Happy weekend, everyone!
I hope everybody is fine and dandy!
I am in a zero time dilemma, as ever, as I try and fit in copious amounts of writing around my normal work routine so this trailer post is going to be short and sweet despite having so many titles. I posted about the Winter Showcase of foodie movies from the New York Asian Film Festival and I posted about the opening and closing films of the Osaka Asian Film Festival which takes place next month.
What is released this weekend?
37 Seconds 
Release Date: February 07th, 2020
Duration: 115 mins.
Director: Hikari
Writer: Hikari (Screenplay),
Starring: Mei Kayama, Makiko Watanabe, Yuka Itaya, Shunsuke Daito, Misuzu Kanno,
This one looks really interesting. It is a drama about people with cerebral palsy that is stacked with good actors like Makiko Watanabe (Love Exposure) and it goes a step further by having people with the condition portray characters. It mixes drama and humour and the trailer promises it will be worth watching. That was my blurb from the Berlin International Film Festival from last year and, guess what… it won the Berlinale Audience Award.
Synopsis from Berlinale: Yuma is a 23-year-old woman from Tokyo. When she commutes by train to her job in a manga studio, her face is at hip height to the other passengers standing up. Yuma uses a wheelchair on account of cerebral palsy. Her deformed limbs only allow her to crawl – and to hold a pencil. The fact that her boss, a successful comic artist and blogger named Sayaka, who has a penchant for garish Fairy Kei attire, passes Yuma’s drawing ideas off as her own, dismays the talented ‘mangaka’. Even worse, her overprotective mother hardly lets her out of her sight and refuses to talk about her father. As Yuma attempts to live a more independent life, she stumbles across adult comics – manga porn – and toys with the idea of drawing some herself. The publisher advises her to gain some personal experience first. But what happens when a woman in a wheelchair asks a tout in Tokyo’s red light district to fix her up with a sex date?
It Stopped Raining /A Quiet Rain
静かな雨 「Shizukana Ame」
Release Date: February 07th, 2020
Duration: 99 mins.
Director: Ryutaro Nakagawa
Writer: Eiji Umehara, Ryutaro Nakagawa (Screenplay), Natsu Miyashita (Novel)
Starring: Taiga Nakano, Misa Eto,
Ryutaro Nakagawa has been making films for a while now (I first wrote about him with a Kickstarter for Plastic Love Story) and each has been a quiet success on the festival circuit.
Synopsis: Bio-archaeology sounds like hard thinking work and one bio-archaeology research assistant named Yukisuke (Taiga) often buys taiyaki (a fish-shaped pastry) at a taiyaki store near his university to power his brain. He is served by the owner, s young woman named Koyomi (Misa Eto) and the two build up a rapport as they begin to talk regularly but, one morning, Koyomi gets into a traffic accident and falls into a coma. Yukisuke continues to visit Koyomi at the hospital and, eventually, Koyomi regains consciousness, but she soon realises that she has problems with her memory. She remembers everything up to the accident, but her short term memory can’t remember anything beyond the present day.
Howling Village 
犬鳴村 「Inukai Mura」
Release Date: February 07th, 2020
Duration: 108 mins.
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Writer: Takashi Shimizu, Daisuke Hosaka (Script),
Starring: Ayaka Miyoshi, Ryota Bando, Renji Ishibashi, Reiko Takashima, Masanobu Takashima,
Takashi Shimizu of Ju-on / Ju-on 2 fame brings to life a cursed village.
Synopsis: Inunaki Village is a haunted place and a clinical psychologist named Kanae (Ayaka Miyoshi) is drawn there when her older brother Yuma and his girlfriend Akina go missing there. It’s a good thing Kanae can see spirits…
Fancy 
ファンシー 「Fanshi-」
Release Date: February 07th, 2020
Duration: 102 mins.
Director: Masaoki Hirota
Writer: Takayuki Imanara, Masaoki Hirota (Script), Naoki Yamamoto (Original Manga)
Starring: Masatoshi Nagase, Masataka Kubota, Sakurako Konishi, Tomorowo Taguchi, Eriko Sato,
Synopsis: Akira Takasu (Masatoshi Nagase), a carver and a postman, hangs out with a poet named Penguin (Masataka Kubota) and the two battle yakuza with the help of one of Penguin’s fans, Moonlit Night’s Star (Sakurako Konishi).
Under the name of Samurai-Japan National Baseball Team SAMURAI JAPAN 800 days- 
侍の名のもとに 野球日本代表 侍ジャパンの800日 「Samurai no na no moto ni yakyūnihondaihyō samuraijapan no 800-nichi」
Release Date: February 07th, 2020
Duration: 108 mins.
Director: Shintaro Miki
Writer:
Starring:
Synopsis: A documentary about the Japanese national baseball team known as “Samurai Japan”. Recording started after former pro-ball player Atsushi Inaba took over managing the team in 2017.
Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku 
ヲタクに恋は難しい 「Wotaku ni Koi ha Muzukashii」
Release Date: February 07th, 2020
Duration: 114 mins.
Director: Yuichi Fukuda
Writer: Yuichi Fukuda (Script), Fujita (Original Webcomic)
Starring: Mitsuki Takahata, Kento Yamazaki, Nanao, Takumi Saito, Kento Kaku, Tsuyoshi Muro, Jiro Sato,
Synopsis: An office lady named Narumi Momose (Mitsuki Takahata) meets her old childhood friend Hirotaka Nifuji (Kento Yamazaki) at the new company she works for and Hirotaka has blossomed into a handsome and talented guy. However, he is also a video game otaku. That’s okay because Narumi is secretly a fujoshi into reading boys’ love manga. She can finally reveal her secret side to someone and the two start dating as an otaku couple.
Fake Plastic Planet 
フェイクプラスティックプラネット 「Feiku purasutikku puranetto」
Release Date: February 08th, 2020
Duration: 73 mins.
Director: Kenichi Sono
Writer: Kenichi Sono (Script),
Starring: Kasumi Yamaya, Kei Ichihashi, Tomokazu Koshimura, Taeko Gomi, Maya Hasegawa,
Synopsis: Shiho (Kasumi Yamaya) lives in an internet cafe. She encounters a blind fortune teller who insists that they had met 25 years ago but that cannot be since Shiho is 25! She spends the rest of the movie searching for her identity.
Cinema Rosa is showing more Ryo Katayama films this weekend. This time he worked with the Alice Project idols.
Tsumugu 
つむぐ 「Tsumugu」
Release Date: February 08th, 2020
Duration: 32 mins.
Director: Ryo Katayama
Writer: Ryo Katayama (Script),
Starring: Seri Suzumura, Mayu Kusunoki, Mao Morishita, Yuri Kinoshita,
Synopsis: A movie in which Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, where the Kamen Joshi girls take part in a story involving the areas famed textile industry. The lead character had wanted to work in the media in Tokyo but various events serve to keep her home and with more traditional work…
Mirai no Uta 
未来の唄 「Mirai no Uta」
Release Date: February 08th, 2020
Duration: 51 mins.
Director: Ryo Katayama
Writer: Ryo Katayama (Script),
Starring: Moa Tsukino, Fue Mizuno, Anan Sekiguchi, Doka Sakurano, Ryo Katayama,
Synopsis: Another short film involving the Kamen Joshi girls but this one is about Echizen lacquerware, a traditional industry in Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture. This art has been around for more than 1,500 years and is characterised by separate craftsmen handling each process from cutting wood to producing products. A girl chooses to follow her grandfather into the industry.
Cinema Rosa is also showing two films by Satoshi Ono.
Pick it up and throw it away! 
拾って捨てろ！ 「Hirotte sutero!」
Release Date: February 08th, 2020
Duration: 45 mins.
Director: Satoshi Ono
Writer: Yuto Hori (Script),
Starring: Mineo Maiko, Noriko Sakamoto, Hitoshi Kuno, Fumiko Sakai, Koichi Ishikawa,
Synopsis: Mineo Maiko, the co-star of Amiko takes the lead in this film where she plays an OL who loves picking up litter, finds out about a volunteer group called “TOKYO SOYLENT GREEN” that is cleaning up parks for the Tokyo Olympics. They are caught in a battle with a bad group that tries to destroy parks. Hiroko finds herself pitching in with the good guys.
Soft Season
やわらかい季節 「Yawarakai kisetsu」
Release Date: February 08th, 2020
Duration: 35 mins.
Director: Satoshi Ono
Writer: Satoshi Ono, Yuto Hori (Script),
Starring: Fumiko Sakai, Riku Tanaka, Mizuki Ooeda, Naoki Murata, Hideo Seki, Onomichi,
Synopsis: Satoshi Ono’s second short film follows a woman named Yukiko who has been invited by a friend, Shinko, to join a campaign against a popular drink. Peaceful protest turns violent.
Are the last two films Millennial takes on the United Red Army? Groups dedicated to fancy drinks and litter picking cannibalising each other in internecine battles?
Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger VS Lupinranger VS Patranger the Movie 
劇場版 騎士竜戦隊リュウソウジャーVSルパンレンジャーVSパトレンジャー 「Gekijōban Kishiryū Sentai Ryūsōjā Bui Esu Rupanrenjā Bui Esu Patorenjā」
Release Date: February 08th, 2020
Duration: 114 mins.
Director: Katsuya Watanabe
Writer: Junko Komura, Naruhisa Arakawa (Script), Saburo Yatsude (Original Webcomic)
Starring: Hayate Ichinose, Keito Tsuna, Ichika Osaki, Yuito Obara, Tatsuya Kishida, Haruka Kudo,
Synopsis: This features the casts of Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger and Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger and the story involves them meeting up and fighting each other at various points because a surviving member of the Gangler named Ganima Noshiagalda and the Druidon interferes with their lives.
Majin Sentai Kira Major II Episode ZERO
魔進戦隊キラメイジャー エピソードZERO 「Ma Suzumu sentai kirameijā episōdo zero」
Release Date: February 08th, 2020
Duration: 45 mins.
Director: Kyohei Yamaguchi
Writer: Naruhisa Arakawa, Yumi Shimoa (Script), Saburo Yatsude (Original Creator)
Starring: Rio Komiya, Rui Kihara, Yume Shinjou, Atomu Mizuishi, Mio Kudo,
Synopsis: Five people selected as warriors for a beautiful gem will fight against a dark army corps trying to rob people of hope and radiance. Each stone resonates with the warrior’s personality and transforms into a giant vehicle.