Happy weekend, everyone!
We made it to another one. But we have to do more than just survive…
I’ve been really fatigued this week due to sleeping patterns which see me wake up at 03:00 in the morning and struggle to get back to sleep. It’s really dispiriting to get mid-way through a regular work day and struggle to smile. I’m going to exercise more to see if that improves things. Other than that and general sense of needing to change my life and improve my writing, I’m okay.
I wrote about the London East Asian Film Festival and I want to go to Samurai Sunday where they will show 13 Assassins, two entries in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Harakiri, and Sword of Doom! I also posted a review for Bullet Ballet which I got two years ago but only got around to watching now.
What is released in Japan this weekend?
The Promised Land 
楽園 「Rakuen」
Release Date: October 18th, 2019
Duration: 129 mins.
Director: Takahisa Zeze
Writer: Takahisa Zeze (Screenplay) Shuichi Yoshida (Novel)
Starring: Gou Ayano, Hana Sugisaki, Koichi Sato, Nijiro Murakami, Reiko Kataoka, Asuka Kurosawa, Shizuka Ishibashi, Toshie Negishi, Akira Emoto,
This is based on the short stories “Aota Y Jiro” and “Yorozuya Zenjiro” by Shuichi Yoshida. His novels are popular for adaptations with Rage, The Ravine of Goodbye, The Story of Yonosuke, Villain, and Parade already getting the big screen treatment. The film had it’s international premiere at the Busan International Film Festival.
Synopsis: A little girl is kidnapped and the only witness, Tsumugi (Hana Sugisaki), is left traumatised. With the kidnapper never having been caught, paranoia runs high and it breaks out when, 12 years later, a girl goes missing along the same road. Takeshi (Gou Ayano) is a lonely young man who sells recyclable products with his mother and he is suspected of the kidnapping. Fearing the situation, he flees.
One year later, another man named Zenjiro (Koichi Sato) is accused. He lives with his pet dog near the road where the two kidnapping cases took place but is he guilty? Horrifying revelations soon emerge from the case…
Show Me the Way to the Station 
駅までの道をおしえて 「Eki made no michi o oshiete」
Release Date: October 18th, 2019
Duration: 125 mins.
Director: Naoki Hashimoto
Writer: Naoki Hashimoto (Screenplay) Shizuka Ijuin,(Novel)
Starring: Chise Niitsu, Maki Sakai, Kenichi Takito, Kimiko Yo, Akira Emoto, Michiko Hada,
Synopsis: A young girl named Sayaka is devastated by the loss of her pet dog. She develops a friendship with an old man who runs a jazz cafe and has a pet dog of his own. She learns he has his own tragic tale: he has been unable to accept the death of his son decades earlier and is waiting for “something”…
Special Actors 
スペシャルアクターズ 「Supesharu Akuta-zu」
Release Date: October 18th, 2019
Duration: 109 mins.
Director: Shinichiro Ueda
Writer: Shinichiro Ueda (Screenplay)
Starring: Hiroki Kono, Takuya Fuji, Ayu Kitaura, Yosuke Ueda, Yaeko Kiyose,
Shinichiro Ueda, director of One Cut of the Dead, brings his second feature film to the screen…
Synopsis: Kazuto is a timid young guy who prefers to stay indoors to watch the adventures of the psychic hero Rescueman instead of being stressed outside. Somehow he ends up being involved in a real life drama when a young woman named Yumi asks for help from the Special Actors to save her family’s inn from being sold to a brainwashing cult and it turns out that the Special Actors devise a complex plan that depends upon Kazuto…
If Hope Disappears From the World 
世界から希望が消えたなら。 「Sekai kara kibou ga kietanara.」
Release Date: October 18th, 2019
Duration: 118 mins.
Director: Hiroshi Akabane
Writer: Sayaka Ookawa (Screenplay), Ryuhou Ookawa (Novel)
Starring: Hisaaki Takeuchi, Yoshiko Sengen, Tamao Sato, Yoshimi Ashikawa, Tamatsu Ishibashi,
Synopsis: A drama depicting a miracle experienced by a best-selling author with a beautiful wife and three children. He leads a successful life but it looks like it might be cut short when he suffers a heart attack and is told it might all be over. Only an intervention from higher powers can save him…
AI Detective 
AI探偵 「AI Tantei」
Release Date: October 18th, 2019
Duration: 70 mins.
Director: Seiji Chiba
Writer: Seiji Chiba (Screenplay),
Starring: Yoshihiko Aramaki, Souma Ishihara, Takuya Mizoguchi, Shunya Ohira, Yukihiro Takiguchi, Kenyu Koriuchi,
No Trailer
Synopsis: Suspense comedy about a guy named Kimihiko Kagiyama who has returned from the United States, where he was studying, to search for his father, a detective. He does so using a mysterious Tsundere AI and other detectives.
The Detective has a Melancholy Dream Tonight. 2 
探偵は、今夜も憂鬱な夢を見る。2 「Tantei wa, kon’ya mo yūutsuna yumewomiru. 2」
Release Date: October 18th, 2019
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Yasutaka Mori
Writer: Fumio Nomoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Tomoki Hirose, Yuuki Ogoe, Asuka Kishi, Masaaki Nakano, James Takeshi Yamada,
Synopsis:This is the second detective buddy movie starring Tomoki Hirose and Yuki Ogoe, both of whom perform in the 2.5-dimensional stage plays that bring anime titles like The Prince of Tennis and Yowamushi Pedal to life.
Kaihou-ku / Fragile 
解放区 「Kaihou-ku」
Release Date: October 24th, 2014
Duration: 111 mins.
Director: Shingo Ohta
Writer: Shingo Ohta (Screenplay),
Starring: Shingo Ohta, Dai Motoyama, Shingo Nishimaru, Uta Kohaku, Haruka Yamaguchi, Ryo Sato, Masashi Aoyama,
Film director and actor Shingo Ota, was last written about in a trailer post here for the documentary The End of The Special Time We Were Allowed, which is about his friend’s suicide. He followed that up with this docudrama depicting different social problems like drug use, poverty and crime in one of Japan’s poorest areas. It was filmed with the support of locals.
Synopsis: Suyama, an assistant director for a television news show, aims to be a documentarian and striking out on his own. After disagreements with his colleagues, he travels to Nishinari to search for a friend who has gone missing. There, he joins forces with a schizophrenic man named Motoyama and shoots footage in the hope of turning it into a program…
A Small History of Love Vol. 1 
愛の小さな歴史 誰でもない恋人たちの風景 vol.1 「Ai no chiisana rekishi dare demonai koibito-tachi no fuukei vol. 1」
Release Date: October 19th, 2019
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Michio Koshikawa
Writer: Michio Koshikawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Kaho Sato, Shohei Uno, Motoki Fukami, Kinuo Yamada, Kanon Nawata,
Synopsis: Yuri had drifted through life feeling melancholy and she wound up living at a secondhand bookstore and marrying the owner, an equally sad divorcee named Tomo. He fell in love and found happiness but when Tomo’s childhood friend Ryuta meets Yuri and the two are attracted to each other, more heartbreak and sadness ensue.
Star☆Twinkle Precure: Hoshi no Uta ni Omoi wo Komete 
映画スター☆トゥインクルプリキュア 星のうたに想いをこめて 「Eiga Suta- Touinkuru Purikyua Hoshi no Uta ni Omoi o Komete」
Release Date: October 19th, 2019
Duration: 72 mins.
Director: Yuuta Tanaka
Writer: Jin Tanaka (Script), Izumi Todo (Original Creator)
Starring: Eimi Naruse (Hikaru Hoshina/Cure Star), Kiyono Yasuno (Erena Amamiya/Cure Soleil), Konomi Kohara (Lala Hagoromo/Cure Milky), Mikako Komatsu (Madoka Kaguya/Cure Selene),Sumire Uesaka (Mao/Blue Cat/Cure Cosmo),
Animation Production: Toei Animation
Synopsis: Hikaru meets the aliens LaLa, Prunce, and Fuwa while watching the night sky and she learns of the 12 Star Princesses of the constellations. They kept the balance of the universe until they were attacked. LaLa is searching for the legendary Precure warriors to help find the 12 scattered “Princess Star Color Pens” and revive the princesses but when Fuwa is captured by an enemy, Hikaru wishes to save Fuwa, and a Star Color Pendent and a Star Color Pen appear to allow her to transform into Cure Star. This means she has the power to save the princesses and also take care of Fuwa.
