Happy weekend, everyone!
I hope you are all feeling good.
This week it was announced Japan is due to ease the lockdown in prefectures least affected by Covid 19. After more than a month of closure, some cinemas will reopen. They are a mix of big chains like Toho Cinemas and Aeon Cinemas and, according to this article by Mark Schilling over at Variety, there are some independent cinemas, too. Looking at the cinema listing for Toho, the titles include recently released titles that were still being screened at the time they were closed like the latest Psycho-Pass movie, Midsommar, Akira 4K , Katsuben and Ossan’s Love Love or Dead (which is massively popular) and some others like The Wizard of Oz.
The reopening comes with caveats such as hand sanitiser and plastic screens to limit interactions between staff and customers and spacing assigned seats to maintain social distancing. One Twitter user, @garamanhall, gave an image of what a concert with social distancing will look like:
So you can imagine a cinema screening might be similar – a seat free either side and the row in front and behind free…
Since Covid 19 is here to stay until a vaccine is developed, it is reasonable to say that this will be the standard operating procedure of festivals for the foreseeable future. At least we can go and see Tenet on the big screen which opens in July.
Since cinemas are closed and I’ve been at home, I’ve watched lots of anime. This last fortnight I watched season four of Haikyu!! and re-watched Bakemonogatari and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. I posted about the film’s Good-bye and On the Edge of Their Seats and interviewed the directors Aya Miyazaki and Hideo Jojo.
What new film is scheduled to be released this weekend?
Genkinahito 