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Trying to get into the college of her choice, Makoto (Ren Komai), a high school student with poor grades but a fondness for science fiction, saw a commercial for the local university in junior high and has since dreamed of designing robots in the future. However, she gets an F on the entry exam. One day, she meets a mysterious young man from the future named Shinichi (Ui Mihara). According to Shinichi, the only way to prevent his dystopian future is for Makoto to go to university and complete a design for a combat robot. Can they save the city from the impending destruction?

On the whole, “Future! Future!” is a serviceable enough comedy short. The central plotline here works perfectly, bringing Makoto and Shinichi together in a quick fashion while also spelling out the main framework of the story throughout. Makoto's geeky charms with her rampant quoting and referencing...

A big question around science fiction has always been whether the genre is all about mindless escapism, a way of evading the dreary reality of everyday life, or a mindful way of looking at reality in order to change it. This is the question at the heart of “Future! Future!”, a sweet, endearing short film about everything scifi can bring us.

Future! Future! is screening at Short Shorts Film Festival and Asia

The story focuses on Makato, played by a delightful Ren Komai as a quirky high school girl and a huge fan of science and science fiction. We know that from the very start, when the camera introduces her by showing first all the posters and paraphernalia in her bedroom: a poster of “This Island Earth” (a memorable Hollywood film from the 1950s), a drawing of Marty McFly's DeLorean time machine in “Back to the Future”, an endearing doll of Einstein,...

The essentially inherent inability of the Japanese people to express their thoughts and feelings and, occasionally, even to communicate with others, has been explored repeatedly in the cinema of the country, other times in comedy and others in drama. Yurina Kaneko decides to focus on the same theme, but including an intense element of cuteness, as expressed in the plushies club the story revolves around.

People Who Talk to Plushies Are Kind is screening at Osaka Asian Film Festival

The script is based on a short story by Ao Omae, and revolves mostly around three university students, Nanamori, Mugito, and Shiraki, who, as the film begins (and after an intro into their past as junior high school students) join the Plushie Club in their campus. Their surprise when they see a room filled with stuffed animals is intense, but soon warm up to the rest of the members, even more so when they learn that,...

“Ito”, presented in the Japan Feel-Good section at the Five Flavours Film Festival (where it was also screened during the festival’s closing ceremony), depicts a provincial teenage girl at odds with her surroundings.

Ito is screening at Five Flavours

The eponymous Ito (Ren Komai) has an issue with her father, Koichi (Etsushi Tokoyawa) who is obsessed with history and tradition. The two struggle to formulate any connection. The protagonist’s strife changes after she gets a job in a meido kissa cafe, where patrons are being served by female waitresses dressed as maids. Although the place seems to be catering mostly to male fantasies, it ultimately becomes a safe space for Ito. Within the confines of the café she finds her new, chosen family. Ito is raised only by her father, as the mother has passed away when she was young. This lack, as well as a strained relationship with her grandmother,...

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...