The first trailer post of the week features all sorts of different films but the most impressive is The Tale of Iya. Watch the trailer and tell me you aren’t impressed by it. I’m so impressed that I’m tempted to attend a UK screening. It’s a temptation that is hard to resist much like women, meat, and uniforms (that’s a Wooser reference, by the way, and Wooser continues being funny). It looks better than The Mole Song, Takashi Miike’s latest title, the big-budget release of the week. The rest of the trailers include documentaries and awful J-hora. There are more films tomorrow.
The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji 
Japanese Title: 土竜の唄 潜入捜査官 REIJI
Romaji: Mogura no Uta Sennuu Sosakan REIJI
Running Time: 130 mins.
Release Date: February 13th, 2014
Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Kudo Kankuro (Screenplay), Noboru Takahashi (Original Manga)
Starring: Toma Ikuta, Ren Osugi, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Riisa Naka, Takayuki Yamada, Mitsuru Fukikoshi
When I first read the synopsis I thought of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs but this is based on a manga by Noboru Takahashi. The trailer is crazy but that’s par for the course with Takashi Miike (For Love’s Sake). The film has a great cast of characters like Shinichi Tsutsumi (Why Don’t You Play in Hell? – review coming next week), Ren Osugi (Exte) and Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Cold Fish). The film was at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival!
Reiji Kikukawa (Ikuta) has a strong sense of justice but graduates at the bottom of his class from the police academy. He is so useless his superiors send him on what should be a suicide mission. First the police chief fires him for disciplinary issues and then sets him up as a mole in the Sukiyaki gang, the largest crime group in the Kanto area. His target is Shuho Todoroki, the boss, and so Reiji goes through hell to get his man!
The Tale of Iya 
Japanese Title: 祖谷物語 -おくのひと-
Romaji: Iya Monogatari – Oku no Hito
Running Time: 169 mins.
Release Date: February 15th, 2014
Director: Tetsuchiro Tsuta
Writer: Tetsuchiro Tsuta, Masayuki Ueda (Screenplay),
Starring: Rina Takeda, Shima Ohnishi, Sachi Ishimaru, Hitoshi Murakami, Min Tanaka, Reika Miwa, Takahiro Ono, Naomi Kawase, Christopher Pellegrii, Keiko Taoka, Shigeru Kimura
Well this one looks special and it’s going to get screened at the Pan-Asian Film Festival. the trailer has a somewhat magical atmosphere and getting an insight into traditional Japan is always a plus. It also features Kick Girl Rina Takeda in a strictly dramatic role – as in she doesn’t kick anybody in the teeth or wrestling like she normally does.
It is winter. A man finds a baby girl in the snow by a freezing lake in the mountains of Tokushima and takes her in. He gives her the name Haruna and they live far away from other people. The baby grows into a caring woman (Rina Takeda) who looks after the man.
It is summer. A stranger from Tokyo arrived at “Iya”, where the riches of nature still abound. His name is Kudo, and he wants to start a new life in the country to refresh his tired soul. Unfortunately the reality was not as easy as he thought because there is a confliction between a local construction company and a group of nature conservationists.
One day, Kudo meets the old man and Haruna and finds out that they lead lives completely different from his own. The old man is a farmer who climbs up the mountain to go to the little shrine to offer Omiki (sake) to the mountain god and Haruna goes to high school an hour away from home, and after that, helps Grandpa to plow his field. Feeling his heart gradually healing, Kudo thought that he finally found what he was looking for in their calm life but a destructive winter occurs…
Fankī Katō My Vu~oisu Fan Mon kara Aratana Mirai E 
Japanese Title: ファンキー加藤 My VOICE ファンモンから新たな未来へ
Romaji: Fankī Katō My Vu~oisu Fan Mon kara Aratana Mirai E
Running Time: 90 mins.
Release Date: February 14th, 2014
Director: Takuei Sumita
Writer: N/A
Starring: Funky Kato, Mon Kichi, DJ Chemical
The Funky Monkey Babys disbanded last year and one of their members, Funky Kato, had a documentary made about his final performance with the group and his new life playing solo stuff.
Exte Girl The Movie 
Japanese Title: エクステ娘 劇場版
Romaji: Ekusute Musume Gekijōban
Running Time: 110 mins.
Release Date: February 15th, 2014
Director: Kei Morikawa
Writer: Kokoya Anzu (Screenplay)
Starring: Tomomi Nakatsuka, Yuka Rikuna, Hana Tojima, Shizuka Umemoto, Naoto Iyoku, Koujin Gama
Another Exte: Hair Extensions film? No Sion Sono and no Ren Osugi singing his bizarre song in this version? This film fails already. Low-budget effects and the presence of an AKB48 girl do nothing to improve things… or maybe I’m being harsh. You decide.
The story is a re-run of the first and concerns Mami Takano (Nakatsuka) who works at a hair salon which specialises in hair extensions but there’s a problem and it’s the fact that the hair extensions come from an evil organisation whose members kidnap women, tear their hair off and kill them. Unsurprisingly, the people with the hair extensions start getting possessed and dying….
`Taberu koto’ de Miete Kuru mono 
Japanese Title:「食べること」で見えてくるもの
Romaji: `Taberu koto’ de Miete Kuru mono
Running Time: 110 mins.
Release Date: February 15th, 2014
Director: Nanaoki Suzuki
Writer: N/A
Starring: Michiyo Mori, Satoken, Hisao Nagayama, Inemi Akita
[youtube-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFIT7qke_zc]
This 2012 documentary will make audiences “re-examine” their relationship with food by presenting them with the stories of four experts like Michiyo Mori who wrote Green Juice for Life: Eating Light and went on tour with her cookery.
Dear Girl Stories THE MOVIE2 ACE OF ASIA 
JapaneseTitle: Dear Girl Stories THE MOVIE2 ACE OF ASIA
Romaji: Dear Girl Stories THE MOVIE2 ACE OF ASIA
Running Time: N/A
Release Date: February 15th, 2014
Director: Hiroyuki Uchida
Writer: Masaru Suwa (Screenplay)
Starring: Hiroshi Kamiya, Daisuke Ono,
Hiroshi Kamiya and Daisuke Ono, two popular seiyuu, star in the movie version of their radio play DearGirl Stories. Also showing up are the Masochistic Ono Band. It was filmed in Hong Kong.
