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Stars: Sayu Kubota, Yuzu Aoki, Mituru Fukikoshi, Akaji Maro, Shunsuke Tanaka, Hitomi Takahashi, Atsuko Maeda | Written by Ken’ichi Ugana, Hirobumi Watanabe | Directed by Ken’ichi Ugana

Love Will Tear Us Apart is the latest film from director Ken’ichi Ugana, who has made a name for himself on the festival circuit with films like Extraneous Matter and Visitors. His latest is a strange tale that takes one part It Follows and one part slasher movie.

The film follows Wakaba, a young girl whose father is an abusive alcoholic and whose mother is too timid to defend herself or Wakaba. But that doesn’t stop Wakaba from defending her fellow classmate Koki who is being bullied by other students at elementary school. However that defence, and subsequent friendship between the two, is ruined by the school bullies turning their attention to Wakaba. But that attention doesn’t last long as the...

Despite the fact that Kenichi Ugana usually follows genre paths in his filmmaking, his will to change styles is also evident throughout his body of work, which we have been covering since 2018 and “Good-Bye Silence”. His latest work, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” amusingly goes into slasher territory, in a movie that had its world premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and won the Grand Prix at the Portland Horror Film Festival.

“Love Will Tear Us Apart” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative

The film begins in an elementary school, where we are introduced to Wakaba, a girl who has to face her father's aggressive behavior, along with her mother. Probably due to this, when she sees one of her classmates, Koki, being bullied in school, she decides to help him, in a decision, though, that ends up with both of them being bullied by two particular students,...

The stories of the healing power which lies in art, especially music, are perhaps endless, both in fiction, but also in reality. Given the various modes of expression and the amount of freedom it provides for people, music may just be one of the most beautiful forms of art as well as the most delightful in terms of entertainment. Considering each culture has its own music and instruments, it goes without saying the number of stories in literature and film dealing with people finding their voice through music is enormous, and Yasuo Okuaki’s feature “Between Us” follows the formula as we witness the tale of two girls who find their own way to connect with each other and the world through the tradition of taiko drumming.

Between Us is screening at Camera Japan

Tamaki (Ayaka Konno) attends a Catholic private school and comes, like most of her classmates, from a wealthy family.

Tamaki Matsuzawa (Ayaka Konno) comes from a wealthy family. She is an honor student at an all girls’ school, but her life changes after her father’s company goes bankrupt. Tamaki Matsuzawa is unable to tell her friends about her situation. One day, she happens to hear the sound of drums. She follows the sound and sees her classmate Maria Niijima (Sayu Kubota) playing the wadaiko, which is a traditional Japanese drum. In her past, Maria Niijima had an accident which damaged her vocal cords. Since that accident, Maria Niijima has been unable to speak, but playing the wadaiko allows her to speak musically. Meanwhile, since hearing the beats of the wadaiko, Tamaki Matsuzawa is unable to forget those sounds. She decides to attend a wadaiko concert and is further moved by the performance. Tamaki Matsuzawa decides to enroll in a wadaiko club.

A series of dramas inspired by stories directed by Takushi Tsubokawa, such as “Hamelin,” from people he met in Muroran, Hokkaido, where he lives. It tells seven stories of people living in local cities. In addition to Ren Osugi such as “Kyoukaishi”, Nene Otsuka such as “13 Moon”, Kenji Mizuhashi such as “Kazoku Drawing”, Nahana, Shun Sugata, Kouta Kusano, Sayu Kubota, Komatsu Starring Masao, Nagatoshi Sakamoto, Kyoko Kagawa and others.

Synopsis:

Aquarium employee Iwanai (Hiroki Nakajima) sees a woman holding a bottle with a letter at the port (“Episode 1”). Shinta (Ryunosuke Kawai) finds an unreceived photo in his father’s (Ren Osugi) photo studio and searches for the owner (“Episode 2”). Mizuno (Kenji Mizuhashi), who leads the chorus, receives a request from her predecessor’s husband (“Episode 3”). Sugiyama (Kouta Kusano), an oversized garbage collector, is asked to dispose of the piano (“Episode 4”). Junior high school student Momoko (Sayu Kubota) visits the science...

Senile dementia and loneliness, particularly in teenagers, are two of the issues that have been tormenting the Japanese society for some time now. Kikuchi presents his thoughts on the subjects, through the familiar norms of the Japanese indie film.

Written by Ayako Kato, the script revolves around two radically different high school girls. Hazuki is one the “cool” ones, with her gang actually “ruling” the class, which means that they spent their time mocking the other students who are not part of their group. One of those mocked is the class’s president, Aoi, who, despite her status, ranks very low on the social system of the school, spending most of her time alone.

“Hello, Goodbye” screened at Japan Filmfest Hamburg

However, both girls harbor some secrets. Hazuki suspects she is pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, who is now dating another girl from the gang. Aoi, despite coming from a high bourgeoisie family,...