Hello, dear reader!
I hope you are well!
I’ve had a decent week if you can count struggling through some awful writer’s block and trying to get a mammoth anime preview done whilst anxiously waiting for a romantic call decent. I’ve survived. Just about. Key in helping me survive was film. I watched the Italian horror films Tenebre (1982), The Beyond (1981), and Cemetery Man (1994) and I watched the British films Lair of the White Worm (UK, 1988), School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating (UK, 1960), and the BBC documentaries Love Hotel (UK/JP, 2014), and Love is Everything: 100 Years of Love and Courtship (UK, 2014). Well. I’m going through my own courtship process with a lovely lady archaeologist at the moment and seeing how that last documentary showed love throughout the ages in Britain… well, it makes me slightly less fretful when waiting for my next meeting with my good lady. Gosh, I feel like a teenager again.
Trying to distract myself from these feelings I wrote about the release of Miss Hokusai and a review of The Thieves (2012).
What’s released in Japan this weekend?
Knights of Sidonia
Japanese: シドニアの騎士
Romaji: Sidonia no Kishi
Release Date: March 06th, 2015
Running Time: 133 mins.
Director: Kobun Shizuno
Writer: Sadayuki Murai (Screenplay), Tsutomu Nihei (Original Manga),
Starring: Ryoto Ohsaka (Nagate Tanikaze), Maki Toyosaki (Izana Shinatose), Aya Suzaki (Shizuka Hoshijiro), Eri Kitamura (En Honoka, Ho Honoka, Ren Honoka), Sayaka Ohara (Captain Kobayashi),
The movie adapts the first season of Knights of Sidonia but on top of compiling the 12 episodes there are new sequences and sound effects are redone. I enjoyed the television series as my first impression and series review make clear and I’m looking forward to the second season of Knights of Sidonia will premiere on Japanese television in April. Here’s a clip from the film:
Earth has been destroyed by Gauna forcing humanity to flee into space and look for a new home using gigantic spaceships. One of these ships is called Sidonia but it has lost contact with the other spaceships in the fleet and the inhabitants of Sidonia believe they are the last survivors of humanity. Things seem desperate as Gauna still chase them. To help fend off the threat of the Gauna’s, humanity has developed mecha named Morito (Guardian) Nagate Tanikaze is training to be a pilot. We follow his journey.
Solomon’s Perjury (Part 1)
Japanese: ソロモンの偽書 前編
Romaji: Solomon no Gisho Zenpen
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 121 mins.
Director: Izuru Narushima
Writer: Katsuhiko Manabe (Screenplay), Miyuki Miyabe (Original Novel),
Starring: Ryoko Fujino, Mizuki Itagakim Anna Ishii, Hiroya Shimizu, Miu Tomita, Koki Maeda, Reika Nishihata, Ayumu Mochizuki, Yui Natsukawa, Hiromu Nagasaku, Jiei Wakabayashi, Haru Kuroki, Tamae Ando, Miwako Ichikawa, Machiko Ono, Yutaka Matsushige, Houka Kinoshita,
Miyuki Miyabe is a famous best-selling author and directed by big-budget director Izuru Narushima (Admiral Yamamoto). Now, big-budget may be a turn-off but Narushima-kantoku has directed the brilliant heard-rending drama, Rebirth (2011). Here he works with a whole cast of new actors including Hiroya Shimizu, the tragic character in love with the devilish Kanako Fujishima in The World of Kanako (2014)! There are also other actors, some veterans, like Haru Kuroki (The Great Passage), Yutaka Matsushige (The Guard from Underground) and Machiko Ono (Like Father Like Son).
When a 14-year-old boy falls from the top of his school building, the authorities declare it as a suicide but an anonymous note given to the police claims that the sender witnessed the boy’s death and that he was killed by three troubled students at the school. The police try to hide the note but a reporter sees it while the students find themselves in an unstable situation with rumours swirling around and another one dying. To put an end to this the students hold a trial to uncover the truth…
Kept
Japanese: ら
Romaji: Ra
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 70 mins.
Director: Maki Mizui
Writer: Maki Mizui (Screenplay),
Starring: Kayano, Ken Koba, Momoha, Iona, Fuzuki, Aki, Moe Sakura, Mizuki Kusumi, Hiroko Yashiki,
I watched a film where director Maki Mizui took the lead role of a girl undergoing horrendous abuse. The film was named Endless Blue (2009) and it was harrowing at times with Mizui bravely baring all. I had forgotten about her until I wrote this preview and it turns out that she has appeared in or had a hand in creating many films I have reviewed. She was an actress in Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl and Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – The Egg of the King, Tokyo Gore Police (writer and makeup person as well for this one) and Noriko’s Dinner Table. She makes her directorial debut here.
When a young girl abducted by a serial sex criminal and released unharmed decides not to inform the police and the attacks on women continue she finds herself facing difficult moral consequences over what she has done.
A Cup of Life (English Title) / Mystery Café (Literal Title)
Japanese: 迷宮カフェ
Romaji: Meikyuu Kafe
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 111 mins.
Director: Kou Honekawa
Writer: Kou Honekawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Megumi Seki, Yui Ichikawa, Kaoru Fujiwara, Nobuaki Kakuda, Masahiko Tsugawa, Yukijiro Hotaru, Chika Arakawa, Kyoka Shibata,
Mari (Seki) is the mysterious owner of a café in an out of the way place. Rumour has it that people have disappeared at the café and Mari has an interest in people who want to commit suicide…
Little Voices from Fukushima
Japanese: 小さき声のカノン 選択する人々
Romaji: Chisaki Koe no Kanon Sentaku Suru Hitobito
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 119 mins.
Director: Hitomi Kamanaka
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
It has been a while since we have had a Fukushima Daiichi documentary but today we get three. This one has themes about living with radiation and looks at life for people in Fukushima and Chernobyl with a particular focus on mothers and children who live in contaminated areas.
Watashi no Owaranai Tabi
Japanese: わたしの、終わらない旅
Romaji: Watashi no Owaranai Tabi
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 78 mins.
Director: Masako Sakata
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
A few days before March 11th that day back in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami hit the Tohoku region and caused a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi, there’s this documentary about the anti-nuclear movement that the director’s mother was a part of. It looks at former sites of nuclear power plants and testing sites from the former Soviet Union and the Marshall Islands and the people who lived around them.
Tears of Poseidon
Japanese: ポセイドンの涙
Romaji: Poseidon no Namida
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 71 mins.
Director: Takao Oshima, Jun Kashima,
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
A few days before March 11th that day back in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami hit the Tohoku region and this documentary chooses to focus on the Maritime Self-Defence Force and the personnel who worked on the disaster elief and the people they helped. This one looks pretty powerful because it reunites survivors of the disaster with the people who saved them.
Tadashikuikiru
Japanese: 正しく生きる
Romaji: Tadashikuikru
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 108 mins.
Director: Yoshiho Fukuoka
Writer: Yoshiho Fukuoka, Banmei Takahashi, Kitashirakawa school (Screenplay),
Starring: Ittoku Kishibe, Akira Emoto, Kanako Mizumoto, Masaru Miyazaki, Takuji Suzuki, Shohei Uno, Tatsushi Omori, Mizuki Sugimoto
Students at Kyoto University of Art and Design have worked hard making a movie about people who survive a big disaster and seek to live a “correct” way which looks to involve avoiding radiation. There is a famous director who has worked on the script, Banmei Takahashi (The Way – Man of the White Porcelain), and there are some great actors like Shohei Uno (Murder Workshop), Akira Emoto (Villain, Starfish Hotel), Ittoku Kishibe (Adrift in Tokyo, Survive Style 5+) and the actor/director Tatsushi Omori (The Ravine of Goodbye).
Sekai no Owari no Izu Koneko
Japanese: 世界の終わりのいずこねこ
Romaji: Sekai no Owari no Izu Koneko
Release Date: March 7th, 2015
Running Time: 88 mins.
Director: Michihiro Takeuchi
Writer: Kenta Sakurai (Original Story), Michihiro Takeuchi, Daisuke Nishijima (Screenplay),
Starring: Akari, Jun Aonami, Shinji Imaoka, Momoka Midorikawa, Daisuke Nishijima, Rumi Shishido,
I love the poster for this film. There’s so much noise in the image and kawaii things but it fits in with the story which is set in 2035 and is all about a mysterious epidemic that has left Tokyo a bit of a wasteland and people in despair. A girl named Itsuko (Akari) takes to broadcasting songs over the internet to lift peoples spirits but some alien girls from Jupiter appear… If Inio Asano’s manga Dead Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction were ever filmed, it would look like this! Jun Aonami, that new actress who featured in Wonderful World End (2015) and the pink film director Shinji Imaoka, are in this one!
Doraemon: Nobita no Space Heroes
Japanese: ドラえもん のび太の宇宙英雄記（スペースヒーローズ）
Romaji: Doraemon Nobita no Uchuu Eiyuuki Supe-su Hi-ro-zu)
Release Date: March 07th, 2015
Running Time: 100 mins.
Director: Yoshihiro Osugi
Writer: Higashi Shimizu (Screenplay), Fujiko F. Fujio (Original Creators),
Starring: Wasabi Mizuta (Doraemon), Megumi Oohara (Nobita), Aaron (Marina Inoue), Yumi Kakazu (Shizuka), Tomokazu Seki (Suneo), Mamiko Noto (Director Burger),
This is the 46th Doraemon film. The number of Doraemon films boggles my mind. I know little about the franchise so enough waffle from me, here’s the trailer and story:
Doraemon and Director Burger want to set up a dramatic world where Nobita and his friends can truly become Space Heroes and all seems to be going according to plan until the gang realise that Director Burger’s fictional scenario is happening for real and everyone is in danger from Space Pirates. Doraemon, Nobita and friends team up with an alien named Aaron to save his home planet Pockle from space pirates.
Gekijouban PriPara Mi~nna Atsumare! Prism Tours
Japanese: 劇場版プリパラ み～んなあつまれ！プリズム☆ツアーズ
Romaji: PuriPara mi ~ nna Atsumare! Purizumu ☆ Tsuazu
Release Date: March 07th, 2015
Running Time: N/A
Director: Masakazu Hishida, Supervising Director: Makoto Moriwaki
Writer: N/A
Starring: Emiri Kato (Naru Ayase), Himika Akaneya (Laala Manaka), Yu Serizawa (Mirei Minami), Kana Asumi (Aira Harune), Miyu Kubota (Sophy Hojo), Yui Makino (Aroma), Yui Watanabe (Mikan),
Laala and her friends Mirei and Sophy are part of the increasingly popular “SoLaMi♡SMILE” PriPara idol unit and are performing in the PriPara amusement park. There are alternate stories written and animated for this movie release and the story of the film will change depending on the day that it is screened.
Random music video of the week: MUSHROOM EMPIRE
