Happy weekend, dear reader!
I hope you are well!
Well, I’ve managed to regain my concentration after a couple of months of it going astray and so, this week, I watched a few Japanese films that will be screened at Japan Cuts 2020 and finished off editing two of my interviews from the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020 with one involving Anshul Chauhan for Kontora (here’s the link) and one with the creative team behind Bleached Bones Avenue which I published. I also posted reviews for Bleached Bones Avenue and Hammock. I also published my preview piece on Japan Cuts 2020.
What is released this weekend in Japan?
Kiss Him, Not Me 
私がモテてどうすんだ 「Watashi ga mote dosunda」
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Norihisa Hiranuma
Writer: Norihisa Hiranuma, Nami Yoshikawa, Shohei Fukuda, Kei Watanabe, Daisuke Kamijo, (Script), Junko (Original Manga)
Starring: Hokuto Yoshino. Nonoka Yamaguchi, Miu Tomita, Fuju Kamio, Asahi Ito, So Okuno Miku Uehara, Marina Mizushima,
I’m sure I’ve written about this before and looked askance at its story…
Synopsis: Chubby highschooler Kae Serinuma (Miu Tomita) is a fujoshi, which means she loves boy’s love stories and she secretly ships the boys in her class. One day, her favourite anime character dies and she becomes super stressed. Unable to eat for a week, she ends up losing a lot of weight and becomes popular at school. The new Kae Serinuma (Nonoka Yamaguchi) suddenly has four pretty male students chasing her affections, but she’s still thinking like a fujoshi…
The Gun 2020 
銃 2020 「Ju 2020」
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 76 mins.
Director: Masaharu Take
Writer: Fuminori Nakamura, Masaharu Take (Script), Fuminori Nakamura (Original Novel)
Starring: Kyoko Hinami, Masaya Kato, Koichi Sato, Tomochika, Lily Franky, Nijiiro Murakami, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Shohei Uno,
From what I’ve read, this is less a remake and more a companion story to The Gun (2018) which earned some critical acclaim on its festival run. It features much of the same cast from the first film, only with a side character played by Kyoko Hinami taking the lead for the sequel.
Here’s the review at the Japan Times website which considers this a not so progressive take on a woman with a gun story and gives it an unfavourable comparison to Bullet Ballet (2000) if you are looking for action. Maybe a better version of this story is Rae Red’s The Girl and the Gun.
Synopsis: Toko (Kyoko Hinami) is a university student trapped in a tough situation. An unkind mother (Tomochika), a stalker (Masaya Kato), and a world full of horrible guys, she’s under tremendous emotional stress. One night, when fleeing her stalker, she finds a gun abandoned in a washroom basin. She takes it and soon it begins to alter her behaviour.
A Tale of the Riverside 
河童の女 「Kappa no onna」
Release Date: July 11th, 2020
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Masaki Tsujino
Writer: Masaki Tsujino (Script),
Starring: Tappei Aono, Yoshimasa Kondo, Aki Goda, Riku Saito,
Here’s the review at the Japan Times website.
Synopsis: Koji (Tappei Aono) has an unwelcome inheritance in the management of a failing riverside inn his father has left him after the old man runs off with his secret girlfriend. Koji would like to escape but he is stuck managing the place which is in a beautiful area in the middle of nowhere. Help comes in the form of Miho (Aki Goda), who is running away from something herself. For a place to lodge, she agrees to work and they both get along so well, it seems that love will bloom but past traumas still haunt them and for Koji, his is a Kappa…
F Is For Future 
ミは未来のミ 「Mi wa mirai no mi」
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 60 mins.
Director: Teppei Isobe
Writer: Teppei Isobe, Kazuo Nagai (Script),
Starring: Yasuyuki Sakurai, Hiroki Sano, karen, Kei Nakado, Chido Matsumoto
Despite the theme of death, this one is cute.
Synopsis: Takuya (Yasuyuki Sakurai) is a highschooler aimlessly spending his time hanging out with his friends and not thinking about his future. After a tragic accident, he decides to keep a promise that he made a long time ago: His friend’s porn collection must disappear before his parents find it! This sets in motion thinking about life seriously for the first time.
Obake 
おばけ 「Obake」
Release Date:July 11th, 2020
Duration: 64 mins.
Director: Hiromichi Nakao
Writer: Hiromichi Nakao
Starring: Hiromichi Nakao, Sakutaro Nakao, Misora Nakao
Synopsis: A lonely filmmaker who works by himself with nobody and nothing but the stars which watch over him for company finds that his small filmmaking dream that nobody knows about eventually leads to a vast universe.
The World of Two People 
二人ノ世界 「Futari no Sekai」
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 87 mins.
Director: Keita Fujimoto
Writer: Ryuichi Matsushita (Script), Ryuichi Matsushita (Original Novel)
Starring: Masatoshi Nagase, Shiori Doi, Kanako Mizumoto, Ryushi Mizukami, Kaoru Kusumi,
Synopsis: Shunsaku is a bitter man because he lost his ability to move his body beneath his neck due to a cervical spine injury caused by a motorcycle accident. Kae is a blind woman who becomes his helper. The two are gradually drawn to each other as they fall in love.
Planetist 
プラネティスト 「Puraneteisuto」
Release Date: November 17th, 2018
Duration: 166 mins.
Director: Toshiaki Toyoda
Writer: N/A
Starring: Noritsugu Miyagawa, GOMA, Yosuke Kubotsuka, Airu Kubotsuka, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Tatsuya Nakamura,
Synopsis from IMDB: A mysterious and wondrous islands surrounded by an unparalleled natural environment exists in Tokyo Prefecture that is referred to as the Galapagos of the East. They are called the Ogasawara Islands. A man lives on one of these islands. He is 65-year-old Miyagawa Noritsugu, a legendary surfer-a tarzan of the sea-who established the world’s first swimming-with-dolphins tour. Artists of every type are summoned to the island and shown around by Miyagawa. The imaginative power of these intensely perceptive individuals is drawn out by this tour and a never-before-seen Ogasawara comes to life. In order to chronicle these islands, director Toyoda Toshiaki moved to Ogasawara and took 5 years to complete this documentary. The film’s pièce de résistance are the scenes didgeridoo instrumentalist Goma, actors Kubozuka Yosuke and Shibukawa Kiyohiko, drummer Nakamura Tatsuya, and guitarist Yamaji Kazuhide are performing out among majestic natural surroundings.
Yuka-chan no Aishita Jidai 
ゆかちゃんの愛した時代 「Yuka-chan no Aishita Jidai」
Release Date: July 11th, 2020
Duration: 30 mins.
Director: Yun Hayama
Writer: Yun Hayama, Nishio Hiroshi (Script),
Starring: Yun Hayama, Keita Yamashina, Sayu Higashi, Marc Panther, Shiho Tanaka,
Synopsis: Yuka Yukawa, a local talent born in the first year of the Heisei era, 1989, is having a meeting with her manager Masao at 11:00 pm on April 30, 2019, when the Heisei era has just one hour left before the Reiwa era begins. However, Yuka is talking about her memories of Heisei and is not interested in work. Eventually, Yuka’s desire for the Heisei era begins to overflow into her music. Then, at midnight, Yuka realised that he had left Masao.
Yokosuka Kitan 
横須賀綺譚 「Yokosuka Kitan」
Release Date: July 11th, 2020
Duration: 86 mins.
Director: Nobukazu Otsuka
Writer: Nobukazu Otsuka (Script),
Starring: Ryuju Kobayashi, Shijimi, Nagaya Kazuaki, Yota Kawase, Setsuko Karasuma,
Synopsis: Haruki and his girlfriend Chikako were about to get married and live in Tokyo but they separated because her father needed nursing care back in their hometown. Haruki chose to stay in Tokyo and then the Great East Japan Earthquake struck and Chikako disappeared. Nine years after the disaster, Haruki hears mysterious information that Chikako, who was thought to have died in the disaster, may be alive. And Haruki heads for Yokosuka…
Blood Club Dolls 2 
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 76 mins.
Director: Shutaro Oku
Writer: Shutaro Oku, Junichi Fujisaku (Script), CLAMP, Production I.G (Original Novel)
Starring: Ryunosuke Matsumura, Ryo Kitazono, Kanon Miyahara, Maon Kurosaki, Norito Yashima,
The meeting of stage and screen, live-action and anime. The show Blood-C was given a theatre adaptation and is now brought to the screen with Saya, our vampiric hero, back with a cast of handsome guys in a new adventure.
Synopsis: Saya loses her memory after the events at Ukishima and she wanders the slums where she meets Haru, an unlicensed doctor, and Ran, a girl who hunts the Elder Bairns. As her memory returns, she discovers that she had relationships with them both in the past and her arch-nemesis, Fumito is still out there.
mama 
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 34 mins.
Director: Ai Haruna
Writer: Nanoha Ito (Script),
Starring: Toshio Yoshino, Shunsuke Tanaka, Yushin, Ami Takeuchi, Atsushi Tsuboi,
Synopsis: This is Ai Haruna’s debut film and it’s about Yoshino Mama who is known as a legendary gay boy who still runs a bar in Roppongi, even at the age of 89. Transgender people Ami and Yushin like to visit alongside the actor Shunsuke Tanaka, and they talk about the history of gay life in Japan.
Asakusa Hanayashiki Detective Story: The Child of God is Hurt 
浅草花やしき探偵物語 神の子は傷ついて 「Asakusa Hanayashiki tantei monogatari-shin no ko wa kizutsuite」
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 87 mins.
Director: Hiroshi Horiuchi
Writer: Hiroshi Horiuchi (Script),
Starring: Yuki Tamaki, Yu Imari, Tsubasa Kizu, Ryotaro Kosaka, Yoshiki Tani,
Synopsis: A detective story set in Asakusa that draws together various elements such as laughter, action, humanity, and youth. Haru, who works at Asakusa Hanayashiki, the oldest amusement park in Japan, and his younger brother, Ryu, work as detectives.
Geki × Cine Kemuri no Gundan 
ゲキ×シネ「けむりの軍団」「GekixShine Kemuri no Gundan」
Release Date: July 10th, 2020
Duration: 161 mins.
Director: Hidenori Inoue
Writer: Yu Kuramochi (Screenplay),
Starring: Arata Furuta, Taichi Saotome, Nana Seino, Kenta Suga, Shoko Takada,
Synopsis: Another story from the Sengoku Period, this one involving a ronin named Jinbei who gets caught up in political intrigue between the Atsumi and Mera families.