Before being widely known through his two “Baby Assassins” movies, Yugo Sakamoto has also shot a grittier, somewhat darker movie, “The Janitor”, who still implements, though, the chaotic narrative approach his later movies included.
on Hi-Yah!
The titular character is actually Akira Fukami, a man whose father was murdered and was taken in by his sworn blood brother, Majima, a yakuza leader who trained Fukami into becoming his most formidable assassin. As the movie begins, and as a side job, the young man poses as a janitor in a high school where Majima’s daughter, Yui is attending, secretly functioning as her bodyguard. Despite some issues here and there, his life proceeds smoothly, until Majima announces that he wants to take his business to Hong Kong. This enrages one of the underbosses, Nishimori, who immediately starts plotting to have him killed, using Fukami, to whom he reveals...
on Hi-Yah!
The titular character is actually Akira Fukami, a man whose father was murdered and was taken in by his sworn blood brother, Majima, a yakuza leader who trained Fukami into becoming his most formidable assassin. As the movie begins, and as a side job, the young man poses as a janitor in a high school where Majima’s daughter, Yui is attending, secretly functioning as her bodyguard. Despite some issues here and there, his life proceeds smoothly, until Majima announces that he wants to take his business to Hong Kong. This enrages one of the underbosses, Nishimori, who immediately starts plotting to have him killed, using Fukami, to whom he reveals...
- 10/20/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Three flamboyant friends embark on a crazy ride in this debut film of Yasujiro Tanaka that showcases the prejudices and difficulties faced by LGBTQ people in a nation that often still wrestles with traditional values set in stone. With this project, Tanaka unleashes some fabulous helpings of LGBT culture into the discourse, and it all starts when a trio of drag queens found themselves at the receiving end of some tragic news.
Natchan’s Little Secret is screening at Camera Japan
Nat-chan has a secret. From the surface, he looks like any ordinary Japanese guy working the usual nine-to-five. But his ruse comes to a grinding halt when he unexpectedly passes away, taking his secret to the grave with him. One withheld by his closest sisters: the matronly and glamorous Virgin Purity (Kenichi Takito), the gorgeous baby of the group Morilyn Stone (Shu Watanabe) and the chaotic firecracker with a sick sense of humour,...
Natchan’s Little Secret is screening at Camera Japan
Nat-chan has a secret. From the surface, he looks like any ordinary Japanese guy working the usual nine-to-five. But his ruse comes to a grinding halt when he unexpectedly passes away, taking his secret to the grave with him. One withheld by his closest sisters: the matronly and glamorous Virgin Purity (Kenichi Takito), the gorgeous baby of the group Morilyn Stone (Shu Watanabe) and the chaotic firecracker with a sick sense of humour,...
- 9/26/2023
- by Leon Overee
- AsianMoviePulse
Mockumentaries have been the latest trend in Asian cinema in particular, with a number of directors presenting films that look like they are real, but are completely fictional. With the support of Housen Cultural Foundation, Yuichiro Sakashita presents his own work in the category, in a style though, that looks more like an advertising infomercial than a documentary, thus straying away from whatever norm the genre could even have.
Outsourcing is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
Hr Rep Miyagawa of JobLink Inc. is the presenter of the informercial, which focuses on promoting outsourcing of hiring new employees to a recruitment agency. The film intersperses his talk, with “testimonies” of the outsourcing company, and a number of potential employees, most of which are interviewed remotely due to Covid measures. Eventually, Miyagawa presents the people he hired as a testament to the success of outsourcing, but soon realizes that something is amiss.
Outsourcing is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival
Hr Rep Miyagawa of JobLink Inc. is the presenter of the informercial, which focuses on promoting outsourcing of hiring new employees to a recruitment agency. The film intersperses his talk, with “testimonies” of the outsourcing company, and a number of potential employees, most of which are interviewed remotely due to Covid measures. Eventually, Miyagawa presents the people he hired as a testament to the success of outsourcing, but soon realizes that something is amiss.
- 3/24/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Following his dramatic second feature, “Good-Bye Silence”, Kenichi Ugana decided to change styles completely, ending up with a “silly”, distinctly Japanese comedy, which parodies the super hero genre in a way similar to “Hk: Forbidden Super Hero”. The result was quite successful, since “Wild Virgins” screened on festivals all over the world, including the 38th Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and the 40th Fantafestival, and it has already been picked up by Third Window Films.
When he was a young boy, Mikio Hoshimura believed that super powers can actually save people, instigated by his favorite anime at the time, “Super Virginia”. However, he could not save his ailing mother who died at the time, and the realization turned him into a complete loser, who, at 29-years-old, has no friends, no girlfriend, and is the ridicule of the company he works for, always placed at the bottom of the rankings. The...
When he was a young boy, Mikio Hoshimura believed that super powers can actually save people, instigated by his favorite anime at the time, “Super Virginia”. However, he could not save his ailing mother who died at the time, and the realization turned him into a complete loser, who, at 29-years-old, has no friends, no girlfriend, and is the ridicule of the company he works for, always placed at the bottom of the rankings. The...
- 2/13/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
“On-Gaku: Our Sound,” an oddball music comedy directed by Kenji Iwaisawa, upends all that is typical of Japanese animation. glutted with mind-bending sci-fi conundrums or elaborate time-slip-body-switching fantasies. But what fuels its easy breakout to western audiences are its bona fide rock references and characters as deadpan as any Aki Kaurismaki cast.
Signs of “On-Gaku” being the year’s biggest dark horse in anime fandom came in September 2019, when it beat “I Lost My Body” and “Children of the Sea” to win the Grand Prix at the Ottawa Animation Festival. It has since been picked up stateside by Gkids and should enjoy wide fest play following its presentation in the Contrechamps Competition section at the Annecy Animation Festival, which just awarded the film a prize for its music.
“On-Gaku,” which simply means “music” in Japanese, was adapted from a revised draft of the cult manga “Ongaku and Manga,” first self-published...
Signs of “On-Gaku” being the year’s biggest dark horse in anime fandom came in September 2019, when it beat “I Lost My Body” and “Children of the Sea” to win the Grand Prix at the Ottawa Animation Festival. It has since been picked up stateside by Gkids and should enjoy wide fest play following its presentation in the Contrechamps Competition section at the Annecy Animation Festival, which just awarded the film a prize for its music.
“On-Gaku,” which simply means “music” in Japanese, was adapted from a revised draft of the cult manga “Ongaku and Manga,” first self-published...
- 6/26/2020
- by Maggie Lee
- Variety Film + TV
From the director and scriptwriter of “100 Yen Love”, comes a rather enjoyable comedy about the world of antiques and the shenanigans of the people involved.
We Make Antiques screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia Film Festival 2018
Norio Koike is an antique dealer and a scammer (as almost every protagonist and definitely anyone in the antique world in the film) who operates from his van along with his daughter, Imari and has a tendency to believe his horoscope. One day, upon his visit to the house of a seemingly indifferent owner of antiques, he stumbles upon a truly rare piece, and proceeds on swindling his way into owning it for a very small sum, thinking he finally has the big chance he has been waiting for years.
Unfortunately, he soon finds out that he has been swindled himself by the owner, who turns out to be a failed potter named Sasuke Noda,...
We Make Antiques screened at Helsinki Cine Aasia Film Festival 2018
Norio Koike is an antique dealer and a scammer (as almost every protagonist and definitely anyone in the antique world in the film) who operates from his van along with his daughter, Imari and has a tendency to believe his horoscope. One day, upon his visit to the house of a seemingly indifferent owner of antiques, he stumbles upon a truly rare piece, and proceeds on swindling his way into owning it for a very small sum, thinking he finally has the big chance he has been waiting for years.
Unfortunately, he soon finds out that he has been swindled himself by the owner, who turns out to be a failed potter named Sasuke Noda,...
- 3/6/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
From the director and scriptwriter of “100 Yen Love”, comes a rather enjoyable comedy about the world of antiques and the shenanigans of the people involved.
Norio Koike is an antique dealer and a scammer (as almost every protagonist and definitely anyone in the antique world in the film) who operates from his van along with his daughter, Imari and has a tendency to believe his horoscope. One day, upon his visit to the house of a seemingly indifferent owner of antiques, he stumbles upon a truly rare piece, and proceeds on swindling his way into owning it for a very small sum, thinking he finally has the big chance he has been waiting for years.
We Make Antiques is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Unfortunately, he soon finds out that he has been swindled himself by the owner, who turns out to be a failed potter named Sasuke Noda,...
Norio Koike is an antique dealer and a scammer (as almost every protagonist and definitely anyone in the antique world in the film) who operates from his van along with his daughter, Imari and has a tendency to believe his horoscope. One day, upon his visit to the house of a seemingly indifferent owner of antiques, he stumbles upon a truly rare piece, and proceeds on swindling his way into owning it for a very small sum, thinking he finally has the big chance he has been waiting for years.
We Make Antiques is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Unfortunately, he soon finds out that he has been swindled himself by the owner, who turns out to be a failed potter named Sasuke Noda,...
- 6/24/2018
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
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