Happy Weekend
In a rare turn of events, I’ve watched nearly half of the films released this weekend. It helps that two played at the Osaka Asian Film Festival and one is Seijun Suzuki’s stone-cold classic of a comeback movie from the 80s after his days in the wilderness following his Nikkatsu firing.
In terms of what else has been happening film-wise, I posted a review of Ryosuke Hashiguchi’s Three Stories of Love and a preview of the Korean Independent Animation Festival that will take place in Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya over the coming months.
Recently, I finished reading On Stranger Tides, The Shadow of the Wind, Takashi Miike biography and I’m on course to finish Persona 3 after maxing out multiple attributes and skills. Next book, Children of Men. Next game to play is The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Both are on PSP.
What are the films released this weekend?
サイド バイ サイド 隣にいる人 「Saido Bai Saido Tonari ni Iru Hito」
Release Date: April 14th, 2023
Duration: 130 mins.
Director: Chihiro Ito
Writer: Chihiro Ito (Screenplay),
Starring: Kentaro Sakaguchi, Asuka Saito, Kodai Asaka, Ameri Isomura, Mikako Ichikawa,
Chihiro Ito is a veteran screenwriter who actually began her film career as art department staff in charge of props. That changed when she met Isao Yukisada who invited her to write a screenplay for his film Seventh Anniversary (2003). That was the start of a writing career that has included screenplays for Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (2004) and Mamoru Oshii’s The Sky Crawlers (2008). Recently, she has worked under the pen name Anne Horizumi on Yukisada’s films Narratage (2017) and The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (2020). In 2022, she debuted as a director with In Her Room, which was produced by Yukisada and played in the Nippon Cinema Now section at the Tokyo International Film Festival. Side by Side is her second film.
Here’s my review of this film.
Synopsis: Miyama (Kentaro Sakaguchi) is a mysterious young man with the ability to sense the thoughts of other people. These thoughts sometimes take the form of a spirit that haunts Miyama. With this power, he can detect and heal people suffering from physical ailments and emotional traumas. He does this while living a quiet life with his girlfriend Shiori (Mikako Ichikawa), a nurse, and her daughter Mimi (Ameri Isomura). While locals accept him, the mystery of his background lingers and it all comes out when he confronts the thoughts of Kusaka (Kodai Asaka), who was his junior in high school, now working as a musician in Tokyo. Miyama’s meeting with Kusaka reunites him with his ex-girlfriend Riko (Asuka Saito), a woman who is part of the past that he ran away from.
People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind 
ぬいぐるみとしゃべる人はやさしい 「Nuigurumi to Shaberu Hito wa Yasashii」
Release Date: April 14th, 2023
Duration: 109 mins.
Director: Yurina Kaneko
Writer: Yurina Kaneko, Suzuyuki Kaneko (Screenplay), Ao Omae (Original Novel)
Starring: Itsuki Nagasawa, Airu Kubozuka, Mari Hayashida, Katsumi Hyodo, Atsuko Hirata, Keisuke Horibem Rena Tanaka,
Yurina Kaneko has been making a name for herself with MOOSIC Lab film Sleeping Insect and she makes a leap into a bigger feature with an adaptation of a novel.
Synopsis: Creating a portrait of sensitive teens and their concerns, Yurina Kaneko’s adaptation of Ao Omae’s novel takes us into the midst of the Plushy Club at a university. It is a place packed with furry and comforting friends whom the club members talk to in order to relay their anxieties and fears. Male student Nanamori and female students Shiraki, and Mugito are the latest club intake, each wrestling with issues such as love, masculinity and femininity, fear of others and sexism in society. Trusting her actors, Kaneko uses long takes and gentle pacing to allow her talented cast to unpack big themes in naturalistic ways while expressive lighting and animation relays what it is like to be in conversation with a plushy. The kindness of the club members desire and exhibit is most keenly felt by the end.
Detective Conan ~Kurogane no Submarine~ 
名探偵コナン 黒鉄の魚影（サブマリン） 「Meitantei Conan Haibara Ai Monogatari: Kurogane no Gyoei (Sabumarin)」
Release Date: April 14th, 2023
Duration: 109 mins
Director: Yuzuru Tachikawa
Writer: Takeharu Sakurai (Screenplay), Gosho Aoyama (Original Creator)
Starring: Minami Mitsunaka (Conan Edogawa), Megumi Hayashibara (Ai Haibara), Wakana Yamazaki (Ran Mori), Rikiya Koyama (Kogoro Mori),
Animation Production: TMS Entertainment
Synopsis: As tech bros and police forces around the world descend upon Hachijojima Island, Tokyo, to test out a global surveillance and face recognition system (that will be faulty and used to persecute the poor, workers, minorities, and leftists, no doubt), Conan and his friends are on a whale watching trip nearby. Of course, Conan ends up going to the facility when he gets word that a Europol agent was murdered by the Black Organisation and he was right to intervene because a spy has infiltrated the facility. Also, Ai Haibara, former Black Organisation memeber, is under threat.
Ninja vs Shark 
妖獣奇譚 ニンジャVSシャーク 「Youjou Kitan Ninja VS Sha-ku」
Release Date: April 08th, 2023
Duration: 77 mins.
Director: Koichi Sakamoto
Writer: Junichiro Ashiki (Screenplay),
Starring: Kosho Hirano, Kanon Miyahara, Juria Nagano, Yuichi Nakamura, Shun Nishime,
Synopsis: In Edo period Japan, the remote village of Okitsu is beset by a giant shark thanks to the evil cult leader Koushirou who uses ninjutsu to control the snappers and steal the work of the village pearl divers so he can attain immortality. The village chief hires Kotaro Shiozaki, a guard at a nearby temple, to help out but Kotaro soon finds his path blocked by lady ninja Kikuma, and a gigantic shark that doesn’t seem like anything from this world.
Zigeunerweisen 4K Remaster
ツィゴイネルワイゼン 「Tsuigoineruwaizen」
Release Date: April 01st, 1980 
Running Time: 145 mins
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Writer: Yozo Tanaka (Screenplay), Hyakken Uchida (Original Novel)
Starring: Yoshio Harada, Naoko Otani, Toshiya Fujita, Kisako Makishi, Akaji Maro, Kirin Kiki, Yuki Kimura, Nagamasa Tamaki, Sumie Sasaki,
In celebration of the centenary of Seijun Suzuki’s birth, we get a 4K remaster of this charmer of a supernatural drama which is based on several short stories by famed writer Hyakken Uchida.
The film was originally released in April 1980, and screened at Cinema Placette, a domed mobile movie theater built under the Tokyo Tower. It was recently revived and re-released as part of the Taisho Trilogy (Yumeji and Kagero-Za) which played at festivals and got home distribution.
Here’s my review. I’m kind of more partial to Yumeji.
Synopsis: We see the strange relationship between Aochi (Toshiya Fujita) and Nakasago (Yoshio Harada). Both lead characters are academics who have been friends since their university days but only Aochi continues his job at a military academy where he teaches German and has married Taeko (Kisako Makishi), a Modern Gal who loves hedonistic pleasure. Meanwhile Nakasago strikes out on mysterious journeys involving searching out beautiful women and visions of the grotesque. They meet once again when Nakasago is accused of murder at a small seaside town. Aochi helps his friend out and the two go for dinner where they meet and fall in love with a beautiful geisha named O-ine (Naoko Otani). The two part ways again but six month’s later, meet again and Aochi learns that his Nakasago has married a woman who bears a strange resemblance to O-ine…
The two men and their wives enter into a series of bizarre love triangles full of supernatural twists, doppelgangers, phantasmic illusions told through brilliant period details, wild story telling and imaginary monsters all filtered through Suzuki’s colourful approach to film making.
Shaniku-sai made 
謝肉祭まで 「Shanikusai made」
Release Date: April 14th, 2023
Duration: 43 mins.
Director: Nanako Irie
Writer: Nanako Irie (Screenplay),
Starring: Maeko Oyama, Wan Marui, Ryo Toyomitsu, Ippei Tanaka, Naomasa Musaka,
Nanako Irie is a filmmaker, copywriter, and creative director and it looks like she brings an original vision to the screen.
Synopsis: Once every 400 years, a carnival occurs on Sado island. Seven days before the event, three gods are chosen from across the pantheon of supernatural beings in Japan. Two of the three gods must die on the stage of the festival, an honour and custom. Watch as the three figure out who will be the last one standing.
Kami-iida Stories 
上飯田の話 「Kami-iida no Hanashi」
Release Date: April 15th, 2023
Duration: 63 mins.
Director: Souta Takahashi
Writer: Souta Takahashi (Screenplay),
Starring: Kiri Takezawa, Masanori Honda, Haruhi Yoshida, Shoko Kuroda, Ichiro Kusakabe, Yu Oinuma, Ryu Arakawa,
In a case of “write what you know,” first-time feature-filmmaker Souta Takahashi has made an omnibus story set in Kamiiida-cho, Izumi Ward, Yokohama City (next door to Tokyo). This was the place his grandparents used to live in and Takahashi includes local people and highlights of the town.
Synopsis: Three stories, all taking place in Kami-iida. In one, Hiroko, a life insurance salesperson, has a troublesome client named Makoto. In another, a man visits his estranged brother in order to invite him to a wedding. The third story features a man named Naoki imagines life in the area.
Helmet Waltz 
ヘルメットワルツ 「Herumettto Warutsu」
Release Date: April 15th, 2023
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Yosuke Nishimura
Writer: Tomomi Maruyama, Kazuya Sasaki (Screenplay),
Starring: Kazuya Sasaki, Misa Wada, Manzo Shinra, Kensuke Ashihara, Kazuyoshi Kayashi,
Actor Kazuya Sasaki found his career hit a dry patch during the Covid-19 pandemic and resorted to working on construction sites, something he still does. Using this experience, he produced and wrote this film.
Synopsis: Sasaki is about to turn 60 and that’s not really a good age to be working as a builder but his acting career has stalled and he can only get roles as an extra. When Covid-19 strikes in the run-up to the Olympics, his work situation becomes even more precarious. Despite this, he faces the future.
Laugh Laugh Die 
ラフラフダイ 「Rafu Rafu Dai」
Release Date: April 15th, 2023
Duration: 99 mins.
Director: Takuya Matsumoto
Writer: Takuya Matsumoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Seiichi Mukai, Hideaki Iguchi, Fumitaka Endo, Anon Hirakawa, Yoko Nakata, Erika Ogawa,
Apparently, this plague-themed film was 10 years in the making when Covid-19 hit and so writer/director Matsumoto incorporated real-world pandemic experiences into his story.
Synopsis: In a world where people can die from a disease called “laughing death,” governments around the world work hard to ensure people suppress their emotions through drugs and law enforcement. Fearing infection, people keep to themselves. However, a community living at a holiday inn in the mountains try to retain their emotions and care for each other.