Welcome to the second trailer post of the week.
You can find the first post here.
What are the rest of this week’s trailers?
Kisspeptin Chronicles 
恋脳Experiment 「Koi nou Experiment」
Release Date: February 14th, 2025
Duration: 110 mins.
Director: Shiika Okada
Writer: Shiika Okada, Kazune Okada (Screenplay)
Starring: Kirara Inori, Amon Hirai, Aoba Kawai, Ayumu Nakajima, Yu Futami, Marie Ono,
Website Twitter: @rennou_ex
Director Shiika Okada has an animation background, earned while she studied at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School (she won a Pia Film Festival award for Journey to the Maternal Awakening (2021)). For her live-action feature debut, she wrote the screenplay with her brother who is also a filmmaker.
Two of the leads are actors I’ve seen grow since they first appeared together in OAFF film Sayounara (2018). They are Kirara Inori, who has appeared in notable festival film Yamabuki (2022) and Happyend (2024). One of her male leads is Amon Hirai, who was in For Rei (2019), On the Edge of Their Seats (2020), and Melting Sounds (2022).
This has been on the festival circuit for a bit which is where I was able to get details quite easily.
Synopsis: We follow the disastrous love life of Shigusa, from her preteen years when she gets the idea that having a boyfriend will improve her, to her time as an art student with a pompous dancer for a partner, to her time in an ad agency where she is sexually harassed. As she moves experiences love and heartbreak, she also undergoes a journey of self-discovery through art world as she explores ways to redefine her identity and break free from the traditional gender roles that have shaped her experiences.
Soshite, Yuko II 
そして、優子II 「Soshite, Yuko II」
Release Date: February 15th, 2025
Duration: 110 mins.
Director: Tatsunori Sato
Writer: Tatsunori Sato, Tomohiro Yokomaku (Screenplay)
Starring: Michiru Seto, Yurei Yanagi, Kozo Takeda, Nobu Morimoto, Masato Oki, Makoto Shinada,
Website Twitter: @MovieYuko2
Tatsunori Sato has one other film to his name, Wakusai Mizusa from back in 2014!!! Anyway, this looks to be Michiru Seto’s debut feature film as she acts the role of a yakuza boss’s daughter. Said yakuza is played by Yurei Yanagi, a Takeshi Kitano regular – Boiling Point – and also the cursed video editor in Hideo Nakata’s Ring.
The theme of the film is “Oya-gacha,” as in you get your parents by luck, just as if you got them from a capsule toy (gacha) machine. This randomness dictates the family environment in which children are raised and how they are shaped.
Synopsis: Yuko is a high school girl in a small country town and is being raised by a single father. He just happens to be a yakuza boss. Yuko doesn’t see him often but she finds that he and his gang are kind to her even if their way of life is difficult. Yuko enjoys her life but a trivial incident begins to change it…
FUKUSHIMA with BELA TARR
Release Date: February 15th, 2025
Duration: 180 mins.
Director: Kaori Oda
Writer: N/A
Starring: Bela Tarr
Synopsis: Béla Tarr is a famed Hungarian filmmaker known for Satantango (1994) and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) and he taught filmmaking after retiring. Documentarian Kaori Oda (Cenote, she also has the film Underground at Berlinale), studied under Béla Tarr and she recorded a workshop he held in Fukushima, Japan, in February 2024. The attendees were young filmmakers from around the world who travelled to the Prefecture and had to make their own short films.
LETTERS FROM FUKUSHIMA
Release Date: February 15th, 2025
Duration: 180 mins.
Synopsis: This is a collection of short films made by seven participants in the film workshop mentioned above. The workshop was held in 12 cities, towns, and villages in Fukushima Prefecture and the filmmakers found their own subjects.
This film and the above were both at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2024 and the synopses for each short was drawn from the festival site:
“Nappo”
After 13 years of silence, the instruments are played again. Nappo gathers Fukushima children at Odaka Church. Singing and dancing, they breathe new life into the land.
Director: Lin Po-Yu
2024/Color/9min/Japanese
“Wall”
A man from Namie Town had to relocate his landscaping business after the disaster. One day, he begins working on a garden in the office, which has been untouched.
Director: Ooura Miran
2024/Color/28min/Japanese
“Long Long Hair”
In a Fukushima hair salon, daily interactions unveil personal stories, resilience, and the beauty of life after the Great East Japan Earthquake and the nuclear accident.
Director: Iizuka Minami
2024/Color/23min/Japanese
“From F”
Fukushima, Family, Female, and Future. A story about various Fs, starring 17-year-old-girl who wants to be a dancer while attending an evening school in Fukushima.
Director: Shimizu Shumpei
2024/Color/10min/Japanese
“Letters from Fukushima”
“Woman, Life, Freedom” is a social movement seeking gender equality. Through three scenes of Fukushima, the film honors the women who gave their lives for dignity.
Director: Roya Eshraghi
2024/Color/27min/Japanese, Persian
“The Guests”
After a nuclear radiation leak at the Fukushima power plant in 2011, a group of Southeast Asian auto mechanics is dispatched to work in this land…
Director: Xu Zhien
2024/Color/28min/Filipino, Japanese
“Tale of Cows”
Two women who survived the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, perform a Kamishibai picturebook about the abandoned cows during the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.
Director: Fukunaga Takeshi
2024/Color/29min/Japanese