Happy Weekend
This is the second part of the weekly trailer post (first part here).
Finished reading Children of Men and I can confirm that the film is a much better version of the story. Very focussed and a lot more humane and realistic in its treatment/depiction of characters. Madame Bovary is my next book.
This week saw me post about two video games I like, Vagrant Story and Persona 3. It has been a while since I covered video games but I do play them and these two are real standouts in the RPG genre. I have a few more games I adore to write about and might try and make it a regular feature covering my PSP collection and more.
I’m aiming to get a Steam Deck. Contemporary games aren’t so interesting to me. I am more interested in the console’s ability to emulate older titles like the ones I have in my collection – Parodious, for example – on original hardware.
On a related note, I do find it amusing that PC gamers are clamouring for the Steam Deck so they can play old console games. Also, one of the features they highlight as being great about the Deck is standby mode, something the PSP and Nintendo DS and other consoles already do. When you handle those consoles, they feel so good. Sony and Nintendo make high-quality hardware.
Anyway, back to films. I’ve been watching a lot of titles from the 1960s and 70s. You can keep up with my Letterboxd account of you are interested.
What are the other films released this weekend?
Sio 100-nen Tsudzuku, Ten no Hajimari 
sio 100年続く、店のはじまり 「Sio 100-nen Tsudzuku, Ten no Hajimari」
Release Date: April 21st, 2023
Duration: 75 mins.
Director: Yuji Morita
Writer: N/A
Starring: Shusaku Toba
Synopsis: This is a documentary about Shusaku Toba, the owner and chef of the French restaurant “sio”, which is located in the Tokyo district of Yoyogi Uehara,. His restaurant has been awarded a star in the Michelin Guide Tokyo for four consecutive years. On top of being a restauranteur, he also publishes recipe books. However, he is a demanding boss and his staff feel that and audiences can see it in effect as the film crew followed Chef Toba closely for a year, from January 2021, when the restaurant industry was hit by Covid-19.
The Melancholy of Nagi 
凪の憂鬱 「Nagi no Yuutsu」
Release Date: April 21st, 2023
Duration: 98 mins.
Director: Teppei Isobe
Writer: Teppei Isobe, Yoshihiko Taniguchi, Kazuo Nagai (Screenplay),
Starring: Nagiko Tsuji, Ryoka Neya, Shion Sasaki, Ami Sato, Sae Kawakubo,
Teppei Isobe is steadily cranking out small-scale films about everyday people in Japan. Here he works with a set of great acting talents, particularly Nagiko Tsuji and Ryoka Neya.
This feature-length film is a sequel to a series of short films that director Teppei Isobe and actor Nagiko Tsuji worked on from 2020, one featuring the titular character in high school and the other as a university student. These were released on YouTube and Twitter. The story of the main character Nagi continues. She is now a working adult.
Synopsis: Nagi, who works as a contract employee in Osaka, has been dating her boyfriend for a year, but he dumps her the day before her first paid vacation. Nagi’s melancholic vacation passes as she is pushed around by her unique friends, tells ghost stories, goes to live concerts, plays gateball, and reconnects with the person she once loved.
HIDARI (Pilot Version) 
HIDARI（パイロット版） 「HIDARI (Pairotto Ban)」
Release Date: April 21st, 2023
Duration: 5 mins.
Director: Masashi Kawamura
Writer: Masashi Kawamura (Screenplay/Original Story)
Starring: N/A
Last month I was surprised when I started getting an insane amount of traffic on an article I wrote over a year ago about a stop-motion film named HIDARI. It turned out that the makers had taken to Kickstarter to help fund production and many writers must have been using my post as background to write about the campaign.
Anyway, a 5-minute pilot version of this stop-motion animation has been screened at a festival and will be shown in a cinema along with two other stop-motion films from the studios involved (Dwarf and Tecarat), Komaneko and Gon, the Little Fox.
Synopsis: Jingoro, a talented carpenter involved in the reconstruction of Edo Castle, finds himself a marked man when he discovers a secret hidden in the structure. His master, family and friends are killed, and he himself loses his right arm. However, with his prodigious carpentry skills, he makes a powerful karakuri prosthetic arm and sets out on a journey of revenge with his surviving partner, a cat.
Hitman Lawyer 
ヒットマン・ロイヤー 「Hittoman Roiya」
Release Date: April 21st, 2023
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Daisuke Ono
Writer: Daisuke Ono, Kazuaki Kubo (Screenplay),
Starring: Sho Jinnai, Hirofumi Araki, Mone Akitani, Sho Watanabe, Naoya Kitagawa,
Synopsis: Shindo Kai is a man with two faces. On the one hand he is an ace solicitor but underneath that front is a hitman for he is descended from the legendary hitman Izo Okada, a.k.a. “Manslayer Izo” an infamous figure from the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate. On top of all that, he is the illegitimate son of Heihachiro Gondo, the fourth head a long-established yakuza gang. When Gondo is attacked by a new gang and Kai loses a trial that he had carefully prepared for, a story of betrayal and revenge ensues.
J005311 
Release Date: April 21st, 2023
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Hiroki Kono
Writer: Hiroki Kono (Screenplay),
Starring: Kazuaki Nomura, Hiroki Kono,
This was the 2022 Pia Film Festival Grand-Prix winning film and was screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The title J005311 comes from two stars that had died and started shining again in what could only be described as a miracle.
Synopsis: Kanzaki, an office worker who despairs of life, is wandering the streets when he witnesses a purse snatching. He chases the thief, Yamamoto, and ends up finding another person living a life of despair. Kanzaki requests that Yamamoto give him a ride to a certain location in exchange for one million yen and a road movie begins…