Starring: Takeru Sato, Haruka Ayase, Jo Odagiri, Miki Nakatani, Shota Sometani, Keisuke Horibe, Kyoko Koizumi, Yuki Kan
Real was one of two films directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa that were released last year, the other being Seventh Code which stars former AKB48 member, Atsuko Maeda. Real is Kurosawa’s biggest budgeted film in a long time. Based on an award-winning mystery novel and featuring two beautiful leads anchored by a supporting cast of familiar and excellent actors the biggest mystery is why the film turned out so dull.
Koichi (Sato), a physical fitness trainer, and Atsumi (Ayase), a manga artist, are beautiful people who seem to lead a blessed life.
The 43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam launches on January 22nd and finishes on February 02nd. The line-up of Asian films has been revealed and there are strong titles from Japan. A lot of these have played at other festivals but there are some really great indie titles. There are quite a lot and the choice is so great! Enough from me, here’s the selection!
Starring: Ryota Ozawa, Miwako Wagatsuma, Haruka Suenaga, Kanji Tsuda
Wow, this looks like a lot of fun which is why I put it first. It comes from Lisa Takeba who was at last year’s festival with a short film about an alien private detective who is wandering around earth. If that sounds a little random, this one reads a lot more interesting as it looks like a mash-up of anime, film and Japanese pop culture and fashion where a female stalker has her way with the guy of her dreams. Lisa Takeba has a background in advertising and writing videogames so she’s got a lot of experience with different styles to work with! It stars Miwako Wagatsuma who is an actress worth tracking because she is taking on interesting roles as can be seen from her filmography which includes Guilty of Romance, The End of Puberty, sentimental Yasuko, Kuro and Shing Shing Shing.
Since they were both five, Ryosuke has been stalked by Momoko – the ugliest girl in the village. Momoko’s love for Ryosuke is so boundless that she has her face surgically altered to suit his taste – but still he wants nothing to do with her. Ryosuke is more interested in the girlfriend of a gangster boss. But when the boss finds out about their affair, he has Ryosuke’s little finger hacked off. Magically, the finger falls into Momoko’s hands, and she uses it to clone Ryosuke, so she can finally have him (or almost him) for herself – and that’s the first five minutes.
Regular readers will know that I keep ranting about four directors: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, SionSono, Takashi Miike. and Shinya Tsukamoto. The reason these four men are always mentioned is that they have made a lot of my all time favourite live-action films. I’ve grown up watching a lot of Japanese films from classics to the most contemporary but it’s these four who have blown my mind with their imagination and use of the medium of film. There are few other directors out there who can match them, in my opinion. Sion Sono and Shinya Tsukamoto have had a season dedicated to them but my most favourite of all, Kurosawa, has not… UNTIL NOW!!!
This is going to be a short season dedicated to the maestro, Kiyoshi Kurosawa because I have reviewed most of his films that are available in the west already. It has come about because I have recently watched three of his lesser known works and two of them are going to be released in the UK this time next week! We start with a biography! A long and boring and incoherent biography! WAIT, COME BACK! There are pictures!
This year’s festival looks to be better than last year’s one. There are so many of my favourite Japanese directors like Sion Sono, Hirokazu Koreeda and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (a season dedicated to him starts here next week!) getting their works screened and great films from around the world in general. As I looked at the list of titles I have never felt so bad about not being in Canada. This time next year I will be Canadian. I will live in Toronto and I will do Canadian things… I’m not sure what Canadians do exactly but Goregirl is cool and she’s Canadian and they have this awesome festival in Toronto where there are lots of great Japanese and South Korean films and I want to be there…
Here are the Japanese titles (click on the titles to go to the page for more info)!!!
Starring: Takeru Sato, Haruka Ayase, Jo Odagiri, Miki Nakatani, Shota Sometani, Keisuke Horibe, Kyoko Koizumi, Keisuke Horibe, Yuki Kan
I champion Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s films. Even the bad ones. Out of the ones I have seen, his best is Tokyo Sonata. I’ll admit, as much as I love his J-horror like Pulse,Cure and Retribution, his dramas and crime thrillers are pretty strong. I haven’t seen a science fiction film from him yet but he does have one. It’s this title, Real. I have heard mixed things about it but I’m staying hopeful. It reminds me a little of Inception but does it have the budget to make as much of an impact? What I do know is that it has a great cast of actors but with Takero Sato and Haruka Ayase taking the limelight, will they be up to the high standards set by Sometani, Koizumi, Odagiri, Nakatani and the rest of the supporting cast? Check the trailer!
Koichi (Sato) and Atsumi (Ayase) are childhood friends who have become lovers. Despite this closeness when Atsumi attempts suicide Koichi is at a loss as to what the reason that drove her to do such a thing could be. Now she is in a coma and Koichi needs to find out the reason. Since Koichi is a neurosurgeon he has access to the latest studies and so he takes part in a medical procedure that will allow him to enter Atsumi’s subconscious through her central nervous system.
When he arrives she asks him to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew as a child. It is the key to a suppressed memory connected to a childhood trauma. Finding this picture will allow Koichi to truly get close to knowing his love.
Hitoshi Matsumoto is unknown to me but lots of people like his feature Big Man Japan. A lot of the cast are familiar to me. Nao Omori (Mushishi), Atsuro Watabe (Love Exposure, Heat After Dark), Shinobu Terajima (Kitaro and the Millennium Curse, Vibrator), Eriko Sato (Crime or Punishment?!?), You (Nobody Knows, Still Walking) are all great actors and I believe they can make this comedy work. The concept is hilarious – a guy into a bit of S&M is hounded by dominatrixes in public.
Takafumi Katayama (Omori) is a mild-mannered father who escapes the pressures of everyday life by joining a mysterious S&M club where the dominatrix will visit the client in real life settings. At first the pinch and tickle treatment he receives from these girls in leather is fun but t becomes relentless. He is now at the mercy of a gang of dominatrixes who torment him!
Can I just say that while I’m not into S&M, Eriko Sato looks so good that I’d let her harass me at work or in public.
Before we get into the trailers, here’s an image from Takashi Shimizu’s Live Action Kiki’s Delivery Service:
16-year-old Fūka Koshiba stars as the magical good-natured witch Kiki. This story is based on the book and has no connection to the Ghibli anime according to Anime News Network. The film is directed by horror veteran Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On The Curse 1 & 2) and written by Satoko Okudera (The Wolf Children).
The trailers stretch across May and June with Makoto Shinkai’s latest films getting its release on May 31st and a bunch of live-action titles going on June 01st.
The Garden of Words
Japanese Title: 言の葉の庭
Romaji: Kotonoha no Niwa
Release Date: May 31st, 2013 (Japan)
Running Time: 46 mins
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Writer: Makoto Shinkai
Starring: Kana Hanazawa (Yukino), Miyu Irino (Takao)
Makoto Shinkai’s latest film was released yesterday. The anime looks and sounds stunning. The depiction of the world, the rain and the plants, and the highlighting of natural sounds stand out. It looks very immersive. A five minute promo was released quite recently and so here is the trailer and the promo.
“We met, for each of us to walk forward.
Takao is a 15-year-old boy with dreams of becoming a professional shoe designer and was skipping high school, sketching shoes in a Japanese garden when he encounters a mysterious older woman named Yukino who is 27. Without arranging it they end up meeting again and again, but only on rainy days, deepening their relationship and opening up to each other. But the end of the rainy season soon approaches…
The Gaze of Another
Japanese Title: だれかのまなざし
Romaji: Dare ka no Manazashi
Release Date: May 31st, 2013 (Japan)
Running Time: 7 mins
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Writer: Makoto Shinkai
Starring: Aya Hirano (Katari), Satomi Hanamura (Aya Okamura), Shinji OGawa
This short was produced for a home living exposition that took place at the Tokyo International Forums in February. The themes are “the future” and “family ties” and we watch the story of the growth of a family from the point of view of the cat. Seiyuu involved include Satomi Hanamura (Kanae in 5 Centimetres Per Second), Aya Hirano (Kana in Nura Rise of the Yokai Clan) and Shinji Ogawa (Suguru in Roujin Z and Fukushima in Patlabor: The Movie).
Starring: Takeru Sato, Haruka Ayase, Jo Odagiri, Miki Nakatani, Shota Sometani, Keisuke Horibe, Kyoko Koizumi, Keisuke Horibe, Yuki Kan
OH MY GOD! IT’S FINALLY HERE.
After my embarrassingly enthusiasm was displayed in a rambling preview I can finally take in the reviews of the films and see if it lives up to y lofty expectations. This is Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s latest film. After helming TV dorama Penance he has gone on to make this big-budget sci-fi thriller. The film is based on the 2011 novel Riaru Kanzen’naru Shuchou Ryuu no Hi, written by Rokuro Inui and it stars a mixture of new and familiar actors like Shota Sometani (Himizu), Haruka Ayase (Ichi), Miki Nakatani (Loft,Zero Focus), Joe Odagiri (Adrift in Tokyo, Mushishi, Retribution and Bright Future) and Kyoko Koizumi, (Survive Style 5+).
Koichi (Sato) and Atsumi (Ayase) are childhood friends who have become lovers. Despite this closeness when Atsumi attempts suicide Koichi is at a loss as to what the reason that drove her to do such a thing could be. Now she is in a coma and Koichi needs to find out the reason. Since Koichi is a neurosurgeon he has access to the latest studies and so he takes part in a medical procedure that will allow him to enter Atsumi’s subconscious through her central nervous system.
When he arrives she asks him to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew as a child. It is the key to a suppressed memory connected to a childhood trauma. Finding this picture will allow Koichi to truly get close to knowing his love.
Road of the Beginning (Literal Title) / Kinoshita Keisuke Story (Working Title)
Japanese Title: はじまり の みち
Romaji: Hajimari no Michi
Release Date: June 01st, 2013 (Japan)
Running Time: 96 mins.
Director: Keiichi Hara
Writer: Keiichi Hara (Screenplay),
Starring: Ryo Kase, Yuko Tanaka, Aoi Miyazaki, Gaku Hamada, Ren Osugi, Mari Hamada, Yusuke Santamaria, Ken Mitsuishi Shigeru Saiki, Itsuki Sagara, Mayu Matsuoka, Shoko Fujimura
This film is made to commemorate the 100th year anniversary of Keisuke Kinoshita’s birth and it follows his early life from his days as a lively youth to his entry into Shochiku movie studio. The trailer is pretty earnest and some of the themes seem to be the loyalty of a son to his mother and the mother’s belief in him. Wipe away the tears and you will see that footage from Kinoshita’s films has been interwoven into the new film. Aoi Miyazaki leading those children along the riverbank is a clear nod to Twenty-Four Eyes.
Keisuke Kinoshita was a contemporary of Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi and yet he is pretty unknown to a lot of cinephiles in the west. Okay, that may be a bit of an exaggeration because his films Twenty-Four Eyes and The Ballad of Narayama are available in the west and pretty famous but a lot of his other titles are only now getting screened at recent film festivals like Berlin and Venice. To be quite frank his work is unknown to me but from writing up about him I can see how he is important since a lot of those titles sound different to the films of Ozu, presenting interesting new stories that must have challenged the views of audiences of the time. Wikipedia makes him sound like he has an interesting visual style as well:
He refused to be bound by genre, technique or dogma. He excelled in almost every genre, comedy, tragedy, social dramas, period films. He shot all films on location or in a one-house set. He pursued severe photographic realism with the long take, long-shot method, and he has gone equally far toward stylization with fast cutting, intricate wipes, tilted cameras and even medieval scroll-painting and Kabuki stage technique.
Well the cast involved are suitably skilled with Ryo Kase (Outrage) taking the role of the director, Yuko Tanaka (The Milkwoman) playing his mother. Other actors include Gaku Hamada (Foreign Duck, Potechi), Aoi Miyazaki (The Great Passage), Ken Mitsuishi (Noriko’s Dinner Table), Itsuki Sagara (Goodybye Debussy), Mayu Matsuoka (The Kirishima Thing) and Ren Osugi (Exte).
It is directed and written by Keiichi Hara who has a background in anime and helmed the film Colorful.
Dogs and Cats and Humans Earthquake of Animals 2
Japanese Title: 犬と猫と人間と2 動物たちの大震災
Romaji: Inu to Neko to Ningen to 2 Doubutsu-tachi no Daishinai
Release Date: June 01st, 2013 (Japan)
Running Time: 104 mins.
Director: Daiyu Shishido
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Prepare to cry. This documentary depicts the stories of cats and dogs and their owners who were all affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake. We watch the fortunes of a family of stray cats, dog owners who lost their pets during the tsunami, the hardships of farmers and their livestock in the Fukushima area. It’s not all grim though because pets and owners are reunited.
Two Years of Cancer and Yoko Enjoys Life,
Japanese Title: いのち を 楽しむ 容子 戸がん 2 年間
Romaji: Inochi o Tanoshimu Yoko to Gan no 2-nenkan
Release Date: June 01st, 2013 (Japan)
Running Time: 102 mins.
Director: Akira Matsubara, Yumi Sasaki
Writer: N/A
Starring: N/A
Awful translation work again because there’s nothing enjoyable about something like cancer but that does appear to be the title.
Inochi wo Tanoshimu = I enjoy life
Yoko to Gan no 2-nenkan = Yoko and 2 Years of Cancer
The documentary follows Yoko Watanabe who was diagnosed with breast cancer at te age of 40 and died at the age of 58. More specifically it catches the last two years of her life where she went without taking any form of surgery or medication and just had the support of her doctor, family and friends.
Kankin Tantei = Confinement detective. Confinement and detective work? Sounds sexy. Or problematic. Being confined would be problematic. Not that I would complain if it involved Natsuna Watanabe… Anyway, moving on before I embarrass myself further… Takuro Oikawa, director of suspense thriller Shuffle is on hand to make this locked room mystery come to life. The premise is intriguing and the trailer is promising and it stars two fine young actors in the form of Takahiro Miura (Cold Bloom, Ninja Kids!!!) and Natsuna Watanabe (Gantz).
A woman has been stabbed to death in an apartment and all clues point to Ryota (Miura). He is suspected to be the killer by Akane (Watanbe) who just happened to be at the murder scene but Ryota claims he is innocent and imprisons her so he can think about what happened and prove his innocence. Definitely the actions of an innocent man! Akane offers to help him.
AKIKO Portrait of a Dancer by AKIKO,
Japanese Title: してAKIKOは… AKIKO あるダンサーの肖像
Romaji: Shite AKIKO wa… AKIKO ARU DANSA- no Shouzou
Release Date: June 01st, 2013 (Japan)
Running Time: 120 mins.
Director: Suiko Haneda
Writer: N/A
Starring: Akiko Kanda
Akiko Kanda was a major award winning figure in the modern dance movement in Japan at her death due to cancer at the age of 75 in September 2011. She had a film made about her in 1985 when she was in her 40’s and this is the follow-up made when she was in her 70’s. We see her hospitalised after a dance recital in 2010 and her recovery and attempt at dancing again.
Starring: Takeru Sato, Haruka Ayase, Jo Odagiri, Miki Nakatani, Shota Sometani, Keisuke Horibe, Kyoko Koizumi, Keisuke Horibe, Yuki Kan
Ramble alert (I ramble because I love the subject!)
I am a big Kiyoshi Kurosawa fan. Massive. I have pretty much bought and reviewed most of his major titles available in the west and not one of them disappointed me. His critically acclaimed drama Tokyo Sonata I consider one of the most important films I have ever seen while I think highly of his divisive experimental film Bright Future. I really love his J-horror like Cure and Retribution which run along more fiendishly intelligent and psychologically disturbing lines than your average horror movie. Even films he rejects I find a lot to like about! Each title contains his unique aesthetics and deliberate approach to his subject matter. I am really excited about 2013 because he has a new film getting a release in Japan and the UK gets two of his 90’s crime thrillers thanks to Third Window Films.
Colour me happy when I caught a new trailer and teaser for his latest film Real. It is a title with a sci-fi edge that reminds me a little of Inception what with its concept of entering a person’s subconscious, tilting camera angles, fantasy creatures, gravity defying stationary and ruined coastal town (Atsumi’s mind is the scene of the crime!). This also looks like a really big-budget title which is something Kurosawa tends not to handle but his critical cachet has never been higher. Check out the trailer!
Here is a shorter teaser released a bit earlier. It’s more action packed:
Koichi (Sato) and Atsumi (Ayase) are childhood friends who have become lovers. Despite this closeness when Atsumi attempts suicide Koichi is at a loss as to what the reason that drove her to do such a thing could be. Now she is in a coma and Koichi needs to find out the reason. Since Koichi is a neurosurgeon he has access to the latest studies and so he takes part in a medical procedure that will allow him to enter Atsumi’s subconscious through her central nervous system.
When he arrives she asks him to find a picture of a plesiosaur she drew as a child. It is the key to a suppressed memory connected to a childhood trauma. Finding this picture will allow Koichi to truly get close to knowing his love.
Genkinahito 