The Venice International Film Festival launches its 74th edition on August 30th and it lasts until September 09th and the line-up was announced earlier this week. I’ve missed the last couple editions of the festival because there have been few Japanese films (the last edition I covered was in 2014). Anyway, there are two Japanese films from current directors and three classics from the golden age present this year. One if the modern ones is a Hirokazu Koreeda film which is in the international competition section which has many world premieres. Takeshi Kitano has his latest film screened out of competition, a section dedicated to already-established directors.
There are a couple of other Asian movies. To find out more about them, head over to Windows on Worlds.
Here are the details on the Japanese films:
The Third Murder 
三度目の殺人 「Sandome no Satsujin」
Running Time: N/A
Release Date: September 09th, 2017
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Writer: Hirokazu Koreeda (Screenplay),
Starring: Masaharu Fukuyama, Koji Yakusho, Suzu Hirose, Yuki Saito, Kotaro Yoshida, Mikako Ichikawa, Izumi Matsuoka,
Everybody rumoured… Nobody believed… But you see, it’s true! Hirokazu Koreeda is making a murder mystery! It’s here folks and it’s at the Venice Film Festival but don’t expect thrilling chases since this is a talky character-driven drama. Judging by Koreeda’s past works, it will be brilliant (I cried at his latest one just like all of his other ones).
This one sees him bring together a great cast, some of whom he has worked with (Suzu Hirose was the eponymous little sister in Our Little Sister and Masaharu Fukuyama was the father to the son in Like Father Like Son… okay, that last one was overcooked) and there’s also the masterful Koji Yakusho who has worked with most of the great modern directors like Juzo Itami (Tampopo), Takashi Miike (Thirteen Assassins), and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure) and Tetsuya Nakashima (director of the still totally mind-blowing film The World of Kanako – I met the director and had my picture taken with him, a really nice guy!!!). There is also the wonderful underused actor Mikako Ichikawa who took the lead in the utterly charming Rent-a-neko!
Synopsis: Shigemori (Fukuyama) is a hot-shot lawyer on a mean winning streak but when he is compelled to take on defending a man named Mikuma (Yakusho) he finds the first case which could cause the wheels to fall off his career.
Mikuma is accused of a murdering the president of a company and setting fire to the corpse. It looks like an open and shut case since Mikuma has confessed and he was convicted of a murder that took place 30 years ago. The death penalty is almost a certainty but the more Shigemori investigates and the more he talks to Mikuma, the less certain he becomes of the man’s guilt and the case itself.
The truth lies with the daughter of the murdered president, Sakie (Hirose)…
Outrage Coda 
アウトレイジ 最終章 「Autoreiji Saishusho」
Running Time: 104 mins.
Release Date: October 07th, 2017
Director: Takashi Kitano
Writer: Takeshi Kitano (Screenplay),
Starring: Takeshi Kitano, Nao Omori, Pierre Taki, Toshiyuki Nishida, Ken Mitsuishi, Hakuryu, Ren Osugi, Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Yutaka Matsushige
I have seen twelve of the films that Kitano has directed (there are nineteen in total according to IMDB) and I must admit that Outrage (the last one I watched) didn’t grab my attention. To be honest, I’m a big fan of his earlier films like Kids Return and Sonatine and less interested in his more recent output which packs in a lot of stars but feature stories that don’t interest me. That’s a personal thing though and I’m no expert so I need to be schooled because it seems everyone else is a fan of the Outrage trilogy which seems to be coming to an end with this one. It’s the polar opposite of the Koreeda movie because it features more violence – but there’s also plenty of old men talking as well… I’m going to watch a documentary about Japanese idol girls.
Synopsis: Otomo (Kitano) escaped Japan and his old Sanno-kai yakuza group after countless betrayals and gang wars and prison. He joined up with a South Korean gangster named Jang but he finds himself travelling back to Japan when a member of the Hanabishi-kai yakuza group named Hanada (Taki) kills a member of Jang’s gang and he has to settle some accounts. Otomo decides to reunite with his old clan and get revenge on the people who put him in prison at the end of the first film and he’s going to use his Korean connections to get the job done…
Here are reviews for Kitano’s films I actually have on this site
I had planned a season of reviews of Kitano’s films five years ago after getting a box-set to go with my editions of Brother and Zatoichi and a bunch of posters for his films but my notes and hundreds of screenshots are stuck on a computer I have forgotten the password to and I don’t have the time to re-watch them…
There are three Japanese films in the Venezia Classici, two by Kenji Mizoguchi and one by Yasujiro Ozu. The Ozu was restored by Shochiku while Kadokawa and The Film Foundation handled the Mizoguchis.
Sansho Dayu 
山椒大夫 「Sanshou Dayuu」
Running Time: 126 mins.
Release Date: March 31st, 1954
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Writer: Fuji Yahiro, Yoshitaka Yoda, (Screenplay) Mori Ogai (Original Story),
Starring: Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa, Eitarou Shindou,
Synopsis: I saw this in a double-bill with Ugetsu Monogatari when I was a teenager and cried my little heart out at the end. It’s a jidai-geki set in the Heian period and tells the tale of a virtuous governor who gets exiled to be the lord of a remote province. When his wife and children travel to meet him years later, they are betrayed and the mother is sold into prostitution and the children are sold into slavery. They battle to retain their humanity and will to live even under such awful circumstances.
Chikamatsu Monogatari 
近松物語 「Chikamatsu Monogatari」
Running Time: 102 mins.
Release Date: November 23rd, 1954
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi
Writer: Yoshitaka Yoda, Matsutarou Kawaguchi (Screenplay), Chikamatsu Monzaemon (Original Story),
Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa, Kyoko Kagawa, Yoko Minamida, Eitarou Shindou,
Synopsis: Ishun is a wealthy, but miserly scroll-maker in Kyoto. He is married to a beautiful young woman named Osan who is only in the relationship for money. Things go wrong for Osan when she is wrongly accused of infidelity with one of Ishun’s apprentices. Osan and the apprentice flee from Ishun who is desperate to track them down to prevent the scandal from leaking…
Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice 
お茶漬けの味 「Ochazuke no Aji」
Running Time: 104 mins.
Release Date: October 07th, 2017
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
Writer: Yasujiro Ozu, Kogo Noda (Screenplay),
Starring: Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Koji Tsuruta, Chishu Ryu, Chikage Awashima, Keiko Tsushima, Kuniko Miyake,
Synopsis: Taeko (Michiyo Kogure) is bored with her husband Mokichi Satake (Shin Saburi) who is an executive at an engineering company. This middle-aged couple in Tokyo are the unhappy result of an arranged marriage do not have kids to distract them from their differences and so when Taeko’s niece is forced to go through the arranged marriage process, she rebels…
