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 9th TAMA Movie Awards (2017)

Best Movie
- Sanposuru Shinryakusha
- Eiga Yozora wa itsudemo saikou mitsudo no aoiro da

Special Award
- Director Yuasa Masaaki & the staff of the movies "Yoru wa mijikashi arukeyo otome" & "Yoake tsugeru ruu no uta"
- Director Tomita Katsuya & the staff of the movie "Bangkok Nites"

First-day-screening event of new movie "Tori Girl!"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Tori Girl!" was held at TOHO Cinemas Shinjuku on 1 September which was attended by the director Hanabusa Tsutomu and cast members Tsuchiya Tao, Mamiya Shotaro, Takasugi Mahiro and Ikeda Elaiza. The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Nakamura Kou, talks about a group of university students who put in their all to take part in a Tori Ningen Contest i.e. human-powered flight machines at Lake Biwa. Tsuchiya plays the lead character Toriyama Yukina who made it to a science university after repeating for a year. Upon starting school, she joins the club aiming to take part in the Tori Ningen Contest because she has fallen in love at first sight with a senior Takahashi Kei (Takasugi) who is also in the club. While preparing for the contest, she tries to achieve their dream of flying with her beloved and handsome senior and another senior Sakaba Taishi (Mamiya) who behaves like a delinquent and is constantly at odds with her.

Tsuchiya commented that it had been a very memorable summer filming this movie last year where she got to try various things and be freed of restrictions. With regard to this, the director said that he didn't give a lot of instructions to the cast and left it to them to do what they deemed best. Takasugi then chipped in to say that this allowed them to enrich their characters as the filming went on. As for being able to do a lot of ad-libs, Mamiya said that it was fun to be allowed to do so and see how Tsuchiya reacted accordingly. As such, Tsuchiya said that this required a lot of fine timing so that they could keep the interaction going and in that sense, it was like a battle of wits between her and Mamiya in the movie.

Source: Eiga.com

Completion take-off event of new movie "Tori Girl!"

The completion take-off event of new movie "Tori Girl!" was held on 17 July which was attended by the director Hanabusa Tsutomu and cast members Tsuchiya Tao, Mamiya Shotaro, Takasugi Mahiro, Ikeda Elaiza, Yamoto Yuma and Nadaru. The movie will be shown in cinemas from 1 September.

The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Nakamura Kou, talks about a group of university students who put in their all to take part in a Tori Ningen Contest i.e. human-powered flight machines at Lake Biwa. Tsuchiya plays the lead character Toriyama Yukina who made it to a science university after repeating for a year. Upon starting school, she joins the club aiming to take part in the Tori Ningen Contest because she has fallen in love at first sight with a senior Takahashi Kei (Takasugi Mahiro) who is also in the club. While preparing for the contest, she tries to achieve their dream of flying with her beloved and handsome senior and another senior Sakaba Taishi (Mamiya Shotaro) who behaves like a delinquent and is constantly at odds with her.

After the cast gathered on stage, Tsuchiya made her surprise appearance by jumping from a 1.5m-high platform and commented that she lost her balance in mid-air but it was fun to be able to mark the start of event in this manner. Mamiya helped Tsuchiya down by carrying her on his back and "complained" that she was too heavy and should lose weight. In response, Tsuchiya protested that she's of average size and not as heavy as he claimed.

When asked what they would like to work hard at this summer, Tsuchiya said that she would love to play especially after discovering how fun it was to attend summer festivals when Mamiya suggested this last year during the filming. This led Mamiya to poke fun at Tsuchiya by asking what kind of world she lives in that she didn't know about how fun it was to go to such festivals. On the other hand, Mamiya said that he has begun cultivating plants recently and hopes that they will go well. However, Yamoto who is on close terms with Mamiya and goes to the latter's house, said that he was lying because he has never seen a plant at Mamiya's house except for the fact that his carpet is green in colour. Mamiya stressed that his plants are in the balcony and corrected Yamoto by saying that his green carpet should be called grass instead.

Sources: Oricon / Sanspo / Eiga.com

Girls' band Negoto to sing the theme song for new movie "Tori Girl"

Girls' band Negoto will be singing the theme song for new movie "Tori Girl" starring Tsuchiya Tao which will be shown in cinemas from 1 September. The song will be a cover version of Spitz's hit song "Sora mo toberu hazu" which can also be heard in the movie's trailer.

The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Nakamura Kou and directed by Hanabusa Tsutomu, talks about a group of university students who put in their all to take part in a Tori Ningen Contest i.e. human-powered flight machines at Lake Biwa. Tsuchiya plays the lead character Toriyama Yukina who made it to a science university after repeating for a year. Upon starting school, she joins the club aiming to take part in the Tori Ningen Contest because she has fallen in love at first sight with a senior Takahashi Kei (Takasugi Mahiro) who is also in the club. While preparing for the contest, she tries to achieve their dream of flying with her beloved and handsome senior and another senior Sakaba Taishi (Mamiya Shotaro) who behaves like a delinquent and is constantly at odds with her.

Negoto has been a fan of Spitz and had done cover versions of the band's songs at their own concerts. Since this year is Negoto's 10th anniversary and Spitz's 30th anniversary, this has allowed them to do another collaboration project through the cover version of "Sora mo toberu hazu". The insert song "ALL RIGHT" will also be sung by Negoto.

Sources: Yomiuri Hochi / Eiga.com

Tsuchiya Tao to star in love-comedy film "Tori Girl!"

Tsuchiya Tao will be starring in the new love-comedy movie "Tori Girl!" (Bird Girl) which will be shown in cinemas next year. The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Nakamura Kou and directed by Hanabusa Tsutomu, talks about a group of university students who put in their all to take part in a Tori Ningen Contest i.e. human-powered flight machines at Lake Biwa.

Tsuchiya plays the lead character Toriyama Yukina who made it to a science university after repeating for a year. Upon starting school, she joins the club aiming to take part in the Tori Ningen Contest because she has fallen in love at first sight with a senior who is also in the club. While preparing for the contest, she tries to achieve their dream of flying with her beloved and handsome senior and another senior who behaves like a delinquent. To date, Tsuchiya has acted in many good student roles but this time, her character will be someone who doesn't mince her words and just speaks whatever comes to her mind. Due to the amount of lines, Tsuchiya commented that this is the first time that she has to memorise so many lines in a script but she will put in her best to play this character.

With regard to choosing Tsuchiya for the role, Nakamura said that he visualised her as being the best fit to play the heroine who is healthy, able to cycle well, not put on a pretense in front of others, behave like an old man at times and charm the science stream guys at the same time.

Filming begins from the middle of July to August with the climax scene to be shot at the end of August during the actual "Tori Ningen Contest 2016". Tsuchiya who graduated from a sports university and is known for athletic, will be riding a human-powered propeller during the contest for the first time so she is busy with training on a road bike while preparing for the filming.

Source: Oricon