a bunch of lads who go to a high school in Ibaraki, Japan where a vampire is taking over by turning everyone gay…

Serious voice: A petition to get this film pulled from cinema due to its “anti-LGBTQ” storyline was launched a week ago. The Matsuri 9 boys will be sentenced at a later date… 

ACCA 13-Territory Inspection Department Regards   

ACCA13区監察課 Regards 「ACCA Jusanku Kansatsuka Regards」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 107 mins.

Director: Shingo Natsume

Writer: Tomohiro Suzuki (Script), Natsume Ono (Original Manga)

Starring: Hiro Shimono (Jean Otus), Aoi Yuuki (Lotta), Atsuko Tanaka (Mauve), Aya Suzaki (Elder), Megumi Sato (Atri), Mamoru Miyano (Prince Schwan),

Production: Madhouse

Website ANN MAL

This OVA takes place a year after the TV anime.

Synopsis from MAL: Jean and the rest of the ACCA department are preparing for the one-year anniversary of the establishment of the new order. For the characters — caught between rumors of unrest, unchanging days, new crossroads, gazes remembered in memories, and days of new beginnings — time once again begins to move forward.

Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai The Clouds Gather 

囀る鳥は羽ばたかない The clouds gather「Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai: The Clouds Gather」

Release Date: February 15th, 2020

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Kaori Makita

Writer: Hiroshi Seko (Script), Kou Yoneda (Original Manga)

Starring: Tarusuke Shingaki (Yashiro), Wataru Hatano (Doumeki), Akimitsu Takase (Hirata), Yuuki Ono (Kuga), Takuya Sato (Ageya),

Production: GRIZZLY

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Yashiro is the young leader of the Shinseikai yakuza gang but this tough guy is a deviant and a masochist which is revealed to one of his bodyguards, Doumeki Chikara, whom Yashiro cannot resist. Yashiro makes advances toward Doumeki and abuses his power just to abuse himself but Doumeki tries to resist…

Happy postponed weekend…

This is last weekend’s trailer post. Not much else to say other than apologies for the delay. I’m aiming to get back on track and deliver regular trailer posts but there is a lot of content every week and I will be travelling. On a tangentially connected note, I finally saw Parasite at a cinema and was blown away by it.

What was released last weekend?

Red   

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Yukiko Mishima

Writer: Yukiko Mishima, Chihiro Ikeda (Script), Rio Shimamoto (Original Novel)

Starring: Kaho, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Tasuku Emoto, Shotaro Mamiya, Reiko Kataoka, Kimiko Yo,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Toko Suguri (Kaho) has a house, is married to a handsome guy and has a charming daughter. Despite these signs of success, she is unhappy. When Toko meets her ex-boyfriend Akihiko Kurata (Satoshi Tsumabuki) at a friend’s wedding, the two launch into a passionate affair. Akihiko looks after Toko in ways her husband doesn’t but as she gets sucked into the passion, she loses her sense of responsibility and her life begins to fall apart.

NDJC (New Directions in Japanese Cinema) aims to foster a new generation of filmmakers by helping directors produce films with experienced cast and crew. There are fewer titles in this year’s crop, all of which were produced in 2019, but the directors are known and have talent. Here’s my review of the 2018 batch.

Le Cerveau   

Le Cerveau セルヴォ「Le Cerveau Serubu」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 30 mins.

Director: Yoshiyuki Shimada

Writer: Yoshiyuki Shimada (Script), 

Starring: Sae Tanaka, Ayami Fujisawa, Kisa Minami, Koji Hatta, Shoichiro Jotaki,

Website

Synopsis: Saya Maekawa has been raising her beloved son Sota in desperate circumstances because he is afflicted by a strange disease. Saya is willing to sacrifice her own body for a living transplant operation to save Sota. After an accident, Saya wakes up in a lab and finds herself as a different person…

Uoza Doushi   

魚座どうし「Uoza Doushi」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 30 mins.

Director: Yoko Yamanaka

Writer: Yoko Yamanaka (Script), 

Starring: Mahiro Nemoto, Ryo Togawa, Kinuyo Yamada, Shinsuke Kato, Saho Ito,

Website

Yoko Yamanaka made the wonderful teenage comedy Amiko which won big prizes at the Pia Film Festival and was at Berlinale and Japan Cuts after its release. She brings a drama led by children for her NDJC short.

Synopsis: A fourth grader named Midori finds life difficult as her father often goes abroad for work and her mother is lonely. hardly ever returns. Midori is also lonely but makes a connection with a boy in similar circumstances whose sister is going through a rebellious phase. Both kids hope their worlds get better.

I don’t want to be like you   

あなたみたいに、なりたくない。「Anata mitai ni, naritakunai.」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 30 mins.

Director: Ryo Kawasaki

Writer: Ryo Kawasaki (Script), 

Starring: Junko Abe, Hijiri Kojima, Hiroyuki Toritani, Aoi Yoshikura, Masumi Fujita,

Website

Directed by Ryo Kawasaki, whose debut feature film about women about to hit their 30s, Wasted Eggs , was officially invited to the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Synopsis: A 28-year-old OL named Megumi Suzuki, joins a marriage counseling office after seeing a senior, Satoko Koyama, get bullied for being unmarried in past her 20s. Satoko might be characterised as a “lonely woman who missed her marriage chance” but she has a secret side.

Shinsotsu Pomodoro   

新卒ポモドーロ「Shinsotsu Pomodo-ro」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 110 mins.

Director: Hiroki Inoue

Writer: Hiroki Inoue (Script), 

Starring: Joji Shibue, Ito Ono, Atomu Mizuishi, Keisuke Sakurai, Ruka Matsuda, Reiko Mori,

Website

Synopsis: A company in Fukuoka run by a very demanding president named Souji Kitamura finds that many of its employees quit to form a new company. To strike back, Kitamura forms a project team led by a new graduate, Misa Kawashima, a young employee who uses the social psychology she had learned during college to achieve high sales results.

COMPLY+-ANCE 

COMPLY+-ANCE コンプライアンス「Konpuraiansu」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 70 mins.

Director: Takumi Saitoh

Writer: Takumi Saitoh, Takashi Iizuka, Isora Iwagiri (Script), 

Starring: Yuzuki Akiyama, Takumi Saitoh, Yuuki Hirako, Yosuke Omizu, Asuka Hanamura, Tomo Nagai, Naoto Kawashima, Miki Handa,

Website

Synopsis: Takumi Saitoh returns to the director’s chair for a film created to look at the issue of Japanese compliance and self-regulation and the challenge over the limits of expression in Japan.

Gundam: G no Reconguista Movie II – Bellri’s Fierce Charge

劇場版 ガンダム Ｇのレコンギスタ Ⅱ ベルリ 撃進 「Gekijouban G no Rekongisuta II – Bellri Gekishin」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 94 mins.

Director: Yoshiyuki Tomino

Writer: Yoshiyuki Tomino (Series Composition), Yoshiyuki Tomino, Hajime Yatate (Original Creator)

Starring: Mark Ishii (Bellri Zenam), Yu Shimamura (Aida Surugan), Akio Hirose (Cumpa Rusita), Atsuko Tanaka (Wilmit Zenam) Atsuki Tani (Lorucca Biskes), Chihiro Suzuki (Happa),

Animation Production: Sunrise

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Bellri Zenam has been recruited to protect a tower which brings resources to Earth and he gets caught up in a space pirate attack where a girl named Aida is captured. She has the power to activate her high-performance mobile suit that she calls “G-Self” and she joins Bellri in an adventure.

The World’s Greatest First Love: Proposal Arc   

世界一初恋　プロポーズ編「Sekaiichi Hatsukoi: Puropo-zu Hen」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 50 mins.

Director: Tomoya Takahashi

Writer: Yoshiko Nakamura (Script), Shungiku Nakamura (Original Manga)

Starring: Takashi Kondo (Ritsu Onodera), Katsuyuki Konishi (Masamune Takano),

Production: Kadokawa Animation

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Ritsu Onodera takes up a new job as an editor at Marukawa Publishing looking after shojo manga —something he has no interest in and no experience with and this at a time when he has sworn he’d never fall in love again. To make matters worse, it turns out that his overbearing boss, Masamune Takano, is actually his first love from high school!

Dinosaur Super Legend: Darwin the Movie has arrived! 

恐竜超伝説　劇場版ダーウィンが来た！「Kyouryuu chou densetsu gekijouban dawin ga kita!」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: N/A

Writer: N/A

Starring: Seiichi Tanabe, Nene Otsuka, Naoki Tatsuta (Narrators)

Website

Synopsis: The documentary program “Darwin is here!” gets another movie and it’s full of CG dinosaurs.

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna   

デジモンアドベンチャー LAST EVOLUTION 絆「Dejimon Adobencha- LAST EVOLUTION Kizuna」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 94 mins.

Director: Tomohisa Taguchi

Writer: Akatsuki Yamatoya (Script), 

Starring: Chika Sakamoto (Agumon), Natsuki Hanae (Taichi Yagami). Kunko Takeuchi (Gomamon), Daisuke Ono (Kyotaro Immura),

Production: Toei Animation

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: As the Digimon kids hit university, their ties with their Digimon begin to fray with the approach of adulthood. This could be their last adventure…

Stolen Identity 2 

スマホを落としただけなのに　囚われの殺人鬼 「Sumaho o otoshita dake na no ni: Toraware no satsujinki」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 118 mins.

Director: Hideo Nakata

Writer: Tetsuya Oishi (Script), Akira Shiga (Original Novel)

Starring: Ryo Narita, Yudai Chiba, Mai Shiraishi, Noriko Eguchi, Takuma Oto, Nao,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: The end of the serial murder case from the first film was not the end because FRANCHISE. Detective Manabu Kagaya investigates a new body showing up connected to the case and he goes to see serial killer Yoshiharu Urano (Ryo Narita) in prison where he learns that there is mysterious figure called M who is a super internet criminal…

Renren in Taiwan   

恋恋豆花 「Renren Doufa」

Release Date: February 21st, 2020

Duration: 101 mins.

Director: Akiyoshi Imazaki

Writer: Akiyoshi Imazaki (Script), 

Starring: Serina Motola, Hako Oshima, Taizo Shiina, Hatsuki Mamiya,

Website

Synopsis: Nao, a college student, is nervous about relationships and is thinking about dropping out but, at the suggestion of her father, she decides to travel to Taiwan with her step-mother Aya. An unexpected encounter awaits them on their trip to Taiwan.

Woman Woman Woman Full Version 

完全版ウーマンウーマンウーマン　 「Kanzenhan Uman Uman Uman」

Release Date: February 22nd, 2020

Duration: 68 mins.

Director: Keisuke Kondo

Writer: Keisuke Kondo (Screenplay), 

Starring: Nori Sato, Nene Ito, Titi Hasegawa, Shiotomo Mizui, Shun Yamamoto, Yuugo Migawa,

A new version of the film first released in July with two extra minutes of footage.

Synopsis: An adventurous woman who travels the world while pulling a cart meets a female college student who believes in all things cute and fighting for justice. Meanwhile, four men in a baseball club go on a hot spring trip…

Genzaichi wa idzu ku nari ya eiga kantoku Higashi Yoichi   

現在地はいづくなりや　映画監督東陽一　 「Genzaichi wa idzu ku nari ya eiga kantoku Higashi Yoichi」

Release Date: February 22nd, 2020

Duration: 94 mins.

Director: Kenichi Kodama

Writer: Akiyoshi Imazaki (Script), Akira Shiga (Original Creator)

Starring: Yoichi Higashi, Takako Tokiwa, Setsuko Karasuma, Mako Midori, Kohei Ando,

Website

Synopsis: A documentary that captures veteran writer/director Yoichi Higashi, who talks about the filmmaking process and himself. Expect conversations with actors he has worked with.

Uta no Hajimari   

うたのはじまり　 「Uta no Hajimari」

Release Date: February 22nd, 2020

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: Hiroki Kawai

Writer: Akiyoshi Imazaki (Script), Akira Shiga (Original Creator)

Starring: Harumichi Saito, Manami Moriyama, Itsuki Mariyama, Tabito Nanao, Cantus, Norimizu Ameya,

Website

Synopsis: Deaf photographer Harumichi Saito has taken pictures of the stars and now gets a documentary about himself where he reveals he chose to focus on what he sees rather than what he hears, discarding his hearing aid at the age of 20 and taking up a camera. Since then he has worked with artists such as Masataka Kubota, Mr. Children, Clambon and more. He has a son who can hear and this film captures their relationship.

Movie Cat Neko Nippon History-Ryoma’s Harmecha Time Travel! 

映画　ねこねこ日本史　龍馬のはちゃめちゃタイムトラベルぜよ！「Eiga neko neko nipponshi Ryoma no wa chamecha taimu toraberu ze yo!」

Release Date: February 22nd, 2020

Duration: 73 mins.

Director: Tomohiro Kawamura

Writer: Tadashi Shimizu (Script), Kenji Sonishi (Original Book)

Starring: Yu Kobayashi (Ryoma Sakamoto), Daiki Yamashita (Fuku), Koichi Yamadera (Yatchan), Jiro Sato (Hiraga Gennai),

Production: N/A

Website

Synopsis: Fuku is a little elementary school cat who likes to take a nap. Inadvertently riding on the crow-type time machine Yachan made by Grandpa, Fuku travels back to Japan in the past and meets Ryoma Sakamoto where they go on an adventure that can only end when they have made a “karuta” of each era. They meet famous names like Himiko, Prince Shotoku, Nobunaga Oda, Shinsengumi and Admiral Perry and they are all portrayed as cats!

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all well

A much better weekend of films than we have seen in a long time, mostly because of Miike and an interesting mix of documentaries rather than the usual over-reliance on TV spin-offs and anime. I recently watched a mix of films – Samurai Shifters (cute), The Wild Bunch (awesome), Blow Up (not a murder mystery, go watch Deep Red for that) and Vanishing Point. I’ll watch 1917 at some point.

What is released this weekend?

First Love

初恋 「Hatsukoi」

Release Date: 2020

Duration: 115 mins.

Director:  Takashi Miike

Writer: Masaru Nakamura (Screenplay)

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

Website   IMDB  

There cast actors are late-stage Miike film regulars including 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 Kubota) 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.

Fictitious Girl’s Diary The Movie   

架空OL日記　 「Kaku OL Nikki」

Release Date: February 28th, 2020

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Takashi Sumida

Writer: Bakarhythm (Script), 

Starring: Bakarhythm, Kaho, Asami Usuda, Shim Eun-Kyung, Toko Miura, Maho Yamada, Mirai Shida, Natsumi Ishibashi,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Bakarhythm spent three years writing a blog impersonating a woman who works in a bank. He takes the lead role in this movie adaptation where he performs the work routine with fellow bank workers who are all played by top of the line actresses.

Okazaki Renai Shikyou   

おかざき恋愛四鏡　 「Okazaki Renai Shikyou」

Release Date: February 28th, 2020

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Hirofumi Ichihara, Ryo Miyamoto, Ryoma Matsumoto, Daikumi Kawai, Rimune Hatto,

Writer: Hirofumi Ichihara, Ryo Miyamoto, Ryoma Matsumoto, Daikumi Kawai, Rimune Hatto, (Script), 

Starring: Urano Ochi, Yuuki Ogoe, Satoshi Jimbo, Yui Akane, Mai Tsuchimoto,

Website

Synopsis: An omnibus love story set in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture. Four stories with a bridging drama to connect everything together.

Gekijou tokubetsuhan Kafuka no Tokyo zetsubou nikki   

劇場特別版　カフカの東京絶望日記　 「Gekijou tokubetsuhan Kafuka no Tokyo zetsubou nikki」

Release Date: February 28th, 2020

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Takuya Kato, Yuichiro Sakashita

Writer: Atsushi Asada (Script), Akiko Hiramatsu, Hiroki Kashiragi (Composition)

Starring: Hiroki Suzuki, Nao, Kou Maehara, Anna Konno, Shogo Iwaya, Sanae Miyata, Nao Sakura,

Website

Synopsis: Franz Kafka finds his doom-laden self living in Tokyo in 2019 and struggling to get through his everyday life which is full of despair. 

Gon, the Little Fox   

劇場版ごん GON, THE LITTLE FOX　 「Gekijouban Gon GON, THE LITTLE FOX」

Release Date: February 28th, 2020

Duration: 28 mins.

Director: Takeshi Yashiro

Writer: Takeshi Yashiro, Takaaki Honda (Script), Nakichi Niimi (Original Story)

Starring: Masato Tanaka (Gon), Miyu Irino (Hyojyu)

Production: Tecarat

Website IMDB

Synopsis: The worlds of animal and human clash when a playful fox named Gon steals an eel caught by a villager named Hyojyu for his sickly mother. When Hyojyu’s mother dies, Gon feels regret and starts leaving gifts for Hyojyu around the village in an attempt to atone for his mistake. I saw this film at last year’s Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival and interviewed the director. It is very beautiful and haunting with lots of natural materials used for the sets and puppets which are carved out of wood.

Kamen Rider Zi-O NEXT TIME: Geiz, Majesty   

仮面ライダージオウ NEXT TIME ゲイツ、マジェスティ　 「Kamen Raida- Jio- Nekusuto Taimu Geitsu, Majesuti」

Release Date: February 28th, 2020

Duration: 64 mins.

Director: Satoshi Morota

Writer: Nobuhiro Mori (Script), Shotaro Ishinomori (Original Creator)

Starring: Gaku Oshida (Kamen Rider Geiz), Kimito Totani (Kamen Rider Diend), Shieri Ohata (Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi),

Website

Synopsis: High schoolers Sougo and Geiz are working hard to achieve their dreams while trying to impress a girl named Tsukuyomi. Things get disrupted when, one day, Geiz is killed in a mysterious accident and comes back having been forced to become Kamen Rider Geiz and he has to figure out an evil plot.

Shirobako Movie 

劇場版 SHIROBAKO 「Gekijouban Shirobako」

Release Date: February 29th, 2020

Duration: 64 mins.

Director: Tsutomu Mizushima

Writer: Michiko Yokote (Script), 

Starring: Juri Kimura (Aoi Miyamori), Haruka Yoshimura (Ema Yasuhara), Asami Takano (Misa Todo), Ayane Sakura (Kaede Miyai), Haruka Chisuga (Shizuka Sakaki),

Animation Production: P.A. Works

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: The folks at Musashino Animation find themselves thrown into production chaos when their original project, Time Hippopotamus, gets cancelled and a new original anime film, Aerial Assault Landing Ship Siva) gets added to their production.

Mama o yamete mo ii desu ka!?   

ママをやめてもいいですか!? 「Mama o yamete mo ii desu ka!?」

Release Date: February 29th, 2020

Duration: 92 mins.

Director: Tomo Goda

Writer: N/A

Starring: Yo Oizumi (Narration)

Website

Synopsis: The stresses and joys of motherhood are explored through looking at the lives of women in various situations, from divorce to postpartum depression, and struggling with the bad behaviour of certain children. Expect commentary from healthcare professionals, as well.

Gekijoukoukai-ban Eastern Youth Hibiya Yagaidai Ongaku do Koen 2019. 9. 28 

劇場公開版 eastern youth 日比谷野外大音楽堂公演 2019.9.28「Gekijoukoukai-ban Eastern Youth Hibiya Yagaidai Ongaku do Koen 2019. 9. 28」

Release Date: February 29th, 2020

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Jun Kawaguchi

Writer: N/A

Starring: Eastern Youth

Website

Synopsis: A limited screening of a recorded live performance at Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall performed on September 28, 2019 by the rock band Eastern Youth. It is the band’s first video work in about 10 years.

DUMB TYPE Shiro Takatani: Between Nature and Technology   

DUMB TYPE 高谷史郎　自然とテクノロジーのはざま「DUMB TYPE Takatani Shiro shizen to tekunoroji- no hazama」

Release Date: February 29th, 2020

Duration: 55 mins.

Director: Giulio Boato

Writer: N/A

Starring: Shiro Takatani, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yuuko Hasegawa, Simon Fisher Turner, Satoshi Hama,

Synopsis: Shiro Takatani is a Japanese artist, and he is the co-founder, visual creator and artistic director of the group Dumb Type. He is explored in this biographical documentary which focuses on his collaboration with the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto which started in 1999.

Samashoal Testament Chapter 6   

サマショール　遺言　第6章「Samashoru yuigon dai 6-shou」

Release Date: February 29th, 2020

Duration: 113 mins.

Director: Naomi Toyoda, Masaya Noda

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: Photojournalists Naomi Toyoda and Masaya Noda have recorded the situation of Fukushima prefecture ever since it was hit by the nuclear meltdown following the Great East Japan Earthquake. This is “Chapter 6” in their work following different communities in the prefecture where all of the residents were evacuated due to radioactive contamination. After the evacuation order was lifted, people who had lived in a temporary housing face the decision whether to return to their hometown or not. A group travel to Chernobyl, 30 years after the nuclear accident, and learn of the Ukrainian word for returnee, “Samashoru” from people who live close by the original nuclear nightmare.

Kodomo-tachi o yoroshiku   

子どもたちをよろしく「Kodomo-tachi o yoroshiku」

Release Date: February 29th, 2020

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Yasushi Sumida

Writer: Yasushi Sumida (Script),

Starring: Eri Kamataki, Rairu Sugita, Miki Shibaki, Yoichiro Saito, Gikko, Yota Kawase, Jun Murakami, Kunyuo Yamada, 

Website

Synopsis: A town in the northern Kanto region. Yukina (Eri Kamataki from The Forest of Love) is an escort who lives with her mother Taeko and brother-in-law, Minoru ( Rairu Sugita ). She was sexually abused by her father-in-law Tatsuo (Jun Murakami), a violent man who put her and her mother through hell. The club where she works is run by a gambling-addict named Sadao (Yota Kawase from The Kamagasaki Cauldron War) whose own son Yoichi is being bullied. Minoru and Yoichi were once firm friends who go to the same junior high school but Minoru’s friends are the ones picking on Yoichi., Around this time, Minoru picks up a card connected to Yukina’s work and wonders if she is being bullied like Yoichi…

It’s almost March and that means the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) is about to launch for its 2020 edition.

The festival plays from March 6-15 and comes at a time when the international community is convulsed with the spread of the Coronavirus. However, despite the cancellation of part of the programme (a decision taken by one of the festival’s co-hosts), the rest of the event is scheduled to go with 58 films to be screened and a whole host of guests to attend. It’s a ballsy move typical for a fest that screens hard-hitting works that challenge audiences. Also typical is the way the programmers continue to search out and provide a platform for talented individuals and stories that contain thorny issues.

If OAFF has an identity, it’s a rebellious guy or gal standing up for someone else as borne out by the films programmed with the fiery fight for democratic rights in Hong Kong seen in Apart (2020), a myriad of LGBTQ+ stories from across Asia, the biggest title this year being the Taiwanese romance Your Name Engraved Herein (2020) which gets its world premiere at the fest. Nearly half of all festival berths given to female directors and it is on the basis of quality rather than tokenism as seen with the moving drama Way Back Home (2019) and there are a lot of pure entertainment film, many from the Philippines which bring some absolutely charming romances for audiences to relax to like Write About Love (2019) and Last Song Syndrome (2019).

Here’s a trailer for the fest:

The line-up for this year’s festival is as exciting as it has ever been and while the slate features names from returning directors, there is a deep well of new talent on display in various sections and if you want to see the cinematic output of Asia in one place, this has to be it, especially since the films will have English subs.

I’ll be on the ground at the festival to review films. Although post-film Q&As have been cancelled, if any of the filmmakers are present I still might have the chance to interview creatives to highlight some of the gems that may be gracing other festivals and cinemas around the world.

Please check the full line-up of OAFF 2020 which can be found here on the official site (complete with synopses I have written) and here is a summary on my blog.

Here are my recommendations:

The Girl with the Gun (Rae Red, 2019, Philippines)

A fearsome performance from Janine Gutierez helps propel Rae Red’s solo feature directorial debut which also stars an ensemble of great actors who play a group of characters all connected to the titular gun as we look at the lifespan of a weapon passing through the hands of people from the politically turbulent 1980s to the crime-ridden era of now.

While the crime genre is typically male-dominated, in the Philippines, filmmakers have recently tackled it from a female perspective with “Buy Bust” (2018) and “Neomanila” (2017) and “Birdshot” (2016), which Rae Red helped write, being some standout titles. “The Girl and the Gun” offers a thrilling, visually crisp narrative with a message about power dynamics between people, and the gender analysis, with the inflection of violence, proves to be most gripping.

Kontora (Anshul Chauhan, 2019, Japan)

Anshu Chauhan — whose film “Bad Poetry Tokyo” (2018) won Best Actress at OAFF 2018) — returns to the competition with “KONTORA”, a movie which takes in a family drama and the echoes of World War II.

Set in rural Japan, the movie follows a high school girl who loses the one family member she can talk to, her grandfather, is left trying to make sense of the stifling reality surrounding her and the distant relationship from her father but hidden treasure and a vagrant who only walks backwards promises to change the dynamics in her life. Chauhan again explores the clashes between past and present and the frustration of youth stuck with older generations that are inflexible and selfish but with black and white visuals and majestic camerawork and it has a mysterious tone to it which proves absorbing.

Lucky Chan-sil (Kim Cho-hee, 2019, South Korea)

Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (Khyentse Norbu, 2019, Nepal and Mexico)

“Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache” has to have one of the best titles of the year and if it sounds barking mad, it makes complete sense at the end of the film. Almost. The semi-abstract story is full of philosophy as a thoroughly modern man living in Kathmandu goes on a mystical journey to save his life. There is a  lot of introspection over the clash between modernity and tradition in Nepal as the film tracks the plight of the psychologically ailing character divided between his attraction to western and city lifestyle and his home culture but the chief pleasure of the experience are the majestically beautiful images shot by Khyentse Norbu. Each frame is a painting that could adorn a wall so while the philosophising might drive you crazy, you can luxuriate in a relaxing and beautiful experience.

VIDEOPHOBIA (Daisuke Miyazaki, 2019, Japan)

Nobody makes stories about the youth of Japan like Daisuke Miyazaki and his latest feature (following “TOURISM“) is completely different. A shadowy tech film that comes with a David Lynchian twist where the world we see is our own but made alien through how technology makes the main character powerless. The movie follows a young woman named Ai whose night out at a club results in a sex video being made. The only thing is, she had no idea she was being filmed. What’s worse is that the video is spread online like a virus.

The narrative sees Ai become disassociated from herself in a disturbing psycho-sexual narrative that leaves many ideas for the audience to mull over once the film is over. Anchored by a great performance from Tomona Hirota and set in Osaka, it’s an original idea made effective by the mise-en-scene and electro soundtrack. The film’s genre-defying nature positions Miyazaki as one of the filmmakers to watch in this year’s edition.

Made in Bangladesh (Rubaiyat Hossain, 2019, France, Bangladesh, Denmark and Portugal) 

Director Rubaiyat Hossain, a new and brave feminine voice in Bangladeshi cinema. With three titles to her name, she challenges the male-dominated space to create socially conscious films told from a female perspective. This film is vital in an age of resistance against corporate exploitation and challenges to patriarchy as it looks at female garment factory workers unionising against hazardous working conditions, male oppression and global capital. It serves up an insight into Bangladeshi workplace and society and how we get our cheap goods in the West at the expense of the workers.

The Garden of Evening Mists   

夕霧花園　 「Yugiri Hanazono」

Release Date: January 16th, 2020 (Malaysia)

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Tom Lin

Writer: Richard Smith (Script) Twan Eng Tan (Novel)

Starring: Lee Sinje, Hiroshi Abe, Sylvia Chang, Julian Sands, John Hannah, Serene Lim, David Oakes,

OAFF IMDB

The opening film of the 2020 Osaka Asian Film Festival is a handsomely shot historical drama featuring an international array of talent as they bring to life the same-named novel by Malaysian writer Tan Twan Eng. The Booker Prize shortlisted story takes place during decades of conflict in Malaysia and is seen from the perspective of one character caught in the grasp of its history and a risky romance. It is a hefty work so Taiwanese director Tom Lin and British writer Richard Smith adapt the material with a schematic approach that uses flashbacks to gradually reveal wartime secrets, traumas and the redemptive effect of love in a slow-burn story that ends on a satisfying note.

It begins in 1980s Malaysia with a respectable middle-aged woman named Teoh Yun Ling (Sylvia Chang) travelling to a British tea plantation in the Cameron Highlands. She is a successful judge who is on the verge of winning a seat on the Supreme Court but her links to an alleged Japanese spy she met at the place 30 years previously have been unearthed by political rivals forcing her to dig into his past and conduct some relationship archaeology. As she sifts through old artifacts and texts the present-tense narrative segues into extended flashbacks allowing the film to take us back to just after World War II when there was a Communist insurgency against British colonialists. This was when she first met the so-called spy.

Braving military crackdowns and rebel attacks, a younger and far more fiery Yun Ling (Lee Sinje) travels to the same plantation for a meeting with a reclusive yet famous gardener named Aritomo Nakamura (Hiroshi Abe). We may wonder how this meeting will go because Yun Ling is a war crimes researcher who diligently compiles the history of former soldiers who will be sent to the gallows. Her work is possibly a way to salve her burning hatred of the Japanese, the cause of which we learn more about with further flashbacks that explore her survival during the Japanese occupation and the fate of her sister. Some of these sequences are bone-chilling despite being circumspect in the way they are shot and we understand the intensity of Yun Ling’s a purpose, her desire to commission Aritomo to build a garden as a memorial for her sister who died in an internment camp.

It is a testy meeting as Yun Ling’s brashness and determination clashes with Aritomo’s Japanese formality and reticence and he declines her requests but proposes Yun Ling learn gardening by becoming his apprentice.

After initial reluctance, Yun Ling starts opening herself up to gardening which acts as a way for Aritomo to explain his philosophies on life and, thus, their work becomes personal. The garden acts as a metaphor for their growing bond and it also serves as an image of the care they provide each other in a tumultuous world. As they tame the wild landscape, they tame their emotions and the garden becomes a sanctuary, as a safe space amidst wider political and cultural conflicts surrounding them.

Conflict is forever building just outside of the frame with the recurrent radio news reports of communist attacks playing in the background and then it comes crashing into their sanctuary with sudden and brutal violence much like the memories Yun Ling rehashes of her wartime experience.

With each memory and violent action the characters wrestle with, the narrative furthers its examination of how people deal with trauma and horrific memories. We witness the gardening begin a process of healing that the battle-scarred Yun Ling doesn’t immediately recognise. The slightly older Aritomo, who practices Horimono full-body tattoos, also uses it to serve as a way for him to atone for his participation in Japanese colonial projects. The true nature of his presence in Malaysia proves to be a mystery based on real-world crimes such as the Yamashita Gold and comfort stations, and it is all brought together through the spiritually and physically intimate acts of gardening leading to many sensual moments.

Lee and Abe prove to be likeable as they bicker over small-scale and seemingly pointless tasks that serve to master the disordered landscape and bring harmony to the wild. They have chemistry when voicing opposing views on colonialism and wartime atrocities and the arc into their relationship feels organic. Kartik Vijay’s wonderful widescreen vistas of tea fields and the sun-kissed garden look alternately beautiful and mysterious, depending on the season or time period. It’s the perfect place for the characters’ long relationship to play out.

Their garden helps to resolve the mysteries of the past in the present-day narrative as the older Yun Ling completes exploring her psycho-geography and discovers a larger message in the decades-old work the two laboured over. The narrative ends on a note that speaks of a pure love, giving the film a hefty emotional punch which Chang really sells on camera when Yun Jing recognizes she can finally lay decades of anger aside.

Happy Old Year   

Release Date: December 24th, 2019

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit

Writer: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Script),

Starring: Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, Sunny Suwanmethanont, Sarika Sartsilpsupa, Thirawat Ngosawang, Apasiri Chantrasmi,

OAFF IMDB

Perched perfectly between satire and drama, Happy Old Year sees writer/director Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit test the limits of ruthlessness needed to conduct the Marie Kondo minimalist lifestyle with a main character who is wholly unlikeable and yet, by the end, quite sympathetic.

It is almost December and Jean (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) returns home to Thailand after staying for four years in Sweden. This 20-something has a mission: to net herself a job. To do that, she must live a minimalist lifestyle and convert the family home she shares with her mother and brother into a home office before January. The look she wants to capture is all bare white walls and spartan furnishings as shown in lifestyle magazines she takes photos of. The reality she has to battle is that her home used to be a music studio that her father ran before he left so there is a family’s lifetime worth of objects to remove.

It’s all fun and games at first as the camera floats through the home while Jean blithely trashes old jewellery, clothes and cassette tapes, school reports, and other things superseded by new tech or consigned to the dustbin of history. Seeing these items is like getting a glimpse of a life, the mixtapes made for lovers, the photographs stored on rewritable CDs, the holiday knick-knacks that bring back happier memories. Audience members will have their own memories of stuff like this.

But there’s no time to get soft!

Jean’s work ethic borders on zealotry for the cult of Kondo as she spouts aphorisms to inspire others and has an “ends justify the means” attitude that sees her bulldoze all opposition. The film is split into chapters with intertitles flashing up like in a Marie Kondo guide in a parodic fashion. During these sequences she becomes rather unlikeable as we see flashes of selfishness and insensitivity in her drive to get things done by ignoring the protestations and feelings of others. Then come the substantial things like the piano her father used to play, the camera her ex-boyfriend gave her to take to Sweden. For these items, she has to get back in contact with the original owner and return them and this is the real challenge for the mini-Marie Kondo as she has to confront what they mean to her and the influence the owner had over her.

Without missing a beat, the film moves into heartfelt dramatic territory as the breezy steadicam sequences slow down to become more thoughtful static shots, observant close-ups that looks at the emotions flashing over Jean’s face or the faces of others as they rake over shared history held by an item and we discover that the characteristics motivating her now have always been a part of her, have hurt others and are rooted in a childhood trauma that saw her treated with a callous disregard that equals the way she treats inanimate objects she has just been junking. It’s a genius turn of events that makes an unsympathetic character rather pitiable so that emotional stab at the end should get the audience to tear up a little.

“More emo, more problems”, Jean says as emotional outbursts and apologies take place and the parodic titles become ironic as the emotions run higher and higher. The film earns this change in tempo and makes it work because Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying’s central performance is so sweeping we are taken along while the direction places us in the home, amidst the characters, experiencing the shots of nostalgia and hurt that the simplest of things can contain and, on some level, everyone in the audience will understand the difficulty in de-cluttering, that not every item can be trashed so easily because imbued in them is a human connection which the film expertly explores.

Lucky Chan-sil   

찬실이는 복도 많지 「Chan-sil-i-neun Bok-do-man-ji」

Release Date: October 04th, 2019

Duration: 96 mins.

Director: Kim Cho-hee

Writer: Kim Cho-hee (Script), 

Starring: Kang Mal-geum, Youn Yuh-jung, Kim Young-min, Yoon Seung-ah, Bae Yu-ram,

OAFF IMDB Korean Film

The old writer’s adage that it is better to write what you know is put into perfect effect by director Kim Cho-hee in her sprightly and amusing debut feature film, a somewhat autobiographical movie full of wry comedy and existential angst which won both the KBS Independent Film and CGV Arthouse awards at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival. 

Kim Cho-hee adapts elements of her own life, from studying French literature to being the producer on ten Hong Sang-soo films, to create the world of the titular Lee Chan-sil (Kang Mal-geum), a forty-year-old indie movie producer who works with an auteur famous for a particular brand of cinema (clearly a reference to Hong). When Chan-sil’s director dies suddenly during a party and leaves Chan-sil unemployed and seemingly unemployable due to her narrow range of experience. This causes her to enter an existential crisis as she feels she has dedicated her life to movies and has nothing to show for it and is alone.  

Her new situation is very stark as she is forced to retreat to living in a cheap room run by a grumpy old woman (Youn Yuh-jung) and working as a cleaning lady for an irrepressibly cheerful actress named Susie (Yoon Seung-ah). Seeming humiliations prove to be good because her landlady’s house hides plenty of movie-related secrets that offers Chan-sil emotional comfort and Susie proves to be a true friend, not least because she ushers Chan-sil into a possible romance with a younger guy named who is a part-time French teacher and indie film director. As Chan-sil reorients herself, she works through her angst by looking back on her past while struggling to see into the future by cautiously taking on new opportunities which leads to some gentle comedy.

With movie people making movies about movie people the final product can turn out be an example of intellectual masturbation, creative self-flagellation or a simple reflexive comedy. Lucky Chan-sil avoids the worst narcissism and triteness and makes itself a pleasurable experience by being a female spin on a formula that Hong San-soo has built a career on with added depth from Chan-sil herself.

We get to know and appreciate the main character who is clearly a representation of director Kim Cho-hee. The reference-heavy context is well-established for cineastes, but the story is universal and the relationships in the film enjoyable to see develop and so we care and understand as Chan-sil is forced beyond the idealism of making movies into a period of self-doubt over life choices.

The comedy is very organic by being uniquely personal and appropriate to Chan-sil and her situation which gives depth to the gags and drama. Gentle disappointments litter proceedings with social faux pas, relationship misfires, career miscommunication and general confusion plaguing her as digs deep to discover what she wants from life. There is also a touch of the surreal as the film sprinkles the supernatural over scenes with the ghost of the Hong Kong actor Leslie Cheung (in his underwear) acting as a life coach to Chan-sil, very appropriate for a woman her age. The film is funny and kind and eventually satisfying as universal existential questions are asked and answered from the viewpoint of an engaging character and we care so much because of the main performance. 

A former office worker who took to acting in her thirties, Kang Mal-geum as Lee Chan-sil is a revelation. Alternately maudlin and waspish, she does dry humour perfectly and has a wonderful put-upon air of someone used to carrying others but opens up emotionally to give a sense of her confusion and sadness and hopes. Her physicality and facial expressions are equally expressive, allowing for comedy to create a complex character and charming who acts as the dynamo for the film, someone we can pity, empathise with and someone we can root for. Likewise, the supporting cast, some of whom are Hong San-soo collaborators, provide sparky and fun foils to watch as they help shape Chan-sil’s journey.

This is a talky picture but still cinematic as tones shift from dramatic to comedic to dreamlike with a change in lighting and camera angles to alter perspectives and vary emotions in scenes. Some deft camera movements and edits defy the typical static camera set-ups of this type of film to set up sight gags or pick out details and character reactions that add textures to a relationship. Not a shot is wasted and the visual language is perfect, things signalling that Kim Cho-hee is a directing talent who has learned a lot from her collaborators but with something different to say.

When Chan-sil comes to her realisation of what she wants in life, it is really a beautiful moment and inspirational, a reminder of why people love films and congregate around them. Her journey is satisfying to go on as she explores lifelong passions and important motivations and finds new hope which should comfort the audience who will be able to understand her intimately and cheer her on.

My Prince Edward   

Release Date: November 17th, 2019

Duration: 92 mins.

Director: Norris Wong

Writer: Norris Wong (Script),

Starring: Stephy Tang, Chu Pak-hon, Jin Kaijie, Paw Hee-ching , Hailey Chan, Eman Lam, Hui So-Ying, Creamy Yick,

OAFF IMDB

My Prince Edward is largely set in Golden Plaza, a Hong Kong shopping mall best known for bridal shops and cheap wedding supplies. In this place, a feckless woman who has spent her life reacting or being passive to the whims of others is forced to take responsibility for herself when her boyfriend and mother-in-law try to maneuver her into a wedding.

Cheung Lei-fong (Stephy Tang) works as a clerk at one of the bridal shops run by her best friend’s mother, while her boyfriend Edward (Chu Pak-hon) is the owner of a wedding photography shop. Their relationship has lasted seven years but seems to be one of convenience for Lei-fong, allowing her to live independently of her controlling family in an apartment in the Prince Edward area, albeit somewhat indifferently. This indifference has turned into a trap as Edward is possessive and his mother is interfering. Lei-fong’s situation is about to get more restrictive when Edward pops the question in front of everyone. His proposal poses two problems for her which the rest of the film examines.

First, in order to end the sham marriage that she was paid to take part in ten years ago with someone from mainland China in a scam to get him a Hong Kong ID, Lei-fong must track down her fake husband. Second, after years drifting, she finally begins to question what she actually wants from life. She knows that being controlled by others, including a real husband, is not it.

Director Norris Wong explores how this young woman learns to become self-determined through her two marriages, one to a possessive Hong Konger and the other to a laid-back mainlander eager to escape the restrictive nature of life in authoritarian China. The toxic relationships that Lei-fong has allowed herself to become trapped in are analogous with the authoritarian control that the mainlander, Yang Shu-wei (Jin Kaijie), wants to escape by moving countries, and so it is natural it is he who inspires her desire for freedom as she finds someone whose yearning for freedom matches hers.

The most persuasive aspect of the film is the controlling nature of her partner and mother-in-law. Edward is a manchild who searches through Lei-fong’s possessions and bombards her with messages in a way that tips over into being abusive. He keeps a tight grip on her, both emotionally and physically. Their apartment is claustrophobic as they are jammed together in a tight area with too much junk, the location and set design evoke the emotional straitjacket the girl feels. So, when Yang Shu-wei shows up he is like a breath of fresh air. Suave and handsome, the more time we spend with him, the more we understand he is philosophical and caring. In fact, he is probably a better match for Lei-fong but this is not a romance, this is the motivator for the woman to finally seize her own future.

In terms of performances, Tang comes across as somnambulant for most of the film which is fitting for a woman drifting through life, although it can be frustrating for the audience. Her performance could be misinterpreted as lacking in emotion but that is the nature of the character. The emotional fireworks with co-star Chu reveal a lot about the character and her frustrations. Chu is convincingly clingy and his genuinely unnerving in his depiction of possessive behavior. Indeed, when these ill-matching marriage partners tear at each other, both manage to draw sympathy from the audience (although Edward remains the antagonist). While the ending is left open, there is a sense that Lei-fong will be able to choose her own fate after being buffeted around by the will of others for so long. In that way, My Prince Edward uses the backdrop of Hong Kong to tell an interesting story of someone finally tapping into their self-determination.

My Prince Edward is showing at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 8 and 12.

My review for this was originally published in V-Cinema on March 07th.

Heavy Craving   

大餓　 「Daikatsue」

Release Date: June 30th, 2019

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Hsieh Pei-ju

Writer: Hsieh Pei-ju (Script), 

Starring: Tsai Jia-Yin, Samantha Ko, Yao Chang, Chang En-Wei, Lai Lene, Hsieh Tsu-wu,

OAFF IMDB

One woman’s battle to lose fat forms the basis of this heavy drama that comes wrapped with some light comedy as the weight of societal expectations on the physical appearance of people is skewered.

The film opens with one of those sleek, wholeness-influenced commercials for the fictional Action Weight & Body Wellness Centre where a beautiful model (Lene Lai) runs and smiles, her voice-over urging, “Let us make our way to our better selves”. This ad and a chorus of other voices in the film link physical image with happiness. The message and imagery is seen frequently like insidious propaganda and this is the tip of the spear of body image that pierces the heart of main character Ying-juan (Tsai Jia-Yin) who struggles with how she looks and feels about herself.

A thirty-year-old woman who lives and works with her athletic, high-achieving mother (Samantha Ko) who runs a day care centre, Ying-juan is shown to be a woman passionate about cooking but beaten down into a spiral of self-hate and comfort eating junk food through parental neglect and the difficulty of living in a society so superficial and judgemental. At work, the kids affectionately label her Ms. Dinosaur, much to her chagrin, in public she endures a constant stream of micro-aggressions and insults over her weight. That she constantly lumbers around scenes looking miserable compared to other, slimmer, women and seeing the daily humiliations is pretty relentless and pretty affecting as we relate to her alienation and suffering.

This creates a relatable motivation to spur the character on her journey.

On her birthday, Ying-juan’s mother signs her up for a weight loss program without telling her and Ying-juan half-heartedly joins it. She gains more impetus when she meets Wu (Chang Yao-jen), a handsome deliveryman who surprisingly shows interest in her and she becomes more determined to lose some pounds. Doing so is a sizeable challenge for the woman, one that almost crushes her spirit as she has to contend with how difficult losing weight can be, her hopeful desire for Wu not enough to buoy her up on a sea of soul-devouring self-hatred caused by the prejudice of others about her size.

Tonally, the film mixes comedy and drama from the start, the advent of Wu’s appearance suggesting a trite feel-good character arc, but the story chooses to focus on the difficulties and damage endured when shaping ourselves to meet the expectations of others as the constant psychological pressure becomes too heavy a burden to bear for Ying-juan and so, while a traditional third act might offer hope, this one goes dark and the film ventures into some melodramatic moments. Some of it feels a little too OTT towards the end as the laughs dry up but the script signals its direction with Wu’s character backstory and his reality which is a bitter twist to the sweet image presented.

Indeed, in an earlier, less enlightened age, Ying-juan’s suffering would have been played purely for laughs but the film draws out pathos and acknowledges the damage the perceptions and behaviour of others have on Ying-juan’s own self-perception. Fantasy elements are tapped to accentuate Ying-juan’s inner-conflict as the pretty model from the commercial pops up to inspire and mock her at times, acting as a representative of the psychological demons lurking in the young woman which she has to battle. Ultimately, the downbeat ending suggests that the Ying-juan will have to accept society’s standards, something highlighted with the parallel story of Xiao-Yu, a student at the child care centre who is a secret cross-dresser who also has to give in to the status quo although the friendship he shares with Ying-juan offers a ray of hope with the idea that the support of others can guide people to better accept themselves whatever their situation.

Sometimes the tones are uneven but the film centres a necessary story about losing weight as we live through an age of body issues and invasive media and humanises the struggle enough to make it watchable.

My review for this film was first published on March 06th over at VCinema