Happy Weekend!
I hope you are well!
This week, I posted a review for Touching the Skin of Eeriness and Domains, the latter of which is free to view over at Cinematheque Francaise. I also posted the first trailer post yesterday.
Now, on to more free films…
10 Japanese documentaries from the 32-year history of Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival will be streamed for 3 weeks from January 17th – February 06th over at DA Films. The first week will be free. Sounds like a good deal! Big names include Naomi Kawase, Kaori Oda, and Yutaka Tsuchiya, as well as the collective OGAWA PRO.
What else was released this weekend…
Nan nanda 
なん・なんだ 「 Nan nanda」
Release Date: January 15th, 2022
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Shinpei Yamasaki
Writer: Futoshi Nakano (Script),
Starring: Shiro Shimomoto, Setsuko Karasuma, Kazuhiro Sano, Misa Wada, Mutsuo Yoshioka,
Synopsis: Saburo was expecting to celebrate his 40th wedding anniversary with his wife Michiko but when she gets into a car accident and goes into a coma, he finds himself cast adrift. At a loss over what to do, he develops the film on his wife’s camera and he discovers image of a completely unknown man. In order to find out what his wife was up to, Saburo and his daughter, Tomomi, search for the man in the photograph.
Ankon 
安魂 「 Ankon」
Release Date: January 15th, 2022
Duration: 108 mins.
Director: Taro Hyugaji
Writer: Motofumi Tomikawa (Script), Zhou Daxin (Original Light Novel),
Starring: Wei Zi, Chan Yu, Rie Kitahara,
This is a coproduction between Japan and China co-production with a story written by Zhou Daxin, writer of The Fragrant Oil Mill by the Lake of Scented Souls the novel of which was turned into an award-winning film called Woman Sesame Oil Maker. The director is Taro Hyugaji Grave of the Fireflies (2008) and Portrait of the Wind. The screenwriter is Motofumi Tomikawa, The Eel and Warm Water Under the Red Bridge.
Synopsis: An arrogant writer who dictates the lives of those around him has his comeuppance when his beloved son passes away at the age of 29. His faith in life, shattered, the writer searches for meaning by trying to understand what kind of life his son really wanted. When he meets a young man who looks exactly like his son, the writer starts to visit him and this leads to a miracle.
Psychics Z 
サイキッカーZ 「 Saikikka- Z」
Release Date: January 15th, 2022
Duration: 79 mins.
Director: Akiyoshi Koba
Writer: Akiyoshi Koba (Script),
Starring: Yusuke Nakayama, Marina Yoshimi, Mayu Suzuki, Taichi Shimamura, Hiroki Minami,
Director Akiyoshi Kiba (Nunchaku and Soul) has adapted his 2016 short film into a feature.
Synopsis: Maybe you can blame Uri Gellar for the boom in interest in psychic activity, but throughout the 80s and 90s, it was all over TV. Some of the children who watched it activated their special abilities but, alas, had nowhere to use it and nothing to use it on. Anyway, most of these abilities are trivial. Akira, one of the psychics, decides to form the team “Psychic Z” and he and the others he recruits train daily and promote themselves through YouTube videos in order to help the world. Then one day, a mysterious psychic suddenly appears and begins to attack the members of Psychic Z…
Zero Waste PLUS Sustainable Living 
ゼロ・ウェイストPLUS 持続可能な暮らし 「Zero Ueisuto PLUS jizoku kanouna kurashi」
Release Date: January 15th, 2022
Duration: 66 mins.
Director: Tetsu Shiratori
Writer: N/A
Starring: Masahiro Takemoto, Akira Sakano, Hatsue Katayama,
Synopsis: Tetsu Shiratori, looks at the “Zero Waste” movement, which aims to reduce waste to zero. He visits the town of Kamikatsu in Tokushima Prefecture, the first town in Japan to declare itself a zero-waste area, to find out more about how they achieved this feat.
Sotaisei Roman-Hiko 
相対性浪漫飛行 「Sotaisei Roman-Hiko」
Release Date: January 15th, 2022
Duration: 66 mins.
Director: Wataru Sakata
Writer: Ryosuke Egoshi (Script), Zhou Daxin (Original Light Novel),
Starring: Hiroki Minami, Takuya Fujimura, Uta Ueda, Minori Mikado, Ayaka Horii,
This film was shot and edited on 16mm film by director Wataru Sakata.
Synopsis: A not-so-bright college student named Aoki manages to find a way to travel through parallel universes and uses this opportunity to search for true love from a choice of women he encounters. Acting as a guide is his best friend, Ishida, a campus gossip, who tells him about suspicious rumours surrounding each of the women. Of course, it won’t go so smoothly in this comedy…
Extraneous Matter – Complete Edition 
異物–完全版– 「Ibutsu – Kanzenhan – 」
Release Date: January 15th, 2022
Duration: 60 mins.
Director: Kenichi Ugana
Writer: Kenichi Ugana (Screenplay),
Starring: Kaoru Koide, Shunsuke Tanaka, Momoka Ishida, Kaito Yoshimura, Makoto Tanaka,
Director Kenichi Ugana created a series of four short films which were combined in this one film. It seems to feature tentacle monsters and so two films come to mind, The Untamed (2016) and Possession (1981)…
Synopsis: Kaoru feels that she lives a stagnant life. Her boyfriend is unkind, her job and co-workers suck, and everything is boring. Then one day, a mysterious octopus-like alien appears in her home. This creature causes a heightened sense of pleasure. It’s not the only one as these creatures emerge all over Japan and become part of everyday life, until their explosive expansion takes a dramatic turn.
