Well they say 5 June 12:00 JST which is… 03:00 UTC / 05:00 Central Europe.
Right about the time I start my WK lessons… ooops! 
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Ah… so even though you choose an eligible country from the list at the beginning, once you are taken into the Shift72 portal it detects your actual country and gives warnings on each film/show page that the content won’t be available:
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Ah I can see the same now. And it’s not the same list of countries each time (I’ve looked for France, saw it on a few movies but also saw that it wasn’t on some others)
So once you get on VPN to one of the “good” countries (I tried UK and US) that ‘not available’ message changes to something along the lines of “will start streaming at XX:YY tomorrow”.
I’ve gone through the full list and I want to watch 10 (!) feature films (long running times), the 4 horror shorts AND the two shows (because… Hiroshi Abe and Yakusho Koji 
). When I’ll find the time to go through all of those I have no idea
One thing that is concerning is the streaming quality: for the test video it’s max 1.7Mbps @ 576p which is… DVD quality 
Hopefully it’s just for the test and we’ll get at least 1080p for the films…
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could be worse, could be like 1985 watching a CRT w/ 480i resolution or worse a VHS 240x240 muhahahah
seriously though it’s free - (no static or rabbit ears) if you really must have super high res, then buy a physical copy and support the artists/industry
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I do buy as many as I can… but in the case of the selection here, they’re not available on disc, at least not in Europe 
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not sure if it’s an option for you but personally I did buy a Blu-ray/DVD player that you can change the region coding (it’s set to Asia/Japan) so I can buy discs from CDJapan or any other Japanese store online and watch them on the TV in the US.
Best of luck!!! Enjoy the movies!!!
Yeah can’t wait to start tonight.
Most difficult decision is what to watch first.
====================
edit: ended up watching
JUNGLE EMPEROR LEO, aka KIMBA THE WHITE LION
Really glad they didn’t change the film and put a disclaimer “This movie contains depictions of ethnic, racial, and cultural prejudices that were unfortunately common in Japan at the time of its production.” Instead of just editing/deleting/modifying and taking away or ruining the film.
How have I never seen this before 
Definitely took me back to being a kid and older animation style - all those cells drawn one by one!
Wanted to watch one of the other two that aren’t available in the US first but silly start times don’t line up in the other country.
1 down 13 to go!
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sigh would like おすすめ, any good pick up?
I’m into drama or slice-of-life genre…
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go to the website and click on each one, scroll down
there’s about a 1 min trailer for each show
and you can click and sort on type of show you want to see such as drama
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Watched Baby Assassins today, thought it was very funny 
and nice for listening practice, the dialog is not very complicated!
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Watched Baby Assassins tonight after work. Thank you VPN!!!
Why wasn’t this in US theaters? It was just what I needed after a very very long workday.
Some of it reminded me of some Tarantino type action (though not as gorey) and probably wouldn’t have been as funny. Those two girls were hilarious.
Yeah 2 down 12 to go!!!
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I’ve only managed to watchone of the horror shorts so far, on a break from work yesterday 
I don’t watch films on phone/tablet/computer screens (yesterday’s was an exception because it was a short feature) and the need for VPN (gotta use the work laptop because of security requirements) means I have to go through extra hoops to watch on TV. Not complaining about the VPN requirement of course, just sayin’ it’s complicated with my restrictions.
WIll try at the weekends, if there will be time for two a day it should be doable…
As for the shows later… we’ll cross that bridge when we get there
That’s one option yes, but it comes with its own problems:
- At least quick searches on Amazon JP didn’t turn out discs for most of those from this year’s festival run - some were on Prime Video JP but I understand usually they don’t provide EN subs and besides I don’t like streaming services because they contribute to the slow death of physical media and ownership.
- Whatever is released on disc only in JP won’t have EN subs… and I’m years away from watching something (and understanding) with JP subs or without.
- I expect shipping costs, customs fees and so on to make for a pretty penny. Our national median wage is several times lower than say US or UK yet electronic consumer goods prices are the same for everyone. Gotta be selective with what I buy and from where…
(rant over)
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So far I’ve watched My Broken Mariko, Baby Assassins, and the horror shorts.
I really liked Broken Mariko. Despite the subject matter, it never got sentimental, and it was even funny at times.
Baby Assassins weren’t for me.
The horror shorts were fun enough, and varying degrees of scary.
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Baby Assassins was fun but humor is definitely subjective
I want to watch the horror stuff but not watching before bed 
Going to watch during the daytime.
My Broken Mariko is on my list and looks a little funny also.
The only issue with these movies is it’s taking away from the manga and bookclubs 
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Mm, Baby Assassins had potential, but for me it didn’t realize it. There was stuff I liked about it for sure, but it somehow didn’t come together in a satisfying way, it felt somehow disjointed. I liked the two main characters a lot and they acted their parts very well. I especially appreciated the introverted character, because she was nothing like the typical female lead. However I thought the movie lacked any kind of plot or tension. Despite what the summary says, I felt there was a bond between them from the start, I never perceived any real problems that needed to be overcome. They felt almost like an established couple to me throughout, with their small fights and their helping each other out when it matters. I missed having some background on them (how did they meet? How did they become assassins?). Their rivals were also more or less random and out of the blue, and I never felt any worry about who might win the fight. It was basically a hardly believable assassin slice-of-life with some humour here and there.
Tell me about it. I haven’t read anything worth mentioning in days 
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Naaah… they’re not that scary More like ‘lazy Sunday morning horror’
Well the three really short ones anyway (managed to squeeze in two more today, yay me), haven’t watched the 30min one yet.
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For folks in the US, I think the reason Baby Assassins isn’t available is because it’s on Tubi for free. (Which is why it’s on the bottom of my to watch list, because I can still watch it when time is up).
Three of these films I saw a year ago at Japan Cuts in NYC, Single8, I Am What I Am, and Father of the Milky Way Road and if any of them pique your interest then I would recommend them. I like I Am What I Am the most, but I am a sucker for anything with good ace representation. Father of the Milky Way Road is quite a tear jerker. Single8 I was all in for until some dragging at the end but it’s still a lot of fun.
Last night I wanted something lighter so my first film was BL Metamorphosis, which was really adorable (if you can just remove any of the larger issues of the genre etc., which is easy enough to do because you really could replace BL manga with anything and the story would still work).
It’s great to see Nobuko Miyamoto in the lead because I really haven’t seen any of her more recent work, but I got into Jūzō Itami last year which inevitably means I also became a big Miyamoto fan. It’s honestly just a really sweet story about the importance of inter-generational friendship, exploring new interests, and gaining confidence in yourself. While they maybe could have come up with a more visually interesting way to deal with the manga scenes, beyond that I don’t really have any complaints.
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Or Visual Novels 
Watched the horror movies, some comments:
| BEST WISHES TO ALL | 11m | Wow, creepy! When the man crawled in, I would have noped the f. out of that house very fast, would have never went to check what the grand parents were doing |
| closet | 8m | Scary! Almost no talking though, don’t watch it to practice your listening |
| KARAKASA | 29m | Not the best acting performance in my opinion. Didn’t find the story super interesting either. I don’t think you’re missing out if you skip it. |
| The Invitation | 13m | Scary! Not a lot of talking. Again, why do people stick around when creepy stuff happens |
Good that it’s over, I don’t think horror is my type of movie, I was pretty scared
Thinking about watching either Broken Mariko or We Made a Beautiful Bouquet tonight.
Thanks for the reviews @armofpilot ! I think I want to watch Single 8 and Father of the Milky Way Road too
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The Invitation was the most classic horror I think, but also so unbelievable. Two policemen enter a house that stinks of decomposition and immediately call for backup? Then never even try the light switch, just light up their flashlights and split up? Then one of them sees a girl that seems wounded but alive, and instead of checking on her and calling an ambulance, she’s just terrified? None of it made any sense.
Karakasa was a classic Japanese ghost story, therefore not particularly scary. I feel it was an awkward length. If shorter it could have packed more of a puch, if longer we could have gotten to know the characters more, and manage to care a bit what happens to them. But it was none of those.
My favourites were the two shortest movies. Creative and to the point.
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Yes one thing made sense, the officer lady did remove her shoes before going upstairs
Yeah I agree with you on the comments
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