Welcome to the second trailer post of the week
You can find the first post here
Since the last trailer post, I spent time watching female-led action movies – La Femme Nikita (1990) and The Villainess (2017) – in order to talk about them on the forthcoming episode of Heroic Purgatory. You can find out what I thought next week. I have also put myself through a bunch of Hisayasu Sato and Robert Bresson films, the former I’m familiar with from a couple of horror movies while the latter is a name I’ve seen ever since taking an interest in cinema but have never watched up until this point.
Keeping it a bit French, I posted about the Asian film presence at the Cannes Film Festival last week. I also posted a review for Inch Forward which I saw as part of the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024. There are more reviews to come ahead of Nippon Connection.
What are the other films released this weekend?
Yume no Naka 
夢の中 「Yume no Naka」
Release Date: May 10th, 2024
Duration: 65 mins.
Director: Masaru Tsuume
Writer: Masaru Tsuume (Screenplay),
Starring: Karin Yamazaki, Keisuke Sakurai, Minori Morisaki, Kasumi Yamaya, Hidenobu Abera, Reo Tamaoki,
Website Twitter: @Yumeno_movie
Synopsis: Taeko takes in a blood-covered man named Sho and offers him shelter from something or someone that he is avoiding. She has one condition for his stay, that he should take a beautiful picture of her last moments on Earth. A strange world based on the emotions of these mysterious characters unfurls on screen.
Longing for Color 
あこがれの色彩 「Akogare no Shikisai」
Release Date: May 10th, 2024
Duration: 107 mins.
Director: Junji Kojima
Writer: N/A
Starring: Sena Nakajima, Ippei Osako, Reika Miyauchi, MEGUMI, Runa Yasuhara,
Website Twitter: @longingforcolor
Sena Nakajima, who appeared in Follow the Light (2021) and We Are Little Zombies (2019) takes on her first starring role in a film helmed by long-time Shiseido ad-man Junji Kojima.
Synopsis: Yui is a 14-year-old girl who lives with her father and grandmother in Arita, a town known for making porcelain. She expresses herself through painting in her own unique way, which makes it difficult to fit in with her art class where the students are taught to learn specific techniques. When Yui meets a ceramics painter named Miki, she finds a kindred spirit who is also torn between originality and technique, a question that must be answered before an upcoming exhibition. It just so happens that Miki starts dating Yui’s father and this upsets her.
I-chan’s White Cane 
イーちゃんの白い杖 特別編 「I-chan no Shiroi Tsue Tokubetsu-hen」
Release Date: May 10th, 2024
Duration: 108 mins.
Director: Mariko Hashimoto
Writer: N/A
Starring: Iori Konagaya, Ibuki Konagaya
Website Twitter: @ichan_eiga JFDB
This is a special edition of a documentary that was produced by TV Shizuoka and released in 2018. It has had new footage added. You can find more info here (although names and title have been mistranslated).
Synopsis: I-chan, or Iori Konagaya, and the bond she shares with her brother Ibuki, is the focus of this documentary. They live in Shizuoka. Iori has been blind since birth while her brother has a severe disability. Despite this and bullying and feelings of despair, Iori tries to be as independent as possible and gains a degree of inspiration from seeing how her younger brother tries his hardest to live his life.
Onegai ga Hitotsu, Kamisama. 
お願いがひとつ、神様。 「Onegai ga Hitotsu, Kamisama.」
Release Date: May 10th, 2024
Duration: 95 mins.
Director: Shinya Kawano
Writer: Shinya Kawano (Screenplay), Akihiro Horii (Original Stories),
Starring: Takanobu Goya, Asako Ogawa, Hiroyuki Kato, Yogore Miyamoto, Akihiro Horii,
Website Twitter: @justonewishgod
Synopsis: This film is set in Asagaya, Tokyo, and was made with the help of residents, bar masters and musicians local to the district. It tells the story of Goya, a middle-aged musician whose band is on the verge of a breakup and who is dead broke. He thinks he might be on to a good thing with a woman named Asako but it won’t be that simple. In watching this film, viewers will see the colourful characters who fill Asagaya.
Kuuhaku Raibu 
空白ライブ 「Kuuhaku Raibu」
Release Date: May 10th, 2024
Duration: 96 mins.
Director: Takashi Shimohonji
Writer: N/A
Starring: Sho Yamashita, Keiichi Watanabe,
Synopsis: This documentary looks at how people responded to Covid-19 and the social strictures that resulted in massive changes to how people went about their daily lives.
Alien’s Daydream 
地球星人（エイリアン）は空想する 「Chikyuuseijin (Eirian) wa Kuusousuru」
Release Date: May 11th, 2024
Duration: 96 mins.
Director: Yoshiki Matsumoto
Writer: Yoshiki Matsumoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Yukichi Tanaka, Natsuki Yamada, Jin Arai, Sarasa Nakamura, Kazuki Muramatsu, Ruka Hiroe,
This film is Yoshiki Matsumoto’s feature film debut. It played at Skip City 2023 where it won both the SKIP CITY AWARD for the best new director and the prize for Best Picture in the Japanese feature category. It will next be seen at Nippon Connection.
Synopsis: Uto is a reporter who has shelved his sense of justice while he works for a scandalrag. Assigned the supernatural beat, he heads to Hakui, Ishikawa Prefecture, to investigate a case of a university student being abducted. There he runs into unexplainable incidents and weird occurrences and also a mysterious high school girl named who claims to be an alien. Despite being determined to uncover lies, everything seems to turn out genuine…
The Quilt 
蒲団 「Futon」
Release Date: May 11th, 2024
Duration: 95 mins.
Director: Shimpei Yamasaki
Writer: Futoshi Nakano (Screenplay), Katai Tayama (Original Stories),
Starring: Yoichiro Saito, Mone Akitani, Reiko Kataoka, Katsumi Hyodo, Tasuku Nagaoka,
Website Twitter: @futon_cinema JFDB
Shinpei Yamazaki, director of Take Over Zone (2019), has worked with writer Futoshi Nakano, who co-wrote the screenplays for A Woman and War (2013) and Kabuki-cho Love Hotel (2016) to adapt a work by Katai Tayama (1872 – 1930), a novelist famous for establishing the “I novel.” To update the story, the main character has been changed from a novelist to a screenwriter.
Synopsis: Tokio Takenaka works as a scriptwriter but he has lost his passion for both his work and his wife. When a woman named Yoshimi barges into his life with the desire to be the student of a writer whose works she adores, he finds his passion comes back and he even develops romantic feelings for her. Just as his life starts to get back on track, he hears that Yoshimi’s boyfriend, a fellow scriptwriter, is going to be arriving in Tokyo soon and Tokio becomes jealous.
Vaundy one man live ARENA tour “replica ZERO” 
Release Date: May 10th, 2024
Duration: 118 mins.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
Starring: Vaundy
Synopsis: The artist Vaundy performed a number of shows in his final tour last year and the start of this one, and the final show, at Yoyogi was National Stadium, was recorded live and packaged for cinemagoers in this film. As well as the performances, there are behind-the-scenes moments, including of his album recording.