Happy weekend, people!
I hope you are all well!
I’ve had a busy week what with overtime at work, going down to London and then a get-together at a Japanese restaurant but it has been fun.
I’ve also been working through films on Donation Theater and other titles and it has been a varied selection of titles from CG anime about a kid jetting through space to save a planet populated by robots to live-action dramas about a young woman and a young musician finding confidence in themselves. There is so much to watch, it’s great. It’s fantastic seeing the film community stepping up to help others in their time of need. You can still donate to the site and help the people of western Japan recover from the floods.
I’ve watched more avant-garde films since the last trailer post and some great dramas. This week, I posted about a pink film festival as part of the trailer post, a news announcement of the Japan Society in New York screening Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s serial-killer thriller Cure and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s teen music drama Linda Linda Linda as well as a preview of the Japanese films at this year’s Raindance Film Festival.
What else is released this weekend?
Amiko 
あみこ 「Amiko」
Running Time: 66 mins.
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Director: Yoko Yamanaka
Writer: Yoko Yamanaka (Screenplay),
Starring: Ai Sunohara, Hiroshi Oshita, Mineo Maiko,
This special gem won the Audience Award and Hikari TV Award at the Pia Film Festival and was featured at the Berlin International Film Festival and it will be at Japan Cuts this month as well. It’s an excellent debut film from Yoko Yamanaka and shows a filmmaker who is unafraid to use the camera and her actors in distinctive and, crucially, fun ways to deliver a quirky comedy about a sucky first love. My review for this film was published some time ago! All I have to say is…
SEE THIS FILM!!!
Synopsis: 16-year-old Amiko is convinced that “the Japanese are unable to dance spontaneously.” She’s just tried it out herself, with some strangers in a Tokyo underground passage. Believing that she’s had more than her fair share of days where she’d do absolutely anything, she’s left behind the provincial city of Nagano to head to the capital and take her heartthrob Aomi to task. A year before, she took a long winter’s walk with him and thought she’d met her soulmate, someone else like her who wonders in which phase of life there’s actually room for being happy. But then he disappeared, headed for Tokyo, together with Amiko’s nemesis Miyako of all people, the very “epitome of mass culture”, quite unlike her anti-bourgeois and wildly romantic self.
Asako I & II / Sleeping or Waking (literal title) 
寝ても覚めても 「Netemo sametemo」
Running Time: 119 mins.
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Writer: Sachiko Tanaka, Ryusuke Hamaguchi(Screenplay), Tomoka Shibasaki (Original Novel)
Starring: Masahiro Higashide, Erika Karata, Koji Seto, Rio Yamashita, Sairi Itoh, Daichi Watanabe, Koji Nakamoto, Misako Tanaka,
Synopsis: Asako (Erika Karata) is a 21-year-old woman who lives in Osaka with her boyfriend Baku (Masahiro Higashide), a free-spirited man, but when he disappears he leaves a permanent shadow in her memories.
Two years later and Asako now lives in Tokyo where she meets a salaryman named Ryohei (Masahiro Higashide). He looks just like Baku, but he has a completely different personality with sincerity being the biggest difference. Asako falls in love with Ryohei, but tries her best to avoid him because of her memories of Baku.
Sunny: Strong Mind Strong Love 
SUNNY 強い気持ち強い愛 「Sunny: Tsuyoi Kimochi Tsuyoi Ai」
Running Time: 119 mins.
Release Date: August 31st, 2018
Director: Hitoshi One
Writer: Hitoshi One (Screenplay),
Starring: Ryoko Shinohara, Yuka Itaya, Rie Tomosaka, Eiko Koike, Lily Franky, Suzu Hirose, Maika Yamamoto,
Synopsis: Nami (Ryoko Shinohara) and her old high school friend Serika (Yoko Maki) are in their 40s and dealing with real life. Nami is a housewife and Serika has cancer. Serika has a request: she wants to get her friends from the “Sunny” club they had in high school back for a reunion. Nami hunts each person down.
Kimi no tori wa utaeru 
きみの鳥はうたえる 「Kimi no tori wa utaeru」
Running Time: 119 mins.
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Director: Sho Miyake
Writer: Sho Miyake (Screenplay), Yasushi Sato (Novel)
Starring: Shota Sometani, Tasuku Emoto, Shizuka Ishibashi, Makiko Watanabe, Ai Yamamoto,
A film based on a novel by Yasushi Sato is usually something to take notice of after a series of good to great adaptations. Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Over the Fence is good, while Sketches of Kaitan City by director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, and Mipo Oh’s The Light Shines Only There are great. The three are set in the author’s native city of Hakodate in the north of Japan but this film was originally set in Tokyo before being relocatedone has been The Japan Times review sounds like this film doesn’t quite fly. That’s a shame because there’s a great cast with Shota Sometani (Himizu), Shizuka Ishibashi (The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue), and Tasuku Emoto (Dynamite Graffiti).
Synopsis: The unnamed protagonist (Tasuku Emoto), simply referred to in the credits as “Boku” is a slacker who works at a bookstore while sharing an apartment with his unemployed friend, Shizuo (Shota Sometani). “Boku” begins dating his co-worker Sachiko (Shizuka Ishibashi) and she gets roped into his hang-about life, but Shizuo soon gets involved and a love triangle develops…
Youtachi Happy Eigaban Himawari 
YOU達HAPPY映画版 ひまわり 「Youtachi Happy Eigaban Himawari」
Running Time: 100 mins.
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Director: Toru Sugimoto
Writer: Tatsuya Kanazawa (Screenplay),
Starring: Shunsuke Daito, Takara Sakumoto, Tokuma Nishioka, Narumi Kuranoo, Yuka Sato, Yuki Aoki,
Synopsis: A local community FM station in Nasukarasuyama has been set up to help revive the town and two chaps, Natsuo (Shunsuke Daito) and Ryuji (Takara Sakumoto), have arrived to run the radio station. What they need are local stories and two high school girls help them out. The big issue is a local festival, the “Yamaage Matsuri”, is in trouble, but the girls are here to save the day.
Kaidan shin mimi bukuro G men boken-hen kouhen
怪談新耳袋Gメン 冒険編 後編 「Kaidan shin mimi bukuro G men boken-hen kouhen」
Running Time: 96 mins.
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Director: Amane Sato
Writer: N/A
Starring: Naoto Tanabe, Tsuyoshi Goto, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Yukihiko Yamaguchi,
Synopsis: A group of people, including director Yoshihiro Nishimura, go to haunted spots and look for ghosts. The haunted spots are ruins, mountains, and abandoned factories. This is the second part of their adventures.
K SEVEN STORIES Episode3 「SIDE: GREEN Uwagaki Sekai」 
K SEVEN STORIES Episode3 「SIDE:GREEN 上書き世界」
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Running Time: 62 mins.
Director: Shingo Suzuki
Writer: Azano Kouhei (Screenplay), GoRA, GoHands (Original Creator)
Starring: Kazuyuki Okitsu (Nagare Hisui), Rie Kugimiya (Sukuna Gojou), Masakazu Morita (Yukari Mishakuji), Hiro Shimono (Kotosaka), Kaori Nazuka (Douhan Hirasaka),
Animation Production: GoHands
Synopsis: Nagare Hisui is the Green King and lurks in the shadow using a phone app called JUNGLE to give users of the app power. Gojo Sukuna and Mishakuji are both using JUNGLE and will eventually clash.
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas 
君の膵臓をたべたい 「Kimi no Suizo o Tabetai」
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Running Time: 108 mins.
Director: Shin’ichiro Ushijima
Writer: Shin’ichiro Ushijima (Screenplay), Yoru Sumino (Original Creator)
Starring: Lynn (Sakura Yamauchi), Mahiro Takasugi (Protagonist), Atsuko Tanaka (the protagonist’s mother), Yukiyo Fujii (Kyoko), Yuma Uchida (Takahiro), Jun Fukushima (Gum-kun), Shinichiro Miki (the protagonist’s father)
Animation Production: Studio VOLN
Synopsis: An unnamed protagonist finds the diary of a sick girl in a hospital one day. The owner is his classmate, Sakura Yamauchi, and she is suffering from a terminal illness in her pancrease. She only has a few months left to live. Sakura reveals that the protagonist is the only other person who knows about her situation. The protagonist resolves to be together with Sakura during her last few months.
Laughing Under the Clouds Side Story: Cherry Blossoms, the Bridge to Heavenly Wishes 
曇天に笑う 外伝 桜華、天望の架橋 「Donten ni Warau Gaiden: Ouka, Tenbou no Kakyū」
Release Date: September 01st, 2018
Running Time: 58 mins.
Director: Tetsuya Wakano
Writer: Eiji Umehara (Script), Kemuri Karakara (Original Work),
Starring: Tsubasa Yonaga (Chutaro Kumo), Yuichi Nakamura (Tenka Kumo), Yuuki Kaji (Soramaru Kumo), Hiro Shimono (Rakucho Takeda), Sayaka Ohara (Kiiko Sasaki), Yuuki Fujiwara (Mutsuki Ashiya), Rina Satou (Botan), Mamiko Noto (Nishiki),
Animation Production: Wit Studio
Synopsis: The Meiji era is underway and the ban on samurai is in full effect. The common people are disturbed by rapid Westernisation and the sweeping away of the old order. The government is concerned with the increased crime rate that has resulted from this dissatisfaction and has built a new prison and commissioned the three brothers of the Kumo family with the duty of transporting criminals there. Of course, the three lads get into adventures and these adventures happen before and after the main storyline.