Welcome to the one trailer post of the week
I am still taking a bit of a break from writing reviews and doing interviews but it will pick up again during May with some OAFF titles and Nippon Connection. The latest episode of Heroic Purgatory, which covers The Heroic Trio / The Executioners (1993) went lives and we are going to cover the Korean action movie The Villainess (2017) next.
In terms of video games, I’m doing My Japanese Coach and Fire Emblem: Awakening.
I’ve watched a loooooot of films over the last week and these were my highlights:
Dashcam (2022), Cobweb (2023), Lovely, Dark and Deep (2024), The Blackening (2023), The Insider (1999), Aliens (1986), True Lies (1994), Afire (2023).
I will have my Cannes Film Festival post out on Friday so please return to see what Japanese films are going to be screened at the fest!
What are the films released this weekend?
18×2 Beyond Youthful Days 
青春18×2 日本慢車流浪記 「Seishun 18×2 Kimi e to Tsuzuku Michi 」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 123 mins.
Director: Michihito Fujii
Writer: Michihito Fujii (Screenplay), Jimmy Lai (Original Travel Essay)
Starring: Greg Han Hsu, Kaya Kiyohara, Hsiao-chuan Chang, Hitomi Kuroki, Haru Kuroki, Shunsuke Michieda
Website Twitter: @seishun18x2 IMDB
This film is a Japan-Taiwan co-production that was adapted for the screen by Michito Fujii (The Journalist). It is a love story based on a travel essay and its setting is in Taiwan 18 years ago and Japan today. Chang Chen of Happy Together, Mr. Long, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame is credited as the executive producer.
This is one of the titles that will screen at Nippon Connection.
Synopsis: Jimmy is a high school senior living in Taiwan and working at a convenience store. It is there that he meets a Japanese backpacker named Ami. She is four years older than him but she seems innocent and cool and he develops a crush. However, as they grow close, a secret lies between the two and Jimmy has to work through feelings. This is when she departs for Japan but not before the two make a promise.
18 years later and Jimmy is 36 and struggling in life. Upon returning to his parent’s home, he rediscovers a postcard that Ami sent to him and heads to Japan to try and reconnect with the first woman he fell in love with. As he travels from Tokyo to Kamakura, Nagano, Niigata, to Ami’s hometown in Fukushima, he reminisces about their days together while listening to songs that remind him of Ami.
水深ゼロメートルから 「Suishin Zero Me-toru Kara」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 87 mins.
Director: Nobuhiro Yamashita
Writer: Yukema Nakata (Screenplay),
Starring: Saki Hamao, Reia Nakayoshi, Mikuri Kiyoya, Sumire Hanaoka, Honami Sato,
Website Twitter: @suishin0m
Nobuhiro Yamashita (The Drudgery Train) brings a laidback drama/comedy based on a school play. It doesn’t have the acerbic wit or dark misanthropy of his other, earlier works but the summertime atmosphere and gentle conflicts play out like a low-key On the Edge of Their Seats.
It is summer vacation but high schoolers Kokoro and Miku have been instructed by their PE teacher, Yamamoto, to clean the swimming pool. The pool has been drained of water and it is covered with sand from the baseball team’s field next door. Thus, under the blazing sun, they are meant to sweep the sand but distractions abound as Chizuru and Yui join them and stray in their path. Together, they initially discuss school life, love and makeup but it isn’t long before their worries begin to overflow and their thoughts intersect…
Swimming in a Sand Pool presents a coming-of-age drama laced with deadpan comedy that begins at the bottom of the pool. Its origins lie in an original work by the Tokushima City High School Drama Club making this the second film project based on a high school play following On the Edge of Their Seats (Dir: JOJO Hideo, OAFF2020).
Buzzy Noise 
バジーノイズ 「Baji- Noizu」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Hiroki Kazama
Writer: Hiroki Kazama, Kohei Taniguchi, Hirotaka Okino (Screenplay), Jun Mutsuki (Original Manga),
Starring: Takumi Kawanishi, Hiyori Sakurada, Kai Inowaki, Shuntaro Yanagi, Wan Marui, Eita Okuno, Hana Amano, Kaito Sakurai, Aimi Satsukawa, Ren Komai,
Website Twitter: @BuzzynoiseMovie JFDB IMDB
This is a live-action adaptation of a manga that features real-life pop idol Takumi Kawanishi playing a musically creative character.
Synopsis: Kiyosumi is an apartment caretaker who is dedicated to making electronic music at his computer for his own consumption after difficulties with music and other people in the past. As such, his days are full of maintaining the building by day and creating beats by night and that leaves no time to making friends. Despite this, he thinks he feels happy. He has a change of mind when his upstairs neighbour, Ushio, literally breaks into his life by breaking into his apartment. Her reason? She enjoys the music that Kiyosumi makes and she has had her heart broken recently. When she posts a video of him performing, Kiyosumi’s life changes…
The next two films will be screened together
Kyojin no Wakusei / Land of Giants 
巨人の惑星 「Kyojin no Wakusei」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 25 mins.
Director: Taichi Ishikawa
Writer: Taichi Ishikawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Taichi Ishikawa, Taishu Kunimoto, Sho Takatori,
Website Twitter: @ishikawa_123
This is a short film from Taichi Ishikawa, who apparently studied filmmaking under the tutelage of director Hirokazu Kore-eda and film scholar Tamaki Tsuchida while at Waseda University. It was selected for the Pia Film Festival Award 2021. You can find out a little more here.
Synopsis: Kawai college friend Honda is convinced that giants stalk Tokyo at night. His conviction over this point has made him hole up in his apartment. Honda visits him with a drop of fear lurking in his heart…
Jima, Mata.
じゃ、また。 「Jima, Mata.」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 52 mins.
Director: Taichi Ishikawa
Writer: Taichi Ishikawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Taichi Ishikawa, Taishu Kunimoto,
Website Twitter: @ishikawa_123
This is a medium-length film by Taichi Ishikawa that won the 2023 Pia Film Festival Film Fan Award (Pianist Award). You can read more here although there are spoilers to the story (including the synopsis below).
Synopsis: Nariyasu has lost track of time since he was expelled from university and began living life as a recluse. When Shuta, an old friend from his film school, shows up during the Obon holidays, Nariyasu confronts an unfinished film that the two were involved with and the failures he experienced in looping conversations…
Duc-chan Fuji to Sakura ni Tsunagu Ai 
ドクちゃん フジとサクラにつなぐ愛 「Doku-chan Fuji to Sakura ni Tsunagu Ai」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 72 mins.
Director: Kohei Kawabata
Writer: N/A
Starring: Nguyen Duc
Website Twitter: @dokuthefilm
Synopsis: This is a documentary about Nguyen Duc, aka “Duc-chan.” He was born as a conjoined twin in 1981 due to the after effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the Americans during the Vietnam War that has continued to blight the lives of Vietnamese through causing children to be born with various health problems. Since being separated from his twin in 1988, Duc-chan has declared himself to be an ambassador of peace while dealing with serious health issues and also caring for his own family and he shows great resilience as he does so.
Niji ni Kakera 
虹のかけら 「Niji ni Kakera」
Release Date: May 03rd, 2024
Duration: 97 mins.
Director: Atsuhito Sakka
Writer: Kensuke Tsutsumi (Screenplay),
Starring: Masami Shinozaki, Mari Hasomoto, Katsuhiko Taniguchi, Morio, Tayu,
Website Twitter: @atuhitosaka1990
Atsuhito Saka makes his feature-length film debut with this title after a career working as a photographer for many movies and producing music videos. Masami Shinozaki makes her debut as a lead actor here.
Synopsis: After her father passed away six years ago, Mei took on responsibility for caring for her mother Kayoko, who suffers from dementia. Recently, Kayoko has started wandering around at night and Mei has had to work harder than ever to provide care. Pretty soon, this leaves her isolated as she has no time for others or even herself. In these circumstances, a long-held grudge that Mei holds against her mother begins to come out…