New Directors from Japan Released Today

Anime UK News has received official word on the release of New Directors from Japan, a film project that began life on Kickstarter back in July with the aim of showing the world some of live-action independent cinema’s most interesting talent. Today is the official launch of the film collection released by Third Window Films and the details are as follows:
 

 

New Directors from Japan

 
Third Window Films have always tried hard to bring a wide variety of films from the Far East to the West, from big studio productions to minor indie masterpieces, and this project is another step in our goal to open up the West to what’s so great about Asian cinema!

This project is focusing on young and unique directors from Japan whose films have not received any sort of distribution in their own or any other territory. We want to focus on supporting young talent and making their names recognizable so decided to create this ‘NEW DIRECTORS FROM JAPAN‘ release which focuses on individual directors and their work.

Third Window Films has always tried to find directors and films that are both ‘unique’ and ‘entertaining’ and we feel that these three directors fit into the Third Window Films brand perfectly, so we are incredibly happy to present the filmmakers and their titles:

Nagisa Isogai

Age: 28

Student Film: MY BABY 
Watashi no Aka-chan – 2010/color/stereo/16min/16mm

Synopsis:

Heavily pregnant Hatsumi and her sister Chika visit a shrine to pray for a safe birth, but in a tragic turn of events, Hatsumi tumbles down the stairs and loses the baby.
 
6 months later, Chika’s baby is safely born and when Hatsumi visits Chika she finds out that Chika named her daughter Aoi, which happened to be the name Hatsumi chose for her own baby…
 
What terrible secrets are hidden from their past and what lies ahead for these two?

Mid-Length Debut: THE LUST OF ANGELS 
Tenshu no Yokubo – 2013/colour/stereo/40min

Synopsis:

Saori, a school girl, is molested on the notorious “molester train” of the Hanagawa line and rescued by another school girl who witnesses the act. The girl who rescues her turned out to be a new student of Yamashiro Gakuen high school, which Saori also attends. The mysterious new student Yuriko, is rumoured to be a “parent killer”.
Yuriko then leads Saori and her friends to hunt molesters.
 
Confronting their own desires, they go out of control. After a shocking encounter and separation between the two high school girls, their desires never to meet and reconcile, like train tracks never to cross. Those desires lead to a horrific end.
 

Hirobumi Watanabe
Age: 31

Feature Debut: AND THE MUD SHIP SAILS AWAY
Soshite dorobune wa yuku – 2013/colour/stereo/88min

Hirobumi Watanabe’s feature debut was made by a crew of four & their families & friends on a budget of less than £3,000!

Synopsis

Takashi (Kiyo Shibukawa from Blue Spring), 36 years old and unemployed, is completely aimless. He lives with his grandmother, repeating the same routine – game center, bowling center, watching TV – day after day. This suddenly changes when Yuka shows up, claiming to be his half-sister. Confronted with a new situation, Takashi finally makes a decision. Whether it is a good one, remains to be seen.

 

Kosuke Tayaka
Age: 27

Debut Film: BUY BLING, GET ONE FREE!
Oshare Bangaichi – 2013/colour/stereo/27min/35mm

Synopsis

After being dumped by his girlfriend while on a date Kamono Naoto gets really down. ‘What’s wrong with my fashion?’ he wonders as he’s told off for being embarrassingly over-the-top with his see-through jacket, feather shorts and patterned pantyhose. Nobody understands his fashion. Neither his friends nor even a writer for a fashion magazine he likes.

One day though a man offers him to become a fashion model exclusively for one brand and to become a fashion leader, a dreamlike opportunity. In a trance Kamono follows this man to enter a strange and unimaginable world…
 
 

Release date November 24, 2014

Special Features:
3 Disc Limited Edition of 1,000 copies – Dual Format release with cardboard slipcase.
“Interviews with all 3 directors as well as a focus on the Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO) and their New Directions in Japanese Cinema project

genkinahito

I'm a long-time anime and Japanese film and culture fan who has lived in the country and is studying Japanese in an effort to become fluent. I write about films, anime, and work on various things.

More posts from genkinahito...