Neo Ultra Q Special Screening Part II  

Japanese: ネオ ウルトラQ 特別上映 part II

Romaji: Neo Urutorakyū Tokubetsu Jōei part II

Running Time: N/A

Release Date: December 09^th, 2013

Director: Gakuryu Ishii, Yu Nakai, Yu Irie, Kiyotaka Taguchi

Writer: Kiyotaka Inagaki, Akari Yamamoto, Ayako Kato (Screenplay)

Starring: Rin Takanashi, Seiichi Tanabe, Hiroyuki Onoe, Hikaru Osawa 

This was released yesterday but I wanted to post about anime so I’ll stick it here.

This is the latest adaptation of a sci-fi project created by Eiji Tsuburaya, special effects director on Godzilla, about three characters who investigated supernatural and alien phenomena. Apparently the show ran for 28 episodes from January to July in 1966, received a radio drama and movie edition. This latest movie adaptation is made up of films which collect of 12 episodes from the currently airing TV sequel and features excellent actors like Rin Takanashi (Goth: Love of Death) and Shota Sometani (Himizu) and has the director Gakuryu Ishii (Isn’t Anyone Alive?). Each movie will collect three episodes and be released on the 9^th day of each month which will now be known as “Q Day”. Furthermore, each screening has a Q&A. Sounds and looks fun.

Three people: a psychologist doing research on the supernatural, a young beautiful journalist with an inquisitive mind and a bartender who has sympathy towards other forms of life. Together the trio set out to look into the paranormal and futuristic phenomena that confront our life and society. In this selection of episodes (4,5 and 6) Rin Takanashi has to “act” alongside this dude.

Website

The Flu                                                                             

Release Date: August 14^th, 2013 (South Korea)

Running Time: 121 mins.

Director: Kim Sung-Su

Writer: Kim Sung-Su, Lee Young-Jong

Starring: Jang Hyuk, Soo-Ae, Park Min-Ha, Yu Hae-Jin, Ma Dong-Seok, Lee Hee-Joon, Lee Sang-Yeob, Cha In-Pyo. Kim Ki-Hyeon, Andrew William Brand

When I saw The Flu advertised on the billboard of my local cinema I was surprised because it has been around four years since I last saw a Korean film play there and that was back at the tail end of the glory days of the Korean New Wave of the 2000’s. It turns out that the guys and girls behind the Korean Film Festival were instrumental in making sure it reached cinemas across the UK. Their choice is a canny one because the film has huge appeal due to its big-budget approach to the popular disaster genre.

April, 2014. Hong Kong. A group of illegal immigrants are sealed in a shopping container bound for South Korea. Huddled amidst the group is a man with a hacking cough. He does his best to hide his sickness but he has pallid skin and sweat drips off him. “Huddle together to stay warm,” the people trafficker overseeing their transport says before sealing them up.

May 01^st, Bundang (a satellite city near Seoul). Emergency worker Kang Jigu (Jang Hyuk) rescues Dr Kim In-Hae (Soo-Ae) from her car which is about to plunge into a cavernous underground area. Despite the woman’s ingratitude he has fallen for her.

Meanwhile at Pyeongtaek harbour the container is met by two thugs, the brothers Byoung-Woo (Lee Sang-Yeob) and Byung-Ki (Lee Hee-Joon). Upon opening the container they are met with a horrific scene of dead bodies. Little do they realise it but they have encountered a mutated version of the avian flu virus. There is one survivor, Monsai, but he soon disappears on them just as one of the brothers shows symptoms of the flu. He is taken to hospital covered in red rashes and coughing up blood but quickly dies in agony.

May 02^nd, the flu virus is spreading rapidly through the city. The virus has an infection rate of 3.4 people per second, there is no known cure, and death occurs within 36 hours. It just so happens that Dr Kim In-Hae is part of a crack medical team who specialise in viruses. She is also a single-mother who has left her young daughter Kim Mi-Reu (Park Min-Ha) home alone so she can aid in helping find a vaccine to the virus but when the chaos hits and the government draft in the military in order to lock the city of Bundang down, the doctor’s daughter is caught up in the chaos. Fortunately Kang Jigu is looking after her but will he be able to reunite mother and daughter amidst the draconian measures the government are taking and, more importantly, get a date out of it?

The Flu was one of the big successes at the Korean box-office this year. It combines melodrama and big action set pieces with the shaky cam realism often employed by action films.

The Flu is a large scale pandemic movie which zooms along through events both national and local as we see the spread of the virus through a contemporary first world city, the people caught up in it and the warring factions within the Korean government’s response to the unfolding crisis.

The fact that the film is Korean gives events an interesting flavour as we see how the government impose draconian measures to gain control over the situation. Scenes where riot police and the military descend upon civilians and protestors, and herd them into “quarantine camps” are pulse quickening and delivered with a fair level of verisimilitude.

How else can one deal with a mass epidemic but to keep the sick separate from everyone else? It felt like everything a modern society could do to control an epidemic was placed in this film but it gets very dark when one has knowledge of Korea’s history with dictatorships especially when the South Korean military fire on their own civilians referencing the Gwangju massacre in 1980.

The quarantine camp, which is where the main characters end up as a political and social crisis comes to a head, are the strongest section of the film. Nightmarish places full of chain-link fences, medical tents and razor-wire, soldiers who think nothing of pistol-whipping civilians and ghastly smoke-filled charnel houses. Characters are reduced to statistics and are herded in and out of tents, showers and, if they die, into huge pits. I have to agree with the reviewer over at Oriental Nightmares when she states that the scenes evoking images of real-life genocides are skilfully done and make the blood run cold.

There are many big-action set-pieces like riots and military strikes and these are very exciting to watch but the film descends into hysterics when it comes to the cast of characters who are caught up in these events.

It seems that everybody has read from the melodrama playbook and their actions are occasionally rather absurd. Dr Kim In-Hae’s actions in protecting her daughter help spread the infection and Jigu displays the worst child-care skills known to modern cinema by leaving little Mi-Reu on her own multiple times to save a fainting good-looking woman. I’m talking about leaving a six-year-old girl alone during riots, gunfights, and intense stand-offs between soldiers and protestors but then we need a cute little girl in peril to tug at our heart strings while getting the plot to go places and one can overlook these things when the film rattles along quickly. Indeed, the larger political stakes and the threat of military strikes help cover up the clunky sexual banter and the unsubtle regrets over being a bad mother that the main characters hold. The cast are still likeable so it is easy to ignore the bad characterisation.

Yes, it’s more gripping watching men in suits and uniforms argue over the morality of using force to stop a disaster especially when it’s all done with the big-budget Korean action movie sheen full of tense inter-cutting of shots of soldiers lining up to fire with the onwards approach of a wave of protesters and our good looking cast in danger.

Overall the film was an enjoyable spectacle. The big action set pieces are exciting and this is a unique and fun take on the epidemic drama.

4/5

http://kotaku.com/the-attack-on-titan-porn-looks-absolutely-mental-1481024135

This is the first of two trailer posts. There seem to be fewer films released this weekend but I’ll still go ahead with things. I’ll mix the big films with the little ones because there is an odd little indie title with a naked dude crawling along pavements, and an anime with a fox bandit that hasn’t got an entry in ANN or MAL or Wikipedia.

While looking for info on anime I saw this funny/weird Attack on Titan porn project. As much as I like looking at beautiful women it was also horrific due to the large number of middle-aged grizzled-looking dudes rampaging around the set chewing on figurines and the awful special effects. To be fair, the actress is a pretty good match for the female Titan. Here’s a comparison picture:

If I were in the Survey Corps and a Titan like the fine lady above showed up I wouldn’t mind dying in her hands… jaws… getting swatted like a fly… or crushed against a tree. On second thought… Here are some of the movies released this weekend!

A Band Rabbit and a Boy  

Japanese: 楽隊　の　うさぎ

Romaji: Gakutai no Usagi

Running Time: 97 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Takuji Suzuki

Writer: Michiko Onisihi (Screenplay), Kei Nakazawa (Novel)

Starring: Kosei Kawasaki, Maho Yamada, Arata, Shian Ide, Masaru Miyazaki, Satoru Jitsunashi, Koume, Yu Tokui, Sawa Suzuki

Katsuhisa (Kawasaki) is an introspective junior high school student who prefers to spend time at home until he encounters a mysterious rabbit who leads him to the school’s wind band club and he falls in love with it. He soon joins the band and spends more time in school so he can practice for a national competition.

Website

The Liar and His Lover            

Japanese: 楽隊　の　うさぎ

Romaji: Kanojo wa Uso o Aishisugiteru

Running Time: 117 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Norihiro Koizumi

Writer: Michiko Onisihi (Screenplay), Kotomi Aoki (Manga)

Starring: Takeru Sato, Sakurako Ohara, Shohei Miura, Mitsuki Tanimura, Masataka Kubota, Saki Aibu, Ryo Yoshizawa, Yuki Morinaga, Takashi Sorimachi

Aki (Sato) is a 25-year-old man who works as a sound engineer and is a member of a popular band called “Crude Play.” Just after they make their major record debut, Aki quits the band but continues to provide music through the band’s producer Soichiro. He begins to date Riko (Ohara), a sixteen-year-old girl who sings in a band and whose father runs a grocery store, who is scouted by Soichiro… 

Website

No Beginning, No End                                    

Japanese: 始まり　も　おわり　も　ない

Romaji: Hajimari mo Owari mo nai

Running Time: 95 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Shunya Ito

Writer: Shunya Ito, Min Tanaka (Screenplay),

Starring: Min Tanaa, Daisuke Iijima, Taijiro Tamura, Mizuki Doki, Ken Furusawa, Motomi Makiguchi, Shiho Ishihara

The prize for most disturbing poster this week goes to this title co-written and starring Min Tanaka, a chap who is appearing in the forthcoming 47 Ronin and Rurouni Kenshin chanbara films and one of the stars of The Twilight Samurai. The write-up for this kept describing it as avant-garde which is a term that makes me want to flee to the hills because it’s also synonymous with pretentious if you ask a cynical gallery worker like myself. Apparently there is no dialogue and it portrays the poetic and philosophical aspects of the birth, life and death of a man in order to capture human existence. I shouldn’t dismiss it without seeing the full film but I doubt I’d enjoy something like this. Still, it’s brave of all involved to take on a project like this.

Website

Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle   

Japanese: 仮面ライダー×仮面ライダー　鎧武（ガイム）＆ウィザード　天下分け目の戦国MOVIE大合戦

Romaji: Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: Tenkawakeme no Sengoku Movie Daigassen

Running Time: 93 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Ryuta Tasaki

Writer: Nobuhiro Mouri, Junko Komura (Screenplay), Shotaro Ishinomori (Original Creator)

Starring: Gaku Sano, Yutaka Kobayashi, Mahiro Takasugi, Shunya Shiraishi, Makoto Okunaka, Tasuku Nagase, JOY, Atsushi

According to Wikipedia this movie is split into three parts. In the first part some bad dude steals a ring of hope from Kamen Wizard and that guy plunges into despair. Whoa.

The second part has Kamen Rider Gaim take part in battle games in Zawame City where Armoured Riders are in competition for something and while fighting a crack opens in the sky and monsters pour out of it and kidnap a girl.

In the Sengoku movie part Kamen Riders Wizard and Beast join Gaim to stop an evil guy named Kamen Rider Bujin Gaim from acquiring some “ultimate power” he seeks.

Website

This has been another anime catch-up week where I watched all of the autumn titles I haven’t dropped like Galilei Donna, Kyoukai no Kanata, and Coppelion. These shows have taken their time to find their feet but I’m glad I stuck with them because they are enjoyable. I also watched the Attack on Titan OVA Ilse’s Journal. Awesome stuff. This being my long week in work means that I have less time than usual and I’m as exhausted as hell. At least I get to go home to awesome episodes of Samurai Flamenco. Episode 10 was brilliant! Over the next few weeks I’ll be pushed for time since I’ll be working overtime, meeting friends, and doing extra Japanese lessons on top of my course. These extra lessons are genuinely pushing me harder than I have been pushed before so I’m hoping my language skills improve.

In terms of the blog, Sunday I posted about my work with Gigan magazine, a print and digital publication dedicated to Japanese films. On Monday I revealed my picks for the Winter 2014 anime season (quite a few awesome shows in the next season – check my Anime UK News chart for a full list) and on Tuesday I posted about the Neo Ultra Visitor Q film that was released. On Wednesday I posted my review for the Korean epidemic disaster film The Flu and on Friday I posted some of the trailers for this week.

Here are the rest of the films getting released this weekend:

A Tale of Samurai Cooking – A True Love Story  

Japanese: 武士　の　献立

Romaji: Bushi no Kondate

Running Time: 121 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Yuzo Asahara

Writer: Michio Kashiwada, Yukiko Yamamuro, Yuzo Asahara,

Starring: Kengo Kora, Aya Ueto, Kimiko Yo, Toshiyuki Nishida

This is a historical film set during the Edo period and starring popular talent Aya Ueto.

She takes the lead role as Oharu (Ueto) who is an excellent cook and because of her skills she gets to marry into the Funaki family through Yasunobu (Kora). The Funaki family are the cooks of the Kaga Domain and they utilise Oharu’s cookery talents to to teach Yasunobu how to better his skills.

Website

Yume no Kayoji                      

Japanese: ゆめのかよいじ

Romaji: Yume no Kayoiji

Running Time: 85 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Toshihiro Goto

Writer: Toshihiro Goto, Yasuyuki Ohno (Manga)

Starring: Anna Ishibashi, Seika Taketomi, Shunya Shiraishi, Kaya Asano, Yui Ueda, Satsuki Okada, Yoshinobu Yamada, Miyoko Omomo

Yasuyuki Ohno’s manga was published in Young King magazine from 1987 to 1988 andd has been adapted by Toshihiro Goto (Monochrome Girl) starring Anna Ishibashi. It is a tale of a girl who transfers to a suburban high school and wanders into an old wooden school building and meets another girl wearing a strange uniform, who turns out to be a ghost.

Website

Horse Festival – The Horses of Fukushima         

Japanese: 祭の馬

Romaji: Matsuri no Uma

Running Time: 74 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Yoju Matsubayashi

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

Director Yoju Matsubayashi was behind the documentary 311 which was all about the Great East Japan Earthquake. He returns with a new work based on the story of a stallion due for retirement from the racing world that survived the disaster and its recovery from injuries sustained.

Website

Incredible Zorori Film! Dinosaur Eggs 

Japanese: 映画かいけつゾロリ　まもるぜ！きょうりゅうのたまご

Romaji: Eiga ka Iketsu Zorori Mamoru ze! Ki ~youryuu no tamago

Running Time: 97 mins.

Release Date: December 14^th, 2013

Director: Tomoko Iwasaki

Writer: Takeshi Morita (Screenplay), Yutaka Hara (Original Work)

Starring: Koichi Yamadera, Rikako Aikawa, Motoko Kumai, Nana Mizuki, Masako Nozawa,

The Incredible Zorori is a popular series of children’s books in Japan, created by Yutaka Hara. According to Wikipedia, the stories take place in a parallel wold inhabited by anthropomorphic animeal and Zorori is a fox who goes on adventures with his twin bandit boar apprentices Ishishi and Noshishi. This is his second feature-length film and it involves him travelling to an island where dinosaurs live. They encounter a mother dinosaur and try to rescue a missing egg. It’s animated by Sunrise studio Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Natsuiro Kiseki.

Website

At the end of the month Third Window Films release a digitally re-mastered version of the Shinya Tsukamoto film Bullet Ballet on DVD ad Blu-ray. Shinya Tsukamoto takes the lead in this grim and exciting looking film which co-stars regulars like Tomorowo Taguchi. He is quite fond of using black-and-white but consider its strong impact in Tetsuo: The Iron Man and A Snake of June and I’ll be purchasing this one to add to my Tsukamoto collection. Here are the details:

Bullet Ballet                                                  

Japanese Title：バルット　バレエ

Romaji: Barutto Baree

Japanese Release Date: December 18^th, 1999

UK Release Date: December 30th, 2013

Running Time: 87 mins.

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto

Writer: Shinya Tsukamoto

Starring: Shinya Tsukamoto, Kirina Mano, Tomorowo Taguchi, Tatsuya Nakamura, Kyoka Suzuki, Hisashi Igawa, Takahiro Murase, Keisuke Yoshida, Hiromi Kuronuma

This release is special because it has been digitally restored by Shinya Tsukamoto much like he did with his Tetsuo films and Tokyo Fist so expect excellent visuals. On top of the excellent visuals there will be an exclusive new interview with Shinya Tsukamoto, a clip from original concert, a new UK trailer and the original theatrical trailer.

Goda (Shinya Tsukamoto) is a thirty-something filmmaker. While his work may seem intriguing to some his life is absolutely average – long hours at the office, drinks after work, an equally busy girlfriend, Kiriko, that he’s been with for a decade. No surprises. No detours. No shocks. That is until he returns home one night to find police cars and ambulances surrounding the entrance to his apartment building. When he gets upstairs he’s told that Kiriko has committed suicide. If this wasn’t devastating enough Goda also learns that she killed herself with a bullet to the head. With Japan having some of the strictest set of gun control laws on the books not only is Goda left with the yawning, black “why” behind Kiriko’s suicide, but also a whole other set of mysterious “hows”, “wheres” and “whos”. How did Kiriko get a handgun in the first place? From where? And most importantly from who? Goda goes on a quest into the gritty criminal underworld of Tokyo in order to answer these questions, and maybe inhabit the last days of Kiriko’s life.

DVD Specifications:  Brand new digital restoration by Shinya Tsukamoto from his original negatives, Surround Sound, Anamorphic Widescreen with removable english subtitles

DVD Bonus Features:  Exclusive new interview with Shinya Tsukamoto, Clip from original concert, New UK trailer, original theatrical trailer

You’re Next  

UK Release Date: August 28th, 2013 (UK)

Running Time: 94 mins.

Director: Adam Wingard

Writer: Simon Barrett

Starring: Sharni Vinson, AJ Bowen, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz, Ti West, Barbara Crampton, Rob Moran, Simon Barret, Lane Hughes, L.C. Holt, Margaret Laney, Larry Fessenden, Kate Lyn Sheil

“It should be interesting. You’ll see.”

The film opens on a student (Lyn Sheil) and her older professor (Fessenden) having sex. The professor rolls off the girl and heads to the shower while the girl, evidently unsatisfied, heads over to the stereo and plays the song “Looking for the Magic.” She peers into the garden seeming to sense that someone is observing her…

The song is on repeat for a while but the professor doesn’t twig that something is wrong. He heads out to the kitchen where he sees the girl’s blood is used to write “You’re Next” on a glass door and then sees her mutilated body before he is killed by a man wearing a Lamb Mask (Holt). 

Failed writer and academic Crispian Davis (Bowen) and his Australian girlfriend Erin (Vinson) are on their way to see Crispian’s parents on their 35^th wedding anniversary. His father Paul (Moran) has recently retired from his job as an advertising exec for a defence contractor to his vacation home in Missouri. The place is isolated and their closest neighbour is the teacher from the prologue…

Paul is with his high-strung medicated wife Aubrey (Crampton) who seems to sense that someone is in the house but her fears are put on the back burner as Crispian arrives for the family get-together. Also attending are Crispian’s older brother and alpha male Drake (Swanberg) and his high-maintenance wife Kelly (Laney), younger brother and outsider Felix (Tucci) and his goth girlfriend Zee (Glenn), and “princess” sister Aimee (Seimetz) with her documentarian boyfriend Tariq (West).

At first it seems like the idyllic location and event will be the setting for a harmonious family reunion but it does not take long to see cracks appearing in the family as brother Crispian and Drake argue with each other and others vent their frustrations and worries. Fraternal rivalries are the last thing they should be indulging in because their house soon comes under siege from Lamb Mask and his two associates Tiger (Barrett) and Fox Mask (Hughes) who want the Davis family dead for some reason…

You’re Next was directed by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett and was made back in 2011. It finally saw release in 2013. It is regarded as one of the key titles from the emergent ‘mumblegore’ genre, a field of horror films created by writers and directors from the more indie-side of American film. These creatives work less with big-budgets, big-crews and big-studio trends and are more hands-on and more interested in exploring how rotten normal people can be, the psychological twistedness that can create monsters in seemingly normal people and channelling their 80’s and 90’s influences into their films. Other titles in the mumblegore genre include titles ranging from around 2011 like V/H/S, A Horrible Way to Die, all the way through to 2013’s Cheap Thrills and V/H/S 2.

You’re Next is not the sort of thing you would normally expect to see in a mainstream cinema but it managed its entry into big chains across the UK because it is the most accessible (and maybe polished?) film with the mumblegore tag. That written, Ti West’s The Innkeepers is pretty neat and scarier but lacks the humour of this title.

You’re Next draws upon the home invasion formula where masked killers terrorise a family in an isolated home. It is reminiscent of The Strangers (2008) what with the setting and masks but what makes this film different is that writer Simon Barrett creates humour and surprise through having the victims being an incredibly dysfunctional family.

“Nobody believes in me!” “You fat f*ck!”

The build-up to the family dinner is one of expertly written dialogue and acting where snide comments and sardonic grins and mocking raised eye-brows reveal the years of arrogance, contempt and bitterness that everyone carries. The characters and their struggles are neatly sketched so we come to see how characters are disconnected from each other. It all culminates at an awkward dinner-table conversation which starts polite but soon descends into a painfully funny family squabble and the parents try and reign their children in. The laughs continue when chaos breaks out the characters are still at tearing strips off each other or venting their self-hatred as crossbow bolts pepper the dining room. The entire cinema burst into laughter as characters poured forth vitriol and Erin tried to shepherd the squabbling family to safety.

The battle in the family takes on all sorts of different and even more blackly humorous dynamics but it goes deeper than family issues with hints of class politics such as the differences between the dead-eyed killers and the family. There are the differences between generations like the kids and the parents. Even the wars in the Middle East get brought up obliquely. Everyone is embroiled in an ugly internecine argument which is very contemporary and it is all filmed in an unsentimental way, dissecting a very contemporary family.

The film is not very scary or original but it is energetic and ferocious when it comes to the kills and being gory and gruesome. Tension is built up in hearing creaking floorboards, seeing the killers watching people, their masks reflected on windows. Those masks are unnerving and the implacable killers are equally menacing before the humour undercuts everything.

The kills are brutal, brutal, brutal. There are machetes used to hack people up, huge hammers used to batter and bludgeon people to death, and a glorious bit with piano wire. People are peppered with crossbow bolts and stuck with sharp objects. The camera is unflinching in recording these moments and I must admit that I winced but there is enough black-humour during the worst moments to ensure the audience are not totally turned off and the editing keeps thing snappy so there is little gawping at corpses or downtime between the next sequence. Characters will continue bitching about life all the way to their bloody end and the script is witty enough to keep the kill sequences for these thoroughly dislikeable characters entertaining.

Adam Wingard may be an indie director but it is all filmed brilliantly as the camera records each scene effectively, giving the floor to funny, smart kills and a funny, smart script. The actors, all mumblegore familiars, are compelling and fun to watch especially because we are never quite sure who will survive and who will die. Anyone with a like for the horror genre will find the chaos and carnage fun to watch.

4/5

The Japan Foundation have announced their Touring Film Programme for 2014 and it goes under the name of East Side Stories Japanese Cinema Depicting the Lives of Youth. It aims to offer ‘an enlightening and expansive introduction to Japanese cinema through showing features that focus on ‘youth’ and a variety of films which show a “vast variety of styles ad tones” and take “a broad look at how the adults of tomorrow have been portrayed in Japanese cinema over the years.”

The festival runs from January 31^st to March 27^th 2014. The festival starts in London at the ICA and then heads out to various regions including Belfast (Queens Film Theatre), Bristol (Watershed), Dundee (Dundee Contemporary Arts), Edinburgh (Filmhouse), Newcastle Upon Tyne (Tyneside Cinema), Nottingham (Broadway), and Sheffield (Showroom Workstation).

The line-up of films for the opening week at the ICA looks awesome and I intend to head to London and the ICA for weekend of February 01^st,02^nd when most of them are screened. I’m particularly psyched for Love Strikes! Because it has gorgeous Japanese actresses… Uh, I mean great comedy… Shindo and Parade for the great acting.

Here are the films (the English titles are the links to the pages):

The Drudgery Train                                      

Japanese Title:  苦役　列車

Romaji: Kueki Ressha

Release Date: July 14^th, 2012

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita

Writer: Shinji Imaoka (Screenplay), Kenta Nishimura (Original Work)

Starring: Mirai Moriyama, Kengo Kora, Atsuko Maeda, Makita Sports, Tomorowo Taguchi, Mamiko Ito, Miwako Wagatsuma, Shohei Uno, Hiroshi Sato, Asuka Ishii, Kouji Tsujimoto

I reviewed this film back in September and it was released last year. I enjoyed it a lot, finding it a rewarding watch what with its tough to like character. Drudgery Train comes from Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda, Linda, Linda), and is based on Kenta Nishimura’s Akutagawa Prize-winning novel Kueki Ressha which is based on his own experiences. This character-study stars Mirai Moriyama (Fish on Land, Fish Story), Kengo Kora (The Woodsman and the Rain, Norwegian Wood), and former AKB 48 leader Atsuko Maeda (Tamako in Moratorium, The Suicide Song).

Kanta Kitamichi (Moriyama) is a 19-year-old junior high drop out with a love for alcohol and peep shows. He works as a labourer in a warehouse and he has no friends and wastes his days doing very little apart from reading mystery novels and getting drunk. Then he meets Shoji Kusakabe (Kora), a new hire at the warehouse. The two become friends and Kanta reveals he has a crush on a girl named Yasuko (Maeda) who works in a book store. She takes a shine for the two guys but as the three live their lives differences appear… Can Kanta’s new-found friendships last?

The Story of Yonosuke                                              

Japanese Title: 横道世余之介

Romaji: Yokomichi Yonosuke

Release Date: February 23^rd, 2013 (Japan)

UK Release Date: N/A

UK Distributor: Third Window Films

Running Time: 160 mins.

Director: Shuichi Okita

Writer: Shiro Maeda (Screenplay), Shuichi Yoshida (Original Novel)

Starring: Kengo Kora, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Sosuke Ikematsu, Ayumi Ito, Gou Ayano, Arata, Kimiko Yo, Aki Asakura, Mei Kurokawa, Tasuku Emoto, Aimi Satsukawa, Keiko Horiuchi, Noriko Eguchi,

I reviewed this after watching it at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival and it was the best thing I saw there. It is directed by Shuichi Okita, director of my favourite film of the year (The Woodsman & the Rain) and adapted for the screen by Shiro Maeda (Isn’t Anyone Alive?) from a novel by Shuichi Yoshida (Villain). It is equal parts heart-warming, funny and bittersweet and stars great actors including Kengo Kora (The Drudgery Train) and a bunch of favourite actors of mine like Yuriko Yoshitaka (Adrift in Tokyo, Noriko’s Dinner Table), Jun Kunimura (Vital, Why Don’t You Play in Hell?) and Kimiko Yo (For Love’s Sake, Suicide Circle).

It is the 1980’s and Yonosuke Yokomichi (Kora) has left the port city of Nagasaki and travelled to Tokyo to attend university. He finds that his life is about to change in assive ways makes plenty of friends and even a girlfriend in the shape of Shoko (Yoshitaka), the daughter of a company president.

Your Friends                                        

Japanese Title:  きみ　の　友だち

Romaji: Kimi no Tomodachi

Release Date: July 26^th, 2008

Running Time: 125 mins.

Director: Ryuichi Hiroki

Writer: Hiroshi Saito (Screenplay), Kiyoshi Shigematsu (Original Work)

Starring: Anna Ishibashi, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Ayu Kitaura, Seiji Fukushi, Naoyuki Morita, Nao Omori, Akira Emoto, Tomorowo Taguchi

I haven’t heard of this one but Ryuichi Hiroki is pretty famous for his films like Vibrator (2003), April Bride (2009), River (2012). It stars a great actresses like Anna Ishibashi Yume no Kayoji (released last week), Fuan no Tane (2013) and Yuriko Yoshitaka who starred in The Story of Yonosuke (2013) and Noriko’s Dinner Table (2005) and Adrift in Tokyo (2007). No trailer.

Two schoolgirls, Emi and Yuka, form a friendship strengthened by their disabilities that their classmates can neither understand nor share. Years on, Emi recalls her unique relationship with Yuka to Nakahara, a photojournalist.

Sorry                                       

Japanese Title:  ごめん

Romaji: Gomen

Release Date: October 12^th, 2002

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Shin Togashi

Writer: Kota Yamada (Screenplay),

Starring: Masahiro Hisano, Yukika Sakuratani, Shoichi Sato, Jun Kunimura, Michiko Kawai, Ayumu Saito, Megumi Komaki, Takuya Kurihara

Being a teenage boy is hard and we see a comic take on it from Shin Togashi, director of Angel’s Egg (2006) and Oshin (2013). 

12-year-old Sei (Hisano) is a sixth grader who lives in Osaka and is going through puberty. Things get out of control when he discovers the beautiful and elusive, Nao (Sakuratani), a girl one year his senior. Falling head-over-heels, Sei tries to find a way to confess his love to Nao,

Shindo (Wonder Child)  

Japanese Title:  神童

Romaji: Shindou

Release Date: April 21^st, 2007

Running Time: 120 mins.

Director: Koji Hagiuda

Writer: Kosuke Mukai (Screenplay),

Starring: Riko Narumi, Kenichi Matsuyama, Satomi Tezuka, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tamae Ando, Masahiro Komoto, Shihori Kanjiya

The name that jumps out at me from the staff is the writer Kosuke Mukai because he is a frequent collaborator with Nobuhiro Yamashita. He has written the scripts for Tamako in Moratorium, Linda, Linda, Linda and other titles. The film stars some great male actors like Kenichi Matsuyama (Bright Future, Detroit Metal City, Norwegian Wood) and Hidetoshi Nishijima (License to Live, Loft, Zero Focus). Riko Narumi, the genius at the centre of the story is unknown to me but a lot of people praise her performance.

Child prodigy and gifted pianist Uta (Narumi) could read sheet music before she could speak. She is the daughter of a piano virtuoso who disappeared from her life at an early age and now she has no life other than playing the piano and hates it. Facing various doubts and problems, and haunted by her father’s disappearance, Uta forms an unlikely friendship with the older Wao (Matsuyama), the son of a grocer and an aspiring musician, but lacks the drive to succeed. That is until Uta comes into his life…

Parade                                    

Japanese Title:  パレード

Romaji: Paredo

Release Date: February 20^th, 2010

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Isao Yukisada

Writer: Isao Yukisada (Screenplay),  Shuichi Yoshida (Original Novel)

Starring: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Karina, Shihori Kanjiya, Kento Hayashi, Keisuke Koide, Maho Nonami, Terunosuke Takezai, Renji Ishibashi, Natsumi Seto, Midoriko Kimura,

I’ve long been interested in this film ever since I saw a review of it over at Sadako’s Movie Shack. The set-up is great with a mixture of characters who live close to each other and harbour differing levels of affection for each other who are suddenly plunged into chaos. It stars Tatsuya Fujiwara (Battle Royale).

The film follows group of young flatmates sharing a 2LDK apartment in Tokyo. Their number includes a salaryman named Naoki (Fujiwara) who works for a film distribution company, Satoru (Hayashi), a male prostitute, Kotomi (Kanjiya), an aspiring actress, and Miki (Karina), a heavy-drinking female illustrator. They live together and may even have feelings for each other but find their lives thrown into hazard when a mysterious golden-haired stranger takes residence on their sofa, just when a number of brutal murders have been committed in a nearby park.

Capturing Dad                      

Japanese Title: チチを撮りに

Romaji: Chichi o Tori ni

Release Date: February 16^th, 2013 (Japan)

Running Time: 74 mins.

Director: Ryota Nakano

Starring: Makiko Watanabe, Nanoka Matsubara, Erisa Yanagi, Kenichi Takito, Satoshi Nikaido, Tomokoi Kimura

Ryota Nakano’s award winning film Capturing Dad was at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and was then released a week later in Japan. It took the award for best film and best director at the 09^th Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in Kawaguchi city. It is a family drama that mixes a little light comedy and a lot of drama in a film about the absence of a father and the creation of relationships from that loss. The film stars Makiko Watanabe (Love Exposure), Erisa Yanagi (A Gentle Breeze in the Village), Kenichi Takito (Fish Story, Fish on Land), Satoshi Nikaido (Guilty of Romance) amongst others.

Koharu (Matsubara) and Hazuki (Yanagi) are sisters who live in a rural town with their mother Sawa (Watanabe). The father abandoned the family for a new woman fourteen years ago which has caused huge resentment in Sawa but when she discovers that he has terminal cancer she sends Koharu and Hazuki to the hospital with a camera to take a picture of him. When they arrive at the hospital he s dead and his new family are in mourning. Koharu and Hazuki both discover things about their father and their step-family.

Otakus in Love                

Japanese Title:  恋の門

Romaji: Koi no Mon

Release Date: October 20^th, 2004

Running Time: 114 mins.

Director: Suzuki Matsuo

Writer: Suzuki Matsuo, Jun Hanyunyuu (Screenplay),

Starring: Ryuhei Matsuda, Wakana Sakai, Suzuki Matsuo, Kiyoshiro Iawano, Hideaki Anno, Moyoco Anno, Junko Emoto, George Asakura, Noboru Iguchi, Takashi Miike, Shinya Tsukamoto

Suzuki Matsuo (Welcome to the Quiet Room) directs a movie I am desperate to see because it’s all about otaku culture. As a writer for anime and J-film websites this film is my type of thing with anime and film luminaries like Hideaki (Evangelion) Anno, Shinya (Tetsuo) Tsukamoto, and Takashi (Audition) Miike making appearances. It stars the great Ryuhei Matsuda (The Great Passage, Nightmare Detective) and looks like a hyper-stylised treat and I’m ready to devour it.

Two social misfits – artist Mon Aoki (Matsuda) who uses rocks as his canvas to create manga, and cosplay-obsessed, manga artist Koino (Sakai) – literally collide when her high heel stabs his hand as he’s about to pick up a manga-worthy rock. Mon finds it hard to hold down a job due to his hobo-like appearance but manages to score a position at Koino’s company, Tsugino Happy Inc. for a few hours before he’s fired. After a night of drinks they wake up together and their love of otaku culture begins to have a real effect on their relationship.

Love Strikes                         

Japanese Title:  モテキ

Romaji: Moteki

Release Date: September 23^rd, 2011

Running Time: 118 mins.

Director: Hitoshi One

Writer: Hitoshi One (Screenplay), Mitsuro Kubo (Original Manga)

Starring: Mirai Moriyama, Masami Nagasawa, Kumiko Aso, Riisa Naka, Yoko Maki, Hirofumi Arai, Nobuaki Kaneko, Liy Franky, Hikai Mitsushima, Maho Nonami,

This is based on the drama series Moteki that starred Mirai Moriyama (The Drudgery Train) and the synopsis is pretty much my dream – a guy who writes for a news site suddenly becomes popular with hot women. I’m currently writing for news sites. I’m waiting to “suddenly” become popular with hot women. Hot women who look like Masami Nagasawa (Kiseki), Kumiko Aso (Pulse, License to Live), Riisa Naka (Mitsuko Delivers) and the super-foxy Yoko Maki (Infection, The Grudge, Like Father, Like Son, The Ravine of Goodbye). Apparently the girls behind Perfume are in this. I want this to happen to me! It’s not too much to ask, surely? I’ll settle for one woman! Yoko Maki! I’ll chant moteki every day to make it happen!

31-year-old Yukiyo Fujimoto (Moriyama) is broke and lacks a girlfriend. After leaving his job at a staffing firm and is attempting to start a new life by working as a writer for a news site. One day Yukiyo experience “moteki” – a period when a man suddenly becomes popular with women. Said women include a shop assistant named Ai (Naka), Cute magazine editor Miyuki (Nagasawa), pure and naïve office worker Rumiko (Aso) and tough nut Motoko (Maki). Can Yukiyo manage all of the attention?

18 Who Cause a Storm               

Japanese Title:  嵐　を　呼ぶ　十八人

Romaji: Arashi o Yobu Juhachi-nin

Release Date: September 11^th, 1963

Running Time: 108 mins.

Director: Yoshishige Yoshida

Writer: Yoshishige Yoshida (Screenplay),

Starring: Tamotsu Hayakawa, Yoshiko Kayama, Eiji Matsui, Takenobu Wakamoto, Katsuyoshi Nishimura, Yoko Mihara

I don’t really know too much about this film or the staff/cast and I couldn’t find a trailer so here’s the info on the webpage:

A worker in a shipbuilding yard is offered the chance to boost his wages by managing a dormitory inhabited by a pack of 18 adolescent ruffians. This early film by Yoshishige Yoshida (Eros Plus Massacre) is a neo-realist account of the conditions for Japanese temporary workers in the 1960s, and rare to see outside Japan.

Colorful                                   

Japanese Title:  カラフル

Romaji: Karafuru

Release Date: August 21^st, 2010

Running Time: 126 mins.

Director: Keiichi Hara

Writer: Miho Maruo (Screenplay), Eto Mori (Original Creator)

Starring: Kazato Tomizawa (Makoto Kobayashi), Akina Minami (Hiroaki Kuwabara), Kumiko Aso (Makoto’s Mother), Katsumi Takahashi (Makoto’s Father), Aoi Miyazaki (Shoko Sano) Michael (Purapura)

During the introduction to Mai Mai Miracle at last year’s Japan Foundation Touring Film Festival the idea was floated that if Mai Mai Miracle was popular enough then the festival would programme more anime. Looks like it was popular because we get Colorful. I’m happy to see anime get exposure.

 Synopsis from Anime News Network:

Upon reaching the train station to death, a dejected soul is informed that he is ‘lucky’ and will have another chance at life and is placed in the body of a 14-year-old boy named Makoto Kobayashi, who has just committed suicide. Watched over by a neutral spirit named Purapura, the soul must figure out what his greatest sin and mistake in his former life was before his time limit in Makoto’s body runs out. He also has a number of other lesser duties he must complete, such as understanding what led Makoto to commit suicide in the first place and learning how to enjoy his second chance at life.

This is the first of two trailer posts on the run-up to Christmas. After today there are only two days left in work before a very long break which I will enjoy to the fullest. I’ll be able to watch the upcoming opening episodes for the winter season and the TV series Moteki! I’ll also be able to watch Japanese films on DVD, something I haven’t done in two months. There are two films entering the UK cinema market which I’m going to see and they are 47 Ronin and the Robert Redford film All is Lost which I’ll be going to see. Gosh, I’ll be able to indulge my passion for films and not worry about work!

Similar But Different                                              

Japanese Title:  シミラー　バット　デイファレント

Romaji: Shimira- Batto Deifarento

Release Date: December 20^th, 2013

Running Time: 25 mins.

Director: Shota Sometani

Writer: Shota Sometani, Natsuki Seta

Starring: Shota Sometani, Rei Hirano

Shota Sometani is a great actor as can be seen in Himizu. Many critics have singled him out as one of the best of his generation. He always picks interesting roles and now he’s forging some for himself with this short film he has directed and co-written. The trailer is a low-key affair with a smooth jazz soundtrack and slice-of-life stuff happening and the synopsis reads thusly:  a man and woman who share the same time and space. One day in the morning, they go their separate ways. The woman meets an old friend, but she looks annoyed. The man meets an old friend but his thoughts are elsewhere.

With Mugiko                              

Japanese Title:  麦子さんと

Romaji: Mugiko-san to

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Keisuke Yoshida

Writer: Keisuke Yoshida, Ryo Nishihara (Screenplay),

Starring: Maki Horikita, Ryuhei Matsuda, Kimiko Yo, Sayaka Tashiro, Amane Okayama, Eri Fuse, Yoichi Nukumizu

Experienced actor Ryuhei Matsuda, the pretty-boy in Gohatto and the unconventional hero in Nightmare Detective teams up with rising star Maki Horikita in this drama.

Mugiko (Horikita) has lived with her older brother Norio (Matsuda) since her mother Ayako (Yo) abandoned the family and her father died. It has been a long time snce she has seen her mother but one day Ayako returns. Mugiko is uncertain about her mother but Ayako is hiding the fact that she is ill… 

Website

Fly Me to Minami Koi Suru Minami      

Japanese Title:  Fly Me To Minami 恋するミナミ

Romaji: Fly Me to Minami Koi Suru Minami

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 103 mins.

Director: Lim Kawai

Writer: Lim Kawai, Aki Itami

Starring: Sherin Wong, Kenji Kobashi, Yumi Ishimura, Miho Fujima

This film follows the magic of love between men and women of different nationalities. Settings include Hong Kong, Osaka and Seoul and the cast come from these places as well.

Website

Juhou 2405: Watashi ga Shinu Wake     

Japanese Title:  呪報2405 ワタシが死ぬ理由（ワケ）　劇場版

Romaji: Noroi-hō 2405 watashi ga shinu riyū (wake) gekijō-ban

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: N/A

Director: Toichiro Ruto

Writer: Erika Tanaka

Starring: Yuka Masuda, Kyoko Yanagihara, Akari Ninomiya, Ryo Karato, Manami Marutaka, Chal Inoue, Kokoro Takami, Nana Ozaki, Momoka, Manko Kurenai

J-horror! It has felt like forever since I last saw a J-horror movie released. The trailer reminds me of the film Dead Waves – TV report into the supernatural that goes terribly wrong. The story concerns a newscaster named Reika Kita who suffers from a severe headache at the end of a broadcast after the image on the video monitor suddenly warps. Afterward, she wakes up restrained in a hospital. She has horrible dreams and wants to be discharged so that she can get back to work at the station, but her doctor won’t respond and it soon becomes clear the hospital is trying to conceal something.

Website

This is the second trailer post of the week following on from yesterday’s. Christmas days is less than a week away and I’m getting excited over the event and, as mentioned yesterday, a week off to watch anime and films. One of the things I intend to watch is Moteki. It’s a recommendation from my friend Tired Paul since it’s the prequel to the movie Love Strikes!, which will be one of the films that I’ll see in the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Programme 2014. It’s a prequel and having that knowledge will be good. I’ve been trying to keep up with my Christmas posts by ploughing through a lot of horror film reviews and part of that effort was the review for the mumblegore title You’re Next! At the end of the month, Third Window Films will release the Shinya Tsukamoto film Bullet Ballet.

Enough about me, here are the rest of the films released in Japan this weekend:

The Eternal Zero               

Japanese Title:  永遠の0

Romaji: Eien no Zero

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 144 mins.

Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Writer: Tamio Hayashi (Screenplay), Naoki Hyakuta (Original Novel)

Starring: Junichi Okada, Mao Inoue, Haruma Miura, Yuichiro Hirose, Nanaka Yagi, Hirofumi Arai, Min Tanaka, Kazue Fukiishi, Jun Fubuki, Isao Natsuyagi

A young man named Kentaro Saeki (Miura) has failed his bar test yet again. Confused about life he begins to research his family with his older sister Keiko (Fukiishi). They focus on their grandfather Kyuzo Miyabe (Okada) who fought in the Pacific War. He was a man scared of death and obsessed with life who volunteered to join a ‘special forces’ squad but as they encounter old colleagues of his they find a dark secret kept hidden for 60 years…

Website

Deep Red Love  

Japanese Title:  赤々煉恋

Romaji: Seki Seki Ren Ren

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 83 mins.

Director: Kazuya Konaka

Writer: Minato Shukawa (Original Novel), Kazuya Konaka (Screenplay)

Starring: Tao Tsuchiya, Fumika Shimizu, Runa Nishino, Ren Osugi, Naomi Akimoto, Ryo Yoshizawa, Masami Horiuchi, Narimi Arimori,

Juri (Tsuchiya) was a high school student prior to committing suicide. Now she’s a wandering soul trapped on earth wandering around her old house, school and streets. She feels great loneliness because nobody responds to her presence. When she sees a horrific creature that tempts people to commit suicide she dubs it “Bug Man”. When she finally meets a girl who can see her Juri is happy and the two play together. She calls the girl Ringo (Nishino) but the happiness she feels is shattered when she sees the girl’s mother is haunted by The Bug Man…

Website

Bakumatsu Kitan SHINSEN5 Ni Fuun Igagoe  

Japanese Title:  幕末奇譚 SHINSEN5 弐　風雲伊賀越え

Romaji: Bakumatsu Kitan SHINSEN5 Ni Fuun Igagoe

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 78 mins.

Director: Futoshi Sato

Writer: Ichidai Matsuda

Starring: Ryoma Baba, Keisuke Kaminaga, Ren Yagami, Toru Baba, Yoshihide Sasaki, Shota Takasaki, Masahiro Inoue

This is the sequel to Bakumatsu Kitan Shinsen 5 – Kengo Korin where five handsome men pick up swords and battle stuff. I really have no idea what’s going on.

Website

Eiga Nakamura Kanzaburo                       

Japanese Title:  映画　中村勘三郎

Romaji: Eiga Nakamura Kanzaburo

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 95 mins.

Director: Matsuki Tsukuru

Writer: N/A

Starring: Kanzaburo Nakamura

This is a documentary about the kabuki actor Kanzuburo Nakamura who passed away suddenly last year in December. He was passionate about spreading the art of Kabuki to an international audience and a younger generation and his skills as an actor are caught in this documentary which uses over 7000 hours of recorded video!

Website

Cutie and the Boxer                                       

Japanese Title:  キューティー＆ボクサー

Romaji: Kyu-ti- & Bokusa-

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 82 mins.

Director: Zachary Heinzerling

Writer: N/A

Starring: Ushio Shinohara, Noriko Shinohara, Alex Shinohara

This American documentary tells the story of an ageing New York-based male Japanese artist named Ushio Shinohara whose glory days are behind him and his wife Noriko who, having previously been ignored by critics as being his assistant, is now finding fame as an artist in her own right. He finds it hard to cope with the changes but comes to see her in a different light as she gains a new identity. It’s an insight into the art scene of New York from the days of Pop Art and Andy Warhol to now.

Website

Jo hōkō ga mita Ryūkyū sappō to Ryūkyū

Japanese Title:  徐葆光が見た琉球　冊封と琉球

Romaji: Jo hōkō ga mita Ryūkyū sappō to Ryūkyū

Release Date: December 21^st, 2013

Running Time: 71 mins.

Director: Yoshiaki Hongou

Writer: Yoshiaki Hongou

Starring: N/A

This is a documentary about Jo Houkou, a Chinese officer in the 18th century who visited the kingdom of Ryuukyuu as a vice president of a delegation team and wrote famous works which are precious historical sources giving information about ancient Ryuukyuu at that time. The film traces his journey with interviews of historians and reproduction scenes. The film also explains plainly about Ryuukyuu, China and Japan at that time. To look back the history of Ryuukyuu which ran their diplomacy with courtesy and virtue not just military power, the film tries to reconsider current events involving Japan and world.

Website

Inochite nanbo nan? Sen’nan asubesuto wazawai o tatakau  

Japanese Title:  命て　なんぼなん？　泉南アスベスト禍を闘う

Romaji: Inochite nanbo nan? Sen’nan asubesuto wazawai o tatakauRelease Date: December 22^nd, 2013

Running Time: 67 mins.

Director: Kazuo Hara

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

In Japan there are a number of lawsuits over the affects of asbestos that companies used. Former workers who weren’t protected have developed diseases like lung cancer. It has taken years for the cases to be seen through but a judgement will be reached on December 25th and this documentary records the events. To find out more, head over to the English ‘About Page‘.

Website

Insidious Chapter 2                                               

UK Release Date: September 13^th, 2013 (UK)

Running Time: 105 mins.

Director: James Wan

Writer: Leigh Wannell, James Wan

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye, Ty Simpkins, Barbara Hershey, Leigh Whannell, Andrew Astor, Angus Sampson, Jocelin Donahue, Danielle Bisutti, Lindsay Seim, Steve Coulter

1986, psychic mediums Carl (Coulter) and Elise Reiner (Seim) are helping Lorrain Lambert’s (Donahue) son Josh suppress his astral projection abilities to keep him safe from the evil spirit of a woman in white who stalks him…

2011, Josh Lambert (Wilson) has used his astral projection skills to rescue his son Dalton (Simpkins) from the psychic limbo known as The Further where souls of the damned and tormented exist but on his return he is possessed by the evil spirit that haunted him as a child and murders the psychic investigator Elise Rainer (Shaye). In the aftermath of that fateful night his wife Renai (Byrne) is being interviewed by the police are investigating the incident. As the detective states,

“I’m not interested in ghosts, Mrs Lambert, I’m interested in the people who create them. Did he kill her?”

Renai’s only response is, “Something evil followed him.”

She’s right but doubts persist in her mind. Is he the murderer? Is he possessed? She wants to believe in Josh and so they move into his childhood home with his mother Lorrain (Hershey).

“Nothing is going to bother us, not anymore,” Josh assures her but strange things start happening again and Renai witnesses them including seeing a woman in a white dress around the house who menaces her baby and physically attacks her…

Meanwhile the two paranormal investigators Specs (Whannell) and Tucker (Sampson) are picking up the pieces from their last investigation. In the process of doing so they make contact with the spirit of Elise (Shaye) and work with Carl to find out just what happened to Josh because events are going to take a very disturbing turn as more about the spirits surrounding Josh and his family.

As the title suggests the film starts immediately at the end of the first film, with the same characters and actors taking up their old roles in this haunted house film. Indeed, both this and the first Insidious can be watched as a single film which is why a lot of cinemas played the two features together. Essentially this is a case of more of the same in terms of scares and technique and background for a more fleshed out story.

A short pre-credit foray gives us more of Josh Lambert’s history before launching us directly into the action and it is the story which is the highlight with the characters and the mythology of the world to expand. In expanding the story the film loses a lot of its mystery and strangeness but has a huge palette of supernatural tropes like psychics, reality TV aesthetics and creepy kids to draw on. This is a double-edged sword because while it opens up the world there is the sense that the film is derivative of every other horror film, especially the first Insidious, is great and the scares are predictable.

The techniques from sound and set design to scares that are used in Insidious Chapter 2 are the same as in the first film. Everything is well designed, just familiar.

The locations are broken down hospitals, old creepy houses and other locations where the dead may gather. These cobwebby locations are stuffed full of creepy dolls, rocking horses that move of their own volition, and other everyday items that are made unnerving because they have been left to rot and gather dust. As we tour these places we get a soundtrack which alternates between silence for tense searches and shivery and violins which screech at the crescendo of a scare. Things are glimpsed just at the edge of the camera’s frame, ghosts flit in and out of shot and, generally the horrors lurk at the peripheral vision ready to pounce while shouting during the quiet moments.

As a horror veteran I found that there were no really creepy ghosts like Dancing Boy or The Long Haired Fiend and none of the great sequences or scares of the first film but it was still fun. Actually, one of the key ghosts was totally gorgeous and I was distracted by her.

Wow! I wouldn’t mind being haunted by her!

Maybe not…

At this point these techniques are well-worn but James Wan knows how to stage a scare so there are chilling moments and lots of cool creepy imagery. Fans of the first film should enjoy this a lot because it adds to the world and its worth watching not least because it is still high quality horror just nothing fresh.

3.5/5

Images used in this review come from Screen Rant

The Conjuring                                                

UK Release Date: August 02^nd, 2013 (UK)

Running Time: 112 mins.

Director: James Wan

Writer: Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Lilie Taylor, Ron Livingston, Joey King, Stanley Casewell, Hayley McFarland, Mackenzie Foy, Kyla Deaver, Sterling Jerins,

Apparently, just like Amityville Horror, this is based on a true story about a real life Perron family who endured the haunting until the Warrens, a real life paranormal investigators intervened which I guess makes it even more scary because this stuff actually happened. Really? Whatever the case, The Conjuring is a pretty interesting choice of title. Conjuring is a word that may make one think of summoning demons or of magicians fooling audiences into believing in magic with sleights of hand. A curse and ghosts are conjured up but the performance aspect of the word is pretty apt here since Wan tells the story with grotesque glee proving that he is one of the best modern horror directors working.

Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine (Farmiga) Warren are paranormal investigators based in New England. In the basement of their house in Monroe Connecticut they keep cursed objects like samurai armour and a haunted doll named Annabelle locked up. Over the course of their career they have investigated many different cases and gained much arcade knowledge but after a traumatic exorcism that leaves Lorraine debilitated they shelve their careers in favour of academic tours and raising their daughter.

1971, Harrisville Rhode Island. The Perron family have moved into a dilapidated farmhouse. The father, Roger (Livingstone), is a trucker often on the road while mother, Carolyn (Taylor) is a homemaker who takes care of their five daughters. The family are overjoyed with the property but there are strange things going on. The family dog Sadie refuses to go in the house, one of the daughters finds a strange discarded music box while another finds a boarded up entrance to a cellar. Things are about to get worse…

 The next morning the family discovers Sadie lying dead outside the house. The supernatural activity increases to even more violent levels when Roger is away on the road. Carolyn wakes up with mysterious bruises, poltergeist activity ensues, a ghost boy named Rory appears to the youngest daughter and the apparition of a gnarled old woman begins to terrorise the family. After Carolyn finds herself under a sustained supernatural assault she contacts Ed and Lorraine Warren. 

At first the Warrens are reluctant to intervene due to Lorraine’s weakened state but an investigation into the house and the powerful forces dwelling with changes their minds…

The Conjuring like Insidious and Insidious Chapter 2, feature Patrick Wilson traversing a spook house directed by James Wan. Like Insidious Chapter 2, this film is pretty derivative of other horror titles and the director reuses the same visual and audio techniques to generate atmosphere but in the case of these films it is more about the experience than originality.

Derivative sounds pretty damnable but for horror veterans they will recognise references or sequences from other films like The Orphanage and Poltergeist.

We get to see freaky possessed dolls, haunted houses, a strange music box which plays an unnerving tune, ghost children, references to the Salem witch trials, witches and curses, a spooky basement and even an exorcism. The soundtrack features a shivering violin, blaring trumpets and banging doors in quiet moments. The camera hovers about a silent house, pans around rooms, and there are dolly shots as it creeps forward on specific objects. There are even Dutch angles to show characters under possession etc.

Fortunately James Wan is a talented director who has horror mise en scene on lock and production design is top notch so it is all delivered with aplomb and the atmosphere is visceral.

I was never bored. Indeed I found myself coming under its spell and did enjoy it. There is always something glimpsed at the corner of the screen as the camera shows the unnerving and menacing aspects of an empty room or darkened staircase where something odd or unidentifiable. The mood is unbroken and so any problems about unoriginality are easily ignorable because the film feels like an extremely well-made title. Indeed I did jump despite myself (the maid and the wardrobe sequence caught me out…). There are a lot of jump-scares set up by some very, very intelligent camera work that weaves around the well-designed set. It is all about misdirection and fooling the audience which brings it all back to the title. This is proof that James Wan is a master showman.

4/5

After a strong selection of Japanese film releases over 2013 you couldn’t really blame Third Window Films from wanting to try something different and in 2014 it looked as if Korean titles were going to be dominant with only the magnificent Shady and The Story of Yonosuke representing Japan. Then, yesterday, Third Window Films released news of their latest acquisitions and it was major!

I was on my way to a Japanese lesson and checking my emails when I read that Adam had licensed Takashi Miike’s film Lesson of Evil and the indie title The Greatful Dead. My jaw dropped. If I had to sum it up in a word it would be OHMYGODYAY! for the former and Intriguing… for the latter. Both films will be released in the latter half of 2014! Here’s more info:

Lesson of Evil                         

Japanese Title: 悪　の　教典

Romaji: Aku no Kyoten

Running Time: 129 mins.

Director: Takashi Miike

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

Starring: Hideaki Ito, Fumi Nikaidou, Shota Sometani, Kento Hayashi, Hirona Yamazaki, Kodai Asaka, Kodai Asaka, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Takayuki Yamada

I am most hyped about this one. Takashi Miike is a favourite director of mine as reviews of Audition, For Love’s Sake, Thirteen Assassins, and One Missed Call make clear. He had a major hit at the end of 2012 with this film and it travelled to different film festivals like Rotterdam. The film is based on a novel written by Yusuke Kishi who has twice won the Japan Horror Associated Award and it stars great actors like Hideaki Ito, Takayuki Yamada (MILOCRORZE, 13 Assassins), Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Cold Fish) Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaidou who both blew me away in Himizu. The DVD/Blu-ray case on the right sensibly goes for a look similar to the poster which was pretty cool.

Hasumi (Ito) is a popular teacher among students at Shinko Academy, a private high school, and well respected by the faculty and the PTA. However, one of the students Reika (Nikaido) feels something menacing lurking beneath his shining reputation. While Hasumi brilliantly solves one problem after another, from a teacher-student sexual harassment to group cheating to bulling, he starts to take control of the school. As the problems go away, Reika is uneasy about the way they are solved. Tsurii (Fukikoshi), an unpopular teacher at the school, despises the popular Hasumi and starts investigating Hasumi’s past and discovers that Hasumi is a real psycho.

The Greatful Dead

Japanese Title:  グレイトフル デッド

Romaji: Gureitofuru Deddo

Running Time: 97 mins.

Director: Eiji Uchida

Writer: Eiji Uchida, Etsuo Hiratani (Screenplay),

Starring: Kumi Takiuchi, Takashi Sasano, Kkobbi Kim

I don’t know too much about this one but I’ve heard a lot of buzz about it. The Greatful Dead came with an excellent recommendation from Alua whose opinion I trust. It was also enthusiastically endorsed by a Microsoft promoter in the backstage area of the Raindance Independent Film Festival. He babbled out a lot of the plot but I’ve forgotten most of it over the course of ti… Nope, just remembered stuff. I’ll have to think about random stuff to forget it again… Gravure idols, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Christmas is tomorrow…

Nami’s childhood was brutal: her mother ran away to Sri Lanka to help poor kids, her sister skipped town with her boyfriend and her father descended into despair and got himself a gothic mistress who played on this. Now that she’s grown up she takes pleasure in spying on people. Watching loners in society and enjoying seeing their pain.

Following on from last week’s report on the Japan Foundation Touring Film Festival, there is more news about Japanese films being screened in London from January 16^th, 2014 to January 18^th, 2014. Here are the details and a flyer from the site:

Also happening in January are a series of talks linked to the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme East Side Stories: Japanese Cinema Depicting the Lives of Youth.

The first, which takes place on January 29^th, 2014 at 18:30, is a film seminar called Youth in Japanese Cinema and Beyond.  will “bring together experts on the subject to explore how adults of tomorrow have been portrayed in cinema over the years, with a special focus on Japanese cinema, but also considering cinema from around the world.”

The second talk is very interesting. It is a panel discussion which will bring together the director of the anime Colorful, Keiichi Hara, television and film director Hitoshi Ohne and the ace actor Mirai Moriyama (a brilliant actor who can be seen in The Drudgery Train). These chaps will, as the website states,

provide you with informative guide to Japanese cinema today, through the perceptions of those working in it.

Briefly introducing their own careers, they will delve further into the current state of the industry, looking into issues including the relationship between directors and actors, the difference between independent and large scale productions, as well as crossovers between film and television, theatre and animation.

This discussion chaired by Dr Rayna Denison (University of East Anglia) will offer an opportunity to hear the views of professionals with different career paths but all working in Japanese cinema, and will be a perfect complement to the film screenings taking place as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme.

The events are free to attend but booking is essential since places are limited. You must email your name and the title of the event you would like to attend to event@jpf.org.uk.

The event takes place at The Japan Foundation, 10-12 Russell Square, London, WC1B 5EH

For more information, just head to this site.

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas! I had a quiet couple of days and a nice time with family and plenty of manga and other presents. I also caught up with the movie adaptation of Cloud Atlas, one of my all-time favourite books, and liked it.

This is the last trailer post of the year sees me in a more introspective mood.

This has been the second year that I have worked on trailer posts but the first in which I made an effort to capture every Japanese film released in Japan (Tokyo, if we’re being honest because some of the short films and documentaries won’t travel) and give a fuller picture of what Japanese cinema-goers can watch.  It has meant a lot of time and hard work but even then I am aware there may be errors, especially at the beginning of the year. For too many entries my efforts are somewhat amateurish because my translation skills aren’t all that great. Sometimes the kanji is so complex that friends from Japan have trouble providing information without research. To remedy that I have started to a website link, and as much information as I could drum up to help people interested in titles. Also, I bet that a lot of people find it hard to trawl through my words, so I started to cut down on the blurb and just run with the synopsis and maybe brief filmographies.

My performance is linked to the number of other websites that cover Japanese films like Eigpedia and the Japanese Film Database and it is also linked to my Japanese language skills so as I improve those the easier this will get. I’m spending less time watching television/playing games and more time practising so hopefully in the future I won’t come out with the weird sounding titles that have plagued previous posts. I’ll still write these things to a soundtrack like this.

I want to thank my Japanese friends for aiding me and all of the readers who keep coming back – I’m always surprised that anybody still reads this blog…

What did I post about this week? I continued with my Genki 2013 Christmas season by posting a review for Insidious Chapter 2 and The Conjuring followed by news of Third Window Films’s latest Japanese film acquisitions and a post about the Japan Foundation’s other events in January.

Anyway, here are the final films of the year. Check back tomorrow to see a post containing most of the posters for Japanese films released in Japan.

Hunter x Hunter – The Last Mission – (Movie)     

Japanese Title:  ハンター X ハンター: ザ・ラスト・ミッション

Romaji: Hanta- X Hanta-: Za Rasuto Misshin

Release Date: December 27^th, 2013

Running Time: 98 mins.

Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi

Writer: Nobuaki Kishima (Screenplay), Yoshihiro Togashi (Original Creator)

Starring: Mariya Ise (Killua Zoldyck), Megumi Han (Gon Freecs), Daisuke Namikawa (Hisoka), Chisa Yokoyama (Biscuit Krueger), Kenji Fujiwara (Leorio), Yuka Terasaki (Zushi), Mizuki Yamamoto (Rengoku), Miyuki Sawashiro (Kurapika)

When the strongest Hunters in the Hunters Association were split into “light” and “dark”, a conflict emerged as the two sides began to walk their own path. The dark side begins o massacre all Hunters and both Killua and Kurapiku are caught up in the violence, What is the secret behind Netero, the strongest Nen-user and the chairman of the Hunter Association?

Website

Majocco Shimai no Yoyo to Nene  

Japanese Title:  魔女っこ姉妹のヨヨとネネ

Romaji: Majocco Shimai no Yoyo to Nene

Release Date: December 28^th, 2013

Running Time: 100 mins.

Director: Takayuki Hirao

Writer: Hirarin (Original Creator)

Starring: Ai Kakuma (Nene), Sumire Morohoshi (Yoyo), Shoko Nakagawa (Bihaku), Miyuki Sawashiro (Takahiro), Kyoko Hikami (Oyomi), Rui Sasaki (Aki)

Nene and Yoyo are sisters and magical girls who works as “noroiya” (cursers) in a fantasy world. Yoyo is a Picture Book Level witch while Nene is a practice Book Level witch. One day a big tree appears in a forest, and tall buildings that look like they are from our world can be seen entangled in it. When Nene and Yoyo investigate they are transported to our world where they encounter two children whose parents have been turned into monsters…

Website

Every week I write a trailer post compiling all (or most) of the latest Japanese films released in Japan every weekend. There were lots and lots of Japanese films released in Japan this year. Lots. So many. So many I often wondered whether I might be better of collaborating with other writers to create these posts. If I wasn’t having fun I would have stopped. Fact is I’m a cinephile and a bit of a Japanophile so getting all of that information was fascinating and interesting. Plus I like drooling over Japanese actresses like the above. More importantly it has made great conversation points when talking to friends from the UK, Japan and elsewhere.

So, lots of films means lots of trailers and lots of posters and so I thought I’d compile all of the posters into a single article so people can see what was released and how cool the promotional material was. It’s organised by month and while I didn’t quite get all of the posters available these are most of them. Next year I’ll be more on top of it. A cool thing is that if you select a poster a gallery will come up so you can see it in greater detail and view the others.

My personal favourites are Patema Inverted (November), Why Don’t You Play in Hell? (September) Princess Sakura/Remiges/A Pale Woman (June), Intimacy, The Gaze of Another, The Garden of Words (May), Hear Mother’s Song, Sweet Sickness (April) Under a Pink Sky (January).

December

November

October

September

August

July

June

May

April

March

February

January

Welcome to my last post of the year.

As 2013 draws to an end I see that I have made major steps in my personal and public life. I have had promotions at work, improved my Japanese language skills and met lots of Japanese people and attended lots of film festivals and watched lots of films and even achieved most of my resolutions.

My resolutions for 2013 were

• In 2013, I will go to Japan and blog from there (like Sadako’s Movie Shack!),
• In 2013, I will have a season dedicated to Hideo Nakata, Takashi Shimizu and Beat Takeshi,
• In 2013, I will review some older Japanese films,
• In 2013, I will write articles in different styles than the usual format,
• In 2013, I will speak Japanese and write Japanese every day and try and hook up with more Japanese friends to practice my conversational skills,
• In 2013, I will review more anime,
• In 2013, I will submit more reviews to the Korean blogathon,
• In 2013, I will attend more film festivals,
• In 2013, I will try not to bore you.

I did manage to review some older Japanese films (A Woman Called Sada Abe), I wrote different types of posts (Why Don’t You Play in Hell? Gif version), I met lots of Japanese in 2013 and spoke/wrote in Japanese/English every day, I reviewed lots of anime, attended four film festivals and… well that last one you can decide for yourself. People kept coming back to this blog so I guess I achieved that.

Unfortunately I didn’t go to Japan and that was my major aim for 2013. Instead of heading off to Japan I stayed in the UK and blew all of the money I saved for the trip on film festivals, films and every-day things like lunch at work, taking people out. That written, I did manage to get a little bit closer to film culture by being able to interview directors so it was kind of cool but I’m still disappointed that I never went. I don’t think I was ready. Next year or the year after seems more reasonable because I can plan, save money and improve my language skills and stick to my resolution to get to Japan.

2013 was good for languages because after meeting lots of Japanese in 2013 and putting in a concerted effort with extra lessons and practice I feel like I can hold a conversation that goes beyond basic phrases. I was watching Galileo Donna and able to follow the dialogue and understand the nuance of certain words used without looking at the subs for spells (not that subs would give the full info over the use of the word omae etc). That’s perseverance for you.

Looking at what I have achieved I’m surprised I got most of these resolutions done due to my lackadaisical nature but a metamorphosis of sorts where I’m being much more aggressive about doing things is continuing. I have a huge backlog of reviews to finish. Some of them are already in my draft and just need images or to be published so 2014 will start with a bang so to speak.

Apart from the lack of Japan action I am happy with the fact that I am watching great films and informing the world about them in my own little way. This has allowed me to meet all sorts of people and that has been a lot of fun.

I would like to thank everyone who has visited my blog and commented on it and I hope you continue to come back.

And so 2014 will be continuing on last year’s resolutions just to continue that future which leads me to Japan and more films.

Now we come to the most important bit:

My resolutions for 2014

• In 2014, I will formulate a solid plan in aid of going to Japan either at the end of the year or in 2015,
• In 2014, I will continue to speak and write in Japanese every day and practice my conversation and comprehension skills with friends,
• In 2014, I will review more films and continue to write in different styles,
• In 2014, I will actually have a Hideo Nakata/Takashi Shimizu season and a Takashi Ishii season,
• In 2014, I will try not to bore you.

Happy New Year!

2013 has ended and I haven’t published my best ofs yet. I better start now. I have to admit that 2013 year has been rather excellent in terms of my experience with Japanese films considering I saw so many in their year of release, played a small part in helping bring one over to the UK and interviewed a few directors and yet, and yet… There were a few releases that I wish I had seen. Every trailer post always brings up a few titles I wish I could see in a cinema and so here’s a list of 14 Japanese films released in 2013 I hope I get to see in 2014!

Shin Shin Shin                               

Japanese Title: しんしんしん

Romaji: Shin Shin Shin

Running Time: 135 mins.

Release Date: January 12^th 2013 (Japan)

Director: Kouhei Sanada

Writer: Kouhei Sanada

Starring: Ikeda Houshi, Miwako Wagatsuma, Kazuhiro Sano, Yuya Okutsu. Megumi Kagurazaka

Shin Shing Shin is a film which was directed by Kouhei Sanada who was mentored by Kiyoshi Kurosawa at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. That same university played a massive part in another title below, Fairy Tale. The film’s title comes from a song of the same name by the folk rock band Happy End who hail from the 70’s. Is this it and it is a road movie which stars Miwako Wagatsuma who was in Sentimental Yasuko and End of Puberty and Megumi Kagurazaka who was in Cold Fish and The Land of Hope.

Tomoyuki (Ishida) is a high school student who lives with the Tekiya family, a group of strangers with no other place to go. A girl named named Yuki (Wagatsuma) joins the group but when their home is demolished they head off on a journey that leads them from town to town with no particular destination in mind.

Website

A Fairy Tale        

Japanese Title: あるいは佐々木ユキ

Romaji: Aruiwa Sasaki Yuki

Running Time: 79 mins.

Release Date: January 12^th 2013 (Japan)

Director: Kenji Fukuma

Writer: Keiko Fukuma (Screenplay),

Starring: Saori Kohara, Akira Yoshino, Hideyo Sengoku, Makiko Kawano, Yumi Fuzuki

This was a victim of my bad translation skills… The first in a long line of victims… Anyway this is written and directed by the poet Kenji Fukuma, a man with two other directorial efforts to his name – Summer for the Living (2011), which starred Saori Kohara, and My Dear Daughter of Okayama (2008). He reunites with the actress Kohara for this fantasy drama about the emotions of a 20-year-old Tokyoite which interweaves interviews, poetry and dances so that the film blurs dreams and reality.

Watashi wa Sasaki Yuki. Hatachi desu. 

20-year-old Yuki Sasaki who lives by herself in Tokyo. One day she chances upon a poetry reading by poetess Yumi Fuzuki and the experiences makes her lose sight of her purpose in life. In the process, another Yuki (Kawano) appears before her. We see her reality and dreams in a series of interviews and performances like dancing and poetry that are captured on film. 

Website

Tamako in Moratorium         

Japanese: もらとりあむ　タマ子

Romaji: Moratoriamu Tamako

Running Time: 78 mins.

Release Date: November 23^rd, 2013

Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita

Writer: Kosuke Mukai (Screenplay),

Starring: Atsuko Maeda, Suon Kan, Keiichi Suzuki, Kumi Nakamura, Yasuko Tomita

This one stands a better chance of getting an international release than the above two since director Nobuhiro Yamashita is pretty well known and the film can appeal to a broad audience. This stars Atsuko Maeda, former AKB48 superstar and lead actress in Yamashita’s 2012 film, The Drudgery Train and her international reputation should also help.

Tamako (Maeda) is a university graduate who lives with her father. She spends her days lazing around.

Website

The Extreme Sukiyaki       

Japanese: ジ、　エクストリーム、　スキヤキ

Romaji: Ji, Ekusutori-mu, Sukiyaki

Running Time: 111 mins.

Release Date: November 23^rd, 2013

Director: Shiro Maeda

Writer: Shiro Maeda (Original Novel and Screenplay),

Starring: Arata, Yosuke Kubozuka, Mikako Ichikawa, Kana Kurashima, Kengo Kora, Shuichi Okita, Daisuke Kuroda, Toru Okada

This one piques my interest as a cinephile because I enjoy the films based on Shiro Maeda’s scripts. The Story of Yonosuke and Isn’t Anyone Alive? are two favourites. The Extreme sukiyaki is his directorial debut and it stars a selection of top acting talent, mot of whom have appeared in films penned by him. Names include Arata and Yosuke Kubozuka, both of whom starred in the hilarious comedy Ping Pong. Other notable talents are Mikako Ichikawa (Tokyo Oasis), Kana Kurashina (Dreams for Sale), Kengo Kora (The Drudgery Train), and the director Shuichi Okita (The Woodsman & the Rain, The Story of Yonosuke). I want to see how good his directorial talents are, how one does extreme sukiyaki (and on a beach!) and what is the secret that the main character, Horaguchi has?

Horaguchi (Arata) is a failure. 15 years after leaving university he has achieved nothing and let time pass. Time to give up. He tries to commit suicide but even that fails. For Horaguchi his best days were at uni and so he yearns for those days. Yearns for them so much that he finds an old friend from university Ohkawa (Kubozuke). Things are a little awkward between them because of an incident in their past but they soon warm up to each other and plan a trip to the sea. Ohkawa’s girlfriend Kaeda (Kurashina) and Horaguchi’s ex Kyoko (Ichikawa) join them and bring a sukiyaki pot. They start to get along on their trip but Horaguchi has a secret reason for seeing his friend…

Website

Half　- The Mixed-Race Experience of Japan                             

Japanese Title: ハフ

Romaji: Hafu

Release Date: October 05th, 2013

Running Time: 87 mins.

Director: Megumi Nishikura, Lara Perez Takagi

Writer: N/A

Starring: N/A

What’s it like growing up in Japan, a country that is mono-cultural when you are visibly different? It is a question rarely addressed in Japanese cinema until this documentary which is about mixed-race people in Japan which looks to have a wide variety of faces and voices that reflect their increasing number of people born to parents from Japanese and international backgrounds. There are different ages represented so we can see how perceptions of mixed-race people have changed over the course of time.

Website

Fuan no Tane/ Seeds of Anxiety (Literal Title) 

Japanese Title: 不安の種

Romaji: Fuan no Tane

Running Time: 87 mins.

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Director: Toshikazu Nagae

Writer: Masaaki Nakayama (Original Manga), Toshikazu Nagae (Screenplay)

Starring: Anna Ishibashi, Kenta Suga Koudai Asaka, Kanji Tsuda

This is a horror manga adaptation and I have the manga! This omnibus movie comes from Toshikazu Nagae (Paranormal Activity 2: Tokyo Night) who is adapting Masaaki Nakayama’s horror manga collection. It stars Anna Ishibashi (Milocrorze – A Love Story), Koudai Asaka (The Kirishima Thing, Lesson of the Evil) and Kanji Tsuda who has worked with great directors like Beat Takeshi, Takeshi Miike and SABU.

When a motorbike accident occurs it unleashes a series of strange phenomenon which Yoko (Ishibashi) can see.

Website

Patema Inverted                            

Japanese Title: サカサマ　の　パテマ

Romaji: Sakasama no Patema

Running Time: 99 mins.

Release Date: November 09^th, 2013

Director: Yasuhiro Yoshiura

Writer: Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Screenplay/Original Creator)

Starring: Yukiyo Fujii (Patema), Nobuhiko Okamoto (Age), Shintarou Oohata (Porta), Shinya Fukumatsu (G), Masayuki Katou (Lagos),

This film is guaranteed a UK release thanks to Anime Limited so I will get to see it. Why am I excited by it? The film’s director is Yasuhiro Yoshiura who is the director/creator of the wonderful Time of Eve, a futuristic drama about androids in a café and the humans that visit them. It was a whimsical show full of great details and gorgeous animation and do you know what was best of all? The characters were relatable and funny. This is his latest film and it looks to be just as good, just as charming and witty and well animated. The reviews have been uniformly excellent.

The story takes place in an underground world where the inhabitants exist in tunnels and confined spaces and must wear protective clothing. Despite this, these underground people still enjoy life, especially Patema, the princess of her underground village who loves to explore. Her fascination with exploration leads her to a forbidden area where she meets a boy named Age who operates under different gravitational circumstances. The two may come from very different societies but will face strange situations together! 

Website

Seiza                             

Japanese: 星座

Romaji: Seiza

Running Time: N/A

Release Date: November 09^th, 2013

Director: Shutaro Oku

Writer: Shutaro Oku (Screenplay)

Starring: Ikuyo Kuroda, Fabien Prioville, Fusako Urabe

Seiza is the collaboration between Shutaro Oku, a man who has filmed stage plays like Kuroneko (2008) and the interesting looking Cain’s Descendant (2006), and Ikuyo Kuroda a leading figure in the world of dance. I was sceptical about and this film is full of dancing and drama but my tastes are changing, less horror and more drama because a certain woman has civilising influence on me. I’m curious about this one.

It’s a story of a deaf-mute woman who falls for an illegal immigrant who may be a criminal. The police are after him but will she give him up?

Website 

GFP Bunny                                                   

Japanese Title: GFP BUNNY タリウム少女のプログラム

Romaji: GFP Bunny Tariumu Shoujo no Puroguramu 

Running Time: 82 mins.

Release Date: July 06th, 2013

Director: Yutaka Tsuchiya

Writer: Yutaka Tsuchiya

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

Why has this not been picked up yet? My mind and body have been ready for this since I first read about it on Midnight Eye ages ago. I guess it’s too controversial and won’t sell. Or maybe it’s not that good. I don’t care, I need to see for myself because it sounds so twisted and it seems to push the medium plus it has some great actors. It has appeared at the Rotterdam International Film Festival  and is directed by Yutaka Tsuchiya, who is considered one of the more interesting names amongst indie film makers in Japan and scored major kudos with his film Peep “TV” Show (I almost bought that but after watching clips of it, changed my mind), and it stars great actors like Kanji Furutachi who has appeared in trashy genre piece Dead Waves and the great films The Woodsman & the Rain and Dreams for Sale. He is supported by Sion Sono regular Makiko Watanabe (Himizu, Love Exposure).

Apparently based on a true story (with some key facts changed), we follow the actions of Thallium Girl (Kuramochi) who is slowly poisoning her mother with thallium and records her detached world view in her diary. It is clear she has some mental problems which are exacerbated by bullying at school. This just causes her to retreat from reality into a darker place which includes extreme body modification… 

Website

Princess Sakura: Forbidden Pleasures    

Japanese Title: 桜姫

Romaji: Sakura Hime

Running Time: 95 mins.

Release Date: June 29^th, 2013

Director: Hajime Hashimoto

Writer: Hajime Hashimoto, Masahiro Yoshimoto (Screenplay)

Starring: Kyoko Hinami, Munetaka Aoki, DenDen, Yuma Asami

Forget art, I’m in this for the hot women, sensual action and the fun. This is a period drama directed by Hajime Hashimoto, director of big screen blockbusters that cross genres and run from yakuza wars, police investigations, coastguard duties. The plot sounds silly but it is based on a kabuki play called Sakura Hime Azuma Bunsho by Kabuki/kyogen author Tsuruya Nanboku IV called Sakura Hime Azuma Bunsho which was written by Nanboku Tsuruya back in 1817. The gorgeous girl on the poster and in the title role is Kyoko Hinami who is a new actress but she is very beautiful and will probably feature in more films. Munetaka Aoki (Fly with the Gold), Denden (Cold Fish) and the AV actress Yuma Asami (Siren X).

When daughter of a high-ranking family, Sakura Hime (Hinami Kyoko) is attacked and raped by a mysterious assailant she falls in love with him. The only way she can identify him is a tattoo on his body. In order to find the chap she gets the same tattoo and gives up her former life as a princess to work as a prostitute… Unbelievable, right? Anyway, the man who caused the princess to lose her mind is called Gonsuke (Aoki) and he is the target of assassins because he stole a scroll. 

Website

Uzumasa Jacopetti                      

Japanese Title: 太秦ヤコペッティ

Romaji: Uzumasa Jacopetti

Running Time: 83 mins.

Release Date: June 22^nd, 2013

Director: Moriro Miyamoto

Writer: Moriro Miyamoto, Toshihiko Matsunaga (Screenplay)

Starring: Shinji Wada, Kiki Hanaka, Masaki Kitahara, Shishimaru Ozawa, Seizo Fukumoto, Donpei Tsuchihira

Uzumasa Jacopetti featured in Third Window Films’s Top Ten Japanese films of the year. The plot and the trailer look crazy fun, what with gore, sex and the possibility of black comedy of epic proportions.

The story is set in Uzumasa, Kyoto and it follows Shoji Hyakkan (Wada), a man who gives up his job to make a house held together by magnets for himself, his wife and son. When he’s caught stealing and killing a cow for its hide by a police officer (Kobayakawa) he isn’t locked up. No, in fact he’s given an interesting offer involving his dismemberment skills and local hoodlums. It’s an indie production from first-time director Moriro Miyamoto.  Please someone, release this in the west!

Website

The Workhorse & the Bigmouth     

Japanese: ばしゃ馬さんとビッグマウス

Romaji: Basaumasan to Biggumausu

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: November 02^nd, 2013

Director: Keisuke Yoshida

Writer: Keisuke Yoshida

Starring: Kumiko Aso, Shota Yasuda, Yoshinori Okada, Maho Yamada, Yutaka Shimizu, Yoko Akino, Jun Inoue, Yoneko Matsukane

This is another film that featured in Third Window Films’s Top Ten Japanese Films of the year and it stars a bespectacled Kumiko Aso (Pulse, License to Live) as a hard working writer trying to make it big as a screenwriter. Aso is too beautiful to be plain (but that’s just me and my taste) but she gets involved in an ‘opposites attract’ relationship with the big mouth portrayed by Shota Yasuda (Eight Ranger). Apparently it’s unconventional. The two are supported by Yoshinori Okada (Fine, Totally Fine), Maho Yamada (For Love’s Sake, Rent-a-Cat) and Yutaka Shimizu (Love Exposure).

Michiyo Mabuchi (Aso) is thirty-four and a member of a screen-writing class which is also attended by twenty-six year-old Yoshimi Tendo (Yasuda). Michiyo is a hard worker who has earned the nickname Basyauma (work horse) but she doesn’t see a future for herself in the industry. Meanwhile Yoshimi is a bigmouth who doesn’t put any effort into his work. Apparently, proving the idea that opposites attract is correct, the two fall in love.

Website

Madame Marmalade’s Mysterious Puzzle Question/Answer Versions 

Japanese: ナゾトキネマ　マダム・マーマレードの異常な謎　出題編

Romaji: Madamu Marmalade no Ijo na Nazo: Shutsudai Hen

Running Time: 105 mins.

Release Date: October 25^th, 2013

Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Norio Tsuruta, Daiki Ueda

Writer: Yoshihiro Nakamura, Norio Tsuruta, Daiki Ueda (Screenplay),

Starring: Haruna Kawaguchi, Atsuko Takahata, Hajime Yamazaki, Narushi Ikeda, Shiro Namiki Tamae Ando, Koko Mori, Noriko Nakagoshi,

This film is a two-parter (so I’m cheating) that will never get released outside of Japan because the conditions and audiences and interactive elements would be absent. It is an omnibus film with a wrap-around story about the search for a film inside the films in the omnibus film…. Still with me? The two films are split between a Question version which sets up the mystery in the plot for the audience to answer via a sheet of paper and the Answer version where all is revealed. People who answered correctly got their names in the credits. Things like this rarely get made in the west so I want to see how it works.

The film brings together some good (most of the time) directors who handle a different film which a detective scours for a secret. So we have Yoshihiro Nakamura (The Foreign Duck, See You Tomorrow, Everyone) probably doing drama, Norio Tsuruta (Ring 0: Birthday, Dream Cruise) probably doing horror and an unknown in Daiki Ueda.

There is a group of decent actors including Haruna Kawaguchi (P.O.V. – A Cursed Film) who plays the super car driving fox Madame Marmalade, Atsuko Takahata (Bunny Drop), Tamae Ando (Noriko’s Dinner Table, April Bride), and Hajime Yamazaki (Swallowtail Butterfly, Crime or Punishment?!?).

30 years ago, Shunnosuke Todo, the master of the film world revealed to his wife that there is a secret in three shot films which contained a love story before he passed away. Now his wife is on the verge of death so she hires Madame Marmalade (Kawaguchi) to find the secret! 

Website

Short Peace                                                           

Japanese Title:　ショート　ピース

Romaji: Sho-to Pi-su

Running Time: 68 mins.

Release Date: July 20^th, 2013

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo (Hi-no-Youjin), Shuhei Morita, Hiroak Ando (Gambo), Hajime Katoki (Buki yo Saraba), Shuhei Morita (Tsukumo)

Writer: Shuhei Morita (Tsukumo), Katoki (Buki yo Saraba), Katsuhito Ishii, Kensuke Yamamoto (Gambo) Katsuhiro Otomo (Hi-no-Youjin),

Starring: Gambo: Daisuke Namikawa, Mutsumi Tamura Hi-no-Youjin: Masakazu Morita, Saori Hayami, Tsukumo: Aoi Yuukim Takeshi Kusao, Buki yo Saraba: Akio Otsuka, Issei Futamata, Ryotaro Okiayu

Short Peace is an omnibus film which collects four short films directed by four different directors. The biggest name is Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira, Steamboy) who also directed Mushishi.

The stories are all about the theme of Japan and stretch across time:

Tsukumo (Possessions), about a man in 18^th Century Japan who loses his way in montains and stumbles into a shrine which transforms into a strange place.

Hi-no-Youjin (Combustible) where the emotions of a tragic and controversial marriage engulf Edo. Gambom where a girl encounters a terrible demon during the Sengoku period. Buki yo Saraba (A Farewell to Arms) set in a devastated Tokyo in the near future where a platoon of soldiers encounter a mysterious weapon.

One of the shorts, Tsukumo, has been short-listed for an Oscar.

Website

Well I hope I get to see all of these in 2014. Only time will tell.

Welcome to the first trailer post of the year. Yep, we are now fully in 2014 and my posts for the week reflect the transition as I started my “best of 2013” series with a collection of Japanese film posters released in 2013, my new year’s resolutions for 2014 and a list of films released in 2013 that I hope to see in 2014. The “best of 2013” series will continue with film, anime and game selections. I saw 47 Ronin on New Year’s Eve and All is Lost on Thursday. Two totally different films and they, along with lots of films I saw in 2013, will be reviewed this month.

As for this trailer post, as quickly as you say, “hello” (just humour me), it’ll be over because only one Japanese film released this week. The rest are foreign titles about Navy Seals and the architect Sir Norman Foster. Next week looks much busier so that’s my day off work on Wednesday sorted. There’s such a lack of movie action this week that I’m going to place so AMVs and videos I recently watched as preparation for forthcoming reviews. Anyway, here’s the content:

Hitman (Tomorrow’s Gunshot)  

Japanese: ヒットマン　明日への銃声

Romaji: Hittoman Ashita e Jūsei

Running Time: 123 mins.

Release Date: January 04^th, 2014

Director: Hiroyuki Tsuji

Writer: Jiro Okazaki (Novel)

Starring: Takeshi Kamedao, Jiro Okazaki, Mitsuo Senda,

Hiroyuki Tsuji makes plenty of crime thrillers and in this one he tells the tale of brothers who are united but their lives are under threat from a hitman sent by a gang boss.

Website

Here are the random videos:

Dareka no Manazashi (Someone’s Gaze)

Someone’s Gaze was an advert created by Makoto Shinkai for the Nomura Real Estate Group for the Proud Box Kanshasai exhibition. It’s story s of a girl who moves out of her father’s house as she makes a bid for independence but finds it tough breaking up her family ties in such a way. The AMV captures it perfectly.

Here’s the actual advert:

Perfume in Moteki

I have been listening to Perfume for a while and was delighted to see them on the drama Moteki which I am watching in preparation for the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Programme.

I played a lot of games in 2013 but there have been few that have impressed me or moved me enough to write about them (unlike The Walking Dead  ;_;). A lot of them felt like chores to do (a feeling I increasingly get as I get older and have little time to indulge such things) but this one didn’t. My game of the year is the puzzle-platformer/adventure “The Cave” which was released digitally on all of the major platforms back in January. While it didn’t get excellent reviews I still enjoyed it tremendously.

The Cave is an adventure where the player gets to take control of three (or four if you take The Twins) characters from a cast of seven people who are lured by a sentient talking cave (who acts as the narrator of the game) into exploring its dark depths in search of what they desire most.

What these characters don’t know is that while spelunking they will encounter an environment which draws upon the darkest aspects of their characters, their greed and jealousy and murderousness. The Cave acts like a surreal dream-like set of tunnels which channel the character’s rotten souls’ and psyches as they replay their worst moment.

It is like a form of hell where the character re-enact their sins over and over.

The cast includes The Knight who is actually a fake who lacks chivalry and is a greedy coward who, in an effort to get a gem owned by a princess, is willing to release a fearsome dragon upon the kingdom. The Monk in a quest for “enlightenment” is a pretty rotten person who cheats and steals (and does worse) to become the abbot of the mountain-top monastery. The Adventurer is a foxy lady who wants fame and glory for herself (at any cost) in her quest to conquer a pyramid tomb.

What I really loved about The Cave was its clever and attractive design from the characters and the environment they traversed to the elegant simplicity of the controls and level structure and the way it harked back to an age of well-written comedy titles I grew up with.

The game was created by Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle fame. These are games I played in the 90′s (and again with my sister in the early 2000′s) which, in my opinion, provided the first well-written and genuinely funny scripts in gaming. In The Cave he has brought his experience in creating point-and-click PC adventures and adapted it well for consoles and controllers. Each story and the Cave’s narration is funny and full of wit and intelligence.

The setting of the game is a bizarre subterranean set of tunnels which envelopes specific areas for each character. To access an area you must have a certain character otherwise you take another tunnel. The tunnels are wonderfully colourful playgrounds lit by glowing ore, torches, lava, mushrooms and lights powered by portable generators and they are littered with incongruous objects and places like gift shops, zoos, vending machines, crashed UFOs, London public telephone boxes and elevators.

The places you visit depending upon which character you select. As you make your way through the tunnels they gradually open up and the atmosphere and weather changes. You may encounter a computer that opens the door to a nuclear missile silo with tense music playing, or an area may open up to reveal a London skyline where a sombre and disturbing funeral dirge accompanies you as you clamber your way into a dilapidated mansion underneath the smog of Victorian London.

Each level is well-realised and gorgeous to look at with lots of great visual jokes and details. My particular favourites are the sunny desert island surrounded by sharks, the mist-shrouded monastery on a mountain and the mansion.

The game simplifies these areas and exploring them with a logical layout that ensures players will never get lost. Also streamlined are the puzzles which are all pretty logical – characters can only hold one object at a time and that object is usually used in the location they are found in. The objects have a single function related to some puzzle and while the solution is not always immediately obvious a little thinking and invention will solve the problem. For the most part the environments guide the player into forming the answers for themselves.

The control scheme for the game is simple to use, relying upon the d-pad, a thumb-stick and three buttons. I played this cooperatively with my sister and we both quickly found the game easy to navigate. People familiar with platform adventures like Super Mario will feel right at home as characters move and jump and climb and drop around the environment in a similar way. Each character has a special ability – The Adventurer has a grappling hook and The Monk has telekinesis – and they are an infinite resource that can be used at any time and allow access to new areas and create short-cuts depending upon which character you use.

I found a first play-through was all about getting used to the controlling camera not the characters. With three characters to control and puzzles involving all three working together in unison to solve them there was a lot of shuttling the camera back and forth as my sister and I used items or pulled switches at just the right moment. Having to switch the camera around never became tiresome as it was easy to use. Indeed it turned into a joke as we stole the screen from each other just as the character we were controlling was in the middle of a perilous jump over a chasm or some dangerous task involving dynamite.

A second and third play-through is necessary to see the fate of each the seven characters and finish the entire game properly. This means repetition but I didn’t mind as I found we were able to finish the game in around an hour. Thanks to the simplicity of the game, I found it easy to work through and jump straight back in. Unlike Monkey Island and the early Lucas Arts games where constant travel and collecting stuff was mandatory, this game favours a breezy and simple play style that means the necessary replays to complete the game and avoid the irritation that repetition brings. Repetition is in most games only here it’s easy to accommodate because it’s soon overcome and the fun writing and design sustains interest.

Indeed we spent more time indulging our darker side by constantly crushing, burning and blowing each other up while feigning innocence and shouting. This is one of the great aspects of the game. It creates a set of well-realised and fiendishly deplorable characters and encourages us to be evil to them and each other in order to complete the game and get the credits. It acts as both a clever meta-comedy about puzzle games and the human condition and creates a great setting for some dark, well-written comedy sketches that will earn a laugh and a wince as we act out the most evil part of somebody’s life.

Why it’s my game of the year is for the ease of play, design, writing, nostalgia and cooperative play. As I spend more time in work, watching films and socialising I appreciate a game which presents a good, well-designed story. It is not the most moving or best game released this year but I personally found it the best for me.

47 Ronin                                                             

UK Release Date: December 26^th, 2013 (UK)

Running Time: 119 mins.

Director: Carl Erik Rinsch

Writer: Chris Morgan, Hossein Amini

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Kou Shibasaki, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi, Jin Akanishi, Min Tanaka, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa,

47 Ronin is the Hollywood adaptation of a real incident from Japan’s samurai past during the Tokugawa era where 47 masterless samurai seek revenge over the death of their Lord through the assassination of another even though it means certain death. It is a celebrated tale that has been turned into multiple films because it typifies the bravery and loyalty of the samurai at a time when they were losing their place in the country. Instead of sticking firmly to the facts the writers of this version favour have endeavoured to make a fantasy epic close to The Lord of the Rings (perhaps to make it more palatable to a mainstream audience?) but in doing so they make a vapid and dull action film.

Ancient feudal Japan. A group of magical islands full of witches and demons. Peace is kept by samurai. The story of 47 Ronin is the story of all Japan.

The first character we meet is a boy named Kai, the illegitimate son of a British sailor and a Japanese peasant woman who was abandoned in a forest raised by Tengu. He is fleeing the forest in which they live so he can experience a life amongst humans. During his escape he runs into Lord Asano (Tanaka) and his entourage. Asano takes pity on the boy and takes him in. Asano’s samurai are displeased, not least his loyal general Oishi (Sanada), but his daughter Mika takes a liking to Kai.

Fast forward to the future and Kai (Reeves) is an outcast in Asano’s kingdom. He is held in contempt by the haughty samurai, usually referred to as half-breed and treated like a dog, but the love of Mika (Sibasaki) is enough joy for him to remain in the service of her father. This loyalty is called upon when the evil Lord Kira (Asano) and a witch named Mizuki (Kikuchi) use magic to destroy Asano and steal his lands. Oishi, banished with the rest of Asano’s samurai plot their revenge and it is Kai with his mysterious past who will play a pivotal role.

I wanted to like this film despite reports of it being a potential disaster but the best I csn say is that 47 Ronin is not an entirely bad film. It has already been dismissed by other critics and it looks like it will be one of the bigger box office flops of 2013 considering it had a budget of $175 million and looks to be struggling to recoup big box office returns from North America and Japan. Its big crime is not so much that it is badly made but that it is not better. It is dull for long stretches and that is down to writing and directing.

The film is the directorial debut of Carl Erik Rinsch, a man with a background in advertising who had a huge budget and a cast and crew of talented people to work with but the result is underwhelming. The huge budget is clearly on the screen with some great visuals but there is no interesting style to remark upon.

There are some beautiful and even stunning outdoor sets which are glimpsed like the mist shrouded Tengu forests, the Dutch Island and the bad guy’s frost-covered castle located in somewhere Mordor.

Many scenes are great to look at because there is the bold use of colours as well as the excellent set design, CGI and the costume designs. There is eye-candy here but the overall direction makes the film feel really inert despite all of the action because the editing and camera-work are formulaic, competent and nothing more.

With the injection of fantasy elements the film goes for and achieves a Lord of the Rings feel as can be seen from some spectacular sweeping shots of the landscape and the magical creatures cribbed from Princess Mononoke. I felt that 47 Ronin also achieved the bloodless action of those fantasy films as characters I did not consider fully rounded humans whirled blades around in unenthusiastically shot battles. Due to dull editing which cross cuts between battles that lacked the frenzy and desperation, and failed to show the skill of the characters. It wastes the monsters and the massive amount of extras who get into battle and so it fails to be exciting like other samurai titles and it hurts the film more when most of the characters are rather dull and this is where the film really flounders, the human drama at its heart.

The script is driven by a formulaic plot and characterisation is dispensed with too simply or ignored entirely. Maybe Chris Morgan and Hossein Amini have no real interest or understanding of Japanese culture and history or maybe they were under pressure to deliver something safe but the film’s writers opt to avoid examining and displaying anything too Japanese and instead rely on the fantasy elements to create a stock fantasy film. Their screenwriting credits include Drive and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, so one would be forgiven for expecting any in-depth exploration of the themes and world on offer but they do broach so many different aspects of Japanese culture from realistic things like samurai and ninja to fantasy elements like Tengu and fearsome demonic samurai armour so it is disappointing more isn’t made of it and the battles and mythology involved are skimped on.

There are interesting stories here. People labouring under the tyranny of the Shogun and the Bushido code, the forbidden love between an outsider and a feudal lord’ daughter, racism and violence but none of it is explored. This lack of interest and analysis in human event results in a superficial film full of superficial characters which wastes the cast.

Perhaps imbuing 47 different Ronin was a tough challenge for the writers and director who settle on defining them through simple physical traits (the half-breed, the leader, the fat one, the grizzled one, the guy with a moustache and a hat) but they fail to make any character come to life. Perhaps Seven Samurai or 13 Assassins is a more reasonable number of characters to cover…

The script’s treatment of characters is a shame for the actors.

Kou Shibasaki, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rinko Kikuchi, Tadanobu Asano and Keanu Reeves are all great actors but they are given so little to work with thanks to the script which reduces them to playing shallow characters with rote character arcs.

Kou Shibasaki can do action, drama and comedy (Battle Royale, Galileo, One Missed Call), and yet she is reduced to being a doe-eyed love-interest constantly crying “Father” or “Kai” and looking either defiant or submissive. The romance between her and Keanu barely registers beyond polite and perfunctory despite all of the frisson and sizzle that their forbidden romance should entail. Even when they lay hands on each other’s flesh it lacks any depth of feeling or meaning beyond being a plot device.

For his part Keanu plays his character straight. Kai is a stoic outsider raised on the periphery of samurai culture and, like a “half-breed” would, pragmatically adopting it so he can live among humans and endure their hatred but despite being the top-billing actor he is curiously on the periphery of the film, one of the 47 ronin. Indeed, Hiroyuki Sanada’s character Oishi seems to lead most of the action. Perhaps it is meant to show his acceptance by the samurai but their acceptance lacks any meaning because the racism he endures and his ordeals are rote movie stuff wheeled out at the appropriate time. It feels false and the dramatic weight is missing as a result. We never get a sense of his anger or frustration or the depth of contempt in which he is held which is a missed opportunity. He is just a guy with a magical past who longs for a princess and is handy with a sword, not a human being.

Other actors like Hiroyuki Sanada (The Twilight Samurai) and Tadanobu Asano (Vital) are just awesome and have played samurai before and yet their characters barely register beyond being noble yet haughty and handsome yet evil respectively. Their climatic swordfight is intercut with Keanu’s battle but it is just another action set-piece to crown the film. The other actors are solid, just given too little to do and so they are wasted. There is so much to explore, the ridiculous demands of the Bushido code and the tyranny of the Shogun’s rule but due to the problem of poor characterisation these things barely register on an emotional scale.

The one bright note (and it shines so bright!) is Rinko Kikuchi. I have been a fan of hers since watching Norwegian Wood and it is the second film of 2013 she features in (the first being Pacific Rim). She was the centre of attraction for the film, always stealing a scene because she is the one who got to stretch her acting muscles. She is the witch who can transform into a fox and bewitches men and she bewitched me. Sexy, alluring and playful, she also has an acidic sea of rage that threatens to burst out of her when she is up against a rival. Kou Shibasaki is her prime target and Kikuchi is deliciously malevolent. She gets to have fun in her role as she flirts with and destroys enemies and comprehensively out-acts everybody from the film.

Everybody delivers their English lines well but the content of their words is hardly meaningful or original.

There is a really interesting tale here. Many actually, but the original, a tale of 47 men who bravely sacrificed themselves to fulfil their duty and uphold the bonds of loyalty to their lord and honour of their class is done a disservice by a film which is entirely average and mostly dull. If this had been fun to watch I would have forgiven the lack of drama. The poor direction and poor script are sometimes balanced out by some really great visuals, the great set and costume designs and some of the great (okay, just Rinko Kikuchi) acting. In the hands of another, more experienced director and writers who are willing to get stuck into Japanese culture and give more to a set of fantastic actors and it would have been a great fantasy film, a brilliant visual extravaganza. As it is the first English language adaptation of a classical tale is a wasted opportunity.

2.5/5

My first review of 2014 and so negative. The next review is another samurai film I watched in the second half of 2013 and will score much, much better. Lets end on a happy and beautiful note. Rinko Kikuchi, Rinko the beauty. Ah, the best thing about the drama Moteki.