Welcome to the fourth and final trailer post of this week.
You can find the first part here, second part here, and third part here.
This week has seen me write a lot in quite condensed periods of time since I have gone back to doing overtime at work and spend more time cooking and watching films and playing games. I reviewed the Banmei Takahashi title Door II: Tokyo Diary (1991) and previewed the Cinema by Sea film festival, which runs at the ened of November in Okinawa.
I am midway through re-watching the Masters of Horror series from the early 2000s and I am committed to completing Project X Zone on the 3DS so I can move on to the sequel and then Legend of Legacy and Fire Emblem. It helps that I wake up at 02:00 in the morning quite regularly.
What are the rest of the Japanese films released this weekend?
TAISHO TRILOGY
This is a trilogy of independent films that are set in their namesake period and each story features artists in the thrall of beautiful women. In 2023, these films will be released in fully restored 4K digital versions at the special screening “SEIJUN RETURNS in 4K” commemorating the 100th anniversary of director Seijun Suzuki’s birth.
Seijun Suzuki’s (1923 – 2017) career as a director is split into two parts – as one of Nikkatsu studio’s stable of salaried directors, he was tasked with making rather generic low-budget yakuza films but Suzuki’s output was different because he had a keen sense of style and humour that subverted the genre products he was hired to write and direct. Brave use of dissonance in terms of arty visuals, sounds and music, and penning irreverent stories with outrageous twists made his films more memorable for audiences but less palatable for the guys running Nikkatsu who were not so enamoured with creating art and more interested in making a quick buck. This period came to an end with Branded to Kill which proved to be a critical and commercial flop and so the head honchos at Nikkatsu fired him for making, and I quote Suzuki-kantoku himself, “movies that make no sense and no money.” Suzuki successfully sued them for wrongful dismissal but successfully challenging industry figures tends to get a person blacklisted (just ask Kiyoshi Kurosawa after his run-in with Juzo Itami) and so he spent ten years in the movie making wilderness formulating ideas with other creatives.
Suzuki, proving that creativity is everything, made a comeback and re-established his filmmaking career with his period drama series, the Taisho Trilogy – Zigeunerweisen (1980), Kagero-za (1981), and Yumeji (1991). The first two of these films are based on novels from the period, the third an original story, and all capture the sense of an age where modernity and liberalisation brought changes and social advancement, politics hit fever-pitch with anarchists and ultra-nationalists clashing whilst the nation moved heavily into its colonial practices and the arts were struck by highly stylised works defined by lashings of eroticism, grotesquerie, absurdism, the supernatural and violence melded into an artistic movement called ero-guro.
Here’s a poster and two trailers for the trilogy, the first one showing the quality of the original prints and the last one showing the 4K upgrade:
Here are the details on the films and individual trailers.
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 theatre 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.
Heat-Haze Theatre / Kagero-za 
陽炎座 「Kagero-za」
Release Date: August 21st, 1981
Duration: 139 mins.
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Writer: Yozo Tanaka (Script), Kyoka Izumi (Original Novel)
Starring: Yusaku Matsuda, Michiyo Yasuda, Mariko Kaga, Katsuo Naamura, Yoshio Harada, Eriko Kusuda,
Synopsis: Following the success of Zigeunerweisen, Seijun Suzuki and producer Genjiro Arato worked together on this story which is based on a story by Kyoka Izumi. It is 1926 and a playwright named Shungo Matsuzaki (Yusaku Matsuda) is haunted by a beautiful but mysterious woman named Shinako (Michiyo Yasuda) who he feels, but cannot quite work out, if he might have a connection to…
Yumeji 
夢二 「Yumeji」
Release Date: May 31st, 1991
Duration: 128 mins.
Director: Seijun Suzuki
Writer: Yozo Tanaka (Script),
Starring: Kenji Sawada, Tomoko Mariya, Masumi Miyazaki, Kazuhiko Hasegawa, Tamasaburo Bando, Yoshio Harada, Leona Hirata, Michiyo Yasuda, Kimiko Yo,
From the fest’s own write-up: the movie is freely inspired by the life of the artist Yumeji Takehisa (1884-1934), known for his erotic watercolours.
Synopsis: It is 1917 and we are in Kanazawa. The artist Yumeji (Kenji Sawada), an aesthete and womaniser, is waiting to meet a lover named Hikono (Masumi Miyazaki) but gets involved with a widow named Tomoyo (Tomoko Mariya) whose husband, Wakiya (Yoshio Harada), was murdered by her jealous lover Onimatsu (Kazuhiko Hasegawa). His dalliance with this woman leads him into a dreamy erotic maelstrom involving the artist with the murderer, the ghost and the girl they all desire.
Do Keto Sapience Dream of Grass Fed Beef? 
ケト・サピエンスは牧草牛の夢を見るか？ 「Keto Sapiensu wa Bokusou Ushi no Yume wo Miru ka?」
Release Date: November 11th, 2023
Duration: N/A
Director: Hideaki Tokutake
Writer: N/A
Starring: Ryozo Saito, Hideko Hara (Narration)
Synopsis: This documentary looks at the issue of healthy beef through the work of film explores the roots of Ryozo Saito, a doctor who studied how to provide the best protein and fat for patients, the man who runs Saito Farm, and the man who opened Japan’s first butcher store specializing in grass-fed beef. We see Saito visit Wagyu beef producers throughout Japan and research which region is the best for Japan’s world-class Wagyu beef.
JAZZ GODFATHER 
Release Date: November 11th, 2023
Duration: 71 mins.
Director: Shunji Takahashi
Writer: N/A
Starring: Isao Suzuki, Yosuke Yamashita, Terumasa Hino, Yoshio Suzuki, Kazumasa Akiyama,
Synopsis: This is a documentary dedicated to Isao Suzuki, a world-renowned jazz bassist who has performed with such renowned masters as Ella Fitzgerald and Charles Mingus. He passed away on March 8, 2022, from pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus infection.
Me? Xavier! 
Me? Xavier! （ミー？ザビエル！） 「Me? Xavier! (Mi-? Sabieru!)」
Release Date: November 11th, 2023
Duration: N/A
Director: Hokuin Akihara
Writer: N/A
Starring: Shigeki Majima, Motoya Izumi, Kenji Sakamoto, Toma Ozuki, Mari Nakajima, Steve Etou,
Synopsis: Francis Xavier, a missionary known for introducing Christianity to Japan for the first time, is the subject of this musical period drama fantasy. It depicts his troubles being a missionary, since he could not speak Japanese, and his dream of propagating his religion.
Yuri Nikubittake 
ゆりに首ったけ 「Yuri Nikubittake」
Release Date: November 11th, 2023
Duration: 88 mins.
Director: Yuya Nakaizumi
Writer: Takanori Miyamoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Ryu Yoshikawa, Tokuhisa Yamashita, Kota Fuji, Shinichiro Osawa,
Synopsis: Kenji, Tamotsu, and Ken arrive at Hiro’s restaurant, where he decides to throw a party for a woman named Yuri. Secrets are revealed.