Welcome to the first trailer post of the week.
There will be another one coming tomorrow.
There were only nine Japanese films released this week compared to the 20 last week, but there’s a nice diversity of titles. Some of these I have written about in my festival posts. I think there was an increase of 15 Japanese-made movies released in cinemas compared to last year.
Here are the first set of films.
BLUE FIGHT 蒼き若者たちのブレイキングダウン 「BLUE FIGHT Aoki Wakamono-tachi no burikingu daun」
Release Date: January 31st, 2025
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Shin Kibayashi (Screenplay), Mikuru Asakura (Autobiography),
Starring: Danhi Kinoshita, Kaname Yoshizawa, Mariko Shinoda, Anna Tsuchiya, Susume Terajima, GACKT,
Website Twitter: @yoakef_jp JFDB IMDB
Mikuru Asakura is a former MMA fighter turned media personality, it seems, as he established the “Breaking Down” martial arts series where fighters enter a ring and have one minute to defeat each other. He has stepped up to produce this film which is partly based on his autobiography. Takashi Miike is the director and this type of story is totally in his wheelhouse since he’s done the Crows series of juvenile fighters battling each other.
Lead actors Danhi Kinoshita and Kaname Yoshizawa beat 2000 people at audition to get their roles.
This one is playing at International Film Festival Rotterdam next month.
Synopsis: Ikuto and Ryoma meet in juvenile detention and become fast friends. Both are determined to redeem themselves in the eyes of society and, inspired by one of Asakura’s motivational speeches, they resolve to fight in the Breaking Down combat event where they will enter a ring and fight an opponent for a minute. The appearance of a rival who shares history with the two plunges them info a feud…
Suicide Notes Laid on the Table 
遺書、公開。 「Isho, kokai」
Release Date: January 31st, 2025
Duration: 119 mins.
Director: Tsutomu Hanabusa
Writer: Osamu Suzuki (Screenplay) Totaro Minami (Original Manga)
Starring: Hokuto Yoshino, Akari Takaishi, Ryubi Miyase, Sara Shida, Minato Matsui, Miona Hori, Shugo Oshinari,
Website Twitter: @ishokoukaimovie IMDB
The director of this live-action adaptation of a school mystery manga is Tsutomu Hanabusa and he has a number of glossy big-budget/anime movies to his name. What springs out is the Tokyo Revengers series of movies and Keep Your Hands off Eizouken (2020) and… also…
Project Dreams: How to Build Mazinger Z’s Hangar (2020), which will be available to watch legally at JFF Theater from February 01st for most parts of the world.
The main cast is led by idol/boyband people: Hokuto Yoshino performs as part of The Rampage from Exile Tribe while Minato Matsui is part of the IMP. idol group
The most prominent names for film fans will be Akari Takaishi of the Baby Assassins movies and Shugo Oshinari who has been acting for quite some time, often popping up in supporting roles, one of his earliest being All About Lily Chou-Chou.
Synopsis: After everyone in Class 2-D of Kairei Private Middle School receives an e-mail at detailing a “class hierarchy” based on popularity and people are less than happy. Tsubaki Himeyama, the person ranked at #1 uses her sunny disposition to clear up the negative reaction but, six months later and without a culprit being found, a the rankings are shook up as Tsubaki, dies a mysterious death on campus. A few days later, everyone in the class receives a suicide note from her. Following that, the darker sides of everyone’s personalities are gradually exposed…
The Rose of Versailles (2025 movie) 
ベルサイユのばら 「Berusaiyu no bara」
Release Date: January 31st, 2025
Duration: 113 mins
Director: Ai Yoshimura
Writer: Tomoko Konparu (Screenplay), Riyoko Ikeda (Original Creator),
Starring: Miyuki Sawashiro (Oscar Francois de Jarjayes), Aya Hirano (Marie Antoinette), Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Andre Grandier), Kazuki Kaito (Hans Axel von Fersen), Akio Otsuka (General Francois Claude de Bouille),
Animation Production: MAPPA
Website Twitter: @verbara_movie ANN MAL
Rose of Versailles is a beloved manga that has had an anime, a Takarazuka revue, and even an English-language live-action adaptation called Lady Oscar, directed by Jacques Demy and starring the stunning scream queen Catriona MacColl – read this interview with her to see how the film fared in and out of Japan! and then check out City of the Living Dead!
Anyway, this is the latest anime adaptation and it is handled by Ai Yoshimura (episode director on Gatchaman Crowds and My Teen Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected while the screenplay was written by Tomoko Konparu (she has a diverse list of credits dating back to the 80s with titles like Uta no Prince-sama – Maji Love 1000%, Maison Ikkoku, Master Keaton, numerous Anpanman films, Urusei Yatsura and more.
Synopsis: Oscar Francois de Jarjayes is the Captain of the Royal Guards and assigned to Marie Antoinette, daughter of, The Empress of Austria. Antoinette senses something different about Oscar and she’s right because the dashing young man is actually the youngest daughter of a noble family. Since they had no male heir, Oscar was raised as a boy to continue the family’s military legacy. The two form a fast friendship but Oscar is conflicted between maintaining her loyalty to the royal family and a queen who childishly abuses her power and addressing the growing concern of poverty among the common people.
Kaiju Guy! 
怪獣ヤロウ！ 「Kaiju yarou!」
Release Date: January 31st, 2025
Duration: 80 mins.
Director: Junichiro Yagi
Writer: Junichiro Yagi (Screenplay)
Starring: Gunpei, Natsume Mito, Yuka Sugai, Toru Tezuka, Michiko Shimizu, Akaji Maro, Yoji Tanaka,
Website Twitter: @kaiju_yaro JFDB IMDB
KAIJU-GUY: The Local Daikaiju Movie is a comedy-drama that looks like it partly spoofs Shin Godzilla.
It stars Gunpei, an internet comedian from the show Baki Baki Dojo (Baki-do) – which has 1.68 million YouTube channel subscribers. He is back by the likes of Yuka Sugai, a former member of the idol group Sakurazaka46, Natsume Mito (who has two films out this weekend) whose credits include appearing in Koji Fukada’s Love Life (2022), and veteran actors Yoji Tanaka and Akaji Maro.
Synopsis: Ichiro Yamada is a monster movie maniac but he spends his days in a less than ideal way by working half-heartedly for the tourism department of Seki City, Gifu Prefecture. When he is ordered by the mayor to make a “local film” to boost Seki City’s profile, he wants to make something special and uses his knowledge of monster movies to make a Kaiju eiga. Maybe he gets a bit too enthusiastic because his efforts become a major citywide incident…
Make a Girl 
メイクアガール 「Meiku a ga-ru」
Release Date: January 31st, 2025
Duration: 90 mins
Director: Gensho Yasuda
Writer: Gensho Yasuda (Screenplay/Original Creator),
Starring: Atsumi Tanezaki (#0), Shun Horie (Akira Mizutamari), Kana Hanazawa (Eri Uminaka), Minami Hinata (Akira Mizutamari (child)), Sora Amamiya (Akane Komura),
Animation Production: Yasuda Gensho Studio by Xenotoon
Website Twitter: @make_a_girl_pr ANN MAL
This is an anime from an independent animator in the mould of Makoto Shinkai in the sense that he basically started making movies by himself, essentially creating 3DCG animation in open-source software and then posting them on YouTube.
It looks like he is expanding on an uploaded short, Make Love, which won a prize at the 29th CG Animation Contest in 2020, and this is the his debut feature-length 3DCG animation. For his feature, he staffed up with eight people. You can read this interview on ANN for more.
Synopsis: Taking place in the near future, Akira Mizutame is a 17-year-old scientific genius who has developed Salt, a robot that aids people in their daily lives. Since then, however, his inventions have all been failures. When a classmate suggests that he can boost his personal life by creating a girlfriend, he makes “#0.” They seem to begin falling in love but #0 faces an emotional conflict…