The Singapore Japanese Film Festival 2018 lineup & schedule

The Singapore Japanese Film Festival is back this year after a hiatus of more than one year and it seems like the absence is well-justified probably because the organisers managed to assemble such an interesting line-up of films, some of them being as new as shown in Japan just last year. One major change this year is the removal of free screenings i.e. all screenings need tickets (SGD 13 each). In addition, there seems to be no discounts even for multiple ticket purchases. The venue for all screenings will be at the National Museum's Gallery Theatre which I quite like because of its central location and fine condition of the theatre. If you like Japanese movies and are in Singapore or happen to be here next month, do support this film festival so that it can continue to be held in future. Moreover, some of these films will probably never make it to a commercial release in our cinemas here so you definitely shouldn't miss the chance to catch them.

For more information on the films such as the storyline, you may wish to click on the tabs of the movies' titles at the bottom of this post as I had covered some of them before on this blog or the links to the titles in this post which will bring you to the film festival's site. All movies have English subtitles and are uncut but some of them have restricted ratings (NC16, M18 or R21) so unless indicated otherwise, the movie's rating is PG. Please check this before purchasing tickets especially if you happen to be underage.

Winners of the 2018 Elandor Award

Please note that even though the award is tagged as 2018, the actual qualifying period is from 1 December 2016 to 30 November 2017 so the winners were based on the works in 2017. In addition, those who win the "Newcomer" award are picked for their fresh and outstanding performance in their works for the year and regarded as promising new and upcoming actors so this has nothing to do with whether they are actually new to acting. As such, people like Takahashi Issei who has been acting for a long time can still get this award.

The prize giving ceremony will be held at 6.30pm on 1 February 2018 in Shinjuku Keio Plaza Hotel's Minami Building Eminence Hall.

Top 10 movies with the most tweets in 2017 (Eiga.com)

Eiga.com released a top 10 ranking of the movies shown in Japan this year with the most tweets between 1 January 2017 and 3 December 2017 as a reflection of which movies were mentioned or talked about the most online. One trend noted was that none of the movies in this year's ranking reached the same kind of online exposure compared to past year's number ones i.e. "Frozen" (753,913 tweets) in 2014, "Bakemono no Ko" (522,538 tweets) in 2015 and "Zootopia" (765,638 tweets) in 2016. It was also pointed out that the extensive promotional campaigns of non-Japanese movies was a key factor leading to them hogging the top spots in this ranking. Last but not least, it is also worth mentioning that the box office hits may not necessarily translate to an equal amount of online popularity and exposure or vice versa as seen from the Japanese films in this ranking where only "22 Nenme no kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" is the sole movie which was both in the top 10 Japanese box office hits ranking and here. Even the top 3 bestselling films from Hollywood i.e. "Beauty and the Beast", "Despicable Me 3" and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" all failed to make it to this list.

Perhaps this goes to show that box office takings don't really translate to whether people want to talk about or post anything about a movie? Reminds me of how "Quartet" was doing pretty badly in ratings but so talked about and praised online.

Top 10 Japanese box office hits in 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the box office takings by the movie up to 15 December 2017:

1) Meitantei Conan Karakurenai Love Letter (JPY 6.89 billion)

2) Eiga Doraemon Nobita no Nankyoku Kachikochi Daibouken (JPY 4.43 billion)

3) Gintama (JPY 3.9 billion)

Top 10 bestselling Japanese movies in the first half of 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the exact or estimated box office takings which is represented with an asterix:

1) Meitantei Conan Kara kurenai no love letter (JPY 6.87bn)

2) Eiga Doraemon Nobita no nankyoku kachikochi daibouken (JPY 4.43bn)

3) Eiga Youkai Watch Soratobu kujira to double sekai no daibouken da nyan! (JPY 3.26bn)

4) Gekijouban Sword Art Online Ordinal Scale (JPY 2.5bn ~ JPY 2.6bn)*

5) Kaizoku to yobareta otoko (JPY 2.37bn)

6) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujinhan desu - (JPY 2.34bn)* as of 23 July 2017

7) Hirugao (JPY 2.23bn)* as of 23 July 2017

8) Aibou - Gekijouban IV - Shuto Crisis Hitojichi wa 50-man nin! Tokumeigakari Saigo no ketsudan / Teiichi no Kuni (JPY 1.92bn)

10) Boku wa ashita, kinou no kimi to deeto suru (JPY 1.85bn)

In terms of the overall top 10 bestselling movies ranking, only the top 2 movies in this list made it to be ranked at No.3 and No.7 respectively. This seems to show that the Japanese box office is still pretty much dominated by Hollywood films and there is a considerable gap to overcome with the No.1 film "Beauty and the Beast" chalking up takings almost double of what the Conan movie got i.e. JPY 12.5bn vs. JPY 6.87bn.

Source: Cinema Today

Top 10 summer movies' box office ranking between 1 June 2017 and 23 July 2017 (Oricon)

Oricon compiled the box office figures for the summer movies shown between 1 June 2017 and 23 July 2017 and came up with the top 10 bestselling movies' ranking as below. Numbers in brackets indicate the accumulated box office takings up to 23 July and the release dates of the movies are indicated after this:

1) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (JPY 4.84bn) - 1 July

2) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujinhan desu - (JPY 2.345 bn) - 10 June

3) Hirugao (JPY 2.236bn) - 10 June

4) Shinobi no Kuni (JPY 1.787bn) - 1 July

5) Gintama (JPY 1.708bn) - 14 July

6) Mary to Majo no Hana (JPY 1.543bn) - 8 July

7) Gekijouban Pocket Monster Kimi ni kimeta! (JPY 1.229bn) - 15 July

8) Cars Crossroad (JPY 800m) - 15 July

9) Despicable Me 3 (JPY 751m) - 21 July

10) Ani ni aisaresugite komattemasu (JPY 740m) - 30 June

Source: Oricon

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 15th & 16th July 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Gekijouban Pocket Monster Kimi ni kimeta! (360)

2) Gintama (333)

3) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (365)

4) Cars Crossroad (344)

5) Mary to Majo no Hana (365)

6) Shinobi no Kuni (332)

7) No Game No Life Zero (61)

8) Ani ni aisaresugite komattemasu (251)

9) Power Rangers (282)

10) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu (328)

Source: Eiga.com

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 8th & 9th July 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (365)

2) Mary to Majo no Hana (363)

3) Shinobi no Kuni (332)

4) Ani ni aisaresugite komattemasu (251)

5) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu (328)

6) John Wick: Chapter 2 (138)

7) Sore ike! Anpanman Buruburu no takarasagashi daibouken! (196)

8) Hirugao (312)

9) Beauty and the Beast (372)

10) Life (150)

Source: Eiga.com

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 1st & 2nd July 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (365)

2) Shinobi no Kuni (331)

3) Ani ni aisaresugite komattemasu (251)

4) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu (328)

5) Beauty and the Beast (372)

6) Hirugao (312)

7) Sore ike! Anpanman Buruburu no takarasagashi daibouken! (196)

8) Kodomotsukai (250)

9) Hacksaw Ridge (253)

10) Gekijouban Free! Timeless Medley Yakusoku (59)

Source: Eiga.com

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 24th & 25th June 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu (328)

2) Beauty and the Beast (372)

3) Hirugao (312)

4) Hacksaw Ridge (252)

5) Kodomotsukai (250)

6) Gekijouban Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Hoshi wo yobu shoujo (59)

7) Itsumata, Kimi to Herijunzailai (189)

8) Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202 Ai no senshitachi Dai Nisho Hasshin Hen (20)

9) King Arthur (326)

10) Hanaikusa (353)

Source: Eiga.com

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 17th & 18th June 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu (328)

2) Beauty and the Beast (372)

3) Hirugao (312)

4) Kodomotsukai (250)

5) Gekijouban Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei Hoshi wo yobu shoujo (59)

6) King Arthur (326)

7) Hanaikusa (353)

8) Chotto ima kara shigoto yametekuru (285)

9) LOGAN (359)

10) Meitantei Conan Karakurenai no Love Letter (354)

Source: Eiga.com

First-day-screening event of new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" was held at Shinjuku Picadilly on 10 June which was attended by the director Irie Yu and cast members Fujiwara Tatsuya, Nakamura Tooru, Nomura Shuhei, Kaho, Ishibashi Anna, Ryusei Ryo and Saotome Taichi.

The movie which is based on the 2012 South Korean film, begins in the year 1995 where there were 5 peculiar murder cases. The murderer would always get someone close to the victim to witness how he would strangle the victim from behind with a rope but he would let the witnesses go and speak to the media on how the murders happened. Ito plays the role of Makimura, the police detective who was in charge of investigating the serial murders but failed to catch the cunning murderer and his respected superior ended up being killed as well. 22 years later in 2017 when the case is nearing its statute of limitations, a man named Sonezaki (Fujiwara) claims to be the culprit for the 1995 murders and even publishes a book titled "Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" to talk about the cases. Despite the disgust towards Sonezaki's actions, the intensive attention showered on him via the media and SNS makes him become the talk of town.

Ito Hideaki who was absent from the event due to other work arrangements, recorded a video message to apologise for his absence and said that Fujiwara would be around to make the event an success. As the video message was very short, Fujiwara complained that the content was too simple while Nomura poked fun at Ito for doing it like an apology press conference where he said nothing but sorry. Nakamura then joined in to say that it was a great "sin" for Ito to skip the promotional event especially since he is the joint lead with Fujiwara.

As the cast were reminded not to say too much during the event in order to avoid giving away the story, Fujiwara chose his words carefully while trying to promote the movie. He apologised to Nakamura for having to strangle him by his neck during the filming which lasted from morning to night but was stopped from revealing more by the alarm sound. Nakamura continued the story by saying that Fujiwara kept saying sorry to him but he actually thought of asking Fujiwara to go easy on him because Fujiwara was so immersed in his acting that he applied a lot of strength during the strangling. In the end, Nakamura did not raise his request and allowed Fujiwara to continue what he was doing.

Sources: Nikkansports / Eiga.com / Oricon

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 10th & 11th June 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) 22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu (328)

2) Hirugao (312)

3) Beauty and the Beast (372)

4) LOGAN (359)

5) Hanaikusa (353)

6) Chotto ima kara shigoto yametekuru (285)

7) KING OF PRISM PRIDE the HERO (56)

8) Meitantei Conan Karakurenai no Love Letter (354)

9) Kazoku wa tsurai yo 2 (327)

10) Peach Girl (302)

Source: Eiga.com

Japan premiere of new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujinhan desu -"

The Japan premiere of new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujinhan desu -" was held on 16 May 2017 which was attended by the director Irie Yu and cast members Fujiwara Tatsuya, Ito Hideaki, Kaho, Nomura Shuhei, Ishibashi Anna, Ryuusei Ryo, Saotome Taichi, Hirata Mitsuru, Iwaki Koichi and Nakamura Tooru. The film will be shown in cinemas from 10 June.

The movie which is based on the 2012 South Korean film, begins in the year 1995 where there were 5 peculiar murder cases. The murderer would always get someone close to the victim to witness how he would strangle the victim from behind with a rope but he would let the witnesses go and speak to the media on how the murders happened. Ito plays the role of Makimura, the police detective who was in charge of investigating the serial murders but failed to catch the cunning murderer and his respected superior ended up being killed as well. 22 years later in 2017 when the case is nearing its statute of limitations, a man named Sonezaki (Fujiwara) claims to be the culprit for the 1995 murders and even publishes a book titled "Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" to talk about the cases. Despite the disgust towards Sonezaki's actions, the intensive attention showered on him via the media and SNS makes him become the talk of town.

Fujiwara reflected on his acting as the arrogant murderer where he actually reacted accordingly to the actions and feelings of his co-stars rather than lead them on with his madness. On the other hand, Ito commented that this was the toughest filming he went through to date in his career where he had to keep running around for three days and nights from the first day so he was always thinking of an excuse to quit regardless of whether it would be very troublesome to do so. Although this movie marks the first collaboration between the actors, they actually bump into each other a lot in private such as when they go to eat ramen or yakiniku at restaurants.

Nakamura who last worked with Ito in the "Umizaru" series more than 10 years ago, said that he was "taken off the ship" (his character who worked on the same navy ship as Ito's was shot dead in the story) against his own will but Nakamura still had a feeling that the "ship" would still become a big hit with Ito being at the helm. However, he was regretful about not being to stay on the "ship" till the end so he hopes to achieve success with Ito this time in this movie.

During the event, Fujiwara, Ito and Nakamura were having a lot of fun talking about what kind of "criminal" they are in line with the title of the movie. However, it went on longer than expected which led Nomura to butt in and said that they were too longwinded. This led the trio to get Nomura to wrap up the segment and they gave the latter the title of the criminal who did not listen to their entire conversation.

When it came to the question of asking the cast to reveal a secret for the first time, Ito revealed that when his son was born two years ago, Miura Tomokazu gave him a very expensive whiskey as a gift and included a letter which asked Ito to drink it with his son when he turns 20. However, Ito did not actually read that letter and drank some of it as soon as he returned home. When he told Miura about how delicious he thought the whiskey was, Miura commented that he must have not read the letter which led Ito to realise that he could have thrown it away. As he took about 4.5 minutes just to relate this story, Fujiwara teased Ito for being too long-winded and said that Ito could have just said one sentence that he did not read the letter. When it was Fujiwara's turn, he revealed how he started took in a stray cat from his neighbourhood recently and even brought it for vaccination before taking it home to become his pet. Although the cat used to belong to someone else, the moment when his wife saw that the house had a fierce dog there, she suggested that they bring the cat home as their pet instead of returning it to the original owner. In retaliation, Ito "scolded" Fujiwara for being even more long-winded than him as the latter took 1.5 minutes just to say such a simple story.

Sources: Nikkansports / Yomiuri Hochi / Oricon / Eiga.com

Kankaku Pierrot to sing the theme song for new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu"

Kankaku Pierrot will be singing the theme song for new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" starring Fujiwara Tatsuya and Ito Hideaki which will be shown in cinemas from 10 June. The movie which is based on the 2012 South Korean film, begins in the year 1995 where there were 5 peculiar murder cases. The murderer would always get someone close to the victim to witness how he would strangle the victim from behind with a rope but he would let the witnesses go and speak to the media on how the murders happened. Ito plays the role of Makimura, the police detective who was in charge of investigating the serial murders but failed to catch the cunning murderer and his respected superior ended up being killed as well. 22 years later in 2017 when the case is nearing its statute of limitations, a man named Sonezaki claims to be the culprit for the 1995 murders and even publishes a book titled "Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" to talk about the cases. Despite the disgust towards Sonezaki's actions, the intensive attention showered on him via the media and SNS makes him become the talk of town.

The theme song titled "Gimon Gitou" was specially written for the movie after the band watched it. The vocalist Yokoyama Naohiro commented that he was overwhelmed by the aftertaste of the movie and decided to come up with a stimulating-style of rock music to match it. As a result, the song has a blend of strong, coarse and fine elements demonstrated by their musical instruments, melody and lyrics.

Source: Eiga.com

Supporting cast lineup announced for new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu"

The supporting cast lineup for the new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" starring Fujiwara Tatsuya & Ito Hideaki has been announced. The movie will be shown in cinemas from 10 June.

The movie which is based on the 2012 South Korean film released in 2012, is directed by Irie Yu and adapted to incorporate Japanese elements. The story begins in the year 1995 where there were 5 peculiar murder cases. The murderer would always get someone close to the victim to witness how he would strangle the victim from behind with a rope but he would let the witnesses go and speak to the media on how the murders happened. Ito plays the role of Makimura Kou, the police detective who was in charge of investigating the serial murders but failed to catch the cunning murderer and his respected superior ended up being killed as well. 22 years later in 2017 when the case is nearing its statute of limitations, a man named Sonezaki Masato claims to be the culprit for the 1995 murders and even publishes a book titled "Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" to talk about the cases. Despite the disgust towards Sonezaki's actions, the intensive attention showered on him via the media and SNS makes him become the talk of town.

Kaho will be playing Kishi Miharu whose father was murdered 22 years ago when she was 5 and currently works at a bookstore. When she sees the book released by Sonezaki, she is reminded of the atrocity that happened in the past. Nomura Shuhei will be playing Onodera Takumi, the boyfriend of Makimura's younger sister Rika played by Ishibashi Anna. Nakamura Tooru plays Sendo Toshio who is the main newscaster of a news programme who attempts to invite Sonezaki to his programme in a bid to pass judgement on him openly. Saotome Taichi will be playing a gang member Toda Jo while Hirata Mitsuru will be playing Makimura's former superior Taki Yukihiro. Iwamatsu Ryo and Iwaki Koichi will be playing family members of the victims who are out to take Sonezaki's life.

Source: Eiga.com

Fujiwara Tatsuya & Ito Hideaki's new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujinhan desu -" to be shown from 10 June 2017

Fujiwara Tatsuya and Ito Hideaki's new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujinhan desu -" will be shown in cinemas from 10 June 2017. The poster and latest trailer was also released on 27 October where Fujiwara who plays Sonezaki Masato, a handsome man who appears with his book "Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" (I am a murderer) that contains a confession of him being the culprit for a case which took place 22 years ago. Back in 1995, five people were killed through brutal means but the criminal i.e. Sonezaki only surfaced 22 years later when the statute of limitations had expired and even holds a press conference to promote his confession book. Ito plays the role of Makimura Kou who is a police detective investigating the case all these years but to no avail.

Sources: Oricon / Eiga.com

Fujiwara Tatsuya & Ito Hideaki to star in new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujihan desu -"

Fujiwara Tatsuya and Ito Hideaki will be starring in the new movie "22 Nenme no Kokuhaku - Watashi ga satsujinhan desu -" (Confession in the 22nd year - I am a murderer) which is due to be shown in early summer 2017. The movie which is based on the 2012 South Korean film released in 2012, will be directed by Irie Yu and adapted to incorporate Japanese elements. This is the first time that Fujiwara and Ito are working together.

The movie begins in the year 1995 where there were 5 peculiar murder cases. The murderer would always get someone close to the victim to witness how he would strangle the victim from behind with a rope but he would let the witnesses go and speak to the media on how the murders happened. Ito plays the role of Makimura, the police detective who was in charge of investigating the serial murders but failed to catch the cunning murderer and his respected superior ended up being killed as well. 22 years later in 2017 when the case is nearing its statute of limitations, a man named Sonezaki claims to be the culprit for the 1995 murders and even publishes a book titled "Watashi ga satsujinhan desu" to talk about the cases. Despite the disgust towards Sonezaki's actions, the intensive attention showered on him via the media and SNS makes him become the talk of town.

Fujiwara commented that he had worked with the director and since they are about the same age, he thought that it was a good experience for him. As such, to be able to work with him again this time, he feels that it is extremely memorable and hopes to do his best to make this a success. As for his first collaboration with Ito, he hopes that they can build a good relationship while playing characters who are at odds with each other. Meanwhile, Ito also praised the director for being a detailed person when filming each scene and he hopes to be able to reflect the helplessness felt by his character who can't catch the murderer before the case reaches the statute of limitations.

Irie revealed that preparations for the movie took about two and a half years and the script was edited 37 times which shows the amount of effort put in to increase the quality of the movie. As for his leads, he expressed anticipation at seeing how they will bring their respective characters to life and pledged to work hard with the cast and staff during this summer.

Filming began from 12 July and is expected to be wrapped up in early September.

Sources: Oricon / Sanspo / Sponichi