Welcome to the first of three trailer posts.
The next two posts follow over the next two days.
What are the first set of releases for this week?
Desert of Namibia 
ナミビアの砂漠 「Namibia no Sabaku」
Release Date: September 06th, 2024
Duration: 137 mins.
Director: Yoko Yamanaka
Writer: Yoko Yamanaka (Screenplay),
Starring: Yuumi Kawai, Daichi Kaneko, Kanichiro, Yuzumi Shintani, Erika Karata,
Website Twitter: @namibia_movie IMDB
Yoko Yamanaka, director of the kooky and wonderful Amiko (2017), returns with her third feature, a coming-of-age drama that stars Yuumi Kawai (In Her Room, Plan 75, Sayonara, Girls.). In press notes, Kawai has stated that she “was a student when Amiko was released and that she wanted to become an actress after watching it. (source)
Kawai is joined by Daichi Kaneko (colorless), Kanichiro (Okiku and the World), Yuzumi Shintani (Blue Imagine) and Erika Karata (Asako I & II).
The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes International Film Festival earlier this year.
Synopsis: Yuumi Kawai plays the role of Kana, a 21-year-old woman with an energy that is on the verge of exploding. She thinks that her future is looking tedious since she does not know what she wants out of life and uses love as a way to pass the time. Even though her live-in boyfriend, Honda, tries to please her by looking after her needs, she takes up with a more flashy guy named Hayashi and begins to feel Honda’s presence as a burden…
Toritsukushima 
とりつくしま 「Toritsukushima」
Release Date: March 29th, 2024
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Kahori Higashi
Writer: Kahori Higashi (Screenplay), Naoko Higashi (Original Novel),
Starring: Tsumugi Hashimoto, Soushi Kujishima, Kyoko Koizumi, Miyu Ogawa, Umeno Uno, Yuzumi Shintani,
Website Twitter: @toritsukushi_ma
Kahori Higashi (Melting Sounds review + interview) has two films out this month: Memories of His Scent (review + interview) and this one, Toritsukushima, which stars Kyoko Koizumi (Leave My Girl Alone), Yuzumi Shintani, and Higashi’s familiar actress Umeno Uno. The film is based on Kahori’s mother’s own novel!
Synopsis: When people die, they get a visit from the “Toritsukushima.” It grants anyone with regrets the chance to return to Earth as whatever object they want to be. A wife turns into her husband’s favourite mug, a boy who becomes his favourite blue jungle gym, a grandmother who becomes the camera she gave to her grandson, and there are many others who become objects at the end of their lives to be near their loved ones.
Ishi ga Aru / There is a Stone 
石がある 「Ishi ga Aru」
Release Date: February 10th, 2023
Duration: 104 mins.
Director: Tatsunari Ota
Writer: Tatsunari Ota (Screenplay),
Starring: An Ogawa, Tsuchi Kano, Sota Inagaki, Yuta Inagaki, Takeo Gozu 
Website Twitter: @ishi_ga_aru IMDB
Tatsunari Ota is a graduate from the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts (where Kiyoshi Kurosawa teaches) and he made his first feature film in 2016 with BUNDESLIGA. This is his second film and it played at last year’s TOKYO FILMeX. It stars An Ogawa (For Rei). Amongst the production staff is Yui Kiyohara (director of Our House).
This was at Berlinale 2023 and it looks like 12 minutes have been cut when compared to the festival edition.
Synopsis: Yoshikawa has travelled to a suburban railway town named Yamakita for research as part of her job as a travel agent. The once-prosperous town is almost deserted when she gets there and the shotengai is mostly shuttered. When she walks along a riverbank, she meets a man named Doi who is skimming stones. He persuades her to go looking for stones and start skimming them and she gets into the game. Gradually, the two become absorbed in the games that they play and in each other’s company and time passes by quickly as they start walking upstream together.
Arata Natsume Getting Married 
夏目アラタの結婚 「Natsume Arata no Kekkon」
Release Date: September 06th, 2024
Duration: 120 mins.
Director: Yukihiko Tsutsumi
Writer: Yuichi Tokunaga (Screenplay), Taro Nogizaka (Original Manga),
Starring: Yuya Yagira, Yuina Kuroshima, Taishi Nakagawa, Rei Maruyama, Jiro Sato,
Website Twitter: @natsume_arata IMDB
This comes from Yukihiko Tsutsumi, a pretty prolific director whose output of mixing indie works and V-Cinema with bigger-budgeted adaptations of TV shows like SPEC and manga like 20th Century Boys made him a recognisable name stretching back to the 90s.
Synopsis: Japan has been gripped by the case of Shinju Shinagawa, a young woman who is believed to have been the culprit of a series of murders and dismemberments because she was found at a crime scene in clown makeup when arrested. She was dubbed “Pierrot Shinagawa” by the media and given a death sentence. Now, at the age of 22, she awaits her punishment. Arata Natsume, a councillor whom works at a child guidance centre, is roped into finding the missing head of one of the victims because one of the children under his care is a boy whose father was murdered. How will he get the information? His gambit is to ask for her hand in marriage. However, during his daily visits, she makes a shocking confession to Arata that she has never killed anyone!
Trauma. Nichijo ni Hisomu Kyofu wo Anata ni 
トラウマ。 日常に潜む恐怖をあなたに 「Torauma. Nichijou ni hisomu kyofu o anata ni」
Release Date: September 06th, 2024
Duration: 120 mins.
Director: Koichiro Miki
Writer: Koichiro Miki (Screenplay),
Starring: Akira Takano, Miwako Kakei, Noa Tsurushima, Ryuji Sato, Yuta Tachibana, Ryuji Sato,
Website Twitter: @trauma0906
Synopsis: This is an omnibus horror movie with seven storieswhich depict how traumatic things can happen in everyday life. These stories include one of a college student who finds her peaceful life disrupted by mysterious presence in her house and another of young man in a self-service laundry late at night locks eyes with a suspicious woman in red clothes and starts receiving letters from an unknown sender and one of a smart speaker starts speaking in an empty room…