All Around Us ぐるりのこと。(2008) Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi

All Around Us    

ぐるりのこと。 「Gururi no Koto.」

Release Date: June 07th, 2008

Duration: 140 mins.

Director: Ryosuke Hashiguchi

Writer: Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Script),

Starring: Lily Franky, Tae Kimura, Akira Emoto, Susumu Terajima, Tamae Ando, Mitsuko Baisho, Ken Mitsuishi, Ryo Kase, Yoji Tanaka, Reiko Kataoka, Jiro Sato, Rie Minemura,

IMDB

2008 was a vintage year for Japanese cinema as a number of titles were released that have stood the test of time. The most notable are a triumvirate of slice-of-life dramas that left an indelible mark on the film world with Tokyo Sonata and Still Walking leaving a lasting impression with cinephiles while Departures had enough crossover appeal for mainstream audiences to become the first Japanese film to win an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. 

Not talked about as much but equal to all three is All Around Us, a hidden gem of a marriage story that takes in an epic sweep of social history while delivering intimate character studies all told through subtle direction that respects the audience’s ability to understand and naturalistic acting that is heartfelt and compelling.

The film starts in 1993 in Tokyo and introduces us to Kanao (Lily Franky) and Shoko (Tae Kimura). We enter their lives just as she launches a campaign to get pregnant.

The two are a study in contrasts that is initially fun. She is a controlling woman who works at a small publisher and is capable of great things. He is a laid-back and louche lothario who slums it as a street-side shoe repairman. She dresses primly. He dresses sloppily. She uses diaries and calendars to orchestrate book launches in work and marital sex nights at home to maximise chances of getting pregnant. He loafs around and dutifully, if a little perturbed, goes along with her instructions after days of flirting with female customers. For her, sex is almost laughably clinical while he goes with his passions, as shown in one hilarious scene where he cheekily surprises her by trying out a new sexual position that throws her off her game. 

Broken Commandment 破戒 Director: Kazuo Maeda [New York Asian Film Festival 2022]

Broken Commandment 

破戒 「Hakai」

Release Date: July 08th, 2022

Duration: 119 mins.

Director: Kazuo Maeda

Writer: Masato Kato, Norio Kida (Script), Toson Shimazaki (Original Story)

Starring: Shotaro Mamiya, Anna Ishii, Yuma Yamoto, Naoto Takenaka, Ayako Kobayashi, Yoji Tanaka, Renji Ishibashi,

Website   JFDB

Thursday Jul 28, 6:30pm

Broken Commandment is an adaptation of Toson Shimazaki’s 1906 novel. Set in Meiji-era Japan (1868–1912), it tells the story of Ushimatsu Segawa (Shotaro Mamiya) a popular teacher in a rural town in who hides his burakumin heritage to avoid social stigma.

The titular commandment that is broken is one Ushimatsu’s father gave (intoned with deep seriousness by Yoji Tanaka in a strikingly dramatic storm-filled flashback) telling his son to hide his background because, to be burakumin is to be part of a community of ethnic Japanese who suffered discrimination based solely on the basis of their class.

Whether or not Ushimatsu will break that commandment is always a knife-edge question.

Despite having idealistic ideas of equality inspired by living in a more modern age and imbibing on socialist teachings, Ushimatsu has good cause to hide his origins because, while Japan might be modernising, old prejudices die hard. This can be witnessed in scenes where a rich man (Renji Ishibashi) is met with physical violence after being revealed as burakumin and turfed out of the guesthouse Ushimatsu stays in. There are also instances when the insidious prejudice is demonstrated in everyday conversations and at the school that he is teaching in where members of the conservative administration and even some of his students are openly discriminatory. 

Ushimatsu’s uneasy situation brings him further personal pain when he decamps from the inn to temple lodgings and starts a budding romance with Shiho (Anna Ishii), a beautiful book-loving young woman from an impoverished family descended from more noble samurai stock.  

Hydra (2019) Director: Kensuke Sonomura

Hydra   

Release Date: November 23rd, 2019

Duration: 77 mins.

Director: Kensuke Sonomura

Writer: Jiro Kaneko (Screenplay),

Starring: Masanori Mimoto (Takashi), MIU (Rina), Tasuku Nagase (Kenta), Takaya Aoyagi (Shinichi), Takashi Nishina (Masa), Kaoru Gotou, Naohiro Kawamoto, Hironobu Nomura, BoBA, Tomorowo Taguchi, Yoji Tanaka,

Website IMDB

After its initial theatrical run in 2019 in Japan, Well Go USA Entertainment have picked up HYDRA for home release to give American audiences a taste of an indie action title from Japan. Lasting 78 minutes and featuring veteran stunt performers and genre movie actors, it feels like an introduction to its lead actor’s martial arts skills as well as a proof of concept that could lead to more films.

Farewell: Comedy of Life Begins with A Lie グッドバイ 嘘からはじまる人生喜劇 Dir: Izuru Narushima (2020)

Farewell: Comedy of Life Begins with A Lie 

グッドバイ　嘘からはじまる人生喜劇　 「Guddobai: Uso kara Hajimaru Jinsei Kigeki」

Release Date: February 14th, 2020

Duration: 106 mins.

Director: Izuru Narushima

Writer: Satoko Okudera (Script), Keralino Sandrovich (Stage play)

Starring: Yo Oizumi, Eiko Koike, Ai Hashimoto, Tae Kimura, Nobue Iketani, Asami Mizukawa, Yoji Tanaka, Gaku Hamada, Yutaka Matsushige,

Website IMDB

This film can best be described with the phrase, “less than the sum of its parts,”

By no means awful, Farewell: Comedy of Life Begins with A Lie fails to live up to expectations.

The elements were all there for a promising screwball comedy.

It finds its origins in an unfinished work by Osamu Dazai that was turned into a stageplay by Keralino Sandrovich of absurdist comedy Crime or Punishment?!? fame.

Director Izuru Narushima has a filmography stacked with solid titles, the best being Rebirth (2011). Scriptwriter Satoko Okudera, who has worked with Narushima previously, has a fine selection of other titles rich with emotions like Summer Wars (2009) and The Wolf Children (2012).

There is a cast to DIE for with affable-to-the-point-of-attractive and very smooth-talking leading man Yo Oizumi taking the lead as a philandering fool with a bevy of beauties played by some of the most talented actresses currently working, including Tae Kimura (Starfish Hotel, Zero Focus), Ai Hashimoto (The Kirishima Thing), and Asami Mizukawa (A Beloved Wife). Plus Yutaka Matsushige and Gaku Hamada are on hand to provide ample support. Most promisingly, Eiko Koike, a thoroughly underused thesp was reprising her role from the theatre version. With so much talent, it was a surprise that the final result is so underwhelming.

The story takes place in post-war Japan, a nation transforming itself and shedding its old identity. As part of this, the locales are the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s black markets and the more dignified air of editorial rooms of literary magazines. They soon crash together in an unlikely way through the meeting of two people from those two different worlds for a very sordid reason that promises comedy gold.