Happy Weekend, everyone.
I hope you are all well.
This week, I posted news on the blu-ray/digital release of gekimation films from Ujicha – Violence Voyager and Buddha Burning Man so expect a review soon. I also posted details about the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2021 which has 18 features that people in the UK can stream for free.
The website for the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2021 has been released and I am involved with the fest again so expect coverage of as many films as I can do! It’s a physical event and also a digital one for this year. Stay tuned for more details.
Here is part one of my trailer post about what is released this weekend:
The End of the Tiny World 
名も無き世界のエンドロール 「Na mo Naki Sekai no Endo Ro-ru」
Release Date: January 29th, 2021
Duration: 101 mins.
Director: Yuichi Sato
Writer: Mitsutoshi Saijo (Script), Kaoru Yukinari (Original Novel)
Starring: Takanori Iwata, Mackenyu Arata, Anna Yamada, Anne Nakamura, Akira Emoto,
A film from Yuichi Sato, director of Poison Berry in My Brain (2015).
Synopsis: Kida (Takanori Iwata) and Makoto (Mackenyu Arata) are two orphan boys and friends since childhood. When they meet a have been friends since they were children. When they meet a transfer student named Yocchi (Anna Yamada), a fellow orphan, they begin to spend their days together and their friendship seems like it will last forever but when they hit their 20s, their friendship fragments as Yocchi disappears, Kida chases after a woman and Makoto works in the criminal world…
Yakuza and The Family 
ヤクザと家族 The Family 「Yakuza to Kazoku The Family」
Release Date: January 29th, 2021
Duration: 136 mins.
Director: Michihito Fujii
Writer: Michihito Fujii (Script),
Starring: Gou Ayano, Hiroshi Tachi, Machiko Ono, Shun Sugata, Shinobu Terajima, Ryutaro Ninomiya,
Michihito Fujii, director of The Journalist and Day and Night (both 2019), brings in Gou Ayano for a drama that takes place over the decades – Ayano has pedigree doing that with Beneath the Shadow (2020) and Twisted Justice (2016). His best role is still The Light Shines Only There (2014).
Synopsis: Taking place from 1999 to 2019, the story follows Kenji Yamamoto (Gou Ayano) who, when we first meet him, is a punk whose father has died from using drugs. His wild ways attract the attention of a paternal figure, Hiroshi Shibasaki (Hiroshi Tachi) the boss of the Shibasaki gang. Kenji joins up and enters a yakuza war with a rival gang, makes friends in the underworld and falls in love with a hostess named Yuka Kudo (Machiko Ono). Over the years, these relationships change and whither…
I Fell in Love Like A Flower Bouquet 
花束みたいな恋をした 「Hanataba mitaina koi o shita」
Release Date: January 29th, 2021
Duration: 124 mins.
Director: Nobuhiro Doi
Writer: Yuji Sakamoto (Script),
Starring: Masaki Suda, Kasumi Arimura, Joe Odagiri, Keiko Toda, Ryo Iwamatsu, Kaoru Kobayashi, Kaya Kiyohara, Mamoru Oshii,
Nobuhiro Doi, director of Flying Colours (2015) works with the writer Yuji Sakamoto, famous for the Mirai Moriyama tearjerkers Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (2004) to bring a millennial romance to the screen starring Kasumi Arimura from I Am a Hero (2016), Masaki Suda of The Light Shines Only There (2014).
Synopsis: It is 2015 and university students Mugi Yamane (Masaki Suda) and Kinu Yatani (Kasumi Arimura) both meet by chance because they missed the last train at Meidaimae Station on the Tokyo Keio Line. It’s the start of a magical night where they find out that they share similar tastes in music, movies, and more. We watch them over the next five years as their relationship features ups and downs as adult commitments to each other seriously begin…
Omoide Shashin 
おもいで写眞 「Omoide Shashin」
Release Date: January 29th, 2021
Duration: 110 mins.
Director: Naoto Kumazawa
Writer: Naoto Kumazawa (Script/Original Novel), Yukiko Manabe (Script),
Starring: Mai Fukagawa, Kengo Kora, Karina, Arata Iura, Kazuko Yoshiyuki,
Naoto Kumazawa, director of Oto-na-ri (2009) The Anthem of the Heart (live-action – 2017), adapts his own novel and former Nogizaka46 member Mai Fukagawa takes the lead role. She has good support in Kengo Kora – A Story of Yonosuke (2013), Being Good (2015) Fish Story (2009).
Synopsis: Yuko (Mai Fukagawa) had hoped to be a make-up artist in Tokyo but her stubborn personality caused her to get fired and so she returns to her hometown in Toyama prefecture to work as a photographer at a photo studio left by her late grandmother, the woman who was effectively her mother. Yuko is appalled at the funeral photograph of the lady and this sentiment coalesces into an idea when she meets her childhood friend Ichiro (Kengo Kora), who works at a government office, to shoot photographic portraits of the elderly citizens in town. It’s tough work at first but Yuko begins to make progress as she starts taking “Omoide Photographs” that capture more than a portrait, but a memory of those who are soon to be deceased…