Happy weekend, everyone!
I hope you are all well!
This week I published my review for Orphan’s Blues and also a look at the Japanese films at this year’s Busan International Film Festival. We’re getting closer to this year’s Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival and I’m doing SNS and press stuff.
What is released in cinemas across Japan this weekend?
From Miyamoto To You 
宮本から君へ 「Miyamoto kara Kimi e」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: 129 mins.
Director: Tetsuya Mariko
Writer: Tetsuya Mariko, Takehiko Minato (Screenplay), Hideki Arai (Manga)
Starring: Sosuke Ikematsu, Yu Aoi, Arata Iura, Kenichi Matsuyama, Tokio Emoto, Kanji Furutachi, Jiro Sato, Pierre Taki,
This is based on a manga by Hideki Arai which was published from 1990 to 1994. It was turned into a television show and now has this movie spin-off.
Synopsis: Hiroshi Miyamoto has a job at a stationery company as a salesman. He’s clumsy and has no idea what he wants to do with his life but a nice guy which is part of what attracts an older lady named Yasuko Nakano (Yu Aoi). When Yasuko tells her ex-boyfriend that she has slept with Hiroshi to get the guy to stop chasing her, Hiroshi finds himself becoming a target of the man…
The Flowers of Evil 
惡の華 「Aku no Hana」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: 127 mins.
Director: Noboru Iguchi
Writer: Mari Okada (Screenplay), Shuzo Oshimi (Manga)
Starring: Kentaro Ito, Tina Tamashiro, Marie Iitoyo, Shiori Akita, Miho Kitagawa, Takara Sakumoto, Maki Sakai, Shingo Tsurumi, Asuka Kurosawa,
Splatter film specialist Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl) continues with adaptations of manga by taking on Shuzo Oshimi’s Aku no Hana (already subject to an anime adaptation – Aku no Hana First Impression) He has assembled many of the cast and the writer from the movie Dark Maidens to bring this story to life.
Synopsis: Takao Kasuga (Kentaro Ito) is a high school student who loves Charles Baudelaire’s poetry collection, “The Flowers of Evil”. He also loves Nanako Saeki (Shiori Akita), a classmate. One evening, just before leaving school, he gives in to the temptation to steal her gym clothes. He is witnessed by the class renegade Sawa Nakamura (Tina Tamashiro) who exploits Takao.
Ninkyo Gakuen 
任侠学園 「Ninkyo Gakuen」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Hisashi Kimura
Writer: Masaaki Sakai (Screenplay), Bin Konno (Novel)
Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toshiyuki Nishida, Atsushi Ito, Tetsuhiro Ikeda, Kazuma Sano, Koki Maeda, Wakana Aoi, Hinako Sakurai,
Synopsis: The Akimotogumi yakuza group leader Shigesato Akimoto (Toshiyuki Nishida) is an old-school gangster who believes in honour and humanity and wants to save a local high school which is performing poorly. He sends his deputy Seiji Himura (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and other mobsters to restore order at the school but it might be tougher situation than being a gangster.
Gekijouban Soshite, Ikiru 
劇場版 そして、生きる 「Gekijouban Soshite, Ikiru」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: 135 mins.
Director: Hisashi Kimura
Writer: Masaaki Sakai (Screenplay), Bin Konno (Novel)
Starring: Kasumi Arimura, Kentaro Sakaguchi, Eriko Moriwaki, Amane Okayama, Kaho Minami, Kang Ji-young, Ken Mitsuishi, Masato Hagiwara,
This is a re-working of the same-named television series which finished earlier this month.
Synopsis: It is March 10th, 2011, and Toko Ikuta (Kasumi Arimura) is a girl chasing dreams of being an idol in Tokyo and about to make her debut but when the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami strikes, she puts off an audition. She is originally from Morioka. She was raised by her uncle following the death of her parents but she had a happy childhood. Toko, allong with her Korean friend Han Yoo-Ri (Kang Ji-Young), head north to do volunteer work in Kesennuma and this is where she meets a university student named Kiyotaka Shimizu (Kentaro Sakaguchi) and the two develop feelings for each other.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Chapter I 
銀河英雄伝説 Die Neue These 星乱 第一章 「Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Die Neue These Seiran Dai Ishhou」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: N/A
Director: Shunsuke Tada
Writer: Noboru Takagi (Series Composition), Yoshiki Tanaka (Novel)
Starring: Kenichi Suzumura (Yang Wen-li), Mamoru Miyano (Reinhard von Lohengramm), Yuichiro Umehara (Siegfried Kircheis), Kana Hanazawa (Hildegard von Mariendorf),
Animation Production: Production I.G.
This is the second season of the anime remake of the original work and it hits the cinemas. Each cinematic version will be the length of four episodes.
Synopsis: Two interstellar human states – the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance – are locked in a seemingly never-ending conflict and two leaders emerge, Reinhard von Lohengramm from the Galactic Empire and Yang Wen-li from the Free Planets Alliance. They will become Galactic Heroes.
Ojo-chan 
お嬢ちゃん 「Ojou-chan」
Release Date: September 28th, 2019
Duration: 130 mins.
Director: Ryutaro Ninomiya
Writer: Ryutaro Ninomiya (Screenplay),
Starring: Minori Hagiwara, Rieko Dote, Misaki Mireho, Sanae Yuuki, Yuki Hirose,
Ryutaro Ninomiya is back with another original film following Sweating the Small Stuff (2017). It’s a female-led drama made with Enbu Cinema and set in the seaside town of Kamakura. Why are seaside towns so depressing?
Synopsis: Minori is a 21-year-old woman who lives in Kamakura and she has a part-time job at a small tourist spot by. Minori seems like a normal woman, but she is not normal …
Shunga and the Japanese 
春画と日本人 「Shunga to Nihonjin」
Release Date: September 28th, 2019
Duration: 87 mins.
Director: Atsushi Ogaki
Writer: N/A
Starring: Tadashi Kobayashi, Hideyoshi Asano, Naoyuki Kinoshita, Aki Ishigami, Mitsuru Uragami,
Synopsis: This documentary looks at the relationship between Japanese and the erotic art of Shunga by contrasting reactions between foreigners and Japanese as witnessed during the creation of an exhibition at a small private museum in Tokyo which followed a much larger exhibition at the British Museum in London. It seems that while many in the UK were fascinated by this form of art, few public museums in Japan wanted to know about Shunga and it was left to a private museum to hold the exhibition and they got great visitor figures. Expect interviews, shots of Shunga and newspaper headlines.
Daremonai Heya
誰もいない部屋 「Daremonai Heya」
Release Date: September 28th, 2019
Duration: N/A
Director: Keita Taguchi
Writer: Keita Taguchi (Screenplay),
Starring: Ayano Kojima, Sho Mineo, Makoto Shinada, Tomokazu Kida, Yumi Sakurama, Hiroyuki Toritani, Tokuko Ohara,
Synopsis: Keita Taguchi was in Cinema Rosa in Ikebukuro showing Ko Sekai, one of his latest films, last week and this is his second work to be screened. Not much information on this one except it has a room and it may or may not be empty…
Cinema Kabuki Tokubetsu-hen Yuugen 
シネマ歌舞伎特別篇 幽玄 「Shinema Kabuki Tokubetsu-hen Yuugen」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: 121 mins.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
Starring: Tamasaburo Bando, Jusuke Hanayagi,
Synopsis: This is a special edition of the “Cinema Kabuki” series where a collaboration between famed Onna-gata actor Tamasaburo Bando and the taiko drum performance group “Kodo” has been recorded in the play “Amaterasu”. Here’s a piece in the Japan Times for around the time it was recorded.
Horror Channel 
ホラーちゃんねる 「Hora- channeru」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Takashi Ohashi
Writer: Fumi Kimura, Akiko Kaiho, Tomoko Anzai, Daishi Yamashita, Risa Nishino, et al. (Screenplay), Bin KonnoYasutoshi Murakawa (Screenplay Supervision)
Starring: Maya Sugawara, Tesaho Iwata, Kurumi Takahashi, Hanon Hasegawa, Manaka Nishihara,
Synopsis: This is an omnibus horror movie based on the popular YouTube channel “Horror Channel” and the link story is one student at a girl’s high school who uses “Horror Channel” to contact a friend who died in an accident a month ago…
Drunk voice actor wandering seibero shinbashi
酔いどれ声優放浪記 せいべろ 新橋篇 「Yoidore Seiyu Horoki Seibero ‘Shinbashi-hen’ 」
Release Date: September 27th, 2019
Duration: 65 mins.
Director: Takashi Ohashi
Writer: N/A
Starring: Shinnosuke Tachibana, Takayuki Kondo, Yuuki Iwai,
Synopsis: Ahead of an October DVD release, there’s a cinema screening at Cine Libre Ikebukuro of three popular voice actors, Shinnosuke Tachibana, Takayuki Kondo, Yuuki Iwai, drinking at a pub in Shimbashi. They have “50,000 yen for liquor” and audiences will see the true nature of the three revealed at the sake table.