Happy Weekend
I’ve gotten into watching Baldur’s Gate 3 streams and think the game looks fantastic. I’ve decided to stop since I plan on getting the game in the Winter. Whether I’ll play it or not is another matter because I’m big on watching films and sometimes consume up to four a day. I’m also practising kanji a lot and write down up to 600 a day.
What are the first batch of films released this weekend?
Home Sweet Home 
スイート・マイホーム 「Sui-to Mai Ho-mu」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 113 mins.
Director: Takumi Saito
Writer: Yutaka Kuramochi (Screenplay), Rinko Kamizu (Original Novel)
Starring: Masataka Kubota, Misako Renbutsu, Nao, Yosuke Kubozuka, Ayumu Nakajima, Toshie Negishi, Ririka,
I enjoyed this mystery-suspense film when I viewed it as part of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival (review!). If you’re looking for a well-acted twisty-windy plot full of kids peril and trauma resurfacing, try this film!
Synopsis: In Nagano, it gets REAL cold. This is one of the reasons why Kenji Kiyosawa, a sports instructor with a wife and daughter who are sensitive to the cold, builds a house with an air conditioner/heating system that can heat the entire building up. Kenji and his wife have a second daughter as the home is completed and it looks like they might start a dream life but mysterious and deadly events happen around them and their family comes under threat…
Mom, Is That You? 
こんにちは、母さん 「Konnichiha, Kasan」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 110 mins.
Director: Yoji Yamada
Writer: Yoji Yamada, Yuzo Asahara, (Screenplay), Ai Nagai (Stageplay),
Starring: Yo Oizumi, Sayuri Yoshinaga, Mei Nagano, YOU, Kankuro Kudo, Min Takana, Moe Edamoto, Akira Terao,
Apparently, this is the third film in Yoji Yamada’s “Mother Trilogy”, each of entry of which stars Sayuri Yoshinaga.
Synopsis: Akio Kanzaki is stressed because of his HR job and his relationship with both his wife and college-student daughter is bad. One day, he decides to visit his mother Fukue whom he hasn’t seen in a long time. She lives in a more traditional area of Tokyo but there is at least one sign of change: his mother. Instead of wearing her apron, she’s wearing clothes and looking like she is in love. By spending time with his mother, Akio begins to rediscover what he had lost sight of in life.
You Made My Dawn 
夜が明けたら、いちばんに君に会いにいく 「Yoru ga Aketara Ichiban ni Kimi no Ai ni Iku」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 100 mins.
Director: Mao Sakai
Writer: Lee Na-won, Mao Sakai (Screenplay), Natsue Shiomi (Original Story)
Starring: Ruki Shiroiwa, Rinka Kumada, Maya Tsuruta, Oolongta Yoshida, Takafumi Imai, Shuhei Uesugi, Mayu Tsuruta,
Synopsis: Akane is a straight-A student who is adored by everyone except her silver-haired classmate Seiji, a budding artist and totally straight-f but unable to say his true feelings for her. She kinda likes him and the two grow closer due to his art and soon their emotions begin to overflow.
Fukudamura Jiken 
夜が明けたら、いちばんに君に会いにいく 「Yoru ga Aketara Ichiban ni Kimi no Ai ni Iku」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 137 mins.
Director: Tatuya Mori
Writer: Toshimichi Saeki, Junichi Inoue, Haruhiko Arai (Screenplay),
Starring: Akira Emoto, Suidobashi Hakase, Masahiro Higashide,, Kom I., Arata Iura, Shinsuke Kato, Mai Kiryu, Yuya Matsuura, Rena Tanaka, Pierre Taki, Eita Nagayama,
Tatsuya Mori is famous as a documentarian who covered the Aum cult with A and A2. He works on his first drama with this film which is based on the true story of itinerant Japanese peddlers brutally killed by villagers of Fukuda in the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.
There is an all-star cast with Arata Iura, Masahiro Higashide, Pierre Taki, singer Kom I., and Rena Tanaka, and Eita Nagayama.
This film is released on the 100th anniversary of the earthquake.
Synopsis: The year is 1923 and we are taken to Fukuda village, Chiba Prefecture. It is the hometown of Tomokazu Sawada, a recent returnee , along his wife Shizuko, from Gyeongseong (now Seoul). While in Korea, Sawada was an eyewitness to the massacres committed by the Japanese army and he will see something similar occur in Japan following a major earthquake that strikes the Kanto region on September 01st. In the days that follow rumours of crimes push people to attack outsiders. On September 6, a group of 15 peddlers from Kagawa, are travelling through when an argument with a ferryman on the Tone River leads to a confrontation and a massacre.
Tsugaru Lacquer Girl 
バカ塗りの娘 「Bakanuri no Musume」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 118 mins.
Director: Keiko Tsuruoka
Writer: Keiko Tsuruoka, Kensaku Kojima, (Screenplay), Miyuki Takamori (Original Novel)
Starring: Mayu Hotta, Kaoru Kobayashi, Reiko Kataoka, Hana Kino, Yoneko Matsukane, Toshiya Miyata, Yutaka Odagiri, Ryota Bando,
This sounds like a mix of Haruka’s Pottery and Ito due to setting, protagonist, and ceramics.
Synopsis: Since graduating from a local high school, Aoki Miyako has struggled to find a path in life. She works at a supermarket to help her family but what she enjoys is helping her father and his Tsugaru lacquerware workshop, located in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. It has been a family-run business for generations, but he has lost his inspiration as the industry has gone into decline and this precipitated Aoki’s family falling apart. Her passion is Tsugaru lacquerware and through pursuing that, she can overcome various issues.
Bakuryuu Sentai Abarenja 20th: Yurusa Rezaru Abare 
爆竜戦隊アバレンジャー 20th 許されざるアバレ 「Bakuryuu Sentai Abarenja 20th: Yurusa Rezaru Abare」
Release Date: September 01st, 2023
Duration: 58 mins.
Director: Hisashi Kimura
Writer: Toshihisa Arakawa (Screenplay), Saburo Yatsude (Original Novel)
Starring: Koichiro Nishi, Shou Tomita, Aiko Ito, Kaoru Abe, Kotaro Tanaka, Michi Nishijima, Taro Suwa,
Website Power Rangers Wiki IMDB
A V-Cinema film made to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger.
Synopsis: 20 years after the Avaranger defeated the Evolians invasion of Earth, Ryouga and the other Abarangers are called into action when the Trinoid No. 24, Abarengekko, appears. A fierce battle ensues and while they win that, public approval of their methods is bad. As Abarengekko plots against the Earth, the heroes consider whether they are out of date.