Welcome to the first of three trailer posts
Parts two and three open over the next two days.
I completed my months-long rewatch of the original Alien series with Alien Resurrection (1997) and liked it. Rich visuals and with an interesting set of characters, it takes the story in a bold new direction. I then moved on to The Bike Riders (2023).
What are the newest Japanese films to be released this weekend?
Yamato yo towa ni: Rebel 3199 Part 2 The Assault of the Burning Sun 
ヤマトよ永遠に REBEL3199 第二章 赤日の出撃 「Yamato yo towa ni: Rebel 3199 Dai Nisho Sekijitsu no Shutsugeki」
Release Date: July 17th, 2024
Duration: 69 mins
Chief Director: Harutoshi Fukui, Director: Naomichi Yamato
Writer: Hideki Oka (Screenplay), Harutoshi Fukui (Screenplay/Series Composition), Yoshinobu Nishizaki (Original Creator),
Starring: Daisuke Ono (Susumu Kodai), Houko Kuwashima (Yuki Mori), Anan Furuya (Jiro Shima), Ayahi Takagaki (Saki Todo), Chitose Morinaga (Caroline Riaden), Hochu Ohtsuka (Shiro Sanada),
Animation Production: Studio Mother
Website Twitter: @new_yamato_2199 ANN MAL
This is the second of seven films.
Synopsis: The year is 2207 A.D. and Earth has been conquered. Skulldart, the Holy Patriarch of the Dezarium army, tells the people of the Earth that they are not enemies, but are searching for the “Piece of Iskandar” to change the future of the Earth, which is headed for destruction. Meanwhile, the crew of the old Yamato fleet find the new Space Battleship Yamato.
Performing KAORU’s Funeral 
カオルの葬式 「Kaoru no Soshiki」
Release Date: 2024
Duration: 100 mins.
Director: Noriko Yuasa
Writer: Takato Nishi, Noriko Yuasa (Screenplay),
Starring: Koji Seki, Kano Ichiki, Chise Niitsu, Asuka Kurosawa, Daijiro Harada, Tomomitsu Adachi,
Website Twitter: @PKFPpartners IMDB
I have been following Noriko Yuasa’s career since Osaka Asian Film Festival 2018 where I saw her short Ordinary Everyday. I followed that with her other shorts Looking For My Lost Sunflowers (2014), Girl, Wavering (2015) and Coming Back Sunny (2019) – for which I interviewed her, and then her sophomore feature, Performing KAORU’s Funeral which I covered as part of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024 and for which I got a chance to interview her.
The film is set mainly at a temple in the northern part of Okayama Prefecture, which is where Yuasa is from.
Synopsis: When a screenwriter named KAORU dies suddenly, she leaves behind a tangle of relations who are all pulled together for the final act in her life: performing her funeral. The chief mourner is her ex-husband, Jun. A failed actor, he drifts around Tokyo as a driver for callgirls. He has to clean himself up to lead the ceremony down in the small village in Okayama that KAORU came from. There, he meets a host of eccentric characters, TV people, and KAORU ’s daughter, all of whom have complicated feelings for the recently departed. Performing Kaoru’s funeral will be difficult for Jun as he finds himself facing a tough crowd but, through these people’s memories, different aspects of the woman will be revealed.
Black comedy and poignant sights of grief emerge as concise scenes rich with distinctive characters and well-orchestrated flashbacks play out while the funeral rumbles on. It is almost as if KAORU had scripted the event herself.
Umi no chinmoku 
海の沈黙 「Umi no chinmoku」
Release Date: November 22nd, 2024
Duration: 112 mins.
Director: Setsuro Wakamatsu
Writer: So Kuramoto (Screenplay),
Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Kyoko Koizumi, Kiichi Nakai, Shiro Sano, Mika Mifune, Misa Shimizu,
Website Twitter: @uminochinmoku IMDB
Synopsis: An exhibition for world-renowned painter Shuzo Tamura turns into a media firestorm when one of the works is revealed to be fake. The drama ramps up when a woman’s dead body is found in Otaru, Hokkaido, and a man named Ryuji Tsuyama, someone once known as a genius painter before he went into hiding, is thought to be connected. Anna Tamura was once Ryuji Tsuyama’s lover and is now married to Tamura. She travels to Otaru and discovers that Ryuji is surrounded by people with competing agendas…
Six Lying University Students 
海の沈黙 「Rokunin no utsotsuki na daigakusei」
Release Date: November 22nd, 2024
Duration: 112 mins.
Director: Yuichi Sato
Writer: Koichi Yajima (Screenplay), Akinari Asakura (Original Novel)
Starring: Minami Hamabe, Eiji Aski, siro Motoki, Kyoko Koizumi, Kiichi Nakai, Shiro Sano, Mika Mifune, Misa Shimizu, Mas
Website Twitter: @uminochinmoku JFDB IMDB
Synopsis: Six university students have made the final round for recruitment at a popular entertainment company. They are are tasked with forming a team and holding a group discussion in one month’s time so they work together but, just before discussion, they are informed that the task has changed and that the job offer is only on offer one person and that person will be selected by their group. They then find six envelopes left for them, each containing shocking accusations against each of the six, such as “swindler,” “criminal,” and “murderer. Soon, the true identities of the six are revealed one after another in the secret conference room.
Angry Squad: Komuin to 7-nin no sagishi 
アングリースクワッド 公務員と7人の詐欺師 「Anguri- Sukuwaddo Komuin to 7-nin no sagashi」
Release Date: November 22nd, 2024
Duration: 120 mins.
Director: Shinichiro Ueda
Writer: Koichi Yajima (Screenplay),
Starring: Seiyou Uchino, Masaki Okada, Rina Kawaei, Aoi Morikawa, Takenori Goto, Shusaku Kamikawa, Miki Maya, Mitsuru Fukikoshi,
Website Twitter: @angrysquad2024
Synopsis: Jiro Kumazawa is a dedicated civil servant who works at a tax office. When he is scammed out of a large sum of money by the genius conman Makoto Himuro, he works with his best friend, a detective to track down Himuro but just when he might get justice, Himuro offers Kumazawa a bigger catch: a businessman who owes more money. Kumazawa is conflicted about being an accomplice to a crime, but teams up with Himuro and a group of oddball con artists to form the Angry Squad.