E3 week! Yay! More hype about video games like Bayonetta 2 and The Evil Within! Also the World Cup started this week and I’m already sick of hearing about it. Football, please shut up!
Only one movie review this week and that was for The Snow White Murder Case on Monday. It turned out larger than expected and I enjoyed writing it and I’m glad to see that it’s getting comments. Be My Baby has been complete for at least a week and a half but that goes out next week Monday. Judge! the week after that. I also reported on Japan Cuts 2014 which looks awesome!
I’ve also update my summer 2014 anime picks with PVs for Space Dandy and the latest for Terror in Tokyo/Zankyou no Terror.
What’s released in Tokyo this weekend?
Climbing to Spring 
Japanese Title:春を背負って
Romaji: Haru wo Seotte
Running Time: 116 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Daisaku Kimura
Writer: Tomoyuki Takimoto (Screenplay), Ryouhei Sasamoto (Novel)
Starring: Kenichi Matsuyama, Yu Aoi, Etsushi Toyokawa, Fumi Dan, Kaoru Kobayashi, Sakura Ando,
Tooru (Matsuyama) grew up on the Tateyama Mountain Range but rebelled against his strict father and moved to the city to take up a job as a financial trader. When he discovers that his father has died, he travels back to the mountains for the funeral and decides to stay. At first he finds the transition from city to wilderness tough but he finds the place good for him. Then, a strange man named Goro (Toyokawa) appears and claims to be a friend of Tooru’s late father…
Gift
Japanese Title: Gift
Romaji: Gift
Running Time: 116 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Taro Miyaoka
Writer: Yukari Nakamura (Screenplay),
Starring: Kenichi Endo, Ren Matsui,
Zenzo Shinozaki (Endo) is retiring from his role as a company president but there’s nobody waiting for him since his bad temper alienated others. Saori Yaane (Matsui) is a hostess who killer her mother to protect a sibling. Zenzo pays Saori 100 million yen for 100 hours of her time for a journey they take together…
High Kick Angels 
Japanese Title:ハイキック・エンジェルス
Romaji: Haikikku Enjerusu
Running Time: 90 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Kazuhiro Yokoyama
Writer: Fuyuhiko Nishi (Screenplay),
Starring: Kanon Miyahara, Risako Ito, Mayu Kawamoto, Hirona Nagashima, Ryu Nakatani, Chisato Morishita, Nana,
The girls of a high school’s action film club love Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and head to an abandoned school to shoot their movie “High Kick Angels” but a gang breaks in and seals the place off! The girls have no choice but to break out and break some faces in the process!
Fig Tree’s Forest 
Japanese Title:無花果の森
Romaji: Ichijiku no Mori
Running Time: 108 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Tomoyuki Furumaya
Writer: Makoto Hayashi (Screenplay), Mariko Koike (Novel)
Starring: Yoon Hak, Natsuki Harada, Masaki Miura, Kyoko Enami
Young-Ho (Yoon Hak) travelled from Korea to Japan to study journalism and found work as a paparazzi. His job got him involved in a domestic violence story involving an internationally famous conductor Yoshihiko Shintani (Miura) and his beautiful wife Izumi (Harada). She ran away and set herself up as a housekeeper with a painter named Yaeko Tenbo (Enami) in a rural town. Young-Ho meets Izumi again. Could they be in love and what will happen between them?
My Man 
Japanese Title:私の男
Romaji: Watashi no Otoko
Running Time: 128 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
Writer: Takashi Ujita (Screenplay), Kazuki Sakuraba (Novel)
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Fumi Nikaido, Kengo Kora, Tatsuya Fuji, Taiga, Itsuki Sagara, Aoba Kawai,
This looks like the release of the week what with the awesome cast with Tadanobu Asano (Vital) and Fumi Nikaido (Why Don’t You Play in Hell?) acting alongside each other.
When Hana (Nikaido) lost her family to an earthquake and tsunami at the age of 9 she is taken into care by a relative named Jungo (Asano). Hana declares that she will never leave Jungo but years later she marries a man named Yoshiro Ozaki (Kora). When she returns from her honeymoon, Jungo is missing…
My Hawaiian Discovery 
Japanese Title:わたしのハワイの歩きかた
Romaji: Watashi no Hawaii no Arukikata
Running Time: 119 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Koji Maeda
Writer: Ryo Takada (Screenplay),
Starring: Rin Takanashi, Nana Eikura, Koji Seto Ryo Kase, Yuri Nakamura, Jun Yoshinaga, Shohei Uno, Sosuke Ikematsu, Misa Uehara, Miyuki Sato,
Minori (Eikura) is a magazine editor who is happy with life (what? No drama???). She heads off to Hawaii to help a friend out with her wedding. In Hawaii she meets Akane (Takanashi), a woman hunting for a husband, Tsutomu (Seto), a businessman pursuing a dream, and Tomoya (Kase), the son of a wealthy man. The four explore Hawaii together.
Maria no Chibusa 
Japanese Title:マリアの乳房
Romaji: Maria no Chibusa
Running Time: 85 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Takahisa Zeze
Writer: Takahisa Zeze (Screenplay),
Starring: Shima Onishi, Kokone Sasaki, Daisuke Iijima, Kiyomi Ito, Taijiro Tamura, Yota Kawase, Takuya Matsunaga,
Kokone Sasaki stars as a girl named Masao who has ESP. She can detect when a person will die when she touches their skin. She disappears and takes up work as a prostitute but men who go with her wind up dying. A man name Tachibana (Onishi) tracks her down and revenge may be involved…
Sweet Poolside 
Japanese Title:スイートプールサイド
Romaji: Sui-to Pu-rusaido
Running Time: 103 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Daigo Matsui
Writer: Daigo Matsui (Screenplay), Shuzo Oshimi (Manga)
Starring: Yuiko Kariya, Kenta Suga, Mitsuki Tanimura, Moe Arai, Motoki Ochiai, Shota Totsuka, Takayuki Kinoshita, Go Riju,
Toshihiko Ota is part of the male swim team and has so little hair he is bullied. Ayako Goto is a part of the female swim team ad has lots of hair. Presumably love blossoms…
Oh! Invisible Man/ Invisible Girl Appearance? 
Japanese Title: Oh!透明人間 インビジブルガール登場!?
Romaji: Oh! Tohmei Ningen Inbijiburu Ga-ru Tojou!?
Running Time: 72 mins
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Director: Akiraman Magita
Writer: Akiraman Magita (Screenplay), Yasuhiro Nakanishi (Manga)
Starring: Asuka Kishi, Yoshikazu Kotani, Misato Hirata,
It’s an adaptation of a manga where a guy gets to be invisible after eating salmon roe or something and he spies on girls only it looks like there’s a girl with the same power and blah, blah, hentai, hentai. It looks like there’s some shounen ai as well. Serves the invisible guy right for sneaking into showers other people are using…
As should be clear from the above I’m not interested in this one in the slightest but it’s a popular manga/film series so maybe I’m missing out. Funnily enough, I was reading volume 9 of The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service and amidst all of the pop-culture references, there’s one for Oh! Invisible Man plus one of those awesome cultural notes from Carl Gustav Horn. In the same chapter, there’s a reference to Mamoru Oshii, one of my favourite directors.
Tokyo Densetsu: Kyofu no Ningen Jigoku 
Japanese Title: 劇場版東京伝説歪んだ異形都市
Romaji: Gekijouban Tokyo Densetsu: Yuganda Igyou Toshi
Release Date: June 14th, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 69 mins.
Director: Seiji Chiba
Writer: Seiji Chiba (Screenplay), Yumeaki Hirayama (Original Manga),
Starring: Mei Kurokawa, Airi Nakajima, Akira Onogawa,
Yumeaki Hirayama’s horror manga gets another adaptation where random young women get chased by psychotic and vaguely supernatural men. A guy in a wheelchair in a hotel, a guy looking for a stuffed bear and a guy in a forest with a baseball bat.
Inazuma Eleven Hyperdimensional Dream Match 
Japanese Title: イナズマイレブン 超次元ドリームマッチ
Romaji: Inazuma Eleven Chou Jigen Dori-mu Macchi
Release Date: June 13th, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 50 mins.
Director: Seiji Chiba
Writer: Seiji Chiba (Screenplay), Yumeaki Hirayama (Original Manga),
Starring: Junko Takeuchi (Mamoru Endou), Hirofumi Nojima (Shuuya Gouenji), Hiroyuki Yoshino (Yuuto Kidou),
The Level 5 football game Inazuma Eleven is released in a handful of cinemas in Tokyo.
