Happy weekend!
I hope you are well.
This is the second of a two-part trailer post – the first part can be found here. This week, I posted a review of the Netflix show Earthquake Bird (2019) and a preview of the Tokyo Student Film Festival 2022.
This week, I watched the French films The Horseman on the Roof (1995) and A Heart in Winter (1992), and I also watched the Hong Kong film Red Wolf (1995). I also spoke about the 2008 Japanese drama Departures for Heroic Purgatory.
What else was released this weekend?
Long Time Passing 
失われた時の中で 「Ushinawareta toki no naka de」
Release Date: August 20th, 2022
Duration: 60 mins.
Director: Masako Sakata
Writer: Masahiko Nagasawa (Script),
Starring: Kanako Momota, Shiori Tamai, Ayaka Sasaki, Reni Takagi, Katsuyuki Motohiro,
There’s an interview with director Masako Sakata over at Mainichi website. She’s an award-winning documentarian and her reasons for making films focussed on the Vietnam conflict are explored in the article.
Synopsis: Following the sudden death of her photographer husband Greg Davis, a Vietnam veteran exposed to Agent Orange, director Masako Sakata would change the course of her life and become a documentary filmmaker. She has made award-winning works where she has travelled to Vietnam to bear witness to children born with severe disabilities due to the effects of Agent Orange. This documentary depicts these people, the doctors and family-members who support the disabled, and the former journalists who filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government and the company that produced the defoliant, as they continue to face the scars of the war.
Kaettekita Miyata Busters Co., Ltd. 
帰ってきた宮田バスターズ（株） 「Kaettekita Miyata Basuta-zu (Kabu)」
Release Date: August 20th, 2022
Duration: 74 mins.
Director: Atsuya Sakata
Writer: Atsuya Sakata (Script),
Starring: Naoya Watanabe, Mizuho Osu, Akira Kurihara, Jun Sada,
A re-edit of Miyata Busters which was released in November 2021. Director Atsuya Sakata’s film first started out in 2019 as a short before it was turned into a feature-length version. It has attracted attention as an indie movie with a DIY aesthetic. The re-edit has a short prologue depicting the birth of Tank-kun, the popular mascot of the Miyata Busters.
Synopsis: Miyata Busters, Inc. is a company which protects the citizens of Japan from space creatures but with the advancement of extermination technology has allowed amateurs to set up on their own while the collateral damage they incur has further dampened demand for the company. That is, until the arrival of a new kind of space creature that is not affected by the latest equipment!
Kumotabi 
雲旅 「Kumotabi」
Release Date: August 20th, 2022
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Takashi Shimohonji
Writer: N/A
Starring: Sana Hazuki,
Synopsis: This is a documentary about Sana Hazuki, a woman who has entered professional boxing after emerging from a turbulent background. The details are this: both she and her younger brother were abandoned by their parents when she was six and they entered a foster home. At the age of 17, she gave birth to her first son, and she took up boxing following the death of her younger brother when she reached the age of 30. The documentary shows Sana working, training, and fighting while working through her trauma and how she uses boxing to give her direction in life.
The Man with the Winged Tiger 
翼の生えた虎 「Tsubasa no Kaeta Tora」
Release Date: August 20th, 2022
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Wataru Tomita
Writer: Wataru Tomita (Script),
Starring: Hideaki Tani, Kaori Ikeda, Ryo Kojima, Shoji Okamura, Motomasa Okui, Yuka Tanahashi,
Synopsis: Mukai Tora (Takeru) may come from a family of traditional potters in Tochigi Prefecture but he ignored his family legacy and tried his hand at becoming an adventure novelist in Tokyo after graduating from high school. It doesn’t go well. He returns to his hometown and it is a cold welcome wrapped with broken dreams. He starts to slum it until he meets a single-mother and her son who offer some warmth that remind him to live again but…
Ossan’s Blues 
おっさんずぶるーす 「Ossanzu Buru-su」
Release Date: August 20th, 2022
Duration: 60 mins.
Director: Naoki Maeda, Mikiya Sanada, Kenji Araki, Daiki Nishimura, Yasushi Koshizaka, Kimihiko Nakamura, Tatsuoki Hosono,
Writer: Nozomu Namba, Mikiya Sanada, Kenji Araki, Daiki Nishimura, Yuta Takahashi, Yasushi Koshizaka, Kimihiko Nakamura, Tatsuoki Hosono, Moe Saito, (Script),
Starring: Miho Wakabayashi, Sasa Handa, Taichi Fujii, Sakura Okano, Takashi Nishina, Nao Izumi, Yoji Tanaka,
Synopsis: An omnibus movie containing seven stories directed by male directors of the so-called “Ossan” generation – middle-aged guys and starring male actors who are also “Ossan”. The films will be grouped together and screened under “work” – four films – and family – three films – in different screenings. The theme of each story is the “discomfort” that the “current Ossan” generation is facing. Wait until these guys hear what women go through…
The next two films are part of a two-part documentary by Nobutaka Yamaoka who found that he no longer enjoys art with an open mind and made these films to explore the meaning of art and entertainment and what it means to appreciate art.
Art nanka iranai! Session 1 Dasei no Oukoku 
アートなんかいらない！ Session1 惰性の王国 「A–to nanka iranai! Session 1 Dasei no Oukoku」
Release Date: August 20th, 2022
Duration: 98 mins.
Director: Nobutaka Yamaoka
Writer: N/A
Starring: Ko Machida, Noi Sawaragi (Narration), Chiaki Souma, Yasuyo Kudo, Mitsuru Kuramoto, Furamu Kitagawa,
Synopsis: In this film, Yamaoka discusses the state of art in contemporary Japan, why the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is important, and why Shusaku Arakawa, the first Japanese artist to hold a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, came to abandon art altogether, to determine the limits of art.
Art nanka iranai! Session 2 46 Oku-nen no kodoku
アートなんかいらない！ Session2 46億年の孤独「A–to nanka iranai! Session 2 46 Oku-nen no kodoku」
Release Date: August 20th, 2022
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Nobutaka Yamaoka
Writer: N/A
Starring: Ko Machida, Noi Sawaragi (Narration), Tomokazu Tominaga, Tadashi Ota, Takayuki Mitsushima,
Synopsis: In Session 2, Yamaoka explores if there are limits of art and how to break them as well as the notion that art is a tool of communication. His examples take in the role of paintings in art therapy, how humanity can be restored through body modification, and the possibility of art created by artificial intelligence.
Watashi-tachi wa Ningen da! 
ワタシタチハニンゲンダ！ 「Watashitachi wa Ningen da!」
Release Date: August 19th, 2022
Duration: 99 mins.
Director: Ko Chanyu
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Synopsis: Ko Chanyu, director of the Korean school documentary Aitachi no Gakkou, takes on the subject of the reality of discrimination against foreigners in Japan. The headline story is Wishma Sandamali, who died while in an immigration detention centre in 2021. Other issues brought up include hate against foreign schools (like the one seen in Aitachi no Gakkou), abuse of technical interns (Along the Sea, Passage of Life), and the inhumane treatment of refugee and immigrants (Ushiku).
Momoiro Clover Z the Future of the Idol Special Screening Edition 
ももいろクローバーZ アイドルの向こう側 特別上映版 「Momo Iro Kuro-ba- Z Aidoru no Mukou-gawa Tokubetsu Joeiban」
Release Date: August 19th, 2022
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Yusuke Sakai
Writer: N/A
Starring: Kanako Momota, Shiori Tamai, Ayaka Sasaki, Reni Takagi, Katsuyuki Motohiro,
Synopsis: A documentary following Momoiro Clover Z, one of the leading female idol groups in Japan. Viewers will find out what is going on as they enter their 30s, having been active since their teens. Cue interviews with the group as well as film director Katsuyuki Motohiro, with whom they worked on the movie The Curtain Rises (2015), and others connected to their group.