Happy Weekend, again!
I hope you are still feeling good.
This is the follow-up to yesterday’s trailer post. Not much news from me other than I will be recording another episode of Heroic Purgatory tonight! It’ll cover a Hong Kong comedy via Stephen Chow!
What else was released this weekend?
Ai utsutsu 
愛うつつ 「Ai utsutsu」
Release Date: 2018
Duration: 70 mins.
Director: Kosei Hana
Writer: Kosei Hana
Starring: Takeshi Hosokawa, nagoho, Kazuho Yamamoto, Takehito Sato, Minori Inoue,
This one played at the Kanazawa Film Festival two years ago.
Synopsis: A human drama based on the director’s own experiences. It offers questions on the forms of love and sex through the travails of one couple. Yui is a university student who is dating Jun, an office worker. She wants to be embraced by him but he cannot be embrace her because he loves her. The two have different forms of love that finally come into conflict when Yui discovers something about Jun.
A-ku-a room only for two people 
あ・く・あ ふたりだけの部屋 「A ku a futari dake no heya」
Release Date: May 29th, 2021
Duration: 86 mins.
Director: Kyuya Nakagawa
Writer: Etsuo Hiratani (Screenplay),
Starring: Hinata Koizumi, Yasuyuki Sakurai, Koji Seki, Saya Imajo, Yuya Ishikawa,
This project is a collaboration between Etsuro Hiratani, the screenwriter of The Greatful Dead, who has been working on this story for 20 years, and director Kyuya Nakagawa, who has worked on a diverse array of films ranging from splatter titles by Yoshihiro Nishimura to some of Sion Sono’s dramas.
Synopsis: Here’s another film about a guy and a gal who roam around the boundaries of love. The guy is Tatsuo, a bicycle courier who has the ability to enter a mysterious room with the words “A, Ku, A” carved into the wall. When he meets a dead-eyed woman named Satoko, he falls in love with her but Satoko already has a boyfriend with whom she comes alive with. The rest of the week, she is empty. One day, Tatsuo peeps at the two having sex and is beaten up but when he later masturbates in tge mysterious room, Satoko, who has somehow acquired the ability to enter the mysterious room as well, appears in front of him.
Kenda Master Fist 
ケンダマスター拳 「Kenda Masuta- Ken」
Release Date: May 29th, 2021
Duration: 30 mins.
Director: Pierre Ito
Writer: N/A
Starring: Takeshi Maeda, Misato, Maya Okamoto, Yui Nekomata, Mitsuru Sato,
Synopsis: A 30-minute indie animated short about a 13-year-old boy named Kenta who is a genius kendama player and also a muscular macho man. He uses kendama (a Japanese toy) at Kendama Gakuen in Tokyo and has a romance with his childhood friend Tamako and battles with his rival Mitsurugi and, on top of all that, he also fights against the evil organization Dark Angel by piloting the Kendama Robo left behind by his dead father…
Tayutaedomo Shizumazu 
たゆたえども沈まず 「Tayutaedomo Shizumazu」
Release Date: May 29th, 2021
Duration: 103 mins.
Director: Yutaka Endo
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Synopsis: This documentary is based on 10 years of footage recorded by TV-Iwate beginning immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake. 1,850 hours of footage were combed through to show the changes that happened in the landscape and the lives of people living through the recovery from the disaster.
Rhapsody of Colors 
ラプソディ オブ colors 「Rapusodi Obu colors」
Release Date: May 29th, 2021
Duration: 108 mins.
Director: Takayuki Sato
Writer: N/A
Starring: Riri Ishikawa, Kazutoshi Nakamura, Joplin, Mayumi, Toshiaki Arai,
Synopsis: This documentary follows 500 days in the life of “colors,” a barrier-free social circle based in Ota Ward, Tokyo. This group is made up of people with various disabilities, and they take part in as many as 10 events every month. The events range from lectures by university professors to music festivals and drinking parties. The events attract a total of 800 people a year, each of whom has a rich personality. Then one day, the building that houses Colors is set to be demolished, and the group are faced with a crisis…