Happy Weekend!
I hope you are well.
This is the first of a two-part trailer post. The first part can be found here.
I think one part of my illness is starting to ease and I hope to go back to work soon. While off sick, I have been productive.
This week I have been covering the New York Asian Film Festival and posted reviews for Ribbon, Intimate Stranger, and Ox-head Village. Over on V-Cinema, my re-written review of Swallow and interview with Mai Nakanishi, the film’s director, went live.
Back to business… What else was released this weekend?
Dawning on Us 
夜明けの夫婦 「Yoake no fufu」
Release Date: July 22nd, 2022
Duration: 135 mins.
Director: Kenji Yamauchi
Writer: Kenji Yamauchi (Screenplay),
Starring: Nao Yoshigai
Kenji Yamauchi, actor in Hospitalité and director of delicious comedy of manners At the Terrace, is back with a film that takes Covid-19 as the catalyst for a family drama. It was screened at last year’s Tokyo FILMeX.
Synopsis: With the Covid-19 pandemic easing up, Sara and her husband Kosuke are finding themselves having to get back into their old lives after having lived together with Kosuke’s parents for a while. Kosuke is getting a transfer to Kobe and Sara is being called back into work and there is the expectation from her in-laws that she will conceive a child but she knows that Kosuke is having an affair, and living with her in-laws has put a dampener on their sex-life. Still, Sara’s mother-in-law who deeply longs for a grandchild takes this opportunity to further badger Sara….
Kodomo Kaigi 
こどもかいぎ 「Kodomo Kaigi」
Release Date: July 22nd, 2022
Duration: 88 mins.
Director: Tomo Goda
Writer: N/A
Starring: Kairi Jyo, Fuga Shibazaki, Sonny Mcclendon, Fumika Yoshimura, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Yui Aragaki,
Synopsis: “Kodomo Kaigi” (children’s meeting) is a documentary set in a nursery where children are encouraged to hold meetings where they freely discuss a range of issues that cover childish questions to philosophical themes of life. The emphasis is to get the kids to put their thoughts into words and have a “dialogue.” In this way, even if there are disagreements, the kids can learn consideration and kindness toward others. From watching the kids in action, perhaps avenues can be found to solving bigger issues in society.
In Another Language 
もうひとつのことば 「Mou Hitotsu no Kotoba」
Release Date: July 22nd, 2022
Duration: 49 mins.
Director: Masaya Tsutsumi
Writer: Masaya Tsutsumi (Script),
Starring: Makoto Kikuchi, Kosuke Fujita, Keita Arai, Toshikazu Nakayama, Hirotaka Renge,
Synopsis: A romantic comedy that flips between English and Japanese. It follows the budding relationship between Kenji, an actor who wants to work in the U.S., and Miki, a woman who tells lies about her life. They meet at an English conversation café and hit it off almost immediately and soon decide to turn their meetings into something more interesting by setting two rules: stay out of each other’s lives and don’t lie in Japanese.
A Beacon of Hope in the Wilderness 
荒野に希望の灯をともす 「Koya ni Kibou no Akari o Tomasu」
Release Date: July 23rd, 2022
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Kenji Yatsu
Writer: N/A
Starring: Tetsu Nakamura
Synopsis: This documentary follows in the footsteps of Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, a doctor who had spent 35 years treating the people of Afghanistan before he was shot and killed in 2019 while working with locals to build an irrigation canal to draw water from the great river Kunar after a period of drought. The footage here has been re-edited from material previously broadcast on TV and other media. It also adds previously unseen footage.
The Mystery of Insects and Plants that the Herb Garden Invites 
食草園が誘う昆虫と植物のかけひきの妙 「Shoku Kusa-en ga Izanau Konchū to Shokubutsu no Kake Hiki no Myou」
Release Date: July 23rd, 2022
Duration: 73 mins.
Director: Hidekatsu Murata
Writer: N/A
Starring: Kazuhiro Nagata. Daisaburo Okumoto, Keiko Nakamura, Genjiro Okura,
Synopsis: This documentary shows the daily activities that go on at the JT Biohistory Research Hall in Takatsuki, Osaka and it has a particular focus on the museum’s special exhibition, “The Wonderful Habitation of Insects and Plants.” As well as the exhibition, the location features gardens where insects and their interactions with the plants are monitored. In this way, the museum investigates what it means to live. The film also includes discussions about creatures of the world and their impact on people and the environment between the translator of Fabre’s Book of Insects, Daisaburo Okumoto, and the director Kazuhiro Nagata, and between the Noh actor Genjiro Okura (a living national treasure) and the honorary director Keiko Nakamura.
Cat and Salt or Sugar 
猫と塩、または砂糖 「Neko to Shio, Matawa Sato」
Release Date: July 23rd, 2022
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Takashi Komatsu
Writer: Takashi Komatsu (Script),
Starring: Kentaro Tamura, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Taro Suwa, Rinne Yoshida, Narushi Ikeda,
This is the commercial film debut of director Takashi Komatsu, the director who won the Grand Prix in the Competition Section at the Pia Film Festival 2016. It was produced as a PFF scholarship film.
Synopsis: The strange cohabitation of a mother, father, and son who happen to live together is depicted. Ichiro Sato is something of a shut-in who is treated akin to a pet “cat” by his sensitive mother, Keiko. Meanwhile the father, Shigeru, is an alcoholic and diabetic. Their situation changes when Keiko is reunited with her former lover, Joji, and she invites him and his daughter, Emi, to live with them.