Happy weekend, everyone.

This is the second part of the weekend trailer post following yesterday’s instalment which had six films listed. So that makes 12 out of 19. There will be another post tomorrow. Since I last wrote, I watched the Chinese film Devils on the Doorstep (2000) for the Heroic Purgatory podcast.

What else was released this weekend?

Memory’s Technique   

記憶の技法 「Kioku no Gihou」

Release Date: November 27th, 2020

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Chihiro Ikeda

Writer: Izumi Takahashi (Script), Sakumi Yoshino (Original Manga)

Starring: Anna Ishii, Goro Kurihara, Tokio Emoto, Mantaro Koichi, Naho Toda,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: High school girl Karen (Anna Ishii) needs a passport for a school trip but during the process she learns that she had an older sister who died and also that she was adopted. In order to learn more about herself, she lies to her parents and tells them that she is leaving on the school trip and travels to Fukuoka where she was born with her classmate Satoi Hogari (Goro Kurihara).

Shin Samejima Jiken   

真・鮫島事件 「Shin Samejima Jiken」

Release Date: November 27th, 2020

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Jiro Nagae

Writer: Jiro Nagae (Script), Sakumi Yoshino (Original Manga)

Starring: Rena Takeda, Sakurako Konishi, Shogo Hama, Karasu Hayashi, Moe Tsurumi, Harumi Syuhama, Gaku Sano,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Nana (Rena Takeda) and her friends from her high school days decide to hold an online meeting, but one person, Ayumi, does not appear. Instead, it is that Ayumi’s boyfriend who tells them that they are to blame for her death. He shows Ayumi’s corpse and then even more bad things happen…

Shibuya Shadow   

渋谷シャドウ 「Shibuya Shadou」

Release Date: November 28th, 2020

Duration: 60 mins.

Director: Kenji Tani

Writer: Hikaru Kimura (Script), 

Starring: Riki Tanaka, Ryo Takaiwa, Yoji Minagawa, Tatsuya Nagayama, Akane Sakanoue,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A group of men converge in Shibuya, Tokyo. Riku has journeyed from the countryside to Shibuya to find his older brother Kento after he couldn’t get in touch with him. He meets musician Ryo who becomes an ally in his quest and they experience the changing landscape of the city. 

Issho de ichiban nagai kubu

一生で一番長い九分 「Issho de ichiban nagai kubu」

Release Date: November 28th, 2020

Duration: 19 mins.

Director: Kosuke Hishinuma

Writer: Kosuke Hishinuma (Script), 

Starring: Honoka Yoneyama, On, Sayaka Kuon,

Synopsis: A social thriller comedy inspired by an actual incident. One day, a pregnant woman suffers labour pains as she walks in a park. She asks for help from a newly minted office lady who has a phobia due to a molester.

Kakurenbo   

かく恋慕 「Kakurenbo」

Release Date: November 28th, 2020

Duration: 49 mins.

Director: Kosuke Hishinuma

Writer: Kosuke Hishinuma (Script), 

Starring: Miyu Teshima, Kota Fudauchi, Haruka Imou,

Synopsis: The film runs with the motif of “smell”, something that is invisible and does not appear on the screen. The method of delivery is a story about a couple, Arika and Kouki, who have a strong sense of smell. Arika is a demon and she notices that her husband smells unpleasant. Worried about her husband’s changing scent, she makes a request to her sister Kasumi…

She is Alone   

彼女はひとり 「Kanojo wa hitori」

Release Date: November 29th, 2020

Duration: 60 mins.

Director: Natsuki Nakagawa

Writer: Natsuki Nakagawa (Script), 

Starring: Akari Fukunaga, Hiroto Kanai, Michié, Arata Yamanaka, Yuri Nakamura, Chieko Misaka, Yasuyuki Sakurai, Momoka Eibayashi, Haruna Hori, Ippei Tanaka

Synopsis from Skip City: Sumiko is a high school student who tried to commit suicide. Having come back from the edge of death, she becomes apathetic and now spends her days aimlessly. She begins to blackmail her classmate Hideaki who is dating a teacher at the school.

Happy weekend, everyone.

This is the third and final trailer post of the week. There was one on Friday and Saturday due to the number of films. Next week, there will be one trailer post.

What else was released this weekend?

Gunbuster   

トップをねらえ！「Toppu o nerae!」

Release Date: October 07th, 1988

Duration: 160 mins.

Director: Hideaki Anno

Writer: Hideaki Anno, Toshio Okada (Script), 

Starring: Noriko Hidaka (Noriko Takaya), Rei Sakuma (Kazumi “Onee-sama” Amano), Kazuki Yao (Smith Toren), Maria Kawamura (Jung Freud), Masako Katsuki (Kimiko Akai/Reiko Kashiwara)

Animation Production: Gainax

Website ANN MAL

A classic animation from the studio GAINAX, who were founded to make Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise and later worked on Neon Genesis Evangelion. It is the directorial debut of Hideaki Anno and was released in all six episodes from 1988 to 1989. This is the 2006 re-edited version of Gunbuster and is released 32 years after production.

Synopsis: In 2015, a space fleet led by Captain Rukushion is wiped out by a race of aliens who seem determined to find Earth and eradicate humanity. Fifteen years later, humanity has developed giant robots to fight these aliens and has begun training a generation of pilots. Among the students of “Okinawa Girl’s Space Pilot High School” is Captain Rukushion’s daughter Noriko Takaya. Although Noriko seems like an unlikely pilot, she is determined to follow in her father’s footsteps and works under the strict training of instructor Kouichiro Ohta who has marked her out as someone with great potential. Eventually, Noriko is selected as the pilot of the “Gunbuster” developed by humankind as the ultimate weapon against the aliens, but beyond that, a difficult road lies ahead in her mission to protect humanity and the Earth. 

Gekijouban HAYABUSA2 REBORN 

劇場版HAYABUSA2 REBORN 「Gekijouban HAYABUSA2 REBORN」

Release Date: November 27th, 2020

Duration: 76 mins.

Director: Hiromitsu Kosaka

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

A documentary that reproduces the turbulent and moving exploration journey of the asteroid explorer “Hayabusa2” with detailed images. This is part of a trilogy produced for a planetarium which has been re-edited and released for cinemas.

Synopsis: Hayabusa2, which flew off the earth for exploration on the asteroid Ryugu on December 3, 2014, arrives at Ryugu after a lonely journey of 3.2 billion kilometers for two and a half years. As the nightmare of “Hayabusa” on the asteroid Itokawa is remembered, “Hayabusa2” overcomes many difficulties and succeeds in its mission.

Kimi wa Kanata   

君は彼方 「Kimi wa Kanata」

Release Date: November 27th, 2020

Duration: 95 mins.

Director: Yoshinobu Sena

Writer: Yoshinobu Sena (Script/Original Creator)

Starring: Honoka Matsumoto (Mio), Anna Tsuchiya (Orika), Toshiki Seto (Shin), Naoto Takenaka (Mogari), Yui Ogura (Madoka), Saoru Hayami (Kiku-chan),

Animation Production: Digital Network Animation

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Mio and Shin have been friends since childhood and Mio’s feelings for Shin are strong but she is afraid to say anything. One day, the two have an argument. Afterwards Mio wants to make up with him and so she travels through a storm which is when she gets into a traffic accident. When she next wakes up, she is in a mysterious and unfamiliar world… 

Perfect Education: etude   

完全なる飼育 etude 「Kanzan Naru Shiiku etude」

Release Date: November 27th, 2020

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Takuya Kato

Writer: Koki Yamamoto (Script),

Starring: Sarara Tsukifune, Tomohiro Ichikawa, Sumire Nagai, Naoto Takenaka,

Website IMDB

The 9th work in the Perfect Education series which started with Michiko Matsuda’s novel and was made into a film in 1999 with Kaneto Shindo on scripting duties.

Synopsis: Ayano Koizumi is a stage director who has achieved great success overseas but has been shunned by actors for her sadistic production style. After the lead actor drops out of her latest project, the new stage play “Perfect Education”, she nets some aspiring talent, Aoi Shinoda. However, Aoi struggles under the relentless training called “breeding”… 

Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe   

ガメラ　大怪獣空中決戦 「Gamera Daikaiju Kuchu Kessen」

Release Date: March 11th, 1995

Duration: 95 mins.

Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Writer: Kazunori Ito (Script), Sakumi Yoshino (Original Manga)

Starring: Shinobu Nakayama, Ayako Fujitani, Yujikiro Hotaru, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Akira Kubo,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Two mysterious incidents happen in the Pacific: a ship carrying plutonium runs aground on a huge drifting atoll that is travelling to Japan, and on Himegami Island in Kyushu, residents disappear after the appearance of mysterious birds. Yonemori of the Japan Coast Guard and Kusanagi of the insurance company track down the atoll and discover that it is an ancient monster called Gamera while ornithologist Mayumi Nagamine and Inspector Osako of the Nagasaki police investigate the disappearance of the entire population of a village on Himegami Island and discover that the mysterious birds are a trio of giant man-eating flying creatures known as Gyaos. It turns out that Gamera is on his way for a rumble with Gyaos and Kusanagi and Nagamine must work to convince the JSDF that Gamera is on their side before Gyaos can evolve further and threaten all of humanity.

Grisaia: Phantom Trigger The Animation – Stargazer   

グリザイア：ファントムトリガー THE ANIMATION スターゲイザー 「Kimi wa Kanata」

Release Date: November 27th, 2020

Duration: 61 mins.

Director: Kosuke Murayama

Writer: Yoshinobu Sena (Script), Front Wing, Ryuta Fujisaki (Original Creator)

Starring: Ayane Sakura (Touka Shishigaya), Atsumi Tanezaki (Murasaki Ikoma), Maaya Uchida (Rena Fukami), Kaori Nazuka (Sakurako Christina Kujirase),

Animation Production: Bibury Animation Studio

Website ANN MAL

An anime adaptation of volume three of the Grisaia Phantom Trigger which is available on Steam and which is where I got the synopsis from.

Synopsis: “Mihama Gakuen” is a school that runs SORD (Social Ops, Research & Development), an outfit that teaches combat and spy skills to its students. The students are a gunslinger called Rena (nickname: “The Rabid Dog”), a sniper named Tohka, a demolitions expert called Chris, a spy named Murasaki, and finally, Haruto, their handler. These misfit girls are given guns and live ammunition in the name of national defence. In this film, the characters are sent on a manhunt for a SORD deserter. They will be assisted by students Sylvia and Velvet of St. Aile’s International School. The sniper Tohka is the star of the show and she has her own drama…

This year’s London International Animation Festival (LIAF 20) is online this year and there are a number of Japanese films on offer. Tickets break down like this:

A standard virtual tickets costs £6 while a festival pass (covering 24 screenings and talks) costs £45 waged/£35 student and unwaged.

Here are the films:

Bath House of Whales (8 mins. Dir: Mizuki Kiyama)

Available for 48 hours from Friday December 4 at 6 p.m.

For this award-winning short, Kiyama used a paint on glass technique to render a young girl’s visit to a neighbourhood sento (bath house) with her mother.

My Exercise (マイエクササイズ)

Running Time: 03 mins.

Release Date: September 19th, 2020

Director: Atsushi Wada

Animation Production: NEWDEER

Website

Available for 48 hours beginning Monday November 30 at 8 p.m.

Synopsis: Atsushi Wada is the director of The Great Rabbit, which won the Silver Bear Award in the short film section of the Berlin International Film Festival 2012. He has a lot of other short films, many of which are going to be screened alongside commercials and other things made by the animator at a special event. My Exercise, his newest work, depicts an overweight boy doing sit ups with a shiba-inu. Eventually, more animals join in and it becomes very surreal because of their involvement. You can watch a recent NHK World talk with Atsushi Wada on the NHK website.

There are two Japanese films in the International Competition Programme 5 – Into the Dark. They will be available for 48 hours from Tuesday December 01st at 8 p.m. This program includes a talk with directors including Nihei, live-streamed at 9.10 p.m. on Tuesday and archived until Thursday December 03rd at 8 p.m.

Polka-Dot Boy (Dir: Sarina Nihei, Dur: 7:40, 2020) – website

Synopsis: A boy suffering from a polka-dot disease experiences peculiar events and discovers a hidden connection between the disease and a religious group.

Mekakure (Dir: Akifumi Nonaka, Dur: 5:30, 2020)

Synopsis from Short Shorts: Shun regrets it. Why does he have to play with four of them? They are not good friends. He hates them. The unpleasant heat and the heavy atmosphere of the shrine gradually darken Shun’s mood.

Just a Guy (Shoko Hara, 15 mins., 2020) – website

This is in the International Competition Programme 6 – Animated Documentaries and will be available for 48 hours from Wednesday December 02nd at 8 p.m.

You can read an interview with Shoko Hara here where she goes into more detail.

Synopsis: Three women share glimpses of their affection, attraction and relationship with Richard Ramirez, a serial killer and rapist they contacted after he had been convicted.

DOGHEAD (Dir: Momo Takenoshita, 4:24, 2020) – website

This is in Late Night Bizarre, available for 48 hours from Friday December 04th at 10 p.m.

Synopsis: A life is born, a new planet too. Uh-oh…..here come the visitors.

There are Japanese animators and animations for Japanese musicians in the Music Video section. These are available for 48 hours from Saturday December 05th at 7 p.m.

Aside from the top two entries which I had already written about, these are all new films to me. This post was rushed due to time constrains but I was able to get information from Anime News Network: Source

This blog has supported all sorts of animation since I make an effort to cover different titles appearing in various festivals and I also work for an animation festival that promotes different types of styles so I’m happy to see LIAF continue to forge ahead with its yearly celebration of animation!!! 

Here are past articles – LIAF 2012 LIAF 2013 LIAF 2015 LIAF 2016 LIAF 2017   LIAF 2018  LIAF 2019

The London East Asian Film Festival announced its programme last month and while it has a varied selection of films, there is only one Japanese film programmed. It is a physical event that will run at various cinemas and it will open with the Korean film Beasts Clawing at Straws which I reviewed earlier this year. Order tickets through Eventbrite.

Here are the details on the one Japanese film programmed:

True Mothers   

朝が来る 「Asa ga kuru」

Release Date: October 23rd, 2020

Duration: 139 mins.

Director: Naomi Kawase

Writer: Naomi Kawase, Izumi Takahashi (Script), Mizuki Tsujimura (Original Novel)

Starring: Arata Iura, Hiromi Nagasaku, Miyoko Asada, Taketo Tanaka, Ren Komai, Go Riju, Hiroko Nakajima, Reo Sato,

Website IMDB

True Mothers is the latest movie by Naomi Kawase (Sweet Bean (2015), Radiance (2017)) and is based on a novel by Mizuki Tsujimura. It was turned into an eight-episode series based on broadcast in 2016 and has now been given a feature film treatment so fine that it was going to be screened at Cannes 2020 but the fest was cancelled due to Covid-19. This was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and San Sebastian Film Festival.

Synopsis: Kiyokazu Kurihara and his wife Satoko had given up trying for a baby after years of struggle but were talked into a special adoption by a company. Since then, they have spent six happy years with their son, Asato, but when a young woman named Hikari appears and claims to be the one who gave birth to him, she shakes the family to its core. Satoko decides to confront Hikari…

Happy weekend, everyone.

I hope you are all well.

This week has been all go. I posted previews for the London International Animation Festival and the London East Asian Film Festival. I’m on the last few missions of Front Mission 3 and I’m getting Christmas presents. I’ve got other film-related things going on and I’m trying to get back into teaching again. I hope your weeks have all been good!

What is released this weekend?

Mrs. Noisy   

ミセス・ノイズィ　 「Misesu Noizi」

Release Date: December 04th, 2020

Duration: 98 mins.

Director: Chihiro Amano

Writer: Chihiro Amano (Screenplay), 

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

Website      IMDB 

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

Silent Tokyo   

サイレント・トーキョー 「Sairento To-kyo-」

Release Date: December 04th, 2020

Duration: 99 mins.

Director: Takafumi Hatano

Writer: Masahrio Yamaura (Script), Takehiko Hata (Original Novel)

Starring: Koichi Sato, Yuriko Ishida, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tomoya Nakamura, Alice Hirose, Kai Inowaki, Ryo Katsuji,

Website IMDB

This is based on a novel which was inspired by the song “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. 

Synopsis: On Christmas Eve, Tokyo is put on full alert after a TV station receives a phone call from a person who states that a bomb has been planted in Ebisu. A contract worker for the TV broadcasting station and a housewife are named as suspects by the police. However, video clips with demands to talk with the Prime Minister during a live broadcast on Christmas day are uploaded onto the internet and they warn that if the demands aren’t met, a bomb will go off in Shibuya. While all of this is going on, a mysterious man observes everything. Who is behind everything and can the bombs be stopped?

Town Without Sea   

夏、至るころ 「Natsu, Itaru Koro」

Release Date: December 04th, 2020

Duration: 105 mins.

Director: Elaiza Ikeda

Writer: Yuko Shimoda (Script), Takehiko Hata (Original Novel)

Starring: Yuki Kura, Roi Ishiuchim Nari Saito, Kengo Kora, Hideko Hara, Kiki Sugino, Kenichi Abe, Lily Franky,

Website IMDB

Elaiza Ikeda is probably best known as a model and actress (she who was brilliant in The Virgin Psychics!) but she has added another string to her bow and become a director with this film. It played at the Jeonju International Film Festival.

Synopsis: Sho and Taiga are two teens living in Fukuoka. Friends since childhood, they are about to hit adulthood as they reach the end of high school. One thing they do as a duo is to beat the drums at town festivals, however, Taiga announces that he won’t play drums this year because he wants to prepare to go to college. Meanwhile, Sho has no plan of his future and cannot think straight. They meet a mysterious girl named Miyako…

Takizawa Kabuki Zero 2020 The Movie   

滝沢歌舞伎 ZERO 2020 The Movie 「Takizawa kabuki zero 2020 The movu~ie」

Release Date: December 04th, 2020

Duration: 139 mins.

Director: Hideaki Takizawa

Writer: Yuko Shimoda (Script), Takehiko Hata (Original Novel)

Starring: Hikaru Iwamoto, Tatsuya Fukazawa, Raul, Shota Watanabe, Koji Mukai, Ryohei Abe, Ryota Miyadate, Daisuke Sakuma, Ren Meguro,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Takizawa Kabuki began in the spring of 2006 and ran until June 2018, doing over 700 performances. It was started by Johnny Kitagawa who was in charge of planning, composition, and general production, and directed by Hideaki Takizawa who retired. The productions were revived for a recent production at The Shimbashi Dance Hall and they starred the Johnny’s group “Snow Man”. The story “Nezumi Kozo” is brought to the stage.

A Beast in Love   

恋するけだもの 「Koisuru Kedamono」

Release Date: December 04th, 2020

Duration: 139 mins.

Director: Koji Shiraishi

Writer: Koji Shiraishi (Screenplay),

Starring: Shohei Uno, Shunsuke Tanaka, Shiori Ueno, Tomoki Kimura, Yoshitaka Hosokawa, Shigeo Osako, Suzuyuki Kaneko, Chika Kuboyama,

Website IMDB

A remake of a short film Koji Shiraishi released in 2018 (trailer post) with the same story and some of the principal actors.

Synopsis: A shy young man named Chuuya has fled his past and wound up in a rural town and started working at a construction company. Unfortunately his colleagues are violent towards him. The one bright spot is Shiori, who may like him and suggests that they should skip town as she warns him that one of their colleagues is a murderer. The two decide to make a break for it but their workmates capture them. It looks like it is all over when, suddenly, a man dressed as a woman appears. Recently there have been whisperings of an urban legend in town about “a transvestite with a Kansai dialect who kills people who refuses to date him.” It seems this transvestite has fallen in love with Chuuya. An unexpected battle begins.

I Want to Be Loved   

海の底からモナムール 「Umi ni Soko Kara Monamuru」

Release Date: December 04th, 2020

Duration: 84 mins.

Director: Ronan Girre

Writer: Ronan Girre (Screenplay),

Starring: Renn Kiriyama, Kurumi Shimizu, Yoko Mitsuya, Tomoya Maeno, Kiki Sugino,

Website IMDB

This was played at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2017.

Synopsis: Ten years ago, on an island located near Hiroshima, a seventeen-year-old student named Miyuki committed suicide by jumping from a cliff near where she lived. Bullied everyday at school, she was in love with a fellow student named Takuma. Ten years later, Takuma returns to the island where he was born and where Miyuki died. Although ten years have flown by and Miyuki died long ago, she still loves Takuma.

Fate/Grand Order The Movie Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot   

劇場版 Fate/Grand Order 神聖円卓領域キャメロット　前編 Wandering; Agateram「Gekijouban Fate/Grand Order: Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot 1 – Wandering; Agateram」

Release Date: December 05th, 2020

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Kazuto Arai, Kei Suezawa,

Writer: Ukyou Kodachi (Script), Kinoko Nasu, Type Moon (Original Creator)

Starring: Mamoru Miyano (Bedivere), Nobunaga Shimazaki (Ritsuka Fujimaru), Rie Takahashi (Mash Kyrielight), Ayako Kawasumi (Fou), Kouki Uchiyama (Tristan), Maaya Sakamoto (Leonardo da Vinci),

Animation Production: Production I.G, Signal.MD,

Website ANN MAL

Fate/Grand Order THE MOVIE -Divine Realm of the Round Table: Camelot is an adaptation of a popular mobile game, in which the kingdoms of Ancient Egypt and Camelot clash outside their own times.

Synopsis from Crunchyroll:  The wandering knight, Bedivere, reaches the end of his journey.

The year is A.D. 1273 in Jerusalem.

The Holy Land has been transformed into a massive desert, the people have been forced out of their homes, and three major powers wage war with each other in this wasteland.

The Knights of the Round Table come together to protect the Holy City and their Lion King. With the whole of his kingdom summoned into a strange land, Ozymandias, the Sun-King, quietly plots against the tyranny of this bizarre realm.

The mountain people, protectors of those who were stripped of their land, await their chance at rebellion. In order to fulfill his mission, Bedivere heads for the Holy City where the Lion King rules. There he meets humanity’s final Master, Ritsuka Fujimaru, who has come to Jerusalem, accompanied by his Demi-Servant, Mash Kyrielight, in their quest to restore human history.

Saredo kissho to suru

されど吉祥とする 「Saredo kissho to suru」

Release Date: December 05th, 2020

Duration: 29 mins.

Director: Kosuke Hishinuma

Writer: Kosuke Hishinuma (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryoka Neya, Mutsumi Sato, Hisao Kurozumi,

Website IMDB

Ryoka Neya is an actress on the rise in the indie film industry as she moves from bit parts in films like Love and Other Cults to leading roles including one in the short Idol. She is the lead in Kosuke Hishinuma’s latest film. He had two works screened at Ikebukuro’s Cinema Rosa last weekend. This film depicts a story of suicide and Buddhahood, which resists a modern society where life has become less.

Synopsis: Frustrated in life and wanting to disappear, Ririko meets Adachi, a man who can’t help but regret the death of his lover Eve, who died in an accident. She also meets Eve’s spirit, who clings to Adachi, and makes a proposal.

Fires on the Plain (1959)     

野火　 「Nobi」

Release Date: November 03rd, 1959

Duration: 94 mins.

Director: Kon Ichikawa

Writer: Natto Wada (Script) Shohei Ooka (Original Novel)

Starring: Eiji Funakoshi, Osamu Takizawa, Mickey Curtis, Mantaro Ushio, Hikaru Hoshi,

IMDB

Kon Ichikawa is one of the big name Golden Age directors. A contemporary of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, Ichikawa tried his hand at a wide variety of films (including a documentary for the Olympic Games!). He is perhaps most famous for three films in the West, two highly realistic anti-war films, The Burmese Harp (1956) and Fires on the Plain(1959), and the period drama An Actor’s Revenge (1963), all three made with the scriptwriter Natto Wada, his wife and frequent collaborator, all of which have received subtitled releases and widespread festival play.

Fires on the Plain is a stunner of a film. It is bleak and harrowing and it is the sort of film that the Japanese movie industry probably won’t ever make again because it would be considered box-office suicide to have something as largescale by as grim and realistic as well as being something unafraid to show war as something calamitous, shambolic, and inhuman.

The film is based on a semi-autobiographical novel written in 1951 by Shohei Ooka who, to write the story, channelled his traumatic experiences and emotions as a soldier who survived the Philippines theatre during the closing stages of the war. The Americans are invading Leyte Island in the Philippines and are hot on the heels of the demoralised soldiers of the Japanese army, all of whom are looking to evacuate from the island. We see their increasingly desperate struggle from the perspective of an army conscript, Private First Class Tamura (Eiji Funakoshi), who is sick with tuberculosis.

When we meet him, Tamura is forced into the field with a grenade by a commander who cannot waste resources on keeping a dying man alive. The commander gives Tamura an order: either get admitted to a field hospital or commit suicide. Tamura doesn’t want to give up so easily and clings to life. His only option is to head to the port at Palompon to be evacuated to Cebu and so he wanders around the jungle and bounces between broken platoons of men all looking to escape the constant attacks by American forces. This is a journey that will see them stripped of their humanity as they travel across scorched battlefields and through hostile jungles and Tamura is our guide.

Tamura cuts a rather pathetic and lonely figure amidst the thickets, groves and plains of the island as he shambles about, shell-shocked, sick with TB and afflicted by paranoia. The enemy are all around, triumphant Americans in tanks and trucks and vengeful Filipino guerrillas scattered amongst the landscape. Tamura sees and flees distant fires which could either be from simple farmers or the enemy. Paranoia and the desire to survive sours everything and every Japanese soldier he meets is not necessarily a friend as the retreating soldiers turn on each other, all desperate for food and to escape each battle, some driven mad by their horrendous conditions.

The film takes place over days but we aren’t sure how long in total. It just feels like a long time and the only way to keep track of it is the physical appearance of Tamura who starts off looking like a soldier and ends up looking like a zombie. The make-up and physical effects and acting are astonishing as we often gaze upon the increasingly fear-filled sleepy eyes of Eiji Funakoshi. A man with matinee idol looks, the shadows underneath as the sickness sets in and his increasingly skinny body with overgrown claw-like nails act as a grisly marker of how much health he has lost and how much humanity he has shed.

The process to zombification and madness is through starvation experienced along the death march to Palampon and a series of horrific battles that occur without warning. This is black and white so it’s not as grotesque as Shinya Tsukamoto’s more recent adaptation of the novel but it is still harrowing viewing that gets across how war makes people inhuman.

The terror of battle and desperation of survival feels real as the film has numerous sequences where a a veritable skeleton army of Japanese troops assembles from the jungles for their death march, many with rotting shoes, ragged trousers, ripped shirts, and there are numerous situations where people eventually turn on each other. Tamura and the others resort to desperately pilfering from the corpses of their comrades just for basics to survive only to be cut down by a hail of bullets. Some of the stronger ones think nothing of filching from comrades debilitated by sickness. It is a humiliating showcase at odds with the presentation of military life as presented by nationalists and denialists and it reflects the reality of combat for Japanese troops who were often sent into battle with just enough rations to last a few days in the expectation that a quick victory might bring more supplies to sustain an advance.

The black and white makes it look more apocalyptic as broken bodies litter  smoke-filled barren landscapes so there is no need for the gore.

Visual information is conveyed cleanly and concisely with the camera guiding our eyes to all of the pertinent information whilst remaining cinematic. A long shot of Tamura crossing a cliff with the jungles around him is stunning and gets across that he is alone and far from home. A cut to steaming food, the camera panning up to the cautious Tamura entering a scene with his rifle ready but his eyes on the sustenance as he needs to live. Of the battlefield we get visions of fear and desperation with closeups of soldiers squirming in a crowd of bodies as a troops crawl together to avoid being spotted by the enemy.

Some of the way the soldiers are presented could be taken from horror films of the 70s and 80s as we see the emaciated soldiers covered with blood shambling around. The physical privations are perfectly shown by their transformation and a distant stare in their eyes suggests a horrific intensity of a monster. And so it intertwines perfectly with the tales of eating human flesh in New Guinea that spread amongst the soldiers on the island (see The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On for more on that) to culminate in the grim fates of the wily Yasuda (Osamu Takizawa) and younger squad-mate Nagamatsu (Mickey Curtis) who turn into monsters as resources run out, thus also providing another chilling look at how war makes us inhuman.

We witness soldiers gradually lose the last slivers of their humanity, often only clinging onto one facet of their past life as they lose all hope. Tamura is a humane person with many skills and kindness he demonstrates and we identify with him and feel a little glad when fate intervenes for him and saves his life in some horrifically ironic moments where someone takes a bullet for an action he considers making but, ultimately, war spares nobody.

The ending is a bleak one that will persuade the audience that war is wrong. Humans will cling to life in most circumstances and the film will make us pity our species over how we subject each other to violence.

Ten Dark Women   

黒い十人の女　 「Kuroi Junin no Onna」

Release Date: May 03rd, 1961

Duration: 103 mins.

Director: Kon Ichikawa

Writer: Natto Wada (Script) 

Starring: Fujiko Yamamoto, Mariko Miyagi, Tamao Nakamura, Kyoko Kishida, Eiji Funakoshi, Mayumi Kurata,

IMDB

The 1950s and 60s were boom years for Japan when its economic miracle began and new consumer goods and lifestyles emerged. With this age came a new breed of media people who used television to construct dreams designed to charm the masses. Kon Ichikawa takes a satirical glance at the sort of dream-merchant that emerged and layers it on the timeless psychology of men and women and the lack of commitment fellas have to the fairer sex as a TV producer finds himself the target of a murder from his wife and nine girlfriends, all of whom are aware of each other, and all of whom are so fed up with his flippant attitude to love they want to kill him.

In the opening ten minutes we are introduced to their scheme in media res and, in a fourth wall breaking moment, one of the plotters reveals how it has already gone badly awry before we get treated to an extended flashback to show us how it all began.

We are introduced to the producer, Kaze, and he is played by Eiji Funakoshi, the lead actor in what is arguably Kon Ichikawa’s most famous movie, Fires on the Plain (1959), where he portrayed the starving TB-ridden private Tamura scouring the battlefield for a way to survive.

Forget the battlefield, Funakoshi is now Kaze, a suave chap who works at a TV production company and it is a hive of activity as men and women rush back and forth, actors and models try out costumes, production assistants arrange vehicles to transport people, editors book advertising spaces, and directors direct shows while co-workers scoff ramen at the control desk much like Kaze does.

Funakoshi, as Kaze, is a lady-killer here with his matinee idol looks, his warm countenance, gentle smile and a dreamy look in his eyes which women fall for and when we first encounter him, one of his ladies is urging him to ditch his wife and other girlfriends, pledging to love and support him forever. He prevaricates about committing and dashes off. Their dialogue in this conversation fills in a lot of backstory as we realise he thoughtlessly picks up women through his kindness, keeps them occupied with his handsomeness, and motivates them with a kind word which gives the impress of helping their careers at the network, but he has a breezy attitude and as much substance as the wind (hence his name Kaze – Japanese for wind), something which, when discovered, leaves people disappointed and so we become interested in the plight and attitudes of the women. 

In such a varied environment and with such a free attitude to life, Kaze has collected an eclectic coterie of colleagues to step out with. This ranges from Ichiko Kinoshita (Keiko Kishi), a confident and talented actress known for western-style theatre, to a genuinely kind-hearted middle-aged widow named Miwako (Mariko Miyagi), a lady who prints TV scripts who shyly walks around the younger girls in their western clothing still wearing her kimono. Each woman has a different view of how love works and each feels different stresses about their connection with Kaze, especially since most work in the same place. 

Of course, with the ladies all head-over-heels in love with Kaze and aware of each other, this leads to excruciating emotional confessions and pleas to the man and even more excruciating clashes between the ladies and its with a mirthful eye for awkward social interactions at the workplace that Ichikawa catches every embarrassing moment. He also captures every instance of gender discrimination and every moment of shame as characters bounce between each other in love-struck disharmony and having to put up with men who limit their careers. The film uses this to act as launching pad for the murder plot the women hatch out of frustration.

Stringing so many people along is never good (although not every lady is in love and one particular person in advertising hilariously confesses she’s just with Kaze for fun) but Kaze’s flippant treatment of their emotions and his enjoyment at spinning dreams for them is such a source of such dissatisfaction that their frustration boils over into murderous intent and we can understand why through seeing Kaze’s noncommittal and carefree approach to dealing with the very real feelings of others as he breezes in and out of people’s lives.

For all of his kindness and niceties, the ephemerality of the man is perfectly captured by his wife Futaba (Fujiko Yamamoto) who has the most astute assessment of him: “The fact that he’s kind to everyone means he’s not kind to anyone”. His attitude is enabled by the media and is what the media specialises in to woo our attentions with dreams.

Kon Ichikawa’s wife/close collaborator, the writer Natto Wada, brings about a female perspective that is very cutting of gender relations as well as the media as seen in the many moments when characters lament people’s inability to be genuine and value personal connections, men especially with their inability to appreciate women. Through an untimely death, the film shows the very sad results of taking a person’s feelings for granted and so this does feel like a film written with a woman’s eye on gender relations. While men might like Kaze, would they recognise and acknowledge the heartache he causes without someone bringing their attention to it?

The film enjoys creating karmic justice and making Kaze’s life hell when he finds out that his harem want to kill him is enjoyable to watch.

At this point, paranoia and an existential crisis afflict the man as he endures the mental torture of being the subject of other people’s hate before he is put in a life or death situation that finally forces him to commit to an action. Audiences will be alternately laughing and gasping at the plot of the ladies. We also kind of agree with their intentions even if we are left aghast at how ruthless they are. As with any plan involving lots of people, there are many ways it can go wrong as characters have different perspectives and there are betrayals and this colours in the film to create moments of sympathy and tension. Indeed, even Kaze maintains some sympathy because we are charmed by his cheerfulness and romanticism.

We get caught up in the dreams he and the media construct as the film captures the absolute rush of being in a creative industry and the romance of entertainment. Apart from a ghost wandering in and out of scenes and a surreal dream sequence set on a beach, the film is is a slice of realism and we get to be on the set of an early Japanese variety show and it is fun but that, and everything at the television station is ultimately revealed to be empty as nothing of value is created by all the fuss. The only thing that is real, and what we come to admire, are the genuine feelings of women who are ready to commit to looking after Kaze and then ready to kill.

The film ends on an ambiguous note but there is one certainty, men will try to create dreams but women are the ones who create reality and a future.

Happy weekend, everyone.

One step closer to Christmas.

I have spent this week watching some of the freshest Japanese films that are due out soon as part of festival work while, in a stark contrast, I posted reviews for two films from the golden age of Japanese cinema: Fires on the Plain and Ten Dark Women. Both films are by Kon Ichikawa and I highly recommend them.

This is what has been released this weekend:

Tengaramon      

天外者（てんがらもん） 「Tengaramon」

Release Date: December 11th, 2020

Duration: 109 mins.

Director: Mitsutoshi Tanaka

Writer: Eriko Komatsu (Script), Takehiko Hata (Original Novel)

Starring: Haruma Miura, Shohei Miura, Aoi Morikawa, Mariko Tsutsui, Takanori Nishikawa, Misako Renbutsu,

Website  IMDB

One of the final films of Haruma Miura who tragically passed away earlier this year.

Synopsis: Spanning the years from the Bakumatsu to the early Meiji Period, ‘Tengaramon’ depicts the life of ‘Godai Tomoatsu’ (Miura). Born in the Satsuma domain at a time when Samurai were still a going concern, the arrival of Commodore Perry awakened the awareness that the world was going to change in the young man. Determined to seize the moment and help his nation, he worked as Meiji government officer and then a businessman who laid the foundation for Osaka to become a commercial city. 

New Interpretation Records of the Three Kingdoms   

新解釈・三國志 「Shinkaishaku Sangokushi」

Release Date: December 11th, 2020

Duration: 113 mins.

Director: Yuichi Fukuda

Writer: Yuichi Fukuda (Script), 

Starring: Yo Oizumi, Tsuyoshi Muro, Satoshi Hashimoto, Tsutomu Takahashi, Takayuki Yamada, Yuu Shirota, Jiro Sato, Shinnosuke Abe, Kanna Hashimoto, Mizuki Yamamoto,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Chinese history gets a comedic remix in this film as we travel 1800 years into the past and enter the warring states period. A military commander, Liu Bei, wishes to unite the land but before that can happen, the “Battle of Red Cliffs“, must take place and none of the players are all that serious…

Bolt   

Release Date: December 11th, 2020

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Kaizo Hayashi

Writer: Kaizo Hayashi (Script), 

Starring: Masatoshi Nagase, Shiro Sano, Hirohito Goto, Kazuhiko Kanayama, Kaito Yoshimura, Masami Horiuchi, Shima Ohnishi, Sarara Tsukifune,

Website

An omnibus film where Masatoshi Nagase takes the lead role in each story.

Synopsis: Bolt

Following an earthquake, a bolt in a nuclear power plant comes loose and radioactive cooling water begins to leak from a pipe. A group of men volunteer to stop the leak by tightening the bolt.

Life

Two men go to a house in an area 20 kilometres away from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. It is in an area designated as evacuation zone, but an elderly person refused to leave and so when that person dies, these two men are assigned to clear out their belongings.

Good Year

A woman who has abandoned her family on Christmas night travels to a factory where a man is creating something. 

Yes ka no ka hanbunka / Yes, No, or Maybe Half?

イエスかノーか半分か「Iesu ka no ka hanbunka」

Release Date: December 11th, 2020

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Masahiro Takata

Writer: Masahiro Takata (Script), Michi Ichiho (Original Creator)

Starring: Atsushi Abe (Kei Kunieda), Yoshihisa Kawahara (Ushio Tsuzuki),

Animation Production: Lesprit,

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: Kei Kunieda is a young and popular TV announcer known as “the prince”. He got this moniker from being friendly, handsome and damn near perfect in everything he does but, in reality, it’s a perfect façade because in his private life, he doesn’t make as much of an effort and secretly despises anyone who makes a mistake. One day, Kei meets animation artist Ushio Tsuzuki for a work assignment who discovers the “private” Kei… 

Masaka no Kintarou   

まるだせ金太狼 「Masaka no Kintarou」

Release Date: December 11th, 2020

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Hideki Araki

Writer: Yuzo Yoku(Script), Naomi Guren (Original Creator)

Starring: Souma Saito (Makoto Onodera), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Kintaro Masaka),

Animation Production: Seven

Website ANN MAL

The concept is questionable and the trailer is not safe for work…

Synopsis: Makoto attends the prestigious Onodera Academy, a place run by his grandfather until the old man passed away. He left Makoto in the care of his school staff and it is revealed that in his will, the old man declared – “The one man who is able to seduce Makoto with his superb sexual techniques will be given the right to take over as Onodera Academy’s new principal!”

Dun, dun, DUUUUUN! Makoto now becomes the target of sexual harassment of every faculty member. Desperate to protect his virginity, Makoto seeks help from his childhood friend (and the man who he has always loved), Kintaro.

Burai   

無頼 「Burai」

Release Date: December 12th, 2020

Duration: 104 mins.

Director: Toyofumi Tsuji

Writer: Yoshishi Sano, Naoto Tsuzuki, Kazuyuki Izutsu (Script), 

Starring: Toshio Matsumoto, Yurina Yanagi, Tatsuya Nakamura, Shin Shimizu, Yohei Matsukado, Karou Endo, Goro Sato,

Website

Synopsis: 40 years of the Showa period are seen in this yakuza drama which we are taken through by a man named Masaharu (Toshio Matsumoto), who we first meet just after World War II as he and others rejected by society as “unreliable people” set up their own crime family. 

Our Sweetest Murder Plan   

愛しのダディー殺害計画 「Shinkaishaku Sangokushi」

Release Date: December 11th, 2020

Duration: 28 mins.

Director: Nanako Irie

Writer: Nanako Irie(Script),

Starring: Serena Motola, Michaela Wako Sato, Keigo Oka, Yoko Yano, Yoshitaka Hosokawa,

Website

Actress and model Serena Motola joins former idol and current YouTuber Michela Sato, in a short film that depicts them as sisters who plan to kill their beloved father after he says he wants to remarry.

Synopsis: Mari (Michela Sato) and Emma (Serena Motola) are sisters who have lived in harmony with their gentle father (Keigo Oka) since their mother left home with her lover 14 years ago. But one morning, their father says, “I want to get married again.” The sisters, who don’t want to lose their father decide to kill him with their own hands and rope in a childhood friend to help them… 

Lady to Lady   

レディ・トゥ・レディ 「Redei to Redei」

Release Date: December 11th, 2020

Duration:90 mins.

Director: Hirokazu Fujisawa

Writer: Hirokazu Fujisawa (Script),

Starring: Chika Uchida, Chihiro Otsuka, Shinya Niiro, Houka Kinosita, Hazuki Shimizu, Tomoko Ikuta,

Website

Shall We Dance? gets a female spin in this story of two women enjoying  ballroom dancing and revitalising their lives. Chihiro Otsuka and Chika Uchida have good comedy presences and there’s also some social commentary by the looks of things.

Synopsis: Mako Suzuki (Chihiro Otsuka), a busy housewife, and Ichika Jojima (Chika Uchida), a struggling actress, find themselves stepping into the limelight through competitive ballroom dancing. It may sound like a departure for two 30-something women but they have form since they did it in high school and when they try it out again after being reunited at their school alumni party, they decided to form a competitive dance couple to recapture their youth. The two practice hard but there is controversy over the pros and cons of a female pair and also there is a struggle to balance their dream and real life.

Sensha Toso   

戦車闘争 「Sensha Toso」

Release Date: December 12th, 2020

Duration: 104 mins.

Director: Toyofumi Tsuji

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: A documentary about a Vietnam-era anti-war movement that focussed on tanks that were stationed in a US military repair facility in Kanagawa prefecture in 1972. The U.S. Army Sagami General Depot in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, transported its vehicles via the naval base in Yokohama for return to the battlefield. Japanese citizens blocked the transportation of tanks in a protest that lasted for about 100 days. The film collects testimonies and archival materials from 54 people, including protesters, local shopkeepers, city council members, and experts from different sides. Through this film, an examination of Japan-US relations and the problems of Japan’s post-war Constitution are revealed. 

An Actor’s Revenge 

雪之丞変化 「Yukinojo Henge」

Release Date: January 13rg, 1963

Duration: 114 mins.

Director: Kon Ichikawa

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

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

IMDB

Kon Ichikawa’s 1963 version of An Actor’s Revenge is a remake of the 1935 film starring Kazuo Hasegawa who came back to reprise a role that helped make him a star. Hasegawa, already a major kabuki and movie actor, must have thought this story special as this is his 300^th film appearance. Far from being a staid jidaigeki adaptation, Ichikawa fuses period verisimilitude with colourful art direction and abstract framing to create a vision where the borders between the theatrical and real no longer exist.

It is 1863 and Japan is about to suffer the Tenpo famine (1833-37). Times are already tough for the ordinary citizenry who have lost faith in the government and labour under the daily grind of life. While the aristocratic class prefer the restrained theatrics Noh, the lower classes like to escape into the exuberant world of kabuki. The film’s main character Yukinojo (Kazuo Hasegawa) is a well-known ‘onnagata’ (an actor who specialises in playing female roles) in a travelling kabuki troupe from Osaka. Much sought after for his skill, he and the theatre group have been invited to Edo (the old name of Tokyo) to perform but Yukinojo has an ulterior motive for acting: finding and taking revenge on Lord Dob, a retired magistrate, and two rice merchants named Kawaguchiya and Hiromiya.

Twenty years ago, they played a part in the death of Yukinojo’s parents and in the years that elapsed he has thought of nothing but revenge. This desire has driven him as far as to learn the way of the sword as well as the ways of the stage. He is so driven by the thought of revenge that he plots to ruin the lives of his targets in the most long drawn out way possible before death and he fixes on using Lord Dob’s daughter  Namiji (Ayako Wakao) to do it…

The scheme he cooks up to take out his targets is an exquisitely intricate and daring one designed to play the villains off against each other and milk the maximum of emotions from such as anger, humiliation and despair during their downfall. Seeing this executed results in narrative twists and turns and melodramatic meltdowns for the corrupt antagonists. Acting as more than just the backdrop of the film, the combustible atmosphere of a society rocked by riots from the starving working class is weaved into the story and we see how these conditions play a part in the vile rice merchant’s nefarious political and financial machinations.

To flesh out Yukinojo’s quest, we get flashbacks to his tragic past as an infant who watched his parents driven to madness and then suicide by the greedy villains. This acts as a great motivator for Yukinojo. Channeling this tragedy is Kazuo Hasegawa who demonstrates why this is his role as he transforms from a graceful and demure onnagata to a fierce and terrifying agent of revenge in the flash of a blade and the reveal of an acidic look when he lets his theatrical façade crack and displays poisonous hatred for his prey.

Balanced against this is Namiji who is the essence of innocence and pure-hearted love as she falls for Yukinojo and it offers some really great character conflict for the man as he spends time agonising over how shameful and vile his actions are to include her in his plans. In a film where so much hatred and anger abounds, Ayako Wakao’s naïve performance as Namiji offers a fresh-faced innocence as she offers a genuine love that will make audience’s hearts ache, her fate acting as a tragic counterpoint to the main plot. It’s a great performance considering she had already played morally compromised and lustful characters in Yasuzo Masamura and Yuzo Kawashima films like A Wife Confesses (1961), The Graceful Brute (1962) and The Temple of Wild Geese (1962) a year before this was made!

Ayako Wakao gets all the press as a tragic heroine but it’s the performance of Fujiko Yamamoto as coquettish cat burglar Ohatsu who is utterly charming and romantic and completely different from her character in Kon Ichikawa’s Ten Dark Women (1959) that I personally liked.

Adding to the mix of emotions and storylines are subplots involving a rival swordsman from Yukinojo’s old dojo and a comical collection of cunning pickpockets competing in a Robin Hood-like game to save working-class people in the city from starvation. Their inclusion in the story brings some welcome social history as we go from the luxurious surroundings of the parasitic merchant class to the streets where ramshackle huts sitting along swampland form the setting. Seeing the deprivation makes the villains and their trickery even more despicable and their subsequent downfall highly gratifying.

Hard times make for great art as they focus minds and here the mise-en-scene, subject matter and psychologies of the character are melded together to colour the screen, to heighten the atmosphere of a melodramatic story through combining the worlds of the kabuki stage and the street, and the perfect framing of scenes leads to slipping seamlessly between the two spaces.

It seems like a lot of the action takes place on sound stages. Smart set dressing combined with excellent camera placement and movement make the most of the limited exterior and interior locations to recreate the sense of 1836. There are the occasional painted backgrounds for dramatic horizons and they can act as a screen for occasional shadow plays that enact their own stories. Lighting is used tactically to heighten tension and coloured lighting adds emotional hues, casting the set in the mind of the protagonist. To top it all off, the camerawork and editing are perfect for zeroing in on emotions, cutting to a close-up or dollying in on a face as the drama unfolds and we watch character navigate difficult situation.

The films Ichikawa that I have reviewed thus far are all in the realist vein but An Actor’s Revenge is a departure, a highly theatrical and artistic vision which brings the theatre of kabuki and a whole load of history onto the screen with flair to make a wonderfully beautiful and tragic story.

Matango     

マタンゴ 「Matango」

Release Date: August 11th, 1963

Duration: 89 mins.

Director: Ishiro Honda

Writer: Takeshi Kimura (Script),

Starring: Akira Kubo (Professor Kenji Murai), Kumi Mizuno (Mami Sekiguchi – singer), Miki Yashiro (Akiko Soma – Student), Hiroshi Koizumi (Naouyuki Sakuta – Captain), Kenji Sahara (Senzo Koyama – Sailor), Hiroshi Tachikawa (Etsuro Yoshida – Writer), Yoshio Tsuchiya (Masafumi Kasai – Owner), Yutaka Oka (Doctor),

IMDB

While Ishiro Honda may be better known as the man who directed Godzilla and numerous other kaiju eiga, he has an extensive filmography that covers different genres. Quite interestingly, he even worked as second unit director on Akira Kurosawa’s later films like Madadayo (1993), Rhapsody in August (1991), Dreams (1990), and Ran (1985). This is a rather long-winded wind up to say that Honda’s a bit of a filmic renaissance man who jumps around genres and roles but the first film of his that I will review on my blog is not anything obvious but Matango (1963), a merciless horror flick that takes a slow-burn approach to its telling.

Light spoilers.

The story has a killer opening with a man in an insane asylum gazing upon the neon lights of Tokyo while he relates his story of how he got there. He is Kenji Murai (Akira Kubo), a professor of psychology, and his narration will float in and out of the film as he is our main protag on a sailing trip from hell and we will see what went so wrong in one long extended flashback.

It all starts as a bit of fun in the sun for a bunch of playboys seeking to get away from the dust and masses of humanity in Tokyo by heading out onto the open sea in a luxury yacht. This group consists of Kenji and university student Akiko Soma (Miki Yashiro), Mami Sekiguchi (Kumi Mizuno), a singer and flighty lady, the ship’s owner Masafumi Kasai (Yoshio Tsuchiya), a novelist named Etsuro Yoshida (Hiroshi Tachikawa) and two men hired as crew. As the ship coasts along the sea around Kyushu, the gang are suddenly blown off course by a sudden storm which leaves the yacht wrecked, the mast snapped, sails torn, radio busted.

Adrift and in dire straits they face almost certain doom as food runs low, tension runs high and alcohol flows but soon these sozzled sailors end up washed ashore on an uninhabited island. It looks like their luck has turned as it is a verdant place that has a few vegetables but a far more abundant supply of fresh water and, in the mist-wreathed swamps at the centre of the island, mysterious mushrooms that grow in huge numbers and to huge misshapen sizes. Indeed, while flora is all around, fauna is notably absent apart from the occasional turtle that uses the beaches to lay eggs and so the only sound present is the wash of the surf and the whisper of the wind, the chatter of these desperate castaways and a mysterious helium-voiced giggling that can just be heard floating around the shrooms.

Things take a menacing turn when the group discover a fungus-covered derelict ship of unknown origin which has a laboratory packed full of chemicals and scientific equipment. While the rotten state of it alone clues these castaways into something terribad having happened, a search of the vessel confirms it as they uncover those mysterious misshapen mushrooms in a laboratory, an untouched cache of canned food, a lack of mirrors, and a captain’s log with menacing notes about “the crew disappearing every day” and a warning saying “don’t eat mushrooms.” The mushrooms are a new variety labelled “matango” and are very delicious, have hallucinogenic effects and addictive enough that people get hooked on them like a drug. With their options limited, the group of five men and two women decide to hole up on board the mould-encrusted ship to figure out how they can survive little realising that the crew are still around on the island but maybe not in a form that is recognisable...

Despite the possibility of mutagenic mushrooms, body-horror, and monster attacks, the tension of the story is more dictated by the squabbles, disagreements and some sexual tension between the characters as survival takes precedent and they each play one another off for an ever-dwindling supply of canned food and clean water and the attentions of the women. Each of the characters has a strong and distinct personality and these clash out in the wilderness where social class gets turned upside down because money is useless, the novelist, already a massive egotist lapping up this situation for material, begins to act out the character of a madman, and Mami hooks up with whoever looks like they will be the dominant one.

This creates an atmosphere of ego-driven conflict and betrayal to keep viewers on edge but dread is fostered by the mysterious mushrooms and the missing crew whose fate on that island also feeds into a sense of mystery which gets teased out by the discovery of footprints around the derelict and through the forest.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the gradual warping of bodies and minds of the characters, surreal fantasy scenes created by eating mushrooms, and some creeping monster POV shots eventually give way to eerie monster antics as the creatures begin to manifest themselves from the depths of the island and while Honda lets loose some rubbery suits and gnarly make-up, the deadliest conflicts that take place in the film happen between the humans who give way to their worst impulses and murder each other. Indeed, the desperation and tension of the film comes from the discord and betrayals of the humans and their horrid situation and one of the central ironies of the film is that it ends with the suggestion that turning into mushrooms might be more preferable to being a human, an individual with an ego ever at odds with others.

While the real threat comes from people, the mystery of the island and what the mushrooms do adds a sparkle of great horror. Perhaps the psychological battles are based in reality because this was a time when the CIA were experimenting with the hallucinogenic effects of mushrooms, drugs were becoming a problem and, according to the Wikipedia entry on the film, it was partly inspired by a real-life incident as well as William Hope Hodgson’s short story The Voice in the Night. Whatever the case, the film has a solid story full of conflict but the highlight is some brilliant art direction and set dressing and a prime location that allows the setting to be a character itself. The island looks desolate, the derelict ship is like something out of a supernatural story written by Edgar Allen Poe, the mushroom swamp and fungus-filled landscape alternate between being menacing and a colourful carnivalesque place with some truly menacing mushrooms that are squishy and gross looking, with lots of squelching sound effects to boot, to create a distinctive look.

Honda’s penchant for special effects may be kept in check for the majority of the film but it comes out in the final sequences which are more gut-churning and upsetting of the thought of bodily dissolution rather than seeing it in action as the special effects and costumes can’t quite rise above the silly. However, his visual panache allows this film to still be atmospheric and so even if the monsters don’t scare, the feeling is one of bleakness and despair so that ending hits hard and we understand that becoming a mushroom is not as bad as being a human and having terrible shipmates. 

Happy weekend, everyone.

I hope you are all well and getting hyped for Christmas.

Since I last did a trailer post I recorded the Christmas episode of the Heroic Purgatory podcast where I spoke with John Atom about films we associate with Christmas. As with previous years, I will have a film review lined up for the big day which is a week away. I have been watching lots of short films and a handful of features and I posted review for An Actor’s Revenge (1963) and Matango (1963).

This is the first of a two-part trailer post asking a very important question… What is released in Japan this weekend?

Hold Me Back   

私をくいとめて 「Watashi o Kuitomete」

Release Date: December 18th, 2020

Duration: 135 mins.

Director: Akiko Ohku

Writer: Akiko Ohku (Script), Risa Wataya (Original Novel)

Starring: Non, Kento Hayashi, Asami Usada, Hairi Katagiri, Takuya Wakabahayshi, Ai Hashimoto,

Website IMDB

This won Best Film at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival thanks to audience votes. Here’s a Festival Report from the event to clue you in as to why it was so popular.

Synopsis: 31-years-old Mitsuko Kuroda (Non) is happily enjoying her single life after getting used to living alone. A big reason is that she has a consultant, counsellor “A”, a voice in her mind which gives her advice on how to behave and on her relationships. She believes her happy and peaceful single life with “A” will continue, but she falls in love with Tada-kun (Kento Hayashi), a salesman who is younger than her. Mitsuko decides to take a step forward, even though she is confused by her new lack of courage.

The Promised Neverland   

約束のネバーランド 「Yakusoku no Neverland」

Release Date: December 18th, 2020

Duration: 118 mins.

Director: Yuichiro Hirakawa

Writer: Noriko Goto (Script), Kaiu Shirai, Posuka Demizu (Original Manga)

Starring: Minami Hamabe, Rihito Itagaki, Kairi Jyo, Keiko Kitagawa, Naomi Watanabe, Fuga Shibazaki,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Emma (Minami Hamabe), Norman (Rihito Itagaki) and Ray (Kairi Jyo) are three gifted kids living in an orphanage called “Grace Field House”. The place is run by a lady named Isabella (Keiko Kitagawa) who takes such good care of the orphans she is like a mother, but perceptions change when Emma and Norman learn the dark secret of the orphanage and the outside world and it is something that forces the three to escape from the orphanage with the other kids as soon as possible…

Kamen Rider Zero-One: REAL×TIME   

劇場版 仮面ライダーゼロワン リーエルタイム 「Gekijouban Kamen Raida- Zerowan Ri-erutaimu」

Release Date: May 18th, 1986

Duration: 127 mins.

Director: Teruaki Sugihara

Writer: Yuya Takahashi (Script), 

Starring: Fumiya Takahashi, Ryutaro Okada, Noa Tsurushima, Hiroe Igeta, Asumi Narita, Satsuki Nakayama,

Website IMDB Kamen Rider Fandom

Synopsis from Kamen Rider Fandom: Japan has entered a new era. Hiden Intelligence, the country’s most thriving technology company that specializes in artificial intelligence (AI), has developed a way to utilize these A.I.s in a humanoid form, known as the Humagear. These virtually identical humanoid androids have become a staple in everyday life, to the general public as well as the private sectors. After his grandfather’s death, a young but failing stage comedian named Aruto Hiden bears witness to several terrorist attacks orchestrated by MetsubouJinrai.net, prompting the creation of an anti-Humagear military squad, A.I.M.S.. Upon inheriting his late grandfather’s company and the Zero-One Driver, Aruto becomes Kamen Rider Zero-One and finds himself caught in the crossfire between MetsubouJinrai.net and ZAIA Japan, led by Gai Amatsu who wishes to rid the Humagear from society and take over the world.

Kamen Rider Saber: The Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin   

劇場短編 仮面ライダーセイバー［聖刃］不死鳥の剣士と破滅の書 「Gekijoutanpen Kamen Raida- Seiba- Fushichou no Kenshi to Hametsu no Hon」

Release Date: December 18th, 2020

Duration: 127 mins.

Director: Takayuki Shibasaki

Writer: Takuro Fukuda (Script), 

Starring: Shuichiro Naito, Takaya Yamaguchi, Asuka Kawazu, Ryo Aoki, Yuki Ikushima, Eiji Togashi, Rina Chinen,

Website IMDB Kamen Rider Fandom

Synopsis: A short movie version of “Kamen Rider Saber” which began broadcast in September 2020 as the second instalment of the Reiwa Kamen Rider series. The story revolves around the book of ruin which Kamen Rider Saber and Kamen Rider Falchion must seal before the world is swallowed by the darkness that lies within. 

Densha o tomeru na! Noroi no 6. 4 Km   

電車を止めるな！　のろいの6.4km 「Densha o tomeru na! Noroi no 6. 4 Km」

Release Date: December 18th, 2020

Duration: 84 mins.

Director: Koji Akai

Writer: Koji Akai, Miyako Yoshimura, Hiroki Terai (Script), Hiroki Terai (Original Novel)

Starring: Shinobu Koga, Yurie Suenaga, Hina, Hideshi Hino, Atsuhiko Nakata, Yoshiki Michii, Kota Matsumoto,

Website IMDB

A comedy movie produced by Choshi Electric Railway, a local railway in Choshi City, Chiba Prefecture, for the unusual purpose of raising funds for repair work on a substation. The line, which opened in 1923, runs for a total length of 6.4 km but it requires 100 million yen to fix up. 

Synopsis: A railway company on the verge of discontinuing the line plans a “psychic train” as a way to save it. Employees are asked to produce a psychic phenomenon in front of the camera but nothing seems to go right. What they don’t realise is that an unexpected and very real psychic phenomenon is beginning to occur and it puts the passengers on board in danger as the psychic train continues to run without showing any signs of stopping and approaches the terminal station…

More Japanese film trailers tomorrow!

Happy weekend, again!

I hope you are still feeling good.

I’ve been watching short films this week but also got a bit of Karaoke Terror for my feature fill. This is the follow-up instalment to yesterday’s trailer post.

What else is released this weekend in Japan?

To Sleep So as to Dream   

夢みるように眠りたい 「Yumemiru you ni nemuritai」

Release Date: May 18th, 1986

Duration: 84 mins.

Director: Kaizo Hayashi

Writer: Kaizo Hayashi (Script), 

Starring: Shiro Sano, Moe Kamura, Morio Agata, Kenji Endo, Fujiko Fukamizu, Baiken Jukkanji, Kyoko Kusajima, Kazunari Ozawa,

Website IMDB

Kaizo Hayashi, who is best known for his neo-noir Maiku Hama trilogy, The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994), Stairway to the Distant Past (1995) and The Trap (1996), released BOLT last week. It was his latest film in a long while. His debut movie has been given the remaster treatment and is in Shibuya Euro Space for a limited run.

Synopsis: It is the Showa period and a private eye named Jin Uozuka (Shiro Sano) is hired to track down her missing daughter of an aging silent film actress named Sakura Tsukishima. Sakura was a big star and worked with pioneering director  Norimasa Kaeriyama in the Taisho period but some of those films were lost. Jin and his wacky assistant uncover a kidnapping plot that blends reality with the fantasy world of films…

Independence of Japan   

日本独立 「Nihon dokuritsu」

Release Date: December 18th, 2020

Duration: 127 mins.

Director: Shunya Ito

Writer: Shunya Ito (Script), 

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Rie Miyazawa, Renji Ishibashi, Akira Emoto, Adam Templar, Kaoru Kobayashi, Miyoko Asada, Shiro Sano, Yutaka Matsushige,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Set in Japan just after the war, the drama depicts the actions of Japanese foreign minister Shigeru Yoshida and his friend/negotiator Jiro Shirasu who worked hard to establish the independence of Japan from the influence of General Douglas McArthur and GHQ at the time the constitution was being created. 

Akogare no sora no shimo kyokasho no nai shogakko no ichinen

電車を止めるな！　のろいの6.4km 「Akogare no sora no shimo kyoukasho no nai shougakkou no ichinen」

Release Date: December 19th, 2020

Duration: 101 mins.

Director: Hiroshi Masuda, Fan Manman (?)

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: A documentary about Wako Elementary School, a private elementary school in the posh Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, It is known for its unique education that does not use textbooks and, instead, prioritises ​​children’s independence above all else. Kids are allowed to grow through lots of physical activities, discussions with supportive teachers and other techniques that encourage deep thinking and independence. 

Seasons of Woman   

Release Date: December 19th, 2020

Duration: 80 mins.

Director: Ryo Kawasaki

Writer: Ryo Kawasaki (Script), 

Starring: Haruka Imou, Ryoka Neya, Chika Uchida, Kaori Matsui, Yume Saito, Nanae Takimoto,

Website

Synopsis: This is an omnibus movie consisting of four short films with the theme of “living as a woman” according to the changing four seasons. Each short was directed by Ryo Kawasaki (Wasted Eggs) and it took six years to produce all of them and then combine them for this film.

The stories are “Laughing Woman Club” set in spring, “Her Sunflower” in summer, “AUTUMN OF WOMAN” in autumn, and “Snow Woman” in winter. The characters include high school students, college students, and middle age women, all of whom are grappling with the worries and the problems faced by many women in Japan such as “marriage” and “childbirth”. 

Chosa-ya Mao-san no koibumi   

調査屋マオさんの恋文 「Chosa-ya Mao-san no koibumi」

Release Date: December 19th, 2020

Duration: 78 mins.

Director: Iori Imai

Writer: N/A

Starring: Masao Sato, Seiko Sato, Voice Over: Iori Imai, Kako Ogawa,

Website

Synopsis: This documentary, which won the Grand Prix at the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2019, records the daily lives of husband and wife duo Masao and Seiko Sato. Born in Korea in 1945, Masao travelled to Niigata at the end of the war and became a corporate warrior during the economic miracle Japan experienced. He started a market research company in Osaka after graduating from university and then travelled to Tokyo to pursue further business before he returned to Osaka and started a self-sufficient life with his family in order to rebuild his relationship with them. Then his wife, Seiko, developed dementia. Masao visits her in a nursing home and keeps a record of her words and actions that change every day. This film keeps a record of their time together.

Animation Runs! is an annual event hosted by Himeji Cinema Club where people can enjoy a variety of short films created by indie animators. Due to Covid-19, the event will be going online via a YouTube channel which will host 19 films across four programmes, all of which are listed on the official website.

The films announced are a mixture of narrative and non-narrative with music videos thrown in, all done in a variety of styles like 2D anime (闘え!!ハクマイダーフォー), beautiful illustrations (MELVAS), abstract images (LFL) and stop motion (City Has a Hill/Case of ONOMICHI) and even an animation using LINE stamps and the memo function of the iPhone (memo anime). Furthermore, there will be a short talk given by each of the directors following the screening of each film.

You can get a taste of the films with City Has a Hill/Case of ONOMICHI with the embedded video below.

At the time of writing, the YouTube videos have not been released but what has been confirmed is that the films are all available to view for free on the channel and people from around the world can watch them from December 25 – 28:

25(Fri) 18:00 in JP/9:00, 25th in UK
28(Mon) 6:00 in JP/21:00, 28th in UK

To find out more, please visit the site and follow the Twitter account to get more information such as info on the animators and the screening links.

I originally posted this news item on Anime UK News.

GFP Bunny                                                   

タリウム少女の毒殺日記  「GFP Bunny Tariumu shojo no dokusatsu nikki」 

Running Time: 82 mins.

Release Date: July 06th, 2013

Director: Yutaka Tsuchiya

Writer: Yutaka Tsuchiya

Starring: Yuka Kuramochi, Makiko Watanabe, Kanji Furutachi, Takahashi,

Website    IMDB

Not for the faint of heart, GFP Bunny is the third film directed by media activist Yutaka Tsuchiya. Following on from his debut The New God (1999) and sophomore feature Peep “TV” Show (2003), GFP Bunny is a continuation of his exploration of alienated youth using media to shape their personalities. It finds its troubling story in a real-life criminal case from 2005 where a 16-year-old girl poisoned her mother with thallium and documented the act online.

Crowned winner of the Best Picture Award in the Japanese Eyes section of the 2012 Tokyo International Film Festival, GFP Bunny is challenging viewing in both story and style. It opens confrontationally with the stomach-churning sight of a frog being dissected before deluging audiences with scientific research, scenes of bullying and near-murder and a girl’s search for identity but, instead of a straight retelling of the case via a lurid drama or factual documentary, director Yutaka Tsuchiya opts for a metafiction that is delivered through a docu-drama format which he uses to address ideas of  “Surveillance in a Marketing-orientated Society”, “Characterisation of Identity” and “Biotechnology” (Source).

In the dramatic parts we follow the actions of Thallium Girl (gravure idol Yuka Kuramochi), a precocious schizophrenic teen living in a single-parent household. Disconnected from her youth-obsessed mother (Makiko Watanabe) and suffering intense bullying, her two outlets are science and the internet.

At home on the web, like an ordinary teen, she records herself dancing to obscure net culture music like Cirno’s Perfect Math Class, browsing videos of bullying from around the world and has no problem putting her personality in the digital realm for all to see. Indeed, her bullies have no problem digitising their torment of her, including one video where she is treated like a frog.

Showing an extreme fascination with science, Thallium Girl researches the latest advances in genetic engineering, ‘bio art’ and body modification and uploads videos of her dissections and testing of small animals and insects. Through science she transforms herself into an “observer” and this is how she mediates life, especially the bullying she is subjected to as she abstracts herself from the horror and views herself as part of an experiment.

Where the poison plot comes in is that the girl’s mother, trying to prevent ageing, grows obsessed with cosmetic surgery and biological changes to her body. Thallium Girl naturally sees parallels between research and life and so the daughter views her mother as a specimen for experimentation and begins to administer small amounts of thallium and recording its effects via an online diary and YouTube videos. This is how we view her mother’s growing sickness as well as Thallium Girl as both observer and observed as we view her internet videos and get her perspective on the world.

As despicable as her actions sound, as the film plays out, there is the sense that there is no malice in her intent but, rather, an interest in science and a desperate desire to evolve beyond her present circumstances and so the idea that the poisoning is an experiment rather than a murder plot founded upon bullying and unhappiness begins to emerge. It takes nearly the entire duration of the film but the documentary aspects deliver this understanding.

Scattered throughout the fiction are interviews with real-life experts and vox pops with the general public about the ethics and techniques involved in body and genetic modification and also sequences where we see it for ourselves. The biologist who invented a transparent frog to lessen the need to dissect regular frogs, a practitioner of Raelism who argues that humanity must harness science to evolve, and Takahashi, an artist who does body modification who has implanted an IC chip with GPS in her hand all feature and show a possible future where changing our biological makeup can allow us greater control and understanding of ourselves which, we learn, is what Thallium Girl is searching for.

These sections act as a good way of addressing the themes of identity and biotechnology and offer a rational explanation for the actions of Thallium Girl that go beyond teenage alienation. Perfect for the story, they form parallels with the experiments she does as a way of searching for an escape from her everyday travails and add to her character arc. This mixture of voices also helps the form of the film where it moves at a rapid clip between drama and short but interesting interviews that chunk the information that Thallium Girl is absorbing from the net and act as a way of detailing the sort of stuff that she is writing down in her online diaries to help further centre her perspective and make her a more sympathetic person and not just a monster from a new story.

Probably the most menacing thing about the film was no longer the issue of poisoning and changing bodies but the issue of “Surveillance in a Marketing-orientated Society”. A convincing argument is made that freedom is lost in the capitalism-driven date harvesting age that we live in as we surrender personal details and even our image to CCTV, YouTube, and find ourselves ceding control over to others who can edit and control these things. With so much of her life mediated by the internet, being with Thallium Girl creates a suffocating feeling made worse in the fact that the data-harvesting world depicted in this nearly decade old film has come true.

So while it would be easy to dismiss Thallium Girl’s experimentation and her interest in body modification as some sort of perverse extension of her wayward behaviour, we see how it offers a liberation from the real world and all of its controls and maybe it adds a last chance of freedom for a girl struggling to understand herself. This is best felt in the final five minutes where she breaks away from school and strides to Takahashi with pop punk playing on the soundtrack.

Creating this metafiction is Tsuchiya who acts as narrator and skilfully channels different currents of information together to create a complex collage of a modern alienated youth. From conducting talking head interviews to even engaging in a dialogue with Thallium Girl, his presence allows the film to navigate a lot of information and creating a nuanced and unique look at a criminal case that one might be tempted to recreate using staid forms like a straight documentary or fiction. While he admits that he changed details about the original case to make his film, it all rings true, an accurate picture of our information-driven age and people who find themselves changing their personalities through it. As such, the film is a constantly engaging experience that turns a crime into a probing character study and an examination of where we are going as a society and in its fair-minded engagement of issues, it shows that we can harness change for the better.

Hold Your Breath Like a Lover   

息を殺して  「Iki wo Koroshite」

Release Date: June 20^th, 2015

Running Time: 85 mins.

Director: Kohei Igarashi

Writer: Kohei Igarashi (Screenplay),

Starring: Ran Taniguchi, Goichi Mine, Yusuke Inaba, Koji Harada, Tomomitsu Adachi, Ran Arai, Rina Tanaka, Yuki Inagaki

Tumblr   IMDB

This has been a film that has haunted me ever since I first saw the trailer back in 2014 and it was one of the films I was hoping to find in 2020. Well, I did. I ended up viewing it a couple of times. My initial impressions from the trailer was that this felt like it had “shades of Pulse (2001)” and an “apocalypse angle” but it turned out to be something else entirely, a subtle, gorgeous and melancholy take on the anxiety felt on the path of adulthood and a gradual maturation of its characters. It’s story is simple, perfect for allowing the powerful atmospherics to wash over me and pull me along.

The film takes place a couple of days after Christmas, 2017. The Christmas period is traditionally a time of year when you gather together with loved ones, share gifts and love and maybe some supernatural stories, a few melancholy moments over people gone, opportunities lost and time faded and also resolve to do better in the future in the hope of a symbolic rebirth. Perhaps it can be seen as the point where the threshold between past and future is most acutely felt. Instead of going home and spending time doing any of those things with others, however, a small selection of staff at a recycling centre/factory in Yokohama are lingering together after a night shift.

The skeleton crew keeping the lights on include 20-somethings like Tani (Ran Taniguchi), a gloomy office lady, and two workers, laidback Ken (Yusuke Inaba) and his survival-game-obsessed friend Gou (Goichi Mine) who roams around clad in combat gear. There are a couple of middle-aged colleagues too, such as Yana (Koji Harada), a divorcee who valiantly tries to fix up Christmas decorations, and Adachi (Tomomitsu Adachi), a man who seems like he is on the fast track for divorce after his wife has discovers he is being unfaithful. As the new year approaches, the factory becomes haunted by ghosts of people they knew and members of the team show what has united them in staying put: fears that they carry in their hearts over their uncertain futures.

The film’s plot is simple and just revolves around observing the characters, those 20 somethings who show reluctance to commit to tackling big questions in their lives, the sort that all adults must confront at some point. At first, you can write off their behaviour as the heavy-limbed tiredness from working long hours but the more we observe them and listen to their dialogue, the more we learn about their lives inside and outside of the factory and see that they are afflicted by anxiety and sadness and that by remaining at the factory half-heartedly working they are avoiding responsibilities like teens tarrying on the playground long into the dusk rather than going home and doing their homework.

The characters here spend their time in the gloomy cavernous halls of the factory, playing video games, and just hanging out on another night shift and talking about nothing in particular until they are confronted by something and let their fears come out. For Ken we see his qualms in committing to his pregnant girlfriend Mi-chan who waits for him, Gou grapples with mortality as felt with the appearance of ghosts, one of whom also has meaning for Tani who struggles to let go of her feelings for a co-worker as well as her sadness over the loss of her father. However, with the approach of the new year, letting go of dreams and taking on responsibilities becomes an inevitability.

The principal strength of the film is its atmospherics, as created by the mise-en-scene, as they colour in the dialogue and actions which are full of resistance to the slow pull of responsibilities that drags adults closer towards committing to something, to ageing, and dying.

The central location, the factory, is itself a liminal space that acts as the perfect playground for the emotional transitions of the characters who are on the threshold of maturity. Empty of people and with low-lighting from being shot at night, it is made unfamiliar, eerie, perfect for being haunted by ghosts. Due to the blocky architecture of such a place which favours function over form, the characters are often framed in interesting ways that uses the geometry of corridors, computer servers, pillars and staircases. At times, the architecture feels like it accentuates a haunted atmosphere, at other times it emphasises loneliness. It always suggests that the characters are in the process of moving and matches their emotional state.

It’s all resolved for most of workmates in a haunting slow-burn drama where they slowly acknowledge the need to move on and confront what emotionally ails them and fully face the anxiety they have in their heart. Their moving on is symbolised at the end with the characters greeting the new year and walking out into the sunshine. It is most poignantly felt in Tani’s character arc as she embraces and dances with her father, letting go of her gloominess and, perhaps, openly mourning properly for the first time.

As an adult, all of this rang true for me as these are emotions that I feel and so the film was quite moving for me. The slow pacing was perfect, the imagery beautiful and I felt a story of maturation that I could identify with even as the way everything is filmed are made unfamiliar. And, yes, this qualifies as a Christmas film since it takes place during the Christmas period and features a sense of rebirth.

Merry Christmas

I hope you are all well and full of festive cheer.

I’ve had the good fortune to have been given lots of Japan and writing-related gifts from my mother and sister with a collection of books about Japanese cinema (like the phenomenal first edition of Tom Mes’s Agitator. The Cinema of Takashi Miike), a bonsai tree and more. During this week I posted reviews of Hold Your Breath Like a Lover, GFP Bunny and also a news article about the Himeji Cinema Club’s annual festival Animation Runs! which I’ve updated with videos that will last until the end of this week.

What are the final theatrical releases of 2020?

Josee, the Tiger and the Fish   

Poupelle of Chimney Town        

えんとつ町のプペル 「Entotsu-chō no Poupelle」

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Duration: 100 mins.

Director: Yusuke Hirota

Writer: Akihiro Nishino (Script/Original Creator),

Starring: Mana Ashida (Lubicchi), Masataka Kubota (Poupelle), Eiko Koike (Lola), Sairi Ito (Anonio), Jun Kunimura (Dan),

Animation Production: Studio 4°C

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: In a walled town full of chimneys and trash, the air is always full of smoke so no one knows what the sky looks like. One night, during the town’s Halloween festival, a deliveryman accidentally drops the heart he is supposed to deliver and he cannot find the heart in the smoke. The heart continues to beat where it fell in a trash pile and a new creature is born, Trashman. An orphan named Poupelle meets him…

Pocket Monster Koko   

劇場版ポケットモンスター　ココ 「Gekijouban Poketto Monsuta- Koko」

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Duration: 99 mins.

Director: Tetsuo Yajima

Writer: Atsuhiro Tomioka, Tetsuo Yajima (Script/Original Creator),

Starring: Ikue Otani (Pikachu), Moka Kamishiraishi (Koko), Rica Matsumoto (Satoshi), Inuko Inuyama (Meowth), Shoko Nakagawa (Karen),

Animation Production: OLM

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis from Anime News Network: While on their adventures, Ash and Pikachu encounter a human child named Koko in Okoya Forest, a Pokémon paradise that outsiders are forbidden from entering. Koko was raised by Pokémon and so he considers himself one and treats the Mythical Pokémon Zarude as his father. 

HoneyWorks 10th Anniversary “LIP×LIP FILM×LIVE”   

劇場版ポケットモンスター　ココ 「Gekijouban Poketto Monsuta- Koko」

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Duration: 99 mins.

Director: Fumie Muroi

Writer: Yoshimi Narita (Script), HoneyWorks (Original Creator),

Starring: Nobunaga Shimazaki (Aizou), Koki Uchiyama (Yuujirou), Soma Saito (Yui), Tetsuya Kakihara (Megu), Yuma Uchida (Rio),

Animation Production: CLAP

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: An anime movie based on HoneyWorks’ LIPxLIP virtual idol unit. It was made to commemorating the group’s 10th anniversary. The anime’s story will cover the meeting of LIPxLIP members Yujiro and Aizo, as well as the formation of their group.

World Trigger 2nd Season   

特別上映版　ワールドトリガー 2ndシーズン 「Tokubetsu jōei-ban wārudotorigā 2 nd shīzun」

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Duration: 45 mins.

Director: Fumie Muroi

Writer: Hiroyuki Yoshino, Toshihisa Kaiya, Kenji Kawai (Script), Daisuke Ashihara (Original Creator),

Starring: Tomo Muranaka (Yuma Kuga), Yuuki Kaji (Osamu Mikumo), Nao Tamura (Chika Amatori), Yuichi Nakamura (Yuichi Jin), Nobunaga Shimazaki (Hyuse),

Animation Production: Toei Animation

Website ANN MAL

The new season of World Trigger starts next yera and the first two episodes will have a special screening run with exclusive footage in 12 theatrws in Japan from December 25 to January 7.

Synopsis from Wikipedia: In Mikado City, a “gate” to a different world suddenly opens one day and creatures called “Neighbours” invade. Humans struggle to resist this invasion until a mysterious organization called the National Defense Agency, or “Border” appears. They use Neighbour technology called “Triggers”, which allows the user to channel a special energy called Trion to create a stronger body, a weapon or tool. Eventually, life in Mikado City settles down apart from the occasional battles and Border has become popular. However, a mysterious white-haired student named Yuma Kuga transfers to a local school and it turns out that he is a strong humanoid Neighbour, a fact that he wants to hide from Border. In the school he meets another student, Osamu Mikumo, who is secretly a C-class Border trainee. Since Kuga is completely oblivious about life in Mikado City, it falls to Mikumo to guide him through it, and to prevent him from being discovered by Border.

AWAKE 

アウェイク 「Aweiku」

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Duration: 119 mins.

Director: Atsuhiro Yamada

Writer: Atsuhiro Yamada (Script),

Starring: Ryo Yoshizawa, Ryuya Wakaba, Fumika Baba, Motoki Ochiai, Kanichiro, Kanna Moriya,

Website IMDB

Synopsis: Eiichi (Ryo Yoshizawa) aimed be a top shogi player and so he forsook normal school, and friendships to enroll at a shogi training centre run by the Japan Shogi Association. However, despite his determination, he could never beat Riku (Ryuya Wakaba). Eeiichi eventually quit and enrolled at a computing course in a university. It was tough adjusting to campus life after so much time playing shogi but while there, he develops an artificial intelligence that plays shogi and this program will be put up against Riku…

Tokyo Breed, The Rise of One   

その男、東京につき 「Sono Otoko, Tokyo ni tsuki」

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Duration: 119 mins.

Director: Ryusuke Okajima

Writer: N/A

Starring: Hanya, Zeebra, t-Ace, BAKU, T-Pablow, DJ Fumiratch

Website IMDB

Synopsis: A documentary about the rapper Hanya, who rose to influence not stop despite many difficulties such as a fierce bullying. The film details his struggle as well as shows a one-man live performance at the Budokan and features appearances from other Hip-Hop figures. 

Hong Kong-Ga   

香港画 「Hon Kon Ga」

Release Date: December 25th, 2020

Duration: 28 mins.

Director: Ikumo Horii

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Website

Synopsis: A short documentary recording the 2019 Hong Kong democracy protests from February 2019, right after the Hong Kong government announced the submission of amendments to the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance. At their height, the protests saw 1.03 million citizens marching against the proposed changes in June. In October of the same year, director Horii, who was staying in Hong Kong for work, was surprised at the amount of young people participating and decided to record some of the protestors, to capture their voices and see their confrontations with the police. His desire was to show why young people in Hong Kong are fighting and to challenge media portrayals.

The Tale of Iya                                          

祖谷物語　おくのひと 「Iya Monogatari – Oku no Hito」

Running Time: 169 mins.

Release Date: February 15^th, 2014

Director: Tetsuchiro Tsuta

Writer: Tetsuchiro Tsuta, Masayuki Ueda (Screenplay),

Starring: Rina Takeda (Haruna), Min Tanaka (Grandpa), Shima Ohnishi (Kudo), Sachi Ishimaru (Kotomi), Hitoshi Murakami (Akira), Reika Miwa, Takahiro Ono, Naomi Kawase, Christopher Pellegrii, Keiko Taoka, Shigeru Kimura

Website    IMDB

The landscape of Japan is caught in all of its resplendent beauty during the four seasons in The Tale of Iya, a drama shot in a remote valley in Shikoku about life in the countryside. While a sense of nostalgia is movingly evoked over the course of the narrative it also remains clear-eyed about how tough such an environment can be and where its future may lie.

Our first view of this environment comes in a fairy tale-like opening in the middle of a blizzard one winter. A man (Min Tanaka) in traditional clothes that look like something out of a jidaigeki is hunting in the snowy forests around the valley of Tokushima Prefecture’s Iya valley. He adheres to the old ways and avoids the modern world but that intrudes into his life when he stumbles upon a crashed car and discovers a dead woman on the bonnet and, in what could only be described as a miracle, a baby girl lying unharmed on the frozen sparkling surface of a lake. The man takes her in and gives her the name Haruna. For the next 15 years, they live in harmony with nature in the mountains in a cottage without electricity or running water, surrounded by vegetable plots and verdant forests.

The next time we encounter them, it is summer and the baby has grown into a caring teenage girl (Rina Takeda) who looks after the taciturn old man she refers to as Grandpa as she helps with farming and goes into town for supplies. She also attends school and visits friends but she is purer than others because she has learned the ways of the land from Grandpa. Change is bound to come as she starts to spread her wings and take advantage of modernity and, whether she likes it or not, nature cannot be stopped as Grandpa ages and the environment continues to be tough. Inevitably, her small world will change and she must adapt for her future.

To our eyes, their traditional existence is idyllic but ignorance is bliss as we see when they encounter a stranger from Tokyo whose name is Kudo (Shima Ohnishi). Perhaps a stand-in for the audience and our naïve and conceited views of how easy life is in the picturesque countryside, his parallel storyline offers a more clear-eyed view of life in the country. He is drawn to Iya because he wants to refresh his tired soul and he is inspired by Haruna and Grandpa to start farming but what he discovers is that working the land is no fairy tale and a brutal winter really tests his perseverance and his ability to adapt.

Three years of shooting has resulted in a film that lasts 169 minutes and moves at a stately pace as it is defined by close observation of the characters interacting with the natural world and locals in the summer sun, autumn rains, and during a snowbound winter. Shot on 35mm film, Tetsuchiro Tsuta’s work features a full range of colours and sights and sounds of the location of Tokushima to root us in the reality of a community in an isolated area. It looks like they tried to get natural light to play as big a part as possible leading to lots of striking images that highlights the different textures of the area so that while the story is is slow, it is always visually arresting.

At times it is like a fascinating documentary as there are so many long dialogue-free passages shot in factories and on farms and mountainsides with loggers and hunters. These moments could be an ethnography with the actors fully integrated into these scenes by participating in events. The farming and hunting sequences don’t shy away from showing the toil and brutality involved as deer and adverse weather ravage crops and we see what look to be real animals killed by hunters trying to protect farms.

The dramatic elements come with the depiction of contradictory forces of life in the countryside to show how a pure country existence is almost impossible as the pull of modernity shapes the environment and its people. It is most obvious in a subplot involving the conflict between a local construction company and a group of conservationists opposed to the completion of a tunnel through a mountain. This clash reveals a cruel reality faced by rural communities as we see that such infrastructure projects and their resulting tourism are the biggest source of income for such areas and this change is necessary.

This economic pressure feeds into a bigger theme of trying to keep alive a dying town and its traditions. Iya valley needs the tunnel because it lacks jobs and amenities, something which has resulted in depopulation. This impacts Haruna as, all around her, schools are closing, young people are constantly talking of Tokyo and the elderly that have been left behind by their children start to decay and die like the various abandoned family homes that form part of the backdrop of the valley. With each loss, the sense of fraying ties is keenly felt and while Haruna wants to stay put, we see that her youth might be better spent elsewhere and not increasingly isolated in the valley where people she is close to disappear or die from old age.

In order to tie together these different themes, the film re-adopts its fairy tale atmosphere for the final quarter which transports us out of the valley and into a dreamlike atmosphere. I won’t spoil but it is smoothly handled as the film always has a magical realist bent to it. Since the film features moments of the supernatural drawn from nature, these transitions don’t feel contrived and they also play into the idea that areas such as Iya have these wonderous qualities, as emphasised by the beautiful visuals and time spent with elderly characters.

Most importantly, the story offers a clean ending with hope from the culmination of Haruna and Kudo’s character arcs as it shows that if people are willing to commit fully to a traditional lifestyle and to submit themselves to the ways of nature, there is the possibility that such dying communities will be revitalised. It is a moving moment tinged with sadness over what is lost but also the possibility of growth again, which makes it satisfying viewing.

Wow, I had no idea that 2020 would turn out like this when I wrote last year’s end post. We’re a few days away from the end of what has been a plague year. I almost got caught out at the start when I was in Japan and the borders were going to be closed, back at the end of March, but I escaped with the help of some friends. Since then, I have been in work on reduced duties or at home waiting to be called in for odd jobs. When not working, I was doing shopping with my mother and checking in on my grandmother.

During this time of waiting, I watched a lot of films, some as part of the Osaka Asian Film Festival, Nippon Connection, Japan Cuts and the New York Asian Film Festival, a lot just for pleasure. I took part in a physical film festival in Japan and I helped organise and execute an online film festival twice and during all of this I wrote a lot of reviews. Probably more reviews than in previous years. On top of it all, I also helped start a podcast about Asian films called Heroic Purgatory where I discuss films with fellow writer John Atom (the Christmas special is already out and the second season coming in 2021!).

When I was able to go to the cinema I watched a wide variety of things. In the UK, the last film I watched was Parasite with my mother. In Japan, I went to numerous screenings at the Osaka Asian Film Festival and an animation festival at the Yujiku Asagaya (just before Tokyo’s lockdown). At home with a lot of time on my hands I got into the cinema of Mario Bava and re-watched lots of Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento movies. I waded through hours of 70s and 80s horror movies from America and I went back to some tried and trusted Japanese classics. Most of all, I tried to get more Japanese indie films out there and so I think this is reflected in my list of top films from 2020.

So, what are they?.  

KAMATA PRELUDE 蒲田前奏曲 (2020) Dirs: Ryutaro Nakagawa, Mayu Akiyama, Yuka Yasukawa, Hirobumi Watanabe

An omnibus film done in four distinct styles and set around the theme of being a woman in modern Japan, it feels genuinely concerned with a female viewpoint with issues such as #MeToo, career aspirations, and gender dynamics in all of the stories. Magical realism, Hirobumi Watanabe’s black-and-white comedy and sharp satire of the film world are the content of the stories and they speak of modern Japan in a refreshingly bracing and thoughtful way. 

I got to interview lead actress Urara Matsubayashi and director Mayu Akiyama. Here’s the interview.

Videophobia (2019) Dir: Daisuke Miyazaki

Miyazaki is an indie film maker whose works I’m always interested in viewing because of the way he addresses contemporary issues in a unique way and with Videophobia he tackles how our digitised world can lead to existential crises as we hand over control of our identity and ultimately lose our agency. It’s done through a story of a young woman’s one-night stand that leads to what can only be described as a virtual sexual assault and the slow dissolution of her self. Instead of being heavy-handed, it’s a subtle Lynchian nightmare where paranoia takes over everything. Shot in the style of an existential horror film that takes place in Osaka, it is very distinctive and has something to say about our society.

Here’s my interview with Daisuke Miyazaki.

Kontora (2019) Dir: Anshul Chauhan

A family drama with echoes of World War II, the film felt very real in its details of frustration around small town life and limited opportunities as felt through great performances, especially the one at the heart of it, a fiery one from new actress Wan Marui. Seeing it on the big screen was a must as its gorgeous visuals and magnetic performances kept me riveted and showed that there’s a lot of potential from the indie side of the Japanese film industry. 

Here’s my interview with director Anshul Chauhan.

GEMINI 双生児 -GEMINI- (1999) Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto

It has been many years since I last reviewed a Shinya Tsukamoto film and watching this was a much-needed reminder that the man is a genius storyteller and visual stylist as he brings to life an Edogawa Rampo short story of a man thrown down a well by his “double” and psychologically tortured. Set in Meiji-period Japan, it has a fantastic set, visual stylisations and a collection of actors in their prime as they bring this gothic tale to frenzied life. Released on blu-ray by Third Window Films, this is a must-have.

Shell and Joint (2019) Dir: Isamu Hirabayashi
Isamu Hirabayashi wowed me with this black comedy that I first wrote about as part of a preview of the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Sex and death are the themes in this film made up of vignettes populated by a variety of characters, some human, some not. Its stories are done in different genres and snake their way through to various humorous or melancholy conclusions but what was constantly impressive was the visual design given to each shot.

Fish Story フィッシュストーリー (2009) Dir: Yoshihiro Nakamura

An asteroid is on a collision course with Earth and its only through a punk song that humanity can be saved. Unlike a Hollywood disaster film which would go full-macho with plenty of male divas and explosive theatrics, the heroes of this film are a seemingly random collection of oddballs who, it turns out, have a butterfly effect on each other. Devoid of dopey bombast and staid tropes, this is full of hopes everyday people can relate to in an excellent heart-warming film full of fantastic performances in an ingeniously constructed series of nested stories. It was given the blu-ray treatment by Third Window Films and comes packed with fantastic extras.

Milocrorze: A Love Story ミロクローゼ (2011) Dir: Yoshimasa Ishibashi

Takayuki Yamada may be a big star with matinee idol looks but he has a habit of making interesting films that go beyond the usual. Here he plays three different men in three different stories of love done in three styles with a candy-coloured funky aesthetic for each. Milocrorze is always a fun film about the power of love, whether as a samurai epic or a swinging 70s satire of relationship counselling, and the amount of invention and design on screen is always enjoyable. 

A Beloved Wife 喜劇 愛妻物語 (2019) Dir: Shin Adachi

Nobody ever said marriage was easy but it seems positively nightmarish here as we watch what seems to be a mismatched couple of a sex-obsessed lazy writer and his hard-working and very frustrated wife go on a working holiday with their daughter. It shows the comedic highs and exhausting lows of a relationship in a sunny black comedy that is also wise (and kind enough) to show us why this came together and how much they truly care despite the dysfunction. Asami Mizukawa blew me away with her fiery performance and Gaku Hamada was also very impressive as a louche creep who has some plus points (as hard as they are to see). 

All the Things We Never Said 生きちゃった (2019) Dir: Yuya Ishii

Part of a collection of films commissioned by the Hong Kong International Film Festival that required filmmakers to make low-budget features about love, All the Things We Never Said is a performance-driven piece about the difficulty of conveying love in Japan and the dissolution of a family over a number of years that this brings. While none of the story elements were original the performances were raw and believable and led to a knockout of an ending that actually had me sobbing.

Lucky Chan-sil 찬실이는 복도 많지 (2019) South Korea Dir: Kim Cho-hee

The debut film from director Kim Cho-hee, this is a sure-footed and gently funny story of a middle-aged woman experiencing an existential crisis as her job as a movie producer seems to die a death with the director she works with. Having to reset her life from a zero point, her angst over how she should proceed leads to some biting commentary over age but it remains bright-eyed with hope as the world of movies offers eternal hopes. It seems to draw upon Kim’s own background as the lead character, as portrayed by the brilliant Kang Mal-geum in what must be a break-out performance, has lots of similarities and the story feels very real as does the love of cinema.

Inabe いなべ Dir: Koji Fukada (2013)

I published reviews for all of Fukada’s features I had seen in February this year and was excited to be able to watch his shorts during the summer. I’ve been aware of them for a while. Indeed, I wrote about this short when it was first released in 2014 and it stayed with me so when it was streamed as part of the We Are One Global Film Festival I just had to watch it. A melancholy experience of a brother and sister going through a homecoming in a rural environment, its simple story conceals a lot of depth as its two characters wander around a beautiful landscape.

The Taste of Tea 茶の味 (2004) Dir: Katsuhito Ishii

An essential blu-ray release from Third Window Films, The Taste of Tea is a laidback look at a modern family living in the Japanese countryside. This family experience various stories featuring ghosts, first love of a high schooler, and an animator trying to balance her  home life with work. It features surreal flights of fancy (as depicted by weird characters and low-key CG) that help accentuate the everyday emotions of its characters who are all charmers and are all warmly depicted. There is a sense of love and respect for all in this film (apart from the ghost of a yakuza with poop on his head). I had watched the directors other works as a teen before this one but this became my favourite.  

The Tale of Iya 祖谷物語 おくのひと (2014) Dir: Tetsuchiro Tsuta

This is a film I have waited a long time to see and it was one of my must-watch films of 2020 (I’ve been able to get five of them). A slow-moving elegiac film about the contradictory forces lurking in the countryside, its slow-burn drama is helped massively by the beautiful location of Shikoku’s Iya Valley. I was transported there and became part of its life.

The Day of Destruction, 破壊の日 (2020) Dir: Toshiaki Toyoda

During the Covid-19 pandemic, festivals were forced to go online which presented director Toshiaki Toyoda with the chance to make a big statement. This one was always due to come out before the Tokyo Olympics but what would have been a cinema release limited to Japan became an online sensation amongst J-film fans when it became a surprise addition to Japan Cuts. It became an even bigger event when Toyoda, making his comeback on the film scene, took advantage of the internet to build the hype with a live-streamed procession starting from a shrine on the streets of Shibuya to a concert hall.

The film was promised to be a fiery “state of the nation” and it lived up to its billing with an almost apocalyptic tale of a young man training as an ascetic monk to take on the evils afflicting Japan. Brooding, menacing, visually arresting and containing a message telling the audience that complacency and corruption are the enemy, this film was a standout that channelled the frustration found worldwide as well as taking advantage of all of the tumult this year. 

Honourable mentions: GFP Bunny, Hold Your Breath Like a Lover, An Ant Strikes Back, book-paper-scissors, To the Ends of the Earth (review coming very soon).

As fun as watching things online can be, I hope that in 2021 we beat the pandemic and return to cinemas and meet up in person again. Until then, stay safe!

Welcome to the last post of 2020 and the first Japanese films of 2021.

After the plague year of 2020, I’m sure we’re all eager to start afresh. I know I am. We can look at this year and see what needs to be improved and it may come down to having a greater regard for the people we live with and our wider society/environment and to be more active in fighting hate and suffering. Treat other people, creatures, and our world with respect and try to display empathy. We need to work together to solve problems.  

I need to change my life and I’m sure there are many others out there who feel the same. I hope we can all do it in 2021 and make the world a better place to live in.

This week I posted my review for The Tale of Iya and my fourteen favourite films of 2020.

These are the first films to be released in Japan in 2021:

Gekijouban Seitokai Yakuindomo 2   

劇場版　生徒会役員共2 「Gekijouban Seitokai Yakuindomo 2」

Release Date: January 01st, 2021

Duration: 78 mins.

Director: Hiromitsu Kanazawa

Writer: Hiromitsu Kanazawa (Script), Tozen Ujiie (Original Creator),

Starring: Yoko Hikasa (Shino Amakusa), Satomi Sato (Aria Shichijo), Sayuri Yanagi (Suzu Hagimura), Shintaro Asanuma (Takatoshi Tsuda), Chiwa Saito (Chihiro Uomi),

Animation Production: GoHands

Website ANN MAL

Synopsis: The second film adaptation of the four-panel gag manga Seitokai Yakuindomo, the story takes place in Osai Academy, a former all-girls private high school that goes co-ed due to the declining birth rate. Lead character Takatoshi Tsuda is one of 28 boys surrounded by 524 girls and he is pushed into becoming the vice president of the student council, which is where comedy ensues…

Tou Ouji 2-Man-nen no Tabi Ceramic Road  

陶王子 2万年の旅 「Tou Ouji 2-Man-nen no Tabi」

Release Date: January 02nd, 2021

Duration: 110 mins.

Director: Shohei Shibata

Writer: N/A

Starring: Koji Kumagai, Toru Miyao, Seizan Tanigawa, Narration: Non

Website

Synopsis: A documentary that originally aired on NHK, it unravels the magnificent history of mankind through the 20,000-year history of ceramics. It shows the wisdom of humanity, stretching from earthenware works of Jomon-era Japan, Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, to the complicated ceramics of ancient China, and works produced in Europe, to contemporary fine ceramics that are being used to take humankind to space. The pottery prince leads audiences through this journey and he is voiced by the actress Non.

That’s it for the films.

My resolutions for 2021

• I will learn to speak, read, write and listen to Japanese to a much higher level than I currently do,
• I will improve my writing style and try to experiment more,
• I will become super super positive,
• I will continue to review films and expand the range of countries I cover.

I want to continue introducing Japanese films and filmmakers and I would like to move to a new place and share cinema with my mother, sister, and others. And be creative myself and write a work of fiction! And improve the situation of my mother, sister and myself!

If you are a regular reader or someone new, thanks for joining me. I hope we all have a great 2021!

Happy New Year, everyone!

To the Ends of the Earth       

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

Release Date: June 14th, 2019

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Screenplay),

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

Website     IMDB

To the Ends of the Earth is an international co-production that was commissioned to commemorate 25 years of diplomatic relations between Japan and Uzbekistan. It’s written and directed by horror auteur Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who eschews using serial killers and ghosts as sources of fear and turns to tourism as he makes a moving travelogue-cum-character study of an introverted young woman overcoming anxieties in an alien environment and coming to understand herself better.

We follow Yoko (Atsuko Maeda), the young host of a Japanese TV show who is on assignment in Uzbekistan with a small crew (played by Shota Sometani, Ryo Kase, Tokio Emoto, Adiz Rajabov) as they seek out interesting places to go and exciting things to do. Rather than the glamour and fun of the finished product, we witness a light satire surrounding the drudgery of a production where nothing quite works out. A mythical fish is a no-show at a mountain lake, food is undercooked in a culinary section, and, in one wince-inducing bit, Yoko boards a seemingly innocuous ride at a theme park only to end up being tossed around like a rag doll. Throughout it all she shows professionalism by following her director’s orders and hosting everything with a grin (or gritted teeth when it comes to the ride) but as the assignment grinds on, we see her positive façade fade and her authentic side emerge.

There is considerable downtime between filming and Kurosawa emphasises these moments in his narrative to show that the real Yoko is more introspective than her onscreen personality lets on. She often opts to eat alone and skips production meetings to stay in her hotel room so she can spend time messaging her boyfriend in Tokyo for comfort. Her anxieties are most pointedly felt when she goes on solo daytime jaunts. Alone and with just a map and a few words of English to communicate, a trip to somewhere like Chorsu Bazaar becomes nightmarish as she loses confidence in herself, finds crowds of hagglers harrowing and gets lost in back streets because she is too intimidated by the locals to ask for help. To build the intensity of panic to match the increasing tension Yoko feels, Kurosawa uses techniques familiar from his horror repertoire, transitioning from touristic locations to uninviting urban areas shaded by fluctuating light, menacing shadows, and scary sounds, while he also refrains from subtitling Uzbek dialogue to reflect Yoko’s incomprehension as well as to make circumstances opaque for the audience. 

Yoko’s alienation and distress is conveyed so well in these sequences that they will ring true to anyone who has travelled and felt the buzz of tension and shrivelling of the heart that comes with encountering and shrinking from the unknown. However, after these tumultuous situations, we see Yoko develop as she reflects upon her angst and it is tourism that allows her to push past her fears.

During her wanderings she often encounters something or someone that teaches her to move forward with these sequences skilfully allowing her journey, her dreamlife and Uzbekistan to intersect. The most impactful moment, and the turning point in the film, comes when Yoko is drawn to explore the Navoi theatre in Tashkent by the sound of a woman singing. Tracking shots follow her journey through ornate rooms beautifully decorated in the style of different regions of Uzbekistan until there is a seamless segue to fantasy as she reaches a stage and suddenly bursts out with the Edith Piaf song Hymne à l’Amour (愛の讃歌) while accompanied by an orchestra. This display of confidence runs counter to our impressions of her true nature and reveals her dream that surpasses presenting travel shows. Her ability to bridge the gap between dream and reality soon comes after as she learns that the theatre was built by Japanese POWs after World War II and seems to relate to their story of finding release from fear through dedicating themselves to art. This message is reinforced when she takes the time to have a frank conversation with her taciturn cameraman who reveals his own career dilemmas and offers philosophical advice amounting to the journey is just as important as the destination. It is an honest and insightful look at how people can grow from experiences. While the remainder of the film is dedicated to Yoko struggling to master herself and still making mistakes, a growing understanding of herself allows her character arc to have a positive trajectory. 

None of this would work if ex-AKB48 idol Atsuko Maeda wasn’t a good actor and she gives a compelling performance here. This is her third film with Kurosawa following the offbeat thriller Seventh Code (2013) and alien invasion drama Before We Vanish (2017) and it is her most complex role to date. Kurosawa keeps the camera focussed on her and she reveals how much she has grown as a performer as she displays a sensitivity and vulnerability that guarantees audience empathy that keeps us riveted as we watch her stumble through various Uzbek locations to stride towards an uplifting conclusion that sees her achieve some self-realisation after which she can belt out a full rendition of Hymne à l’Amour with a dazzling shine of confidence that caps her character’s journey. It’s said that travel helps people find themselves and it turns out to be true here.

My review was first published over at V-Cinema on December 03rd.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2021 is the year we can master ourselves and improve the world.