Thanks to a few days booked off from work, I was able to go day-tripping again and watch lots of films like The Howling (2012), Hideo Nakata’s The Complex (2013), Don’t Look Up (1996) and a bunch of dull J-horror titles. I also went to see the US horror Deliver Us From Evil (2014) on the opening day and that was fun. I’m trying to collect a lot of reviews for horror films so I can just post them over the autumn and winter period. I’d also like to do a Hideo Nakata season but my Japanese teacher still has my Ringu collection (I keep forgetting to ask her for it back…).
Apart from days out, a quiet week overall. I posted about this years Toronto International Film Festival (which I recently updated with some newly announced films) and the DVD release of Sake-Bomb.
I don’t know what’s happened to me but my enthusiasm for Korean films is rather lacking these days. None of the films I have watched, save Behind the Camera, and Cold Eyes (which I’ve watched twice) has entertained me all that much. Even action titles. I hope to find something good to watch over week – I’m looking forward to Broken, Unbowed, and Nobody’s Daughter Hae-Won. Maybe, Into the Mirror, if I have enough time.
With two days off next week, I’ll get cracking with the autumn anime preview. The summer titles I chose have not let me down and are always entertaining! Anybody else love The Dropkix?
What’s released in Japan this weekend?
Over Your Dead Body 
Japanese: 喰女 －クイメー
Romaji: Kuime
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 94 mins.
Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Kikumi Yamagishi (Screenplay), Tsuruya Nanboku IV (Original Kabuki Play)
Starring: Ebizo Ichikawa, Kou Shibasaki, Hideaki Ito Miho Nakanishi, Maiko, Toshie Negishi, Koichi Sato, Hiroshi Katsuno, Toshiaki Karasawa, Kenichi Hagiwara, Kei Sato,
Takashi Miike makes his meta-horror version of the very popular kabuki play Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan, by Tsuruya Nanboku IV and it stars kabuki actor Ebizo Ichikawa and Kou Shibasaki, the star of Miike’s J-horror film One Missed Call (2004). I previewed it here and wrote about it paying at the Toronto International Film Festival which is where this English subbed trailer comes from:
Kosuke Hasegawa (Ichikawa) and his lover Miyuki Goto (Shibasaki) are both cast in a new stage version of the play “Yotsuya Kaidan” which is a ghost story about a man under a family curse that ensures that any relationship with a woman will end in betrayal, supernatural vengeance, and murder. They are both in the lead roles, Kosuke playing the philandering Iemon and Miyuki playing the tragic Oiwa. It seems that fact mirrors fiction as Kosuke is a faithless lover who cheats on Miyuki with other actresses in the same play. Perhaps it is this which makes it hard for Miyuki to separate herself from the character she is portraying as she slowly becomes filled with love, anger and hate. As the two get more involved with the play, reality and fiction become one…
Marching to Tomorrow 
Japanese: Marching: 明日へ
Romaji: Marching Ashita e
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 111 mins.
Director: Shinichi Nakada
Writer: Shinichi Nakada (Screenplay),
Starring: Seika Taketomi, Dori Sakurada, Hoshi Ishida, Ryoko Kobayashi, Rin Mizumoto, Kazue Ito
Tadanobu (Sakurada) and Atsushi (Sawada) are two leading members of the brass section of the marching band Yokohama Xebec but they are far from happy. Tadanobu wants to leave the band and Atsushi has trouble dividing his time between his job and the band. Mari (Taketomi), the band leader, knock heads together to get the band to perform well and win a national competition.
Shishunki Gokko 
Japanese: 思春期ごっこ
Romaji: Shishunki Gokko
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 90 mins.
Director: Raita Nakamura
Writer: Makita Kazuomi, Raita Nakamura (Screenplay),
Starring: Honoka Miki, Misato Aoyama, Yukie Kawamura, Rina Aizawa, Risako Ito, Karin Ogino, Akihiro Mayama,
Yukie Kawamura…. We meet again. She’s the beautiful star of J-horror titles Creepy Hide and Seek and Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (both 2009) and she’s here in this film about Sapphic love…
Takane (Miki) and Mika (Aoyama) are best friends who are interested in art and literature. When they meet an ex-novelist named Namie (Kawamura), their relationship is thrown into confusion as they discover they have feelings for each other and her…
Tokugawa Maizokin Densetsu Dai Hakkutsu Purojekuto 2014 Shogunke no Ango 
Japanese: 徳川埋蔵金伝説 大発掘プロジェクト 2014 将軍家の暗号
Romaji: Tokugawa Maizokin Densetsu Dai Hakkutsu Purojekuto 2014 Shogunke no Ango
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 67 mins.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
This is a film about archaeology as we see a large excavation project to uncover the Tokugawa shogunate’s secret stash of gold. Experts have combed through recrods about the Tokugawa gold reserves and decipher a code that reveals that it may be in Tochigi Prefecture and looked after by descendants of Iga ninja… The trailer and poster do their best to make this seem dramatic but I bet it’s a boring 67 minutes watching people dig – also, would real professional archaeologists use a JCB that recklessly? What if something is damaged?
Lilou’s Adventure 
Japanese Title: リルウの冒険
Romaji: Riruu no Bouken
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 117 mins.
Director: Izuru Kumasaka
Writer: Izuru Kumasaka (Screenplay)
Starring: Lilou Diabate, Saera Nakandakari, Lamine Youl Diabate, Lily
I’m actually quite pleased to see Lilou’s Adventure crop up again. This film was at last year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival which is where I wrote the following:
It is tagged as being a “surrealistic story of two children’s journey across Japan” and while the story comes across as a simple adventure things are complicated by the fact that the main protagonist, the eponymous Lilou, is mixed-race. Not your usual white/Japanese mix but black and Japanese. Amidst the cool Twin Peaks dream sequences scenes of kawaii-Japan, 8-bit videogames and neon lights look to be darker ones where Lilou is challenged by others, perhaps because she is different. If the film explores this aspect of her character then consider me eager to watch it. Enough about my personal interests, here’s the trailer and synopsis.
Lilou is 10-years-old and half Japanese, half Guinean. She lives in Okinawa and has a friend named Kokoro. Kokoro is her only friend since Lilou’s race makes her an outsider. When Kokoro disappears, Lilou goes on a journey to find her, using clues from a video game and tracks everything through her dream diary.
Mo ichido 
Japanese: もういちど
Romaji: Mo ichido
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: N/A
Director: Hiroyuki Itaya
Writer: Hiroyuki Itaya (Screenplay/Original Story),
Starring: Nayuta Fukuzaki, Gori, Taihei Hayashiya, Mami Kumagai, Hisashiro Ogura, Momoka Ohno, Yasuko Tomita,
A period drama focussing on the comic storytelling art of Rakugo where a oung boy leaves home to train under a storyteller and meets his first love.
Tamashi no Riarizumu Gaka Noda Hiroshi 
Japanese: 魂のリアリズム 画家 野田弘志
Romaji: Tamashi no Riarizumu Gaka Noda Hiroshi
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 71 mins.
Director: Hiroyuki Itaya
Writer: N/A
Starring: Hiroshi Noda
The realist painter Hiroshi Noda gets a documentary made about him. He’s also a illustrator, designer and teacher and he resides in Hokkaido painting works that look at nature and humanity. I have never heard of him but his works look a lot better than most of the modern and contemporary art in the gallery I work in.This is directed by the guy who did the live-action Grave of the Fireflies.
New Initial D the Movie Legend 1: Awakening 
Japanese: 新劇場版 頭文字D Legend1 覚醒
Romaji: Shin Gekijouban Initial D Legend 1 – Kakusei-
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 60 mins.
Director: Masamitsu Hidaka
Writer: Mayori Sekijima (Screenplay), Shuichi Shigeno (Original Manga)
Starring: Mamoru Miyano (Takuma Fujiwara), Yuichi Nakamura (Keisuke Takahashi), Daisuke Ono (Ryosuke Takahashi), Maaya Uchida (Natsuki Mogi), Hiroaki Shiraishi (Bunta Fujiwara), Minoru Shiraishi (Itsuki Takeuchi),
This is the first in a trilogy of films that retell the original Initial D story.
High school student Takumi Fujiwara works at a gas station during the day and as a delivery boy for his father’s tofu shop during the night. Thanks to his experience driving his father’s Toyota Sprinter AE86 Trueno, he becomes the greatest amateur road racer on Mt. Aina’s highway and this makes him a rival to racing groups in the prefecture who want to take him on in races.
Gundam G no Reconguista 
Japanese: ガンダム Gのレコンギスタ 特別先行版
Romaji: Gandamu G no Rekongisuta Tokubetsu Senko-ban
Release Date: August 23rd, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: N/A
Chief Director: Yoshiyuki Tomino
Writer: N/A (Screenplay), Hajime Yatate, Yoshiyuki Tomino (Original Creators)
Starring: Mark Ishii (Bellri Zenam), Yu Shimamura (Aida Surgan), Ayahi Takagaki (Manny Ambassada), Ryota Ohsaka (Klim Nick), Takuya Sato (Luin Lee), Yukari Fukui (Raraiya Monday),
The only Gundam I have watched is Gundam Wing. I prefer mecha titles like Patlabor and Aldnoah.Zero. We’re in the middle of Gundam’s 35th anniversary celebration and franchise creator Yoshiyuki Tomino returns to his baby and expands the original tale with a new television series and the first three episodes (I think) are put together into a movie. I got the info from Anime News Network.
Some time has passed since the end of the Universal Century, a history marked by space colonization and space warfare.
Humanity’s prosperity, which ushered in a new era known as Regild Century (R.C.), was believed to endure alongside the global peace.
It is the year R.C.1014.
The Capital Tower is an orbital elevator that rose above the Earth’s surface and linked Earth and space. As the conduit of the Photon Battery energy source to the surface, it is regarded as sacred.
Beruri Zenamu is in the middle of training for the Capital Guard (established to protect the Capital Tower), when the tower is attacked by G-Serufu — a highly maneuverable mobile suit with technology that is not from any known country.
Beruri, who joins the battle in the maintenance mobile suit Rekuten, successfully captures the G-Serufu. However, Beruri feels something for the space pirate girl named Aiida Reihanton who piloted the G-Serufu. It is the same feeling he has for G-Serufu, even though he supposedly never seen it before. The G-Serufu, which should only be operable under specific conditions, is somehow started up by Beruri.
The objective of Aiida and the space pirates who attacked the Capital Tower, and the fate followed by Beruri who was chosen by G-Serufu, will lead to truths that will shake the entire Regild Century era.
