Welcome to the third and final trailer post of the week.
You can find part one here and part two here.
As mentioned in my first trailer post, I’m currently writing for Osaka Asian Film Festival so the only non-festival things going on are streams of Stargate SG-1 and Final Fantasy Tactics.
What are the last set of films for this week?
Ame nimo makezu 
雨ニモマケズ 「Ame nimo makezu」
Release Date: February 07th, 2025
Duration: 90 mins.
Director: Toshi Iizuka
Writer: Toshi Iizuka (Screenplay)
Starring: Yura Anno, Shuri Suwa, Yu Uemura, Tomoki Kimura, Misa Wada, Arata Yamanaka, Umeno Uno,
Website Twitter: @ame_nimo_movie
Toshi Iizuka’s last feature film was MOON and GOLDFISH (2023), released in June 2023. He has assembled a cast stacked with singers and familiar supporting actors like Tomoki Kimura, Misa Wada (Motion Picture: Choke), Umeno Uno (Melting Sounds) and Yu Uemura (Intimate Stranger).
Synopsis: This is a musical drama set at a memorial party for a gospel musician, where the guests pay tribute via song. In this set-up, many people meet, including Minami, a member of staff trying to keep things running, Minato, an artist on bad terms with his father who is big in the gospel world, and Tatsuya, the son of the deceased musician. Once the curtain rises on the party, both the stories and the music begin.
The Summer Days with Catfish 
ナマズのいた夏 「Ame nimo makezu」
Release Date: February 08th, 2025
Duration: 88 mins.
Director: Kyuya Nakagawa
Writer: Kyuya Nakagawa, Etsuo Hiratani (Screenplay)
Starring: Yuto Nakayama, Yura Kano, Ayumu Matsuyama, Hirobumi Watanabe, Hidetoshi Kawaya, Nguyen Thi Gian, Nguyen Van Bao, Shinya Nishio, Minami Kobayashi,
Website Twitter: @namazu_noita
The film is a coming-of-age ensemble drama featuring promising young actors, including two Vietnamese who are making their film appearances on screen ever.
This feature comes from Kyuya Nakagawa, director of the 2018 award-winning short film The Mantis Night, which stars Yoshihiro Nishimura as a right-wing man who harbours a grudge against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and plots to assassinate him.
Synopsis: Childhood friends Tatsuo and Tetsuya are reunited at the graveside of a third friend who died young and spend a few days during their summer vacation in a local country town that is in decline and has an exotic species of catfish. They are joined by a young woman named Yui and stay at the dormitory of a failing factory run by Tatsuo’s father and interact with Technical Interns from Vietnam and Tatsuo’s father. Workplace exploitation and a confrontation with the past means there are showdowns…
Haruka naru
杳（はる）かなる 「Haruka naru」
Release Date: February 08th, 2025
Duration: 124 mins.
Director: Daisuke Shishido
Writer: N/A
Starring: Hiromi Sato, Hiroki Okabe, Mayumi Kato, Misao Hashimoto, Saho Terao (Narration)
Synopsis: This documentary film shows the lives of people with the incurable disease ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). The focus is on Hiromi Sato, who was diagnosed with ALS six years ago and has she gradually lost the ability to move her body, Hiroki Okabe, has a tracheotomy and a ventilator for breathing difficulties and has lost his voice, so he uses a transparent dial to communicate his words. We follow them for approximately three and a half years with the film culminating in them going on a trip together, the introduction of an important friend and Okabe-san telling Hiromi-san his one wish.
Salaryman Kintaro Kai-hen 
サラリーマン金太郎【魁】編「Sarari-man Kintaro Kai-hen」
Release Date: February 07th, 2025
Duration: 101 mins.
Director: Ten Shimoyama
Writer: Shinichi Tanaka (Screenplay), Hiroshi Motomiya (Original Manga),
Starring: Nobuyuki Suzuki, Yu Shirota, Nicole Ishida, Ayane, Yuka Kageyama, Mayuka Takeshi,
Website Twitter: @s_kintaro_movie
This is the second part of a two-part film adaptation of Hiroshi Motomiya’s classic manga “Salaryman Kintaro, and it was directed by Ten Shimoyama (St. John’s Wort).
Synopsis: Kintaro Yajima is a businessman with a difference: in a past life he was the former leader of a motorcycle gang. He was also a tuna fisherman! He brings his wild style to the world of business in the Japan of now by working for Yamato Construction and overseeing a geothermal power plant project in Kyushu. He must face a boycott of the construction by a subcontractor and opposition to the power plant by the local residents.
Laugh, Everyone! 
みんな笑え 「Minna warau」
Release Date: February 08th, 2025
Duration: 105 mins.
Director: Taichi Suzuki
Writer: Taichi Suzuki (Screenplay)
Starring: Tomizo Nobe, Nagiko Tsuji, Reiko Kataoka, Tetsu Watanabe, Misa Wada,
Website Twitter: @minnawarae28
The website Film Freeway has all of the background to the director and info for his film.
After graduating from Waseda University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Taichi Suzuki studied film production at “ENBU Seminar” under the guidance of film director Tetsuo Shinohara (you might know his work Karaoke Terror (2004), the film adaptation of a Ryu Murakami story).
Suzuki’s debut feature, The Brat! (released in 2012), won an unprecedented four awards at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival: Special Jury Prize, Critic’s Award, Best Actor Award, and Audience Award. It was also screened at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and New York’s Japan Cuts. His sophomore feature was Life in the Fast Lane (2022).
His latest film is about a hopeless rakugo storyteller. Why choose this profession? Because the 300-year-old art form is packed full of stories of “…hopeless, ordinary people. They are selfish, lazy, addicted to alcohol, or consumed by jealousy. Through these characters, the audience laughs and sometimes is moved as they touch on the unchanging essence of humanity – the very essence of rakugo.”
Anyway, you have great names in the supporting cast, including Nagiko Tsuji (seriously, she’s fab), Reiko Kataoka (also fab), and Misa Wada (also fab and in Motion Picture: Choke).
Synopsis: Tamon Saito is 50, a second-generation rakugo performer and not popular at all. His dementia-ridden father, however, is a former rakugo master. Tamon’s life is spent between a part-time job, rakguo performances nobody likes, and caring for his father. His lack of success might be attributable to the fact that, in order to distinguish himself from his father, he performed new and original material instead of classic stories that never caught on but, one day, Kiko, a young and struggling comic storyteller sees Tamon performing and recognises the material from a tape her mother used to play when she was young. She decides to adapt Tamon’s story into a routine for her stand-up comedy and through this, the two begin to change their lives.