Hello dear audience!
I have gorged myself on three Japanese films in my local arthouse cinema – Ran, Our Little Sister and Cesium and the Tokyo Girl. I watched them with family and friends and they got to see me do my film festival thing when I met the director of Cesium and a Tokyo Girl. The new spring anime season started a few weeks ago and while JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable is my favourite show, I’m totally taken with the OP for Kiznaiver:
Two posts this week, one about the BFI Anime Weekend for 2016 and the other previewing the Japanese films at Sci-Fi London: Cesium and a Tokyo Girl and Dual City. I also updated my Film Review Archive and Top Ten Films of the Year.
What’s released this weekend?
Chihayafuru Part II
ちはやふる 下の句「Chihayafuru Shimo no ku」
Running Time: 103 mins.
Release Date: April 29th, 2016
Director: Norihiro Koizumi
Writer: Norihiro Koizumi (Screenplay), Yuki Suetsugu (Original Manga)
Starring: Suzu Hirose, Shuhei Nomura, Mackenyu, Mayu Matsuoka, Miyuki Matsuda, Hiroya Shimizu, Jun Kunimura, Yuki Morinaga
Chihayafuru is based on a popular long-running manga and it has been given a three-film treatment. It stars Suzu Hirose who is the titular little sister in the Hirokazu Kore-eda film Our Little Sister (2015) and Hirose makes a pretty good impression based on that film.
Synopsis: Chihaya Ayase (Suzu Hirose) is a high school student who plays the card game karuta. She picked it up in elementary school when she met Arata Wataya who transferred into her school from another in Fukui Prefecture. The two parted ways when Arata returned to Fukui but only Chihaya continued to play karuta, something which she wants to change which is why she starts a karuta club at her high school in order to find Arata again.
Scanner: Kioku no Kakera wo Yomu Otoko
スキャナー 記憶のカケラをよむ男 「Scanner: Kioku no Kakera wo Yomu Otoko」
Running Time: 110 mins.
Release Date: April 29th, 2016
Director: Shusuke Kaneko
Writer: Ryota Kosawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Mansai Nomura, Fumino Kimura, Atsuko Takahata, Chisun, Hiroyuki Miyasako, Hana Sugisaki, Shota Yasuda, Aina Fukumoto,
Synopsis from IMDB: Kazuhiko Sengoku (Mansai Nomura) is a former comedian who worked as a popular duo with Ryuji Maruyama (Hiroyuki Miyasako) but he also has a special ability to read memories left behind in things or places and he used this ability during his performances. It soon overwhelmed him and so he left the limelight to become a caretaker of a mansion.
Kazuhiko Sengoku is called out of retirement to help find a woman when Ryuji and a high school student named Ami Akiyama (Hana Sugisaki) call on him for help. At first he turns them down but he has a strange vision…
TerraFormars
テラフォーマーズ 「Terafo-ma-zu」
Release Date: April 29th, 2016
Running Time: 109 mins.
Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Kenichi Tachibana (Screenplay), Yu Sasuga (Original Manga)
Starring: Hideaki Ito, Emi Takei, Shun Oguri, Mariko Shinoda, Eiko Koike, Takayuki Yamada, Kane Kosugi, Tomohisa Yamashita,
I watched the OVAs for this just before the TV anime aired and I thought it was dull. The trailer for the film looks a lot more fun.
Synopsis: Earth is on the brink of collapse due to depleting natural resources and overpopulation. In order to secure the future of humanity, scientists send moss and cockroaches to help terraform Mars – cockroaches will help spread the moss across the Martian environment an help create an environment that humans can survive in. Years after the project is started, humans are sent to Mars and massacred by a strange presence. It turns out that the cockroaches have mutated!
Another mission is created 15 poor Japanese are sent to Mars to fight the roaches and they have been beefed up with special powers derived from insects. The fight for Mars begins!
Hana-Dama: Phantom
華魂 幻影 「Hana-Dama: Genei」
Running Time: 83 mins.
Release Date: April 30th, 2016
Director: Hisayasu Sato
Writer: Hisayasu Sato, Shinji Imaoka (Screenplay),
Starring: Shima Ohnishi, Iori, Kanade Ai, Yota Kawase, Miya Sakimoto, Moe Sakura, Kan Mikami, Anne Mari, Shizuko Kawakami,
Synopsis: This is an erotic supernatural thriller from legenary pink film director Shinji Imaoka about a cinema projectionist named Teiichi (Shima Ohnishi). He has lost some memories but gained a visitor after he becomes haunted by a girl in black. She is reflected onto the cinema’s screen and sat on chairs. He makes contact with the girl and hides her in the projectionist room, but she disappears. Teiichi sees the phantom girl again and she draws him to the riverside where his lost memory then comes back.
Manga wo hamidashita otoko: Akatsuka Fujio
マンガをはみだした男 赤塚不二夫 「Manga wo hamidashita otoko: Akatsuka Fujio」
Release Date: April 30th, 2016
Running Time: 96 mins.
Director: Masanori Tominaga
Writer: N/A
Starring: Fujio Akatsuka, Ichiko Aoba, Masao Adachi, Rieko Akatsuka, Frogman, Takao Igarashi, Akira Sakata, Tetsuya Chiba,
Synopsis: Fujio Akatsuka is the genius behind Genius Bakabon, Osomatsu-kun, and Himitsu no Akko-chan. These are works from the ‘60s that have become long-running family favourites. Osomatsu-kun has been updated to become Osomatsu-san, one of the funniest anime in the last few years. This is a documentary to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Fujio Akatsuka who died at the age of 72 in 2008 and it gathers together family-members, fellow cartoonists and more. There is home video footage as well as film from television. The director of the 2015 dramedy Rolling, Masanori Tominaga, has helmed this.
Japanese Movie Box Office Results for this Week:
Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare (2016/04/16)
Zootopia (2016/04/23)
Crayon Shin-chan Movie 24: Bakusui! Yumemi World Dai Totsugeki (2016/04/16)
I Am a Hero (2016/04/23)
The Revenant (2016/04/22)
Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions (2016/04/23)
Assassination Classroom: The Graduation (25/03/16)
Zutto Mae Kara Suki Deshita: Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai (2016/04/23)
Chihayafuru (2016/03/19)
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016 (2016/03/05)
