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Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia, one of the largest international short film festivals in Asia, accredited by the US Academy Awards® held its Award Ceremony which was the closing of the 26th this year. The 2024 film festival featured short films that illuminate “life, living and the world we live in,” with the theme “Illuminate Your Life ~ Illuminate living, illuminate the world.” The filmmakers gathered from 114 countries and regions around the world with the aim of spreading this message by shining a light on the viewers' own lives through their creations, and by providing a place where empathy, discovery, and emotion are born, along with an opportunity to open their eyes to the world. Ssff & Asia 2024 screened

and held events for approximately 270 shorts selected from a total 4,936 submitted films.

At the awards ceremony, addition to the Hoppy Happy Award and Kodansha Cinema Creators' Lab, Best Short Awards of Live Action Competition,...

By Olivia Popp

Premiering at the Tokyo International Festival and moving to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, “The Clone Returns Home” is Kanji Nakajima’s virtually unknown grounded sci-fi turned imaginative meditation on memory, life, and what can’t be captured within humankind’s attempt to control life. With Nakajima’s dreamscape and near-fantastical tale of being human, it’s no wonder that the movie easily attracts comparisons to Tarkovsky’s “Solaris.” The Japanese director brings his 2006 Sundance / Nhk International Filmmaker’s Award screenplay to life in this pensive piece with a small cast and a simple premise.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

After an introduction to the world of the film, in which a space agency is experiencing unexpected and unforeseen deaths among its astronauts, the astronaut Kohei Takahara (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) is given the option to prepare materials so that the agency may create...

Amazon Prime Video has doubled down on its investment in Japan with six local originals greenlit and an additional foray into live boxing.

At an event in Tokyo on Wednesday, Amazon revealed a reboot of “Takeshi’s Castle,” the iconic game show starring Kitano Takeshi that aired on terrestrial network TBS from 1986-1989. The reboot, with the working title “Takeshi’s Castle ProjectModern Love Tokyo," the Japanese adaptation of Prime Video’s original romantic anthology series "Modern Love." The series stars Asami Mizukawa, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yûsuke Santamaria, Sôsuke Ikematsu, and Naomi Scott, with episodes directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Wife of a Spy"), Naoko Ogigami ("Close-Knit"), Ryuichi Hiroki ("Ride or Die"), Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Matsugane ransha jiken"), and Atsuko Hirayanagi ("Oh Lucy!"), who also serves as showrunner. Set for 2023 is "My Lovely Yokai Girlfriend" a half-hour, young adult romantic horror adventure-comedy series about two outcasts directed by Takahiro Miki and created by Yalun Tu...

Doubling down on investment and expanding its offer in Japan, Prime Video has unveiled a slate of new Japanese originals including a reboot of iconic game show Takeshi’s Castle and a local adaptation of anthology series Modern Love. The streamer revealed the lineup at a showcase event in Tokyo today, where it also announced it will livestream the World Bantamweight title fight between Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire on June 7.

Among other new offerings are YA romantic horror adventure-comedy series My Undead Yokai Girlfriend created by NCIS: Hawaii and Grace alums Yalun Tu and Zach Hines; a movie adaptation of Ryota Kosawa’s bestseller Angel Flight; and second seasons of The Masked Singer and The Bachelorette Japan which will debut this summer. Further, an April 22 premiere date for the first season of Bake Off Japan has been set with judges Toshihiko Yoroizuka and Yoshimi Ishikawa, and hosts Maki Sakai and Asuka Kudo.

Daihachi Yoshida’s debut is based on the homonymous novel by Yukiko Motoya and presents a great mixture of family drama, black comedy and teenage action that resulted in the award for Best New Director at the 29th Yokohama Film Festival, among a plethora of other awards from the cast

The story revolves around three siblings and the spouse of one of that siblings, who are forced to face their past after their parents’ death and the return of their older sister, Sumika. The latter proves from the beginning how spoiled she is, making it clear that the sole reason for her return is to receive her cut from the will, in order to continue financing her, mostly unsuccessful, acting career. The brother, Shinji, who works as a woodcutter, explains that the family is actually broke and that they cannot continue financing her. Sumika, not having any alternative,...

Epic movies are usually associated with “heroes”, and concepts like war, organized crime, history and fantasy. Izuru Narashima in “Rebirth” however, proves that a family drama can also reach the levels of an epic, in a movie the Japanese Academy honored with 11 awards, essentially declaring it “Movie of the Year” for 2013.

Rebirth is screening at Japan Society

The script is based on the novel “Youkame no Semi” by Mitsuyo Kakuta, and revolves mostly around the story of two women. Kiwako Nonomiya retains an enduring relationship with Takehiro Akiyama, a married man who has promised her that eventually he will leave his wife, Etsuko, and live with her. At some point, Kiwako gets pregnant and he convinces her to have an abortion, and, in a sad twist, the procedure causes her permanent infertility.

Sometime after that, Etsuko learns about her husband’s relationship and the aforementioned incident and confronts the woman,...

True Mothers (Asa g Kuru) Film Movement Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Naomi Kawase Writer: Naomi Kawase, Izumi Takahashi, based on the novel by Mizuki Tsujimura Cast: Hiromi Nagasaku, Arata Iura, Aju Makita, Reo Sato, Hiroko Nakamima, Tetsu Hriahara, Ren Komai, Taketo Tanaka Screened at: Critics’ link, […]

The post True Mothers Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

"Thank you for giving birth to him." Film Movement has unveiled an official US trailer for the latest feature film from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. We first wrote about a teaser for this film last year, and it was initially scheduled to debut at the Cannes Film Festival (before the fest was cancelled). It will instead launch in "virtual cinemas" around the US at the end of this month after first opening in Japan last year. True Mothers, originally known as Asa ga Kuru in Japanese, is about a young Japanese couple that adopts a child, but then six years later they are contacted unexpectedly by the child's birth mother. Or at least a woman claiming to be the birth mother. Starring Arata Iura, Hiromi Nagasaku, Aju Makita, Miyoko Asada, Taketo Tanaka, and Ren Komai. True Mothers is also Japan's official submission to the Academy Awards this year. This...

Cannes beloved regular, filmmaker Naomi Kawase, was originally summoned to premiere her latest work “True Mothers” at this year’s edition, in spring. We all know what happened then, unfortunately, and the film was finally premiered at Toronto Film Festival last September and It is now in cinemas in Japan. Based on a novel that ignited discussions about adoption in Japan, the film takes in fact an approach more emotional than moral, leaving the adoption issue on the background.

“True Mothers” is streaming at Thessaloniki International Film Festival

The narration unfolds in a three-act mode, 2 of which are long flashbacks. We are immediately introduced to the serene middle-class Kurihara family in Tokyo. In an airy and bright apartment, Satoko (Hiromi Nagasaku) lovingly helps her 6-year-old boy Asato (Reo Sato) in the morning ritual of tooth-brushing and dad Kiyokazu (Arata Iura) takes him to school. Not long after, a phone call...

Cannes beloved regular, filmmaker Naomi Kawase, was originally summoned to premiere her latest work “True Mothers” at this year’s edition, in spring. We all know what happened then, unfortunately, and the film was finally premiered at Toronto Film Festival last September and It is now in cinemas in Japan. Based on a novel that ignited discussions about adoption in Japan, the film takes in fact an approach more emotional than moral, leaving the adoption issue on the background.

“True Mothers” is screening as part of the 2nd Annual HFPA Foreign Language Film Series

The narration unfolds in a three-act mode, 2 of which are long flashbacks. We are immediately introduced to the serene middle-class Kurihara family in Tokyo. In an airy and bright apartment, Satoko (Hiromi Nagasaku) lovingly helps her 6-year-old boy Asato (Reo Sato) in the morning ritual of tooth-brushing and dad Kiyokazu (Arata Iura) takes him to school.

Naomi Kawase is a divisive name on the festival circuit, though you might be surprised that’s the case when actually watching her work. A mainstay at the Cannes Film Festival for over two decades, Kawase boasts fluidity in form and feeling. She blends documentary and fiction while putting her stories within a context that reveres the natural world, an approach that has inspired admiration for some and annoyance for others. But whatever one accepts or rejects from Kawase’s films is irrelevant to the fact that she has a distinctive voice, and the way her vision adapts to or clashes against cinematic conventions can be a rewarding experience in itself.

True Mothers, Kawase’s adaptation of a novel by Mizuki Tsujimura, might be her most plot-heavy work to date. Structured as a mystery of sorts, it hinges itself on a central moment to tell two different stories. The first...

There are cinephiles who are transported to aesthetic nirvana by Naomi Kawase’s eco-spiritualism, and there are critics who flee her cinematic ashram. Neither will be wholly satisfied with “True Mothers,” the director’s contemplation of motherhood and adoption, which is her most plot-driven but least visually lustrous film yet. Like most of her previous features, this one also made Cannes’ official selection, only this one had to wait till Toronto to premiere after Covid struck. Resembling the relationship-based “Red Bean,” this dip into less mystical waters may give the film wider reach beyond French devotees to non-art-house fans of melodrama, especially in Asia.

Kawase’s father walked out at her tender age, letting her grandmother shoulder much of her upbringing. The wounds of abandonment are lyrically evoked in her debut “Suzaku,” as well as in “Shara” and “Still the Water,” while her enduring absorption with birth and her self-perception...

There’s a happy ending by the time “True Mothers,” Naomi Kawase’s saga of an adoptive family brought to a crossroads by the unexpected drop-in of their child’s birth mother, cuts to black, but there are plenty of moments of melancholy along the way. And oh, what a time it is, as “True Mothers” clocks in at just under two and a half hours, threatening to kill the emotional impact of this epically scaled, time-spanning, yet specifically intimate drama. Nevertheless,, and the Japanese director’s background as both a photographer and a documentary filmmaker brings a gossamer naturalism to this realistic tale about a young woman’s regrets over abandoning her child years after the fact.

Satoko (Hiromi Nagasaku) and Kiyokazu (Arata Iura) are a middle-class couple grappling with infertility in contemporary Tokyo. While Satoko desperately wants a child, Kiyokazu’s sperm (along with any sort of fathering streak) is blocked,...

Competition line-up includes five Cannes label titles.

San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) has revealed the first six features that will screen in competition at its 68th edition, including five Cannes label titles.

Films that will compete for the San Sebastian’s Golden Shell include: Sharunas Bartas’ In The Dusk; Naomi Kawase’s True Mothers; Dea Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning; François Ozon’s Summer Of 85; Takuma Sato’s Any Crybabies Around?; and Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round.

All except Sato’s new feature, which will receive its world premiere at San Sebastian, were previously in Cannes’ Official Selection. It follows...

Cannes Film Festival’s regular Naomi Kawase will not see her new movie “True Mothers” screened there this year unfortunately, despite being added to the list of 2020 Official Selections, and we will not be able to see it in theatres for a while either, for reasons that we all know, but it will probably be present in many line-ups of the new post-summer round of Festivals.

Synopsis

Based on Mizuki Tsujimura’s novel of the same name, “True Mothers” follows the story of Kiyokazu Kurihara and Satoko, a married couple struggling with infertility and trying every medical help in order to conceive biologically. However, after a long stream of unsuccessful attempts, the couple decides to adopt the child Asato instead. Then, six years later a woman comes into their lives and introduces herself as Hikari Katakura, She claims to be Asato’s biological mother and extorts them for money.

The film stars Arata Iura,...

More Cannes trailers! Spanish distributor Cine Maldito has debuted a lovely 30-second teaser trailer for the Japanese film titled True Mothers, the latest feature film made by acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase. This was just announced last week as an official selection at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, which is no longer happening this year, but they announced most of their line-up anyway. True Mothers, originally known as Asa ga Kuru in Japanese, is about a young couple that adopts a child, but then six years later they are contacted unexpectedly by the child's birth mother. Or at least a woman claiming to be the birth mother. The film stars Arata Iura, Hiromi Nagasaku, Aju Makita, Miyoko Asada, Taketo Tanaka, and Ren Komai. There's no dialogue in this trailer, only footage, and it already looks like an emotional rollercoaster. Here's the first official teaser trailer for Naomi Kawase's True Mothers, direct...

Chang Tso-chi’s Thanatos, Drunk swept the Taipei Film Awards on Saturday night, winning six prizes including the Grand Prize and best narrative feature.

A drama about a Taipei slacker, his gay brother and their sexually ambiguous gigolo friend, Chang’s film also took best actor for Lee Hong-chi’s performance, best supporting actor for Chen Jen-shuo, best supporting actress for Lu Hsueh-feng and the press award.

The jury, headed by Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan, said: “Within its realistic story the film conceals a depiction of an unhampered inner spirit. With bold cinematic language, the filmmaker creates characters that are trying to survive in their dreamlike intimate, unbound and sorrowful emotional state.”

The Taipei Film Awards are divided into four categories – feature, documentary, short and animation – and the Grand Prize winner is deemed to be the best film overall. Chang’s win marks the first time in six years that a feature film has won the...

Exclusive: Chiang Hsiu Chiung’s feature [pictured] is currently in post-production.

Japan’s Toei Company has announced Chiang Hsiu Chiung’s Land’s End Café – a coffee-lover’s Bagdad Café set against the sea.

About the friendship between two very different Japanese women, the film stars Hiromi Nagasaku (Rebirth) and Nozomi Sasaki (My Rainy Days).

Taiwanese director Chiang, who started in films acting in Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day, worked as assistant director to Hou Hsiao Hsien.

She directed award-winning TV feature Artemisia. Her documentary Let The Wind Carry Me won 2010 Taipei Film Festival’s Grand Prize, screened in Tokyo International Film Festival’s Winds of Asia section, and was nominated for a Golden Horse Award.

Budgeted at $1.17m (JPY120m), the film’s currently in post-production. Toei plans a winter 2014 release.

“Modeled on a café that actually exists on the Noto Peninsula, we wanted to produce a film where the characters’ lives unfolded in those...

The full trailer Izuru Narushima’s Rebirth (Youkame no Semi) has been released via the Yahoo! Japan Shochiku channel. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Mitsuyo Kakuta which was previously adapted as a TV drama which aired on Nhk back in April.

Hiromi Nagasaku plays a woman name Kiwako who has an affair with a married man. Kiwako is unable to conceive, so when her lover’s wife gives birth to a daughter, she kidnaps the baby and takes off. After four years living happily as a mother, she’s arrested and the child, Erina, is taken away from her. Years later, Erina (now played by Mao Inoue) is a university student who’s grown up resenting her true parents. Soon, she has an affair of her own and ends up getting pregnant with a baby boy. In order to learn more herself, she decides to retrace...

The full trailer for Shotaro Kobayashi’s Mainichi Kaasan has been released via the Yahoo! Japan Shochiku channel and the film’s official website. The film is based on an autobiographical manga by cartoonist Rieko Saibara which portrays the comical aspects of her family life and stars Kyoko Koizumi alongside her real-life ex-husband, Masatoshi Nagase.

Last year, Imj and Avex released an adaptation of Onnanoko Monogatari, which starred Eri Fukatsu as a struggling cartoonist who reflects on her childhood friendships and Kadokawa released an adaptation of Saibara’s first picture book Ikechan to Boku.

On Saturday, Bitters End released Wandering Home, a film adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Saibara’s late ex-husband Yutaka Kamoshida. In that adaptation, the two leads are played by Hiromi Nagasaku and Tadanobu Asano, but the themes and events covered are very similar.

Shochiku will be releasing “Mainichi Kaasan” in Japan on February 5, 2011.

Thanks to logboy for the reminder.

The first teaser for Izuru Narushima’s Youkame no Semi has been released via the Yahoo! Japan Shochiku channel. The film is an adaptation of a novel by Mitsuyo Kakuta which was previously adapted as a TV drama which aired on Nhk back in April.

Hiromi Nagasaku plays a woman name Kiwako who has an affair with a married man. Kiwako is unable to conceive, so when her lover’s wife gives birth to a daughter, she kidnaps the baby and takes off. After four years living happily as a mother, she’s arrested and the child, Erina, is taken away from her. Years later, Erina (now played by Mao Inoue) is a university student who’s grown up resenting her true parents. Soon, she has an affair of her own and ends up getting pregnant with a baby boy.

Shochiku will be releasing “Youkame no Semi” in Japan sometime next year.

23-year-old Mao Inoue (Hana Yori Dango) and former J-pop idol turned actress Hiromi Nagasaku (39) will be co-starring in a film adaptation of Mitsuyo Kakuta’s novel Youkame no Semi. The work was previously adapted as a TV drama which aired on Nhk back in April.

The story involves a woman named Kiwako (Nagasaku) who kidnaps the baby daughter of a man she’s having an affair with. The baby, Erina, grows up (now played by Inoue) and winds up having an affair of her own which leads to pregnancy.

This will mark the first acting role for Nagasaku since she gave birth to a son back in May.

Other cast members include Eiko Koike, Yoko Moriguchi, Hitori Gekidan, Tetsushi Tanaka, and Jun Fubuki

Filming began on September 23rd and is expected to wrap by the end of October. A release is planned for sometime next year.

Sources: Tokyograph, Cinema Today...

23-year-old Mao Inoue (Hana Yori Dango) and former J-pop idol turned actress Hiromi Nagasaku (39) will be co-starring in a film adaptation of Mitsuyo Kakuta’s novel Youkame no Semi. The work was previously adapted as a TV drama which aired on Nhk back in April.

The story involves a woman named Kiwako (Nagasaku) who kidnaps the baby daughter of a man she’s having an affair with. The baby, Erina, grows up (now played by Inoue) and winds up having an affair of her own which leads to pregnancy.

This will mark the first acting role for Nagasaku since she gave birth to a son back in May.

Other cast members include Eiko Koike, Yoko Moriguchi, Hitori Gekidan, Tetsushi Tanaka, and Jun Fubuki

Filming began on September 23rd and is expected to wrap by the end of October. A release is planned for sometime next year.

Sources: Tokyograph, Cinema Today...

Earlier this month, Bitters End released the trailer for Yoichi Higashi‘s upcoming film adaptation of Yutaka Kamoshida’s best-selling autobiographical novel Yoi ga Sametara, Uchi ni Kaero (When I sober up, I’ll come home) via their YouTube channel and the film’s official website.

Kamoshida was a journalist and former war photographer who was married to cartoonist Rieko Saibara. During their marriage, he was an abusive alcoholic, eventually leading to their divorce. However, when Kamoshida was later diagnosed with kidney cancer, Saibara took care of him until his death in March of 2007.

In the film, the names are changed but much of the story is a brutally honest account of Kamoshida and Saibara’s rocky relationship. Tadanobu Asano stars as Yasuyuki Tsukahara, a war-time photographer who marries popular cartoonist Yuki Sonada (Hiromi Nagasaku). The two have children together, but Yasuyuki’s tendency to fly into drunken rages eventually...

Earlier this month, Bitters End released the trailer for Yoichi Higashi‘s upcoming film adaptation of Yutaka Kamoshida’s best-selling autobiographical novel Yoi ga Sametara, Uchi ni Kaero (When I sober up, I’ll come home) via their YouTube channel and the film’s official website.

Kamoshida was a journalist and former war photographer who was married to cartoonist Rieko Saibara. During their marriage, he was an abusive alcoholic, eventually leading to their divorce. However, when Kamoshida was later diagnosed with kidney cancer, Saibara took care of him until his death in March of 2007.

In the film, the names are changed but much of the story is a brutally honest account of Kamoshida and Saibara’s rocky relationship. Tadanobu Asano stars as Yasuyuki Tsukahara, a war-time photographer who marries popular cartoonist Yuki Sonada (Hiromi Nagasaku). The two have children together, but Yasuyuki’s tendency to fly into drunken rages eventually...

Yahoo! Eiga has posted a trailer for Atsushi Ogata‘s Cast Me If You Can (Wakiyaku Monogatari), an actor comedy which premiered at the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival back in June.

The film stars Toru Masuoka as a middling actor named Hiroshi who only gets offered supporting roles while living in the shadow of his famous playwright father. His celebrity status is limited to the unusual frequency which he’s mistaken for other people, including a kidnapper, and he struggles with his mundane life on a day to day basis. However, things turn around one day when he meets an aspiring actress named Aya (played by former J-pop idol Hiromi Nagasaku) and instantly falls in love. While attempting to court Aya, Hiroshi is inspired to confront his dad and audition for the kind of leading man role he’s always dreamed of.

“Cast Me If You Can” will be...

Yahoo! Eiga has posted a trailer for Atsushi Ogata‘s Cast Me If You Can (Wakiyaku Monogatari), an actor comedy which premiered at the 13th Shanghai International Film Festival back in June.

The film stars Toru Masuoka as a middling actor named Hiroshi who only gets offered supporting roles while living in the shadow of his famous playwright father. His celebrity status is limited to the unusual frequency which he’s mistaken for other people, including a kidnapper, and he struggles with his mundane life on a day to day basis. However, things turn around one day when he meets an aspiring actress named Aya (played by former J-pop idol Hiromi Nagasaku) and instantly falls in love. While attempting to court Aya, Hiroshi is inspired to confront his dad and audition for the kind of leading man role he’s always dreamed of.

“Cast Me If You Can” will be...

Filmmaker Yoichi Higashi (The River with No Bridge, Village of Dreams) recently returned to the director’s chair to adapt late journalist Yutaka Kamoshida’s autobiographical novel Yoi ga Sametara, Uchi ni Kaero (When I sober up, I’ll go home). The film was actually announced back in December and mentioned as far back as August, but coming across its official website reminded me that it hasn’t really been covered on the web in English yet aside from a few passing blips and blurbs.

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about this one, not the least of which being the fact that Higashi hasn’t directed a film since “The Crying Wind” in 2004. Although he became a filmmaker in 1962, his movies are actually few and far between. Whenever he makes a new one, they tend to win awards and garner critical success.

This particular project was...

U.S. Dramatic Competition

This year's 16 films were selected from 1,026 submissions. Each film is a world premiere.

Adam (Director-screenwriter: Max Mayer)

A strange and lyrical love story between a somewhat socially dysfunctional young man and the woman of his dreams. Cast: Hugh Dancy, Rose Byrne, Peter Gallagher, Amy Irving, Frankie Faison.

Amreeka (Director-screenwriter: Cherien Dabis)

When a divorced Palestinian woman and her teenage son move to rural Illinois at the outset of the Iraq war, they find their new lives replete with challenges. Cast: Nisreen Faour, Melkar Muallem, Hiam Abbass, Yussuf Abu-Warda, Alia Shawkat.

Big Fan (Director-screenwriter: Robert Siegel)

The world of a parking garage attendant who happens to be the New York Giants' biggest fan is turned upside down after an altercation with his favorite player. Cast: Patton Oswalt, Michael Rapaport, Kevin Corrigan, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Matt Servitto.

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (Director-screenwriter: John Krasinski)

When her boyfriend leaves with little explanation,...

• Germany's Oliver Hirschbiegel and Denmark’s own Lone Scherfig and Nicolas Winding Refn are among those representing their latest works in the World Dramatic Competition. The selection committee had the crazy task of bringing down the total number 1,012 submissions down to 16. Films screening in World Cinema Dramatic Competition are: Before Tomorrow (Le Jour Avant Lendemain) / Canada (Directors: Madeline Piujuq & Marie-Helene Cousineau)—A wise old woman fights to survive impossible circumstances with her young grandson in the Canadian arctic. Cast: Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Paul-Dylan Ivalu, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, Mary Qulitalik, Tumasie Sivuarapik. U.S. Premiere Bronson / UK (Director: Nicolas Winding Refn; Screenwriter: Brock Norman Brock)—Bronson traces the transformation of Mickey Peterson into Britain's most notorious, dangerous, and charismatic prisoner, Charles Bronson. Cast: Tom Hardy. North American Premiere Carmo, Hit the Road / Spain (Director and Screenwriter: Murilo Pasta)— A lonely, handicapped smuggler and a beautiful girl embark on a reckless ride

...

HK Filmart HAS Screenings

Screen representations of relationships between a younger woman and an older man, like Last Tango in Paris, Stealing Beauty or Elegy, are often taken for granted and their massaging of male egos readily indulged. Second-time director Nami Iguchi offers a refreshingly moral-free alternative in Sex Is No Laughing Matter, in which an older woman is the elusive object of desire.

When "Sex" had its domestic release in Japan earlier this year, it was highly regarded among critics and scored excellent boxoffice for an independent film of its kind. The universal appeal of sexy comedies and the casting of internationally known young stars Kenichi Matsuyama ("Death Note I & II," L:Change the World) and Yu Aoi (Hula Girls), the film has good prospects in selected overseas Art House niches.

There's certainly a touch of Rohmer in this mischievous and observant sex comedy-drama, and some may even proclaim that Iguchi is Japan's answer to Hong Sang Soo, except that she choreographs amorous encounters from a sly female perspective. But anyone who's seen her award-winning debut feature, The Cat Leaves Home, will recognize a voice and film language all of her own -- a voice that's full of good-humored wisdom about the little ironies in life and a film language that elegantly expresses feelings and situations with quirky gestures and conversational dialogue. Her shooting style is a little detached, with longish takes and mostly medium shots that capture a politely distant suburban campus town.

After two chance encounters, student Mirume begins a fling with Yuri, who teaches lithography at an art college. The rookie lover becomes putty in the hands of the self-assured and coltish woman of 40 in some marvelously wry and tastefully racy scenes, which combine refined skills of seduction with childish pranks. Iguchi even makes cavorting inside a canvas camper's sleeping bag on the hard wooden floor with no central heating look sensuous!

Just when Mirume is beginning to find his sexual groove, Yuri does a disappearing act. When he looks up her permanent address, he receives a minor shock or two.

A subplot that enhances the centerpiece is Mirume's classmate En's unrequited love for him. En, in turn, has a secret admirer in fellow student Domoto but he too is frustrated. Iguchi shows that personal ticks and mannerisms often achieve more dramatic effect and verbal outpouring, so she makes all of En's romantic frustrations quirkily physical -- like her nervous kicking about whenever Mirume's around, her thrashing him when she gets rejected inside the cable car, or jumping up and down the bed when he falls asleep next to her in the love hotel.

With red-hot idols Matsuyama and Yu at her disposal, Iguchi tones down their glamour and makes them adopt bashful, emotionally inarticulate personas. But it is Hiromi Nagasaku who offers a wonderfully upbeat image as a woman who knows what she wants and gets it with no consequences. Better still, she doesn't eat little boys for breakfast because of marital discord, family trauma, personal insecurity or even mid-life crisis. Best of all, contrary to the film's tongue-in-cheek title, she encourages everyone to laugh about sex. How else are you supposed to enjoy it?

SEX IS NO LAUGHING MATTER (Hito no sekusu ni warau na)

Happinet, Tokyo Theatre, WOWOW

Credits:

Writer-Director: Nami Iguchi

Writer: Yuka Honcho

Based on the novel by: Naocola Yamazaki

Director of photography: Akikhiko Suzuki

Music: Hakase-sun

Production designer Takeo Kimura

Cast:

Yuri: Hiromi Nagasaku

Mirume: Kenichi Matsuyama

En: Yu Aoi

Running time -- 137 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Marrakech International Film Festival

MARRAKECH, Morocco -- "Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers" (Funuke Domo, Kanashimi No Ai Wo Misero), black comedies about dysfunctional families based on a novel by Yukiko Motoya, has a talented cast yet looks like a television soap. Maybe that is what director Daihachi Yoshida wanted to attract younger audiences, women in particular. The movie has a good boxoffice potential, though it appears out of place in a festival competition.

Yoshida packs dark humor in his narrative, much of it comes from Sumika (Eriko Sato), a failed actress who returns from Tokyo to her rural home when her parents die in a accident trying to save a Black Cat sitting in the middle of a road. Her hardworking woodcutter stepbrother, Shinji (Masatochi Nagase), and his new wife, Machiko (Hiromi Nagasaku), are not happy when Sumika asks for an allowance to live in Tokyo.

Four years before, Sumika quarreled and almost killed her father for refusing her money to pursue stardom. But Sumika was not one to be stopped: She prostituted, made money and left home, although not before getting into an incestuous relationship with Shinji, a relationship she resumes after her return to get favors out of him. Their little sister, Kiyomi (Aimi Satsukawa), is inspired by her family mess to draw manga comic strips, winning huge prize money and ruining Sumika's reputation. Naturally, Sumika holds Kiyomi responsible for her failure as an actress.

The film can be seen as a commentary on Japanese society, where schoolgirl prostitution, uneasy father-daughter relationships, domestic violence and suicides are not uncommon. Machiko bears the brunt of her husband's ill temper, yet she keeps smiling and laughing. Kiyomi stoically bears Sumika's bullying, but continues to draw and ridicule her family. Sumika overcomes obstacles with her cunning ways. But Shinji crumbles.

A couple of decades ago, another generation of Japanese helmers would have made a serious study of a dysfunctional family from such material. Not Yoshida, who uses comedy to make his points, even if the film comes off a bit like a trashy television serial.

FUNUKE SHOW SOME LOVE, YOU LOSERS!

Phantom Film

Credits:

Writer/director: Daihachi Yoshida

Based on a novel by: Yukiko Motoya

Producers: Shuji Kakimoto, Keisuke Konishi, Yutaka Suzuki

Directors of photography: Shoichi Ato, Atsushi Ozawa

Production designer: Yasuaki Harada

Music: Soichiro Suzuki, Yoshiaki Kusaka

Editor: Kumi Okada

Cast:

Sumika: Eriko Sato

Kiyomi: Aimi Satsukawa

Shinji: Masatochi Nagase

Machiko: Hiromi Nagasaku

Running time -- 111 minutes

No MPAA rating...