Welcome to this week’s trailer post
Only one post since there aren’t as many Japanese films getting a release this week.
So, this week consisted of posts covering the last of my Nippon Connection reviews. They were All the Long Nights (2024) and Shunga: The Lost Japanese Erotica (2023). Both films will play at Japan Cuts 2024!
Also, with regard to that festival, I took part in a recording of a Heroic Purgatory episode where Japan Society Director of Film Peter Tatara, and Programmer Alexander Fee gave an insight into this year’s line-up of films. I’ve seen most and have been tweeting recommendations. Here are mine:
Performing KAORU’s Funeral, Whale Bones, Kubi, Moving, August in the Water, Mermaid Legend, and Shunga: The Lost Japanese Erotica.
Also starting this week, the New York Asian Film Festival. I’ll cover some films from there, too.
What are this week’s films?
Great Absence 
大いなる不在 「Oinaru Fuzai」
Release Date: July 12th, 2024
Duration: 152 mins.
Director: Kei Chika-ura
Writer: Kei Chika-ura, Keita Kumano (Screenplay),
Starring: Mirai Moriyama, Tatsuya Fuji, Yoko Maki, Hideko Hara,
This first emerged at Toronto 2023 and will play at Japan Cuts 2024. A great cast led by Mirai Moriyama (The Drudgery Train, Mountain Woman) and Tatsuya Fuji (Let Him Rest in Peace) take the stage in Kei Chika-ura’s sophomore feature, a film based partly on his own personal experience and shot on 35mm.
I did a talk about the upcoming Japan Cuts and film director Peter Tatara highlighted this and said it was the most brutal film in the festival.
Synopsis: Takashi (Mirai Moriyama) returns home to Kyushu when police call him about his estranged father Yohji (Tatsuya Fuji). It seems that Yohji’s wife Naomi, is missing and may have committed suicide. During this mystery, the old man’s dementia plays a part.
Kingdom 4 Return of the Great General 
キングダム 大将軍の帰還 「Kingudamu Daishogun no Kikan」
Running Time: 145 mins.
Release Date: July 12th, 2024
Director: Shinsuke Sato
Writer: Tsutomu Kuroiwa (Screenplay), Yasuhisa Hara (Manga/Screenplay)
Starring: Kento Yamazaki, Ryo Yoshizawa, Nana Seino, Kanna Hashimoto, Hiroshi Tamaki, Takao Osawa, Koichi Sato, Yuko Araki, Masami Nagasawa,
Website Twitter: @kingdomthemovie IMDB
Shinsuke Sato is an action movie director who you may have heard of thanks to live-action versions of multiple manga like Gantz, I Am a Hero, and Inuyashiki. He tackles a historical epic with the Kingdom franchise which is set in Qin Dynasty China during the warring states period.
This one plays at the New York Asian Film Festival.
Synopsis: Shin continues to aid a young king named Eisei in his plan to unify all of China but it comes under threat when their land, Qin, is suddenly invaded by a rival. Eisei assigns the legendary General Ohki to handle the attack and Shin joins him and his famed Hishin Unit in fighting for a crucial victory, but a rival force approaches…
TO MOM, WITH LOVE 
お母さんが一緒 「Okaasan ga issho」
Release Date: July 12th, 2024
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi
Writer: Ryosuke Hashiguchi, Maki Peyounne (Screenplay), Maki Peyounne (Original Stageplay),
Starring: Noriko Eguchi, Chika Uchida, Kotone Furukawa, Hisashu Aiyama,
Website Twitter: @okaasan_movie JFDB IMDB
Ryosuke Hashiguchi (All Around Us, Three Stories of Love) worked with Maki Peyounne to adapt a stageplay performed by the theatre troupe Busukai in 2015 into a TV drama series and now it has been re-edited for cinema.
Synopsis: Yayoi, Manami, and Kiyomi take their mother to an onsen. The eldest, Yayoi has a complex about her younger sisters who are considered more beautiful. Manami feels frustrated over constantly being compared to the smarter Yayoi. Kiyomi views her sisters with a cold eye. What they all have in common is that they do not want to lead a life like their mother. However, the holiday draws out their complaints and things go off the rails when Kiyomi’s boyfriend, Takahiro, appears.
Chinkonka tama shizume no uta 
鎮魂歌 たましずめのうた 「Chinkonka tama shizume no uta」
Release Date: July 12th, 2024
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Ryo Matsumoto
Writer: Ryo Matsumoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Sho Higano, Saori Otaki, Fumitaka Kuroki, Saeri Umehara, Yuzu Hiyori,
Website Twitter: @kai100_movie
This is the fifth entry in the horror suspense “Gendai Kaigaku Hyakumonogatari” series.
Synopsis: When Rika Uehara disappears without a trace, her mother, Mariko, asks a detective named Makoto Otomo to find her. He soon finds Rika had strange relationships with people, all of whom start to disappear and die one after another and he soon becomes the target of something awful.
Heavens x Candy 
ヘヴンズ×キャンディ 「HebunzuxKyandi」
Release Date: July 13th, 2024
Duration: 70 mins.
Director: Daisuke Yamanouchi
Writer: Daisuke Yamanouchi (Screenplay), Ami Kasai (Original Story),
Starring: Riku Mukai, Taisei, Shun Yuki, Takuya Matsumoto, Yasushi Takemoto, Manzo Shinra,
Pink film group OP Pictures are back after a few years off.
Synopsis: After going to a fan event for the hit anime “Heaven’s X Candy,” a shy otaku named Takato goes to a coffee shop, as part of a pilgrimage fans do for the show, but since he forgets his wallet he has to return the next day to pay the bill. He finds that it has already been paid by a popular AV actor named Towa who shares similar otaku tendencies and a love for “Heaven’s X Candy.” The two continue on the pilgrimage together and land in a love hotel where they express their love for each other and Takato reveals why he became shy.
Daisuki Nao-chan to Okaasan no 50-nen 
大好き 奈緒ちゃんとお母さんの50年 「Daisuki Nao-chan to Okaasan no 50-nen」
Release Date: July 13th, 2024
Duration: 110 mins.
Director: Shinichi Ise
Writer: N/A
Starring: Nao Nishimura, Nobuko Nishimura, Hironori Nishimura, Norikazu Nishimura,
Synopsis: This is the fifth film in the “Nao Chan Series,” which charts the life of Nao Nishimura.
Nao was born in 1973 and was found to have intractable epilepsy and mental disabilities which meant that she suffered from severe and recurrent seizures. Doctors reckoned that she would not live long but after sustained treatment and medication at a hospital specializing in epilepsy, and her mother Nobuko-san’s policy of “proactively raising her in the community,” Nao grew up bright and energetic. She is now 50 and splits her time between living at a group home run by “Piglet,” a community workshop established by Nobuko and other mothers, and her parents’ home. This film shows her memories of “life” over the past 50 years.
The film series began with 1995’s Nao Chan and each entry has been directed by her uncle, Shinichi Ise.