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

IMDB Website JFDB

Daigo Matsui is famous as a director who has worked on mostly youth-oriented movies like Afro Tanaka (2012), Sweet Poolside (2014), How Selfish I Am! (2013) and Japanese Girls Never Die (2016) but did you know he is a former manzai performer and has his own theatre company? Matsui takes on the theatre world here with an adaptation of British playwright Simon Stephens’s coming-of-age drama “Morning”. However, instead of simply recording a performance to screen in cinemas, we are delivered into how the original story is translated into a Japanese setting and how universal its message of teenage angst is. What plugs us into this creative space and new and unique understanding of the text is that the film is done in a flawless 74-minute take that gets behind the scenes of the play and shows all the pressures and risks for the actors involved in bringing their roles to life. 

In 2017, a stage performance of “Morning” is scheduled to run in a small town. It is a savage play that has been attracting attention in the theatre world for its story of a violent act by two best friends fighting through a rough adolescence. The film starts a month before the opening night. A cast of six young actors are being pushed to their limit by a director who gives out abstract plans and demanding instructions:

“I want to show you all really living on the stage.”

“Be messy and raw.”

The actors are really trying, none more so than the lead Kokoro (Kokoro Morita), but a week before they make their debut, the performance is suddenly cancelled by their producer who cites poor ticket sales and a lack of faith in the performers. Despite this betrayal and already being invested in the process, Kokoro suggests to the rest of the cast that they continue rehearsing and as they struggle through rehearsals, the parallels between the performers and their characters are brought to the fore and the actors reach a sort of performance epiphany by committing their own act of “violence” against society by defying their producer and putting on the play.

The film is very meta, starting from the fact that the actors are essentially playing themselves and are in a story where of a month’s worth of the rehearsal process is captured in a single 74-minute shot.

Time flows by thanks to a number of simple techniques. The camera, handheld, follows Kokoro everywhere, from the rehearsal space to surrounding streets and a theatre, without a break. There are no scene transitions. Instead, for example, the camera will go for a close-up on Kokoro’s face to allow actors in the background to change positions. Simply covering up windows with curtains produces the darkness of nighttime and heading into the makeup room can initiate a new day. On-screen text is the only chronological marker for the countdown to their stage debut although the sound of raindrops is almost continuous.

As time flows, reality and fiction inhabit the same space. This reflects the actor’s finding their experiences mixing with the play as they begin to inhabit their characters. The film will smoothly segue from the performer’s reality into a renditions of pivotal scenes from the play with nothing but a simple change in aspect ratio telling us the difference. Through seeing how the text of the play is matched with the experiences of the cast who are invested in their roles, we see the synthesis of an actor’s interpretation which ironically delivers what the director was demanding from them all along – bringing their lives to the stage.

The actors seem to capture the spirit of the play, the confusion and rage of youth in the face of the low expectations given to them by their environment, and we watch as the actors struggle against their situation. They all deliver their roles with honesty and, by having everything shot in one take, we get rolled up in different layers of drama and so we gradually feel, much like the actors, that the only logical act that can be committed by them is to “rebel” against the instructions of their seniors and put on the play.

With Kokoro Morita being the focus of the film, she pulls out the most intense performance of the group as she embodies her character. She also brings the wider feeling of confused rage and suffocation felt by young people teetering on the edge of nihilism and desperately hoping to be saved or struggling to escape. The themes are also underlined by the music of the film which is played live by the rap group MOROHA. They act as a sort of Greek chorus to summarise the frustrations and desires of the performers. They and Kokoro break the fourth wall by addressing the audience with some direct to camera moments where their passionate lines make us think about the struggles that the actors, and by extension, young people go through. It doesn’t break our immersion as we are swept along by the one-take premise as we watch Kokoro and the cast create their own version of the play. The end result is a unique and engaging coming-of-age film.

“Film is truth 24 times a second and every cut is a lie”, Jean-Luc Godard said. Ice Cream and the Sound of Raindrops shows this as it creates a mesmerising experience free of edits that pushes the actors involved into incredible feats of performance and timing as they bring a month’s worth of drama to life in one single 74-minute take. It creates a heartfelt cry of youth by allowing audiences to take part in the creative process as we see how the actors search their feelings and become one with their characters and we share in their emotions because we have been with them without interruption.

book-paper-scissors

つつんで、ひらいて 「Tsutsunde, Hiraite」

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 94 mins.

Director: Nanako Hirose

Writer: N/A

Starring: Nobuyoshi Kikuchi, Isao Mitobe, Yoshikichi Furui, Hiromi Jonbo,

Website     IMDB

The design and feel of a book is very important. Although it usually takes second place to the ideas in the text when we discuss what we read, elemental things involved in the physical aspects of the book, such as the texture, typography and images, confer a vital character onto the text that captures a reader’s interest by stimulating their senses and placing various demands on their attention. The writer’s intent is being mediated through the perspective of the designers, editors and bookbinders involved in bringing it to the shelf. This is something we might not normally think about but the wonderful documentary book-scissors-paper proves to be an enlightening and enthralling exploration of this part of the publishing process by offering up a portrait of a world-famous book designer and his work to elucidate these ideas.

book-scissors-paper is the sophomore feature of Nanako Hirose, one of the young talents at Bunbuku-bun, the production house set up by Hirokazu Kore-eda. It is where she worked on features such as Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, After the Storm and Miwa Nishikawa’s The Long Excuse, it is also where she made her debut feature, His Lost Name, which recently toured the festival circuit. That she made a documentary about book covers seems like something completely out of left-field until one discovers that her father was a book designer and that the subject of this documentary, Nobuyoshi Kikuchi, was responsible for many of the covers on the books in her parents’ house. From this personal background comes this documentary which is a tribute to the art of book design.

Hirose spent three years (2015-18) following Nobuyoshi Kikuchi around the offices and printers in Tokyo and his home in Kamakura. He has been active for more than 40 years and has designed the covers of more than 15,000 titles and worked with award-winning writers like Yoshikichi Furui. This is a lot of history but it is succinctly covered in montages of private photographs, the metaphorical urtext that inspired his career choice (an edition of The Space of Literature by Maurice Blanchot designed by Tetsuro Komai), and glossy shots of books he worked on. They all provide a sort of “greatest hits” and a sense of destiny as we glimpse him go from baby to book designer and see his covers which give a range of his aesthetic sensibilities. The film goes beyond history as we see what he is working on at the time of filming.

From the very first second of the documentary, we are shown how Kikuchi creates his work. We watch him apply scissors, pens, glue, tweezers, razors, and computer design software to paper. He even goes granular, doing the obi and ISBN as well as selecting the type paper. Sometimes, he just screws the paper up and flattens it to get a specific effect. The sight of him going gaga over the attributes of glassine reveals the boyish delight he takes in his hands-on work but, as flippant as that sounds, it gets across the idea that the tactile and visual aspect of books is important to conveying the idea of the text and influencing how readers feel – a certain typography and blank space to create an explosive effect, paper with the texture of skin for eroticism, the tone of colour for wood for the echo of religious iconography. The more time we spend with him, the more we understand that every design choice stems from experience and a deep appreciation of the text he has read as he explains how the physical techniques and materials he uses for covers reflect some aspect of the story he is trying to convey to the reader to sway their perception. Watching such care and attention is put into consumer products is gratifying and it is absorbing to see Kikuchi’s deep thoughts put into action.

All of this is conveyed for the screen by Hirose’s handheld camera which unobtrusively records Kikuchi and his creativity and fills in wider context with interviews. She opts for direct engagement with her subject and his colleagues, asking perceptive questions to get his philosophy and a sense of the wider publishing industry and we, the audience, naturally come to admire him as an artist but he subverts any lionisation of himself, admitting that he thinks of his role in less romantic terms and even struggles to find meaning in his work after so many years.

The film takes this as a jump-off point to paint a more poignant portrait of a man in his 70s aware he is fading away much like the industry he works in as we see Kikuchi work on his autobiography and him trying to negotiate shrinking resources on some book covers with complex demands. The people on screen working around him are mostly old or middle-aged, aside from an apprentice named Isao Mitobe, and there is a sense of finality in that we see Kikuchi work on a new Maurice Blanchot work which brings his career full circle. Finality? Should that be completeness? A sense of satisfaction that he has achieved his destiny and any creative struggles he has can be eased.

By following Kikuchi and seeing the way he designs books, by acknowledging the power of touch and sight and understanding how they relate to the text, Hirose creates a document of a truly unique artist who is dedicated to his craft whilst also making a film that is a snapshot of the manufacture of books. It is a smooth and enjoyable experience segmented by chapter titles that provide a nice structure and the technical details involved in publishing are explained with notes and illustrations so it is easy to understand. There is room for some poetic imagery such as the music from Kikuchi’s gramophone echoing off into the ether as a bird swoops above the coast of Kamakura and while Kikuchi reckons he will fade away himself, this film will provide a permanent document and his designs will still exist so long as libraries and book stores do and, so long as people make interesting covers that catch attention, physical books will remain and continue to draw interesting people who think deeply about what a reader perceives.

This one is available to watch across Europe as part of Nippon Connection 2020 – here’s a post with more information on the film and other documentaries.

An Ant Strikes Back

アリ地獄天国 「Ari Jigoku Tengoku」

Release Date: June 06th, 2019 (USA)

Duration: 98 mins.

Director: Tokachi Tsuchiya

Writer: Motoharu Iida, Tokachi Tsuchiya (Script)

Starring:Yu Nishimura, Tokachi Tsuchiya, Naoko Shimizu, Kotaro Kano (Narration)

Website IMDB

In 2017, the Japanese word karoshi, death from overwork, entered the global lexicon when news organisations covered the case of advertising firm Dentsu which was fined by a Tokyo court for violation of labour laws following the suicide of an overworked employee named Matsuri Takahashi who had been clocking up 100 hours a month in overtime prior to her death. Her story came out around the same time as the one of NHK journalist Miwa Sado who died two years earlier after she logged 159 hours of overtime in a month. Analysts, public health experts and cultural commentators published articles stating that they are just the tip of the iceberg.

Although karoshi is a term that has been around since the 70s, the unhealthy work culture that results in depression, suicides or strokes amongst workers has been identified as being linked to the post-war economic miracle when employees were asked to dedicate their lives to their jobs. However, in the 90s after the economic bubble burst, things worsened as worker protections were sacrificed on the altar of free market capitalism and people were chewed up by their employers. In response to this, and a falling birth rate, the government has introduced measures to give employees more time off work. Things have yet to get better.

One filmmaker who has been tracking stories of everyday people being sacrificed for the economy is Tokachi Tsuchiya who started out as a freelance videographer and became a documentary filmmaker with his award-winning debut A Normal Life, Please! (2009) where he exposed the exploitation of workers through an average truck driver named Nobukazu Kaikura who was made to work by his company “552 hours a month without benefits or sick pay, a regime that barely affords him time to wash or eat” (source). The film covered Kaikura’s decision to join a worker’s union and the unsavoury characters hired by his company who tried to crush the workers who were simply defending their rights.

Since then, Tokachi has worked for an NPO making films about capitalist exploitation and state oppression while also doing “making-of” videos for Momoko Ando’s 0.5mm and Gen Takahashi’s Court of Zeus. With An Ant Strikes Back, he is back with a story of a worker who fought for years for better treatment at his job after horrendous exploitation and mistreatment and it is a shocking eye-opening insight into unfair labour practices in Japan and how unions protect workers.

An Ant Strikes Back starts with a prologue that introduces some sobering facts about karoshi before introducing the director to viewers and here he relates how his friend “Yama-chan” was a victim a number of years before. We understand that his perspective will be a factor in understanding karoshi. Then we are introduced to the worker “ant” at the heart of the film, Yu Nishimura.

He was an employee of Busy Ant Moving Company after joining in 2011 because he was seeking a stable salary as he was about to get married. At first, everything was fine. He was a full-timer who quickly rose through the ranks thanks to his dedication and he soon made it to the sales department and managerial roles where he became the top performer but, we learn that his performance, which included 19 hour workdays and 392 hours of overtime a month, wasn’t rewarded financially. What about loyalty from his superiors? Forget that.

Despite being a loyal worker, an accident caused by fatigue from overwork meant Nishimura triggered a clause in his contract whereby he would have to pay compensation. In an attempt to challenge such an unfair rule, he joined the Precariat Union which protects workers but his efforts at defending his rights were punished by the company through constant workplace harassment and humiliation from his bosses. They reduced his salary, subjected him to unfair dismissal, racist abuse, and public defamation. This led to physical and mental suffering on the side of Nishimura who wanted nothing more than to just work at the company.

Tokachi entered midway through this ordeal with filming starting in 2013/4 and lasting for three years. He first encountered Nishimura when he recorded a press conference given by the union and, deciding not to stand by and let another person get crushed, took part in recording events. Thus the present-tense narrative and past merge as Tokachi is able to link back to his friend Yama-chan. This gives the film a sense of the extent of karoshi and workplace exploitation and its devastating social ramifications for those suffering it and those left behind.

To fully illustrate the problems, Tokachi created a documentary that lays out all of the facts in Nishimura’s case to present a fully detailed picture of how a toxic work culture works. He uses Nishimura’s explanation, a narrator, on-screen text, shots of contracts, newspaper clippings with second-hand information and direct-to-camera interviews with people involved with the company and union who provide first-hand testimonies. His recordings also capture the belligerent bosses whose bullying behaviour which will do much to turn viewers against them.

The picture all of the evidence paints of Nishimura’s employer is one of low labour standards, systemic racism, and intimidation tactics that are used against many people. While against the law, lax attitudes from authorities and a culture of conformity and complicity, which Nishimura admits he took part in, enabled the bully bosses to exploit their workers and gouge them for massive amounts of time and money. And yet Nishimura insisted on staying with them. Why?

Like a good worker ant, he wanted to play his role. His hardworking nature was exploited. When it was revealed the extent of his exploitation, the sheer unfairness of the situation for himself and others prompted him to take a stand.

Nishimura isn’t so much a charismatic hero, quiet as he is, but his diligence and earnestness are his powers. These are qualities not as valued by films but brought out here as the camera watches him carefully. We see his vulnerability appear at high stress moments as well as his remarkable tenacity. Viewers will marvel over how he sticks out the abuse he suffers, some of which is recorded on cameras and microphones as the bosses yell at him and his union supporters. The few times when he lets his emotions out are captured in verite power, especially the sequence where Tokachi steps in front of the camera to join Nishimura in in a union meeting and tearfully makes the links with Yama-chan and Nishimura’s case.

With the brutal world of work exposed, the battle is long and arduous but the viewer is always kept on top of facts and it never feels dull. Indeed, it feels important and moving Tokachi’s film presents a personal story and a general truth about society and how exploitation occurs and the term karoshi has come to exist. As depressing as that sounds, seeing the gutsiness and camaraderie of the union with members like the alternately stoic and feisty Naoko Shimizu and some perceptive union lawyers who methodically build a case, we are reassured that there is hope out there as people work together and collectivise to protect everyone’s rights. It ends on a note of hope as Nishimura regains a sense of himself, his honest and hardworking nature overcoming a more powerful foe, like an ant striking back.

This film is playing as part of Nippon Connection 2020 and is available to view across the world.

Happy weekend!

We made it through to another one!

I went to work at the start of the week then continued watching and writing about films like a preview of the documentaries at Nippon Connection 2020. I’ve helped programme a couple of small film screenings and reviewed Ice Cream and the Sound of Raindrops, Yalta Conference Online, book-paper-scissors, and An Ant Strikes Back.

As soon as this goes live, I’m going to watch an indie film and write a review.

What is released in Japan this weekend?

Nagi no Umi   

凪の海 「Nagi no Umi」

Release Date: June 08th, 2020

Duration: 95 mins.

Director: Takayuki Shibasaki

Writer: Kiyotaka Inagaki (Script)

Starring: Tasuku Nagaoka, Elisa Yanagi, Yuu Kozono, Toshinori Yuzawa, Bunmei Tobayama, Yuu Nakai,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Keisuke left his town of Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, 10 years ago to become a musician, but he has to return when he receives a phone call telling him that the funeral of his older brother will take place. He has been missing since a fishing accident. Keisuke is reluctant to return him because he has been lying about being a successful musician in Tokyo. Waiting for him is his father who has been living alone and his brother’s ex-wife.

Grim Reaper Case Book – Puppet Night Song – 

死神遣いの事件帖 – 傀儡夜曲 – 「Shinigami Tsukai no Jiken Jo – Kugutsu Yakyoku –」

Release Date: June 12th, 2020

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Takayuki Shibasaki

Writer: Yasushi Sudo (Script)

Starring: Hiroki Suzuki, Kentaro Yasui, Tsubasa Sakiyama, Ayane Suzuki, Gaku Oshida, Riho Takada,

Website

Synopsis: Genshiro Kusaka is a detective in Edo city and, when it comes to investigating, he has an ace up his sleeve: he has a contract with the Shinigami Juran. It comes at the expense of part of his life but it’s still a big boost. Genshiro gets involved in a “prostitute serial murder case” which is occurring in the Yoshiwara distract and it ties in with another case where he has to search for a woman with a mole on the edge of her right eye and a dagger….

Suitable For You   

あなたにふさわしい 「Anata ni fusawashii」

Release Date: June 12th, 2020

Duration: 83 mins.

Director: Shunya Takara

Writer: Tomoyuki Takahashi (Script)

Starring: Mayumi Yamamoto, Ichiro Hashimoto, Yuko Shima, Yu Nakamura, Kosuke Kaide, Fukuta Konno,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Never mix business and family. That’s an aphorism Ttwo married couples learn when they rent a vacation cottage. Yoshinori and his wife, Miki, Takako and her husband Mitsuru, had expected a nice time but a business emergency sends Yoshinori and Takako away and this leaves Miki and Mitsuru behind. Soon, infidelities emerge…

Why You Can’t Be Prime Minister   

なぜ君は総理大臣になれないのか 「Naze kimi wa soridaijin ni narenainoka」

Release Date: June 13th, 2020

Duration: 119 mins.

Director: Arata Oshima

Writer: N/A

Starring: Junya Ogawa

Website 

Arata Oshima is the son of Nagisa Oshima. He has made documentaries like The Sion Sono (2016) and produced Ramen Heads and I Go Gaga, My Dear (both 2018). This is his latest work. A review is up on the Japan Times website.

Synopsis:Arata Oshima joins Junya Ogawa on a 17-year-long journey through Japan’s political landscape. Quitting his job as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2003, he made repeated attempts to join the House of Representatives and made it in 2009 but he finds that his drive to become Prime Minister, his ideals and his talents and support from his family amount to nothing when the political world of Japan is run by wily deal-makers and party horse trading.

There Was You At That Time   

君がいる、いた、そんな時。 「Kimi ga iru, ita, son’na toki.」

Release Date: June 13th, 2020

Duration: 85 mins.

Director: Kosuke Sakoda

Writer: Kosuke Sakoda (Script)

Starring: Tadashi Masamayoru, Iroha Sakamoto, Fujiko Kojima, Shizue Oda, Futoshi Suetake,

Website

Synopsis: A heart-warming drama set in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture, involving two elementary school students and a female librarian they loved by them. Masaya Kishimoto, a 6th grader, is half-Filipino and has been given the name “gaijin” by bullies in his class. The only source of relief is hanging out at the library where he spends time with a new librarian, Shoko Yamazaki, who is kind enough to watch over him. There is also Ryota Kayama, a member of the broadcast who is in the same class. He calls himself “DJ Kayama” and he tries to get Masaya and Shoko involved in a special broadcast. Masaya reluctantly agrees because Shoko says she will help but she has a secret…

Bystander or Casual Terrorist 

傍観者あるいは偶然のテロリスト 「Bōkan-sha aruiwa gūzen no terorisuto」

Release Date: June 13th, 2020

Duration: 119 mins.

Director: Kazuo Goto

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kazuo Goto

Website

Synopsis: Kazuo Goto, who appeared in Nagisa Oshima’s film The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970), has worked in moves and as a news producer in the television industry which is when he went to Palestine. Now, armed with a script about a man who happens to be a terorrist in Palestine, he returns to the country as a location hunter and meets people whilst revisiting memories of a conflict zone he saw 20 years ago.

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

Isamu Hirabayashi moved from the world of advertising and graphic design to indie films in 2001 and has made a number of shorts that have been selected for festivals like Locarno and Berlinale. Shell and Joint (2019) is his first feature and it is a truly unique title that shines with a visual opulence derived from someone with an eye for framing and a deep consideration for angles and colours, while its script shimmers with a comedic wit that tackles universal themes in a variety of genres and tones in ways that are enhanced by the look and sound of the film.

Opening proceeding are Nitobe (Keisuke Horibe) and Sakamoto (Mariko Tsutsui), two people who have been friends from childhood who now work together at the front desk of a capsule hotel. Nitobe has a particular fondness for philosophy and crustaceans while Sakamoto is fixated on suicide and winding up her friend during their long conversations. They form the manzai duo whose interactions rise in silliness as the film keeps revisiting them while guests come and go.

Although the film keeps cutting back to them, since the hotel serves to draw a variety of guests, we get to follow different people around the premises and out into the world. These people include actresses, a researcher studying crustaceans, and a Finnish woman with the scent of death about her. The cast of quirky guys and gals expands outside of the hotel to include beekeepers, criminals in forests and even some “pests” in a shed, all of whom make up the local population, some of whom are undergoing an existential crisis or suffering some insect or crustacean related body horror.

None of their lives ever intersect in the hotel. Nor do any of the lives outside of it, for that matter. However, they are all linked by common concerns such as love, sex, mortality and the differences between males and females and these themes are explored in a series of vignettes that pick up one after the other and sometimes get circled back to. If that sounds like intellectual masturbation, it isn’t. The vignettes vary in tone from comedy to crime and even interpretive dance or just watching a character take public transport. Since scenes follow on from one another, there is always something new to enjoy.

A lot of the content is wry comedy wrapped up in philosophical musings that are unfurled in winding conversations as characters hover around some subject. The dialogue is littered with lots of great lines delivered by actors who make their vivacious and memorable and it feels as if these people will be able to carry on living once the camera is off them. However, there are some startling moments of darkness like a quick scene where a murder might be committed, a ritualistic mating ritual is done in a wasteland and it leads to mechanical sex and there is the hint of death that hovers at the edge of each story. At points, it felt like the hotel might be some way station between Earth and the afterlife, not least because of Nitobe and Sakamoto’s black uniforms.

That written, there are also lots of surreal moments and visual gags that will catch audiences off guard and charm them such as a dance sequence that takes place in what looks like a university campus which always ends with a cascade of balls that tumble down a set of stairs.

Everything is recorded in static shots and long takes which is where strange behaviour can slowly emerge and difficult topics be mined for humour and sadness. Two guys in a sauna, one of them rambling unhinged about erections is a cringe-inducing scene but my favourite is a debate about the nature of existence that is had by some non-humans. The audio gags also work in sync with the visual where the beat matches the movement on screen and serves to heighten tension or comedy.

While the film is 150 minutes long, it has a good rhythm thanks to the way its story is broken down into vignettes and the actors bring tremendous energy to their performance. A massive bonus is how it is always eye-catching. There is outstanding framing of the landscape with methodical use of one point perspective in some scenes and having the set/location bisected by an object to create an angle in others. I loved the visuals. This features some of the best visual composition I have seen in a film in a long time. It serves to accentuate the beauty of the landscape and it is all highlighted by beautiful and accentuated by pristine cinematography.

So, while the same themes, locations and characters are revisited, it is never boring due to the variety of stories and styles and the beauty.

This movie has come out of nowhere to be one of my favourites of 2020.

If you are unsure whether to take a punt on this or not, I’d say give it a go.

You can find the hotel featured in the film here.

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, Mari Hamada,

Website

Tokyo-based rapper SEEDA used his life to inform his hit 2006 album Flowers and Rain and he goes a step further as all of this forms the basis of this autobiographical film which exhumes some painful memories to show how he made his first album which was informed by his life of crime and his sister’s own struggle. 

The film begins in media res with the main character beat up pretty bad before he explains how he got to this point.

It is the 90s and brother and sister Naoto (Sho Kasamatsu) and Saki Yoshida (Ayaka Onishi) have moved back to Tokyo after a spell living in London. Their time abroad has broadened their minds but made it difficult for the kids to fit into Japanese society. They tough it out, Saki focusing on her education and Naoto finding a refuge in Hip-Hop. Their routines soon become a way of life for the two as she struggles to make progress and he tries out being a rapper in the underground scene. Despite his interest and burgeoning talent, Naoto starts a side-hustle in dealing drugs which disappoints Saki and gets him mixed up with serious Gangstarrs…

The film neatly sketches out how the siblings feel like Outkasts in Japan with visual and verbal clues such as Naoto’s terrible kanji/kana handwriting and his lack of confidence rapping in Japanese while Saki’s continued use of English and endless failure to move up the career ladder haunts her. An interesting dynamic is set up between the two as supportive siblings but he begins to drift away as the emphasis of the script then shifts to the crime and as Naoto experiences the Lifestylez ov da Poor and Dangerous and Mobbs Deep with some yakuza and scuzzy gaijin to sell cannabis, other elements of the film get pushed to the side.

Indeed, the entirety of the middle act is almost entirely dedicated to how he became Street Struck and even took an Up North Trip as he forgets his family and goes all the way to the Pharcyde and while the emphasis on crime grants SEEDA his street bonafides, it also fits into a theme of the film which is his struggle finding his own voice as a Japanese rapper (from a well-to-do family, no less) instead of imitating the negative parts of a culture he idolises as he’s seen biting the style of Americans with little critical analysis of where that style comes from and how it fits into Japanese society.

As engaging as this narrative thread is, the crime overtakes Saki’s story which I felt was just as affecting thanks to Ayaka Onishi’s strong acting in the few scenes she gets. It could have been explored more but we understand that she proves to be the catalyst that helps him make the leap to a rapper worth listening to when he finally Entas Da Stage. One other criticism is that the focus on crime takes vital time away from SEEDA’s musical development which we see very little of.

Although the film is about how he found a way to fit into Japan through rap music, the journey is told and not shown. People talk about him changing his style but we never get a real sense of his style to begin. We get the references to Nas (the album Illmatic makes a number of appearances) and a few posters to other rappers, but we don’t see how his inspirations have shaped him and we don’t get a coherent overview of the wider Japanese Hip-Hop community. SEEDA’s musical development is reduced to a montage of him in a recording booth, writing lyrics, bopping his head to beats. It isn’t until the film is a third of the way through that we see him try out a half-hearted freestyle and when he steps into the cypher for rap battle, it fizzles out so we still don’t get a full idea of his talent even though others talk about it. We listen to characters critique him instead of being able to see his development and so it feels like the few scenes of his rapping are perfunctory. Indeed, there is not much of a triumphal concert to cap things off but a poignant moment nonetheless.

That written, what is on screen is always coherent and the narrative makes sense and flies by as it ensures we know his inspirations for his music even if we never see him actually blossom into a wordsmith. Perhaps it would be easier for someone who is familiar with Japanese rapping to see the progress in rhyming that Naoto made and perhaps fans of the album will have more context.

Overall, it presents a solid story of a person finding their voice even if a little too much emphasis is placed on the crime whilst neglecting SEEDA’s artistic efforts and Saki’s stress. The direction is nice and cinematography glossy and the acting does ensure that the story is somewhat moving. A shout out has to go to the subtitler for getting the slang down.

This one is available for people to watch around the world

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

This short film is about the night two men and a woman meet at a love hotel. While it sounds like a set-up for an AV film, it turns out to be a blackly comic take on a “reunion” with a bleakish ending rather than some erotic fun. Much like Human Comedy Tokyo (and much of Fukada’s oeuvre), the awkward interactions between humans are the focus of the story.

I won’t go into detail but what should have been an adult assignation turns into an exploration of childhood with all of the attendant awkwardness that involves. There are twists and turns that induce laughter and the contrast between the erotic and the sentimental is played up as thoughts of f*cking get replaced by reciting nursery rhymes. What makes it all work are committed performances from Yuri Ogino, as a woman who may be slightly loopy, and Tatsuya Kawamura as an irritable chap who is easy for the other characters to needle, not least because he always wants to do the deed.

It takes place in one set but that set has enough space for the camera to change positions and also a revolving bed for the actors to use as they are alternately display models whilst exploring their emotions or comic fools as they are being presented in the less than flattering sight of being half-nude. With narrow confines and only a few props, the focus of the film is the dialogue and acting and it is convincing and moving for the story which, at 18 minutes, flies by.

But what about that title? I am not sure and I haven’t done the research, I simply had the chance to watch it thanks to the We Are One Global Film Festival. This is a great short for a film festival and a festival is a great chance for the director to talk about this work and what the title means. Regardless, I was still moved by the film.

The Udine Far East Film Festival takes place at the end of the month and, just like Nippon Connection, it is totally digital and people around the world will be able to view some of the films that have been programmed.

Normally, the festival takes place in Udine in the north of Italy, but, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, organisers made the decision to make this year’s edition totally online. The festival runs from June 26-July 4 and the movies will be shown via the streaming services mymovies.it.

So far there have been 46 films programmed and they come from 8 countries and all will be available for streaming with different regions of the world being able to access different films. So far, there are. 4 world premieres, 12 international premieres, 10 European premieres and 17 Italian premieres and the names lined up include Better Days, My Prince Edward (review) and Lucky Chan-sil (a fantastic film!!! here’s my review).

There are more Japanese films than the last couple of years. Some of them are cinema hits that have already done the festival circuit, others are some award-winning titles from last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival and the Japanese Cinema Splash section. For example, Tatsuya Mori’s documentary i – Documentary of the Journalist won the Best Film award whilst Hirobumi Watanabe won Best Director. He is being feted by Udine who have got four of his films, one of which is totally brand new.

Here are the films programmed for this year’s Udine:

colorless   

猿楽町で会いましょう　 「Sarugakuchou de aimashou」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 122 mins.

Director: Takashi Koyama

Writer: Takashi Koyama, Yu Shibuya (Screenplay), 

Starring: Daichi Kaneko, Ruka Ishikawa, Shuntaro Yanagi, Sakurako Konishi, Ikuma Nagatomo, Hitoe Ookubo,

Website IMDB

The winner of 2018’s Unfinished Movie Trailer Grand Prix MI-CAN where filmmaker’s can win a cash prize based on a trailer around 3 minutes, this takes place in Sarugakuchou in Shibuya and looks at the lives of two young people who meet there. Here’s more about the area from Tokyo Weekender.  

This one is available to view worldwide

Synopsis: A young photographer who is dating a model he met in Shibuya’s Sarugakuchou finds that their sweet romance which she has fostered begins to fall apart because of her dishonesty.

#HandballStrive   

＃ハンド全力「#handoryoku」

Release Date: July 31st, 2020

Duration: 108 mins.

Director: Daigo Matsui

Writer: Daigo Matsui, Dai Sato (Script), 

Starring: Seishiro Kato, Kotaro Daigo, Aju Makita, Haruka Imou, Himi Sato, Ryota Bando,

Website

The director is Daigo Matsui of How Selfish I Am, Ice Cream and the Sound of Raindrops, and Japanese Girls Never Die. The writer is Dai Sato of anime fame like Eureka Seven, Ergo Proxy and Eden of the East.

Synopsis: An original youth movie about a high school handball club in Kumamoto which is on the verge of being abandoned but is revived by SNS. The hero is Masao, a guy more likely to be in the “go-home” club than doing any sports. When he uploads a photo of his best friend Taichi playing handball in front of the temporary housing for residents affected by the quake to SNS, he starts getting nice comments (hence the #handballstrive) and this helps resurrect his school’s handball club.

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

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.

One Night   

ひとよ　 「Hitoyo」

Release Date: November 08th, 2019

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Kazuya Shiraishi

Writer: Izumi Takahashi (Screenplay), 

Starring: Takeru Satoh, Ryohei Suzuki, Mayu Matsuoka, Yuko Tanaka, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Mariko Tsutsui, Hanae Kan, Megumi,

Website IMDB

This one is available to view only in Italy

Synopsis: Koharu (Yuko Tanaka), in an effort to protect her three children from their abusive father, she murdered the man. It shattered their family and sent them on wildly different paths. 15 years later, the family reunites again, each bearing scars from their traumatic background…

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku   

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

Release Date: February 07th, 2020

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

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

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

Website IMDB

Mitsuki Takahata was adorable in Destiny: A Tale of Kamakura and she takes the lead in this fun look at otaku romance. Might I suggest watching the anime which is on Amazon.

This one is available to view only in Italy

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

Romance Doll   

ロマンスドール　 「Romansu Do-ru」

Release Date: January 24th, 2020

Duration: 123 mins.

Director: Yuki Tanada

Writer: Yuki Tanada (Script/Novel) 

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

Website IMDB

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

This one is available to view only in Italy

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

Dance With Me   

ダンスウィズミー　 「Dansu Uizu Mi-」

Release Date: August 16th, 2019

Duration: 103 mins.

Director: Yuichi Hibi

Writer: Yuichi Hibi (Screenplay),

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

Website IMDB

This one is available to view only in Italy

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

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, and the USA.

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…

A Beloved Wife   

喜劇　愛妻物語 「Kigeki Aisai Monogatari」

Release Date: September 11th, 2020

Duration: 115 mins.

Director: Shin Adachi

Writer: Shin Adachi (Screenplay/Novel)

Starring: Gaku Hamada, Asami Mizukawa, Chise Niitsu, Eri Fuse, Kaho, Kayoko Ookubo, Ken Mitsuishi, 

Website    IMDB

Shin Adachi is best known for his script for 100 Yen Love (2014) and has worked on other projects, including directing a warmly received comedy 14 That Night (2016). He adapts his autobiographical novel for his sophomore film as a director and it was produced by Aoi Pro, whose works include Shoplifters (2018) and The Long Excuse (2016). This won Best Screenplay at last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.

This is available to view around the world and boy, does the wife look gloomy!

Synopsis: Gota Yanagida (Gaku Hamada) is a scriptwriter with a family and a desperate need for a hit film. His wife of 10 years, Chika (Asami Mizukawa), is the family breadwinner and very unhappy about their lack of money. His daughter Aki (Chise Niitsu) is beginning to view him as a bit of a loser. His desperation for a break is finally answered when a film producer tasks Gota with writing a screenplay for his story of “a high school girl who makes udon noodles at a tremendous speed”. Gota has a chance to travel to Kagawa Prefecture to write a screenplay and so he persuades Chika and Aki to go with him, but when he arrives he discovers a different film project has already been decided…

Hirobumi Watanabe

A Special Tribute section dedicated to Hirobumi Watanabe called:

WATANABE HIROBUMI, COMIC POET OF THE EVERYDAY

Since his very first film, Hirobumi has been shooting mostly in Tochigi Prefecture and with the same actors and crew like his brother Yuji, who provides music, and Woo Hyun-Bang, the cinematographer. He has built up an oeuvre of quietly funny comedies with their own distinctive atmosphere. There is nobody else like him in the world so this is a good chance to catch up.

All of these films are available to view worldwide through the festival.

Cry   

叫び声 「Sakebigoe」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 75 mins.

Director: Hirobumi Watanabe

Writer: Hirobumi Watanabe (Screenplay), 

Starring: Hirobumi Watanabe, Riko Hisatsugu, Keita Hisatsugu, Nanaka Sudo, Takanori Kurosaki, Gaku Imamura, Yuji Watanabe, Misao Hirayama,

Website

I met the Watanabe brothers and their cinematographer at the 2014 Raindance Film Festival‘s screening of And the Mud Ship Sails Away and I got their autographs. Little did I suspect that they would turn into familiar faces at the Tokyo International Film Festival as they get backing from the event to keep produce their brand of offbeat comedy shot in black-and-white. It’s an alternative to the urban voices and a lot of sideways fun.

Synopsis: A man who lives with his ageing grandmother works silently in a pigpen…

Party ‘Round the Globe

地球はお祭り騒ぎ 「Chikyuu wa matsuriwagi」

Release Date: N/A

Duration: 117 mins.

Director: Hirobumi Watanabe

Writer: Hirobumi Watanabe (Screenplay), 

Starring: Hirobumi Watanabe, Gaku Imamura, Takanori Kurosaki, Yuji Watanabe, Riko Hisatsugu,

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: Hikaru Honda works at a small electronics factory in a suburban town in the north of the Kanto region. He leads a quiet life with his dog Ringo but one day, he decides to go to a Paul McCartney concert at Tokyo Dome with his fellow Beatlemaniac, Takafumi Hirayama. Thus, a road-trip movie is born!

Life Finds a Way   

普通は走り出す 「Futsu wa hashiridasu」

Release Date: October 25th, 2019

Duration: 107 mins.

Director: Hirobumi Watanabe

Writer: Hirobumi Watanabe (Screenplay), 

Starring: Hirobumi Watanabe, Minori Hagiwara, Yako Koga, Sakiko Kato, Riko Hisatsugu, 

Website    IMDB

Synopsis: Hirobumi Watanabe lays the creative process bare in a film where he stars more or less as himself. We see his daily life out in the rural countryside as he struggles from writer’s block and tries to get inspired. However, a message from a doctor with some news causes a situation…

I’m Really Good     

わたしは元気 「Watashi wa Genki」

Release Date: October 25th, 2019

Duration: 107 mins.

Director: Hirobumi Watanabe

Writer: Hirobumi Watanabe (Screenplay), 

Starring: Riko Hisatsugu, Nanako Sudo, Keita Hisatsugu, Mei Mukaiyama, Yui Honiden, Ayaka Hoshi, Hirobumi Watanabe, 

Website    IMDB

The Udine screening will be the world premiere.

Synopsis: Not much in terms of a story but we know the star: Riko Hisatsugu. She has appeared in Watanabe’s other films and I believe she was in the section of Kamata Prelude he directed. Anyway, this was filmed from March to May, 2018, and Riko was in third grade at the time of filming. She was originally a student of the “Yuji Watanabe Music Class”.

i -Documentary of the Journalist-

i　－新聞記者ドキュメント－「I – shinbun kisha dokyumento –」

Release Date: November 15th, 2019

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Tatsuya Mori

Writer: N/A

Starring: Isoko Mochizuki

Tatsuya Mori is a documentarian famous for the films A (1998), 311 (2011) and Fake (2016). He also acted as producer on The Journalist (2019) which is based on a book by the real-life female journalist, Isoko Mochizuki. She forms the centre of this film as she pursues the truth.

This one is available to view in Europe

Synopsis: Traditional news media is in a spin as social media, financial forces and political tribalism batter them around. Maybe film documentary might be the best place for news if not for some of brave journalists still working for newspapers who are unafraid to look for the truth. Isoko Mochizuki of The Tokyo Shimbun is one of them as she asks all the awkward questions that keep those in power on their toes and ferrets out the truth. This in a country which is still patriarchal, in an industry which is male-dominated, in a media environment that prefers not to challenge those in power lest they lose access to government press conferences. Here’s an article about her in The New York Times (written by Motoko Rich) which gives an excellent overview of the environment she works in.

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 projects. 

This one is available to view online in Europe (but not the UK).

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.

The Udine Far East Film Festival 2020 Virtual Pass has been available from June 8th. Online screenings are available from June 26th to July 4th. Details will be updated on the official website (https://www.fareastfilm.com/).

Happy weekend, people!

I hope you are all feeling fine!

After a busy couple of weeks with Nippon Connection 2020, I took it nice and slow with writing. I posted reviews for Shell and Joint, Flowers and Rain and East of Jefferson and I also posted a look at the Japanese films at the Udine Far East Film Festival 2020 which is online so it is possible for people around the world to watch some of the films that have been programmed. Check out the post to see what’s available.

In terms of non-Japanese films, I watched Season of the Witch, The Duellists and Outbreak.

What is released this weekend in Japan?

Hero 2020   

Release Date: June 19th, 2020

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Mitsutoshi Saijo

Writer: Mitsutoshi Saijo (Script)

Starring: Tomoki Hirose, Rie Kitahara, Rin Asuka, Shunsuke Kobayakawa, Ami Maeshima,

Website

Director Mitsutoshi Saijo and his theatre company TAIYO MAGIC FILM have put together a heart-warming comedy that depicts the turmoil that occurs on the very last day of an agreed dating period for two lovers.

Synopsis: Hiroki and Asami fell in love with each other but Hiroki asked that they keep their time together to just two years. With the deadline approaching, Asami visits Hiroki in hospital after he suffers an injury. She is depressed knowing that Hiroki will break up with her but things may change as some turmoil at the hospital unfolds…

His Bad Blood   

いつくしみふかき　 「Itsukushimifukaki」

Release Date: July 19th, 2020

Duration: 107 mins.

Director: Koichiro Oyama

Writer: Koichiro Oyama, Fumiya Yasumoto (Screenplay),

Starring: Ikkei Watanabe, Yu Toyama, Sakura Enomoto, Ryo Ushimaru, Naoki Goto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: When a stranger with conflicting values joins a village whose inhabitants are closely knit, communal harmony may be affected. This is the case with Hiroshi. When he takes off with the family nest egg, just when his wife is giving birth to their first son, the villagers chase him down and violently beat him. He’s only spared at the last minute by the Reverend’s good graces. Thirty years later, Hiroshi’s scars are still present, except now they’re being borne by his son Shinichi. Depressed, traumatized and lazy, even his family sees his father’s bad blood within, persecuting him to the point of banishment from the village. He seeks shelter with the same Reverend who saved his father’s life years ago. Meanwhile, not far away, the latter continues his degenerate life. As the head of a small band of hoodlums, Hiroshi commits petty con jobs. One failed job too many forces him to hide out at the Reverend’s too. Shinichi and Hiroshi are totally clueless about their shared lineage and the man of the cloth plans to keep it that way, if only to move one and reason with the other.

Gone Wednesday   

水曜日が消えた 「Suiyoubi ga kieta」

Release Date: June 19th, 2020

Duration: 104 mins.

Director: Kohei Yoshino

Writer: Kohei Yoshino (Script)

Starring: Tomoya Nakamura, Natsumi Ishibashi, Mai Fukagawa, Ayumu Nakajima, Kyujitsu Kacho, Kitaro,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A man suffering from dissociative identity disorder looks like a regular guy but he has seven personalities sharing his body and each personality comes out on a different day of the week and leaves notes for the others, although the Tuesday personality gets TWO whole days because Wednesday has disappeared. Things get dicey for Tuesday when he starts to black out. Could he disappear like Wednesday? Will the people around the young man even notice??

Coming Back Sunny   

おかえり、カー子「Okaeri Ka-ko」

Release Date: August 24th, 2019

Duration: 15 mins.

Director: Noriko Yuasa, 

Writer: Takato Nishi (Script),

Starring: Riria Kojima, Honoka Yoneyama, Genki Wakana, Aya Yoshizaki, Genta Mizoguchi,

Website 

At a time when minimalism is trending as a style in Japanese indie cinema, Noriko Yuasa distinguishes herself through adventurous use of color and editing to add to the emotional space of her works. Her colorfulness enriched Looking For My Lost Sunflowers (2014) where the bright yellow of the flowers symbolized the warmth of a salaryman’s hometown nostalgia, the sharply contrasting blues, reds and grays in Girl, Wavering (2015) reflected a teenage girl’s rough adolescence, and the visual tricks of Ordinary Everyday (2017) created a reality that became increasingly fractured until a shock ending. With her latest short film, Coming Back Sunny, Yuasa uses strong colors to visualize the emotions of a high school girl’s first encounter with love.

Coming Back Sunny follows 17-year-old Shiori (Riria Kojima) who lives in the small city of Kawagoe. Shiori suffers from achromatopsia which means she cannot distinguish between the colors red and green, both of which look brown in her eyes. Interacting with the world can be frustrating since she misses the beauty that others see. This frustration has not only left her feeling uncomfortable in social situations but has even made her prematurely misanthropic. One source of relief is her best friend, Yumi (Honoka Yoneyama), who is a constant companion and the person closest to her heart.

Change soon comes to Shiori’s world when Yumi picks up a rare colorless petal she finds on the ground and takes a photograph of it. The flash of the camera leads to a flash of color as the petal becomes tinged with a deep red. This burst of red is Shiori’s first time recognizing the color and it is a revelatory moment that motivates her pursuit of more petals. As Shiori chases red petals to some seemingly predestined meeting, she begins to suspect it presages a meeting with a fated love but her path isn’t going to be smooth.

Coming Back Sunny was originally Yuasa’s contribution to the omnibus movie Seishun Kaleidoscope, a collection of three youth-themed stories which was released in Japan in 2019. Lasting 15-minutes, this is a visually dazzling experience where the narrative is told with staccato-like cutting to give a collage of Shiori’s experiences as she deals with bullying, betrayal and self-doubt amid a burst of hope for love. This editing style allows the slightly longer dramatic scenes to mix with intriguing glimpses of portentous and poetic imagery such as cascades of petals and swirls of paint. It flows at a breathless pace, allowing the story to elide over any audience member’s reservations concerning the cut-up nature of the story, where links between characters can be tenuous. It also allows the atmosphere to lean into fantasy as images are repeated and their importance is revealed in the moving finale.

The flood of images also provides foreshadowing as they are revealed to be connected to what fate has in store for Shiori. Far from being a standard romantic ending, the film transcends traditional notions of love by making this the moment Shiori truly overcomes her inner weaknesses to looks at the world with renewed vigor. It is a moving sequence and the emotional impact comes from Kojima’s performance. She brings a liveliness which catches one’s attention and is able to imbue that with vulnerability to reveal various emotional shades to her character, making it easy to empathize with her travails.

Accompanied by lavish music, the potent visuals and punchy cutting create a sensuous atmosphere. Seeing “love” visualized like this is a lot of fun while Yuasa fuses themes and images together in a way that proves emotionally satisfying.

My review for Coming Back Sunny was first published on V-Cinema on June 21st

Noriko Yuasa is a director who hails from Okayama, Japan. She graduated from Tokyo Metropolitan University with a BA in Architecture before she entered Kinoshita Production, in 1999, to train as a TV Drama Director. In 2013, she went freelance as a director/producer and, since then, she has worked in both TV drama and film, specializing in project planning, directing and producing.

2015 saw her make her theatrical feature film debut, Udagawacho de matteteyo (Wait in Udagawacho), a romance which was released nationwide. This was followed by a brace of short films which showed growing confidence in her visual storytelling and approach to narrative construction, starting with Looking For My Sunflowers (2014), a story of a salaryman experiencing a shot of nostalgia in his hometown. This was followed by Girl, Wavering (2015), which used contrasting colours and poetic imagery to initiate severe tonal changes in a dramatic story of a high school girl’s life. The next film, Ordinary Everyday (2017), was a psychological horror set in downtown Tokyo that used visual and aural tricks like suddenly swathing the screen in vibrant colours to create an off-kilter atmosphere with ambiguous threats that burst out in a bonkers climax.

Yuasa’s works all feature vibrant use of colors and this factors in with her latest work, Coming Back Sunny, a short film about first love as experienced by a color-blind schoolgirl which pops and fizzes with different colors that are used to emotionally expand the story. Yuasa recently raised funds through Kickstarter to help pay for festival fees to bring the film to more audiences around the world but this campaign came at the start of the Covid-19 crisis which saw film production and exhibition around the world postponed, cancelled or forced to go online. This was something of an unprecedented event for the global film industry and so, this interview, conducted by email, was a chance to talk about the film as well as find out how the crisis has affected Yuasa’s project, and the importance of festivals.

I first saw you at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2018 where you showed Ordinary Everyday. I was really impressed by that film and enjoyed it tremendously. I regretted not interviewing you then so thank you for this opportunity. How are you doing during Covid-19?

During COVID-19, I was, of course in Japan, and I refrained from going out and I worked at home. The biggest event was the crowdfunding of my latest short film “Coming Back Sunny”. Even though the world is in a difficult situation, we have raised funds to apply for screenings this film at many international film festivals. Also, although the preparation for my next feature film has been delayed, I was making a pitch deck and modifying the script while staying home.

I enjoyed Coming Back Sunny. Just like with Girl, Wavering and Ordinary Everyday, I was impressed by your control of the visual style of the film. I would describe it as sensuous. I find it engaging to watch. How did you develop your style?

My professional work skills are definitely based on my experience and directing experience in Japanese TV drama. However, my visual style, which is my writer’s character, is influenced by many films. The film that had the greatest impact on me was Hana-bi directed by Takeshi Kitano.

After seeing this work, I decided to become a movie director at the age of 20. Obviously the most important thing to me is that I want to make a movie like a poem. For that reason, I try to draw with the most suitable method.

Coming Back Sunny was originally part of the omnibus movie called Seishun Kaleidoscope which was released last year. Could you talk about how you came to be involved in the project and why you describe it as your favorite film to date?

First of all, Coming Back Sunny was to be produced for another project. It was a surprising coincidence that I decided to participate in the omnibus movie. I was invited by the producer on that film because another short film was unable to be included in the omnibus movie project.

Coming Back Sunny was a challenge for me. I wanted to make a love story for the first time with an original script. As a result, I have surpassed the three short films I have made so far and it has become my favorite. I am very grateful to have been able to write the script, shoot, color grade, edit, and challenge the music.

Where did your idea for the story come from?

The most orthodox ideas for Coming Back Sunny come from Romeo and Juliet, but the major image for my film is based on a story where the main character turns into a slug. It is a story of reincarnation, written by Osamu Tezuka, the most popular manga artist in Japan, which I read when I was a child. Nobody knows who is connected by fate. I wanted to make such a love story. In fact, I even suggested to my co-writer that the boy appearing in the last scene may a non-human creature.

Due to the cut-up nature of the story, it feels like this film was developed by editing down from a feature. My question is, how much did you film and did you have a shot list which you stuck to?

This work is just a short film. However, I thought it would be good for it to look like a part of a feature film as you said. Just as this story goes on, it’s clear that the stories of the characters will go on. The filming was only for 3 days, so there was no shot list I stuck to.

Color is an important part of the film and the editing is very dynamic. How much time did you dedicate to post-production elements like color grading and editing?

Offline editing took about 3 weeks intermittently, color grading took about 1 month, and the entire post-production took about 7 weeks. I think post-production is more important for film making than shooting, so basically this is my post-production schedule.

We are living in extraordinary circumstances where festivals have had to be cancelled and productions postponed. Could you talk about the impact Covid-19 has had on you?

Film festivals have been cancelled or postponed. However, they are also active online. So I did crowdfunding to apply for more international film festivals than my previous film Ordinary Everyday, and I have already applied for about 50 film festivals. However, my next feature film has been greatly influenced by current events. With economies around the world in a serious situation, it is very difficult to raise funds. I originally wanted to shoot in November 2020, but that won’t come true. I am currently collecting funds and aiming for January 2021.

How valuable would you consider physical editions of festivals for your films?

Of course, I would like to consider all the possibilities if my film could be selected in film festival. The most valuable thing in physical editions of festivals for me and my film is the ability to meet and expand contacts.

Could you have waited until next year to try the festival circuit?

I can’t wait. As long as the world situation is moving little by little, I will continue to act and to try the festival circuit.

Some doubt the impact of online film festivals. How do you consider their impact? How do you envision physical festivals starting again?

For upcoming film festivals, I think there will be a mix of real-world versions and online versions. Actually, I personally have felt this trend was happening before COVID-19. I think that the real-world versions and online versions will increase the existence and value of the each other. Also now, I feel that the speed of change has accelerated. However, I think there may be a problem with premiere screenings. Festivals need to set the rules properly. For example, when a movie is selected to be shown online, will it automatically be shown as the World Premiere or International Premiere? Many film festivals still have many regulations regarding eligibility for screenings which prevent us from even applying in the first place. There is no way that the situation can change day by day. Therefore, I would like festivals to offer the chance of screenings equally to us filmmakers.

Due to the state of emergency declared by the Japanese government, there are different schemes to support the film industry in Japan such as Mini Theater Aid and I think the government offered grants to artists. Are you getting help and support?

For now, I haven’t benefited from that kind of support, but I’m going to move on to get a grant because the next feature film will need funding.

What sort of advice are you getting from other filmmakers?

I’m doing research on public funding so I’m getting information about it.

Do you have any final comments for readers?

From the beginning of July, my producer Mika and I will start the crowdfunding for my next feature film project, Performing Kaoru’s Funeral, via Kickstarter. We will also carry out efforts with cooperation all over the world, not only from Kickstarter but also from overseas media and people involved in film festivals, general supporters and peer to peer. We named this activity “World Circuit”. While continuing to work as a big event to make this film with people around the world, we are planning to recruit participants and promoting PR and financing until this film is completely distributed. A YouTube channel will be opened soon and, we hope that many people will join us.

More details on Noriko Yuasa’s latest project can be found here.

My interview with Noriko was first published on V-Cinema on June 22nd

July 25, 2020 Free Online Screening

On July 25, at 11am & 6pm (UK time), a special edition of the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival will be held in honour of its 10^th anniversary on YouTube. The festival will use its YouTube channel to present a free online screening of shorts from an all-female line-up of directors ranging from university students to the current crop of animators working today and an animation industry legend who we are celebrating with a centrepiece presentation featuring an interview we have recorded with her.

The Animators

Fusako Yusaki (湯崎夫沙子)

Yusaki is an award-winning claymation pioneer who emerged in the 1960s after moving to Milan and establishing her own independent studio, Studio Yusaki. Her works consist of commercials, films, and children’s television programmes which were made for public broadcasters such as RAI and NHK. Yusaki’s famous works include clay animation advertisements for the liqueur Fernet-Branca, and popular TV character Peo the blue dog. We have programmed four of her works, Uog, Polis, Oto and La Rosa Dei Venti, and we have an interview with her where she talks about her career.

Miho Yata (やたみほ) 

Tokyo-based Miho Yata is a graduate of Shirayuri Women’s University, and is currently a part-time lecturer there. Since 1999, he has produced many animations and content, producing for TV commercials, teaching materials, picture books and illustrations, as well as holding workshops on animation, and visual toys. Her works are based on the art of knitting and her most famous work is Knit & Wool, which airs on NHK E-TV for kids early in the morning. We have programmed The King of Amechau Country to show what she can do.

Arisa Wakami (若見ありさ) 

Arisa Wakami is a professor at Tokyo Zokei University and a lecturer at Joshibi University of Art and Design. More importantly, she is an animator and works with both hand-drawn and stop motion animation who has utilised a range of “materials” from people to sand on glass boards. Her works cover films, TV programmes and workshops and they feature poetic imagery and have been screened at famous festivals around the world. We have programmed Blessing, 0-5, chorus and her part of Birth – The Dance of Life.

Mone Kurita (栗田百嶺) 

Kurita represents the next generation of animation talent. A recent graduate of Tokyo Polytechnic University, she combines colourful hand-drawn images with computer manipulation. Her work, A day when became a Asparagus man, has been selected for the Tokyo Anime Award Festival. We have selected that wonderful work and her film Brassiere Cat as the titles we will screen.

We will also have a selection of graduate works from some of the students at the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts (titles confirmed shortly).

This screening is free to watch and has been made possible due to the BFI’s Film Audience Network Covid-19 Resilience Fund. The Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival relies on sponsors and donors to help us deliver screenings. If you would like to show your support, you can do so with a voluntary contribution at the festival’s Patreon page. Alternatively you can support the festival without paying extra money by signing 

About Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival

Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival is a charitable organisation run by a small team of volunteers. It has been running since November 2010 and its mission is to bring Japanese animation and culture to audiences. The festival screens a wide variety of films and runs animation workshops and masterclasses with leading animators from Japan as well as providing educational and cultural learning opportunities. It has expanded over the years and can be experienced yearly at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. 2020 marks the first online edition of the festival.

More info:

Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival

Charitable Incorporated Organisation

Registered Charity Number 1187288
info@kotatsufestival.com

Find us on Facebook| Twitter  | Email | Website

Woman of the Photographs   

写真の女「Shashin no Onna」

Release Date: June 27th, 2020

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Takeshi Kushida

Writer: Takeshi Kushida (Script),

Starring: Hideki Nagai, Itsuki Otaki, Toshiaki Inomata, Toki Koinuma, Takaaki Kikuchi, Keiko Katsukura, Ryo Tsuchida,

OAFF Website

Writer/director Takeshi Kushida makes his feature debut with Woman of the Photographs, a story where a middle-aged photographer living a carefully controlled existence finds everything disrupted by the intrusion of a vivacious model whose presence triggers change. At 90 minutes, the film flies by but has depth as it asks questions about how people get mired in the past and confused over how to perceive themselves. With wit, drama and some special effects, the film goes beyond merely being topical and an “opposites attract” movie and becomes an absorbing drama about neuroses and love.

The photographer is Kai (Hideki Nagai), a near-silent man whom we come to understand through superb mise en scène. His studio, set up by his father, is a womb where time has stopped and he has become cocooned in his narrow passions as evidenced by the set dressing: old cameras that use film, a photography award from school dated 1982, a pet praying mantis and an encyclopedia of bugs. The atmosphere is inert and silent except for the clicks of Kai’s mouse and keyboard as he manipulates images that others bring to him. His routine is a reassuring cycle of familiar movements that gives his life order. However, this order is broken when, while on a bug shoot, he discovers Kyoko (Itsuki Otani), a model who ends up wedged in the branches of a tree above Kai after she loses her footing while posing for a photo on a hill.

It’s both an offbeat meet-cute and a painful entrance as Kyoko is left with a scar along her chest that is so hideous Kai wants to take her to a hospital. She turns him down, insisting on healing herself and getting back to taking pictures. In this brief interaction, key character details are revealed: Kyoko has a strong personality, earns money through her Instagram account and cultivating the ‘likes’ of her fans is important to her.

These qualities form a catalyst for change in Kai’s life when Kyoko manages to install herself in his studio. A weird battle of wills develops into a dark love story as her physical presence both irritates and attracts Kai. Meanwhile, his ability to manipulate her image opens up Kyoko’s dilemma about whether to present her true self to her fans, complete with the scar, or show off a fake ideal that can recapture the popularity she had earlier in her career as a ballet dancer. Just as Kai is stuck in the past, time has stopped for Kyoko but being around each other awakens empathy that leads to a love that might be redemptive an old man and younger woman who are connected by photographs.

In a case of perfect casting, Seinendan theatre actor Nagai and real-life ballet dancer Otani spark off each other well. Nagai’s body exudes bellicose old man vibes as revealed in his gruff behavior which also carries the suggestion of a phobia, something reinforced by the presence of the male praying mantis. Kyoko’s physicality is alluring: her confidence and determination to succeed constitute a power that simmers away and is shown in the close-ups. Her uniquely angular face and shadowy eyes which have a real fire behind them.

Separate stories involving Kai’s customers, all of whom are just as much mired in the past, help elucidate the changes to the character arcs by offering mirroring situations. The almost comic obsession of a woman (Toki Koinuma) desperate to change her image to match a younger ideal she has in her head feeds into Kyoko’s battle over how she should present herself. The sad story of a funeral director (Toshiaki Inomata) provides a melancholy echo for Kai. Both stage actors, these supporting players deliver committed performances that are equal to the leads.

The film is atmospheric thanks to clear camera movement and framing which allow the actors’ body language to speak as they dance around each other and gradually learn to co-exist. We get sucked into their obsessions by special effects which emphasize certain things: the crazy trips into Instagram and the ecstasy adulation from being ‘followed’ leads to the screen being set ablaze with multi-colored lighting while trips into fantasies see wilder camera movement with match-cuts and fades used to make connections. The heightened sound effects serve to highlight performances and can be disturbing. As created by splatter film director Yoshihiro Nishimura, the prosthetic scar is truly gross when Kyoko manipulates it.

Precision and clarity define Woman of the Photographs, both in terms of its presentation and ideas. Through a combination of good performances and perfectly crafted aural and visual elements, Kushida’s has crafted a mature narrative that is always engaging.

Woman of the Photographs was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 9 and 12.

This review was posted on VCinema on April 29th

Takeshi Kushida’s feature debut Woman of the Photographs garnered great word of mouth at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020. Taken with Daisuke Miyazaki’s Videophobia, it was one of two films at the festival to tackle the idea of technology and social media connectivity and how they distort our view of ourselves. While the former trod a distinct techno-horror path that won it fans, Woman of the Photographs earned buzz with its kinder, almost comedic love story between two characters stuck in the past.

When misogynistic middle-aged photographer Kai (theatre actor Hideki Nagai) meets a former ballet dancer turned social media star named Kyoko (played by the dancer/actress Itsuki Otaki), a strange relationship develops as he leaves his cloistered life and gets sucked into retouching her images after she gets a particularly nasty scar. This forms the basis of a battle Kyoko engages in as she wrestles with whether to show her true self to the world or maintain a fake idealised image. Scars of the body and mind are literally and metaphorically poked and prodded for icky effect to create a story pertinent to our age, how our truth is eroded for fiction, but a seemingly unlikely love promises to snap the two out of their restrictive ways of thinking and save them.

Imaginative visual and aural design helps to create an atmospheric story. Takeshi Kushida took the time to talk his assured debut at the festival.

I’d like to get some background about why you wanted to be a director and also your time in Britain.

I used to play football and when watching a match on TV, there were slow-motion replays and I was attracted to that. That was my first interest in moving images. When I was a high school student, there were a lot of good British films coming to Japan, like Trainspotting, The Full Monty and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and so at that time British films were more fascinating for me than American ones so I decided to go to Britain. I entered Kent Institute of Art & Design. It turned out to be quite arty. I was not expected to do experimental works but it was really arty and I saw things I had never seen before. The first time I saw experimental films by Tony Hill and John Smith I almost regretted coming, but, at the same time, there was something irresistible about watching them so I started making experimental films, no-language films and dance films, mostly. That’s how I started making films.

Where did the idea for this film come from?

The first idea came 15 years ago. I came back to Japan after graduating and I entered a TV commercial company and I was an assistant director for an orange juice commercial. There was a Japanese actress in the commercial. Do you know offline and online editing? The director did offline editing and we sent the offline movie to the actress’s talent agency. In the commercial, she has a bottle and she’s smiling but in the image we got back there were a lot of red marks showing us how to edit the image, how to erase wrinkles and remove the bags from under her eyes. I was surprised. I didn’t know about that kind of technology but the online editor erased the wrinkles and changed almost everything about her face. The actress really liked it, even though it’s not her face at all. At that time, I wondered why the actress was happy about that because the modified image didn’t look like her at all, but she liked it. She has an idea of herself in her mind even though it isn’t her so she doesn’t mind her real appearance. Nowadays, a lot of girls change their face on Instagram. The same thing happens like back then. They are more fascinated in the modified image and not the real image. I thought, now is the time to make a movie with this theme because it’s very common, many people do it, not just actors and actresses.

Time is another thing that I was thinking about. An Instagram image remains on Instagram for maybe 10 or 20 years, so if a user gets older and sees a picture of herself, maybe that picture becomes the real her because she feels she only exists in the photo.

There are many themes in the story, an obsession with an ideal image and a need to maintain routines. It’s a very atmospheric world. How difficult was it writing the script?

It sort of came about after I worked with the actor Hideki Nagai on my short Voice. He was so good so I wanted to make a feature film with him about an old man and young lady. It’s a clichéd story but I thought he would perform really well. In Voice, he doesn’t speak at all. In Woman of the Photographs, he has one line. So, I first decided on the character – a man who doesn’t speak and a woman approaches him and the man resists her, at first, but they finally love each other. Of course, it’s a story about an ideal silhouette and the real silhouette. There’s another hidden theme in the film that this is time. He was born in the photograph store 50 years ago and he’s still living in it.

The photo studio set is like a time-capsule.

It looks like time has stopped for him and for her. She is obsessed with an image from her past, from maybe two or three years ago. Then there is the character played by Inomata-san, he lost his daughter 25 years ago and his time has stopped as well. Koinuma-san’s character, she’s wants to be younger in the photo. She is following her younger image. They are all not living in the present. The story is how they return to living in the present.

I was interested in the main character. He is described as a misogynist in some of the text I’ve read. Why did you create that character trait?

I was not good at talking with girls when I was in junior high school (laughter). Maybe, from 12 years old to 20 years old, maybe I spoke a couple of times with girls. (laughter) That’s my trauma. When I make a movie, I make a male character who doesn’t speak to girls. It’s quite simple.

Why did you choose your lead actors?

Hideki Nagai is in SEINENDAN [a theatre troupe], they are led by Hirata Oriza. Have you seen his way of directing?

I’ve only seen his name mentioned in articles.

It’s like he’s directing dancing. His direction is mostly always about the timing: “give a space for half a second,” “give a space for a second.” So Nagai is used to giving perfect timing for acting. Otaki-san, of course, she was a dancer and she has strong eyes so she can express with her eyes. He can express with his timing, she can express her feelings with her eyes, so that’s the combination.

How did the actors react to the script?

Nagai-san said, “I’m the leading actor but I don’t have to remember many lines so I’m happy.” (laughter) When I explained the script for the first time, I gave them technical notes like, “90 minutes, color, target audience: men, age: 35 or over 35” (laughter) because I am 37 years-old. Sometimes, I don’t have a movie I want to watch in a cinema. There are usually pop idol films so I thought I have to make a movie for myself. However, Otaki-san thought it doesn’t have to be a film for males, the film could appeal to a younger female audience.

It’s very topical and easy for everyone to engage with because social media and editing tools are so ubiquitous. It also helps that the chemistry was good between the actors. Actually, I want to talk about the image of Kyoko in the tree, when they first meet, was really good. It’s a bit like a meet-cute. How did you come up with it?

I wanted to do this film a little like a comedy. It’s funny that we hear her voice but she’s so small on the screen. I thought it was humorous.

You have carefully controlled imagery and editing.

I storyboarded everything. I always want the audience to watch the center of the image. The sweet spot. (Kushida begins drawing images of how he frames a scene) I always put important things there. If two people are talking, I don’t shoot like that, I move the camera to keep the talking character in the center of the frame so the audience will concentrate on the film.

Certain special effects were used.

Whenever I used the special cuts and effects, it was to express how we are leaving reality. I wanted to make it clear the difference between illusions and reality. The special effects are an entrance to another world. Some of the techniques I learned from Satoshi Kon films.

Like Paprika​?

Like Paprika. He is a master of transition. And Slaughterhouse Five. I was very influenced by those films. The one good thing about using special effects is the audience can think about what is going on. We can wake up the audience’s sixth sense so that’s a good thing.

In terms of sound, it is heightened. Why did you make that choice?

Some sounds are heightened. What I decided to do in this movie is to emphasize the space around the sound. If there is no sound in the movie, it can emphasize the acting. There is one sequence where she [Kyoko] asks if he can stay at his place. It is a shot of the two of them. She looks at him. He looks at her. There is no sound for three or four seconds. The next scene, the woman is already in the room and ready to sleep. There is a space of only four seconds and it can express that he is annoyed. In this film, he is often annoyed. By heightening sounds, I can give him space. There is another practical reason. I had to shoot this film in ten days so I couldn’t wait if there was a helicopter flying overhead and ambulances passing by (laughter) so it was very helpful for me to make the sound afterwards. We didn’t care about the sound while we were shooting.

So ambient sound isn’t used so much and there’s a lot of ADR. How about the praying mantis, was that the actual sound of it eating?

Not at all. (laughter) It’s impossible to capture such a small sound. It was the crew. We went to a 7-Eleven and bought onigiri and sandwiches and we ate them in front of the camera and maybe we had 8 or 10 layers of sound which we combined to make the sound of the mantis eating. We used that sound 4 or 5 time.

Yoshihiro Nishimura, the splatter director, was involved in this project. How did he join the film?

I’m a big fan of him and I was quite lucky that Nishimura-san’s wife is the teacher of my stylist, Masae Sakurai. She was my contact to him.

Oh, so Sakurai was her apprentice?

Yes.

What was it like working with him?

He is a genius. I gave him a script and then he gave me four or five prosthetic scars for the character. (Kushida starts drawing images of the scars) – flesh, scratch, open, gross and so on. We selected the most suitable one.

It’s like Cronenberg body-horror.

Yes! When I met him for the first time, he asked me what sort of scar I would like – Cronenberg or Lars Von Trier! (laughter)

Very specific! Because you used the heightened sound effects, it was reeeally bbbrrrrr. Gross. (laughter). Despite the body-horror, the film is very topical since we all use or wee are all familiar photos and image manipulation so it should do well with a wide audience.

Woman of the Photographs was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 9 and 12.

This interview was first published on VCinema on April 30th

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all well!

I started this week with a review of Coming Back Sunny and an interview with its director, Noriko Yuasa. I then posted about the festival I write for, the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival, hosting a streaming event. I then posted a review for Woman of the Photographs and an interview with its director, Takeshi Ksuhida.

In terms of films, I have watched The Girl with All the Gifts, the Scorcese version of Cape Fear, Interview with the Vampire and Sleepy Hollow.

I’m currently playing Vagrant Story (which is where the above image is from – found at the US Gamer website) because I’m waking up really early in the morning and don’t want to turn my computer on.

What is released this weekend?

Aoi no zarazara   

蒼のざらざら 「Aoi no zarazara」

Release Date: June 27th, 2020

Duration: 116 mins.

Director: Naho Kamimura

Writer: Naho Kamimura (Script)

Starring: Misa Wada, Yuuki Kominami, Ayaka Oguro,

The first feature film directed by Naho Uemura, a young director whose movie, Wander Life, won the Audience Award and the Best Actress Award for MOOSIC LAB 2018. This film was actually first made in 2014.

Synopsis: 14-year-old girl who likes drawing and always hangs out with her bestest bestie Ayako who has the opposite personality. Opposites attract…

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

I reviewed this one as part of this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival and interviewed the director, Atsuro Shimoyashiro, and now it is finally released. Here’s a recent review from Mark Schilling at the Japan Times.

Synopsis: Tatsuo (Ryu Morioka) is a guy who has hit his 30s living in Gunma and he is about to become a father but when his ex-girlfriend, Marina (Nanami Kawakami), drops him a message asking him to take photographs of her, he answers it and heads to Tokyo to meet her. They were lovers in university once, but he dumped 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.

Videophobia   

Release Date: August, 2019 (Japan)

Duration: 88 mins.

Director: Daisuke Miyazaki

Writer: Daisuke Miyazaki, Naoto Akiyama (Script),

Starring: Tomona Hirota, Shugo Oshinari, Sumire Ashina, Masahiro Umeda, Sahel Rosa,

OAFF IMDB

There are few filmmakers capturing the zeitgeist of youth culture like Daisuke Miyazaki. His characters, often smartphone-wielding young women, make their way through a chaotic world with what little resources have been given to them by society. This scarcity of support engendered a spirit of defiance in Yamato (California) (2016) and an openness for change in Tourism (2018) which helped the protagonists of those films define their own identity. VIDEOPHOBIA is Miyazaki’s darkest work yet, one that shows the shadowy side of technology as revealed through online pornography.

Ai (Tomona Hirota) is a perpetually exhausted young woman living in Osaka. Having bottomed out after an attempt at living in Tokyo, her life seems to be dominated by her nocturnal habits of smoking, browsing the net and venturing to pornographic websites. She is online but disconnected from reality. Her daily routine is half-heartedly talking to her sisters and mother, working part-time as a mascot in a shopping street and taking acting classes. Disappointment and confusion seem to have sapped her of vitality and even clubbing with friends is tiring. Then she meets a guy. He doesn’t give her his name but he is charismatic and invites her over to his apartment, which is quite a fancy place. This leads to a night of lust that brings out a little warmth and humanity as they clutch hands after a sex session on the sofa. She notices a camera on a shelf pointed in their direction but pays it little thought.

The next day, Ai is back to her routines and, whilst browsing the net, discovers that a sex tape of her midnight tryst was made without her knowledge and is now in circulation. This plunges the girl into a pool of paranoia and, with every action she takes to rectify the situation and remove the video, she is dragged deeper into a feeling of terror. Events become uncontrollable, technology more intrusive and Ai loses control of her image which exists online.

VIDEOPHOBIA speaks to our age in a way few films do. With laser-focus, it shows how tech is absolutely everywhere, from surveillance cameras to smartphone screens, and how we are vulnerable as we allow it to define ourselves. The ubiquity of cameras has created a selfie-obsessed generation that readily leaves their existence engraved in digital perpetuity with little regard for what that truly means. What is seemingly innocuous tech opens up a whole host of social issues such as revenge porn and spy cams and extortion through honey traps. Miyazaki’s framing of these issues takes on an existential horror tone reminiscent of David Lynch. Peeling back shiny facade of the reality we all share, he reveals the dangers of constantly being on film and of selling access to ourselves.

Miyazaki also resists and satirises the cutesy Japan pushed by the media whilst delving deeply into the real Osaka represented by Korean neighbourhoods like Tsuruhashi, the live houses and rivers leading to docks. Monochrome visuals allow flat lighting to give the proceedings an enervated look as the deep pools of black linger menacingly.

In this environment roams Hirota, who essays Ai in a fugue state before her crises starts. We see a very believable picture of a person’s sense of self evaporating under the constant technological intrusion into her everyday life. That she once indulged in using this tech is an ironic fate for the poor woman. Miyazaki shows the breakdown of her sense of self through shaky close-ups of her face while the shadows under her eyes frame a look of fright as she begins to lose her sense of reality. She bursts into frenzied energy at points as she seeks a solution but what ultimately meets her is disappointment. As she realizes the limits of the law and support groups, Ai understands that she has lost control of her sense of self to technology.

This haunting disconnection from others as a result of technology happens under the gaze of so many cameras that the film takes on a technohorror atmosphere. made even more insidious and mysterious by inexplicable details such as where the man who made the video came from and where he went. There is imagery reminiscent of cinema of the past, such as seeing Ai wearing a facial mask looking like Christiane from Georges Franju’s Eyes Without a Face (1960). It plays into the terrifying notion of a soul being stolen by a camera and for all of the transformations that occur, with the experience of having her essential humanity rendered into pornographic content leaving Ai a victim living in perpetual fear.

VIDEOPHOBIA was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 7 and 10.

My review was first published on April 06th at VCinema.

One of the highlights of the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020 was VIDEOPHOBIA, the latest work of Daisuke Miyazaki. A frequent visitor to Osaka, many of his works are youth-focused, with Yamato (California) (2016) and Tourism (2018) being screened at the festival. His films frequently capture the cultural zeitgeist for young people as young women with smartphones navigate various issues to carve out their own niche in the world. Yet VIDEOPHOBIA comes completely out of left-field as it’s an existential horror movie where technology drives a young woman into a fog of paranoia and fear.

Filmed around the less well-known areas of the city of Osaka and shot in black and white, it is a deeply unsettling experience as we witness melancholy 20-something Ai (Tomona Hirota) have a one-night stand with a stranger only to discover that a highly explicit sex-tape has been made of the encounter. It is a shocking discovery that plunges her into a panic that gets worse the more technology manipulates and alters her perception of herself. Things get so bad that she begins to question her own sanity and identity, realizing that the only way to rectify her situation is through total dissolution of her character. The audience is prompted to think about various social issues as Miyazaki pries apart the cracks in contemporary life and how incessant exposure to technology alters how we perceive ourselves. Full review here.

Miyazaki sat down to discuss the making of the film, the real-world topics that form the basis of the story and how he hopes the audience will engage with it amidst the ironies of our always-connected social media landscape.

Why did you create the film?

One day, I was thinking about what happens to all of the photos and digital data, like video and text, that I’ve been using for expression in my life after I die. I thought about the many possibilities of my data left in this world and I felt that it was a bit of a curse of our digital culture, the internet world. That was the first idea.

In Japan, there were several big news stories about revenge porn and that kind of topic but usually I try to avoid those obvious topics because I don’t want to make my film only about one thing. Usually, I start with a simple topic and spread it wider. This time I thought I should use revenge porn as a digital curse that happens in this world and see where it goes with this device called film which can last forever, like even after we die.

It’s quite insidious how technology is so widespread. We all have smartphones with cameras and we are all encouraged to take pictures and live online.

Yes, I think so. When I was a kid I didn’t like my picture to be taken so much, probably because I didn’t like myself and didn’t want to see myself objectively. I just wanted to keep myself as something that nobody could determine, something flexible and moving all the time. When I was called to take a picture with friends, I tried to avoid it all of the time but recently everyone takes your photos and uploads them everywhere and tags you in them and it happens every day so it seems that everyone has forgotten about that awareness and the scary part of taking each other’s pictures so that’s one theme of the movie.

What did you want the main character, Ai, to represent in the film? Is it a younger generation that take technology for granted and doesn’t necessarily think about the dangers?

Ai represents a typical Japanese female or male. She’s female but men are pretty much the same. They work, go home, use the internet and sleep. That’s a typical lifestyle, not only for Japanese but modern humans. But, for me, a character just telling the story is not enough for modern cinema. I wanted to challenge the boundary of cinema. I wanted her to be an observer of herself and this world. She doesn’t realize her surroundings until she gets into trouble, but I wanted her to be like a mirror of this very strange world. A broken world where most incidents are true and fake at the same time. A post-truth world. There’s no rule or obvious truth in the world she sees in this movie but that’s how I feel about this world right now. Like, Donald Trump tweeting every day about national secrets.

The character is naive, she trusts some guy she met at a club so easily. Should we have sympathy for her?

I think the main thing is that people should look at her as a mirror. They should look at her and think about how they live their own lives. My film is like modern art, it’s very interactive. Instead of sympathizing with the character, I hope audiences think about how they are after watching the movie. A critic I met in the lobby, she said she didn’t know what to say about the movie but she had been thinking about it for a long time. I think that is the way that I want the audience to take the film and understand the character.

Had you worked with the lead actress Tomona Hirota previously?

No. Actually, she appeared in one film that a friend of mine shot in my home town, Yamato. She was the main character and I went to the set as a producer and I really liked her face. It’s a very unique face that reflects a lot and when she didn’t speak, when she was silent in the scene, I liked it more. So, I asked her to appear in my film.

How did you prepare Tomona for the graphic nude scenes?

The first thing, I had to go to her agency and give them the script and I said, “There might be some nude scenes and it might be her first.” In Japanese movies, there is lots of unnecessary nudity. It’s quite stupid and shows what the director’s personality is like. It’s simple porn. I told the agency very honestly about the reason we need nudity in the film and how it is connected to the core idea of the movie. Also, I didn’t want to avoid the scene without showing anything because it will weaken the shock value of her video going around. And her agent and Tomona herself said they totally understood what I was saying and that there would be no problem if there are such artistic reasons. I think she was nervous when we were filming. Everybody was nervous because it’s a nude scene but I think we did it well. I wanted to do it like Cronenberg, like A History of Violence, not totally sexual but something like a machine making love.

And when you get to the moment she discovers herself on the internet, it’s like POW, you feel her shock. But the build-up makes it seem like the threat and exploitation of technology is everywhere and it is a matter of time before she falls into a trap. You take lots of shots of surveillance cameras to build up the atmosphere of technology being all encompassing.

I, myself, am very aware of those cameras everywhere. These last ten years it has increased so much and many people are caught by them. For example, on Halloween night, there were many kids playing around and flipping cars and the police checked all of the surveillance cameras which filmed them coming from the station and on the train and going all the way back to their house and they arrested them because they had all the footage, from Shibuya to their house, which is like three hours away. That’s kind of crazy. Now there is technology that can identify you through your bone structure. Everyone is watched by everyone all the time and that should be a pressure for normal people but somehow, most people think, surveillance cameras are good because it keeps them safe. I feel stressed by cameras every day. I wanted to show that kind of paranoia in the movie so I took many high-angle shots to show the main character’s paranoia about being seen by someone or being laughed at by someone. Maybe even the surveillance camera was laughing at her after watching the leaked video.

Later in the film, the character is transformed and then played by Sumire. How did you meet her?

It’s a funny story but I didn’t actually show that it’s her [Ai] in the film, I wanted to leave open the possibility that Sumire is somebody else, a bit like David Lynch’s Lost Highway. Anyway, I asked Tomona, “Is there someone your size that looks like you that could maybe star in this movie,” and she said, “I don’t know but my room-mate is an actress and she’s as tall as me and maybe she could do the role.” So I contacted her agent and met her. She looks kind of plastic, like a robot, but in a good way, and I asked her to act like that. I thought that she would fit the translated Tomona since they both know their habits and body-language because they have been living together for a long time. Fortunately, she fit.

Sumire’s portrayal of Ai is completely different, really confident with her boyfriend, but the final shot, Sumire is looking directly at the camera and is radiating paranoia.

I don’t say for certain that it is Ai. She probably changed her outside self and nobody knows the original her but she hasn’t changed what is inside. For me, that last hand is the gentle touch of her nice boyfriend but even if her nice boyfriend touches her, she probably has a nervousness from what happened. I didn’t want to make a simple ending. People might think it’s the guy from the club who has come back again or maybe that guy had plastic surgery to become the boyfriend. Maybe AI can be the boyfriend. There are lots of possibilities in that ending. Many possibilities is one of the things of the modern world and it can all be true. That way of thinking can be very nihilistic and violent at some point because in that environment, everyone is correct so we could just concentrate on ourselves and our opinions which is a very sad and isolated thing. I hope the ending is showing something to overcome that nihilism.

You can’t say for certain Ai is being portrayed Sumire. So there is that interpretation that she could be crazy.

She could be crazy. The last girl could be someone who is not connected to Ai at all. There is a lot of space for interpretation and that makes the film interesting and cinematic and modern.

In terms of the theatre scenes where the acting instructor is trying to get people to portray different characters, to lose their original identity and transform. That’s what you are trying to say?

Yes, exactly. That scene is like the metaphor of the whole movie. Everyone says you should be yourself, you should express yourself but no one knows who they really are and that was my kind of challenge with this film, asking the audience, “OK, you are telling everyone to be themselves, but do you know who the hell you are?” (laughter)

Normally, when we try to be ourselves, we use other people’s perspectives and judgments as a basis.

Of course. We live like a mirror among ourselves. Sometimes we forget about it and become one way forcing something to each other.

You had a Henrik Ibsen play, The Ghosts, can you explain how it’s tied into the themes of the film?

This is what I always do with my films. When I think of something and translate it into something, like language, it changes from my original image and if I change it into English, it’s going to change again. So, in every process, everything changes into something else. I think it’s the same with money. Money changes into an item and that item changes into some other item and I thought that Ibsen’s play was talking about that. Those kinds of metaphors where money, trade and language, they shed their qualities, that’s what I felt when I was reading the play. This film is about that, who you are and what is the original you. Aren’t you trading something and aren’t you using many masks when you are living in this world? I think this story is connected to money and capitalism as well.

You’ve shot in Osaka but it’s in less glamorous areas like Nishinari and Tsuruhashi. Can you explain why you did that?

I’ve been to Osaka like, every year, to visit the Osaka Asian Film Festival or while working, and let’s say, the Umeda area or the Nakanoshima area, they are quite modern and we don’t watch it on TV so much because it’s not the traditional Osaka image. Dotonbori is the traditional image but it’s very touristic and while I did shoot in Dotonbori a bit, I shot it from a boat and a few shots on the bridge. I knew there were much older and interesting locations in Osaka that should be exposed in cinema, something not done recently but seen in films by Oshima and Kumashiro, the old great directors of Japan. I wanted to use these areas to show a totally different side of Japan and a totally different side of Osaka and I also wanted to make a kind of homage to Oshima and Kumashiro with this film.

Why did you shoot in black and white?

Osaka is famous for being a colorful and shiny city but, for me, it is quite black and white. Also, it’s the theme that I mentioned. The world is very black and white right now, there is no grey so I wanted to show the exposure latitude of the grey, that there is a lot of grey in the world. That’s why I chose black and white. Also, digital is 0 and 1. That feels kind of like black and white, so how can I show something between 0 and 1. I did some camera test and the water areas of Osaka were the main location. Filming the water in color was not so interesting but in black and white, it was very interesting. It was like filming something very cursed.

The film is topical and it is something people around the world can relate to. What has audience reaction been to it?

It’s interesting because when I screened it to my crew and cast, I would say that 40% of the audience were like, “we didn’t understand but it’s great and we were shocked,” and then there was another 40% who were like, “we didn’t understand and it was shitty.” When I screened in Montreal [at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema], I think 30% of the audience was like, “Oh my God, this is great. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s good.” and the rest were like, “No, we don’t understand it at all.” The first screening at Osaka, I was expecting 80% of people saying nothing because they don’t understand the film and 20% of people thinking, “oh, maybe it’s me in this movie,” and feeling very connected to the film but, after the screening, so many people were tweeting what they thought about the film and the scene that they liked, so somehow the Osaka audience are very sophisticated. They understood well when it came to this film so I’m very lucky was what I felt when I saw the reaction on the social media.

VIDEOPHOBIA was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 7 and 10.

My interview was published on V-Cinema on April 07th.

Reiko and the Dolphin   

れいこいるか「Reiko iruka」

Release Date: August 08th, 2020

Duration: 92 mins.

Director: Shinji Imaoka

Writer: Shinji Imaoka (Script),

Starring: Aki Takeda, Hidetoshi Kawaya,

OAFF   Website

Pink film director Shinji Imaoka delivers a downbeat indie drama that has its roots in the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Written at the time of the disaster, Imaoka had just made his debut as a film director and wanted to capture the atmosphere and emotions of the situation but no production company would provide backing. It wasn’t until 2016 when Imaoka received funding from one of his fans that he could initiate the project. He began shooting his script in January 2017, finishing it in time for the 25^th anniversary of the disaster. The result is a melancholy film that follows the travails of regular people left reeling from tragic caused by the earthquake.

The story focuses on a couple, Ichiko (Aki Takeda) and her writer husband Tasuke (Hidetoshi Kawaya). They are ordinary adults connected by their daughter Reiko, who adores dolphins. On her birthday they head to an aquarium, the Suma Aqualife Park, before splitting up for the night: Ichiko heads to a hotel for sex while Tasuke looks after the girl and half-heartedly attempts to do some writing. Then the earthquake strikes. The couple lose Reiko in the disaster and this leads to their already frayed ties being sundered. They divorce, Tasuke quits being a writer and becomes a day laborer while Ichiko goes back to live with her mother at the sake shop she runs. Despite living in the same area and seeing mutual acquaintances and relatives, they rarely meet each other, even though their lives go around in circles and they both struggle to accept the loss of Reiko. It takes over two decades of dashed hopes, failed romance and death as the flow of time drags them to some sort of understanding of the tragedy.

It’s heavy going to watch two people trapped in inertia, especially when both are unwittingly repeating the same actions and routines. The rhythm is slow thanks to steady camerawork and calm editing. It’s an aesthetic provides a ruminative manner to an incident-filled story by being resolutely low-key. This restraint reins gives the film the sense that an aching wound needs time to heal. Relief comes at the end when the circular behavior of the characters is broken once Ichiko and Tasuke are able to meet again and confront the past. Arguably, this quiet style and repetition is soporific, even though the film convincingly achieves the impressive feat of showing characters ageing two decades.

On a minimal budget, Imaoka does a remarkable job of following two people over the course of 23 years and showing how the weight of events wear them and their loved-ones down over time. The seasons play a big role in helping reflect the stages of their lives, with the earliest and most hopeful part with Reiko taking place in spring while the downbeat ending occurs in winter. Through make-up and prosthetics, hairstyles and clothing, characters age credibly while the actors convincingly relay the debilitating changes their bodies and minds go through via physicality and vocal control. The one abiding emotion is “gaman”, the Japanese notion of enduring the unbearable. That is very much on display here as lives marked by a tragedy continue on, much reflecting the many lives affected in reality by the earthquake.

Shot in various areas of Kobe that suffered heavily during the disaster, the locations consist of everyday areas like liquor stores and parks, anonymous streets, stations and beaches that can be found in working-class neighborhoods in Nagata Ward and elsewhere in Kobe. The story culminates at Suma Aqualife Park where, after a long separation, the couple go to watch a dolphin show, another example of history repeating. It ends on an open, melancholy note which suggests a pessimistic reading of reality where hurt is inevitable as characters are trapped in a world of mourning, even if they don’t realize it. At best, one can read the ending as life continuing and time healing all wounds, however imperfectly. Yet ghosts remain and even when the characters can finally move forward, Reiko will always haunt them.

Reiko and the Dolphin was shown at the Osaka Asian Film Festival on March 6.

This review was first published on April 05th over at VCinema

Happy weekend, everyone.

Another weekend down!

I am busy, busy, busy. I posted more of my OAFF 2020 coverage, a review for Videophobia and an interview with its director Daisuke Miyazaki and a review for Reiko and the Dolphins and an interview with its director Shinji Imaoka. Next week will feature two final reviews and an interview.

In terms of films I watched, Dead Space and Family Romance LLC. I’m playing a bit more Vagrant Story.

What is released this weekend in Japan?

Mother   

マザー 「Maza-」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 126 mins.

Director: Tatsushi Omori

Writer: Tatsushi Omori, Takehiko Minato (Script)

Starring: Masami Nagasawa, Daiken Okudaira, Halo Asada, Sadao Abe. Kaho, Taiga Nakano, Sho Gunji, Kaho Tsuchimura,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Akiko (Masami Nagasawa) is a single mother living with her son Shuhei (Sho Gunji). Akiko is also not a good person as she chases after different partners and can’t make a stable home for her boy. Social workers try to intervene but the two refuse to separate. The two have a tie that will last until a tragedy strikes years later…

I Never Shot Anyone 

一度も撃ってません 「Ichido mo Uttemasen」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Junji Sakamoto

Writer: Yusaku Matsuda (Script)

Starring: Renji Ishibashi, Kaori Momoi, Ittoku Kishibe, Michiyo Okusu, Koichi Sato, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Akira Emoto, Etsushi Toyokawa, Mari Hamada, Kiyohiko Shibukawa,

Website

Renji Ishibashi and Michiyo Okusu worked with director Junji Sakamoto on The Projects as a cheating husband and an irritated wife and they are back at it again in this latest film which has a great line-up of stars in walk-on roles.

Synopsis: Susumu is an unsuccessful author who writes under the pen name Reiji Omae. He has a hard-boiled style made up of lots of details but it’s all in his imagination thanks to his walks around the old parts of Tokyo and through who he meets, people who could have walked in from a noir story such as a former public prosecutor, Ishida (Ittoku Kishibe) and retired stage actress Hikaru (Kaori Momoi). Susumu likes to pretend that he is a legendary hitman, but complications arise when a rival assassin starts to snoop around and Susumu’s wife (Michiyo Okusu) starts suspecting he’s having an affair…

Birdsong   

バードソング 「Ba-do Songu」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 90 mins.

Director: Hendrik Willemyns

Writer: Hendrik Willemyns (Script)

Starring: Natsuko Kobayashi, Kazuhiko Kanayama, Akaji Maro, Shinji Matsubayashi, Takamasa Suga,

Directed by Hendrik Willemyns of the Belgian band Arsenal, and produced by Ken Ochiai (Uzumasa Limelight). This is screened alongside Dance, Dance, Dance.

Synopsis: Asuka, a young cleaning lady in Tokyo tries to achieve her long-held ambition of being a singer by performing on a TV-talent show, but all her sacrifices backfire when she is accused of murder…

Dance! Dance! Dance!   

バードソング 「Ba-do Songu」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 48 mins.

Director: Ken Ochiai

Writer: Hendrik Willemyns (Script)

Starring: Dean Fujioka, Ayumi Ito, Aoi Morikawa,

IMDB

Synopsis: Furu is an aspiring musician who dreams of escaping smalltown life in Iwate Prefecture. He makes it but at a cost…

Kuso mitaina Eiga   

クソみたいな映画 「Kuso mitaina Eiga」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Satoshi Shiba

Writer: Akira Ishida – of the Manzai pair NonStyle (Script)

Starring: Rio Uchida, Yu Inaba, Hideki Murata, Kazuyuki Aijima, Mariya Nagao,

Website 

No trailer

Synopsis: A revenge story where a woman gathers together a group of people in a small movie theatre. They think they are there to watch a film but the woman has brought them together to get revenge for her dead fiance… 

Stop the Bitch Campaign Reboot   

エンボク 「Enboku」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 61 mins.

Director: Kosuke Suzuki

Writer: Shoichiro Masumoto (Script), Hideo Yamamoto, Tetsuya Koshiba (Original Manga)

Starring: Yuni Akino, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Kentaro Sakai, Yosuke Tanaka, Mika Nonomi,

Website

Manga-ka Hideo Yamamoto created The Voyeurs, Ichi the Killer, and Homunculus which I have read. He also created Enjokousai Bokumetsu Undou (Stop the Bitch Campaign) which has been made for the screen a number of times already.

Synopsis: Compensated dating has never been so brutal – Aimi, a high school girl who seems to be living a normal life, does compensated dating to fulfil a dream. It brings her into the path of Kumagiri, a police officer with a tragic past, who is looking after three former sex offenders, who are trying to lure out high school girls engaged in compensated dating so they can expose them to the internet. Eventually, Aimi and Kunimoto met through SNS.…

Iyashino kokoromi: jibun o sukininaru hōhō   

癒しのこころみ　自分を好きになる方法 「Iyashino kokoromi: jibun o sukininaru hōhō」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 61 mins.

Director: Tetsuo Shinohara

Writer: Kiko Kanom, Takuya Masumoto, Iyo Nishikori (Script), 

Starring: Airi Matsui, Masayasu Yagi, Masaru Mizuno, Hiroko Nakajima, Kentaro Akisawa,

Website

Synopsis: Rina Ichinose is close to karoshi (death from overwork) at the advertising agency she has just joined. Exhausted, both physically and mentally after too much overtime, she quits the company. One day, Rina participates in a career change fair and finds a new career to start: physical therapist. She is intimated by working with me but has to overcome her feelings to help a professional baseball player. 

Noboru Kotera-san   

のぼる小寺さん 「Noboru Kotera-san」

Release Date: July 03rd, 2020

Duration: 61 mins.

Director: Tomoyuki Furumaya

Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Script), coffee (Original Manga)

Starring: Haruka Kudo, Kentaro Ito, Jin Suzuki, Ai Yoshikawa, Karin Ono,

Website

Synopsis: A live-action adaptation of a popular youth manga based on bouldering. The titular Kodera is a high school girl with a special aura. She belongs to the climbing club and becomes obsessed with bouldering. Kondo, who belongs to the table tennis club, is entranced by Kodera who is practising next to him but if he fancies her, he’d best get his skates on and ask her out because she has another admirer… 

Mochi   

もち 「Mochi」

Release Date: July 04th, 2020

Duration: 60 mins.

Director: Mayumi Komatsu

Writer: Mayumi Komatsu (Script)

Starring: Yuna Sato, Jin Yomogida, Shiho Sato, Shun Sasaki, Ikuo Hatakeyama,

Website

Director Mayumi Komatsu moved from the world of ads to movie-making with two films, of which this was one. It was made with help from Ichinoseki City of Iwate Prefecture, who wanted to celebrate its local customs and culture, including mochi. This film shows how it ties a community together as a teenage girl uses it in different aspects of her life. It was filmed with the help of locals and locals tak th lead roles well-versed.

Synopsis: 14-year old girl Yuna lives in Honedera, Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture. It is a traditional town with customs dating back hundreds of years, including the art of mochi. Yuna gets a taste of its importance at the funeral for her grandmother when she makes it with her grandfather, at the closing of her junior high school where the number of students has declined, and when she experiences first love.

Hammock

Release Date: 2018

Duration: 30 mins.

Director: Kentaro Kishi

Writer: Kentaro Kishi (Script), 

Starring: Kanae Kishi, Naoko Ema, Kaworu Kishi, Philippe Aymard, Hugo Minaki,

OAFF Website

Kentaro Kishi is a multi-hyphenate talent who works as a writer, director, cinematographer and actor and his efforts stretch across genres, from splatter movies like Tokyo Gore Police and The Machine Girl (2008) to indie dramas The Sower (2016), Noise and Passage of Life (2017). As a director, his credits include Record Future (2011) and Hammock (2018), the latter of which played at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020 where it won the Housen Short Film Award. Here, Kishi takes on many roles and recruits his family to create an intimate 30-minute short drawing on the different perceptions in their relationship to examine how the act of looking can reinforce the connections between people.

It begins with Momoko (Naoko Ema) returning to a seaside town in Japan for Obon. She hopes to reunite with her daughter Kanae (Kanae Kishi) after a long absence. The place Momoko travels to is the family home of her dead husband Kentaro (Kentaro Kishi) since Kanae was left in the care of his mother Kaworu (Kaworu Kishi). Momoko is not alone as she has arrived with an American man, Adam (Philippe Aymard), and his son Joseph (Hugo Minaki). She hopes Kanae will depart with them to live in the US but the little girl is resistant.

Overcoming this resistance forms the surface tension of the film as different layers of disconnection between characters are displayed. Momoko’s absence from Kanae’s life can be felt in the emotional and physical distance Kanae shows her mother, something that stands out especially when contrasted with the intimacy Kanae shares with Kaworu. Cultural gaps are found between with Adam and Joseph, the latter’s use of the titular hammock, which was made by Kentaro, proving to be a provocation to Kanae. And who can blame the girl for not wanting to leave with veritable strangers? It seems like an intractable situation but what breaks her resistance is the act of looking and understanding. Despite little Kanae’s attempts to maintain her distance, a gradual connection to the adults is formed thanks to their constant attention and sensitivity. Adam’s humor is especially important in breaking barriers to create an opening for mother and daughter to connect after so long apart but also important is acknowledging Kentaro’s absence, a deep weight that is felt by the characters even if they don’t get to acknowledge it.

It feels as if Kentaro’s loss has not really been confronted in this family, especially Kanae who may have been too young to have known him well, but during the days we spend with them, through old pictures and memories, we share their acknowledgement of him. Intercut throughout the drama are montages of home movie footage and still photographs shot in Japan and the Middle East. His spirit is felt in these ephemeral moments as we get moments of his perspective and gaze on others. There is the sense that someone never truly dies so long as we remember them and this act of remembrance by the characters becomes a vital bridge for them to understand each other. It comes at the most appropriate time, during Obon, a festival for the dead, so when a spiritual aspect emerges, Kishi handles it sensitively to provide a perfect denouement.

We experience this process of looking and understanding through the camerawork which makes us feel like we are eavesdropping on a family and slowly climbing out of a painful. We peer through windows, doorways and curtains at scenes, we take on various character’s perspectives that gaze upon others, and we are allowed to explore old family photographs and movies. There is also the motif of looking which is constantly reinforced by the many cameras that are found and used throughout the environment.

What really makes the film hit home is the sense of genuine feeling. That Kishi plays a version of himself and draws upon the presence of his own daughter, mother, history and family home makes the emotions all the more authentic. The performances are all believably and moving with Philippe Aymard, a professional actor and clown, particularly well cast. His jovial nature and sensitivity is the fulcrum for fine good performances from Naoko Ema and Kanae Kishi as they navigate difficult emotional moments. A special mention should go to Kaworu Kishi whose sadness really tinges some pivotal dramatic scenes as her character is given time to air her feelings over her loss.

At 30 minutes, this is a universal story that doesn’t waste a moment in its exploration of these well-realized human connections.

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

My review was first published on V-Cinema on July 06th