It’s not quite the weekend…
But there are a LOT of films released.
I posted about three films featuring performances by Kaito Yoshimura at the start of the week and here are two films with the involvement of student filmmakers Ayako Masuda and Yuiko Itano whose works have won awards at the Tanabe-Benkei Film Festival.
The films will be screened at Tokyo’s Theatre Shinjuku (September) and Osaka’s Cine Libre Umeda (October) as part of the Tanabe-Benkei Film Festival Selection 2022.
Uo no Me 
魚の目 「Uo no Me」
Release Date: September 22nd, 2022
Duration: 117 mins.
Director: Ayako Masuda, Yuiko Itano
Writer: Yuiko Itano (Script), Ayako Masuda (Original Story),
Starring: Arisu Shimada, Wakusa, Yuto Kawasaki, Nobuaki Fujita, Yuzuna Koga, Shun Asai,
Ayako Masuda and Yuiko Itano of Doshisha University have created this ensemble coming-of-age drama with a professional crew. Their efforts film received high acclaim at the 24th Kyoto International Student Film Festival and the 15th Tanabe-Benkei Film Festival.
Synopsis: “Water cannot be seen by the eyes of fish and air cannot be seen by the eyes of humans.”
An ensemble drama that turns on the idea that the characters can’t see the importance of things close to them, we get the confused lines of love experienced in adolescence as a group of students who long for others experience various forms of love, be it requited or unrequited. Hence the title “Uo no Me” Fish Eye
Smoke of Spring 
煙とウララ 「Kemuri to Urara」
Release Date: September 22nd, 2022
Duration: 10 mins.
Director: Yuiko Itano
Writer: Yuiko Itano (Script),
Starring: Ayako Watanabe, Haruna Kishimoto, Shun Asai, Hiroyuki Shirai, Marie Yamanaka,
This short film with be screened alongside Uo no Me.
Synopsis: Aoi is attending a machicon (matchmaking party) at her old school which has been closed down. She gets tired and leaves the event and goes to the rooftop of his school to think about…