Happy Weekend!
I hope you are well!
I’m currently in the middle of festival work – lots of fun! This week, I posted about the Japanese films at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Opening and Closing works of the Osaka Asian Film Festival. My review for The Sound of Grass was published on V-Cinema Show since it plays as part of the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2022. I also posted the first part of this trailer post!
What else was released this weekend?
Gekijouban Hontou ni Atta Kowai Hanashi Jiko Bukken Geinin 4 
劇場版 ほんとうにあった怖い話 事故物件芸人4 「Gekijouban Hontou ni Atta Kowai Hanashi Jiko Bukken Geinin 4」
Release Date: February 11th, 2022
Duration: 151 mins.
Director: Hiromitsu Amano
Writer: Hiromitsu Amano (Script),
Starring: Murakami, Naoto Ikeda, Takao Jumbo, Attaku Nishimoto, Kamichii,
Synopsis: This is the fourth installment of the omnibus horror series where uo-and-coming comedians act in horror stories set in haunted places, one set in a real abandoned school.
The Takatsu River 
高津川 「Takatsugawa」
Release Date: February 11th, 2022
Duration: 113 mins.
Director: Yoshinari Nishikori
Writer: Yoshinari Nishikori (Script),
Starring: Masahiro Komoto, Naho Toda, Ito Ono, Hiromasa Taguchi, Misayo Aoki,
Synopsis: Manabu runs a ranch on a mountain in Shimane prefecture. His hometown is famous for kagura dancing, which is said to be the origin of kabuki, but it is also experiencing depopulation as people leave. This threatens local schools with closure, including Manabu’s old one, and also the kagura tradition which Manabu want his son Tatsuya to take part in, although the teen has other ideas and it looks like he wants to leave Shimane, too. Will the kagura tradition be preserved?
Nishinari Goro’s 400 Million Yen 
西成ゴローの四億円 「Nishinari Goro no Shi oku-en」
Release Date: February 12th, 2022
Duration: 104 mins.
Director: Yudai Uenishi
Writer: Yudai Uenishi (Script),
Starring: Eiji Okuda, Kanji Tsuda, Mami Yamasaki, Takasi Sasano, Houka Kinoshita, Ai Furukawa, Yudai Uenishi,
Synopsis: Goro Haji is a day labourer who lives in Osaka’s Nishinari ward. He has a reputation as a strong man but also the moniker “Goro the Murderer” because murder is what got him sent to the joint. The truth is that he was a secret government agent and he has a wife and daughter. When his memories come back and he hears that his daughter has a disease, he decides to earn 400 million yen to find a way to ease her pain…
Target 
標的 「Hyouteki」
Release Date: February 12th, 2022
Duration: 99 mins.
Director: Shinji Nishijima
Writer: N/A
Starring: Takashi Uemura
Synopsis: In August 1991, the journalist Takashi Uemura published an article about the testimony of a Korean woman who was a former comfort woman. In the years that followed, he became a target of right-wing press and far-right activists who started picking apart the article and attacking Uemura when he went for a job at a university and even attacking his teenage daughter. Many citizens, lawyers, and media people stood up to support him. Director Shinji Nishijima, a veteran producer of programs on war and human rights, follows Uemura as he confronts his critics and examines the crisis in journalism that shakes the very foundations of democracy.
Ware Yowakereba Yajima Kajiko Den 
標的われ弱ければ 矢嶋楫子伝 「Ware Yowakereba Yajima Kajiko Den」
Release Date: February 12th, 2022
Duration: 110 mins.
Director: Hisako Yamada
Writer: Hisako Yamada, Toshiko Sakata, Kazuhiro Kurasaki (Script), Ayako Miura (Original Book),
Starring: Takako Tokiwa, Ken Ishiguro, Ikkei Watanabe, Dai Watanabe, Kazuko Kurosawa,
The life of Kajiko Yajima is made into a film by Japan’s oldest female director, Hisako Yamada, who adapts a novel of the same title by Ayako Miura.
No trailer but here’s a feature about the life of Yajima/the film.
Synopsis: Kajiko Yajima (Takako Tokiwa) devoted herself to women’s education and the women’s liberation movement during the Meiji and Taisho eras and it was a lifelong cause. Her own life probably informed her struggle as her samurai husband was so violent, she left home with her child and divorced him. After moving to Tokyo, she became an elementary school teacher and then became the director of a women’s academy and was involved in many activities aimed at improving the status of women, such as monogamy, women’s suffrage, prohibition of alcohol, and the abolition of prostitution.