Welcome to the first of three trailer posts.
The next two posts follow over the next two days.
The first waves of films have been announced for Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025 and I am back on writing duty! Woo-hoo! Lots of great titles have been revealed so far and many more are still to come, so keep checking back!
What are the first bunch of new Japanese films released this week that I are being covering?
1st Kiss 
ファーストキス 1ST KISS 「Fa-suto kisu 1ST KISS」
Release Date: February 07th, 2025
Duration: 124 mins.
Director: Ayuko Tsukahara
Writer: Yuji Sakamoto (Screenplay)
Starring: Takako Matsu, Hokuto Matsumura, Riho Yoshioka, Lily Franky, Nana Mori,
Website Twitter: @1STKISSmovie IMDB
This is a romantic film with a time slip twist. Ayuko Tsukahara is a regular director of dramas and movies. This is best exemplified by her helming both the TV and movie series Grand Maison. The Grand Maison Paris movie was actually the last Japanese-made film to get a release in 2024.
Yuji Sakamoto is, likewise, a regular TV and film writer. His works include Monster (2023) and We Made a Beautiful Bouquet (2021).
The cast looks good since it is headed by Takako Matsu and she is fab in Tetsuya Nakashima’s Confessions (2010) and It Comes (2018), Miwa Nishikawa’s Dreams for Sale (2012), and Shunji Iwai’s April Story (1998)). She is acting opposite Hokuto Matsumura (All the Long Nights (2024).
Synopsis: Kanna Suzuri and her husband’s relationship was going through a rough patch when he suddenly dies in an accident. Just as Kanna is about to start her second life, she gets a time travel device and uses it return to a point just before she met him for the first time. Seeing the young Kakeru makes Kanna realise that she still loves him and she falls in love with him again. Now her mission is to save him from his accident that will take place 15 years in the future.
Showtime 7 
ショウタイムセブン 「Shoutaimu Sebun」
Release Date: February 07th, 2025
Duration: 98 mins.
Director: Kazutaka Watanabe
Writer: Kazutaka Watanabe (Screenplay) Kim Byung-woo (Original Story)
Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Ryo Ryusei, Haruka Igawa, Meru Nukumi, Kotaro Yoshida, The ladies of PERFUME: Ayaka Nishiwaki, Yuka Kashino, Ayano Omoto,
Website Twitter: @showtime7_movie IMDB
This film is a remake of 2013 South Korean film The Terror Live and it comes from Kazutaka Watanabe, director of Rohan at the Louvre (2023) and a number of dramas. It has a solid cast led by Hiroshi Abe (After the Storm, Offbeat Cops) and the ladies of electro-pop group PERFUME.
Synopsis: Shinnosuke Orimoto used to be the main anchor for the news program Showtime 7 but is now reduced to hosting a live radio program. He gets his time in the spotlight again when a bomber lets off a bomb at a powerplant and then demands that Shinnosuke acts as his negotiator. Shinnosuke is thrust back on air and has a producer milking the situation for ratings but soon learns he is in jeopardy with a bomb having been planted somewhere in the studio. Tension mounts as his every word could mean the difference between life and death and the broadcast is being done in real time!
Under the Big Onion 
大きな玉ねぎの下で 「Okina tamanegi no shita de」
Release Date: February 07th, 2025
Duration: 115 mins.
Director: Shogo Kusano
Writer: Izumi Takahashi (Screenplay)
Starring: Fuju Kamio, Hiyori Sakurada, Mizuki Yamamoto, Daisuke Nakagawa, Aoi Ito,
Website Twitter: @tamanegi_movie
The director is Shogo Kusano and he had a movie out last year called Aimitagai (2024), which was at Busan. Izumi Takahashi, writer of films like Tokyo Revengers series and the so-so Kazuya Shiraishi movies The Devil’s Path (2013), One Night (2019) and horror movie The Vanished (2006)
This story was inspired by a hit song carrying the same title as the film. It was released by the rock band Bakufu Slump in 1985. The big onion refers to the Budokan arena, a venue that plays a prominent part in the film.
Synopsis: Double is a cafe by day and a bar at night. Takeru, a student, works behind the bar while Miyu, who is training to be a nurse, is waiting tables. They would be ships in the night if they didn’t take turns communicated with a notebook in which they talk about their hobbies, worries, and plans and… fall in love. As their feelings get more intense, they make plans to meet face-to-face for the first time under a big onion (at the Nippon Budokan). Meanwhile, a radio program tells a from 30 years ago, in which a couple in the Heisei era who had never met each other, make plans to go to the Budokan and meet. Two loves, one from 2025 and the other from Heisei, intersect, and eventually a miracle occurs.
Gintama on Theatre 2D Shinsengumi doran-hen 
銀魂オンシアター2D 真選組動乱篇 「Gintama on shiata- 2D Shinsengumi doran-hen」
Release Date: February 07th, 2025
Duration: 100 mins
Director: Shinji Takamatsu
Writer: Akatsuki Yamatoya (Screenplay/Series Composition), Hideaki Sorachi (Original Creator),
Starring: Tomokazu Sugita (Gintoki Sakata), Kazuya Nakai (Toshiro Hijikata), Daisuke Sakaguchi (Shinpachi Shimura), Rie Kugimiya (Kagura) Mitsuaki Madono (Kamotaro Ito), Susumu Chiba (Isao Kondo),
Animation Production: Bandai Namco Studios
Synopsis: This is the fourth instalment of Gintama on Theater 2D series of films where popular episodes from the TV anime series Gintama are re-edited into a compilation film.