Happy weekend, everyone.
Another weekend down!
I am busy, busy, busy. I posted more of my OAFF 2020 coverage, a review for Videophobia and an interview with its director Daisuke Miyazaki and a review for Reiko and the Dolphins and an interview with its director Shinji Imaoka. Next week will feature two final reviews and an interview.
In terms of films I watched, Dead Space and Family Romance LLC. I’m playing a bit more Vagrant Story.
What is released this weekend in Japan?
Mother 
マザー 「Maza-」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 126 mins.
Director: Tatsushi Omori
Writer: Tatsushi Omori, Takehiko Minato (Script)
Starring: Masami Nagasawa, Daiken Okudaira, Halo Asada, Sadao Abe. Kaho, Taiga Nakano, Sho Gunji, Kaho Tsuchimura,
Synopsis: Akiko (Masami Nagasawa) is a single mother living with her son Shuhei (Sho Gunji). Akiko is also not a good person as she chases after different partners and can’t make a stable home for her boy. Social workers try to intervene but the two refuse to separate. The two have a tie that will last until a tragedy strikes years later…
I Never Shot Anyone 
一度も撃ってません 「Ichido mo Uttemasen」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 100 mins.
Director: Junji Sakamoto
Writer: Yusaku Matsuda (Script)
Starring: Renji Ishibashi, Kaori Momoi, Ittoku Kishibe, Michiyo Okusu, Koichi Sato, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Akira Emoto, Etsushi Toyokawa, Mari Hamada, Kiyohiko Shibukawa,
Renji Ishibashi and Michiyo Okusu worked with director Junji Sakamoto on The Projects as a cheating husband and an irritated wife and they are back at it again in this latest film which has a great line-up of stars in walk-on roles.
Synopsis: Susumu is an unsuccessful author who writes under the pen name Reiji Omae. He has a hard-boiled style made up of lots of details but it’s all in his imagination thanks to his walks around the old parts of Tokyo and through who he meets, people who could have walked in from a noir story such as a former public prosecutor, Ishida (Ittoku Kishibe) and retired stage actress Hikaru (Kaori Momoi). Susumu likes to pretend that he is a legendary hitman, but complications arise when a rival assassin starts to snoop around and Susumu’s wife (Michiyo Okusu) starts suspecting he’s having an affair…
Birdsong 
バードソング 「Ba-do Songu」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Hendrik Willemyns
Writer: Hendrik Willemyns (Script)
Starring: Natsuko Kobayashi, Kazuhiko Kanayama, Akaji Maro, Shinji Matsubayashi, Takamasa Suga,
Directed by Hendrik Willemyns of the Belgian band Arsenal, and produced by Ken Ochiai (Uzumasa Limelight). This is screened alongside Dance, Dance, Dance.
Synopsis: Asuka, a young cleaning lady in Tokyo tries to achieve her long-held ambition of being a singer by performing on a TV-talent show, but all her sacrifices backfire when she is accused of murder…
Dance! Dance! Dance! 
バードソング 「Ba-do Songu」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 48 mins.
Director: Ken Ochiai
Writer: Hendrik Willemyns (Script)
Starring: Dean Fujioka, Ayumi Ito, Aoi Morikawa,
Synopsis: Furu is an aspiring musician who dreams of escaping smalltown life in Iwate Prefecture. He makes it but at a cost…
Kuso mitaina Eiga 
クソみたいな映画 「Kuso mitaina Eiga」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Satoshi Shiba
Writer: Akira Ishida – of the Manzai pair NonStyle (Script)
Starring: Rio Uchida, Yu Inaba, Hideki Murata, Kazuyuki Aijima, Mariya Nagao,
No trailer
Synopsis: A revenge story where a woman gathers together a group of people in a small movie theatre. They think they are there to watch a film but the woman has brought them together to get revenge for her dead fiance…
Stop the Bitch Campaign Reboot 
エンボク 「Enboku」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 61 mins.
Director: Kosuke Suzuki
Writer: Shoichiro Masumoto (Script), Hideo Yamamoto, Tetsuya Koshiba (Original Manga)
Starring: Yuni Akino, Hiroshi Yamamoto, Kentaro Sakai, Yosuke Tanaka, Mika Nonomi,
Manga-ka Hideo Yamamoto created The Voyeurs, Ichi the Killer, and Homunculus which I have read. He also created Enjokousai Bokumetsu Undou (Stop the Bitch Campaign) which has been made for the screen a number of times already.
Synopsis: Compensated dating has never been so brutal – Aimi, a high school girl who seems to be living a normal life, does compensated dating to fulfil a dream. It brings her into the path of Kumagiri, a police officer with a tragic past, who is looking after three former sex offenders, who are trying to lure out high school girls engaged in compensated dating so they can expose them to the internet. Eventually, Aimi and Kunimoto met through SNS.…
Iyashino kokoromi: jibun o sukininaru hōhō 
癒しのこころみ 自分を好きになる方法 「Iyashino kokoromi: jibun o sukininaru hōhō」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 61 mins.
Director: Tetsuo Shinohara
Writer: Kiko Kanom, Takuya Masumoto, Iyo Nishikori (Script),
Starring: Airi Matsui, Masayasu Yagi, Masaru Mizuno, Hiroko Nakajima, Kentaro Akisawa,
Synopsis: Rina Ichinose is close to karoshi (death from overwork) at the advertising agency she has just joined. Exhausted, both physically and mentally after too much overtime, she quits the company. One day, Rina participates in a career change fair and finds a new career to start: physical therapist. She is intimated by working with me but has to overcome her feelings to help a professional baseball player.
Noboru Kotera-san 
のぼる小寺さん 「Noboru Kotera-san」
Release Date: July 03rd, 2020
Duration: 61 mins.
Director: Tomoyuki Furumaya
Writer: Reiko Yoshida (Script), coffee (Original Manga)
Starring: Haruka Kudo, Kentaro Ito, Jin Suzuki, Ai Yoshikawa, Karin Ono,
Synopsis: A live-action adaptation of a popular youth manga based on bouldering. The titular Kodera is a high school girl with a special aura. She belongs to the climbing club and becomes obsessed with bouldering. Kondo, who belongs to the table tennis club, is entranced by Kodera who is practising next to him but if he fancies her, he’d best get his skates on and ask her out because she has another admirer…
Mochi 
もち 「Mochi」
Release Date: July 04th, 2020
Duration: 60 mins.
Director: Mayumi Komatsu
Writer: Mayumi Komatsu (Script)
Starring: Yuna Sato, Jin Yomogida, Shiho Sato, Shun Sasaki, Ikuo Hatakeyama,
Director Mayumi Komatsu moved from the world of ads to movie-making with two films, of which this was one. It was made with help from Ichinoseki City of Iwate Prefecture, who wanted to celebrate its local customs and culture, including mochi. This film shows how it ties a community together as a teenage girl uses it in different aspects of her life. It was filmed with the help of locals and locals tak th lead roles well-versed.
Synopsis: 14-year old girl Yuna lives in Honedera, Ichinoseki City in Iwate Prefecture. It is a traditional town with customs dating back hundreds of years, including the art of mochi. Yuna gets a taste of its importance at the funeral for her grandmother when she makes it with her grandfather, at the closing of her junior high school where the number of students has declined, and when she experiences first love.