I spent this week getting the Genki Christmas season reviews underway in the build-up to my films and anime of the year! First I actually had to make the announcement of my Genki Christmas season before starting with a first-impression and dismissal of the anime Log Horizon. I followed that up with a review for Sake-Bomb on Wednesday and an interview with the director on Thursday and the first of the trailer posts (two posts a week from now on) on Friday. I also finished my Winter 2014 Anime preview for Anime UK News so that’s live (visit there to see more) and I’ll follow it up with a post about my picks from the next season some time during next week. I’ll also post info for Gigan magazine tomorrow. Gigan covers Japanese indie-films so you can find out more about it there!
Also here’s a link to a review of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest film The Seventh Code. I haven’t mentioned it yet but it has started winning awards at film festivals around the world! Kurosawa comes back from the supposed debacle that was Real!
The trailers start off pretty steamy so turn the volume down and the screen away from those pretty easily offended.
1BR Love Hotel 
Japanese: 1BR-らぶほてる
Romaji: 1BR- Rabu Hoteru
Running Time: 76 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Hiroshi Onishi
Writer: Asako Fukai
Starring: Yuka Yamagishi, Fumio Moriya,
This is a drama about a man and woman who spend time in a love hotel and have fun. The trailer is NSFW.
Chai Koi 
Japanese: チャイ コイ
Romaji: Chai Koi
Running Time: 97 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Hidehiro Ito
Writer: Shimako Iwai (Novel), Mukku Akazawa (Screenplay)
Starring: Naomi Kawashima, Kisuke Iida, Shiori Kitagawa
Maiko is a lonely novelist in Bangkok who runs into a Muay Thai boxer named Ha Neul and the two drown in their desires.
Polar Circle Consisting Unknown Cartoonist Omnibus 
Japanese: ポーラーサークル 未知なる漫画家オムニバス
Romaji: Chai Koi
Running Time: 104 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Masuno Koichi, TimeRyosuke, Kōichi Masuno,
Writer: N/A
Starring: Junko Sawa, Reina Aoi, Kazuki Takahashi, Shiori Inoue, Chie Nomura, Sana Hattori, Kotono Matsui
Gender wars, dislike of kissing and alien invasions abound in this low-budget omnibus film. My translations are off so be careful. I’ll have to work with someone better at translating than I am.
Kissing 
Japanese: キスして。
Romaji: Kisu shite
Running Time: 66 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Hataru
Writer: Hataru
Starring: Hataru, Takeshi Ito, Koichi Imaizumi, Kenji Uchikura
The director HAtaru wants to create a beautiful film that highlights the landsapes of the minds of his characters. A woman marries an older husband at the age of 20 but desires to get away from her daily reality and start a new life with a new lover but the figures of her father and the older man cast long shadows…
Fallujah Iraq War Japanese Hostage Crisis… and then 
Japanese: ファルージャ イラク戦争 日本人人質事件…そして
Romaji: Farūja Iraku Sensō Nihonjin Hitojichi Jiken… Soshite
Running Time: 95 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Megumi Ito
Writer: N/A
Starring: Naoko Ito, Noriaki Imai
In 2004 while the conflict in Iraq was underway, three Japanese aid workers were kidnapped in Fallujah. This formed the basis of the film Bashing (2005) directed by Masahiro Kobayashi. This documentary takes a look at the incident and the post-traumatic stress suffered by those involved and social consequences they faced when they returned home to Japan and were bashed by the media for being thoughtless.
The next four films come from the same producers who unite new actors with experienced directors and the trailers are the same because they contain clips of each film.
008
Japanese: 008
Romaji: 008
Running Time: 36 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Yasunobu Takahashi
Writer: Yasunobu Takahashi
Starring: Haruki Takano Gen Ogawa, Yui Okamoto, Kiichi Sonbe, Akira Kurekawa, Maki Daimon, Satoru Shinjo, Isamu Kurihashi
Two men and a girl encounter a ‘ target’ for an experiment on animals in the deep woods. They are hired as part-time workers with mobile sensors to find the animal case which was set free in the nature. The job was supposed to be easy with good money, that is those three’s only motivation. But the sensors they hold react to not animals, but a human being, a man lying on the ground without consciousness. As they bring him to a cabin to treat him, he wakes up and tells them to cut his left arm…
Tokyo Bitch, I Love You
Japanese: トーキョービッチ，アイラブユー
Romaji: Tōkyō Bitchi, Airabuyū
Running Time: 70 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Kohki Yoshida
Writer: Kohki Yoshida
Starring: Yoshio Kojima, Koichi Ito, Kenji Takemoto, Haruki Takano, Shun Sugata, Yuko Kageyama
A film based on a play of the same title performed by theatre unit Austra Macondo. Setting CHIKAMATSU Monzaemon’s Bunraku narrative “The Love Suicides at Sonezaki” in modern-day Tokyo, it tells the story of a sex worker’s fleeting romance.
Nice!
Japanese: いいね!
Romaji: Iine!
Running Time: 17 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Daisuke Yamaoka
Writer: Daisuke Yamaoka
Starring: Kaori Masui, Ryota Horiuchi,
This short is about a woman who finds a man living in a gap between a building after she tries to obtain a picture of a cat… I think. Anyway she takes a picture of the guy and he becomes a celebrity.
In the Basket
Japanese: 籠の中
Romaji: Kago no Naka
Running Time: 35 mins.
Release Date: December 07th, 2013
Director: Izuki Hajime
Writer: Izuki Hajime
Starring: Ryo Sato, Ayaka Matsumoto, Abe Ayano, Asako Ota,
Eimi lives alone in Tokyo but is reunited with Tatsuya and the two begin a physical relationship but cracks start to appear between them.
