Welcome to the
The first part is here and the next part will be tomorrow.
I’m going to have to up my Japanese language learning game so I was thinking that I’ll be dedicating more of my evenings to it rather than watching films. Films are for when I wake up at 03:30 in the morning.
Here is the next collection of films.
Who Were We? 
わたくしどもは。 「Watakushidomo wa.」
Release Date: May 31st, 2024
Duration: 101 mins.
Director: Tetsuya Tomina
Writer: Tetsuya Tomina (Screenplay),
Starring: Nana Komatsu, Ryuhei Matsuda, Shinobu Otake, Shizuka Ishibashi, Min Tanaka,
Website Twitter: @watakushidomowa JFDB IMDB
Nana Komatsu (Thirst) and Ryuhei Matsuda (The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan) co-star in this drama a woman and a man who have lost their memories and find themselves on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, a place famous for its goldmines and for being where people sent into exiled landed. According to film info, the story was inspired by the “Tomb of the Innocents.”
Tetsuya Tomina has had festival play with a grip of films already (a little info in this trailer post) and he had this one at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year. You can track it’s progress over in a series of posts at Nana Komatsu News and Archives where release dates and pre-screenings were covered amongst other things. Lots of great pictures can be found there!
Synopsis: A woman wakes up in a former gold mine on Sado Island. She has no memories. Fortunately, Kii, a cleaner at the mine, takes her in and opens her house to the woman who is given the name Midori by Kii’s daughters Aka and Kuro. Midori begins to work as a cleaner alongside Kii and this is how she meets Ao, a man who works as a security guard at the mine. Gradually the two become attracted to each other but then someone named Murasaki enters the picture…
Thank You, Gateway to the World 
空の港のありがとう 「Sora no Minato no Arigatou」
Release Date: May 31st, 2024
Duration: 25 mins.
Director: Yuki Saito
Writer: Yuki Saito (Screenplay),
Starring: Misa Shimizu, Toshihiro Yashiba, Akito Matsuno, Rin Kataoka,
Website Twitter: @thankyougateway
This short film was produced as part of Yoshimoto Kogyo’s “Community-oriented Film Project,” which aims to revitalize local communities. It features Narita airport, in Chiba Prefecture which is where Yuki Saito is from.
Synopsis: Ayako Takaoka works at Narita Airport, and we catch her as she handles passengers stranded by a typhoon. When she returns home, she complains to her husband, and this sparks an argument with her daughter, Misora, that leaves relations fraught with tension. When Ayako’s young son wants to see airplanes, it falls to Misora to take him to the airport which is where she sees her mother perform her job and begins to have a change of heart.
Kitchen Kara Hanataba wo 
キッチンから花束を「Kitchen Kara Hanataba wo」
Release Date: May 31st, 2024
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Hisashi Kikuchi
Writer: N/A
Starring: Fumi Sai
Website Twitter: @fumin_movie
Synopsis: This documentary looks at the work of Fumi Sai, a woman of Taiwanese decent who was born in Tokyo immediately after the war. Her impressive cooking skills have won her many fans. It focuses on her work in her Chinese-style home-style restaurant in Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo, over a three-and-a-half-year period, and features interviews with people as well as insights into her cooking methods. You can find out more in this Asahi Shimbun article.
Shneidman Blues 
シュナイドマンの憂鬱「Shunaidoman no Yuutsu」
Release Date: May 31st, 2024
Duration: 22 mins.
Director: Kyoichi Komoto
Writer: Ako Suizu (Screenplay),
Starring: Kyoichi Komoto, Ako Suizu, Shinya Oowada,
Synopsis: A man who has been plunged into despair has climbed a mountain and reached a cliff edge. He looks at the ground far below with the growing intention of plunging over the edge and ending it all. As he thinks on that course of action, a cavalcade of people show up to distract him in sequences that include rap music and dancing…