Welcome to the third trailer post of the week.
You can find the first post here and the second post here.
I resumed some posting of Nippon Connection reviews and have a few more up my sleeve to come out. So far, there’s Visitors: Complete Edition and I hope to get others out over the weekend before Japan Cuts and possible New York Asian Film Festival coverage ensues.
I have started doing face-to-face interviews again, but this time with a co-worker at my workplace. 30 minutes, she’s direct and a go-getter and fun and I was happy to learn more about her for a story I hope to write.
What are the other films released this weekend?
スミコ22 「Sumiko 22」
Release Date: June 29th, 2024
Duration: 65 mins.
Director: Sawako Fukuoka
Writer: Sawako Fukuoka (Screenplay),
Starring: Haruna Hori, Satsuki Hamada, Shohei Matsuo, Kyoshiro Hara,
Website Twitter: @SUMIKO_22_
I kind of vibed with this film that I saw as part of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024. I reviewed it here and interviewed the director here.
Sumiko 22 is the latest work by the filmmaking unit Shidoromodori and features Haruna Hori in her first film role in five years.
We follow Sumiko Shizuoka, a twenty-something-year-old who quit her first job just after four months. Her new life is spent recalibrating her sense of self.
How does she do this?
In a series of chuckle-inducing vignettes based on director Sawako Fukuoka’s own experiences, we see the realistic struggles of Sumiko who spends her days talking to herself and others about ideas, both vague and specific, that ultimately drive her towards what she finds important – mostly her cat Okoge and the foods she likes – and how she wants to live her life.
Promised Land 
プロミスト・ランド 「Puromisuto Rando」
Release Date: June 29th, 2024
Duration: 89 mins.
Director: Masashi Iijima
Writer: Masashi Iijima (Screenplay), Kazuichi Iijima (Original Novel),
Starring: Kanichiro Sato, Rairu Sugita, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Fusako Urabe, Masaki Miura, Kaoru Kobayashi,
Website Twitter: @promisedlandmov
Kanichiro Sato, who was in the fabulous Okiku and the World, and Rairu Sugita (Sanka: Nomads of the Mountains) are the leads of Masashi Iijima’s directorial feature, a drama based on a novel published in 1983 that follows a community reckoning with the traditions of hunters in Yamagata Prefecture at a time when a ban on hunting bears had been introduced by a governmental agency. Iijima has previously made documentaries about matagi hunters in the region before.
Synopsis: In a snowy mountain town in Tohoku, a place where the lifestyle of traditional hunters known as Matagi still exist, 20-year-old Nobuyuki is less than enamoured with carrying them on but has taken over the family’s business of raising chickens. When the Matagi hunters receive instructions to stop bear hunting due to a drop in their population, a hunter name Reijiro tells Nobuyuki about his secret plan to go bear hunting and Nobuyuki joins him.
Addict o machinagara 
アディクトを待ちながら 「Adikuto o machinagara」
Release Date: June 29th, 2024
Duration: 82 mins.
Director: Sayaka Nakamura
Writer: Sayaka Nakamura (Screenplay),
Starring: Noboru Takachi, Ryo Hashizume, Kai Shishido, Takeshi Masu, Sayaka Aoki, Yuichi Nakamura,
Website Twitter: @addict_0629
In the write-up for this film, it is said that some on the cast have had addictions or family members with addictions. Indeed, director Sayaka Nakamura has had experience with this subject matter due to a family member with a gambling addiction.
Synopsis: Ryo Yamato is a popular musician but he had to retire from the limelight due to drug problems. After time spent with “Recovery,” a gospel group formed by addicts of various vices, he surfaces again when they hold a concert. When fans hear of his return, they head to the concert but Yamato doesn’t show up…
Kaijuu 
かいじゅう 「Kaijuu」
Release Date: June 29th, 2024
Duration: 101 mins.
Director: Tomoya Ise
Writer: N/A
Starring: Issei Nishimura
This is Tomoya Ise’s second work this year following Nichi Nichi Geijutsu (trailer post) and the music is by Rocket Matsu, leader if the group Pascals, the guys and gals who scored Ise’s first film.
Synopsis: This documentary looks at the Nagoya-based painter Issei Nishimura. He studied music in Tokyo originally but found it hard to be a part of society so withdrew. He is self-taught and works at home and plays his electric guitar. When working, his nephews and nieces call him “the monster” because he sometimes roars while painting in an energetic manner – hence the title. His painting process had never been documented before until director Tomoya Ise, son of documentarian Shinichi Ise, showed up with a camera and Nishimura launched into making a new work. For the next near, Ise visited and recorded Nishimura and his relatives.
Yurei wa wagamamana yume o miru 
幽霊はわがままな夢を見る 「Yuurei wa wagamamana yume o miru」
Release Date: June 29th, 2024
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Gyon Gu-su
Writer: Gyon Gu-su, Mitsunori Gu, (Screenplay),
Starring: Yurie Fukamachi, Masaya Kato, Suzuka Ohgo, Yoharu Nishioka, Shiro Sano, Shizuyo Yamasaki,
Website Twitter: @yureiwagamama
This is the latest film from Gyon Gu-su and Mitsunori Gu, who bother worked on Miko Girl. It stars Yurie Fukamachi, a familiar face from adverts and plays, and a native of where this film was shot.
Synopsis: Yuri Tomizawa returns to her hometown of Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, after trying to make it as an actress in Tokyo. She has to start almost from scratch but as she applies her skills at her father’s radio station, “Kamon FM.” The thing is, it’s on the verge of bankruptcy and she starts being followed around by a creepy young man and woman. Things intersect when sponsors give Kamon FM a chance to redeem themselves by making a radio drama based on the ghost story “Hoichi the Earless” – seen in the classic horror film Kaidan – set in Shimonoseki’s Akama Shrine.