Happy Weekend.
I hope you are well.
This is a bit of a busy weekend so you are reading the first of a two-part trailer post. Come back tomorrow for more!
What are the first batch of films released this weekend?
Love Life 
Release Date: September 09th, 2022
Duration: 123 mins.
Director: Koji Fukada
Writer: Koji Fukada (Script),
Starring: Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada, Hirona Yamasaki, Tomorowo Taguchi, Natsume Mito,
Koji Fukada is one of Japan’s leading directors. Heavily inspired by French New Wave films, he makes the kind of mature cinema that Japan desperately needs with romances touched with a bit of wry comedy and mysteries. He is also willing to experiment and address themes of xenophobia, sexism, and ageism.
He has a number of awards to his name, including the Best Picture Award in the Japanese Eyes competition of the Tokyo International Film Festival for Hospitalité (2010), the Grand Prize at the Three Continents Festival for Au revoir l’ete (2013) and the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival for Harmonium (2016).
I’ve covered many of Koji Fukada’s films on this blog and you can find a list of reviews here.
His latest stars Fumino Kimura (The Fable and its sequel), Kento Nagayama (Crime or Punishment?!?), deaf actor and sign language expression model Atom Sunada., Hirona Yamasaki (Hanagatami), and Tomorowo Taguchi (Tetsuo, the Iron Man). Fukada was apparently inspired to write the story for this film by the Akiko Yano song Love Life.
The film is currently at Venice and will be released at the end of this week in Japan. Reviews from Venice have been published by The Hollywood Reporter and Screen International. It will also be screened at the London Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Here’s the trailer:
Synopsis: Taeko (Fumino Kimura) lives peacefully and happily with her husband, Jiro (Kento Nagayama), and her son Keita, despite the tempestuous way that they met and the disapproval of Jiro’s father. One day, the couple are hit by a sad event. As Taeko experiences grief, her former husband (Atom Sunada) and Keita’s father returns. Meanwhile, Jiro reconnects with a woman (Hirona Yamasaki) he used to date. How do this couple work through their difficulties and what does it mean to love?
A Hundred Flowers 
百花 「Hyakka」
Release Date: September 09th, 2022
Duration: 104 mins.
Director: Genki Kawamura
Writer: Genki Kawamura (Script/Original Novel),
Starring: Masaki Suda, Mieko Harada, Masami Nagasawa, Masatoshi Nagase,
Genki Kawamura is a prolific producer (think Densha Otoko, Parasyte and The Wolf Children) and he’s also a novelist/scriptwriter (If Cats Disappeared From the World) but his directing credits are few and far between. This is one of his efforts and it has a great cast led by Masaki Suda (Love at Least, The Light Shines Only There) and Mieko Harada (Ran, Dreams) as a mother-son duo.
Synopsis: Izumi Kasai (Masaki Suda) is a young man with a job in the record industry and beautiful wife (Masami Nagasawa) who is about to deliver their child. His happiness is tinged with sadness because his mother Yuriko (Mieko Harada), a woman who runs a piano school, is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and is losing her memory fast. Izumi takes responsibility for his mother, the woman who raised him alone and abandoned him during an incident that Izumi can never forget. Despite feeling a gap between himself and his mother, Izumi is devoted to her care and when he discovers a notebook in Yuriko’s room, the truth about the incident and the secret life that Yuriko lived without him is revealed.
Goodbye Cruel World 
グッバイ・クルエル・ワールド 「Gubbai Kurueru Wa-rudo」
Release Date: September 09th, 2022
Duration: 127 mins.
Director: Tatsushi Omori
Writer: Ryo Takada (Script),
Starring: Hideotshi Nishijima, Takumi Saito, Tomokazu Miura, Hio Miyazawa, Tina Tamashiro,
Synopsis: Five different people from different backgrounds raid a secret yakuza money laundering operation at a love hotel. They succeed in stealing nearly 100 million yen in cash and return to their normal lives but the yakuza aren’t going to give up the cash that easily and recruit a detective to track them down and a furious fight for the cash begins.
Akai 
Release Date: September 09th, 2022
Duration: 88 mins.
Director: Eigoro Akai
Writer: N/A
Starring: Hidekazu Akai,
Synopsis: Hidekazu Akai, an ex-professional boxer and now actor and TV personality is the subject of a documentary directed by his eldest son who is himself himself a professional boxer. Nicknamed “Naniwa no Rocky” (Rocky of Naniwa, since he’s from Osaka), Hidekazu’s career includes 21 fights with 19 victories, 16 KOs, and 2 losses. His acting career includes working with Junji Sakamoto on a biopic. Footage of the film and the fights are combined with interviews to present a true picture of Akai.
The Misogyny 
ザ・ミソジニー 「Za Misojini-」
Release Date: September 09th, 2022
Duration: 77 mins.
Director: Hiroshi Takahashi
Writer: Hiroshi Takahashi (Script),
Starring: Shoko Nakahara, Shojiro Yokoi, Tomomi Kono, Mai Asada, Shusaku Uchida, Yugo Hashiba,
Hiroshi Takahashi is a major figure from the J-horror wave considering is responsible for the screenplays for Ring 1, 2 0, Don’t Look Up, and dabbled in different genres with Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Revenge I: A Visit from Fate. As a director it seems he has stayed firmly in the horror genre with Occult Bolshevism (due for release in the US soon) and Toshimaen: Haunted Park. This is his latest work.
Synopsis: Naomi and Mizuki are two actresses. Naomi has invited Mizuki to an eerie Western-style house in the mountains. Ostensibly it is to rehearse a play Naomi has written about the mysterious murder of a mother and Mizuki is given the role of the daughter but there are ulterior motives as Mizuki has history with Naomi and when the young actress arrives with her manager, she senses that the villa might be the scene of a crime…
HiGH&LOW THE WORST X 
Release Date: September 09th, 2022
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Norihisa Hiranuma, Daisuke Ninomiya, Masaki Suzumura
Writer: Norihisa Hiranuma, Shoichiro Masumoto, Kei Watanabe (Script),
Starring: Atsushi Arai, Suzuki Higa, Kazuma Kawamura, Hayato Komori, Ryoki Miyama,
The film is set three years after the events of High and Low: The Worst.
Synopsis: In SWORD district, Hanaoka is the hardest boy in Oya High School but he and his street fighters face a challenge from the “three-school alliance” established by the Head of Senomon Technical with two other schools, Kamasaka High School and Ebara Commercial High School. Let battle commence!
The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbye 
夏へのトンネル、さよならの出口 「 Natsu e no Tunnel, Sayonara no Deguchi」
Release Date: September 09th, 2022
Duration: 62 mins
Director: Tomohisa Taguchi
Writer: Tomohisa Taguchi (Screenplay), Mei Hachimoku (Original Creator)
Starring: Marie Iitoyo (Anzu Hanashiro), Oji Suzuka (Kaoru Tono), Arisa Komiya (Koharu Kawasaki), Haruka Terui (Hamamoto Sensei),
Animation Production: CLAP
Synopsis: Tono Kaoru lost his sister Karen in an accident five years ago so the rumour that stepping through the Urashima Tunnel will grant a person’s desires plays on his mind. There is a catch: to get something, you must lose something, even if that something is a couple of years from your life. Together with new transfer student Anzu Hanaki, he investigates a tunnel that seems to be the one of legend.