Welcome to the first of three trailer posts
The second one comes out tomorrow and the next one the day after.
I’m doing these ahead of schedule simply because my scheduling is a bit off this week and some interviews and reviews have been pushed back. I’m going to enter a slower period of review releases as I cover autumn festivals with previews and focus more on Japanese language learning but I will keep publishing things that will be interesting.
What is the first set of films to be released this week?
Chime 
Release Date: August 02nd, 2024
Duration: 45 mins.
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Mutsuo Yoshioka, Tomoko Tabata, Ikkei Watanabe, Koji Seki, Noa Kawazoe,
This is what I wrote for this films Berlinale (where it first appeared) incarnation:
Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure) is back with a film that is not quite a thriller and not quite a suspense. It looks atmospheric based on pictures hosted by CINRA. You can read a Roadstead interview with Kiyoshi Kurosawa here.
I ended up watching it and wasn’t as wowed as other people were. It felt like Kurosawa had refined his story and style of existential horror to the barest of bones and in the absence of urban gothic elements, I wasn’t as hooked as I may have been. It did have startling theatrical moments of terror but not enough to imprint itself in my memory.
Synopsis: Matsuoka’s class at a culinary school is disrupted by a student named Tashiro who says, “There’s a noise. It’s like a chime. Someone is sending me a message by a chime.” Tashiro’s strange behaviour escalates when he later announces that half of his brain has been replaced by a machine and tries to show it. This is just the start as Matsuoka finds himself overtaken by a strange horror that creeps into his life. The next moment of terror comes when a student named Akemi expresses discomfort at the way the sight of a whole chicken makes her feel. When Tashiro hears the sound of a chime, his daily life turns horrific.
Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture Final Act 
コードギアス 奪還のロゼ 最終幕 「Koudo Giasu: Dakkan no Roze Saishu Maku」
Release Date: August 02nd, 2024
Duration: 74 mins
Director: Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Writer: Noboru Kimura (Screenplay/Series Composition), Goro Taniguchi, Ichiro Okouchi (Original Story), CLAMP (Character Design)
Starring: Kohei Amasaki (Roze), Makoto Furukawa (Ash), Anzu Haruno (Yuri Sano), Reina Ueda (Sakuya Sumeragi),
Animation Production: Sunrise
Website Twitter: @GEASSPROJECT ANN MAL
This is a spin-off from the theatrical anime Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection (2019). This is the final instalment of four films.
Synopsis: Rozé and Ash are two brothers who form the “Nameless Mercenaries” unit and reside in Hokkaido and they have taken on Neo Britannians and rescued Sakuya Sumeragi, the daughter of the lord of Hokkaido. Their next task is to fight unidentified machines have appeared in various parts of the world and are terrorising people.
Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards 
赤羽骨子のボディガード 「Akabane Honeko no Bodiga-do」
Release Date: August 02nd, 2024
Duration: 117 mins.
Director: Junichi Ishikawa
Writer: Hiroyuki Yatsu (Screenplay), Masamitsu Nigatsu (Original Manga),
Starring: Natsuki Deguchi, Raul, Daiken Okudaira, Hikaru Takahashi, Mio Kudo, Utaha, Tao Tsuchiya,
Website Twitter: @akabanehonekomv IMDB
Synopsis: High school student Arakuni Ibuki is a delinquent who is recruited to act as a bodyguard for his childhood friend, Honeko Akabane, after her father, a yakuza boss, asks for his help to protect his daughter from gangster rivals. Ibuki mustn’t let on about what is going on and he has help in the form of classmates, each of whom has a skill like hacking and sniping.
Maborosi 
幻の光 「Maboroshi no Hikari」
Release Date: December 12th, 1995
Duration: 117 mins.
Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Writer: Yoshihisa Ogita (Screenplay), Teru Miyamoto (Original Novel),
Starring: Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano, Takashi Naito, Akira Emoto, Ren Osugi, Naomi Watanabe, Midori Kiuchi,
Website Twitter: @maborosi_1995 IMDB
This film was the theatrical feature debut of Kore-eda after a career working in documentaries. It won the Golden Osella Award for cinematography at the 52nd Venice International Film Festival. It was shot in Ishikawa Prefecture. This digitally remastered version has been released to support the city of Wajima in Ishikawa Prefecture, which was severely damaged in the Noto Peninsula earthquake that occurred in January this year.
Synopsis: Yumiko is haunted by the idea that she brings deaths to others. As a child, she lost her grandmother while as an adult, her husband committed suicide with no apparent motive, leaving her to raise their son alone. After, she remarries Tamio, a man who has lost family himself, she moves to a village where she finds happiness but a return to her family home revives troubling memories.
Okinawa Kudaka-jima no irabu 
沖縄久高島のイラブー 「Okinawa Kudaka-jima no irabu-」
Release Date: August 02nd, 2024
Duration: 102 mins.
Director: Kazuo Okada, Yusa Suzuki
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Synopsis: This documentary records the fishing of irabu and its smoking process on the remote island of Kutaka Island in Okinawa. This tradition dates back to the days of the Ryukyu Kingdom, when it was presented to the royal government in Shuri. Due to festivals ending and a lack of successors to take up the tradition, it died out, but islanders are trying to revive the tradition. The film features footage shot in 1978, before the tradition was interrupted, and newly shot footage from 2023.