Two films from Yusaku Matsumoto will be available to stream from indie movie site SAKKA soon. In October, there will be the release of his award-winning short Made in Japan, and November is the start date for his feature Winny , the latter of which comes with an exclusive director’s commentary. The films will be available globally to rent and stream (excluding Japan and, in the case of Winny, Japan and Korea).
Here are the details for both films.
Image may be NSFW.
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Available to stream on October 24th (excluding Japan) will be Yusaku Matsumoto’s short Made in Japan.
Made in Japan Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
日本製造 メイド・イン・ジャパン 「Nihon Seizo Meido in Japan」
Running Time: 30 mins.
Release Date: February 23rd, 2019
Director: Yusaku Matsumoto
Writer: Yusaku Matsumoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Takahiro Konishi, Rino Higa, Kohei Shinya, Akane Tsuchiyama, MAO,
This was under the banner of the MOOSIC LAB2018 releases and it looks at how media-savvy youth play the scandal sites for profit.
MOOSIC LAB is a competition style film fest that pairs up-and-coming directors with rising musicians. Made in Japan was made in collaboration with the idol group “Yurumerumo!” and it won the Special Jury Award, Audience Award, and Best Actor Award (Takahiro Konishi) in the short film category.
Synopsis: A brutal murder by a minor happens in a dry riverbed next to an industrial area of Kawasaki. Kyoichi, who works at a factory nearby, learns about the crime and realises that the culprit was his former co-worker from his last job and posts about his connection to the killer on social media. This triggers a deluge of interview requests from news orgs, all of whom are eager to get a story out of him. The stakes (and money) increase as Kyoichi keeps trying to string the media along to keep himself and his friends entertained…
SAKKA describes Matsumoto’s film as a “chilling look at media accountability, sensationalism, and the public’s media literacy in creating, consuming, and propagating information, eerily holding up a mirror to the viewer.”
Winny, which will be available to stream worldwide (excluding Japan and Korea) from November 07th, was a hit film that debuted in the top ten in the Japanese box office and was screened at various film festivals across Asia, Europe, and the U.S., including New York’s JAPAN CUTS last year.
The film is based on a real-life story that happened during the beginnings of the Digital Revolution in the mid-2000s when the creator of a file sharing site runs up against the law. SAKKA’s release of Winny will include an exclusive director’s commentary.
Winny Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Release Date: March 10th, 2023
Duration: 127 mins.
Director: Yusaku Matsumoto
Writer: Yusaku Matsumoto, Kentaro Kishi (Screenplay), Junki Watanabe (Original Novel),
Starring: Masahiro Higashide, Takahiro Miura, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Mai Kiryu, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Yo Yoshida,
Winny is a based-on-real-life legal drama that stars Masahiro Higashide (Asako I & II, Wife of a Spy) in this film based on a real person, Isamu Kaneko. His performance earned him the Best Actor Award at the 33rd Japan Film Critics Awards. He’s supported by a great cast like Mitsuru Fukikoshi (Cold Fish), Takahiro Miura and Kiyohiko Shibukawa. The DoP and co-scriptwriter is Kentaro Kishi (The Sower).
Synopsis: In 2002, software developer Isamu Kaneko created a P2P file-sharing application called Winny. This programme became the software of choice for online piracy in Japan. Pirates were arrested but prosecutors decided to make an example of Kaneko and scooped him up for “intentionally encouraging piracy.” Recognizing the implications of his arrest on Japan’s future digital innovators and tech development, Kaneko and his lawyer Dan engage in a fierce legal battle.
Sakka describes as intellectually engaging and emotionally compelling as it “explores themes of innovation, the ethics of technology, and the scrutiny of groundbreaking technology under the law — issues that remain vividly relevant today” as well as its influences on today’s innovators in Japan and beyond.
This is a great opportunity to see works from one of Japan’s most versatile directors. Matsumoto’s stories tend to be youth-oriented and examine how media and memory push protagonists into extreme situations and he picks apart music, media, and software in these titles.
I first encountered his work when writing for the (now defunct) V-Cinema website and covered Noise (also available on SAKKA) which dramatised the background of a young man, and others tangentially connected, who went on to perform murder spree in Akihabara.
Next came Osaka Asian Film Festival Bagmati River, (during which I interviewed him,) which was about a young woman coming to terms with the death of her older brother in the Himalayan mountains. His last feature was It’s All My Fault (available on SAKKA), a coming-of-age drama where a young boy escapes an orphanage and searches for his mother only to fall in with a patchwork family.