2024-12-10

SIFF SCREENING | Japanese Film Festival announces second batch of films

Angry Squad (2024)

アングリースクワッド公務員と7人の詐欺師

Jiro Kumazawa (Masaaki Uchino) is a hard-working civil servant working at a tax office. One day, he falls victim to an ingenious scam orchestrated by genius con artist Makoto Himuro (Masaki Okada) and loses a large sum of money. With the help of his detective friend, Kumazawa tracks down Himuro. The cornered Himuro proposes, "I'll scam the powerful figures you're after and collect the 1 billion yen in evaded taxes for you. So let me off the hook." Although Kumazawa struggles with the idea of being an accomplice to a crime, he decides to team up with Himuro for the sake of his own "revenge." The two join forces and gather a group of eccentric outlaws to form the con artist group "Angry Squad". Together, they embark on a grand mission to collect unpaid taxes.

As For Me (2024)

早乙女カナコの場合は

Kanako, a senior college student in Tokyo, has been seeing Nagatsuda, the “writer” from the same theater club, since she was a freshman and he was a senior. When Nagatsuda breaks his promise and decides not to graduate or find a job, it causes a rift between them and they stop talking. Nagatsuda, who has several ideas but has never been able to complete a script, finds comfort in Maiko, a freshman whose friend Minako showed her how to apply makeup and choose clothes to attract and win Nagatsuda’s heart.

Meanwhile, Yoichi, a superior at the publishing company where Kanako will be working after graduation, confesses his feelings for her. Yoichi is Mr. Right on paper, but being self-conscious and stubborn, Kanako remains conflicted between Nagatsuda and Yoichi. In the winter, Kanako is set to train under Aiko, a well-organized woman whose 5-year plan to get married was derailed after Yoichi ended their relationship. Maiko and Aiko end up making decisions respectively. As for Kanako...

Cells at Work! (2024)

はたらく細胞

©Akane Shimizu/KODANSHA ©Shigemitsu Harada, Issei Hatsuyoshiya, Akane Shimizu/KODANSHA

There are 37 trillion cells within the human body. The red blood cell (Mei Nagano) who carries the oxygen, a white blood cell [neutrophil] (Takeru Satoh) who fights bacteria, as well as countless other cells work night and day to protect your health and your life. High school student Niko Urushizaki (Mana Ashida) lives with her father Shigeru (Sadawo Abe). As she is studious and conscientious about having healthy habits in her everyday life, the cells in her body always work happily. On the other hand, Shigeru’s irregular lifestyle and unhealthy food intake make his body.

a toxic work environment for his overworked cells who can’t stop complaining. They may be father and daughter, but the inside of their body is completely different.

They get along well and live their eventful life happily. However, pathogens aiming to infiltrate the body are plotting their next move...

The cells’ greatest war yet for the future of the Urushizakis is underway!

Cloud (2024)

クラウド

Yoshii (Masaki Suda) resigns from his stable job to make big money as a reseller.

His schemes appear to be going from strength to strength until unsettling incidents begin occurring consecutively around him.

A negative spiral of animosity eventually gives rise to a crazed mob of unknown number.

Their target is Yoshii, whose oblivious existence is rapidly torn apart…

Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality (2024)

八犬伝

In early 1800s, Bakin, a popular novelist of that time starts to tell a new story to Hokusai, a painter and a respected friend of his.

Although Hokusai was impressed by the beginning of Bakin’s storytelling, he stubbornly refused the illustration job he was asked to do, but he was obviously drawn into Bakin’s story that he begins to visit Bakin every now and then to listen to the rest of the story. The story is soon published as a series, which lasted unusually long time that it became Bakin’s lifework. Finally, after 28 years, when the series was about to reach its climax, something unusual happened to Bakin’s condition. He was gradually starting to become blind.

It seemed hopeless to complete the story but then, Bakin’s daughter-in-law offers him something he had never imagined...