Hello once again dear audience!
I posted the weekly trailers like usual last Saturday and totally forgot it was Valentine’s Day! A belated Happy Valentine’s Day to you all. Yesterday I got some very lovely Studio Ghibli-related gifts from a kind and dear friend who visited the exhibition in Paris. They were an unexpected surprise and I love them! So thanks, if you read this! What a great week!
This week I posted about the UK release of Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (the release date has changed so I updated the original post) and a review of The Devil’s Path something that has been on the back-burner for a while, and a preview of the Japanese films at the Glasgow Film Festival. Expect a review for Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno to be posted next week because I am finally editing that beast down from 2000+ words. I’m writing up my review of the two films I saw at this year’s Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme and I am currently making my way through Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on the PSP and enjoying it (when I should be writing)!
Like Peter in Dawn of the Dead, I’m leaving things to the last minute!
What’s released in Japan this weekend?
The Pro Wrestling Cannon Ball Run 2014, The Movie
Japanese Title: 劇場版プロレスキャノンボール2014
Romaji: Gekijouban Puro Resu Kyanon Bo-ru 2014
Release Date: February 16th, 2015 (Japan)
Running Time: 130 mins.
Director: Muscle Sakai
Writer: N/A
Starring: Sahshiro Takagi, Minoru Suzuki, Jun Kasai, Muscle Sakai, Ryuohei Fukuda,
This is a documentary film where we see wrestlers in the Tohoku region get involved with a Canon Ball Run and get involved in fights in local areas while meeting all sorts of people.
The Case of Hana & Alice
Japanese Title: 花とアリス 殺人事件
Romaji: Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: 100 mins.
Director: Shunji Iwai
Writer: Shunji Iwai (Screenplay/Original Creator),
Starring: Yu Aoi (Tetsuko Arisugawa), Anne Suzuki (Hana Arai), Ryou Kazuji (Kotaro Yuda – a man who holds the key to the murder mystery), Haru Kuroki (Satomi Hagino-sensei – Hana and Alice’s homeroom teacher), Tae Kimura (Yuki Tsutsumi – the ballet classroom teacher), Shouko Aida (Kayo Arisugawa – Alice’s mother), Sei Hiraizumi (Kenji Kuroyanagi – Alice’s father), Ranran Suzuki (Tomomi Mutsu – Hana’s classmate), Tomohiro Kaku (Asanaga-sensei), Midoriko Kimura (Tomomi Arai – Hana’s mother),
This is the prequel movie to Shunji Iwai’s wonderful 2004 coming-of-age film Hana & Alice, the film which was the break-out title for two totally talented actors Yu Aoi and Anne Suzuki who respectively starred as Alice and Hana, two school girls in an intense friendship who both experience love for the first time. Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken tells the story of how the girls first met and it is apparently through the world’s smallest murder case. I really like the look of the animation and the character designs as I made clear in my preview for the film.
Fantastic Girls
Japanese Title: でーれー ガールーズ
Romaji: Deeree Garuzu
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: 118 mins.
Director: Akiko Ohku
Writer: Takashi Minamoto (Screenplay), Maha Harada (Original Novel),
Starring: Mio Yuki, Rika Adachi, Yuri Shirahane, Kei Aran, Kenta Suga, Masato Yano, Kae Sugiura, Chika Yamane,
Ayuko (Yuki) has transferred schools from Tokyo to Okayama and has no friends. She hangs out with her boyfriend Hideo (Yano), a college student, and draws romance manga of the two of them. Takemi (Adachi) is Ayuko’s classmate and she likes reading Ayuko’s manga and thanks to that the two become friends until a certain incident occurs… Thirty years later, Ayuko (Shirahane) is a manga artist back in her old high school to give a lecture where Takemi (Aran) is a teacher…
Klevani: Ai no Tunnel / Tunnel of Love The Place For Miracles
Japanese Title: クレヴァニ、 愛トンネル
Romaji: Klevani: Ai no Tonneru
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: 85 mins.
Director: Akiyoshi Imazeki
Writer: Akira Ishikawa, Akiyoshi Imazeki (Screenplay), Akiyoshi Imazeki (Original Novel),
Starring: Miki Honoka, Sho Oyamada, Masaru Mizuno, Masaru Mizuno, Chieko Uozumi, Itsuji Itao, Nanaka Kawamura, Tomoe Koyanagi, Yoichi Okamura,
Kei (Oyamada) and Kazuha (Honoka) are separated by a tragic accident. Kei cannot get over the loss of the love of his life and finds out about a village in the Ukraine where people can meet those they have lost, they just have to enter a tunnel… They find themselves reunited and there’s no mention of the huge age gap between the high school girl and the adult male.
I Live in Shimokita 2003 to 2014 (Someday, to be Independent)
Japanese Title: 下北沢で生きるShimokita 2003 to 2014
Romaji: Shimokita azawa de Ikiru Shimokita 2003 to 2014
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: 95 mins.
Director: Mayumi Saito
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
I like the poster a lot – the look on the cycling girl’s face is intriguing. It’s a shame I couldn’t find a trailer. It’s for a documentary about the evolution of Shimokita’s music and theatre venues from 2003 to 2014, the problems faced by various places, the musicians, actors and others who are involved in keeping the cultural life of the city alive. Expect interviews with many people.
The Boy Who Has A Lifeless Eyes / The Boy with Dead Eyes
Japanese Title: 死んだ目をした少年
Romaji: Shinda me o shita shounen
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: N/A
Director: Hayato Kano
Writer: Akira Ishikawa, Akiyoshi Imazeki (Screenplay), Tomohiro Koizumi (Original Manga),
Starring: Naoya Shimizu, Maria Takagi, Satsuki, Miyabi Nishii, Shono Hayama, Shigeaki Fukui, Daigo Nozawa, Keito Sakurai,
Inuta (Shimizu) and Kazumiya live in a small country village and attend middle school. They suffer a degree of bullying at home and in school but an encounter with a woman named Fueko leads them into learning boxing from her which makes them feel like they are escaping their boring lives. It also creates a rift between them and their classmates including Tsuyomi (Satsuki), who has feelings for Inuta.
Minna no Gakkou
Japanese Title: みんなの学校
Romaji: Minna no Gakkou
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: 106 mins.
Director: Toshinaga Manabe
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
This is an award-winning documentary that was originally broadcast on television and re-edited for the big screen. Forgive me translation but it’s about an elementary school that takes care of kids with behavioural issues. The principal aims to get the truancy rate to zero and enlists the help of the parents, faculty, and children to make the school an inviting place, a “school for all,” hence the title Minna no Gakko (Everyone’s School).
THE ALFEE 40th Anniversary Film THE LAST GENESIS 40 Year History and Miracle
Japanese Title: THE ALFEE 40th Anniversary Film THE LAST GENESIS 40年の軌跡と奇跡
Romaji: THE ALFEE 40th Anniversary Film THE LAST GENESIS 40nen no Rekishi to Kiseki
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: N/A
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
Starring: Toshihiko Takamizawa, Konosuke Sakazaki, Sakurai Masaru
This documentary film was made when The Alfee were celebrating their 40th anniversary last year. Expect interviews with the band and people in the music industry and performances that stretch back from 1974 to 2014.
Piramekikoyaku Koi Monogatari: Koyaku ni Akogareru Subete no Oyako no Tame ni
Japanese Title: ピラメキ子役恋ものがたり 子役に憧れるすべての親子のために
Romaji: Piramekikoyaku Koi Monogatari: Koyaku ni Akogareru Subete no Oyako no Tame ni
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: 64 mins.
Director: Isamu Ohta
Writer: Mori Hayashi (Screenplay),
Starring: Fuku Suzuki, Rina Ikoma, Satoshi Kanada, Akiyoshi Kawashima, Kentaro Watari, David Ridges, Kenji Murakami,
Apparently Piramekikoyaku is a variety programme aimed at children and broadcast on TV Tokyo. The lead actor is child actor Suzuki Fuku and through hi we get to see behind-the-scenes of the Japanese TV industry and all sorts of weird stuff as can be glimpsed in the brief trailer.
Radio Love
Japanese Title: ピラメキ子役恋ものがたり 子役に憧れるすべての親子のために
Romaji: Piramekikoyaku Koi Monogatari: Koyaku ni Akogareru Subete no Oyako no Tame ni
Release Date: February 20th, 2015
Running Time: N/A
Director: Hideyuki Tokigawa
Writer: Hideyuki Tokigawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Yuji Yokoyama, Sakura Nakano, Takashi Tanaka,
A radio DJ in Hiroshima who is bored of his job finds himself saving a young girl who is about to fall off a bridge. The girl pleads with him not to quit and tells him about the importance that the radio has because it helps connect people. This is the start of a series of strange events and appearances of strange people and all of this will make the radio DJ change his mind about leaving his station!
Aaaaaaaaaannnnd that’s it for another weekend!!!
Random music video – TACTICS OGRE LET US CLING TOGETHER!!!:
