Welcome to the third and final trailer post of the week.
You can find the first part here and the second part here.
Since the last trailer post, I published a preview of Japan Cuts 2024 (tickets now on sale) and a preview piece on the Third Window Films Blu-ray release of Gakuryu Ishii’s The Crazy Family (1984).
I also took part in a recording of Heroic Purgatory that focussed on a double-bill of Yuen Biao movies featuring corrupt cops and the action heroines taking them on, Above the Law (1986) and On the Run (1988).
What are the rest of the films released this weekend?
Omoitatte mo kyoujitsu 
思い立っても凶日 「Omoitatte mo kyoujitsu」
Release Date: June 15th, 2024
Duration: 49 mins.
Director: Kozue Nomoto
Writer: Kozue Nomoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Kaisei Tamura, Yukino Murakami, Natsu Tanaka, Ryu Yoshikawa, Sakura Enomoto, Chikara To, Kento Miura, Kazuki Muramatsu, Saya Miyoshi, Ayano Kojima,
Website Twitter: @omoitattemo
Lead actor Kaisei Tamura planned this film and his co-star is Yukino Murakami (Orphan’s Blues).
Synopsis: Makoto has had a long run of bad luck in life and it seems to have begun when he was a high school student and he tried to cheer up the girl that he liked while she played a futsal game and it went wrong. Even so, since that day, he has held feelings for her but he has to figure out the source of all of the negativity…
Kagayake hoshikuzu 
輝け星くず 「Kagayake hoshikuzu」
Release Date: June 15th, 2024
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Hiroshi Nishio
Writer: Nanoha Ito (Screenplay),
Starring: Karin Yamazaki, Yuzaki Mori, Reiko Kataoka, Kenji Iwatani,
Twitter: @hoshikuzumovie
Indie film director Hiroshi Nishio has made this film. He is best known for Hakodate Coffee and Soul Flower Train.
Synopsis: Kotaro a nice guy and so he is stunned when his girlfriend Kayano is arrested for drug use in Shikoku. Her father asks him for help in freeing her and so the two set off to Shikoku. It’s the first time for the young man to meet his potential father in law and he is surprised to meet someone who is not supposed to exist in this world.
Hone o horu otoko 
骨を掘る男 「Hone o horu otoko」
Release Date: June 15th, 2024
Duration: 115 mins.
Director: Katsuya Okuma
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Website Twitter: @cttb_film
Synopsis: This documentary follows a 70-year-old man named Takamatsu Gushiken, who has been collecting the remains of the war dead of Okinawa for over 40 years. He began when he was 28 years old and has so far found about 400 remains – be they bones or objects – and tries to piece together the history who or what he finds. For director Katsuya Okuma, this is a very personal film since he lost a relative in the Battle of Okinawa.
Boku no tsuki wa kitanai 
僕の月はきたない 「Boku no tsuki wa kitanai」
Release Date: June 15th, 2024
Duration: 86 mins.
Director: Wataru Kudo
Writer: Taichi Suzuki (Screenplay),
Starring: Ren Furuya, Yura Kano, Takashi Nishina, Kota Yoshida, Tateto Serizawa, Hiroko Kokubo,
This was produced, and features, Kota Yoshida. Earlier this year, he made the socially conscious movie Snowdrop (interview), which I was bowled over by. He also makes films like Sexual Drive. This is definitely in the latter vein of film.
Synopsis: So. This is a sequel to a fake documentary film 30days which follows actor Ren Furuya as he undergoes 30 days of abstinence during COVID as he practiced asceticism at a temple. There, he meets a couple struggling with sexual desire and a priest who transcends sexuality, and a woman named Kotoe, a big fan of 30Days, who reeeeaaally tests his commitment to abstinence…
GOZU Yakuza Horror Theatre: Bull’s Head 
極道恐怖大劇場 牛頭 「GOZU, Gokudou kyoufu dai-gekijou」
Release Date: July 12th, 2003
Duration: 129 mins.
Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Sakichi Sato (Screenplay),
Starring: Sho Aikawa, Hideki Sone, Kimika Yoshino, Renji Ishibashi, Keiko Tomita, Harumi Sone, Shohei Hino,
I watched Gozu during its first theatrical run in the UK and can remember chunks of the film, including a moment when a whole swathe of the middle section of the cinema just stood up and left. Just before the film went insane at the end. Glory days of Tartan releases and people not knowing what Miike is about!
Synopsis: Minami is tasked by his yakuza clan to kill his older brother Ozaki, who has been acting strangely of late, and take him to a yakuza disposal site in Nagoya where the skins of yakuza are harvested and bodies disposed. The journey goes awry at the second part because, after being killed, Ozaki’s body disappears. This is the start of a hellish journey involving a weird inn run by a brother and sister with a giant ox head and more weirdoes who live nearby as Minami begins to wrestle with his love and loyalty to Ozaki…
りりかの星 「Ririka no Hoshi」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 28 mins.
Director: Tokitoshi Shiota
Writer: Tokitoshi Shiota (Screenplay),
Starring: Ryuichi Hiroki, Kana Mito, Takashi Miike,
This one was at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 where I wrote the following:
This is kind of a tongue-in-cheek short where director Tokitoshi Shiota is clearly calling in old friends to work on the property.
Everyone has a dream. For Moe, it is to be a stripper, much to her father’s objections as he resents her unknowingly living up to the legacy of her absent mother. Is there something that can change his mind? Perhaps seeing the art of stripping for himself…
This is long-time actor, critic, programmer SHIOTA’s directorial debut and he has gathered together experienced talent such as cinematographer ASHIZAWA Akiko behind the camera and veteran directors HIROKI Ryuichi and MIIKE Takashi in front of the camera. The result is a tongue-in-cheek silent film that invites viewers to experience the magic of stripping as the tastefully-shot climactic moment is given full sound and dazzling visuals to celebrate the beauty of the nude body.