Welcome to the second trailer post of the week.
You can find the first post here and the third post follows tomorrow.
The latest episode of Heroic Purgatory dropped and it covers the 1986 film Righting Wrongs and the 1988 film On the Run. Both star Yuen Biao and both feature stories of corrupt cops and broken justice systems and feature two of the finest female action heroes in Cynthia Rothrock’s hot-headed cop and Pat Ha’s ice-cold hitwoman. I’m pushing this episode again because On the Run is a great title.
What are the second lot of films released this week?
Makoto Nagahisa Shorts
Two films shot by Makoto Nagahisa (We Are Little Zombies) will be screened in cinemas as a double-bill.
Pisko the Crab Child Is in Love 
蟹から生まれたピスコの恋 「Kani kara umareta pisuko no koi」
Release Date: June 28th, 2024
Duration: 17 mins.
Director: Makoto Nagahisa
Writer: Makoto Nagahisa (Screenplay),
Starring: Kano (A Masso), Maki Fukuda, Saaya (Lalande), Kanta Sato,
This film features three female comedians who appear in the TV Asahi’s variety show Togetoge TV (トゲトゲTV). This one was screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival last year.
Synopsis: Pisko’s father was a crab and her mother a human mother. When she turns 18 years old, she falls in love with a teacher and intends to get married…
And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool 
蟹から生まれたピスコの恋 「Soshite watashi-tachi wa puru ni kingyo o,」
Release Date: April 08th, 2017
Duration: 27 mins.
Director: Makoto Nagahisa
Writer: Makoto Nagahisa (Screenplay),
Starring: Hina Yukawa, Rina Matsuyama, Reina Kikuchi, Marin Nishimoto, Ryo Fujiwara, Michio Ishimoto, Akie Namiki,
This was the first film directed by Nagahisa and it is based on a real-life incident that took place in Sayama City, Saitama Prefecture in 2012. It was the first Japanese film to win the Grand Prix in the short film category at the Sundance Film Festival. The entire film is on the director’s Vimeo Channel, it seems, so here it is:
Synopsis: In the summer of 2012, 400 goldfish were released into the swimming pool of a junior high school in Saitama Prefecture. It was done by four girls who stated the reason for the crime was that they thought they were beautiful. The film looks at their lives surrounding the incident.
Okano kyoju no koko kyoso tan 
岡野教授の高校協奏譚 「Okano kyoju no koko kyoso tan」
Release Date: June 28th, 2024
Duration: 81 mins.
Director: Yasumasa Konno
Writer: Yasumasa Konno (Screenplay),
Starring: Kensuke Takahashi, Shin Tamura, Shota Kawakami, Ryoki Miyama, Ryo Tachibana, Yuuki Matsunami,
Website Twitter: @okano_kyoju
This is the third film set in a series, each directed by Yasumasa Konno, who I first encountered with Bright Night at OAFF 2017. I missed writing about the first two because I was covering OAFF 2020.
Synopsis: Essentially, the boys at Kasumigaura Agricultural High School have the hots for Toyama, aka Madonna-sensei, a beautiful woman who they all chase in “cute” ways but chaos ensues when a transfer student named Morita joins the student body and attracts the attention of a teacher named Okano who begins to flirt with him even though Morita also has the hots for Toyama and plans to fight an elite student for her heart…
Omae no oya ni nattarude 
おまえの親になったるで 「Omae no oya ni nattarude」
Release Date: June 28th, 2024
Duration: 94 mins.
Director: Yoshie Kitagishi
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Synopsis: This documentary was produced by the Nippon Foundation Job Parent Project, an organisation that helps ex-criminals get back into society through providing housing and jobs. One person involved is Kentaro Kusakari (Ted Talk on YouTube), the president of a construction company in Osaka, whose younger sister was murdered. The film follows him and how, despite conflicting feelings, he has spent ten years supporting the rehabilitation of former inmates.
Kizu 
傷 「Kizu」
Release Date: June 28th, 2024
Duration: 36 mins.
Director: Yuya Teramoto
Writer: Yuya Teramoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Senitsu Hashimoto, Ryuhei Kuramoto, Yuzuki Akiyama, Masaki Sata, Yota Kawase,
No Trailer
Synopsis: An outlaw older brother and a diligent student younger brother and family ties come under strain when a criminal organisation targets the older brother.
GEMNIBUS vol.1 
Release Date: June 28th, 2024
Duration: 97 mins.
Director: Takuya Uenishi (Godzilla vs. Megalon ゴジラ VS メガロ), Ryotaro Hirase (knot), China (First Line ファーストライン), Mabuta Motoki (Flail フレイル),
Writer: Takuya Uenishi (Godzilla vs. Megalon), Ryotaro Hirase (knot), China (First Line), Mabuta Motoki (Flail), (Screenplay),
Starring: Miho Okamoto, Yohei Azakami (Godzilla vs. Megalon), SUMIRE, Takahiro Miura (knot), Mitsumi Tamura, Shiro Saito, (First Line), Daiken Okudaira, Riko (Flail)
Website Twitter: @GEMSTONE_JP
Synopsis: This omnibus film is the first theatrical release under Toho’s talent support project “GEMSTONE Creative Label” and features two animated films, a CG Godzilla video that was originally released on YouTube in 2023 that earned more than 4.2 million views, an animation about the difficulty of making animation, a schi-fi school film and a zombie film.