Japanese Movie Week

Screening List

Hirugao, Battle of Supreme High, Dear Etranger, Daytime Shooting Star, Her Love Boils Bathwater, Death Note: Light up the New world, Sanada 10 Braves, Kanon

 Dear Etranger

Directed by: Yukiko Mishima

Written by: Haruhiko Arai/ Kiyoshi Shigematsu

Starring: Rena Tanaka/ Tadanobu Asano/ Kankuro Kudo/ Shinobu Terajima

Genre: Drama

The film is adapted from the Naoki Prize winning writer’s same name novel, and directed by the Reed of Glass director Yukiko Mishima. The story tells a divorced man Makoto (by Tadanobu Asano) brings his child to live an ordinary and happy life with his second wife Nanae (by Rena Tanaka) and the two daughters she had before. When Nanae is pregnant, Nanae's big daughter says that she would like to see his own biological father Sawada (by Kankuro Kudo), but it is his battering to Nanae that leads to the divorce. Nanae and Makoto strongly object to it, while the daughter tries hard to resist, which makes Makoto feel depressed, and even has a sense of negation on Nanae’s unborn baby.

Highlights

With the rising of divorce rate in Japan, how to deal with the marriage between remarried people, how to integrate the two unrelated families, how to solve the legacy issue of the former marriage, a variety of family problems come together in this moive, which is of great practical significance.

Battle of Supreme High

Directed by: Akira Nagai

Written by: Usamaru Furuya/ Yoshihiro Izumi

Starring: Masaki Suda/ Shuhei Nomura/ Ryoma Takeuchi/ Shotaro Mamiya/ Jun Shison/ Yudai Chiba/ Mei Nagano/ Kotaro Yoshida

Genre: Comedy

The film is adapted from the same name manga, with the story focusing on the high school student campaign, full of funny “adolescent delusions”. Masaki Suda even has a lot of shirtless shots in the movie. In the No.1 rich and powerful high school in Japan, as long as being elected student president, the person will be able to enter the Japanese cabinet in the future, so the protagonist Teiichi Akaba played by Masaki Suda embraces the great dream of becoming a Japanese Prime Minister, and is determined to run for the student president. All the opponents he faces are talented students: they compete strategies, networks and even test scores. The ambitious Teiichi is even willing to bet on his life to struggle for it, but unpredictable trap and betrayal are waiting for him. A final fighting kicks off.

Highlights

The original manga enjoys high popularity, and the film acting lineup assembles a number of Japanese popular actors born after 1990s. When recently released in Japan, the film has ignited a wave of zeal. A variety of plots with unique Japanese characteristics and unrestrained imagination set people roaring with laughter.

Daytime Shooting Star

Directed by: Takehiko Shinjo

Written by: Naoko Adachi

Starring: Mei Nagano/ Shohei Miura/ Alan Shirahama/ Maika Yamamoto/ Kira Akira / Rina Koyama/ Naomi Nishida/ Ryuta Sato

Genre: Romance

The film is adapted from a super popular girl comic with the circulation of more than 2 million copies. The manga is a “high school girl must see” book about first love in Japan. The story starts from the high school girl student Suzume Yosano (by Mei Nagano) who grows up in the countryside and has never had a boyfriend before, being transferred to a school in Tokyo. She fainted on the way moving to her uncle’s home, but was fortunately saved by Satsuki Shishio (by Shohei Miura). As the school begins, she is surprised to find that Satsuki Shishio is actually her homeroom teacher. She was gradually attracted by the teacher's gentleness and handsome appearance, and the two started to have feelings for each other. At the same time, her classmate sitting next to her, Daiki Mamura (by Alan Shirahama) looks cold, but his heart becomes attracted to her. A bittersweet love triangle begins.

Highlights

Shohei Miura and Alan Shirahama competing with each other for the lover, and the head patting, back hug, Kabe-Don, kiss scenes, will definitely make female audience blush. 

Hirugao

Directed by: Hiroshi Nishitani

Written by: Yumiko Inoue

Starring: Aya Ueto/ Takumi Saito/ Ayumi Ito/ Hiroyuki Hirayama

Genre: Romance

The Japanese drama Hirugao presenting the extramarital love has once set off a climax of discussion in China. The same name movie launched this year is a continuation of the TV drama, using the original starring. In the previous serial, through characters like Sawa Sasamoto (played by Aya Ueto), the ambivalence of housewives eager for true love and fearing of moral hazards are depicted. Although in the end, everyone returns to the normal track, it has also led to the audience’s pondering on marriage. The movie version is set in three years later when the divorced Sawa and Kitano (played by Takumi Saito) meet again, the two cannot help but start tryst. This taboo love was found out by Kitano’s girlfriend again, the two fall into a whirlpool, and meanwhile the owner of the restaurant where Sawa works expresses his love to Sawa. Where will this complex and controversial multi-angle relationship go?

Highlights

The comeback work of Aya Ueto, the continuation of the hit Japanese drama. When the lover you deliberately keep away from show up again, when true love collide again with the moral boundaries, is it God’s trick?

Her Love Boils Bathwater

Directed by: Ryota Nakano

Written by: Ryota Nakano

Starring: Rie Miyazawa/ Hana Sugisaki/ Joe Odagiri/ Tori Matsuzaka/ Aoi Ito/ Yukiko Shinohara/ Taro Suruga

Genre: Drama

As an excellent work receiving wide public praise in Japan, the film has won six nominations of the Japanese Academy Awards at the beginning of the year, and ultimately received the awards of Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role and Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. The talented and capable actress Rie Miyazawa plays in the film as a mother who has only two months of life. At first, she was caught in the desperate abyss, but she realizes that there are things she must do in the rest of her life, so she is determined to cheer up and be positive towards life. During the remaining few time, she sets up some goals for her to accomplish: find her missing husband, resume the family bathhouse business, get her daughter who has been bullied to stand on her own, etc. With the goals being reached one by one, the mother's families having received her help are also ready to do something for her.

Highlights

The mother played by Rie Miyazawa in the film is bearing the unimaginable misfortune, but is still brave enough to fill the incomplete family’s emotional vacancy with great maternal love, and create a family story full of tears with her own life.

Death Note: Light up the New world

Directed by: Shinsuke Sato

Written by: Katsunari Mano

Starring: Masahiro Higashide/ Sosuke Ikematsu/ Masaki Suda/ Mina Fujii/ Rina Kawaei/ Tatsuya Fujiwara/ Kenichi Matsuyama/ Erika Toda

Genre: Drama/ Crime/ Fantasy

The film is adapted from the popular same name manga and set ten years after the death of Shinigami King and L when the 6 dead notes are scattered across the world. Masahiro Higashide as the hero Tsukuru Mishima who is pursuing the death notes, Sosuke Ikematsu as an investigator Ryuzaki who hopes to trace and stop the death notes from being used, Masaki Suda as a mad genius Yuki Shien intending to control all the death notes and revive Kira, the three main characters constitute a strong triangle in the film. A final battle start from here, and more suspenseful and thrilling murders stages one after another!

Highlights

Compared with the Death Note volume 1 screened ten years ago, the visual effects in the film have been improved significantly: the frames including the Shinigami are more vivid and delicate. The screen effect which has never appeared before is also worth expectation.

Sanada 10 Braves

Directed by: Yukihiko Tsutsumi

Written by: Nozomi Makino/ Tetsuya Suzuki

Starring: Kankuro Nakamura/ Tori Matsuzaka/ Yuko Oshima/ Kento Nagayama/ Mitsuomi Takahashi/ Taro Suruga/ Ryouta Murai/ Atsushi Arai/ Ayumu Mochizuki/ Ken Aoki

Genre: Comedy/ Action

The film is directed by the well-known director Yukihiko Tsutsumi who has works like SPEC and Initiation Love. Centering on the history of Japan's famous general Yukimura Sanada and the ten warriors, a hot-blooded story begins. The film sets Yukimura Sanada, a man who once forced Tokugawa Ieyasu into impasse, as a coward. In order to make him a true and outstanding general, the ten braves including Sasuke Sarutobi and Saizo Kirigakure are determined to fight. Ten people against Tokugawa Ieyasu's troop of two hundred thousand soldiers; what scheme do the ten braves hide behind this challenge which is destined to lose?

Highlights

A rare Japanese costume war production, with familiar figures, grand cast, hot blood “burning” from beginning to end, and the bold attempt to stage the same name play at the same period, detonated a hit topic in last year's Japanese entertainment circle.

Kanon

Directed by: Toshiro Saiga

Written by: Erika Tosaka

Starring: Manami Higa/ Mimura/ Nozomi Sasaki/ Ren Kiriyama/ Tomoharu Hasegawa/ Hiro Komura/ Yoko Shimada/ Yumi Takigawa/ Honami Suzuki

Genre: Romance 

The film pays attention to the impact of the native family on children. At grandmother's funeral, the three sisters scattered in different places come together, where they open their grandmother’s will of death, and learn that their mother, who they thought had passed away is in fact still alive. They find the mother in an orphanage, but she has completely changed. In the mother's room there is a music box. As the melody in the box Canon plays, the mother suffering from alcohol-dependent dementia recovers, and slowly reveals the truth of her being disappear with her daughters.

Highlights

"Rika Akana" Honami Suzuki plays the role of the mother without any makeup, showing the greatness of life when fighting against the disease. "Goddess" Nozomi Sasaki plays the third daughter, whose free and easy character resembles her personality in real life.