Welcome to the second trailer post of the week
You can find part one here and part two will follow tomorrow.
What are the next selection of Japanese films on release?
Nemuru Baka 
ネムルバカ 「Nemuru Baka」
Release Date: March 20th, 2025
Duration: 106 mins.
Director: Yugo Sakamoto
Writer: Aya Satsuki, Yugo Sakamoto (Screenplay), Masakazu Ishiguro (Original Manga)
Starring: Shiori Kubo, Yuna Taira, Kohei Higuchi, Keito Tsuna, Usagi, Hisashi Yoshizawa, Kohaku Shida,
Website Twitter: @nemurubakamovie JFDB IMDB
Yugo Sakamoto of the Baby Assassins franchise makes another female-duo led movie, only this one involves university students rather than the world of killers.
The name for me in this project is Masakazu Ishiguro since he was behind the manga-anime And Yet the Town Movies.
Synopsis: University student Yumi Irisu is roommates and friends with her senior, Ruka Kujirai, at a women’s dormitory. Yumi likes to spend her days drinking at cheap pubs and watching old foreign TV dramas while Luka is playing the guitar and when it looks like she has been scouted by a major music record company, their daily life together begins to change dramatically.
Oshiri Tantei Movie 6: Star and Moon 
映画おしりたんてい スター・アンド・ムーン 「Eiga oshiro tanetei Suta- ando Mu-no」
Release Date: March 20th, 2025
Duration: N/A mins
Director: Hiroki Shibata
Writer: Shoji Yinemura (Screenplay), Troll (Original Creator),
Starring: Yuko Sanpei (Oshiri Tantei), Ayaka Saito (Brown), Takahiro Sakurai (Kaito U), Ikkei Watanabe (Chief Maarcheese), Hochu Otsuka (Kaito G),
Animation Production: Toei Animation
Website Twitter: @o_tantei ANN MAL
Oshiri Tantei, which is based on a popular children’s book. It’s movie adaptations first popped up as shorts in the Toei Eiga Matsuri back in 2019 and 2020 and they have since gone on to become a regular theatre fixture with feature-length entries in 2021, 2022, and 2023
Synopsis: Koala-chan asks Oshiri Tantei to find a relative who disappeared from an idol contest on Stardust Island, which happens to be the home of an international criminal organization called Phantom Thief Academy, which is headed by Phantom Thief G. Oshiri Tantei disguises himself as an idol and goes undercover, joining forces with Phantom Thief U, who is out to steal back the valuable Moonlight Stone from Phantom Thief G.
The Red Spectacles 4K Restoration 
紅い眼鏡 「Akai megane」
Release Date: March 21st, 2025 / Original Release Date: February 07th, 1987
Duration: 120 mins.
Director: Mamoru Oshii
Writer: Mamoru Oshii, Kazunori Ito (Screenplay), Tamehito Somai (Original Novel)
Starring: Shigeru Chiba, Machiko Washio, Hideyuki Tanaka, Tessho Gonda, Mako Hyodo, Hiro Oikawa,
Website Twitter: @barque105 IMDB
This is Mamoru Oshii’s first live-action film and was the starting point for the “Cerberus Saga,” which includes the incredible anime Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. It has been given a 4K restoration based on the 35mm film.
It’s fun, very theatrical.
Synopsis: At the end of the 20th century, crime in Japan has spiralled out of control and so the Metropolitan Police Department created the heavily armed Anti Vicious Crime Heavily Armoured Mobile Special Investigations Unit (nicknamed “Kerberos”) but, after getting a handle on crime, their brutality gets them disbanded. Three members of the squad go on the run, one of them, Koichi Todome escaping overseas. Three years later, Koichi returns to keep a promise to the two he left behind…
BAUS: The Ship’s Voyage Continues 
BAUS 映画から船出した映画館 「BAUS Eiga kara funade shita eigakan」
Release Date: March 21st, 2025
Duration: 116 mins.
Director: Sora Hokimoto
Writer: Shinji Aoyama, Sora Hokimoto (Screenplay), Takuo Honda (Original Autobiography)
Starring: Shota Sometani, Kazunobu Mineta, Kaho, Soraji Shibuya, Ken Mitsuishi, Ai Hashimoto,
Website Twitter: @BAUS_movie JFDB
Sora Hokimoto’s career goes back over a decade. I first wrote about films he was involved with in 2013 where he was production support and AD on films directed by major names Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, Ryuichi Hiroki, and Hitoshi One. He went on to be AD on The Vortex of Love/Be My Baby (2013) and then made his breakthrough with Haruneko (2016), which I watched while living in Osaka in 2017.
This BAUS film is based on an autobiography by cinema owner and producer Takuo Honda (he produced Parks, which I also saw in 2017), and, according to JFDB, was originally slated to be adapted by Shinji Aoyama (Eureka (2000) before he passed away. “Sora Hokimoto, Aoyama’s favourite disciple, took over the project and completed the film, continuing the vision that Aoyama had nurtured.”
Lead actor Shota Sometani worked with Shinji Aoyama in Tokyo Park (2011). Other names include Ken Mitsuishi (Eureka) and Ai Hashimoto (Parks).
Synopsis: This drama depicts 90 years of history and family stories surrounding the Kichijoji Baus Theater, a movie/rakugo/theatre theatre (as in stageplays) that closed in 2014, and predecessor buildings. It begins in the 192os when brothers Hajime and Saneo move from Aomori to Tokyo and open Kichijoji’s first cinema.