Happy Weekend
This is the sole trailer post for this week. The number of films came to ten. Anything above that number and I tend to break trailer posts up into two. Another reason is that I am beginning coverage of the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2023 tomorrow.
On Monday, I published an overview of the Japanese films and a handful of others that caught my eye as I have worked for this year’s edition of the festival. Please check back to see some more thoughts on these titles via reviews and interviews over the coming months.
Yesterday, I published a review for a short film called Border. It’s by Mai Nakanishi, a filmmaker who is a horror expert and her micro-budget horror short is a perfect ly executed slice of terror. It’s playing at a bunch of festivals across Europe.
So, what are the films released this weekend? BIG BIG FESTIVAL WEEKEND!
Winny 
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 127 mins.
Director: Yusaku Matsumoto
Writer: Yusaku Matsumoto, Kentaro Kishi (Screenplay), Junki Watanabe (Original Novel),
Starring: Masahiro Higashide, Takahiro Miura, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Mai Kiryu, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Yo Yoshida,
Masahiro Higashide has had a career resurgence thanks to the indie scene as can be seen from his performance in The Sound of Grass (2021). He’s working with Yusaku Matsumoto (Noise, Bagmati River) in this film based on a real person. He’s supported by a great cast like Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Cold Fish), Takahiro Miura and Kiyohiko Shibukawa. The DoP and co-scriptwriter is Kentaro Kishi (The Sower) who is secretly one of the best people making serious dramas in the Japanese film industry.
Synopsis: In 2002, software developed Isamu Kaneko created a file-sharing application called Winny. This programme became the software of choice for online piracy in Japan. Pirates were arrested but prosecutors decided to make an example of Kaneko and scooped him up for copyright infringement, too. A trial took place and it is dramatised here!
Ari, Fureta, Mirai Eternal New Mornings 
有り、触れた、未来 「Ari, Fureta, Mirai」
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 132 mins.
Director: Toru Yamamoto
Writer: Toru Yamamoto (Screenplay), Yukio Saito (Original Novel),
Starring: Nanami Sakuraba, Sae Aoyama, Airi Tsurumaru, Shinichiro Matsuura, Tsutomu Takahashi, Kumiko Aso,
Synopsis: A selection of stories of lives in Miyagi Prefecture 10 years on from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Their number includes a former musician who lost her boyfriend in an accident, a woman with terminal cancer who wants to stay alive to attend her daughter’s wedding, an ageing boxer and his wife, a suicidal middle school student who lost most of her family and her alcoholic father and the homeroom teacher who tries to support them, and young actors who put on performances while facing uncertainties.
In Her Room 
ひとりぼっちじゃない 「Hitori Bocchi Janai」
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 135 mins.
Director: Chihiro Ito
Writer: Chihiro Ito (Screenplay/Original Novel),
Starring: Fumika Baba, Satoru Iguchi, Yuumi Kawai, Hirobumi Watanabe, Kazuyuki Aijima,
This is veteran screenwriter Chihiro (Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World) Ito’s debut film. It premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year. I’ve leapfrogged it and already watched her sophomore feature which plays at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.
Synopsis: Miyako is a mysterious woman who runs an aroma store and lives in a room more akin to a forest glen than a Marie Kondo minimalist abode. Susume is a dentist who is in love with her. He visits Miyako, always trying to get closer to the woman who seems to know something about him that even he doesn’t know,. Then Miyako’s friend Yoko gets involved…
My Beautiful Man Special Edit Version 
美しい彼 special edit version 「Utsukushii Kare Special Edit Version」
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 132 mins.
Director: Mai Sakai
Writer: Fumi Tsubota (Screenplay), Yuu Nagira (Original Novel),
Starring: Riku Hagiwara, Yusei Yagi, Akira Takano, Yuhito Tsubone, Kento Sakurai, Momoka, Aya Marsh, Shuri Nakamura,
This is a re-edited version of the MBS drama. The LDH site has more info.
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Hira has a stutter and so he keeps a low profile at school but he falls in love with a classmate.
SSSS.DYNAZENON Movie Compilation 
劇場総集編 SSSS.DYNAZENON 「Gekijou Soushuuhen SSSS.DYNAZENON 」
Release Date: January 20th, 2023
Duration: 121 mins
General Director: Akira Amemiya, Director: Yoshihiro Miyajima
Writer: Keiichi Hasegawa (Screenplay), Bandai Namco (Original Creator)
Starring: Chika Anzai (Chise Asukagawa), Daiki Hamano (Gauma), Junya Enoki (Yomogi asanaka), Shion Wakayama (Yume Minami), Yuichiro Umehara (Koyomi Yamanaka),
Animation Production: Trigger
This is another compilation movie as it takes on the same-named TV anime ahead of a movie release.
Synopsis: High school student Yomogi Asanaka finds himself thrown into a world of monster battles when he meets a drifter who claims to be a “kaiju user” whose work is to stop the monsters from bringing harm to people. He does so with the help of a giant robot known as Dynazenon, a machine that requires for people to operate it. This is how Yomogi gets roped in!
Battle King!! We’ll rise again 
バトルキング!! We’ll rise again 「Batoru Kingu!! We’ll rise again」
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Genki Takigawa
Writer: Keisuke Fukutani (Screenplay),
Starring: Eiku Yamashita, Hayato Takao, Naoya Kusakawa, Kenshin Kamimura, Tetta Seki,
Synopsis: Idol stars from Stardust Promotion take part in this coming-of-age story incorporates singing, rapping, and dancing all surrounding lead character Genjiro, a ruffian who breaks into an art school and smashes the place up. The principal decides to reform him by making him clean up the mess that he made. This is how Genjiro meets and falls in love with a girl who invites him to join her in a hip-hop duet dance. Genjiro finds something he can focus on but his old friends drag him into a gang war…
Touched Perry 
触れッドペリー 「Fureddoperi-」
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 41 mins.
Director: Nanako Irie
Writer: Nanako Irie (Screenplay),
Starring: Kosuke Yokota, Eiji Noda, Akari Sakura, Hirokazu Takagi, Takaya Tokuhara,
Synopsis: Due to a difficult childhood with his mother, Perry has grown up with feelings he can’t quite explain and the definite need for someone to “touch” him. after drifting through life, from place to place and job to job, he is invited by Hana, the owner of a diner, to take phone calls at her place in a role akin to an agony uncle. This is how he meets Ryu, a boy with a difficult relationship with his own mother. Their phone calls put Perry on the path to healing the hole in his heart…
Ano wo Wasurete 
あのこを忘れて 「Ano wo Wasurete」
Release Date: March 12th, 2023
Duration: 57 mins.
Director: Yuichiro Taniguchi
Writer: Yuichiro Taniguchi (Screenplay),
Starring: Naoki Hosaka, Yumi Soma, Sarasa Nakamura, Ramu Shido, Hiroki Tsubota, Shinichi Shirahata,
Synopsis: In this sci-fi inflected film a drug has been created to cure a disease but the price for the cure is that it causes the user to forget people. Yukiya has forgotten a past lover and this allows Mikoto to pretend to be his girlfriend. Chisa has forgotten the passing of her child and her husband Kojiro tries to keep up the pretence. They try to live their lives but sometimes memories are hard to avoid…
Iitate-mura be ko ya no Kaa-chan Sorezore no Sentaku 
飯舘村 べこやの母ちゃん それぞれの選択 「Iitate-mura be ko ya no Kaa-chan Sorezore no Sentaku」
Release Date: March 12th, 2023
Duration: 180 mins.
Director: Mizue Furui
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Synopsis: This is a documentary about three female dairy farmers in Iitate Village who were forced to evacuate the due to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant after the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011. While waiting for the day she could return, Nobuko Nakajima commuted to her farm. Kimiko Harada moved to a new place with her cows. Hanako Hasegawa, who took on a new challenge to protect her ancestral land and home. Each of their stories is told.
Written Face Kakareta Kao 4K Restoration 
書かれた顔 「Kakareta Kao」
Release Date: March 23rd, 1996
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Daniel Schmid
Writer: Daniel Schmid (Screenplay),
Starring: Tamasaburo Bando, Han Takehara, Haruko Sugimura, Kai Shishido, Hiroyuki Koga, Yajuro Bando, Kazuo Ono,
Synopsis: Swiss director Daniel Schmid travelled to Japan to shoot a documentary on Kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando. Famous for Onnagata, audiences can see footage from the 90s and various kabuki performances, interviews with major figures and the inclusion of butoh dance.
REVOLUTION+1 
ベイウォーク 「Beiuo-ku」
Release Date: December 24th, 2022
Duration: 75 mins.
Director: Masao Adachi
Writer: Masao Adachi, Junichi Inoue (Script),
Starring: Soran Tamoto, Satoko Iwasaki, Yusuke Takahashi, Mitsuki Moriyama, Tomoki Kimura,
Okay, this is the third trailer post this film has featured in and this time it’s going on a wider release after previews!
Masao Adachi, pink film and political writer/director, returns with his first new film in six years and it is based on the life of Tetsuya Yamagami, the man who assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The film was shot and edited in secret not long after Abe’s death in July 2022. It had limited screenings in September. This is the proper release.
If you want to learn more about Yamagami and his background as well as that of Abe, listen to this podcast.
Synopsis: This film portrays the life of Tetsuya Yamagami, the assassin of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. When his father died, his mother donated all of their wealth to the Unification Church. Poverty-stricken, Yamagami takes on work and hopes to go to college but that dream is dashed when his older brother falls ill and his younger sister becomes rebellious. Yamagami takes out a life insurance policy and tries to commit suicide but even that goes wrong. Desperate, Yamgami joins the Self-Defense Forces while holding on to the desire to take revenge on the Unification Church. He decides to target Abe who is campaigning for the LDP in Nara Prefecture…