Welcome to the first trailer post of the week.
There will be one more tomorrow.
Last week I previewed the Japanese films at Berlinale 2025 and posted a review of the Ringo Lam action flick The Adventurers and I’ve got more Hong Kong and older Japanese film coverage coming and also coverage of Osaka Asian Film Festival 2025, which starts in a month’s time!
What are the first batch of Japanese films?
Broken Rage 
Release Date: February 14th, 2025 (Global)
Duration: 62 mins.
Director: Takeshi Kitano
Writer: Takeshi Kitano (Screenplay),
Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Tateto Serizawa, Shohei Uno, Hitori Gekidan,
This was a surprise addition to the Venice International Film Festival 2024 and Takeshi Kitano took to the red carpet for the screening. It will be available globally on Amazon Prime from February 14th so check it out.
Anyway, this is a film he made under his Beat Takeshi persona so it’s experimental comedy entertainment. It’s a film split into two parts, the first half being a gritty crime film about a hitman’s struggle for survival when he is caught between the police and the yakuza and the second follows the same story, but transforms it into comedy, where every scene shown in the first half is a parodied.
Synopsis: Nezumi is a legendary hitman in the criminal underworld but, one day, he is caught by the police and brought into an interrogation room on a murder charge. Two detectives put a deal on the table to make him work with them as an undercover spy who will infiltrate a drug ring.
オン・ア・ボート 「On A Bo-to」
Release Date: February 14th, 2025
Duration: 32 mins.
Director: Heso
Writer: Heso (Screenplay),
Starring: Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Ryo Matsuura, Nairu Yamamoto, Yuuka Nakao, Sayaka Wada, Anna Melody,
I wrote up this one for Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024, where it received a Special Mention in the Hosen Short Film, and it went on to be screened at New York Asian Film Festival.
Director Heso deploys the sort of precise direction and gets perfectly-calibrated performances from leads Kiyohiko Shibukawa and Ryo Matsuura to gift us an experience akin to seeing absolute acid biting through the screen. It is done via a toxic relationship, specifically the male side of things as Shibukawa plays a man who initially seems nebbish but has the sort of hidden anger that is scary and it describes the sort of older/conservative man who expects to dominate others, especially women.
Have you ever met a couple and thought, “what do they see in each other?”
Perhaps people who make up such couples never really look at each other to begin with. This might be the case with SARA and CHU. He is 12 years older than her and, thanks to him, SARA now has a new home. SARA just has to be in love because CHU seems nice but exhibits possessive behaviour. Everything in his house has to be “just so” otherwise he gets petty and vindictive. SARA has a difficult night ahead as a house-warming party with her “friends” takes a nasty turn when CHU realises that SARA and co cannot be managed like objects…
On a Boat offers a tightly-shot polite-but-savage mask-pull experience that will make you squirm in your seat as a petty little man unravels in the face of a wife he cannot control and the humiliation he puts his wife and himself through.
Trillion Game 
劇場版 トリリオンゲーム 「gekijouban Toririon ge-mu」
Release Date: February 14th, 2025
Duration: 118 mins.
Director: Yoshiaki Murao
Writer: Daisuke Habara (Screenplay), Riichiro Inagaki, Ryoichi Ikegami (Original Manga)
Starring: Ren Meguro, Hayato Sano, Mio Imada, Riko Fukumoto, Koji Kikkawa,
Website Twitter: @trillion_tbs
This is Yoshiaki Murao’s debut mainstream feature film after a decade of dramas. His time working in television also included helming the 2023 TBS series this film is based on.
Writer Daisuke Habara also comes wrote the same series Murao worked on and he has quite a drama background. He also has a diverse title of film screenplays to his name including Hula Girls (2006), The Suicide Song (2007), and Tug of War! (2012).
There’s already an anime version and it, like this movie, is an adaptation of a manga by writer Riichiro Inagaki (Eyeshield 21, Dr. Stone) and artist Ryoichi Ikegami (Crying Freeman).
Synopsis: Haru Tennoji, a bit of a confident salesman, and Manabu Taira, a genius engineer, have a habit of making businesses a success and decide to try their hand at developing the first casino resort in Japan. In order to set their plans in motions they target the world’s number one casino king, Wolf, but behind the scenes, a huge conspiracy is brewing that threatens to tear their friendship apart.
BATTLE KING!! Map of The Mind Prologue 
BATTLE KING!! Map of The Mind 序奏 「BATTLE KING!! Map of The Mind Joso」
Release Date: February 14th, 2025
Duration: 92 mins.
Director: Genki Takigawa
Writer: Genki Takigawa, Keisuke Fukutani (Screenplay)
Starring: Eiku Yamashita, Hayato Takao, Naoya Kusakawa, Tetta Seki, Kenshin Kamimura, Rei Sawamura, Ryushin Tei, Fumina Hara, Yuki Shioya,
Website Twitter: @battlekingmovie
Synopsis: This looks like a continuation of a film from two years ago, Battle King!! We’ll Rise Again, the first part of a two-part sequel, and it features singers from Stardust Promotion‘s roster of dance and vocal groups. So we’re talking about members of ONE N’ ONLY, and BUDDiiS etc. It’s essentially a story of guys torn between the world of music and dance and proving themselves in a fighting arena.
Senpai wa Otokonoko: Ame Nochi Hare 
映画 先輩はおとこのこ あめのち晴れ 「Eiga Senpai wa otoko no ko ame nochi hare」
Release Date: February 14th, 2025
Duration: 90 mins
Director: Shinsuke Yanagi
Writer: Yoriko Tomita (Screenplay), Pom (Original Creator),
Starring: Akira Sekine (Saki Aoi), Shuichiro Umeda (Makoto Hanaoka), Yuma Uchida (Ryuji Taiga), Ai Sato (Masako Aoi), Ai Kakuma (Ai Hayase),
Animation Production: project No.9
Website Twitter: @painoko_anime ANN MAL
This appears to be the movie sequel to a popular TV anime. It’s directed by Shinsuke Yanagi and he has had lots of credits for key animation on 2000s anime like Full Metal Panic and Black Lagoon, Paranoia Agent and Samurai 7. His most pertinent credit is directing Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki, a high school story.
Synopsis: High school student Makoto is an effeminate boy who attracts the attentions of Aoi Saki, an energetic younger student at the high school he attends who falls in love with him, and childhood friend Ryuji. As their school begins its spring break, Saki goes to see her father, Yuji, who lives in Hawaii and he asks her if she wants to live with him there. Saki is torn between deciding upon who to live with, her mother or father, while Makoto and Ryuji, now in their third year, also have to make a choice about their future.