26-ji 13-bu, Spring in Between, Boku no Machi wa Ofuro ga Atsukute Maizokin ga Dete Ramen ga Umai., Ikuharu Kakete Oi Yukan Kajin Baba Akiko no Hibi, Itan no Jun’ai, Shugendo Renaissance, Takumi-kun Shiri-zu Nagai Nagai Monogatari Hajimari no Asa, Japanese Film Trailers

Happy Weekend

This is the second part of this week’s trailer post. The first part is here.

The Cannes Film Festival is still in effect and it has been interesting collecting views on the films playing. Monster by Hirokazu Kore-eda came out of the gate strong with solid reviews but it was soon eclipsed by Jonathan Glazer’s Zone of Interest. The other big Japanese film, Kubi, has also received mixed reviews and while Western critics have fallen over themselves to praise Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, I’ve seen one notable Japanese critic point out that it indulges in exoticisation. It’ll be interesting to watch them all and decide for myself!

As for my other film activities, I took part in the recording of Season 4 of Heroic Purgatory earlier this week so stay tuned for that!

In terms of films reviewed, two Hong Kong titles:

Detective vs Sleuths (2022) and Police Story 3: Supercop (1992)

The former is a Wai Ka-Fai title that is a high-octane re-tread of Mad Detective while the latter is a Jackie Chan action-adventure, only with less comedy and higher production values than you might expect. Also, in that film, Michelle Yeoh steals the show.

In terms of films watched, Breaking News (2004) by Johnnie To, Doppelganger by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and Our House By Yui Kiyoharal

In terms of games played, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.

What else was released this weekend?

Hamon, Kishibe Rohan Louvre e Iku, Kowareru Koto Ikiru Koto, The Feast of Amrita, Aragne: Sign of Vermillion (Refined Version), Gekijouban CollarxMalice Deep Cover, Gunbuster, Japanese Film Trailers

Happy Weekend

This is the first of a two-part trailer post. Second part tomorrow.

Between getting a severe hankering to play Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin and Advance Wars (the original on GBA), I’ve maintained my film watching with some major titles and quickly-written reviews. I’ve also been watching Cannes (via the internet) with interest.

For coverage of the Cannes Film Festival from the Western trades, check out this Twitter thread.

Back to films released in Japan.

What are the first wave of films released this weekend?

Police Story 3: Supercop (1992) Dir: Stanley Tong

Police Story 3: Supercop   

警察故事３超級警察 「gíng chaat gu sih sāam: Chīu kāp gíng chaat」

Release Date: July 04th, 1992

Duration: 96 mins.

Director: Stanley Tong

Writer: Edward Tang, Ma Fibe, Yee Lee Wai (Screenplay),

Starring: Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, Yuen Wah, Bill Tung, Kenneth Tsang, Jospephine Koo

IMDB

Considering it is the third entry in the franchise, Police Story 3: Supercop has a lot of firsts.

It was the first film not directed by Jackie Chan as Stanley Tong took charge.

It was the first film not entirely set in Hong Kong.

It was the first film to give Jackie Chan a co-star with equal-billing – a woman no less and not one who is never a damsel in distress.

Together, these firsts inject innovation into the franchise while meeting audience expectations of an action-packed experience. Indeed, this may be the best entry in the franchise following the first film (which is perfect, in this writer’s opinion!).

Detective vs Sleuths 神探大战 (2022) Director: Wai Ka-Fai

Detective vs Sleuths   

神探大战 「San taam daai zin」

Release Date: July 21st, 2022

Duration: 96 mins.

Director: Wai Ka-Fai

Writer: Ryker Chan, Lu Jia, Li Jie (Screenplay),

Starring: Sean Lau, Charlene Choi, Raymond Lam, Carmen Lee, Kai Tan,

IMDB

A serial killer thriller meets explosive Hong Kong action in Detective vs Sleuths, the latest work from veteran director Wai Ka-Fai and his long-time favourite star Sean Lau.

A murder spree strikes Hong Kong. The victims vary but the crimes are attributed to a masked vigilante group known as “The Sleuths.” Their calling card is leaving the crime scenes daubed with graffiti of police case file numbers from cold cases or cases with wrongful arrests or wrongful killings. According to The Sleuths, the present-day murder victims were the real criminals that the Hong Kong police failed to bring to justice.

Trying to put a stop to the extrajudicial killings are the OCTB taskforce but their investigations pale in comparison with those of disgraced ex-detective named Lee Jun (Sean Lau), a man who had previously suffered a mental breakdown after coming into conflict with OCTB superiors and been booted off the force. Homeless and half-crazed, he now has visions of murder victims, both past and future, all connected to the vigilante case. His most useful ability is seeing someone just before they get whacked by The Sleuths.

Idolish7 the Movie Live 4Bit Beyond the Period, The River Breathes, Aru Hi Aru Onna, Storage Man., Sekai de Tatakau Film-tachi, Old Narcissus, 100 Faces of HUAWEI, Beyond the Mountain, The Yangtze River, Long Time No See Wuhan, Japanese Film Trailers

Happy Weekend

This is the second part of a two-part trailer post. The first part is here.

This week I started with a review of the short film Kidofuji and an interview with its composer/writer/director Atsuru Shimoyashiro. A short set in a real-life standing bar in Koenji, Tokyo. I lived a stop away in Asagaya when I lived in Japan and rarely stopped at Koenji. Thus, this might be a place to visit if I get a chance to go to Japan again!

I followed that up with a review of Drive into Night, one of the free films currently streaming at the Japan Film Festival Plus website. It has a great performance from Tomomitsu Adachi as a man with pent-up emotions uncoiling violently in a small town.

I’ve been watching the Cannes Film Festival coverage and waiting for news on Takeshi Kitano!

I’m still playing Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and I’m at the end of the second chapter!

In terms of films watched, I finished the Suit Yourself or Shoot Yourself series and loved the first five entries but prefer to forget the sad sixth entry ;_:

I watched Detective vs Sleuths and Police Story 3: Super Cop!

What are the other films released this weekend?

A Hard Day, Uchuu-jin no Aitsu, 「Amuse Presents SUPER HANDSOME LIVE 2022 “ROCK YOU! ROCK ME!!”」3 Live Screens, Eikyuu Shounen Eternal Boys Tokubetsu Henshuu-ban, Synapusyu The Movie, Shizukananaru Don – Part 2, Magome, Japanese Film Trailers

Happy Weekend

This is the first part of a two-part trailer post!

The Cannes Film Festival has kicked off and I placed on the Heroic Purgatory Twitter account a tweet thread of film coverage from the trade papers like Variety and Hollywood Reporter. Kore-eda’s Monster got a lot of reviews from day two but I’ve been skim reading to avoid major spoilers for many of the reviews since it’s a Rashomon-like story. Anyway, check that thread since it will be updated with more reviews and news!

Also Heroic Purgatory related, we released an episode dedicated to John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China! Check it out!

What are the first batch of Japanese films released this weekend?

Drive into Night 夜を走る (2022) Director: Dai Sako

Drive into Night   

夜を走る 「Yoru o Hashiru」

Release Date: May 13th, 2022

Duration: 125 mins.

Director: Dai Sako

Writer: Dai Sako (Script), 

Starring: Tomomitsu Adachi, Reo Tamaoki, Nahana, Shohei Uno, Yutaka Matsushige, Tsutomu Takahashi, Yota Kawase,

Website    IMDB

Drive into Night is one of a number of very specific films that sets out to examine the idea that Japan is on the decline and has a junk yard as a major setting. Make the Devil Laugh and Ninja Girl are two other examples.

All three films share similar themes but have different styles. Make the Devil Laugh is a straight drama while Ninja Girl uses deadpan comedy. Drive into Night offers a noirish narrative that, for the first two thirds of the film, houses a grim character study of deadbeats desperate for any diversion from their dull lives. However, it does not sustain this and goes wayward in its final third that overloads the narrative with incidents, characters, and ideas that don’t quite stick.

This noirish film set in a small Japanese city in Saitama Prefecture. Its two protagonists are prime noir characters as they start in bad positions and keep making dumb decisions that make their lives worse.

We are first introduced to Taichi Akimoto (Tomomitsu Adachi), a 40-something sales agent at a scrap metal plant who still lives with his parents. His calm demeanour and diligence make him a good employee. However, he suppresses his emotions to such an extent that he presents a blank mask to the world. Unable to talk any amount of game, unable to stand up for himself, unable to show any sense of motivation or presence, he is a hollow man who meekly accepts the cruelty of others, especially from Hongo (Tsutomu Takahashi), a brutish and preening bully of a boss.

Juxtaposed against him is his friend Taniguchi (Reo Tamaoki), a more outgoing man married to a beautiful woman (Nahana) and father to a charming daughter (Ameri Isomura). He shows a sense of humour and a little ambition and yet he is dissatisfied with his life as he ignores his home, his daughter, and his unfaithful wife. Instead, he keeps a mistress and cultivates a desire to humiliate Hongo in some way.

On a drunken night out, Akimoto breaks from his shy and retiring act and tries to get the number of a young businesswoman who visited their worksite earlier in the day and had the misfortune of meeting Hongo. It goes disastrously for Akimoto. Sick and tired of being harassed by men, the woman rejects him. Harshly. With a dose of humiliation. Unexpectedly, Akimoto strikes her. The blow is hard enough to render her unconscious. The situation deteriorates further and Akimoto and Taniguchi wind up having to dispose of a corpse. This is when Taniguchi hatches a plan to frame Hongo…

An Interview with Atsuro Shimoyashiro about his film “KIDOFUJI”

The last time I met Atsuro Shimoyashiro was at Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020 for an interview about his film The Modern Lovers, a bittersweet tale of love temporarily rekindled and the realisation of hopes and dreams dashed. A mutli-hyphenate talent, his name has appeared in the credits of films more often for making musical scores than directing but he is back in 2022/23 with the short film Kidofuji, a tribute to a real-life standing bar located in Tokyo’s Koenji district.

The short, at 11 minutes length, takes us to the bar and lets us listen in on the drama that occurs when two men and a woman meet at the counter and find they have connections with each other. It’s a film shot with one static camera and done in one take and it’s an impressive feat to watch the cast go through comedy to drama and action in one go. It also conveys the fun and convivial atmosphere of the place while also conveying the sorts of chance encounters that might take place there. Despite having lived nearby to Koenji, I never visited it and so the film gave me a serious hankering to drop in and try out some of the food that is mentioned in the film.

Audiences in Japan will get the chance to see it as Kidofuji has been invited to be part of MOOSIC LAB 2023 and it next plays at Cinema SKHole in Nagoya as part of a programme from May 15 and at Theater Seven in Osaka on May 17 (details here).

You can check out my review of the film here.

Curious as to how this was filmed, I asked director Atsuro Shimoyashiro some questions to find out more about the background and also to get some recommendations as to what to order and he provided a lot of interesting answers about the making of and reception of Kidofuji and also the actual place it is set in.

Kidofuji (2023) Director: Atsuro Shimoyashiro

Kidofuji

Release Date: 2023

Duration: 11 mins.

Director: Atsuro Shimoyashiro

Writer: Atsuro Shimoyashiro (Screenplay),

Music: Atsuro Shimoyashiro

Starring: GON, Kumiko Tsushimi, Shohei Matsuzaki, Daisuke Arai, Risa Arai, Mamiko, 

Atsuro Shimoyashiro is a multi-hyphenate talent who has worked on a variety of titles as composer, actor, writer and director. Since helming his last feature film, The Modern Lovers (interview), he has been prolific scoring the music for other people’s films. However, ahead of the release of his next film, Lonesome Vacation, he made the short film Kidofuji.

Kidofuji is the name of a real-life standing bar in Koenji, Tokyo. It’s the sort of place one can wander into off the street, rock up to the counter, and order a beer and some food. As such, it’s also a prime location for random or fateful encounters to take place and drama to occur.

The film chronicles one fateful encounter as experienced by a musician named Shintaro (GON) who starts the night innocently enough as he is at the bar sipping shochu and snacking on nori topped with grilled cheese. A stranger named Hiromasa (Shohei Matsuzaki) walks in and the two hit it off over a shared love of a rock band but when they are joined by a mutual acquaintance, a young woman named Natsuki (Kumiko Tsushimi), sparks fly and the night goes awry as tempers flare up…

Izure Anata ga Shiru Hanashi, Origin of Lies “Drawing Song / White Lie”, Alone Together, Tokyo Kumikyoku 2020, Mita mono no Kiroku, Rohen Kasou, Japanese Film Trailers

Happy Weekend

This is the second part of the two-part trailer post. You can find the first part here.

So, as stated, in that aforementioned post, I’m playing The Legend  of Heroes: Trails in the Sky on the PSP after completing Persona 3. I’ve got the rest of the Legend of Heroes series for the same console but they are in Japanese. Indeed, with the exception of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness, the remaining PSP games that I have yet to complete are all Japanese-language – Valkyria Chronicles 3, Umineko no Naku Koro ni 1 & 2, Star Ocean 2: The Second Departure, Grand Knights History, Summon Knight 3, La Pucelle Tactics. My Japanese is terrible, though, since I haven’t practised seriously over the last two years due to illness and so I may not get around to ever playing them.

That written, I’ve made more of an effort over the last month and do kanji for two hour’s a day!

In film terms, I watched four John Carpenter films – Prince of Darkness, The Fog, In the Mouth of Madness, and Big Trouble in Little China – and finished watching the Japan Film Festival Plus line-up of free films. This week I reviewed What Can You Do About It and Shiver. I’m also watching V-Cinema films from the 90s.

What are the other films released this weekend?