Japanese Film Festival Online/JFF Theater 2024

Just watched Handsome Suit. The issue I had with it is they made the reactions of the public to both Takuro and Annin so extreme that it was an objectively better choice to remain as Annin. The usual staple in this sort of movie is to establish that his normal-life friends are true friends, while the celeb friends are just vapid nobodies, but the latter revelation never occured - in fact, Reika showed herself to be a pretty good friend to Takuro’s friends long before the conclusion.

It took me a little while to get in to it, partly because all of the major players were introduced rapid-fire in a nighttime scene so I took forever to figure out who was who, but once the plot actually got going, it was pretty intriguing.

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Have finished Zen Diary and have almost finished Wedding High. Very different films but both are enjoyable. Wondering what I’ll watch next.

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I watched We Made a Beautiful Bouquet, I liked it a lot more than I thought I would! Thank you @soggyboy for giving me a little nudge :blush:

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just finished Anime Supremacy
really enjoyed it good film - very feel good
and the animation was really well done

will say that if you haven’t watched it give it a chance, does start a little slow but it’s good!

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Just finished watching Wedding High, off some of the recommendations here, and there’s Omi Toshinori making another surprise appearance. IMDB’s cast list for this film is very much lacking, which is why I didn’t spot it when I looked up Omi-san’s filmography yesterday. That guy’s definitely getting a bit typecast into the bumbling husband/father role, though.

Riotous fun the whole way through (with almost none of the cringe I was anticipating), though I wasn’t entirely a fan of it almost ending on a poop joke. Made for a not-so-great mental image to take home.

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maybe i’ll try to watch this one
seems like everyone has been pleasantly surprised by it

it’s one of them i wasn’t sure if i wanted to watch and thought well if i have time
once i finish the last 3 i had planned, if there’s time i’ll check this one out

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I like to check the cast list for JP movies on TheMovieDB instead.
It’s especially convenient since Natively has a direct link to them so I can just add the movie to my list and then click on the link to TheMovieDB

→

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Just finished My Broken Mariko and this movie really blew me away. I wasn’t expecting to like it so much.

The acting was phenomenal and even the longest pauses felt very intentional. 11/10 from me, I think this film will stay with me for a while.

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I just watched I Go Gaga, Welcome home, Mom and while I still liked BL Metamorphosis I agree that this is a great watch, especially if you appreciate documentaries. I think about how close my parents are to this point of life a lot. It’s a bit of a tearjerker but definitely not a total downer if anyone considering it is worried about that. And I think as far as listening practice goes it’s a pretty low level probably (i’m still watch with subtitles level but I caught a lot)

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I finished watching BL Metamorphosis!

That was a really sweet movie, I’m really enjoying this festival because I would almost never choose to watch something heartwarming like that in my own time haha. Agreed with the other comments that it doesn’t have much to do with BL and could pretty much be about people bonding over any manga genre/fandom.

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I am so excited to have an opportunity to rewatch this. I’m legitimately thinking of buying the Japanese blu-ray and just figuring it out now that i’ll have seen it twice. I can’t think of any ace rep outside the tv show Sirens that was this good.

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I would’ve been happy with the film ending with the pulling off of the ゼăƒȘゼăƒȘreception. I sort of lost interest with the thief/ex thread. But overall, I thought the comedy worked well. I love do or die Japanese service staff - wish tradesman here felt the same devotion.

Yeah, I thought that a bit too. The big triumphant finish of the plot was in the middle of the film. Perhaps they could have inserted the thief plot before the wife’s speech to her parents, or something


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During the wedding ceremony you can clearly see the ex-boyfriend entering the room. So the whole time during the reception, I thought that he would come out at any moment. Even got worried when the wedding manager threw the dad’s samurai sword behind the bar where he was last spotted. I enjoyed that we knew about the ex-boyfriend but didn’t know what he was doing, was on the edge of my feet the whole time because of that, I think that was probably the point. Thought the reveal with the ex and the thief to be fine, except the popping scene on the face in the end, agreed on that that it leaves a bad taste.

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Oh yeah, there’s clues dropped all through the movie. The guy leaning against the pillar who doesn’t work there. The groom’s missing suit. The hand pressed against the curtain which the teacher notices. The father shouting ăŠă«ă„ă•ă‚“ïŒ offscreen in the hallways. Even the two guys who offered entertainments but weren’t added to the list came into play.

The big reveal just needed to come before the film’s resolution, rather than after. :slightly_smiling_face:

Though, when the bride dropped one of her shoes during the quick-change scene, I was half expecting there’d be a Cinderella moment. :slightly_smiling_face:

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I had said I probably wouldn’t watch any more, but based on @belthazar comments I thought I should give Kiba another try, and also Wedding High.

Kiba was good enough after I gave it a bit more time, and had some nice messages about the publishing industry. However I struggled with who was who and what their power balance was until the very end. It may have been my own problem rather than the movie’s, but a lot of the twists weren’t quite as surprising as a result.

Wedding High was a nice surprise. Comedy+wedding is usually a combination I steer clear of. I’m not interested in last minute doubts, family feuds, disruptive guests, self-centered brides and romantic reconciliations at all. Refreshingly, there was none of that. It was at its core a very Japanese movie about everyone doing their very best to achieve the best possible outcome for everyone involved. Nothing cringeworthy (until arguably at the very end, but not for the expected reasons). I’m not saying you shouldn’t miss it, but it was a very pleasant watch (again, disregarding some toilet humour at the end).

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I tried to watch TWENTY-FOUR EYES but subtitles didn’t work for it. Do you remember if it worked for you? Or do you watch without subtitles?

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It was fine for me on Sunday and English subs work right now too - this is with a “UK location”.

It’s a fine film, tugs strongly at the heartstrings.
However, there were too many songs in it for my liking
 (not the “let’s burst into sung conversation” kind, though
 it’s not a musical.)

Wow, I had no idea Natively also covered films! I don’t really use it because I’m not at the “ready to start reading an actual book” level :slight_smile:
So do their difficulty levels match between the different types of items?
L30 for a film means its dialogue is as “difficult” as the content of a L30 light novel, for example?

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I watched We Made a Beautiful Bouquet last night and it was amazing - it was exactly what I enjoy of Japanese films, with the perfect balance of slice-of-life, drama, romance, and realism. And I enjoyed the choice of showing the ending at the start - it made the film more impactful for me knowing that it was going to end sooner or later, and anticipating (dreading) that moment :laughing:
If anyone has any recommendations for similar movies, I’d love to hear them!

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The positive reviews about this movie tempts me to watch it, but I really doubt I’ll enjoy a film centred on romance :sweat_smile: maybe if I have extra time I’ll give it a shot.

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