Happy weekend, everyone!
I hope you are all feeling genki.
Throughout this month, I worked the Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival 2020. It seemed to go well. I worked as the press officer so I would write press releases and contact animation websites/animation lecturers and student newspapers, write SNS posts whilst I had personal control of Twitter. I’ve done it before in previous years but this year was different because it was all online.
Actually, since it was an online festival, Twitter proved to be the perfect way to talk about the fest since I could tweet links to the screenings. 40% of viewers joined streams directly from Twitter.
Whilst all that was going on, I wrote many things over the past month for this blog. This week, I posted my review for All the Things We Never Said and a preview of the Tokyo International Film Festival 2020 and the Third Window Films release of Gemini.
I watched a lot of films: What Did You Do to Solange?, Centurion, Gemini, The Purge, Inseminoid, Eat Drink Man Woman and a couple of others as I took advantage of Amazon’s Prime service which is awash with horror films.
Due to the large number of films, this trailer post has been split into two parts, one today and one on Sunday. Due to my tradition of posting a horror movie review on Halloween, you can find something spooky to watch for Saturday’s post.
What is released this weekend in Japan?
I’m Really Good 
わたしは元気 「Watashi wa Genki」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Hirobumi Watanabe
Writer: Hirobumi Watanabe (Screenplay),
Starring: Riko Hisatsugu, Nanako Sudo, Keita Hisatsugu, Mei Mukaiyama, Yui Honiden, Ayaka Hoshi, Hirobumi Watanabe,
Synopsis: Riko Hisatsugu, a young girl who has appeared in Watanabe’s other films, takes the lead role as she plays herself in a snapshot of a day in her life as she goes to school, hangs out with her friend Nanako and relaxes at home with her family. Director Hirobumi Watanabe appears as a travelling salesman at one point. This was filmed from March to May, 2018, in the director’s native Tochigi prefecture. It’s a charming film and Riko is a natural actor.
Cry
叫び声 「Sakebigoe」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 75 mins.
Director: Hirobumi Watanabe
Writer: Hirobumi Watanabe (Screenplay),
Starring: Hirobumi Watanabe, Misao Hirayama, Riko Hisatsugu, Keita Hisatsugu, Nanaka Sudo, Takanori Kurosaki, Gaku Imamura, Yuji Watanabe,
I met the Watanabe brothers and their cinematographer at the 2014 Raindance Film Festival‘s screening of And the Mud Ship Sails Away and I got their autographs. Little did I suspect that they would turn into familiar faces at the Tokyo International Film Festival as they get backing from the event to keep produce their brand of offbeat comedy shot in black-and-white. It’s an alternative to the urban voices and a lot of sideways fun. It won the Director’s Award in the Japanese Film Splash category at the 32nd Tokyo International Film Festival in 2019. His grandmother, who is in this film and many other Watanabe productions, passed away before she could see his award win.
Synopsis: A man (Hirobumi Watanabe) who lives with his ageing grandmother (Misao Hirayama) works silently in a pigpen in a rural village in the suburbs of Kita-Kanto…Sharp monochrome images and minimalist presentation, provocative sound effects, and emotionally stunning music serve to create the atmosphere.
The Voice of Sin 
罪の声 「Tsumi no Koe」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 142 mins.
Director: Nobuhiro Doi
Writer: Akiko Nogi (Script), Takeshi Shiota (Original Novel)
Starring: Shun Oguri, Gen Hoshino, Meiko Kaji, Mikako Ichikawa, Junko Abe, Yutaka Matsushige, Ryudo Uzaki, Kanji Furutrachi, Yukiko Shinohara,
Synopsis: Around the end of the Heisei era, newspaper reporter Eiji Akutsu (Shun Oguri) is tasked with looking into the largest unsolved case in the Showa era. 30 years ago, a group of people extorted several companies for money by sending cassette tapes with threats recorded on them. The threats were made with the voices of three children. Meanwhile, Toshiya Sone (Gen Hoshino), a tailor living in Kyoto, finds a cassette tape in his late father’s possessions. He plays the tape and hears his own voice…
Tonkatsu DJ Age-Taro 
とんかつDJアゲ太郎 「Tonkatsu DJ Age-Taro」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 100 mins.
Director: Ken Ninomiya
Writer: Ken Ninomiya (Script), Iipyao, Yujiro Koyama (Original Manga)
Starring: Takumi Kitamura, Maika Yamamoto, Kentaro Ito, Yusuke Iseya, Brother Tom, Reiko Kataoka, Natsumi Ikema, Kou Maehara, Kodai Asaka,
This is the live-action movie adaptation of the popular gag manga by Yujiro Koyama. It was also made into a TV animation.
Synopsis: Agetaro Katsumata’s (Takumi Kitamura) family has runs a tonkatsu (pork cutlet) restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo, for three generations and he will inherit the restaurant one day. Right now, he performs menial jobs at the restaurant, like chopping up the cabbage and delivering food orders, and he isn’t happy with his work. One day, Agetaro Katsumata delivers tonkatsu to the staff at a nightclub and becomes fascinated by the atmosphere provided by the DJ. He also meets a girl named Enoko who turns his head. Thus, Agetaro makes the decision to become Tonkatsu DJ as he attempts to balance working at the restaurant and providing music for the dance floor.
WAVE!! Surfing Yappe!! Chapter 3 
WAVE!!～サーフィンやっぺ!!～ 第三章 「WAVE!! Sa-fi-n Yappe!! Dai san shou」
Release Date: October 16th, 2020
Duration: 92 mins.
Director: Takaharu Ozaki
Writer: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu (Script), MAGES (Original Creator)
Starring: Jin Ogasawara (Sho Akitsuki), Tomoaki Maeno (Masaki Hinaoka), Yoshiki Nakajima (Nalu Tanaka), Takuya Sato (Kosuke Iwana), Yusuke Shirai (Yuta Matsukaze), Nobuhiko Okamoto (Rindo Fuke),
Animation Production: Asahi Production
Synopsis: Masaki and Sho are two students in Oorai, Ibaraki prefecture. Sho introduces Masaki to surfing and through the sport, he begins to make friends but he will also drift apart from them as he grows up. What remains constant is his love of surfing. In the latest instalment in this series of films, we get to know Masaki’s childhood friend Nalu Tanaka, a boy with Hawaiian blood, as well as the famous hot-blooded surfer Kosuke Iwana…
Kichijoji Go-Go- 
吉祥寺ゴーゴー 「Kichijoji Go-Go-」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 18 mins.
Director: Raita Yabushita
Writer: Raita Yabushita (Script),
Starring: Haruka Sasaki, Jurian Koike, Takeo Gozu,
A short film produced as part of the “Kichijoji Photo Studio Committee”, a project that collects and organizes old photographs of Kichijoji, an area in Tokyo, and looks at the appearance of Kichijoji in a variety of cultures. Writer/director Raita Yabushita normally works as a photographer. The setting is Inohashira Park which is where the film Parks is set.
Synopsis: Aki and Mari have travelled in time from 1970 to the modern Inokashira Park, in Kichijoji, and they encounter an old man. An unexpected relationship becomes clear when they meet and their destiny is united…
Closet (2020) 
クローゼット（2020） 「Kuro-setto (2020)」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 95 mins.
Director: Takehiro Shindo
Writer: Fumi Sawada (Script),
Starring: Yosuke Minokawa, Aino Kurihara, Iku Arai, Kanako Miyashita, Ryo Shinoda, Shinji Ozeki, Sachiko Nakagome,
Synopsis: Ever since his traffic accident, Shin has been unable to function as a man and will not be able to have sex or have children for the rest of his life. Shin’s feeling of loneliness and despair brings him to the “sleeping room,” which is a place where guests of all ages, both men and women, visit so they can cuddle and reveal their problems. Shin gradually regains himself by meeting such people. However, a woman he meet asks him to die with her
Sumou-do samurai o tsugu-sha-tachi 
相撲道 サムライを継ぐ者たち 「Sumou-do samurai o tsugu-sha-tachi」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 104 mins.
Director: Eiji Sakata
Writer: N/A
Starring: Narration by Kenichi Endo
Synopsis: A documentary that follows the world of sumo, which has a history of more than 1500 years and is deeply rooted in Japanese life as a national sport. For about half a year from December 2018, the cameras have been in close contact with two rehearsals in the Sakaigawa and Takadagawa stables. It captured powerful images and sounds, and reveals the charm of sumo from various angles such as history, culture and competition.
Mimicry Freaks 
超擬態人間 「Chô-gitai ningen」
Release Date: October 30th, 2020
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Shugo Fujii
Writer: Shugo Fujii (Script), “Ghost of Chibusa Enoki” (by Seiu Ito) (Original Story)
Starring: Tatsuji Sugiyama, Tomoya Mochizuki, Daiki Tanaka, Hitomi Kawano, Hiroshi Katsura, Takako Sakai, Miya Savini, Riku Enomoto, Etsuko Tanemura,
Synopsis: One morning. Fuma and his son Ren wake up in a place deep in a forest forest. Disorientated, they find themselves thrown into a panic due and forced to flee through the trees by a sudden attack from a Japanese monster known as a Namahage. Meanwhile, a wedding planner taking a couple and the bride’s father to the wedding ceremony hall for a rehearsal loses their way in the forest and the car breaks down. These two parties collide.