Hello dear readers!
I hope everyone had a great Halloween. This week, I watched a few horror/supernatural films. I saw Ghostbusters at my local cinema and had a blast. Seeing Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and the gang on the big screen was awesome an it lived up to my expectations. I think I’ll review it. I also watched The Beast Must Die, an old Amicus production from the ‘70s.
I started the week with a post about the guests who will appear at the East Winds Film Festival and then I posted my annual Halloween review for POV: A Cursed Film which I found to be a lot of fun and worth watching.
Okay, so we’re going into the next couple of months with reviews aplenty. Big reviews. I’m going to continue with the trend of one a week.
“Just look at her and tell me the world isn’t going to change.”
What’s released in Tokyo cinemas this weekend?
Sofuten! 
Japanese: ソフテン!
Romaji: Sofuten
Release Date: October 31st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 84 mins.
Director: Yasunari Izuma
Writer: Yusei Naruse (Screenplay), Mina Itaba (Original Manga)
Starring: KANON (Kanon Tsuyama), Aika Oota, Mirei Tanaka, 
MIINA, Rio Sugawara, Mai Okamoto, Yui Masaki, Karin, Nanami Koyama, Saki Shishima, Dankan,
Girls from HKT48, SUPER ☆ GiRLS star in an adaptation of a manga from 2010 about a bunch of girls ranging from Yankees and fujoshi to more “gluttonous” ones who join the school softball team which is run by a janitor.
Dankan, I don’t really know all that much about him but I enjoyed watching him in Getting Any? and Eyes of the Spider. He was also in Noroi: The Curse.
Bay Blues: 25 Years and 364 Days 
Japanese: ベイブルース 25歳と364日
Romaji: Bei Buru-su 25-sai to 364-nichi
Release Date: October 31st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 120 mins.
Director: Tomohiro Takayama
Writer: Takeshi Kaneda (Screenplay), Tomohiro Takayama (Original Story)
Starring: Tamiyasu Cho, Shozo Endo, Natsumi Ogawa, Shigeru Minmide, Iihwa, Eri Ishida, Yuta Kajiwara,
Eitoku Kawamoto was a rising-star of the comedy world before he died at the age of twenty-five. His comedy partner Tomohiro Takayama wrote an autobiography about him, trying to capture Eitoku’s style of comedy and what drove him by depicting his life. That book became a best-seller and has now been turned this film.
Greatful Dead 
Japanese Title: グレイトフル デッド
Romaji: Gureitofuru Deddo
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 98 mins.
Director: Eiji Uchida
Writer: Eiji Uchida, Etsuo Hiratani (Screenplay),
Starring: Kumi Takiuchi, Takashi Sasano, Kkobbi Kim, Aira, Itsuji Itao, Taro Yabe, Wakana Sakai, Hoka Kinoshita,
I’ve written about Greatful Dead a lot on this site mostly because this one’s getting a release at the end of January 2015 thanks to Third Window Films and it has toured the UK quite a bit and has gotten a lot of praise. I’ve read nothing but good things so I’m looking forward to watching it at some point. Here’s the UK trailer and the Japanese trailer.
Nami’s childhood was brutal: her mother ran away to Sri Lanka to help poor kids, her sister skipped town with her boyfriend and her father descended into despair and got himself a gothic mistress who played on this. Now that she’s grown up she takes pleasure in spying on people, watching loners in society and enjoying seeing their pain. Seeing one old man’s misery gives her more pleasure than most other but when Christian missionaries offer him happiness, well, Nami has to step in.
Clover 
Japanese Title: クローバー
Romaji: Kuro-ba-
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 120 mins.
Director: Takeshi Furusawa
Writer: Taeko Asano (Screenplay), Toriko Chiya (Original Manga),
Starring: Emi Takei, Tadayoshi Okura, Kento Nagayama, Natsuna Watanabe, Yusuke Kamiji Kai Shishido, Rie Shibata, Yasuko Mitsuura, Erena Mizusawa,
Takeshi Furusawa… That’s the director. I know I’ve written about him before but what was it about… THAT AWFUL J-horror, Ghost Train (2006)! He was Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s AD on the far superior Kairo (2000). So he’s stuck in the land of manga and novel adaptations and he’s doing shoujo… What’s it about?
Shy girl Saya Suzuki (Takei) works at a hotel as an OL and has a crush on her boss Susumu (Okura). As romance blossoms, Saya becomes a stronger person.
Akane Kurarinetto 
Japanese Title: 茜色クラリネット
Romaji: Akane Kurarinetto
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 81 mins.
Director: Yuno Sakamoto
Writer: Yuki Shimazaki (Screenplay),
Starring: Sato Kaedeko, Rina Sato, Yuki Morita, Chie Ohashi, Risa Kumaki, Ayumu Saito, Tsuyoshi Sato,
This film is just like my life! I used to be in my high school orchestra and I played the clarinet. I never had any near death experiences, though. And no scary looking bear appeared either. This was made as part of a workshop involving unior high school students in Sapporo. Yuko Sakamoto is actually a high schooler but was tutored in the art of directing by Masato Sakai and Wataru Hayakawa.
Akane (Kaedeko Sato) is a junior high school student who has a friend in a coma. She discovers a book that allows her to enter another plane of existence… She enters a dream world and sees the unconscious world of her friend but as she starts doing this, a strange disease hits her town and begins to affect the children…
Tori no Michi wo Koete 
Japanese Title: 鳥の道を越えて
Romaji: Tori no Michi wo Koete
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 93 mins.
Director: Yuki Imai
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Yuki Imai travels to the Tono region of Gifu prefecture to track a man and his grandson who keep track of migratory birds in the area and what the nature of their situation is.
Natsu zen Owari 
Japanese Title: 夏前。 おわり
Romaji: Natsu zen Owari
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 81 mins.
Director: Yuki Sasaki
Writer: Yuki Sasaki (Screenplay),
Starring: Yuko Kageyama, Takuma Watanabe, Atsushi Hijiri, Marie Ono, Susume Katayama, Ayaka Komatsu, Natsuki Seki,
This is another Enbu Seminar films, a series of titles that allow young filmmakers to get experience in making professional productions. In the third of a trilogy of Enbu films, director Yuki Sasaki wants to examine the despair and hope of a group of people.
Hatachi no Kuzu 
Japanese Title: はたちのクズ
Romaji: Hatachi no Kuzu
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 65 mins.
Director: Natsusakura Suzuki,
Writer: Natsusakura Suzuki (Screenplay),
Starring: Minehiro Kinomoro, Ryosuke Kawamura, Hitomi Ikehane, Akira Sakai, Atsushi Shiraki, Kanji Tsuda,
This is another indie film from a young filmmaker and it has a lot of tragedy in it as well as hope as we see two brothers who were separated and a mother who finds it hard to get over her loss.
Hikari no Neiro The Back Horn Film 
Japanese Title: 光の音色 THE BACK HORN Film
Romaji: Hikari no Otoiro The Back Horn Film
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 85 mins.
Director: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
Writer: Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Screenplay),
Starring: Masashi Yamada, Eijun Suganami, Koshu Okamine, Shinji Matsuda,
The Back Horn appear in The Tone of Light which is directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri – My Man (2014), End of Summer (2013) – and was filmed in Vladivostok in Russia. It has a bunch of extras from the country. It looks like it is about an old man who wants to bury his wife, the love of his life. Apparently, the music of The Back Horn.is appropriate. I’ll stick to Tricot and shoe gazey stuff like The Florist. And Touhou vocals.
Ignorance of Knowledge 
Japanese Title: 無知の知
Romaji: Muchi no Chi
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 107 mins.
Director: Choya Ishida
Writer: N/A (Screenplay),
Starring: Yukio Edano Tetsuro Fukuyama, Naoto Kan, Kenichi Shimomura, Tetsuo Sawada, Kaoru Yosano,
In this 3/11 documentary we see former government ministers interviewed about their response to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. We also get insight into the rise of green energy with solar power getting analysed as well as the restart of Japan’s nuclear power plants.
Wonogawa 
Japanese Title: ヲ乃ガワ WONOGAWA
Romaji: Wonogawa
Release Date: November 01st, 2014 (Japan)
Running Time: 114 mins.
Director: Hiroki Yamaguchi
Writer: Hiroshi Yamaguchi (Screenplay), Hiroki Yamaguchi, Yuri Takahashi, (Original Story)
Starring: Mizuho Abe, Achi Naoyasu, Keiko Koike, Nozomi Maeda, Luchino Fujisaki, Motoki Fukami, Junichi Kawamoto, Nao Oikawa, Naomi,
Sci-fi… How long as it been since I saw a sci-fi film which wasn’t anime… Feels like a long time. What’s this about? A series of environmental disasters strike the Earth in the not too distant future and a few pockets of humanity hold out. One such community founded a town at a hot spring in Japan and managed to survive but the discovery of a mobile phone from the ancient past heralds the start of chaos.
And that’s it. No more dodgy translations for this week. Here’s a random Holiday appropriate video for you guys.
