Happy Weekend
I hope you are well
I am struggling with energy levels lately so posts have been patchy. I did one about the release of Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle and I also posted my review of Howling and an interview with the director, both of which are released this weekend in Japan.
What I have been watching is connected to a Heroic Purgatory podcast based on the Academy Awards.
What else is released this weekend?
Howling 
遠吠え 「Toboe」
Release Date: April 16th, 2022
Duration: 86 mins.
Director: Sheikh M Haris
Writer: Sheikh M Haris (Screenplay),
Starring: Ichiro Hashimoto, Yukino Takahashi, Ryoma Ikegami, Sanae Kotani, Takahiro Ono,
Howling by Sheikh M Haris plays at Cinema Rosa from today. It is a tragicomic neo-noir full of disaffected and marginalised characters who seek a hero as they struggle to find a way out of their bleak lives. With plenty of twists and turns and some fine acting, subverts expectations. I saw it as part of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2022 and reviewed it and interviewed Sheikh M Haris.
Synopsis: Ryuji (HASHIMOTO Ichiro) is a 40-year-old and has no status, no money, no women, and, just after we meet him, no job as he gets fired for sexual harassment. He’s convinced that it’s not his fault, he just needs a chance. Well, fate has more twists in store for Ryuji as he receives an invitation to a school reunion and an offer of a date from Akane (TAKAHASHI Yukino), a 20-year-old woman. Alas, neither situation turns out as expected as Akane asks him to kill her father and the reunion reveals that Ryuji’s first love, Chisato (KOTANI Sanae), has got herself hitched to the bully who tormented them both and she is being abused now. In a state of emotional confusion, Ryuji believes that a recently acquired gun will allow him to change his approach to life.
Of course, Ryuji’s in way over his head in this tale of desperate women and dangerous guys, all of whom are examples of people living on the edge of contemporary society. The pluses of the film is seeing everyone collide together in various artfully shot and well-acted scenes that capture forlorn people in a dark, yet sometimes comic world.
Bleached Bones Avenue ACT 1 
白骨街道「Hakkotsu kaidō」
Release Date: April 16th, 2022
Duration: 16 mins.
Director: Akio Fujimoto
Writer: N/A
Starring: Pu paul pau, Lang Za Khup
Screened at the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020, Bleached Bones Avenue comes from director Akio Fujimoto and, on the face of it, this short is a curious follow-up film to his previous work, the family drama Passage of Life (2017), which was shown at the festival back in 2018. However, it continues to examine the human links between Japan and Myanmar in its own unique way.
I interviewed the film’s director Akio Fujimoto, cinematographer Kentaro Kishi and producer Kazutaka Watanabe. Also, here’s my review.
Synopsis: Fujimoto’s latest film takes place in Myanmar’s Chin state, near the border with India, and observes the work of a team from the Zomi tribe who recover the remains of Japanese soldiers who died during the battle of Imphal.
Director Fujimoto visited Chin State in 2019 and learned about this through interviews with World War II survivors, the details of which are included in the interview.
Phoenix Goes On 
ニワトリ★フェニックス 「Niwatori Fenikkusu」
Running Time: 104 mins.
Release Date: April 15th, 2022
Director: Kanata Urofu / Kanata Wolf
Writer: Kanata Wolf (Screenplay),
Starring: Arata Iura, Ryo Narita, Eiji Okuda, Kanji Tsuda, Ryohei Abe, LiLiCo, Mari Sara,
Synopsis: Rakuto and Sota leave their dilapidated apartment in Tokyo behind to hit the road in a lime green Impala. Rakuto is on a quest to find a fabled phoenix and Sota is recording everything to leave some trace of his life behind. What does it all mean? Strap in for a road trip that includes many hijinks with weird and wonderful characters the duo find along the way.
Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween 
名探偵コナン ハロウィンの花嫁 「Meitantei Conan: Harouin no Hanayome」
Release Date: April 15th, 2022
Duration: 110 mins
Director: Susumu Mitsunaka
Writer: Takahiro Okura (Screenplay), Gosho Aoyama (Original Creator)
Starring: Minami Mitsunaka (Conan Edogawa), Rikiya Koyama (Kogoro Mori), Shinichiro Miki (Kenji Hagiwara), Toru Furuya (Toru Amuro), Wakana Yamazaki (Ran Mori),
Animation Production: TMS Entertainment
Synopsis: It is Halloween and on this most spookiest of nights Miwako Sato is due to get married but a ghost from the past shows up, a serial bomber who killed Miwako’s previous beau and so Detective Conan investigates a case involving a psychopath putting collar bombs on people!
Staring at life Higher Brain Dysfunction and Modern Society 
いのち見つめて 高次脳機能障害と現代社会 「Inochi Mitsumete Kouji nou Kinou Shougai to Gendai Shakai」
Release Date: April 15th, 2022
Duration: 70 mins.
Director: Kenjiro Minato
Writer: N/A
Starring: Kenichiro Yamaguchi, Yasunori Kataoka, Junko Suzuki,
Synopsis: This documentary looks at the reintegration of people with higher brain dysfunction into modern society. This problem comes about as an aftereffect of partial brain damage caused by injury or disease and the documentary takes on the case study of a mine explosion at the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine that resulted in hundreds being killed and injured and many workers having to be rehabilitated after their injuries. This can be said to be a turning point in how the government and society process higher brain dysfunction.
What is Miso Curry Milk Ramen? 
味噌カレー牛乳ラーメンってめぇ～の？「Miso Kare- Gyuunyuu Ramentte me~e ~ no?」
Release Date: April 15th, 2022
Duration: 113 mins.
Director: Takuto Katayama
Writer: Yu Shizumori (Script), Shikumu Ishiguro (Original Story),
Starring: Manami Nakamoto, Maya Shigekawa, Daisuke Nakagawa, Noa Kita, Yuto Tsubone,
A coming-of-age comedy set in Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture and Shimokitazawa in Tokyo.
Synopsis: High school girl Utsutsu lives in a rural town on the Shimokita Peninsula in Aomori Prefecture and will assume the title of “itako” (a shrine maiden who performs kuchiyose (spirit summoning) in the northern Tohoku region). She isn’t too thrilled about this as she is more of a subculture otaku who would love to live in Tokyo. When she is accidentally possessed by a fox spirit, her views begin to shift…
Moribito – a Doctor of the Earth – 
杜人（もりびと） 環境再生医 矢野智徳の挑戦 「Moribito (Moribito) Kankyou Saisei-i Yano Tomonori no Chousen」
Release Date: April 15th, 2022
Duration: 101 mins.
Director: Setsuko Maeda
Writer: N/A
Starring: Tomonori Yano, Genyu Munehisa, Tomoko Ishida, Nobuyuki Hori,
Synopsis: This documentary follows Tomonori Yano, a landscape architect and environmentalist with over 30 years of experience. He takes a natural approach to land management and takes care of the natural world, a stark contrast to many civil engineering and industrial projects.
Ashita, Jugyou Sankan Ikukara 
あした、授業参観いくから。 「Ashita, Jugyou Sankan Ikukara」
Release Date: April 16th, 2022
Duration: 23 mins.
Director: Mana Yasuda
Writer: Mana Yasuda (Script),
Starring: Reiko Kataoka, Keiko Izumi, Teruo Maeda, Yasuyoshi Kamimoto, Arisu Shimada,
An experimental film by Mana Yasuda who used workshop material based on the idea that “even the exact same line can be acted or scripted differently depending on the character or situation.” Seven identical lines are spoken by five different students. Each line is repeated in a different house, depicting a completely different parent-child pattern from the exact same conversation.
Synopsis: Reiko Kataoka, a reliably good actress, stars in this short as Noriko Sakaguchi, a junior high school English teacher to a variety of students, some from wealthy backgrounds, others with scary or lazy parents, one student with no mother. With the parents due to visit her class in her class, the Jugyou Sankan, we see various dramas emerge.
Episode 1 of the drama series Tokyo Vice was also screened in a cinema