Hello dear audience!
A new film festival for London was announced this week so I will report about it next week. I have been busy with work and also a little ill. That hasn’t stopped me from watching films, however. I watched some anime movies so I can review them and I went to the cinema to see Zootropolis (2016). I also watched Petal Dance (2013) so I can review that, too. Only one post and that was a review of the film, Sway (2006)
What’s released in Japan this weekend?
Mohican Comes Home
モヒカン故郷に帰る「Mohikan kokyo ni kaeru」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 124 mins.
Director: Shuichi Okita
Writer: Shuichi Okita (Screenplay)
Starring: Ryuhei Matsuda, Atsuko Maeda, Akira Emoto, Jun Miho, Miu Tomita, Yudai Chiba, Masako Motai,
This one was at the Osaka Asian Film Festival which I wrote about back in March. It has a great cast which includes Atsuko Maeda (Seventh Code) and Ryuhei Matsuda (The Great Passage, My Little Sweet Pea) and it’s directed by Shuichi Okita (The Story of Yonosuke, The Woodsman and the Rain).
Synopsis: Eikichi Tamura (Ryuhei Matsuda) left his hometown of Hiroshima and headed for the bright lights of Tokyo in the hopes of being a rock musician. While he made it as the lead singer of a death metal band, fame didn’t happen. Eikichi returns home several years later and tells his mother Haruko (Masako Motai) and father Osamu (Akira Emoto), that his girlfriend Yuka (Atsuko Maeda) is pregnant. His parents are simultaneously upset over the lack of preparation and excited to have a grandchild but things get difficult when Osamu collapses and is taken to hospital…
My Technicolor Girl
夢の女 ユメノヒト「Yume no onna Yume no Hito」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 71 mins.
Director: Rei Sakamoto
Writer: Futoshi Nakano (Screenplay)
Starring: Kazuhiro Sano, Kiyomi Itoh, Hanako Wada, Maki Nishiyama,
This one was at the Osaka Asian Film Festival which I wrote about back in March. It stars Kazuhiro Sano who was in a film released last weekend.
Synopsis from the Osaka Asian Film Festival site: Nagano (Kazuhiro Sano) has had a sickness of the heart for 40 years and has been hospitalized at the mental hospital in Fukushima. However, during the evacuation when the Great East Japan Earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, knowing that he’s already completely healed, he makes his way back out to into the world. Having been hospitalized from when he was in his teens until his fifties, his story is like that of Urashima Taro, the Japanese fisherman who went beneath the sea as a young man and returned to an unfamiliar world. However, his heart from long ago is for the first time full of feelings to meet the woman he loved. Before long, Nagano learns that the woman has taken refuge in Tokyo and lives with her son and his wife, and sets out on a bike headed for Tokyo.
Yami koku no Utage
闇刻の宴「Yami koku no Utage」
Release Date: April 08th, 2016
Running Time: 85 mins.
Director: Keiji Sakamoto, Eiko Sannomiya, Toru Kamei, Minoru Kunizawa
Writer: Keiji Sakamoto, Toru Kamei, Minoru Kunizawa, Ryoichi Uchida, Aiko Matsushita (Screenplay)
Starring: Haruka Kawashima, YOSHIHIRO, Yuzu Hoshino, Shintaro Sakurai, Yuka Konno, Akari, Aiko Matsushita, Eiko Sannomiya,
Synopsis: An omnibus horror movie where six fragments of nightmares in contemporary Japan is put on screen.
Girls High School
女子高「Joshikou」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 100 mins.
Director: Koki Yamamoto
Writer: Koki Yamamoto (Screenplay)
Starring: Minami Minegishi, Riho Takada, Haru Izumi, Erina Nakayama, Shiori Kitayama, Mika Ushio, Ami Tomite
Minami Minegishi, the AKB48 member who cut her hair off as atonement for dating a guy, gets her debut leading role in what looks like a generic thriller.
Synopsis: Katsuki Takahashi (Minami Minegishi) is one of six young women who are attending a high school reunion at their old school but it turns into a trap when one person is shot and dies. They receive a text message from a dead former classmate named Natsumi Shirakawa who died seven years ago. The text message asks “who is the criminal?” In order to escape their deadly situation, they must figure out the identity of the perpetrator and so they look back at what happened seven years ago.
Stray Dogz 2
闇金ドッグス 2 「Yamakin Doggusu 2」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 88 mins.
Director: Tetsuhiko Tsuchiya
Writer: Masao Ikegaya (Screenplay),
Starring: Yuki Yamada, Yuko Ito, Rio Kanno, Daisuke Kuroda, Aoki Tsunenori, Ayumi Tanida, Kazuki Namaoka,
Synopsis: Tadaomi Ando (Yuki Yamada) was once a yakuza boss but because of the bad actions of his subordinate, he quit the yakuza and went into the illegal loan shark business but times are tough and his victims are giving him a hard time.
A Silent Scream
無音の叫び声 「Muon no Sakebi Goe」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 122 mins.
Director: Masaki Haramura
Writer: N/A
Starring: Michio Kimura
Synopsis: This documentary brings us the award-winning poet Michio Kimura. He is a rice farmer, a pacifist, a patriot, a family man, and a poet with sixteen books published. He lives in Yamagata on his farm and has reached the age of 80 and this film shows his way of life, how the death of his father in World War 2 and the farming informs his poetry and his vision of modern Japan, something which worries him. Find out more about the film at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan website where there is an interview.
Tsuta kantoku: Koko yakyu wo kaeta otoko no shinjitsu
蔦監督 高校野球を変えた男の真実 「Tsuta kantoku: Koko yakyu wo kaeta otoko no shinjitsu」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 126 mins.
Director: Tetsuichiro Tsuta
Writer: N/A
Starring: Fumiya Tsuta, Kimiko Tsuta, Hitoshi Hatayama, Katsuhito Mizuno,
Synopsis: Fumiya Tsuta was a popular and highly skilled baseball player. His grandson has made a film about him and draws upon interviews of Fumiya’s wife, friends, and students as well as professional baseball players to paint a picture of a much-loved man.
Dokumushi
ドクムシ「Dokumushi」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 98 mins.
Director: Kayoko Asakura
Writer: Masao Ikegaya (Screenplay), Michio Yasu (Original Novel), Keito Aida (Original Manga)
Starring: Ryota Murai, Rina Takeda, Shintaro Akiyama, Kyoka Mizukami, Mao Noguchi, Ryusuke Komakine, Kiyotaka Uji,
Synopsis: Seven individuals are trapped in an abandoned school for seven days. There are surveillance cameras and weapons scattered about. The people in this school must find a way to survive.
Seishun 100 kiro
青春100キロ「Seishun 100 kiro」
Release Date: April 09th, 2016
Running Time: 120 mins.
Director: Katsuyuki Hirano
Writer: Masao Ikegaya (Screenplay), Michio Yasu (Original Novel), Keito Aida (Original Manga)
Starring: Ai Uehara, Kei, Tomoko,
Synopsis: When AV star Ai Uehara retired from the profession, 100 amateurs made a 100 km run to Lake Yamanaka or something.
Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:
Assassination Classroom: The Graduation (25/03/16)
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016 (2016/03/05)
Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice (25/03/16)
Chihayafuru (2016/03/19)
The Good Dinosaur (2016/03/12)
The Masked Rider #1 (25/03/16)
The Town Where Only I Am Missing (2016/03/19)
Eiga Precure All Stars: Minna de Utau Kiseki no Mahou! (2016/03/19)
Ayashii Kanojo (2016/04/01)
What a Wonderful Family! (2016/03/12)
