POV ~A Cursed Film~ / POV～呪われたフィルム～ (2012)

Genkinahito is back once again to present a film to give you some Halloween chills. As part of my annual celebration of the night, I have chosen a great horror title that I heartily recommend for some twisted fright filled fun. Previous years have featured Nightmare Detective, Strange Circus, and Shokuzai… This year I give you…

POV ~A Cursed Film~  

Japanese Title: POV～呪われたフィルム～

Romaji: POV ~Norowareta Film~

Release Date: 18^th February 2012

Running Time: N/A

Director: Norio Tsuruta

Writer: Norio Tsuruta (Screenplay)

Starring: Mirai Shida, Haruna Kawaguchi, Yasuyuki Hirano

Due to his insistence on staying in the genre he helped popularise Norio Tsuruta, famous for Ring 0: Birthday (2000), is one of J-horror’s better and more committed directors and has a filmography made up of titles that range across types. Much like fellow horror director Koji Shiraishi, Tsuruta mixes modern media with yurei and urban folktales.

POV ~A Cursed Film~ opens in a similar fashion to Shiraishi’s best known work, Noroi: The Curse (2005), with on-screen text warning the viewer of the horrors to be seen before entering the first sequence which involves a lengthy set-up that effectively establishes character and situation.

Guests at the East Winds Film Festival 2014

I got a press release for The East Winds Film Festival and it announces the guests set to arrive and there are a variety of interesting characters, especially the first one I’m going to write about…

Oh Brother, Oh Sister!, Shanti Days 365 Days, Happy Breath, Oyaji Actor Z, Black Butler: Book of Murder, Prince of Tennis Musical National Convention Seigaku vs Rikkai, After Opening Night Japanese Film Trailers

This is going to be a brief trailer post because fewer films than usual have been released this weekend and I have cut down on the chatter because I have been consumed writing reviews for The World of Kanako, Black Butler, and The Light Shines Only There. They are titanic pieces of rambling reviewing written while listening to parts of the Kanako soundtrack. Also some art galleries are opening up where I work. Bad Education is over. Anyway, I’ll post The World of Kanako next Monday and there will be a special Halloween post on Friday.

Staying with the Halloween theme, I’m going to watch Ghostbusters next week! Plus, did everyone see the synopsis for one of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s next films? It’s a supernatural tale! I felt joy reading it because it’s a return to what he’s good at and it looks great!

In terms of what I posted about this week, I covered the East Winds Film Festival which has a great line-up of films from all around East Asia.

What’s released this weekend in Tokyo?

East Winds Film Festival 2014 Preview

The East Winds Film Festival is one the UK’s major cinematic events that allows audience members to enjoy a selection of the latest East Asian cinema, and also be is possibly one of the best events found outside of London for viewing films from the region. The festival takes place in Coventry over three days between October 31^st and November 02^nd and it has a great line-up of films from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and a strong Japanese horror film contingent.

Disconcerto, Rhapsody in front of Mahoro Station, Itsuka no, Genkan Tachi to, The Kumamoto Dormitory, The Next Generation Patlabor Chapter 5, Planet Mizusa, Wakusai Mizusa, Kenjuu to Medama-shou and Other Japanese Film Trailers

Back from the BFI London Film Festival and two more films go on my huge backlog of reviews to write… Wednesday was all about The World of Kanako and The Furthest End Awaits, two massively different films and both awesome. I got to meet Tetsuya Nakashima and have my picture taken with him as well as ask some questions! On top of those two films, I also watched Black Butler on Friday and enjoyed a lot – Ayame Gouriki and Hiro Mizushima were both fantastic in bringing the characters to life. Next week I have to watch Annabelle and the week after I watch Ghostbusters. Is this review list going to ever be whittled down?

I’ll get to it. I hope to have The World of Kanako, Fuku-chan the The Light Only Shines There done and posted in the next two weeks.

Anyway, not much else this week except television like Shingeki no Bahamut, Parasyte (WHAT AN AWESOME SECOND EPISODE!), Gugure! Kokkuri-san (still very funny), and The Walking Dead which had an awesome episode to open up series five with.

This week I posted a review of the film How Selfish I Am! Which I saw at the Raindance Film Festival.

What’s released in Japan this weekend?

How Selfish I Am! (2013) 自分の事ばかりで情けなくなるよ

How Selfish I Am        

Japanese: 自分の事ばかりで情けなくなるよ

Romaji: Jibun no Koto Bakaride Nasakenaku Naru Yo

Running Time: 106 mins.

Release Date: October 26^th, 2013

Director: Daigo Matsui

Writer: Daigo Matsui (Screenplay), Sekaikan Ozaki (Original Work)

Starring: Maho Yamada, Sei Ando, Shunsuke Daito, Mei Kurokawa, Sekaikan Ozaki, Sosuke Ikematsu, Kaonashi Hasegawa, Taku Koizumu,  Yukiji Ogawa,

Website

How Selfish I Am is an episodic musical drama exploring the loves and travails of a group of people in Tokyo, all of whom are connected together by the music of the rock group CreepHyp. A glib comparison might be Short Cuts by Raymond Carver/Robert Altman on a smaller scale with a post-rock soundtrack but just as much darkness and more visual and aural dazzle.

The film is the culmination of a long collaboration between filmmaker Daigo Matsui and the band CreepHyp, this is the final result of a series music videos made over the last few years¹ based on a story originally conceived by CreepHyp’s frontman, Sekaikan Ozaki. The episodic nature of the original music videos is carried over to a feature film format and expanded upon as it draws everything together into a final product which acts a musical showcase for the band, a creative director, and a strong ensemble cast.

The film is told over the course of a few years and from multiple perspectives split between two girls and two guys, all of whom are scudding along the bottom of the Tokyo social scene.

We start off with Kumiko (Ando), a lonely girl working at a cosplay bar/brothel who pines after her ex-boyfriend (Onoue).

Kumiko is followed by Mie (Yamada), a mousy, introverted and put-upon office lady who adores CreeHyp, and has a Twitter addiction (@mieephyp0819 – yes, I write down Twitter handles in films) and a ticket to CreepHyp’s concert which she may miss because of problems at work.

Tsuda (Daito), the guy collecting tickets at the concert, is undergoing something of a meltdown as his beloved pop idol is about to retire.

The final, and longest sequence, involves a young homeless man named Rikuo (Ikematsu) who lives in two vans with a young woman (Kurokawa) who, due to a trauma in her past that has damaged her, refuses to speak.

The four stories weave together to create a sometimes funny but mostly tragic series of tales demonstrating the bleaker side of the Tokyo dream, all loneliness, frustration and desperation.

A Drop of the Grapevine, Cape Nostalgia, Kin Kyori Renai, Housoukinshi: Sennou – Jaaku Naru Tetsu no Image, Harmonics Minyoung, Fukushima A Record of Living Things Episode Two Disruption, Sengoku Bloody Agent, The Tenor Lirico Spinto, Movie Version Japanese Film Trailers

Hello, dear audience. I hope you are all well. The autumn anime season is in full swing and I have watched a lot of premieres for a lot of shows. I was very impressed with Parasyte, fun a blackly comic body horror, and Gugure! Kokuri-san a comedy that made me laugh more than I hoped for. It also had a really, really dark tone surrounding the loneliness of the characters. Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis was as action-packed as hoped. The biggest disappointment was Amagi Brilliant Park which didn’t make me laugh at all, plus a needless nude shot.

In terms of films, I had unexpected fun at work when I struck up a conversation with a lady from Hong Kong and we talked Wong Kar-Wai for quite a while. Moments like that make life fun. On the blog, I posted about the Korean action-thriller A Company Man and the UK release of Black Butler.

Next week, I’ll be back in London for the BFI London Film Festival. The following day, I’ll be watching Black Butler!

What is released this weekend?

Black Butler UK Release Details

Warner Bros. UK are gearing up to bring over a selection of films that are adaptations of popular manga over the next couple of months with Black Butler leading the charge. It is due to arrive in cinemas across the UK on October 17^th . The details of where and when Black Butler will be screened have been revealed and I have them to report about as well as the UK trailer which is below and the UK poster which is just underneath this opening paragraph.

Black Butler        

Japanese: 黒執事

Romaji: Kuroshitsuji

Running Time: 119 mins.

Release Date: January 18^th, 2014

Director: Kentaro Otani, Keiichi Sato

Writer: Tsutomu Kuroiwa (Screenplay), Yana Toboso (Original Manga)

Starring: Ayame Gouriki, Hiro Mizushima, Mizuki Yamamoto, Takuro Ohno, Yuka, Ken Yasuda

In the year 2020 in an Asian city where Eastern and Western cultures mix, a young woman named Shiori (Gouriki) finds herself plunged into a world of mystery and danger.

A Company Man (2012)

A Company Man (2012)      

Release Date: October 11th, 2012

Running Time: 96 mins.

Director: Lim Sang-Yoon

Writer: Lim Sang-Yoon (Screenplay)

Starring: So Ji-Sub, Lee Mi-Yeon, Kwak Do-Won, Kim Dong-Joon, Jeon Kuk-Hwan, Lee Kyoung-Young, Jang Eun-Ah,

At 96 minutes, A Company Man is a relatively lean and mean film which efficiently works its way through its narrative but the actual experience of watching it is less than engaging because it is highly derivative of other titles. It felt soulless despite the few good bits, an example of a film pillaging from other titles and adhering to standard tropes to make a passable title.

The handsome Hyeong-Do (So Ji-Sub) is the titular company man. He is a dedicated worker and a rising star at his metal trading company. Except that metal trading is a front for the organisation. What Heyong-Do’s company provides is assassins. The men and women who work in the office are highly trained killers and Heyong-Do is being groomed by the chief to be a manager.

A Samurai Chronicle, Taiyo no Suwaru Basho, Ogawa-cho Serenade, Kabadeen! Hanafubuki Koko hen, Kamatoto, Saru Window Period, World of Synthesizer in Osaka, Love Session, Kabadeen! Hanafubuki Koko hen and Other Japanese Film Trailers

I’m back from London and the Raindance Film Festival and I am in the process of writing lots of reviews for the blog and other websites like Anime UK News and so there is a lot for me to write about like Fuku-chan of Fukufuku Flats, How Selfish I Am!, The Light Shines Only There, and… the final film I saw at Raindance, And the Mud Ship Sails Away. I talked to the director of that film and also got to interview the director Yosuke Fujita, the genius behind Fuku-chan, a segment in Quirky Guys and Gals, and Fine, Totally Fine, one of my favourite comedies of the last few years and tell him how much I liked it!

Whilst in London, I went to the Courtauld Gallery to see their collection and to see my favourite Impressionist painting, A Bar at the Folies-Bergere. I also went the Japan Centre (something that has become a routine).

But I had to go to work the next day so all of those reviews are on the back-burner for now. The only thing I posted about this week was Final Fantasy XIII, a post that is long overdue and I have written lots of notes for months ago.

What’s released this weekend in Japan?