Happy Weekend
I hope you are well.
I have been working for and covering the Osaka Asian Film Festival. This week’s reviews include:
Howling, Angry Son, The Girl on a Bulldozer, Boy Sprouted , Random Call.
The festival comes to an end tomorrow but you can still watch films online, from anywhere in the world, and in theatres in the city. Here’s an article with the online portion. This is the second part of this week’s trailer post. The first part can be found here.
What else was released this weekend?
Tamaran Hill 
たまらん坂 「Tamaranzaka」
Release Date: March 19th, 2022
Duration: 86 mins.
Director: Tadasuke Kotani
Writer: Takuya Dairiki, Takashi Miura (Script), Kanako Nishi (Original Novel)
Starring: Hinako Watanabe, Makiko Watanabe, Kanji Furutachi, Mayu Ozawa,
This one was inspired by a real novel. It features a great set of character actors like Makiko Watanabe (Love Exposure) and Kanji Furutachi (Harmonium).
Synopsis: Hinako is a student with a rocky relationship with her father so when she comes across the novel “Tamaran Hill”, she is intrigued because “tamaran” (intolerable) is her father’s favourite swear word. The bookseller gives her the book and Hinako starts reading it. She finds her life reflected in the story and imagines herself inside the book’s story where she meets the real-life author Senji Kuroi. The film reflects the process of understanding that Hinako undergoes as she reads, bouncing between the novel and the real world.
Before the Rainbow Falls 
虹が落ちる前に 「Niji ga Ochiru Mae ni」
Release Date: March 19th, 2022
Duration: 115 mins.
Director: Koji Uehara
Writer: Koji Uehara (Script),
Starring: Ryunosuke Moriyama, Hitomi Uneda, Daichi Shiraiso, Nobumitsu Suematsu, Touma Kajita, Tatsuya Kon,
Koji Uehara is described as a street icon from Osaka who is supported by many young people, not only for his music but also for his fashion and way of life, from the underground scene to the mainstream. This is his first feature film as a director and it played at the Kanazawa Film Festival.
Synopsis: The protagonist is a weak-willed young man who works at a bar and is the lead singer of an unsuccessful band. What stops him from pushing forward is that he is spoiled by his friends and a loving girlfriend who support him, and so he spends his days taking things for granted. And yet, somehow, the young man could feel that change is necessary. Perhaps it is the dissatisfaction in his heart. When things start to heat up with his band, a member’s involvement with the criminal underworld threatens to bring them down. In this desperate time, the protagonist’s song-writing skills light up…
Mlabri in the Woods 
Mlabri in the Forest, the Last Hunter in Indochina
森のムラブリ インドシナ最後の狩猟民 「 Mori no Muraburi IndoShia Saigo no Shuryoumin」
Release Date: March 19th, 2022
Duration: 85 mins.
Director: Yu Kaneko
Writer: N/A
Starring: Yuuma Ito, Par,
Synopsis: The Mlabri tribe are hunter-gatherers who live in the forests on the borders of Thailand and Laos. Local people called them Phi Tong Lueang (Spirits of the Yellow Leaves). It is thought that there are only 400 of them left. This film is the world’s first successful recording of them.
Chikubi Shin! 
ちくび神！ 「 Chikubi Shin!」
Release Date: March 19th, 2022
Duration: 88 mins.
Director: Narumi Yonezawa
Writer: Narumi Yonezawa (Script)
Starring: Taro Kumamon, Narumi Yonezawa, Shinichiro Osawa, Erina Yamada, Akihiro Kamataki,
Synopsis: His biggest concern was his love for a blind women but when something strange happens to Toshio’s nipples, it changes his life forever…
There Is a Landing on the Stairs 
階段の先には踊り場がある 「 Kaidan no Sakini wa Odoriba ga aru」
Release Date: March 19th, 2022
Duration: 132 mins.
Director: Satoshi Kimura
Writer: Satoshi Kimura (Script)
Starring: Miyuu Teshima, Amon Hirai, Gaku Hosokawa, Ryo Anraku, Kohei Nagano, Sakina Asamori,
Synopsis: The love lives of a group of college students and young adults finding difficulties in inadequate relationship and career woes are depicted humorously here. Their number includes YUCCO, a student in the dance department of an art college, who is continuing to live together with her ex-boyfriend, a senior student in the theatre department. Then there is Taki, whose long-term boyfriend Minato, wants to get married even if she is unable to see the future due to a certain setback she experienced when she was a college student.
Perusepone no Namida 
ペルセポネーの泪 「 Perusepone – no Namida」
Release Date: March 18th, 2022
Duration: 102 mins.
Director: Yasuaki Genda, Teppei Isobe
Writer: Hiroshi Hosokawa, Teppei Isobe, Kazuo Nagai (Script)
Starring: Ayame Goriki, Manami Hashimoto, Nagiko Tsuji, Hiroaki Iwanaga, Kaori Takeshita, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Shinichiro Osawa, Yuhi, Yua Shiraishi,
This film was produced to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Shin-Etsu Broadcasting.
Synopsis: Futa has moved from the city to Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture. to start life as a farmer but making money is tough and when he is forced to pay back the money he borrowed to buy his house and farmland, he is in a bad situation. His wife Minori, offers her ring to him so he can exchange it for money but a swindler steals it. Futa follows the man to a bar, where he meets a charming woman named Yoko…
KAPPEI 
KAPPEI カッペイ「KAPPEI」
Release Date: March 18th, 2022
Duration: 118 mins.
Director: Takashi Hirano
Writer: Yuichi Tokunaga (Script) Kiminori Wakasugi (Original Novel),
Starring: Hideaki Ito, Moka Kamishiraishi, Daigo Nishihata, Yusuke Onuki, Arata Furuta,
The latest work from Kiminori Wakasugi, author of Detroit Metal City (2008) and The Virgin Psychics (2015), gets a live-action adaptation.
Synopsis: According to Nostradamus, the world was supposed to end in 1999, a prediction that way too many people believed, including a cult leader who took a group of boys and put them through martial arts training so they can save the world from the apolcalypse. Kappei was one of those boys and, 22 years later, the world is still around and so he and the others are made by their master to go out into the world. Kappei goes to Tokyo where he falls in love with a university student named Haru. Surely his martial-arts skills will come in handy for this situation…