Happy weekend, everyone!
I hope you are all well!
I started this week with a review of Coming Back Sunny and an interview with its director, Noriko Yuasa. I then posted about the festival I write for, the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival, hosting a streaming event. I then posted a review for Woman of the Photographs and an interview with its director, Takeshi Ksuhida.
In terms of films, I have watched The Girl with All the Gifts, the Scorcese version of Cape Fear, Interview with the Vampire and Sleepy Hollow.
I’m currently playing Vagrant Story (which is where the above image is from – found at the US Gamer website) because I’m waking up really early in the morning and don’t want to turn my computer on.
What is released this weekend?
Aoi no zarazara 
蒼のざらざら 「Aoi no zarazara」
Release Date: June 27th, 2020
Duration: 116 mins.
Director: Naho Kamimura
Writer: Naho Kamimura (Script)
Starring: Misa Wada, Yuuki Kominami, Ayaka Oguro,
The first feature film directed by Naho Uemura, a young director whose movie, Wander Life, won the Audience Award and the Best Actress Award for MOOSIC LAB 2018. This film was actually first made in 2014.
Synopsis: 14-year-old girl who likes drawing and always hangs out with her bestest bestie Ayako who has the opposite personality. Opposites attract…
The Modern Lovers 
東京の恋人「Tokyo no Koibito」
Release Date: June 27th, 2020
Duration: 81 mins.
Director: Atsuro Shimoyashiro
Writer: Atsuro Shimoyashiro, Naoaki Akamatsu (Script),
Starring: Ryu Morioka, Nanami Kawakami, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Ruri Shinato, Tomoki Kumura, Shinji Imaoka, Teruko,
I reviewed this one as part of this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival and interviewed the director, Atsuro Shimoyashiro, and now it is finally released. Here’s a recent review from Mark Schilling at the Japan Times.
Synopsis: Tatsuo (Ryu Morioka) is a guy who has hit his 30s living in Gunma and he is about to become a father but when his ex-girlfriend, Marina (Nanami Kawakami), drops him a message asking him to take photographs of her, he answers it and heads to Tokyo to meet her. They were lovers in university once, but he dumped her. He does not tell her that he is married while she is more interested in talking about their past. The two head to a seaside town where the passions he had lain aside are rekindled, upsetting his peaceful life.