The life of twenty-something woman Sakura (rising star Mayuko Fukuda) changes when she quits her office position and takes a job at a nursery. This impulsive decision puts her in the orbit of a girl named Ai whose father, Shindo (Kohei Ikeue), seems to be struggling to raise her without her mother around. Again listening to her inner impulses, Sakura gets involved with the two as she subconsciously works through various feelings related to her own fractured family. Little does she realize that this process will lead to the reconfiguriation of her relationship with her parents.

A minimalist psychological piece, Good-Bye is the third film from director Aya Miyazaki and it received its world premiere in the Indie Forum section of the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020. One of the youngest directors at the festival, Miyazaki only started making films while studying at Waseda University where she learned under the supervision of Hirokazu Kore-eda and Tamaki Tsuchida. She currently works for a movie company but took time to appear at OAFF to introduce and discuss her latest film.

The interview was conducted and written with interpretation from Keiko Matsushita while transcription was made with the help of Takako Pockington.

Thank you for doing interview. My first question is why did you want to become a film maker.

I hardly watched films before I went to university. However, I had a chance to take a course related to films at Waseda University. I became interested in films after that. The style of the film lectures was mainly to have discussions with directors and producers. I took more of an interest in films from the perspective of producing them. Then I went to a film school for six months during my second year and directed a short film of about seven minutes long at the school.

I merely had an interest or got absorbed in particular things but after this experience I wanted to keep making films. Then at my third year at Waseda, I took the video production course in which lectures are given by director Hirokazu Kore-eda and Tamaki Tsuchida. You would plan, produce and show films in this course. While showing our films in and outside the campus, I realized that I wanted to keep doing this more.

大学に入る前は映画をそれほど見ることもなかったのですが、早稲田大学の多様な講義の中で、映画に関するものを受講するようになって興味が湧きました。監督やプロデューサーをゲストに迎えた対談講義だったのですが、そこで作る側面としての映画に関心を持ち、二年生の時に半年間、社会人の映画学校に通って、初めての映像制作として７分程度の短編を監督しました。

私は普段、物事に興味を持ったり、入れ込んだりするタイプではないのですが、スクールを終えてもなお、映像制作をやってみたいと思いました。そこで大学三年生の一年間、是枝監督と土田環さんが教鞭を取られる「映像制作実習」という、映画を企画・制作し、上映するという通年の授業を取りました。そこで監督したものを学内外で上映するうちに、これを続けていきたいと思った次第です。

Could you talk about the biggest influence on you as a filmmaker?

As someone who was hardly interested in film, Shunji Iwai became the first big name that I recognized and I chose to watch his films. Then it was Hirokazu Kore-eda. I watched his films and, at the same time, learnt from them through his lectures. I think I was influenced directly and hugely by him.

映画に関心の無かった私が、監督の名前で映画を見始めたのは、岩井俊二監督が最初です。作品を見て、かつ授業を通して学んでいったのは是枝裕和監督です。直接的な影響は大きいと思います。

So you are mainly influenced by Japanese films?

Since I started watching films, I intensively watched Japanese films during my college days. I have some favorite foreign films and directors, especially Asian ones, but I think my film making is rooted in Japanese films.

映画を見るようになってからずっと、大学生の間は近代の日本映画ばかり見ていました。今は海外特にアジア圏の作品や監督で好きなものも多いですが、ルーツとなっているのは日本映画だと思っています。

Is this your second film?

Strictly speaking, this is the third one.

厳密に言うと、３本目ですね。

Your last one, yogoto, was screened at the 2017 Ca Foscari Short Film Festival. Did you attend the film festival? How was the experience?

I didn’t attend the festival for the competition. I shot the film as a part of academic project during my third year, then I had a chance to go there as the university had already submitted an entry for the festival. My film was introduced as a work by a Japanese university student and was one of the four feature films shot by the students at Waseda shown at the festival. To begin with, everything was arranged beforehand, so I attended the film festival as if I was going on holiday. I was simply excited to have my film shown for the first time in public. However, once I got there, I realized that the primary purpose of attending the film festival is to communicate with the local staff or audience and also I should have prepared well for promoting my film. I reflected a lot after that.

その映画祭に行くきっかけは、コンペに応募したからではなく、大学三年生の時に授業で撮った作品で大学にアテンドがあったからでした。その映画祭の中で日本の大学生の作品として特集を組んでもらい、４本上映されたうちの１本でした。そもそも用意されていた環境だったこともあって、ある意味旅行で行くような、初めて外で上映されるということに、単純に楽しみだなぁくらいの気持ちで行きました。
実際行ってみると、現地のスタッフや観客の方と交流することに、映画祭に参加する一番の意味があることだとか、自分の作品をもっと売り込んでいく、広めてもらう課題を感じました。初めての事で、正直参加した後に色々反省がありました。

What sort of things did you learn from that festival?

This is Good-bye’s first screening. I haven’t arranged any screenings after this festival or submitted it to film festivals anywhere else yet, so  I will perhaps submit it to film festivals within this country and try to make new connections for my next project. I think what I experience in film festivals would be the same either at home or abroad, so I will try hard with this for the year.

今回が初上映で、実は今後の上映もまだ決まってない、映画祭にも出品を一切していない状況です。まずできることは国内上映になると思うのですが、出品して上映して、上映からまた新しい出会いを築き次の作品につなげることは海外も日本も一緒だと思っていて、そうすべくこの一年は努めようと思っています。

For your third film, you made it at Waseda university and you studied with Hirokazu Kore-eda. Could you talk a little about that experiences?

There were about thirty students in the course. Each student had to bring up his or her project plan and give a presentation in front of the lecturers and other students. During the presentation, you would be asked questions and given comments by lecturers and the students. You do this practice several times. Your project is finally selected in a competition in the course, then you write the script and film and show it.

At first, you learn the way of getting ideas for a project, for example, ideas from news or a motif. You have to think about where you get ideas from. Once you have presented the project, you receive comments about the project, then, film it and show the rushes to the lecturers. You receive comments again like “It could have been better to put the camera here in this set layout.”

You learn step by step. As for the teaching style of director Kore-eda, I was given a lot of comments during the script writing process. He does not like using “by chance”. He says you shouldn’t make the characters move for your own convenience. He does not encourage the use of dialogue either. For example, a protagonist has something in his/her mind, how would you express his/her thought? Students tend to use dialogue to make the characters to express what they are thinking because students are not used to writing itself, but the director would say,” Do you really need the dialogue there? If you do that, it will turn into an explanation of his feeling. If I were you, I would express it with his actions”. You would get comments about these kind of things, so you gain the most at this writing process.

授業の内容としては、生徒が30人ほどいるのですが、まず一人一つオリジナルの映画の企画を持ってきて、教員を含めた全員の前でプレゼンをする。プレゼンをして、その場で教師なり生徒なりから質問や批評をされる。それを繰り返して、最終的にコンペ形式で企画が選ばれ、脚本を書き、撮影し、上映する、そういう流れで行われます。
まず教わることとしては、企画の着想です。たとえば実際に起こったニュースだったり、モチーフだったり、企画をどういったところから持ってくるか考えることになります。実際に企画を出すと、それに批評もされますし、自分たちで撮影してきてラッシュを見せると、この現場の図面ならカメラをここに置いた方が良かったねなど指摘されます。

そういった企画～撮影と段階を踏んでいくのですけど、是枝さんからは脚本の段階で言及されることが一番多くて…。本を書く段階で「たまたま」とかを嫌うんです。こちらの都合の良いように登場人物を動かしてはいけない、と。セリフに関しても、すべて口に出して言ってしまうことを咎めます。主人公に思ったことがあったとして、それを生徒たちは脚本を書き慣れないのもあって、すべて口に出してつぶやかせがちになる。それを果たして言葉に出してつぶやくか。完全にセリフが心情の説明になっているんじゃないか、って。じゃあこの心情はこういう動作で表した方がいいんじゃない？とかって、そういったことをすごく指摘されるので、どの段階で一番学ぶことが多いかというと、脚本の段階かなと私は思います。

Why did you want to make this particular film?

I am often asked a question like what I want to convey in the film, but to be honest, I don’t make films because I have a particular aim or message to convey. I simply enjoy the whole process of making a film – getting inspiration from our daily life and picking it up to frame it, then writing a script and shooting it.

例えば、よくこれを作って伝えたいことは？と聞かれることが多いのですが、正直私は、こういう趣旨を持ってこういうメッセージを伝えたいからカメラを取ってこれを撮ったんだってことはなくて、普通に生活していて、日常でなにか面白い事象にあったとか、生きてて何気ないことで、ここを切り取ったら面白いなあと、単純に私の関心が向くことをピックアップして、それを本にする、そして映画を撮るのが楽しくて撮っています。

I was quite interested in how you filmed the nursery scenes with the children. It reminded me of Etre et avoir, the French film.

If you thought the nursery scenes were like a documentary…Those children were not brought there from agencies for the film, they actually go to that nursery which I visited for the location hunting. I gathered the children to introduce Fukuda-san and Igeta-san, saying “you will have these teachers during this spring holiday” on the day of shooting. I actually shot the scenes during their spring holiday, so they had their usual nursery routine with the new teachers while I was shooting. That’s why you thought the scenes were like a documentary.

もしドキュメンタリー調に見えたとしたら、あの現場にいた子供たちは、子役事務所などから集めてきた子たちではなくて、今回のロケ地でお邪魔した幼稚園に実際に通っているお子さんたちだからかもしれません。なので撮影の日に、主演の福田さんと先生役の井桁さんの前で園児たちを集めて、二人ともこの（撮影をしていた）春休み期間だけ来る先生ですよと説明しました。本当にその期間、あたらしい先生がやって来て、一緒に色々遊ぶっていうのを通じながら撮ったので、それでドキュメンタリー調に見えたんだと思います。

Is that little girl an actress?

Ai-chan belongs to an agency. I took her to the nursery and asked her to play with the other children. She was a bit tense at first but she soon settled in smoothly. Children can easily adjust in that environment.

彩衣（あい）役のあいちゃんは事務所の子なのですが、あの子も実際に幼稚園に連れて来て、園児のみんなと一緒に遊んでもらって慣れてもらいました。最初はちょっと緊張してましたけど。子供ってすぐ慣れるんで。

Could you talk about casting Mayuko Fukuda?

Fukuda-san has been acting since she was little. I hardly watched films or TV dramas before I went to university, but despite this I always thought her presence and acting talent is noticeable. After having got an idea and starting writing, I got a vague image for the main character Sakura. Fukada-san came into my head immediately and connected to my impression from her performances in the past. She simply matched closely with my image of the character, someone who can pick up skills easily but doesn’t focus on anything or someone who is in between the state of a child and adult. I was writing the script whilst thinking about how Fukuda-san would be just perfect as the main character including her age. By the time I finished writing the script, it seemed like I had written it for her because only her face was in my head during while writing.

福田さんは子役からずっと長いことお仕事されていて、私は大学にあがるまでの間であまり映画やドラマを見てきた方ではないのですが、それでもこれまでの生活で触れてきた作品の中で印象深かった方なんですね。それで今回自分で企画を立てて脚本を書いている途中で、さくら役をイメージをしてみた時に、福田さんが浮かんだ。それは今までの出演作とかを見ていて…。なにかこういう、器用だけど熱が上がらないとか、子供と大人の間みたいな、ちょうど年齢も含めて、自分が思うものに合うなあと思いながら書いていたら、最終的に福田さんの顔しか浮かばなくなったので、書きあがった時にはもう福田さんに当てて書いた状態になっていました。

I was wondering that it might be tricky to offer that role to a popular actor?

Yes, I thought it would be difficult to ask her, because this film is an independent film and the film crew are young. However, I wrote this for the actor and thought I couldn’t help but to offer it to her. So, I sent the script and my previous films to her to consider. I feel like my dream has come true.

そうですね。今回私達、完全なる自主映画だし、クリューも若かったので、正直最初から難しいだろなあとは思っていたのですが、まず自分が当てて書いた以上はオファーしないっていう選択肢はなかったですし、あとは本を読んでもらって判断してもらうしかないと思ったので、脚本と過去作を送って見ていただき、願いが叶いました。

Could you talk more about the creation of the story and preparing Fukuda for her role?

I had a chance to chat with Fukuda-san after she read the script. She said “I can’t see the emotional flow of the protagonist clearly, maybe the audience might feel the same as me, because she has very little dialogue. She seems apathetic but suddenly behaves daringly. It is hard to understand her abruptness, isn’t it?”

Then, I precisely explained it to her as follows, “Please imagine that if the father, whom she hasn’t seen for ages, has unconsciously been present in her mind, then Shindo came up in her new circumstance. His scent or, words or demeanor accumulate in her and that gradually remind her of her father, then her feelings for her father increase. You might think that her behavior in the last scene was daring but that is because her emotion is steadily developed.

本を読んでいただいた後、結構お話をする時間があったのですが、福田さんが「自分自身としても、おそらく見てくださった皆さんにも、なかなかこの主人公が、台詞も少ない中で感情の動きが見えづらい。割と低い温度でいて、急に振り切った行動をする、その突飛な感じを理解するのが難しいよね」という話をされたんです。そこを私が細かに、「会っていない父親が潜在意識下にずっといたとして、新しい環境で新藤という男が現れる。彼の匂いであったり、言葉や所作であったりが積み重ねになって、徐々に父を思い出し、父への意識が高まっていく。ラストの行動が大胆に見えても、そこまでに気持ちの積み重ねが着実に行われている」という説明をして理解いただきました。

Could you talk more about any directorial techniques you used in the film?

Half of the film was the scenes with children. I considered how to insert those children, who were totally oblivious to acting or filming, into the scenario. For example, there was a scene with children having a nap. They are not toddlers, they are at a pre-school age, so they don’t usually have a nap at the nursery. I didn’t have a nap when I was at nursery, so I do understand them not being able to understand what it is like having a nap with friends at nursery. I thought they wouldn’t understand it well even if I explained about what the nap time is like. Some of the staff used to go to nursery for toddlers and explained to me what it was like. Then I thought about it from the perspective of a child who has never had a nap with friends at nursery. “Let’s play a game”. I divided them into two groups and asked them to put mattresses on the floor, then to lie down and pretend to sleep. If your group managed to do all of these tasks quickly, your group is the winner. They really enjoyed the game. I tried to make myself think from the perspective of the children and that helped us to shoot the nursery scenes.

今回は、子供の撮影が半分くらいあったのですが、いかに演技をしていない、ただ日常を過ごしている子供達が、映画っていう台本の中にどう入るかって。例えばお昼寝をするシーンがあるんですが、あの子たちは保育園児ではなく、幼児園生なのでお昼寝という文化がないんです、普段は。お昼寝をこの子たちはしたことがないなあと思って。私自身は幼稚園生だったので、お昼寝したことないっていう感覚がわかるんです。普通に「お昼寝」を説明しても、すんなりと受け入れてはもらえないだろうと。スタッフの中には保育園出身者もいたので、保育園でのお昼寝がどんな感じだったのか教えてもらいました。

そこから、お昼寝をしたことない子供たちをどうするか、じゃあゲームをしよう。幼稚園にマットレスがあったので、園児を２班に分け、マットレスを準備して、早くマットを敷こうと。じゃ今度はそこに寝転がる、で静かに寝たふりした方が勝ちになります。ってゲーム形式にすると子供は喜んでやったりするので、その場に居て一緒に遊んだり、自分が目線を低くして交わることで、幼稚園のシーンは成立していましたね。

How did you interact with the more mature members of the cast?

I just communicated with them naturally. I am young and don’t have much life experience. I tried not to be intimidated by them, but if there was anything I didn’t know, I just honestly said I don’t know…I approached them in an honest manner.

子供以外の皆さんに対するリアクションとかはあまり変化なくて、まだ私も経験も浅いし、だから年齢の上の方で（人生）経験が多くてっていう方に萎縮しなくもないところを強い気持ちをもってやってたくらいですかね。自分が思ったことをそのまま伝えてますし、わからないことはわからないと正直なアプローチをするってことは大切にしてました。

I was quite interested in the theme of behavior. How it’s imprinted on children by adults. Could you elaborate more about what you wanted to say about it. Children learning behavior from adults, so was Sakura affected by copied behavior from her parents?

You mean, putting lipstick on or fussing about with Ai’s hair? The children were all extras except the girl in the film, but I picked some children to focus on and named them as characters in the script—such as So-kun whom Ai likes or Sara-chan. Girls tend to be mature for their age and even at that age, they try to copy adult’s behavior. This story tells how Sakura becomes a mature woman while coming to terms with her father. I wanted to depict that in both her appearance and inner self. I also hoped to depict that her story connects to the children’s copied behavior from adults.

口紅をつけたりとか、髪の毛とか、ですか？　一人の子を除いて、子供はみんなエキストラで、脚本の段階ではもうちょっとつまんで、子供の名前で書いてた部分があって、それが彩衣ちゃんが好きなソウくんとか、サラちゃんとかだったりするのですが、女の子ってませてて、あのくらいの年齢でも大人がすることを真似たりする。今回は主人公のさくらが、段階を経て父親にたどり着く前の途中で、女性としてもなんとなく開花していく、ビジュアル面も内面も開花していくというグラデーションを作っていたので、それと子供が大人に憧れてすることを、リンクして描けたらいいなあと思って。

Do you think it’s possible Sakura and her mother could have remained in their situation if Sakura had not taken the job?

Yes, because the place, the nursery and the person, Shindo, were the trigger for Sakura because they reminded her of her childhood and father and that made Sakura gradually change both in appearance and mentality. Her mother who was watching Sakura’s change also decided to stop clinging to her daughter, husband and the house that contained these people and let them go. These changes cause a separation. The protagonist of the story is Sakura, but as I had a theme of depicting “a new form of family”, I also tried to quietly depict the emotional change of the mother who had been beside Sakura and watched over her.

そうですね。保育園という場所が、新藤という人間が、さくらの幼少期や実の父親のことを想起するきっかけになって、それによって変化していくさくらを隣で眺める母もまた、ずっと抱えている、娘や夫、それを内包する家に対して執着することをやめる、手放すという選択をしています。

この物語の主人公はさくらですが、「新しい家族の形」を描くことをテーマに持っていたので、傍にいてさくらを見守る母親の変化に関しても、静かに表現できるよう意識していました。

Good-bye was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 9 and 14.

My interview with Aya Miyazaki was first published on V-Cinema on May 04th.

It is always interesting finding out the background to a film and filmmaker, their motivations and education and loves and hobbies and beliefs etc. The information Miyazaki provided about her Waseda university days with Hirokazu Kore-eda was just as fascinating. There is a Japanese-language article published by Waseda which goes into some detail which can be found here.

On the Edge of Their Seats   

アルプススタンドのはしの方「Arupusu sutando no hashi 」

Release Date: June 19th, 2020

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Hideo Jojo

Writer: Tetsuya Okumura (Script), Hiroaki Yabu Hyogo Prefectural Higashiharima High School Drama Club (Original Stageplay)

Starring: Rina Ono, Amon Hirai, Marin Nishimoto, Shuri Nakamura, Rikki Metsugi,

OAFF Website

Journeyman director Hideo Jojo has made everything from pink films to V-Cinema so finding him at the helm an earnest high school drama full of fresh-faced teens shouldn’t be a surprise. On the Edge of Their Seats is a meticulously made movie that, at 75 minutes, flies by with sharp dialogue and performances allowing audiences to get to know the disappointments and desires of a selection of high school students watching a baseball game.

We are at East Iruma High School and the stands are full of people cheering on the school team in the first round of the national baseball tournament on a sweltering summer day. This is a big deal as all schools across Japan compete to get into the finals played at Koshien Stadium and, with this in mind, the brass band is blazing away to encourage the guys. The drama happening in the baseball diamond is hot but secondary to what is cooking in the crowd amongst a few characters.

Up at the back, in the furthest seats away (the veritable alps of the stands), are students who are not feeling the carnival atmosphere. Two members of the theatre group, Asuha (Rina Ono) and Hikaru (Marin Nishimoto), are nursing their disappointment over a cancelled play. A former player on the baseball team named Fujio (Amon Hirai) has come to cheer despite feeling overlooked. Then there is Megumi Miyashita (Shuri Nakamura), once the smartest person in her grade but now the center of unwanted attention as her position has been usurped by the captain of the brass band, Tomoka (Hikari Kuroki), a beautiful girl who just happens to be dating the baseball team’s star player who Miyashita has a crush on. Roving around the stands is Mr. Atsugi (Rikki Metsugi), the English teacher who is trying to boost the crowd and team with chants.

On The Edge of Their Seats is based on an award-winning stage play created by a theater group from a high school in Hyogo Prefecture (which you can watch here) and it is as talky as can be imagined but the dialogue sparkles with the wit and realism of good natured kids seeking their place in the world as they tease, gossip and dig into each other’s feelings and try to explain the game. As the game wears on, the characters become complex. They reveal frustrations and fears linked to their high school lives and thwarted dreams, situations that have left them feeling dejected and isolated. While they start off lonely in the crowd, they interact and find some form relief in companionship that leads them back into the school spirit and the baseball game. All the while, Mr. Atsugi is roaring away with amusing homespun baseball-inspired aphorisms meant to spur others. While the game serves to bring the characters together, it is never actually shown, but this doesn’t matter as the student’s lives take precedence.

Jojo takes the stage play and makes it cinematic by cutting between different locations and utilizing flashbacks, while the characters are shot from different angles with the sound of the school brass band and the chants of the crowd raising excitement. The blocking and placement of actors is artfully arranged to channel the energy of the situation and clearly translate the emotions from all involved. There are many convincing performances and it is gratifying to catch the little tells from each of the actors that are scattered in interactions which indicate how their characters feel. For instance, Tamiya, through avoiding eye contact with others, reveals her part in the play being cancelled, while Miyashita, a perpetual wallflower, develops into a compelling foil to Tomoka, the most popular girl in the school. It is hardly the stuff of Shakespeare but is treated with enough sincerity and empathy to feel important.

“Life is all about swinging and striking out. So never be too scared to swing that bat,” Mr. Atsugi screams. It proves true in this drama where parallel storylines build to a nice ending as everyone, and by extension the audience, finds their enthusiasm for life again.

On the Edge of Their Seats was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 8 and 9.

My review for this was published on May 08th on V-Cinema.

Some cursory research into the career of Hideo Jojo will turn up a whole slew of movies that ranging from pink films to V-Cinema. Jojo got his start in filmmaking by producing 8mm movies while studying at Musashino Art University before he entered the industry as assistant director on pink films. His directorial debut, Married Women Who Want a Taste (2003), won the Bronze Prize and New Director Award at the 2003 Pink Grand Prix. To date, he has written and directed over 100 works and won awards and fans in Japan and internationally. His career is as varied as it gets and recent titles include the screenplay for Neko Zamurai (2014), directing the horror movie Corpse Prison (2017) and even a Gachi-ban movie (2008). With such variety, it stands to reason that he would be able to direct a charming youth drama based on a stage play.

On the Edge of their Seats is based on an award-winning stage play created by a theater group from a high school in Hyogo Prefecture. It takes place during a hot summer’s day at a baseball match between high school teams in a tournament that leads to a final played at Koshien Stadium. Being able to play at Koshien in the final is a big dream for all high school baseball players in Japan and it often comes up in films. However, it’s not so much the drama happening on the field of dreams that is the concern of the film but what is going on with five characters in the stands as they work out some dramas that have occurred in their final year of high school. As they interact, they reveal some of their feelings and help each other learn to look at life more positively. The film is a real charmer built around some lovely characters and brought to life by a charismatic cast who are perfectly guided by Jojo’s sharp direction.

Hideo Jojo participated in an interview at the Osaka Asian Film Festival where the film received its world premiere. The interview was conducted with help from the interpreter Keiko Matsushita while the translation was made with the help of the interpreter Takako Pockington.

Thank you for doing the interview. Why did you become a filmmaker?

I always liked films. I watched all sort of films including Roman Porno and pink films when I was at high school. Around that time, I thought that being a film director would be cool. However, I didn’t know how to become a director so I thought, I like pink movies, I can enter from there, so I walked into a pink film production company and asked them to let me work.

僕は元々映画が好きで、高校生の時に色んな映画を観てる中で、ロマンポルノやピンク映画に出会って、何となくそっち方向から、映画監督という職業に憧れていたというのが一番ですね。ただどうやってなれるのかがわからなくて、ピンク映画が好きだったのでそっちから入ろうと思って飛び込みでやらせて下さいって。

You have a background in pink films and V-Cinema, why did you choose to work on this project?

No, not just pink films… I was introduced to this work by a producer named Takatoshi Naoi. We have known each other for twenty years, ever since I first worked as an assistant director on pink films, and he liked my first film so much. Ever since then he kept suggesting to me that we should work together but we never made it happen. He suggested it again for this project and this time showed me a video of the high school play is based on. Actually, before seeing it I thought we wouldn’t make it this time, either. I was very impressed with the movie he showed and enthusiastically agreed with him that we should do this.

ピンク映画だけではないんですけど…２０年来の知り合いの直井さんというプロデューサーが、僕がピンク映画の助監督しているときからの知り合いなんですけど、僕のデビュー作を凄く気に入ってくれて、いつかやろうって話しをしていて、今までも何本も企画があったんですが、なかなか実現しなくって、今回また会って、またいつもの調子でダメになるかなと思ったのですが、見せた貰った高校演劇がとても良くて、いつもみたいにうやむやにしないでちゃんとやりましょうって、積極的に僕からやって成立したって感じです。

How was the play’s script adapted into a film script?

It was originally a high-school play, then it was made into a commercial play. The initial project was to connect with the play. There were some changes that had been made in the commercial play from the original high school one. There were only four people in the stands in the original play, the teacher was added as a character and the scenes in the corridor were also inserted. We decided to add the brass band parts in the film version. I roughly discussed the storyline with the scriptwriter and, in the end, sorted out the script by myself. There are three different scripts and the script for the film is the third one. The characters were hugely changed and the storyline was also massively broadened, but I decided to make a border that the film shouldn’t be broadened beyond.

もとの商業演劇があって、それと映画を連動させるというのが当初の企画でした。その商業演劇の段階で、オリジナルの高校演劇にアレンジが加えられていて、最初はスタンドの４人だけだったのが、商業演劇になった段階で先生が出てきて、場所としても廊下が出てきて、映画はそれプラス吹奏楽をやろうってそういう流れだけ決めて、脚本家と相談しながらやって行ったという感じです。最終的に映画の脚本は、僕の方で整えてやったという言う感じです。３本本があって、それの最後のやつって感じなので、最初のとは随分キャラクターも変わりました。世界もどんどん広がっていって、ただこれ以上広げないでおこうっていうラインは決めてやりました。

Stage plays can be very static, even when they are adapted into film. This one is very dynamic because of camera movements. Was there a lot of storyboarding?

舞台劇を映画の形態に変える場合、舞台は映画に比べてとても静的だという印象を受けるのですが、この映画はカメラワークの効果もあって、映画自体にとても動きがあるように感じられました。どう言った演出を施されたのでしょうか？絵コンテをたくさん作られたのでしょうか？

I don’t usually plan the cuts precisely, which means, I don’t write a storyboard. I wrote rough line cut notes on the script but improvised most of the time whilst watching the actors acting and directing like, “Okay, can you move like this next?”

As for the last cut of the final scene, I aimed to shoot that way beforehand, but regarding the rest of the film, I let the actors perform whilst discussing it with the cinematographer. I am the sort of director who improvises at the location. I didn’t tightly set up shots. I did plan briefly with the film crew beforehand though.

僕はあまり事前にカットはびしっとなくて、当然絵コンテはなくて、ラインコンテもざっくりとした物しかやらずに、後はやりながらお芝居を見て、「じゃ次はこう動きましょうか」って言うやり方が多かったです。そんなにダイナミック…たとえばラストのワンカットはもう狙いとして事前にありますけど、他はお芝居をやらせてみて、カメラマンと相談しながら割と現場でどんどん変えて行くタイプなので、あまり前もって決めないでやったって感じです。多少事前に打ち合わせはありましたけど…

How long did it take to shoot?

撮影期間はどのくらいだったのですか？

I shot the film in five days, but we cancelled a half day because of a typhoon and did another day, so, all together it was about six days. We shot the film only during the daytime and we shot it in a very short time.

撮影期間は５日。一日台風で午前中しかできなくてもう1日やったので、まあ５−6日。
でもそれも全部昼だけの時間なので相当短い。

Lots of people are shown in the audience in the film. How did you direct them?

たくさんの人が観客として登場されてましたが、皆さんの演技づけはどうされたのですか？

There weren’t as many people as you think you see on the screen. If you watch carefully, you can see the same faces in different cuts. I explained to them about what the scene is going to be about, something like “a batter strikes the ball and has safely reached the second base”. I hung a ball at the tip of a pole and made them look in the direction the ball was moving.

画面で見える程は多くないんですけど、カメラが変わったら、よくよく見たら同じ人が色んな所にいる、と。そのカットの説明をして「じゃ今打って二塁打です」みたいな感じで、竿の先にボールをつけて、みんながそっちを見るようにするとか。

How did you cast the film?

This film followed the play. It comes from a project where the aim was to make both a film and commercial play based on the original high school play. The film is a part of the play. The original high school play was performed by actual high school pupils, but the commercial one was performed by professional actors. We cast the same actors. So the casting was already arranged. A male actor was replaced by a different person though.

これは演劇の流れなんです。映画と演劇を一緒にやろうと。同じ原作を元にして映画と商業演劇の両方を作ろうと。最初の高校演劇は高校生なんだけど、商業演劇の方は演劇やってる人なんで、その人たちをそのまま映画にもってこようと、きました。だからキャスティングは最初から決まってた。ちょっと色々あって、一人だけ男の子がかわったんだけど。

There’s lots of metaphors connected to baseball. Do you think will the film still translate well to cultures where baseball isn’t so important or isn’t played?

野球と関連した隠喩が幾つも出てきますね。野球が普及してない、或いはそんなに人気のスポーツでないという文化圏で、この映画のそういったニュアンスがうまく伝わると思われますか？
（翻訳者補足：例えば、英国ではラグビーとサッカーは国民的スポーツですが、野球に関してはどういうスポーツかさえ知らない人がいます）

I myself am not so keen on either high school baseball or the professional league, but I used to play baseball when I was in a little league in elementary school. If anything, I was more likely to be at the corner of the stand like the characters in the film, so I put my empathy for the characters into the direction of the film. Apparently, the writer of the story is a high school teacher called Mr. Yabu and he wrote this despite being unfamiliar with baseball.

I think that there are lots of nuances that could be difficult for people in other countries to understand because high school baseball and Koshien are unique to Japan’s culture. I made this film mainly for Japanese audience. I didn’t particularly consider promoting it abroad. However, this story is about the people cheering in the stand not about the baseball game, so I think audiences [abroad] will be able to empathize with the characters.

僕自身そんなに高校野球もプロ野球も見ないんですけど、ただ野球は小学生の時にリトルリーグに入ってやってました。僕もどちらかというと、観客席の端にいるような人間だったので、同じタイプである今回の登場人物たちには、そういった自分の思いを込めて演出しました。ちなみに原作者の高校教師の藪さんという方は、それほど野球に詳しくないままこれを書いたと聞いています。
高校野球、甲子園は日本独自の文化ですから海外の方には伝わらないニュアンスは多いと思います。海外展開を特に意識せずに日本の観客に向けて作った映画なので。とはいえ、試合シーンがあるわけではないので、応援席の彼ら気持ちは何となく伝わるかとも思うのですが、どうなんでしょうね？
僕もわかりません。

On the Edge of Their Seats was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 8 and 9.

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all feeling good.

This week it was announced Japan is due to ease the lockdown in prefectures least affected by Covid 19. After more than a month of closure, some cinemas will reopen. They are a mix of big chains like Toho Cinemas and Aeon Cinemas and, according to this article by Mark Schilling over at Variety, there are some independent cinemas, too. Looking at the cinema listing for Toho, the titles include recently released titles that were still being screened at the time they were closed like the latest Psycho-Pass movie, Midsommar, Akira 4K , Katsuben and Ossan’s Love Love or Dead (which is massively popular) and some others like The Wizard of Oz.

The reopening comes with caveats such as hand sanitiser and plastic screens to limit interactions between staff and customers and spacing assigned seats to maintain social distancing. One Twitter user, @garamanhall, gave an image of what a concert with social distancing will look like:

So you can imagine a cinema screening might be similar – a seat free either side and the row in front and behind free…

Since Covid 19 is here to stay until a vaccine is developed, it is reasonable to say that this will be the standard operating procedure of festivals for the foreseeable future. At least we can go and see Tenet on the big screen which opens in July.

Since cinemas are closed and I’ve been at home, I’ve watched lots of anime. This last fortnight I watched season four of Haikyu!! and re-watched Bakemonogatari and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. I posted about the film’s Good-bye and On the Edge of Their Seats and interviewed the directors Aya Miyazaki and Hideo Jojo.

What new film is scheduled to be released this weekend?

The secret of the spirit cafe “Extra” -The Real Exorcist- The Real Exorcist   

心霊喫茶「エクストラ」の秘密 The Real Exorcist　 「Shinrei kissa “ekusutora” no himitsu The Real Exorcist」

Release Date: May 15th, 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Directors: Shokyo Oda

Writers: Sayaka Okawa (Script), 

Starring: Yoshiko Sengen, Mirai Irako, Rin Kijima, Joe, Hyuga, Nao Hasegawa, Ryuichi Ohura, Yoshimi Ashikawa, Ayumi Orii,

Website IMDB

The information for this was found at the Monaco International Film Festival which took place at the end of February.

Synopsis: Sayuri, a coffee shop waitress, uses her supernatural powers to help those who are troubled by spiritual phenomena. She gradually gets involved in serious matters, eventually facing a fierce battle with the devil…

Also, here’s a film I missed writing about:

A Town That Tells Spring   

春を告げる町　 「Haru o tsugeru machi」

Release Date: March 21st, 2020

Duration: 130 mins.

Directors: Ryuichi Shimada

Writers: N/A

Starring: Katsuyuki Watanabe, Ryohei Niitsuma, Koichi Tatewaki,

Website

Synopsis: A documentary about people living in Hirono in Fukushima Prefecture, a place hit by both the tsunami and the evacuation order after the meltdown at the nuclear power plant following the Great East Japan Earthquake. Nine years on and with the evacuation order lifted, people have returned and there is progress in rebuilding infrastructure and decontaminating the area and it was supposed to be the starting point of the 20th Tokyo Olympic Torch Relay. To understand the town, we see the effortsof high school students who are doing a play with the motif of the earthquake and all of the lives it disrupted.

The Modern Lovers   

東京の恋人「Tokyo no Koibito」

Release Date: June 27th, 2020

Duration: 81 mins.

Director: Atsuro Shimoyashiro

Writer: Atsuro Shimoyashiro, Naoaki Akamatsu (Script),

Starring: Ryu Morioka, Nanami Kawakami, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Ruri Shinato, Tomoki Kumura, Shinji Imaoka, Teruko,

OAFF

The dreams we forgo and the promises we break can define our lives as we grow older, a realization that the protagonist of Atsuro Shimoyashiro’s steamy indie drama gradually comes to when he reconnects with an old flame for one last tryst.

Tatsuo (Ryu Morioka) is a picture of compromise. Once an indie filmmaker in Tokyo with potential to make a mark, he lost his way and discarded a girl who was deeply in love with him. After getting another woman pregnant, he settled for stability over youthful ambition. Now, having reached the age of 30, finds himself far from the bright lights of Tokyo and in one of the most countryside places you can get in Japan: Gunma. There, he works a steady job, is married to a beautiful woman and has a child on the way. His life is comfortable but an air of dissatisfaction has arisen as he begins to see the uneventful future laid out before him. This is when his ex-girlfriend, Marina (Nanami Kawakami), drops him a message. He answers it and heads to Tokyo to meet her. He does not tell her that he is married while she is more interested in talking about their past. The two head to a seaside town where the passions he had lain aside are rekindled, upsetting his peaceful life.

Taking place over the course of a few days, The Modern Lovers features a convincing portrayal of soulmates who have reunited which gives the slight narrative a beating heart. There are many ideas about what love is but the concept of “the one” is pretty universal: that person who we feel the most connected to emotionally and the most comfortable with mentally and physically. What convinces most about the film is how the two characters are comfortable in each other’s presence, whether it’s the way their bodies gravitate towards each other as they walk around, hang out in bars and batting cages or during two full-on sex scenes.

Morioka and Kawakami share great on-screen chemistry complete with affection, humor and lust. In the sex scenes, Kawakami bravely bares all and performs moves straight out of a male fantasy, perhaps drawing on her background in AV. Some may think this excessive. She has also appeared in other indie movies and gives a fine textured performance which hints at hope and disappointment. Morioka has a less forgiving role, a genial character prone to acting in selfish ways which entails lying and taking advantage of others. The narrative asks us to feel sympathy by building up a sense of all he has lost and having Marina being a sort of dream girl helps in this regard. Surrounding him with people who have given up their dreams and youthful ambitions also helps to ease the audience into forgiving him his worst excesses.

At 81 minutes, this well-shot film breezes by as we spend time with these characters lost in the throes of lust and memories. The recurrent use of the song “Soto wa Samui kara” by Tokyo60WATTS on the soundtrack helps to draw the viewer into a lustful confection with a bitter aftertaste.

The Modern Lovers was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 7.

This review was published on V-Cinema on April 15th.

Atsuro Shimoyashiro was at this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival with The Modern Lovers, a sexually explicit story about two former lovers reuniting, raking over their past relationship and realizing their regrets. His path to the festival is an interesting example of an indie film warrior. After dropping out of college, Shimoyashiro studied at the Film School of Tokyo and has had an interesting career working in music and indie movies. He directed films like Walk in the Room (2016), which was selected for TAMA NEW WAVE and the Kanazawa Film Festival 2017, and Voyage Garden (2018), which was selected for O!!DO Short Film Festival. He has also produced music for films, including two by Shinji Imaoka, Long Goodbye: Private Detective Kurinosuke Furui (2017) and Reiko and the Dolphin (2019).

The Modern Lovers is something else. A hip movie with an atmosphere choked with longing, lust and a little bitterness. Due to the nudity involved and its brief story, it brings to mind the pink films of the Roman Porno genre despite being an indie drama. There seems to be some creative connection since legendary pink film director Shinji Imaoka makes a brief appearance in a bar scene and Shimoyashiro has collaborated with him. It may be tempting to see Shimoyashiro as a new generation of pink film director but he is firmly on the indie side of things, as he explained when he sat down to talk about The Modern Lovers and his inspirations. This interview was conducted with the help of translators Keiko Matsushita and Takako Pocklington.

Thank you for doing the interview, the first question of which is… how do you describe the film?

It is a story of a man who used to make films. I also went to a college of filmmaking and there are people around me who used to make films but have given up. I don’t think of it negatively, giving up your dream, though. This story was made by people whom I met… it’s difficult to explain.

What would you say the message of the film is?

Life goes on even if you have failed something you wanted to pursue or even if you succeeded in something you want to pursue… Even if you linger in the pain of failure or you give up with a feeling like ‘that’s it”, you can’t move on until you finish going through all of these processes. I think that is the cruelness of life but I wanted to choose cruelty [as a theme of the film] and I think this is also a form of happiness.

It’s a bit like Reiko and the Dolphin?

I got involved in Reiko and the Dolphin as a music composer/producer. I have worked with director Shinji Imaoka quite a few times, so I may have brought a similar nuance to this film but how I address [the theme] is slightly different. I was working with same crew, though.

So, there’s no inspiration from Shinji Imaoka?

I think I have got some inspiration from him as I like his old pink films or NIKKATSU Roman Porno. By the way, I like director [Tatsumi] Kumashiro’s Roman Porno very much. I think there are not many films which have that style or its atmosphere nowadays, so this film is a bit like an homage to those films.

Could you describe the writing process?

I had a rough idea for the plot. I would take notes when I heard some episodes and I was moved, then I added those kinds of details into the story. It took two years, collaborating with my friend Naoaki Akamatsu. We occasionally met up and discussed it. We took rather a long time.

Why did you select these actors?

Ryu Morioka played a lead role in one of director Imaoka’s films [Long Goodbye: Private Detective Kurinosuke Furui]. I produced the soundtrack for that film and made a song for Morioka to sing. That was the first time I met him. He used to direct films when he was a college student. He hasn’t shot any films since then, though. I considered him as an “our side” sort of actor who could understand a director’s feeling. That’s why I thought he was the right person for the role.

Kawakami-san is a so-called AV actress but I happened to find her with her photo book. I didn’t know that she was acting when I first saw her in the book. I thought she has really colorful facial expressions and checked her films. I realized that she is also a good actress. Then I offered her this role, because I thought she would want to act in normal films not in porn films and she accepted it enthusiastically.

There’s lots of nudity. Could you tell the story without it?

I don’t think so. I have been making independent films but this was my first long feature film. I had never shot nude scenes, so I felt if I made a film, I wanted to shoot nude scene.

How did you prepare the actors for those scenes?

Nanami Kawakami, is a natural worrier. I am rather laidback. Even at the preparation stage, she was concerned about details and threw lots of questions at me, then we spent quite a bit of time for preparation. On the contrary, Ryu Morioka, I have worked with him before. He was fine after just a brief meeting, then the scene was shot like that. I don’t know which acting approach is better.

Were there lots of instruction from you to the actors during the shoot?

We hardly had a conflict among us during the shoot, but of course there were some scenes where I corrected their acting and also there were some scenes when they gave me their ideas. However, basically, I advised and explained to them how I was going to shoot… like “I’m going to shoot in this way for this scene”. I only had a limited time so shot smoothly and efficiently.

You have a great set of character actors like Nagiko Tsuji. Could you describe the casting process for those supporting roles?

I have known her for about five years. I worked with her twice or so on music films which I made in my college days. I have involved myself in music films more than ordinary films but I had asked her to appear in my film if I ever made a regular film. Eventually, I got a chance to make a film and I asked her to be in it.

Tomoki Kimura is a leading actor in Naked Uncle [also screened at OAFF 2020]

I met him at a reception of a film festival. A middle length film I made was nominated at the film festival. It was four or five years ago. As he has been in lots of indie films and we both love films, we would bump into each other at a cinema or go for a drink. He really likes alcohol, so I thought that kind of character would suit him, then offered the role to him.

You were also in charge of music. What musical influence do you have?

Recently, Japanese 80’s city pop. Eiichi Otaki, Tatsuro Yamashita. However, I haven’t had input on any film music lately. I focused on making this film last year, so I feel completely burnt out.

You had a film in Kanazawa Film Festival. Was that your first feature film?

I can’t say that is my first…. It was a middle length about 50 minutes.

Is there any difference between this film and that film?

There are huge differences on budget. When I shot the film at that time, the staff were all my college friends. They volunteered and were not professional actors, just amateurs. I didn’t even know how to shoot and everyone started giving their opinions. However, I managed to complete shooting the film. It wasn’t smooth at all though…

How long was the shoot for The Modern Lovers?

Six days.

Six days? So, that meant you knew exactly what you wanted to shoot.

Yes, I shot it very efficiently and followed the quick shooting method of pink films. But they usually shoot in four days, so I took a bit longer for this film.

For you, is there a gap between pink films and regular dramas?

I like pink films because there is freedom in film making like in indies films. Maybe it is different nowadays, but it used to be a platform for young rebellious directors to be able to do whatever they want with less restrictions.

You were inspired by Pink films and you worked with Shinji Imaoka. Do you see yourself, perhaps, continuing in that genre?

Imaoka-san used to make pink films at a company called KOKUEI. This company doesn’t make pink films anymore. If KOKUEI still made pink films, I would like to be a director that belongs to them. I think it would be better for me to work as an independent director.

My final question. Were there any films you were influenced by when making The Modern Lovers?

Tatsumi Kumashiro’s Bitterness of Youth. It was a part of Roman Porno from TOHO. Kenichi Hagiwara was a leading actor.

So that’s your biggest influence?

It’s a film with the theme of the end of youth.

The Modern Lovers was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 7.

This interview was first published on V-Cinema on April 16th

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all safe and well!

The state of emergency has been lifted in Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo this week but it remains in place in Kanagawa and Tokyo. Movie distributors and cinemas have taken a massive hit in April due to the closure of cinemas with “the total box office earnings of Japan’s 12 largest movie distributors in April totalling just $6.4 million (688.24 million yen), a 96.3 percent plummet from the same period last year, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ)” (source). As I wrote last week, some cinemas have reopened and the films that are being screened are classics. The number of classics has been updated to include Blade Runner, Rio Bravo, Ben Hur and The Shawshank Redemption. What about new films?

Well, this week, I posted a review for the indie drama The Modern Lovers and the interview I did with the director Atsuro Shimoyashiro.

What is released this weekend?

Kankai no renzoku   

寛解の連続　 「Kankai no renzoku」

Release Date: May 23rd, 2020

Duration: 112 mins.

Directors: Atsushi Mitsunaga

Writers: Sayaka Okawa (Script), Mariko Kikuchi (Original Book)

Starring: Katsuyuki Kobayashi, Kazuhiro Ichi,

Website

This was originally scheduled to play at a cinema in Kobe from May 23^rd but it has shifted online for a two-week screening period.

Synopsis: A documentary about the life of Katsuyuki Kobayashi, a rapper from Kobe deals with manic depression. The film follows him during the lead up to the release of his second album “Kattsun”, and the time when he was admitted to the isolation ward and how he cared for a disabled person.

This year’s edition of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival is the 60 anniversary of the fest and it takes place from June 15th to the 30th and, due to the COVID-19 situation, it’s a totally online edition. Unlike last year’s event, which was jam-packed with films, there are about four Japanese animated films and some international co-productions on the roster. The festival welcomes back Masaaki Yuasa, who has directed a Netflix show, and there are some newbie directors.

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

Feature Films in Competition

Lupin III The First   

ルパン三世 THE FIRST　 「Rupan Sansei The First」

Release Date: December 06th, 2019

Duration: 93 mins.

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Writer: Takasshi Yamazaki (Script), Monkey Punch (Original Creator), Maurice Leblanc (Original Concept)

Starring: Kanichi Kurita (Lupin III), Kiyoshi Kobayashi (Daisuke Jigen), Daisuke Namikawa (Goemon Ishikawa XIII), Miyuki Sawashiro (Fujiko Mine), Koichi Yamadera (Koichi Zenigata),

Animation Production: TMS Entertainment, Marza Animation Planet

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: There is a special treasure known as the “Bresson Diary”, something which can lead to riches beyond a person’s wildest dreams. It has been the target of many different types of people from fortune seekers to Nazis. During the Second World War, famous thief Lupin I tried to steal it but failed. Flashfoward to his grandson, Lupin III who teams up with a mysterious woman named Leticia to retrieve the diary for this action-packed adventure!

7 Days War   

ぼくらの7日間戦争　 「Bokura no Nanokakan Sensou」

Release Date: December 13th, 2019

Duration: 88 mins.

Director: Yuuta Murano

Writer: Ichiro Okouchi (Script), Osamu Souda (Original Novel),

Starring: Kyoko Yoshine (Aya Chiyono), Takumi Kitamura (Mamoru Suzuhara), Haruka Michii (Saki Akutsu), Makoto Koichi (Malet), Megumi Han (Kaori Yamazaki),

Animation Production: Ajia-Do

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: It is almost time for the summer holiday but the entire male student body of one class from a junior high school disappear early as they put into action a rebellion against adults. With the help of female students, they launch operations from their base in an abandoned factory in a protest against adults and their hypocrisy and corruption. The boy’s actions thrill society even as they cause chaos for the iniquitous status quo.

Feature Films Contrechamp in Competition

On-Gaku: Our Sound   

音楽　 「Ongaku」

Release Date: January 11th, 2020

Duration: 71 mins.

Director: Kenji Iwaisawa

Writer: Hiroyuki Ohashi (Screenplay), 

Starring: Kami Hiraiwa (Morita), Shintaro Sakamoto (Kenji), Ren Komai (Aya), Naoto Takenaka (Oba), Tateto Serizawa (Asakura), Tomoya Meno (Ota),

Animation Production: N/A

Website ANN MAL

This anime is based on the manga by Hiroyuki Ohashi and the write up makes it sound good as “the film’s animation technique evolves as the story does, culminating in a rock ‘n’ roll spectacle for the ears and the eyes”.

The film won Best Feature Film at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, played at the London International Animation Festival 2019 and a review over at the Japan Times has given it 5 out of 5!

Synopsis: One summer’s day, three outsider high school students who haven’t touched an instrument in their lives decide to form a band to express their teenage angst and impress girls. Does it matter that Kenji and his friends have never played an instrument before? Of course not – he’s got a guitar at home and his friends have a bass and drums in theirs so in the true spirit of punk, with blind confidence and absolutely minimal effort they start to make friends and influence people.

True North

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 93 mins.

Director: Eiji Han Shimizu

Writer: Eiji Han Shimizu (Script), 

Starring: Joel Sutton (Voice),

Animation Production: Sumimaseen PTE. LTD.

Website ANN MAL

This is an international collaboration using Japanese animation to tell a story of human rights violation inside North Korea’s concentration camps. Some quick research reveals that this was subject to a Kickstarter campaign nearly a decade ago. Director Eiji Han Shimizu as this interview at the Jakarta Post website from 2015 attests.

Synopsis from the festival website: After his father disappears and the rest of his family is sent to a notorious political prison camp in North Korea, a young boy must learn to survive the harsh conditions, find meaning in his perilous existence, and maybe even escape.

Short Films in Competition

Beyond Noh

Release Date: February 28th, 2020

Duration: 04 mins.

Director: Patrick Smith, Producer: Kaori Ishida

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Animation Production: Blend Films Animation

Website ANN MAL

This is an American film with a Japanese subject and has already been at a number of festivals such as Tribeca and now it gets shown at Annecy. Patrick Smith has worked as a storyboard artist for Walt Disney and an animation director for MTV.

Synopsis from the website: “Beyond Noh” rhythmically animates 3,475 individual masks from all over the world, beginning with the distinctive masks of the Japanese Noh theatre and continuing on a cultural journey through ritual, performance, utility, and politics.

TV FILMS

Japan Sinks: 2020 “The Beginning of the End”   

日本沈没 「Nihon Chinbotsu」

Release Date: 2020

Duration: 25 mins. x 10 episodes

Series Director: Pyeon-Gang Ho, Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Writer: Toshio Yoshitaka (Script), Sakyo Komatsu (Original Creator)

Starring: Masaki Terasoma (Koichiro Muto), Tomo Muranaka (Go Muto), Yuko Sasaki (Mari Muto), Reina Ueda (Ayumu Muto),

Animation Production: Science SARU

Website ANN MAL

According to Anime News Network, this is competing in the TV Films category but I cannot see it on the site. This is an adaptation of Sakyo Komatsu’s science-fiction novel of the same name. It has previously been adapted into a live-action film twice, one version directed by Shinji Higuchi in 2006, the other directed by Shiro Moritani in 1973. This newest version is a 10 episode anime that has been produced by animation outfit Science SARU for Netflix and is another collaboration for the two following Devilman Crybaby.

The director is Masaaki Yuasa is credited as an episode director but the series director is Pyeon-Gang Ho, a relative newbie who has worked as an episode director on various properties like Zankyou no Terror. The two have collaborated before where she directed an episode of Ping Pong: The Animation and was a unit director on The Night is Short Walk On Girl. Toshio Yoshitaka (Dragon Ball Super) is credited with penning the script adapted the book. Music comes from Kensuke Ushio (Ping Pong the Animation, A Silent Voice, Devilman Crybaby).

Masaaki Yuasa is a familiar face at Annecy considering he has shown a lot of films and TV anime there: Ride Your Wave was screened in competition at Annecy last year, episodes of Adventure Time were screened in 2015 and Lu Over the Wall won Cristal for a Feature Film award at Annecy in 2017.

The anime is screening in competition at Annecy in the TV Films category. In the absence of any trailer, here are images from the official Tumblr.

Synopsis: Sometime in the modern era, a series of natural disasters hit Japan, from volcanic eruptions to earthquakes and they begin to cause massive tectonic shifts that threaten the Japanese archipelago. It’s looking like the country will sink into the sea as the country shifts towards a trench. Amidst all of this mounting disaster, the Muto family attempt to escape Tokyo.

The story was originally set after the Tokyo Olympics but since that was cancelled maybe this apocalypse is on hold?

Graduation Short Films

The Balloon Catcher

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 06 mins.

Director: Isaku Kaneko

Writer: Isaku Kaneko (Script), 

Starring: N/A

Animation Production: N.A. 

Isaku Kaneko’s work while at Tama Art University now forms part of the Graduation Short Films in Competition.

Synopsis: An axe human who lives in a balloon city finds it difficult living with balloon people because  his sharp blade frightens balloon humans. Despite his best efforts, the death of a balloon human on a gloomy subway platform could spell disaster.

Works in Progress

There are two films that are worth looking at for fans of Japan:

The Summit of the Gods is a co-production between France and Luxembourg directed by Patrick Imbert and based on the manga by Jiro Taniguchi and the 1998 novel by Baku Yumemakura. The story follows a Japanese photographer in Kathmandu named Fukamachi, who accidentally finds a camera that supposedly belonged to George Mallory, a mountaineer who went missing on Mount Everest with his partner in the 1924. What if they had scaled the mountain and just went missing on the way back? Fukamachi and his friend Habu go on an adventure looking for the truth.

Inu-Oh   

犬王「Inu Oh」

Release Date: 2021

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Writer: Akiko Nogi (Script), Hideo Furukawa (Original Novel – Heike Monogatari – Inu-Oh no Maki)

Starring: N/A

Animation Production: Science SARU

Website ANN

This work in progress is an adaptation of Heike Monogatari – Inu-Oh no Maki by Hideo Furukawa and is Based on the true story of 14th-century Sarugaku Noh performer and playwright Inu-Oh. The film is billed as a musical that will incorporate both modern song and dance which is all being produced by animation outfit Science SARU with ASMIK Ace working as distributor.

Manga artist, Taiyo Matsumoto (Tekkonkinkreet, Ping Pong, Sunny), who previously worked with Yuasa on Ping Pong: The Animation, is credited as the character designer. The screenplay comes from Akiko Nogi who has adapted manga into live-action films like Library Wars and I Am a Hero. Inu-Oh is her first time writing an animated feature.

Statement from Asmik Ace:

“Inu-Oh was a real-life figure, a Sarugaku Noh performer and playwright who was extremely popular in the 14th century. However, he is all but unknown to people nowadays, because very few documents about his life have survived. Now, around 600 years later, this Inu-Oh project portrays the tales of brotherhood between the legendary Inu-Oh, who vanished from history, and a certain Biwa player, and is full of music and dance sequences.”

Synopsis from Askmik Ace: Inu-Oh is a real person lived in the 14th century. He is a Noh dancer and extremely popular in that era. However, he is all but unknown to people nowadays, because only few documents about his life has left.

　Inu-Oh has a tangled fate. He was born with a deformity. His parents covered his face and body with a mask and fabric. But he is aggressive and sassy. One day, Inu-Oh meets a boy. He is a blind Biwa player called Tomona.

　“You should make a song of my life with Biwa.”

　Tomona starts to make a song of Inu-Oh’s life and play it with Biwa. By and by, they becomes best business partners tied with a strong friendship to survive their lives, and blooms their talent. Once Inu-Oh attracts the audience by dancing on the stage, his body is transformed. They rise to stardom over night. Why Tomona lost his eyesight? Why Inu-Oh was born as a deformed child? To find the truth, and lift a curse with each other, they sing and dance. A musical animation focusing on two pop stars!

Past coverage:

Annecy International Animation Festival 2015

Annecy International Animation Festival 2016

Annecy International Animation Festival 2017

Anime wins awards at Annecy 2017

Annecy International Animation Festival 2018

Annecy International Animation Festival 2019

Due to COVID-19, film festivals around the world have had to postpone or cancel events. Then, in April, Tribeca and YouTube announced they were teaming up for a 10-day online festival called We Are One and working together with other festivals to create a digital film festival.

The festival will stream a selection of films online on YouTube for FREE from May 29th to June 07th. There will be 31 features and 72 shorts over 10 days, the titles have been co-curated by over 20 film festivals from across the world, including Annecy, Cannes, London, Venice, Sundance, Berlin, Locarno, Toronto and Tokyo. Viewers can also enjoy virtual talks with directors.

The Japanese content contains two features and a collection of shorts, including the world premiere of Japanese narrative short “Yalta Conference Online” (image below), which was created exclusively for the festival by director Koji Fukada (Human Comedy Tokyo, Hospitalite, Au revoir l’ete, Harmonium, Sayonara).

There are more Koji Fukada films included in the festival as well as one by Akiko Ooku, Daigo Matsui and Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl). Here are the rest of the titles:

Inabe   

いなべ 「Inabe」

Release Date: November 01st, 2013

Running Time: 38 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada (Screenplay),

Starring: Hiroaki Matsuda, Ami Kurata, Yui Ito, Koji Nishida, Minami Inoue,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Tomohiro hasn’t seen his sister Naoko in 17 years so he is surprised and suspicious when she returns to their home in Inabe with a baby. Despite having to work on a pig farm, when she tells him to help her dig a hole he follows. During their journey through Inabe’s landscape, their childhood memories are brought back and they dig up something else…

East of Jefferson

ジェファソンの東 「Jefason no Higashi」

Release Date: June 16th, 2018

Running Time: 18 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuri Ogino, Tatsuya Kawamura, Tsuyoshi Kondo,

Website 

Synopsis: This is a short that tells the tale of two men and a woman who meet at a love hotel.

Tremble All You Want  

勝手にふるえてろ 「Katte ni Furue tero」

Running Time: 117 mins.

Release Date: December 23^rd, 2017

Director: Akiko Ooku

Writer: Akiko Ooku (Screenplay), Risa Wataya (Original Novel)

Starring: Mayu Matsuoka, Daichi Watanabe, Takumi Kitamura, Anna Ishibashi, Kanji Furutachi, Hairi Katagiri,

IMDB Website

A person obsessed with ammonites? How quaint. However, I can’t ready the synopsis for this and not think about the Junji Ito manga Uzumaki. This one was at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2017 (alongside the next film) where it won the Audience Award and it has toured the world. Premieres June 05th (link)

Synopsis: Yoshika (Mayu Matsuoka) is 24-years-old with a fairly unique hobby: she likes researching ammonite fossils and collects them. Perhaps this explains why she doesn’t have a boyfriend in her life. Or maybe the lack of a man is down to the fact that she pines for her first love, a guy from school named Ichi. One day, Ni, a guy who works at the same company, confesses his feelings for her.

Ice Cream and the Sound of Raindrops

アイスと雨音 「Aisu to Amaoto」   

Running Time: 74 mins.

Release Date: 2018

Director:  Daigo Matsui

Writer: Daigo Matsui (Screenplay),

Starring: Taketo Tanaka, Guama, Yuzu Aoki, Kokoro Morita, Jotaro Tozuka, Kazumasa Kadoi, Mimori Wakasugi, Reiko Tanaka, Momoha,

IMDB Website JFDB

This one is from Daigo Matsui or How Selfish I Am! (2013) and Japanese Girls Never Die (2016). It premieres June 04th (link).

Synopsis: In 2017, a stage performance is scheduled in a small town. The young actors are to present British playwright Simon Stephens’s “Morning” for the first time in Japan. The savage play has been attracting attention in the theatre world for its story of a violent act by two best friends. The performance is suddenly cancelled, but one actress suggests they continue rehearsing. For a month, the young actors struggle between reality and fiction, as well as between film and the stage, and their story is captured in a single 74-minute shot. The music of the film is played live in the film by rap group MOROHA.

Happy Machine 

夢みるキカイ「Yumemiru Kikai」

Release Date: July 07th, 2007

Duration: 15 mins.

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

Writer: Masaaki Yuasa (Script), 

Starring: N/A

Animation Production: Studio 4°C

Website ANN MAL

This was part of an omnibus film called Genius Party (2007) which brought together star directors Shinichiro Watanabe, Shoji Kawamori and Masaaki Yuasa, amongst others, to create a collection of seven individual and unique shorts, each with a different story and style. 

Synopsis: An infant who was living a happy life in a nursery discovers that their surroundings are fake. An adventure in the rough world outside awaits…

Newly released after a month’s wait, are these films! Documentaries are the first out of the gate, two of which have similar themes of depopulated places and natural beauty, there’s a quick cash-in horror movie from Takashi Shimizu, a J-horror veteran, an Eisuke Naito, and then there is the next documentary which is brilliant.

Tagore Songs   

タゴール・ソングス「Tago-ru Songusu 」

Release Date: June 01st, 2020

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Mika Sasaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

This documentary is a bit of a stunner. I had no idea about the poet Rabindranath Tagore or his place in Bengali culture, something I am also ignorant about, but after watching this film I felt I had been educated, a whole culture had been opened up to me and I wanted to learn more.

If you are coming out of lockdown and see one film to free your mind and lose yourself in, choose this one.

Synopsis: Rebindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was a poet and musician from India who created over 2000 poems and songs that have shaped Bengali culture. In 1913, he became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and he also campaigned against British imperial rule. Despite his songs and poems being made nearly a century ago, they are still relevant and impact the lives of people today.

Mika Sasaki and her crew travelled to India, Bangladesh and Tokyo and interviewed people people from different layers of society to learn what the songs mean to them and they get a real cross-section of society from students to teachers and street musicians and randoms on the street who are all able to recite at least a verse and do so with a depth of emotion that shows the songs power for them. Beautiful landscapes and interesting cityscapes and the myriad of people in them paint an evocative picture of the culture of these places as well. Most importantly, it features the poetry and the words are sooooo beautiful!

After the Flowers: The Way You Walked by Mutsu-san 

花のあとさき　ムツばあさんの歩いた道「Hana no atosaki Mutsubaasa no Aruita Michi」

Release Date: June 01st, 2020

Duration: 112 mins.

Director: Michiharu Momozaki

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

If you’ve stayed at home due to a lockdown or if you live in an urban area, you might want to take a look at this documentary which transports us to Chichibu, a place in Saitama, north of Tokyo, famous for its natural beauty.

Synopsis: NHK had a documentary series set in Chichibu (Saitama) following a couple who plant flowers in the terraced fields found around a small village in the mountains. It was called “Chichibu Yamanaka Hana no Saki” and was aired in 2002. Mutsu Kobayashi is the wife and she continues to care for the fields with her husband Koichi despite fewer and fewer people are living in the village each year. The flowers continue to bloom but the couple will face a difficult event as charted in this documentary follow-up…

On the Island   

島にて「Shima nite」

Release Date: June 01st, 2020

Duration: 99 mins.

Director: Koichi Omiya, Kei Tanaka

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: This is a documentary about people living on the remote island of Tobishima, in Yamagata Prefecture. It is located 75 minutes by liner from Sakata Port in Yamagata Prefecture and has been designated as a national park. It was once a prosperous town due to its location on the Sea of ​​Japan side with many islanders making living from fishing and agriculture but, due to depopulation and ageing, there are now about 140 people are now living on the island. The documentary asks the question what it takes to live life there and follows the stories ofa range of people from the last junior high school student on the island, to people who have settled there after living on the mainland and an elderly couple who were born on the island.

Forgiven Children   

許された子どもたち「Yurusa reta kodomotachi」

Release Date: June 01st, 2020

Duration: 131 mins.

Director: Eisuke Naito

Writer: Eisuke Naito, Tetsuo Yamagata (Script), 

Starring: Yu Uemura, Yoshi Kuroiwa, Shosei Abe, Akana Ikeda, Kota Oshima, Go Jibiki,

Website

Eisuke Naito has come a long way from Puzzle with a filmography full of titles looking at delinquent kids like Liverleaf and this one looks pretty bleak. It also plays at Nippon Connection which starts this month.

Synopsis: Kira Ichikawa (Yu Uemura) is the leader of a group of high school delinquents who take their bullying of their classmate Isuki Kuramochi (Abe Shosei) too far. When he dies, it looks like Kira and his gang will face punishment but Kira’s mother, Mari (Yoshi Kuroi), manages to get him off the charge at the juvenile court. A backlash ensues, not least from the victim’s family who decides to file a civil lawsuit…

“Howling Village” Fear Avoidance Version 

映画「犬鳴村」恐怖回避ばーじょん　劇場版　 「Eiga “Inukai Mura” kyōfu kaihi bajyon gekijouban」

Release Date: June 06th, 2020

Duration: 110 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. This is actually a re-release from February 08th, 2020 (link to trailer post). This was a bit of a hit with around one million people seeing it in cinemas so a new “fear-free” version has been made for scaredy-cats. This updated version features calming things such as cute dogs appearing in horror scenes. 

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 because she uncovers some sordid family history she will have to escape…

Inabe   

いなべ 「Inabe」

Release Date: November 01st, 2013

Running Time: 38 mins.

Director: Koji Fukada

Writer: Koji Fukada (Screenplay),

Starring: Hiroaki Matsuda, Ami Kurata, Yui Ito, Koji Nishida, Minami Inoue,

Website IMDB

Koji Fukada is regarded as one of the leading lights of Japanese cinema and he is someone who I have covered on this blog, from his opener Human Comedy Tokyo (2008) to his Cannes award-winner Harmonium (2016) and other titles. He has the ability to tackle subtle elements in human relationships with black humour and seriousness as well as a light touch. Inabe stands as one of my favourites because of its simplicity and earnestness but more is lurking underneath the honest emotions shared between two siblings who are reunited after years apart.

Tomohiro (Hiroaki Matsuda) is a 30-something guy who hasn’t seen his older sister Naoko (Ami Kurata) in 17 years. He is surprised and suspicious when she returns to their hometown of Inabe with a baby, her son Naoki. Their meeting is out of the blue. She steps off a train, walks to the pig farm he works at, and waits for him to clock off. Initially awkward, they talk as they head to the family home where Naoko reintroduces herself to relatives and soon she is digging into Tomohiro’s current marital woes. This digging gets deeper and more personal as the two wander around childhood haunts.

As we are led through Inabe’s landscape we venture through their memories and we get to hear what has passed between them over the years. A sense of time lost is evoked but also the feeling that they have regained a connection to a precious person as they share thoughts, feelings and space with each other after a long absence.

The writing and acting is majestic as they slip back into an easy relationship but one burdened with the responsibilities and disappointments of adulthood. At times, their movement traces actions and behaviour they performed during their teen years, but with none of the verve of youth, while their dialogue is an exchange of memories, but dense with a mixture of emotion they feel now: sentimentality, regret, and curiosity as to how their lives have diverged from what they expected. 

Then, along their perambulation, there is a poetic image of a waterfall where the water flows backwards. It is a strange moment, accompanied by a strange musical motif in a film that is firmly realistic in style. Despite its strangeness, it fits, not least because the characters seem unphased by it and the sight of water returning to its source fits the themes of the passing of time and the return to family. It also allows the atmosphere to become ethereal for the last third of the film. There are numerous tells as to what will happen that jump out in the subject of the dialogue and the props in earlier scenes and they come thick and fast in subsequent re-watches but that first viewing is all mystery that is played lightly.

A key idea is brought up and acted out by Naoko is that of asymptotic lines and it is applicable to this film where Naoko never lets her reasons for returning home out of the bag (and I’ve tried to avoid it here) so, beneath the smiles and sighs, a moving story of reconnection builds and it results in a bittersweet ending that caps a perfectly shot and acted film.

Fukada achieves an atmosphere of melancholy through the simple nature of the story and location, the rekindling of a relationship between the brother and sister, the sense of time and people lost, the peaceful but sad atmosphere of a sparsely populated rural area and the muted colours of the beautiful autumnal landscape with its fields and forests framed by mountains, where perfectly sculpted paths wending through hills and the winding roads lead away from the family home. The film made me feel that the landscape of Inabe is beautiful and haunting while the concept of family is warm and precious. Everything is perfectly framed and the acting is moving and this makes Inabe a film I can watch again and again.

I have written about this short three times but only in terms of previews, once in 2014 and again in 2018 when it was shown as part of a film festival dedicated to screening the works of Koji Fukada and now for We Are One Global Film Festival‘s screening which is how I have finally seen it. I have remembered Inabe since first writing about it and really appreciated getting the chance to see this film.

Despite the situation with Covid-19, one of the world’s biggest events dedicated to Japanese films is going to launch next week Tuesday. We Are talking about…

Nippon Connection will take place from June 09th to the 14th and the organisers will take the event online for a Virtual Anniversary Edition to celebrate 20 years of screening films. Over the course of six days, Nippon Connection Online will play a total of 70 feature-length and short films from a variety of genres to give a good overview of the trends in Japanese cinema. One of the main thrusts of the festival is presenting a glimpse of new perspectives on women in Japan – Female Futures? – New Visions of Women in Japan – which consists of a slate of dramas and documentaries made by women or featuring women in lead roles. The subjects range in age and political motivations and all look absolutely fascinating.

On to the nitty-gritty!

The films will each be available to view via the video on demand platform Vimeo in exchange for a small fee. The period of availability lasts for a full 24 hours from the moment they are purchased. The films will all be available to purchase during the duration of the festival, although some titles will be region-locked, something I will highlight with the films below. I have had a look since everything is already set up and waiting for the screening date and it looks easy to navigate.

As well as watching films, there will also be the chance to get in contact with the filmmakers behind the titles since they will be in contact with the audience via video messages, discussions and live broadcasts. There will also be a variety of online events, including workshops, lectures, performances, and concerts and a virtual marketplace which will present a wide range of offers related to Japan.

All of the films are special in some way but there is so much to cover. Here are some highlights. I will provide follow-up articles to cover other titles in depth. Click on the titles to be taken to the corresponding Nippon Connection page which has details on dates and times.

Forgiven Children   

許された子どもたち「Yurusa reta kodomotachi」

Release Date: June 01st, 2020

Duration: 131 mins.

Director: Eisuke Naito

Writer: Eisuke Naito, Tetsuo Yamagata (Script), 

Starring: Yu Uemura, Yoshi Kuroiwa, Takuya Abe, Akana Ikeda, Yukino Nagura,

Website

Eisuke Naito has come a long way from Puzzle (which also stars Kaho) with a filmography full of titles looking at delinquent kids like Liverleaf and this one looks pretty bleak as he looks at the death of a child from the perspective of children, their parents and the mediastorm around them.

This one is only available for audiences in Germany

Synopsis: Kira Ichikawa is the leader of a group of high school delinquents who take their bullying of their classmate Isuki Kuramochi too far when they accidentally kill the boy with a crossbow. The case is a nationwide scandal but due to a lack of evidence, Kira gets off with the crime. A backlash ensues that swallows up both the children and the adults…

Flowers and Rain

花と雨　 「Hana to Ame」

Release Date: January 17th, 2020

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Takafumi Tsuchiya

Writer: Takafumi Tsuchiya, Takahiro Horieta (Screenplay), Takafumi Tsuchiya, SEEDA (Original Album/Work)

Starring: Sho Kasamatsu, Ayaka Onishi, Chihiro Okamoto, Ozuno Nakamura, Kyohei Mitsune

Website

The rapper SEEDA’s 2006 album  Flowers and Rain forms the basis of this work about a young man’s travails. You can hear the SEEDA’s work on this webpage dedicated to Japanese hip-hop. Rising stars Sho Kasamatsu and Ayaka Onishi (Randen) take the lead roles.

This one is available for people to watch around the world

Synopsis: Childhood was complicated for Yoshida and he faces Japanese society as an outsider after his return from London alongside his parents. He feels displaced and frustrated, but soon finds new strength through hip-hop. Under the name of SEEDA, he starts to rap and deals drugs to produce his music while surviving in Tokyo. When he realizes that his new life as a rapper can’t simply undo the connections to his family, it’s too late. SEEDA is one of the most relevant contemporary rappers of the Japanese scene, and Takafumi TSUCHIYA not simply adapts his life story, but provides a stylistically confident and touching commentary on the current hip-hop euphoria in Japan. The film is based on the lyrics of the new SEEDA album, which accompanies the film as a fulminant score.

Minori, on the Brink

お嬢ちゃん　 「Ojou-chan」

Release Date: September 28th, 2019

Duration: 130 mins.

Director: Ryutaro Ninomiya

Writer: Ryutaro Ninomiya (Screenplay),

Starring: Minori Hagiwara, Rieko Dote, Misaki Mireho, Sanae Yuuki, Yuki Hirose,

Website

Ryutaro Ninomiya is back with another original film following Sweating the Small Stuff (2017). It’s a female-led drama made with Enbu Cinema and set in the seaside town of Kamakura. Why are seaside towns so depressing?

This is available to view worldwide except Japan and Italy

Synopsis: Minori lives in Kamakura and has a part-time job. She also has a lot of stress due to the nature of her relationships with people who refuse to express their feelings but have no problems taking advantage of each other. Minori decides to fight back against ignorance whenever she encounters it, whatever the consequences might be.

Yan   

燕Yan 「Tsubame Yan」

Release Date: June 05th, 2020

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: Keisuke Imamura

Writer: Noriko Washizu (Script),

Starring: Long Mizuma, Takashi Yamanaka, Yo Hitoto, Ryushin Tei, Mitsuru Hirata, Yoji Tanaka, Satomi Nagano,

OAFF Website

Keisuke Imamura is a cinematographer but he made his feature-length directorial debut with Yan which I saw at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020 where I reviewed it and interviewed him. It’s a beautiful film about rediscovering family history and intercultural relations.

This one is available for people across Europe to watch

Synopsis: 28-year-old Tsubame Hayakawa (Long Mizuma) has seemingly achieved everything. He has his dream job at an architectural firm, a girlfriend and lives comfortably in Tokyo. Yet on the inside, he has a history of self-doubt, which is revealed when he is asked by his father to hand-deliver a document to his older brother Ryushin (Takashi Yamanaka) in Taiwan. Tsubame is reluctant. It has been 23 years since they last saw each other after their mother, Toshie (Hitoto Yo) disappeared with Ryushin one night and left Tsubame behind. He has never forgiven them for leaving him but his father’s request is a final and so Tsubame reluctantly accepts this task and heads to Taiwan to search for Ryushin.

Shell and Joint   

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 154 mins.

Director: Isamu Hirabayashi

Writer: Isamu Hirabayashi (Script) 

Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Keisuke Horibe, Kanako Higashi, Aiko Sato, Hiromi Kitagawa, Kaori Takeshita,

Website IMDB

This one is available for audiences around the world to watch

Synopsis: Nitobe and Sakamoto have been friends from childhood and they now work together at the front desk of a capsule hotel. Nitobe has a particular fondness for philosophy and crustaceans. Sakamoto, meanwhile, is fixated on suicide. The capsule hotel draws a variety of guests, including a Finnish mother who has lost her child, a fugitive woman, and a researcher studying Daphnia. None of their lives ever intersect. Nor do any of the lives out of it for that matter. They exist, but never cross, like cells in a capsule hotel. With crustaceans as leitmotif, the themes of life and death are explored through a fragmentary view of the characters’ lives.

Nippon Docs

This section brings together a really diverse range of subjects and themes like art and culture, feminism, workplace rights, mental health, refugees fighting for recognition and a man in a campervan trying to forget a failed love. There are three shorts and 11 features. Here are some highlights (a longer post will come tomorrow – Thursday):

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

This one is available only in Germany

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.

Despite the situation with Covid-19, one of the world’s biggest events dedicated to Japanese films is going to launch next week Tuesday. We Are talking about…

Nippon Connection will take place from June 09th to the 14th and the organisers will take the event online for a Virtual Anniversary Edition to celebrate 20 years of screening films. Over the course of six days, Nippon Connection Online will play a total of 70 feature-length and short films from a variety of genres to give a good overview of the trends in Japanese cinema. One of the main thrusts of the festival is presenting a glimpse of new perspectives on women in Japan – Female Futures? – New Visions of Women in Japan – which consists of a slate of dramas and documentaries made by women or featuring women in lead roles. The subjects range in age and political motivations and all look absolutely fascinating.

On to the nitty-gritty!

The films will each be available to view via the video on demand platform Vimeo in exchange for a small fee. The period of availability lasts for a full 24 hours from the moment they are purchased. The films will all be available to purchase during the duration of the festival, although some titles will be region-locked, something I will highlight with the films below. I have had a look since everything is already set up and waiting for the screening date and it looks easy to navigate.

As well as watching films, there will also be the chance to get in contact with the filmmakers behind the titles since they will be in contact with the audience via video messages, discussions and live broadcasts. There will also be a variety of online events, including workshops, lectures, performances, and concerts and a virtual marketplace which will present a wide range of offers related to Japan.

All of the films are special in some way but there is so much to cover. Here are some highlights. I will provide follow-up articles to cover other titles in depth. Click on the titles to be taken to the corresponding Nippon Connection page which has details on dates and times.

Forgiven Children   

許された子どもたち「Yurusa reta kodomotachi」

Release Date: June 01st, 2020

Duration: 131 mins.

Director: Eisuke Naito

Writer: Eisuke Naito, Tetsuo Yamagata (Script), 

Starring: Yu Uemura, Yoshi Kuroiwa, Takuya Abe, Akana Ikeda, Yukino Nagura,

Website

Eisuke Naito has come a long way from Puzzle (which also stars Kaho) with a filmography full of titles looking at delinquent kids like Liverleaf and this one looks pretty bleak as he looks at the death of a child from the perspective of children, their parents and the mediastorm around them.

This one is only available for audiences in Germany

Synopsis: Kira Ichikawa is the leader of a group of high school delinquents who take their bullying of their classmate Isuki Kuramochi too far when they accidentally kill the boy with a crossbow. The case is a nationwide scandal but due to a lack of evidence, Kira gets off with the crime. A backlash ensues that swallows up both the children and the adults…

Flowers and Rain

花と雨　 「Hana to Ame」

Release Date: January 17th, 2020

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Takafumi Tsuchiya

Writer: Takafumi Tsuchiya, Takahiro Horieta (Screenplay), Takafumi Tsuchiya, SEEDA (Original Album/Work)

Starring: Sho Kasamatsu, Ayaka Onishi, Chihiro Okamoto, Ozuno Nakamura, Kyohei Mitsune

Website

The rapper SEEDA’s 2006 album  Flowers and Rain forms the basis of this work about a young man’s travails. You can hear the SEEDA’s work on this webpage dedicated to Japanese hip-hop. Rising stars Sho Kasamatsu and Ayaka Onishi (Randen) take the lead roles.

This one is available for people to watch around the world

Synopsis: Childhood was complicated for Yoshida and he faces Japanese society as an outsider after his return from London alongside his parents. He feels displaced and frustrated, but soon finds new strength through hip-hop. Under the name of SEEDA, he starts to rap and deals drugs to produce his music while surviving in Tokyo. When he realizes that his new life as a rapper can’t simply undo the connections to his family, it’s too late. SEEDA is one of the most relevant contemporary rappers of the Japanese scene, and Takafumi TSUCHIYA not simply adapts his life story, but provides a stylistically confident and touching commentary on the current hip-hop euphoria in Japan. The film is based on the lyrics of the new SEEDA album, which accompanies the film as a fulminant score.

Minori, on the Brink

お嬢ちゃん　 「Ojou-chan」

Release Date: September 28th, 2019

Duration: 130 mins.

Director: Ryutaro Ninomiya

Writer: Ryutaro Ninomiya (Screenplay),

Starring: Minori Hagiwara, Rieko Dote, Misaki Mireho, Sanae Yuuki, Yuki Hirose,

Website

Ryutaro Ninomiya is back with another original film following Sweating the Small Stuff (2017). It’s a female-led drama made with Enbu Cinema and set in the seaside town of Kamakura. Why are seaside towns so depressing?

This is available to view worldwide except Japan and Italy

Synopsis: Minori lives in Kamakura and has a part-time job. She also has a lot of stress due to the nature of her relationships with people who refuse to express their feelings but have no problems taking advantage of each other. Minori decides to fight back against ignorance whenever she encounters it, whatever the consequences might be.

Yan   

燕Yan 「Tsubame Yan」

Release Date: June 05th, 2020

Duration: 86 mins.

Director: Keisuke Imamura

Writer: Noriko Washizu (Script),

Starring: Long Mizuma, Takashi Yamanaka, Yo Hitoto, Ryushin Tei, Mitsuru Hirata, Yoji Tanaka, Satomi Nagano,

OAFF Website

Keisuke Imamura is a cinematographer but he made his feature-length directorial debut with Yan which I saw at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020 where I reviewed it and interviewed him. It’s a beautiful film about rediscovering family history and intercultural relations.

This one is available for people across Europe to watch

Synopsis: 28-year-old Tsubame Hayakawa (Long Mizuma) has seemingly achieved everything. He has his dream job at an architectural firm, a girlfriend and lives comfortably in Tokyo. Yet on the inside, he has a history of self-doubt, which is revealed when he is asked by his father to hand-deliver a document to his older brother Ryushin (Takashi Yamanaka) in Taiwan. Tsubame is reluctant. It has been 23 years since they last saw each other after their mother, Toshie (Hitoto Yo) disappeared with Ryushin one night and left Tsubame behind. He has never forgiven them for leaving him but his father’s request is a final and so Tsubame reluctantly accepts this task and heads to Taiwan to search for Ryushin.

Shell and Joint   

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 154 mins.

Director: Isamu Hirabayashi

Writer: Isamu Hirabayashi (Script) 

Starring: Mariko Tsutsui, Keisuke Horibe, Kanako Higashi, Aiko Sato, Hiromi Kitagawa, Kaori Takeshita,

Website IMDB

This one is available for audiences around the world to watch

Synopsis: Nitobe and Sakamoto have been friends from childhood and they now work together at the front desk of a capsule hotel. Nitobe has a particular fondness for philosophy and crustaceans. Sakamoto, meanwhile, is fixated on suicide. The capsule hotel draws a variety of guests, including a Finnish mother who has lost her child, a fugitive woman, and a researcher studying Daphnia. None of their lives ever intersect. Nor do any of the lives out of it for that matter. They exist, but never cross, like cells in a capsule hotel. With crustaceans as leitmotif, the themes of life and death are explored through a fragmentary view of the characters’ lives.

Nippon Docs

This section brings together a really diverse range of subjects and themes like art and culture, feminism, workplace rights, mental health, refugees fighting for recognition and a man in a campervan trying to forget a failed love. There are three shorts and 11 features. Here are some highlights (a longer post will come tomorrow – Thursday):

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

This one is available only in Germany

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.

Some cursory research into the career of Hideo Jojo will turn up a whole slew of movies that ranging from pink films to V-Cinema. Jojo got his start in filmmaking by producing 8mm movies while studying at Musashino Art University before he entered the industry as assistant director on pink films. His directorial debut, Married Women Who Want a Taste (2003), won the Bronze Prize and New Director Award at the 2003 Pink Grand Prix. To date, he has written and directed over 100 works and won awards and fans in Japan and internationally. His career is as varied as it gets and recent titles include the screenplay for Neko Zamurai (2014), directing the horror movie Corpse Prison (2017) and even a Gachi-ban movie (2008). With such variety, it stands to reason that he would be able to direct a charming youth drama based on a stage play.

On the Edge of their Seats is based on an award-winning stage play created by a theater group from a high school in Hyogo Prefecture. It takes place during a hot summer’s day at a baseball match between high school teams in a tournament that leads to a final played at Koshien Stadium. Being able to play at Koshien in the final is a big dream for all high school baseball players in Japan and it often comes up in films. However, it’s not so much the drama happening on the field of dreams that is the concern of the film but what is going on with five characters in the stands as they work out some dramas that have occurred in their final year of high school. As they interact, they reveal some of their feelings and help each other learn to look at life more positively. The film is a real charmer built around some lovely characters and brought to life by a charismatic cast who are perfectly guided by Jojo’s sharp direction.

Hideo Jojo participated in an interview at the Osaka Asian Film Festival where the film received its world premiere. The interview was conducted with help from the interpreter Keiko Matsushita while the translation was made with the help of the interpreter Takako Pockington.

Thank you for doing the interview. Why did you become a filmmaker?

I always liked films. I watched all sort of films including Roman Porno and pink films when I was at high school. Around that time, I thought that being a film director would be cool. However, I didn’t know how to become a director so I thought, I like pink movies, I can enter from there, so I walked into a pink film production company and asked them to let me work.

僕は元々映画が好きで、高校生の時に色んな映画を観てる中で、ロマンポルノやピンク映画に出会って、何となくそっち方向から、映画監督という職業に憧れていたというのが一番ですね。ただどうやってなれるのかがわからなくて、ピンク映画が好きだったのでそっちから入ろうと思って飛び込みでやらせて下さいって。

You have a background in pink films and V-Cinema, why did you choose to work on this project?

No, not just pink films… I was introduced to this work by a producer named Takatoshi Naoi. We have known each other for twenty years, ever since I first worked as an assistant director on pink films, and he liked my first film so much. Ever since then he kept suggesting to me that we should work together but we never made it happen. He suggested it again for this project and this time showed me a video of the high school play is based on. Actually, before seeing it I thought we wouldn’t make it this time, either. I was very impressed with the movie he showed and enthusiastically agreed with him that we should do this.

ピンク映画だけではないんですけど…２０年来の知り合いの直井さんというプロデューサーが、僕がピンク映画の助監督しているときからの知り合いなんですけど、僕のデビュー作を凄く気に入ってくれて、いつかやろうって話しをしていて、今までも何本も企画があったんですが、なかなか実現しなくって、今回また会って、またいつもの調子でダメになるかなと思ったのですが、見せた貰った高校演劇がとても良くて、いつもみたいにうやむやにしないでちゃんとやりましょうって、積極的に僕からやって成立したって感じです。

How was the play’s script adapted into a film script?

It was originally a high-school play, then it was made into a commercial play. The initial project was to connect with the play. There were some changes that had been made in the commercial play from the original high school one. There were only four people in the stands in the original play, the teacher was added as a character and the scenes in the corridor were also inserted. We decided to add the brass band parts in the film version. I roughly discussed the storyline with the scriptwriter and, in the end, sorted out the script by myself. There are three different scripts and the script for the film is the third one. The characters were hugely changed and the storyline was also massively broadened, but I decided to make a border that the film shouldn’t be broadened beyond.

もとの商業演劇があって、それと映画を連動させるというのが当初の企画でした。その商業演劇の段階で、オリジナルの高校演劇にアレンジが加えられていて、最初はスタンドの４人だけだったのが、商業演劇になった段階で先生が出てきて、場所としても廊下が出てきて、映画はそれプラス吹奏楽をやろうってそういう流れだけ決めて、脚本家と相談しながらやって行ったという感じです。最終的に映画の脚本は、僕の方で整えてやったという言う感じです。３本本があって、それの最後のやつって感じなので、最初のとは随分キャラクターも変わりました。世界もどんどん広がっていって、ただこれ以上広げないでおこうっていうラインは決めてやりました。

Stage plays can be very static, even when they are adapted into film. This one is very dynamic because of camera movements. Was there a lot of storyboarding?

舞台劇を映画の形態に変える場合、舞台は映画に比べてとても静的だという印象を受けるのですが、この映画はカメラワークの効果もあって、映画自体にとても動きがあるように感じられました。どう言った演出を施されたのでしょうか？絵コンテをたくさん作られたのでしょうか？

I don’t usually plan the cuts precisely, which means, I don’t write a storyboard. I wrote rough line cut notes on the script but improvised most of the time whilst watching the actors acting and directing like, “Okay, can you move like this next?”

As for the last cut of the final scene, I aimed to shoot that way beforehand, but regarding the rest of the film, I let the actors perform whilst discussing it with the cinematographer. I am the sort of director who improvises at the location. I didn’t tightly set up shots. I did plan briefly with the film crew beforehand though.

僕はあまり事前にカットはびしっとなくて、当然絵コンテはなくて、ラインコンテもざっくりとした物しかやらずに、後はやりながらお芝居を見て、「じゃ次はこう動きましょうか」って言うやり方が多かったです。そんなにダイナミック…たとえばラストのワンカットはもう狙いとして事前にありますけど、他はお芝居をやらせてみて、カメラマンと相談しながら割と現場でどんどん変えて行くタイプなので、あまり前もって決めないでやったって感じです。多少事前に打ち合わせはありましたけど…

How long did it take to shoot?

撮影期間はどのくらいだったのですか？

I shot the film in five days, but we cancelled a half day because of a typhoon and did another day, so, all together it was about six days. We shot the film only during the daytime and we shot it in a very short time.

撮影期間は５日。一日台風で午前中しかできなくてもう1日やったので、まあ５−6日。
でもそれも全部昼だけの時間なので相当短い。

Lots of people are shown in the audience in the film. How did you direct them?

たくさんの人が観客として登場されてましたが、皆さんの演技づけはどうされたのですか？

There weren’t as many people as you think you see on the screen. If you watch carefully, you can see the same faces in different cuts. I explained to them about what the scene is going to be about, something like “a batter strikes the ball and has safely reached the second base”. I hung a ball at the tip of a pole and made them look in the direction the ball was moving.

画面で見える程は多くないんですけど、カメラが変わったら、よくよく見たら同じ人が色んな所にいる、と。そのカットの説明をして「じゃ今打って二塁打です」みたいな感じで、竿の先にボールをつけて、みんながそっちを見るようにするとか。

How did you cast the film?

This film followed the play. It comes from a project where the aim was to make both a film and commercial play based on the original high school play. The film is a part of the play. The original high school play was performed by actual high school pupils, but the commercial one was performed by professional actors. We cast the same actors. So the casting was already arranged. A male actor was replaced by a different person though.

これは演劇の流れなんです。映画と演劇を一緒にやろうと。同じ原作を元にして映画と商業演劇の両方を作ろうと。最初の高校演劇は高校生なんだけど、商業演劇の方は演劇やってる人なんで、その人たちをそのまま映画にもってこようと、きました。だからキャスティングは最初から決まってた。ちょっと色々あって、一人だけ男の子がかわったんだけど。

There’s lots of metaphors connected to baseball. Do you think will the film still translate well to cultures where baseball isn’t so important or isn’t played?

野球と関連した隠喩が幾つも出てきますね。野球が普及してない、或いはそんなに人気のスポーツでないという文化圏で、この映画のそういったニュアンスがうまく伝わると思われますか？
（翻訳者補足：例えば、英国ではラグビーとサッカーは国民的スポーツですが、野球に関してはどういうスポーツかさえ知らない人がいます）

I myself am not so keen on either high school baseball or the professional league, but I used to play baseball when I was in a little league in elementary school. If anything, I was more likely to be at the corner of the stand like the characters in the film, so I put my empathy for the characters into the direction of the film. Apparently, the writer of the story is a high school teacher called Mr. Yabu and he wrote this despite being unfamiliar with baseball.

I think that there are lots of nuances that could be difficult for people in other countries to understand because high school baseball and Koshien are unique to Japan’s culture. I made this film mainly for Japanese audience. I didn’t particularly consider promoting it abroad. However, this story is about the people cheering in the stand not about the baseball game, so I think audiences [abroad] will be able to empathize with the characters.

僕自身そんなに高校野球もプロ野球も見ないんですけど、ただ野球は小学生の時にリトルリーグに入ってやってました。僕もどちらかというと、観客席の端にいるような人間だったので、同じタイプである今回の登場人物たちには、そういった自分の思いを込めて演出しました。ちなみに原作者の高校教師の藪さんという方は、それほど野球に詳しくないままこれを書いたと聞いています。
高校野球、甲子園は日本独自の文化ですから海外の方には伝わらないニュアンスは多いと思います。海外展開を特に意識せずに日本の観客に向けて作った映画なので。とはいえ、試合シーンがあるわけではないので、応援席の彼ら気持ちは何となく伝わるかとも思うのですが、どうなんでしょうね？
僕もわかりません。

On the Edge of Their Seats was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 8 and 9.

This is a follow-up post to one on Tuesday where I list all of the films in certain sections of Nippon Connection. First up…

Nippon Cinema

After the Sunset   

夕陽のあと 「Yuuho no ato」

Release Date: November 08th, 2019

Duration: 133 mins.

Director: Michio Koshikawa

Writer: Ureha Shimada (Screenplay), Ryuho Ookawa (Novel)

Starring: Shihori Kanjiya, Maho Yamada, Masaru Nagai, Satoru Kawaguchi, Midori Kiuchi, Towa Matsubara, Shohei Uno, Saori Watanabe,

Website IMDB

There are some fine actors who are usually seen in supporting roles taking the lead in this family drama which looks like it will have the heartbreak of Rebirth (2011).

This one is available to view online in Germany only.

Synopsis: Satsuki lives on an island in Kagoshima. She is a local through-and-through having grown up and started a family there. She has taken the step of fostering a seven-year-old boy and wants to adopt him legally. It all appears to be going smoothly but the arrival of a woman named Akane from Tokyo begins a stormy series of events…

Dancing Mary   

ダンシング・マリー「Danshingu Mari-」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: SABU

Writer: SABU (Script) 

Starring: EXILE NAOTO, Aina Yamada, Ryo Ishibashi

Website

Following on from  jam (2018), SABU continues his collaboration with LDH production, the parent company of which manages the Gekidan EXILE group, whereby members from that group take roles in the films made. This one features EXILE Naoto, model-turned-actress Aina Yamada and musician-turned-actor Ryo Ishibashi (he who picked the wrong girl in Audition) in a love fantasy film with some yakuza action. It is based on an original script and was filmed in Kitakyushu, Tokyo and Taiwan.

This one is available to view online in Germany only.

Synopsis: Kenji (EXILE Naoto) is a civil servant taking part in the creation of a gigantic shopping centre. When Kenji is assigned the task of overseeing the demolition of an old dance hall he discovers his job becomes impossible because some mysterious force stops every attempt. Turns out that the place is cursed so Kenji turns to a young woman who is a medium who can grant him access to the spirit world of spirits. But ghosts may be the least of his problems because the local yakuza clan gets involved…

Labyrinth of Cinema     

Labyrinth of Cinema＝海辺の映画館　キネマの玉手箱「Labyrinth of Cinema = umibe no eigakan kinema no tamatebako」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 179 mins.

Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi

Writer: Nobuhiko Obayashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Takuro Atsuki, Takahito Hosoyamada, Yoshihiko Hosoda,

Website IMDB

Nobuhiko Obayashi recently passed away but two films involving him are on the festival circuit. Both were at the Tokyo International Film Festival, the documentary hasn’t reached Europe yet, as far as I know, whereas this one has played at Rotterdam. Labyrinth of Cinema is an anti-war film that mixes in a love of cinema, a subject mix which Obayashi relished with so many of his project. 

This one is available to view online in Germany only.

Also screening at Nippon Connection is Nobuhiko Obayashi’s cult-classic House (review) which is available to viewers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

Synopsis: Three young people at a soon-to-be-shuttered cinema are enjoying the final screening: a marathon of old war films. The three become so immersed in the action that they find themselves time-slipping through the screen to various historical events connected to cinema and war such as witnessing death during the Sengoku period and on a battlefront in China, being in Hiroshima just before the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the city. This was shot in Obayashi’s hometown in Onomichi and has an anti-war message.

Family Romance, LLC

Release Date: May 18th, 2019 (Cannes)

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Werner Herzog

Writer: Werner Herzog (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuichi Ishii, Mahiro Tanimoto,

Website IMDB

Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Nosferatu, Bad Lieutenant Port of Call: New Orleans) read a newspaper article about people who rent themselves out as actors to play roles for other people such as work colleagues, friends etc. It’s something seen in Sion Sono’s film Noriko’s Dinner Table (2006). Inspired, he travelled to Japan to shoot the film. With just a small budget, he hired amateur actors and actresses for a docu-fiction where the moral quandries of this service and living in an atomised are explored. Anyway, this service and the man in the film was featured on a funny bit for Conan O’Brien.

This one is available to view online in Germany only.

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

Little Miss Period     

生理ちゃん 「Seiri-chan」

Release Date: November 08th, 2019

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Shunsuke Shinada

Writer: Shin Akamatsu (Screenplay), Ken Koyama (Manga)

Starring: Fumi Nikaido, Sairi Ito, Yoshinori Okada, Ren Sudo, Hana Toyoshima, Manami Iida, Risaki Matsukaze, Kyohei Kanomi,

Website IMDB

This one is available to watch worldwide except Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar

Synopsis: Aoko works as an editor at a publishing house who, alongside heaving to content with deadlines, has to balance a horrible boss and a romance with a well-off widower boyfriend (Yoshinori Okada) who wants to marry her, but he has an 11-year-old daughter (Hana Toyoshima) who hates her. When her period strikes, she is resigned to its presence and its presence takes the shape of a big plush that follows her around. Indeed, this plush visits every woman and maybe some of the guys, too, in this comedy-drama. 

A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad’s an Alcoholic 

酔うと化け物になる父がつらい 「You to bakemono ni naru chichi ga tsurai」

Release Date: March 06th, 2020

Duration: 95 mins.

Directors: Kenji Katagiri

Writers: Kenji Katagiri, Ayumu Kyuma (Script), Mariko Kikuchi (Original Book)

Starring: Honoka Matsumoto, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Rie Tomosaka, Shohei Uno, Joe Odagiri, Tamae Ando, Kenta Hamano, Yui Imaizumi,

Website IMDB

This one is available to watch worldwide except Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, USA and Italy.

Synopsis: Adapted from a comic essay by Mariko Kikuchi who turned her troubled life into a story about a girl named Saki (Hoka Matsumoto) whose father (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) is an alcoholic and whose mother is a follower of a new religion. He likes to come home drunk every night after work and down a bottle of whiskey with his chums as they play mahjong. Saki hate’s her father’s behaviour when he is drunk and loutish. The support of her sister and best friend, and the ability to turn her life into a comic gets Saki through the collapse of her family.

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

Kaho (Pink and Grey) had a super couple of years with lots of dramas being released and she takes the lead in this steamy number where she plays a married woman who gets into an affair with Satoshi Tsumabuki (Rage, The World of Kanako) – totally understandable – and Tasuko Emoto (Dynamite Graffiti).

This one is available to view online in Germany only.

Synopsis: Toko Suguri (Kaho) has a house, is married to a handsome and successful guy and has a charming daughter. Despite these signs of stability, she is unhappy. When Toko meets her ex-boyfriend Akihiko Kurata (Satoshi Tsumabuki) at a friend’s wedding, the two rekindle their love and 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 whilst also discovering a desire for self-determination.

My Sweet Grappa Remedies   

甘いお酒でうがい「Amai osake de ugai 」

Release Date: 2020

Duration: 107 mins.

Director: Akiko Ooku

Writer: Jiro (Script), Yoshiko Kawashima (Original Novel)

Starring: Yasuko Matsuyuki, Hana Kuroki, Hiroya Shimizu, Kanji Furutachi, Kozo Sato, Tomoya Maeno,

Website IMDB

Jiro is a member of the manzai group Sissonne and he has written a novel in the voice of a woman named “Yoshiko Kawashima”. The novel is a diary that notes her thoughts and it has been adapted for the big screen. This is Jiro’s second collaboration with Akiko (Tremble All You Want) Ohku after they worked on Marriage Hunting Beauty.

This one is available to watch worldwide except Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, USA and Italy.

Synopsis: Yoshiko (Yasuko Matsuyuki) is a single woman in her 40s who works in a publishing company and enjoys drinking grappa and writing in her diary. She enjoys her simple life but when she is introduced to a younger guy in his 20s, she falls in love and a new, welcome complexity changes her easy days…

Makuko 

まく子 「Makuko」

Release Date: March 15th, 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Keiko Tsuruoka

Writer: Keiko Tsuruoka (Script), Kanako Nishi (Original Novel)

Starring: Hikaru Yamazaki, Ninon, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Risa Sudo, Toshie Negishi, Jun Murakami,, Miho Tsumiki, Atsushi Hashimoto,

Website IMDB

Keiko Tsuruoka is a name that has floated around the festival circuit having popped up at Berlinale 2013 and the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2016.

This one is only available to view in Germany

Synopsis:Elementary school student Satoshi already leads an unhappily confused life due to a troublesome home life so whena new transfer student named Kozue shows up at school, he isn’t that phased untilthe girl starts hanging around him. When she and her mother move into the guesthouse Satoshi’s family runs, Satoshi realises that there is no escape. The boy should be thankful because Kozue will bring a love that is out of this world to Satoshi in a sunny fantasy.

The Journalist

新聞記者 「Shimbun Kisha」

Release Date: June 28th, 2019

Duration: 113 mins.

Director: Michihito Fujii

Writer: Akihiko Takaishi (Screenplay), Kosuke Kawamura, Isoko Mochizuki (Original Non-fiction Book)

Starring:Shim Eun-Kyung, Tori Matsuzaka, Tsubasa Honda, Amane Okayama, Tomohiro Kaku, Seiya Osada, Hina Miyano,

WebsiteIMDB

This seems to be based on a real-life scandal involving Japan’s current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and his right-wing government. Suicide involving public officials and government-funded schools.

This one is only available in Germany.

Synopsis: News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising. This is the code that Yoshioka (Eun-kyung Shim) lives by. She is a Tokyo reporter who investigates things for the public good, a way of life haunted by her father’s destroyed journalism career and subsequent suicide. When she gets a mysterious fax relating to a government scandal, she is put on a collision course with a young career bureaucrat Sugihara (Tori Matsuzaka), one of the “elite” who has a crisis of conscience when he comes upon a shady government-funded school that could point to a historic cover-up. Together, they must decide what to do when doing the right thing feels like self-sabotage.

Under Your Bed   

アンダー・ユア・ベッド 「Anda- Yua Beddo」

Release Date: July 19th, 2019

Duration: 98 mins.

Director: Mari Asato

Writer: Tatsuya Ishii (Screenplay), Kei Ohishi (Novel)

Starring: Kengo Kora, Kanako Nishikawa, Kenichi Abe, Ryosuke Miyake, Yugo Mikawa,

Website IMDB

Kengo Kora takes on a daring role that in this film, a stalker movie directed by Mari Asato, someone who has specialised in horror films and thrillers like Bilocation prior to this. 

This one is only available in Germany.

Synopsis: Naoto (Kengo Kora) was ignored by other people growing up. Whether at home or at school, he was ignored. The first person to call his name was a classmate named Chihiro (Kanako Nishikawa) and that sealed her fate as his dream girl. Naoto becomes obsessed with her and spends 11 years searching with nothing but her sweet memory during his school days as a reference until he finds her and discovers she is a different person. Naoto discovers how different by sneaking into her house and staying under her bed and tracking her every move…

Nippon Classics

All of these are available in Germany, Austria or Switzerland except The World of Kanako which is unavailable in Switzerland.

Miss Hokusai   

百日紅 ～Miss HOKUSAI～  「Sarusuberi ～Miss HOKUSAI～」

Release Date: February 20th, 2015

Running Time: 89 mins.

Director: Keiichi Hara

Writer: Miho Maruo (Screenplay), Hinako Sugiura (Original Creator),

Studio: Production I.G

Starring: Anne Watanabe (O-Ei), Yutaka Matsushige (Tetsuzo/Katsushika Hokusai), Shion Shimizu (O-Nao), Kumiko Aso (Sayogoromo), Kengo Kora (Utagawa Kuninao),  Gaku Hamada (Zenjiro/Keisai Eisen), Jun Miho (Koto), Michitaka Tsutsui (Katsugoro/Totoya Hokkei), Danshun Tatekawa (Manjido), 

ANN   MAL  IMDB  Website 

Hokusai is famous but it is only recently that his daughter, a woman who assisted him all his life, has gained recognition for greatly contributing to his art and making wonderful works of her own. This is the untold story of O-Ei, Master Hokusai’s daughter: a lively portrayal of a free-spirited woman overshadowed by her larger-than-life father, unfolding through the changing seasons.

Synopsis: The time: 1814. The place: Edo, now known as Tokyo. It is the biggest city on Earth and is teeming with peasants, samurai, townsmen, merchants, nobles, artists, courtesans, and perhaps even supernatural things. Amidst these characters is a celebrated artist now in his mid-fifties named Hokusai. He creates magnificent art, usually with the help of his daughter, the 23-year-old O-Ei. She has inherited her father’s talent and stubbornness artistic skill. Her own art is so powerful that sometimes leads to trouble.

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl

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

Release date: April 07th, 2017    

Duration: 93 mins.

Director: Masaaki Yuasa

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

Animation Production: Science SARU

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

MAL     IMDB    Website

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl is the latest film from anime auteur Masaaki Yuasa and his studio Science Saru. One of two award-winning movies he released in 2017 (the other being Lu Over the Wall which took top prize at Annecy), this film is the very definition of the word exuberant in terms of story and style and should cement Yuasa as one of the best anime directors around. This is my second recommendation for the film festival. It was programmed at a fest I work for and I can say, without a doubt, that the audience has a riot of a time! Here’s my review!!!

Book tickets here

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

Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats      

福福荘の福ちゃん  「Fukufuku-sou no Fuku-chan」

Release Date: November 08^th,  2014

Running Time: 111 mins.

Director: Yosuke Fujita

Writer: Yosuke Fujita (Screenplay)

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

Website    IMDB

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

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

House    

ハウス 「Hausu」

Released: July 30th, 1977 (Japan)

Running time: 88 mins.

Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi,

Writer: Nobuhiko Obayashi, Chiho Katsura (Screenplay),

Cast: Kimiko Ikegami – Oshare,  Miki Jinbo – Kung-Fu, Kuniko Oba – Fantasy, Ai Matsubara – Prof., Kiyohiko Ozaki – Mr. Togo, Yoko Minamida – Auntie,

IMDB

The highlight, in my opinion. This film is a riot of fun and good music with a haunted house setting to die for as a bunch of girls will find out. It comes from Nobuhiko Obayashi and his daughter and features so much imagination and flair for visual spectacle and cool music that it is a delight to watch. I highly recommend it. Here’s my review.

Synopsis: The summer holidays have arrived and for seven high school girls named Melody, Prof, Sweetie, Kung-fu, Mac, Fantasy and Oshare (Kimiko Ikegami) they have the chance to go camping with their teacher Mr. Togo. Oshare declines because her father is back from Italy and she’s looking forward to staying at a villa with him. Her plans are ruined when he introduces her to his potential new wife. Oshare is upset at the presence of the woman and decides to visit an eccentric spinster aunt, inviting her friends along for the trip. After a long journey the girls arrive at the aunt’s house but find their presence has triggered a hostile force that immediately attacks them, picking them off one by one while the eccentric aunt watches.

100 Yen Love      

100 Yen Love Film Poster

百円の恋 「Hyaku-en no Koi」

Running Time: 113 mins.

Director: Masaharu Take

Writer: Masaharu Take (Screenplay),

Starring: Sakura Ando, Hirofumi Arai, Miyoko Inagawa, Saori, Shohei Uno, Tadashi Sakata, Yuki Okita,

Website   IMDB

100 Yen Love (review) stars Sakura Ando in a career-best performance as a woman who goes from zero to boxing hero with all of the genre tropes expected but done brilliantly and in a rather gritty way. It’s a film with a lot of heart thanks to Sakura Ando’s performance.

Synopsis: Ichiko (Sakura Ando) is a borderline hikikomori who lives at her parents’ home but that situation changes when her younger sister divorces and moves back with her child. Ichiko and her sister’s relationship is pretty rocky and so following a fight Ichiko decides to move out and find a place of her own. She takes up a job in a 100 Yen shop but is still pretty miserable with her new life and stuck with unpleasant people for co-workers but while working at her store she keeps encountering a middle-aged boxer (Hirofumi Arai) who practices at a local boxing gym. She is attracted to him and the two start a relationship but after a series of horrible experiences she becomes more interested in boxing, a sport which will fuel the continuing change in her life.

The World of Kanako   

渇き  「Kawaki」

Release Date: June 27^th, 2014 (Japan)

Running Time: 113 mins

Director: Tetsuya Nakashima

Writer: Tetsuya Nakashima (Screenplay), Akio Fukamachi (Novel),

Starring: Koji Yakusho, Nana Komatsu, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Joe Odagiri, Fumi Nikaido, Ai Hashimoto, Miki Nakatani, Jun Kunimura, Asuka Kurosawa,

Website   IMDB

The guy in the director’s chair is Tetsuya Nakashima who was the director of school-drama Confessions. Here, he makes the hypest and scariest crime film out of Japan. Take a look at this, The World of Kanako review

Synopsis: Ex-detective Showa Fujishima (Yakusho) investigates the disappearance of his daughter Kanako (Komatsu), a girl who seemed to be a model student. What he finds leads him into a disturbing situation…

The Whispering Star    

The Whispering Star Film Poster

ひそひそ星「Hiso Hiso Boshi」

Release Date: May 24th, 2016

Running Time: 101 mins.

Director: Sion Sono

Writer: Sion Sono (Screenplay)

Starring: Megumi Kagurazaka, Kenji Endo, Yuto Ikeda, Mori Kouko,

Website    IMDB

The Whispering Star was originally created and screened as part of an art exhibition which had the theme of dystopia running through it. The film was shot in different locations in Fukushima Prefecture, turning depopulated and irradiated areas into a futuristic landscape that speaks of hopelessness, pollution, and abandonment. It stars people who live in the areas and Sion Sono’s wife Megumi Kagurazaka. It was Sono’s first feature with his newly established independent production company and the realisation of a script he wrote two decades ago but reworked to reflect the present.

REVIEW

Synopsis: A spaceship shaped like a Japanese bungalow careens through the galaxy. It carries a humanoid robot named Yoko (Megumi Kagurazaka), a sort of interstellar UPS delivery person. Her job is simple: to distribute packages to human beings scattered across sundry planets. Whispering to Yoko is the child-like voice of her spaceship’s operating machine. Neither understands why humans have the need to send each other seemingly insignificant objects that take years to be delivered but with so much spare time between deliveries, Yoko begins to wonder what’s in those packages.

Lesson of the Evil                           

悪の教典 「Aku no Kyoten」

Release Date:  10^th November 2012 (Japan)

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer:  Yusuke Kishi (Original Novel), Takashi Miike (Screenplay)

Starring: Hideaki Ito, Fumi Nikaidou, Shota Sometani, Kento Hayashi, Hirona Yamazaki, Sairi Ito, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Mayu Matsuoka, Takayuki Yamada,

IMDB

Lesson of the Evil was Takashi Miike 2012 film and was made around the time of For Love’s Sake and Thirteen Assassins. The final result is something less than stellar despite a promising opening and this makes it mid-tier Miike.

Synopsis: Hasumi (Hideaki Ito) is a popular teacher among students and well respected by the faculty and the PTA at Shinko Academy, a private high school. However, some of the students like Reika (Fumi Nikaido) and Keisuke (Shota Sometani) feel something menacing lurking beneath his shining reputation. As problem issues and people disappear, Reika is uneasy about the way Hasumi solves them but Tsurii (Mitsuru Fukikoshi), an unpopular teacher at the school, is already a step ahead. He despises the popular and handsome Hasumi and has been investigating his past and discovers that deadly occurrences happen when he is about. The three realise he is starting to take control of the school but what is his end game? 

The 20th Nippon Connection will take place from June 09th to the 14th and the organisers will take the event online for a Virtual Anniversary Edition. Over the course of six days, Nippon Connection Online will play a total of 70 feature-length and short films from a variety of genres to give a good overview of the trends in Japanese cinema. 

The films will each be available to view via the video on demand platform Vimeo in exchange for a small fee. The period of availability lasts for a full 24 hours from the moment they are purchased. They will all be available during the duration of the festival, although some titles will be region-locked, something I will detail below. There will also be the chance to get in contact with the filmmakers behind the titles since they will be in contact with the audience via video messages, discussions and live broadcasts. There will also be a variety of online events, including workshops, lectures, performances, and concerts and a virtual marketplace which will present a wide range of offers related to Japan.

Many of these films will be available for audiences to watch around the world.

I have a highlight post which gives an overview of the festival and a post focusing on the classics and the mainstream releases. This preview covers the indie films.

Mrs. Noisy   

ミセス・ノイズィ　 「Misesu Noizi」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 98 mins.

Director: Chihiro Amano

Writer: Chihiro Amano (Screenplay), 

Starring: Yukiko Shinohara, Yoko Ootaka, Takuma Nagao, Chise Niitsu, Masanari Wada, Yoriko Doguchi, Raiki Yanemoto,

Website

This one is only available for audiences in Germany

Synopsis: Maki Yoshioka is a novelist and mother. She’s suffering a slump in her work and things get worse when her neighbour, Miwako, begins harassing her by beating her futons at all hours of the day. After an argument, Maki gets inspiration and makes Miwako a character in her novel but that causes the fight between the two to spiral out of control as the media and internet get involved…

Me & My Brother’s Mistress  

おろかもの 「Orokamono」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 96 mins.

Director: Takashi Haga, Sho Suzuki

Writer: Masataka Numata (Script), 

Starring: Nanami Kasamatsu, Yui Murata, Satoshi Iwago, Hachi Nekome,

Website IMDB

This one is cute. The chief delight is exploring how the mistress is more complex than first perceived and the relationship she develops with the main character.

Available to watch worldwide except in Japan

Synopsis: High schooler Yoko has been looked after by her older brother Kenji since their parents died. He is about to get married so Yoko is trying to deal with a new normal but when she spies her brother dating another woman, she begins to investigate. A confrontation turns to understanding as Yoko finds this other woman more relatable and figures she is a better match for Kenji. But, guilt remains over the love triangle…

Nippon Visions: Shorts features six films including…

What A Wonderful World   

すばらしき世界　 「Subarashiki Sekai」

Release Date: July 15th, 2019

Duration: 41 mins.

Director: Tatsuya Ishii

Writer: Tatsuya Ishii (Screenplay),

Starring: Haruya Dan, Supika Yufune, Keitoku Ito, Nene Kaneko,

Website

Tatsuya Ishii made this film as his graduate work from Toho Gakuen Film College. I covered it in this trailer post which features another of his films.

Synopsis: A 16-year-old boy named Yu (Haruya Dan) lives with his mother but when his father remarries and demands Yu live with him, the boy faces heartbreak and responds with anger over the selfishness of his parents.

Pia Film Festival Shorts

This looks like it is available for people to watch around the world. It’s part of a subtitling project that allows students to get experience.

The Wandering Plants

散歩する植物 「Sanposuru Shokubutsu」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 30 mins.

Director: Yurina Kaneko

Writer: Yurina Kaneko (Script), 

Starring: Michi Tachiwaki, Takashi Ide, Hiro Miwachi, Aida Yamada,

Synopsis: A new kind of story about friendship that grows from a meeting in a botanical garden.

When the Rain Stops 

雨のやむとき 「Ame no yamutoki」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 28 mins.

Director: Yui Yamaguchi

Writer: 

Starring: Takumi Takita, Yuma Karino, Yuri Osawa,

You can’t have a festival dedicated to Japan without mentioning animation and vice versa as you see with the Annecy International Animation Festival every year (and last year which was dedicated to Japan). Nippon Connection has collected a nice selection of mainstream anime movies and indie shorts scattered in different sections and this post summarises all of the anime and animation on display. It’s the follow-up and last of the Nippon Connection highlight posts, following a look at Nippon Visions, Nippon Cinema/Classics, and Nippon Docs.

To find out more about the films, click on the titles.

Here are the films:

Summer Days with Coo   

河童のクゥと夏休み「Kappa no Kuu to Natsuyasumi」

Release Date: July 21st, 2007

Duration: 138 mins.

Director: Keiichi Hara

Writer: Keiichi Hara (Script), Masao Kogure (Original Creator)

Starring: Kazato Tomizawa (Coo), Kouichi Uehara (Takahiro Yokokawa), Kousei Tomita (Toshio),

Animation Production: Shin-Ei Animation

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: A young boy named Koichi finds a Kappa when on a trip and decides to adopt it. He names it “Coo” and Coo becomes a part of Koichi’s family but is the extensive urban development of modern-day Tokyo really the place for a mythical creature more used to nature? In Coo’s search for a safe environment, he draws the attention of the whole city upon him and has to decide how he wants to live his life.

In the Nippon Visions: Shorts Category is:

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

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

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all doing well.

The state of emergency over the Covid-19 pandemic has ended and cinemas have reopened across Japan and I imagine what we see in the video of this tweet sums up the new reality for going to the movies – empty seats between patrons and internet Q&As.

I know I’ll be going to the cinema to watch Christopher Nolan’s latest, Tenet. This tweet comes from the Twitter account of Tagore Songs which I wrote about on Monday’s trailer post because it was in cinemas. It’s a wonderful documentary.

For the rest of the week, I posted a review of Inabe (2013) which is being screened as part of the We Are One Global Film Festival (and is still online). I then started posting about Nippon Connection 2020 with a Highlights post, a look at the mainstream and classic movies, the indie movies and anime and I’ll continue posting about Nippon Connection with an anime post and some reviews.

I finished watching Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, almost two years after starting it. I came to love the characters in the second half of the show and got a bit emotional at the end. I also watched Inception, Yalta Conference Online, Ice Cream and the Sound of Raindrops and Tremble All You Want.