Films opening this weekend

A bunch of new hogas are opening in theaters in Japan this weekend.  Here are some reports of the opening stage appearances.

"Sea With No Exit" ("Deguchi no Nai Umi") - directed by Kiyoshi Sasabe, and the first movie for the Kabuki prince, Ebizo Ichikawa.  Life and love story of a pilot of kamikaze-style human torpidos "Kaiten" towards the end of WWII.  Juri Ueno ("Swing Girls") plays the girlfriend of the hero, and Yoji Yamada ("The Twilight Samurai") wrote the script.  The pilot played by Ichikawa was the winning pitcher in the national high school baseball tournament, but his dream was shuttered by the war, and that is how the local junior baseball team was invited in this stage event.　 See the pictures at Cinema Topic Online.

"The Pavillion Salamandre" - "lightly-insane" film, according to one of the cast members, directed by Masataka Tominaga and starring Joe Odagiri.  Ryuganji has a good summary of the film, so follow the link from here.  At the stage event, Director Tominaga revealed how he came up with the salamandre idea.  "Salamandres were very popular in 19th century Europe, but by that time, they were thought to have extincted there and European people only had seen their fossils.  In Japan, however, they still survive, and the oldest one I know is 70 years old now.  So I thought it might have been exhibited in the Paris Expo then."  See the pictures at Cinema Topic Online.  Note to self:  Unfortunately, not much to talk about in these pictures on Joe Odagiri's hair-do.

"Taiyou no Kizu" (literal translation "The sun's scar") - Takashi Miike's latest film that deals with a heavy social issue, starring Sho Aikawa.  The story is about the man whose daughter gets killed by a 15-year-old boy.  Because the killer is under-age, he does not get convicted by the criminal law.  The film depicts the agony and tragedy of the man, as well as the realistic side of the young criminal.   See the pictures at Cinema Topic Online.  Miike says, "If I could put the blame on a devil, it would be much easier to swallow, but unfortunately in this film, all the characters are normal human beings, and even the guy who look crazy actually thinks he is normal.  There is no big actions or effects, but I hope you feel something.  Particularly for the people who have families, this film should hurt, and at the same time, makes you think what you would do in this situation.  I don't know if I can call it an entertainment, but I think it's nice to make this type of movies from time to time."

Source:  Cinema Topic Online