Rurouni Kenshin: The Final, Kankai no renzoku, Stay, BanG Dream! Episode of Roselia I：Yakusoku, Humongous, It’s Not Like We’re Friends or Anything Japanese Film Trailers (State of Emergency Edition)

Happy Weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all well.

I’m still working on Osaka Asian Film Festival reviews and interviews and hope to get a few out next week. This week saw me review the earnest student film Young Birds and the fun romantic musical Make-Believers.

Big news came twice, the first being the announcement that Uplink: Shibuya would be closing, the second being the State of Emergency declared by the Japanese government. The SoE means that cinemas and mini-theatres have been asked to shut their doors. Not all of them will but the ones that do will be offered a paltry financial compensation. Films and theatres will be hit by government incompetence, once again. Never vote for conservative parties. Just never.

What is released this weekend? A decent selection of films!

Kankai no renzoku Japanese Film Trailer

Happy weekend, everyone!

I hope you are all safe and well!

The state of emergency has been lifted in Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo this week but it remains in place in Kanagawa and Tokyo. Movie distributors and cinemas have taken a massive hit in April due to the closure of cinemas with “the total box office earnings of Japan’s 12 largest movie distributors in April totalling just $6.4 million (688.24 million yen), a 96.3 percent plummet from the same period last year, according to the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ)” (source). As I wrote last week, some cinemas have reopened and the films that are being screened are classics. The number of classics has been updated to include Blade Runner, Rio Bravo, Ben Hur and The Shawshank Redemption. What about new films?

Well, this week, I posted a review for the indie drama The Modern Lovers and the interview I did with the director Atsuro Shimoyashiro.

What is released this weekend?