Happy Weekend
I hope you are well.
This is the second trailer post of the week. You can find the first one here. This week, I posted a review for Rampo Noir as part of my yearly Halloween film review. I also took part in a Heroic Purgatory podcast recording covering Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.
In terms of what I have watched, Teruo Ishii’s Horrors of Malformed Men and Park Chan-wook’s Decision to Leave, the latter of which was in a cinema, my first trip to one since Asagaya, Tokyo 2020! Decision to Leave will be reviewed at some point because it is incredible. I’ve dug out other films of his that I have on DVD.
I have also started playing the very first Gabriel Knight game.
What else is released this weekend?
Yamabuki 
やまぶき 「Yamabuki」
Release Date: November 05th, 2022
Duration: 97 mins.
Director: Junichiro Yamasaki
Writer: Junichiro Yamasaki (Script),
Starring: Kang Yoon-Soo, Kilala Inori, Yohta Kawase, Misa Wada, Yuya Matsuura, Hisao Koizumi, Masaki Miura, Munetaka Aoki,
Juichiro Yamasaki, writer and director of The Sound of Light and Sanchu Uprising, is back with another film, this one shot on 16mm and set in his hometown of Maniwa. Thanks to the local mines, it has a multicultural mix of migrant workers, which adds an interesting angle to a story of confrontations which has help from European talents in the editing and animation departments.
Synopsis: Chang-su used to be an equestrian athlete for South Korea’s national team but gave up his dream after his father’s company went bankrupt and he was saddled with massive amounts of debt. He now lives with Minami and her infant daughter while he toils away with Vietnamese labourers at a quarry in the rural town of Maniwa in western Japan for work. Yamabuki, the teenage daughter of a policeman, is staging silent protests around the town. She influences Chang-su and others as her efforts reveal the frustration and loneliness bubbling away under the surface of the town. Once given a voice, people begin to connect with people.
Hyakusho no Hyaku no Koe 
百姓の百の声 「Hyakusho no Hyaku no Koe」
Release Date: November 05th, 2022
Duration: 130 mins.
Director: Shohei Shibata
Writer: N/A
Starring: Ayana Shiibashi, Kotaro Sato, Tomoko Yokoe, Makoto Ose,
Synopsis: This documentary looks at a variety of farmers across Japan and their different methods of growing food and the scenery that surrounds them.
Yokosuka 1953 
Release Date: November 05th, 2022
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Tsuyoshi Kigawa
Writer: N/A
Starring: Barbara Mountcastle, Yoko Kigawa, Kanji Tsuda (Narration)
Synopsis: This documentary comes from Tsuyoshi Kigawa, a filmmaker and professor at Wakayama University. It began after he received a message from the U.S. sent by a woman named Yoko who was born in Yokosuka in 1947 to a Japanese mother and an American father. At the age of five, she was separated from her mother and adopted by parents from the America. Sixty-six years later and Yoko begins a journey to search for her mother. Director Kigawa searches for Yoko’s relatives in Yokosuka City and follows in the footsteps of her mother, Nobuko. As he does so, he reveals hidden histories of post-war Japan.
The film won the Grand Prix at the Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2021.
Tamaneko, Tamabito 
たまねこ、たまびと 「Tamaneko, Tamabito」
Release Date: November 05th, 2022
Duration: 91 mins.
Director: Hiroyasu Murakami
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Synopsis: Documentarian Hiroyasu Murakami has won awards for CRAB PLANET and that film was set in the Tama River. He returns there to look at stray cats who are in the area and the people who look after them as they seek to protect the animals from starvation, typhoons, and more hazards. The film, shot over the course of two years, looks at this subject through photographer Osamu Konishi who has been capturing these cats with his camera for around 30 years and has gotten to know homeless people and volunteers who care for the cats.
As part of a run on directors, the staff at Cinema Rosa in Ikebukuro have lined up a “Kengo Yagawa Special” which runs from November 5-11, 2022. You can find his website here and a selection of his films on his Vimeo page.
DIGGER
穴を掘る 「Ana wo horu」
Release Date: 2017
Running Time: 16 mins.
Director: Kengo Yagawa
Writer: Kengo Yagawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Hiroaki Kawatsure, Tomoki Kimura, Toshihiro Wakita, Yoshio Hosokawa, Shigeo Ohsako, Koutaro Sato, Tonga Takayama,
This one is a surprise. No dialogue, no narration, no scene setting, just action. It starts in media res. A man has finished work in the city and his commute by train leads him to an unmanned station as the night descends. With the last embers of dusk fading away, he steps into the station’s restroom, sheds his salaryman uniform and changes into coveralls. More menacingly, he picks up a shovel and strikes out along a road into a forest. The deeper in he goes, the closer he gets to a sound audiences won’t expect: the roar of men cheering and the sound of spades clanging.
This experimental work strips away words and concentrates on the facial expressions and movements of the characters. You can watch it for free on Vidsee.
Cloud in My Head
脳天気 「Nou Tenki」
Release Date: 2019
Duration: 8 mins.
Director: Kengo Yagawa
Writer: Shingo Takeda (Script),
Starring: Junko Miyabe, Yurie Nagayama, Hiroaki Kawatsure, Kotaro Sato, Takashi Kasahara,
Synopsis: A woman working at a small factory finds herself thrust into the paranormal when a mysterious black object appears in the sky and a co-worker disappears…
Quiet and Evil
人に非ず 「Hito ni Hizu」
Release Date: November 05th, 2022
Duration: 65 mins.
Director: Kengo Yagawa
Writer: Kengo Yagawa, Kotaro Sato, (Script),
Starring: Ayana Shiibashi, Kotaro Sato, Tomoko Yokoe, Makoto Ose,
Synopsis: This film won the Special Jury Prize at the Pia Film Festival in 2014. It is set at a hotel in the lush tropical setting of the Ogasawara Islands where the tranquil atmosphere is broken by an incident. Apparently, Kengo Yagawa wrote the script and shot the film while living in a hotel in Ogasawara for a year.