Happy Weekend!
I hope you are well.
It’s getting colder as winter approaches. The above image captures the tone. It comes from John Carpenter’s THE THING which I reviewed here and also spoke about on the Heroic Purgatory podcast for Halloween.
I’ve started listening to more movie podcasts and have two recommendations:
Movie Night Extravaganza which I listened to Nicky and Mikey, The Blair Witch Factory, The Player, Parasite – all fun and packed full of thought-provoking moments.
The Pink Smoke and their four-hour talk on the works of Dario Argento.
I need to up my podcasting game in time for a talk about Cowboy Bebop!
As for trailers… you can find the first part of the trailer post here.
What else was released this weekend?
Shinonome Color Shuumatsu 
シノノメ色の週末 「Shinonome-iro no Shuumatsu」
Release Date: November 05th, 2021
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Mayu Akiyama
Writer: Mayu Akiyama (Script), Moegara (Original Novel),
Starring: Reika Sakurai, Sae Okazaki, Natsume Mito, Tomo Nakai, Asuka Kudo, Kinuo Yamada,
Mayu Akiyama is an up-and-coming director (whom I interviewed a couple of years ago). She has a few titles to her name including Rent a Friend, which won the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at MOOSIC LAB 2018. I reviewed her part of the omnibus film Kamata Prelude. This film is her commercial feature film debut.
Synopsis: They may be adults but three friends still haven’t quite grown up in this story about three former members of a high school broadcasting club repeatedly gathering at Shinome Girls’ High School on the eve of it destruction. It is here that they talk about their lives and work through their problems. For example, Mirei is part of a modelling agency, but success is just out of reach. The more serious Mari, who was the head of the broadcasting club, is now working for a subsidiary of a major advertising agency but she has her own issues.
Zetsumetsu Doubutsu (VACATION) 
絶滅動物（VACATION） 「Zetsumetsu Doubutsu (VACATION)」
Release Date: November 05th, 2021
Duration: 65 mins.
Director: Masaki Soejima
Writer: Masaki Soejima (Script),
Starring: Manami Kakimori, Michiko Gomi, Daichi Sho, Ryozo Mori, Akihiro Kamataki,
Speaking of MOOSIC LAB films, this is one of the current batch and it is by Masaki Soejima who did the wonderful mockumentary Soul Music for the previous MOOSIC LAB. It looks like he takes the same basic concept but replaces the older guy characters with cute girls in a film which uses a faux documentary style to capture the hunt for a unique sound and the creation of unique music based on that sound.
Synopsis: When a graduate student named Mai comes into possession of a “ghost box,” she is able to hear the voices of ghosts and launches a search for an extinct bird, the Tosser Oystercatcher. Meanwhile, at the music studio “Vacation,” seven musicians are struggling to write new songs but a stuffed bird provides inspiration.
Notebook on Cities and Clothes 
都市とモードのビデオノート 「Toshi to Mo-do no Bideo No-to」
Release Date: 1989
Duration: 124 mins.
Director: Wim Wenders
Writer: Wim Wnders, Francois Burkhardt (Script), Moegara (Original Novel),
Starring: Yohji Yamamoto, Wim Wenders,
This documentary was originally released in 1989 and is resurfacing in Japan as part of a season of films by Wim Wenders
Synopsis: We enter the world of renowned fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto in a film commissioned by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. It is in the famous city of lights that Wenders records Yamamoto as he prepares for his Paris collection.
Suzusan Showa no Kaji to Kazoku no Monogatari 
スズさん 昭和の家事と家族の物語 「Suzusan Showa no Kaji to Kazoku no Monogatari」
Release Date: November 06th, 2021
Duration: 86 mins.
Director: Atsushi Oogaki
Writer: Naoko Adachi (Script),
Starring: Kazuko Koizumi,
Synopsis: This documentary delivers the life of a family who experienced the Great Kanto Earthquake, lived through World War II and the Yokohama Air Raid, and the post-war Showa period. War and peace, the public duties and domestic things like household chores. Suzu Koizumi is our entry into this world but there are plenty of primary and secondary sources like films, news footage, and photographs taken during and after the war, as well as illustrations based on the testimony of Suzu’s eldest daughter, Kazuko.
Made in Heaven 
メイド・イン・ヘヴン 「Meido In Hebun」
Release Date: November 06th, 2021
Duration: 88 mins.
Director: Masato Tanno
Writer: Kamachi (Script/Original Story),
Starring: Satomi Tezuka, Tomiyuki Kunihiro, Kokone Sasaki, Makoto Togashi, Jun Soejima, Kamachi,
An odd romantic comedy set in Kisarazu and made by people from there.
Synopsis: An ageing novelist named Soseki lives life as a widower so it is nice when a young woman named Takamine, who says she is his fan, asks to meet him for his autograph. Soseki agrees, but the two are involved in a car accident. Sakiko, Soseki’s wife, has been waiting patiently in heaven for her other half but when he appears he is suffering from amnesia. To make matters worse, he tells her that he is going to stay with Takamine. Meanwhile, a young man named Daisuke, who also passed away due to an accident, comes to live with Sakiko. Husband and wife are separated once again. an this be remedied?