What I’m taking away from TWENTY FOUR EYES and FATHER OF THE MILKY WAY RAILROAD: well if you are alive in the early-min 1900s, good luck, chances are you and your loved ones will die young 
9 Likes
Yeah death by infection from any wound,
A papercut (scroll 
cut? Haha1900) could be deadly!
5 Likes
Of tuberculosis. It’s always tuberculosis.
4 Likes
Or the war 
1 Like
I finished The Lines that Define Me! A beautiful film. I enjoyed learning about the process and philosophy of sumi-e, and the soundtrack was also good. I just have two minor gripes — one, how on earth did Sosuke get hammered from a single cocktail? Also, the subtitles referred to ‘crysanthemums’ as ‘mums’ twice in sentences where it could have been describing Sosuke’s parents. Threw me for a split second. (Guess that also means I was paying too much attention to the subs and not enough to the spoken Japanese in those scenes)
5 Likes
It’s a pretty common trope in Japanese media - characters who are such absolute lightweights that they can get blackout drunk off regular fruit juice.
4 Likes
According to an e-mail I recieved yesterday evening (and I presume everyone else did too), these are the ten most-watched JFF films:
1st: We Made a Beautiful Bouquet (2021 / Romance, Drama)
2nd: The Zen Diary (2022 / Food, Drama, Japanese Culture)
3rd: ANIME SUPREMACY! (2022 / Drama, Anime, Business)
4th: The Lines that Define Me (2022 / Drama, Art, Coming of Age)
5th: FATHER OF THE MILKY WAY RAILROAD (2023 / Family, Drama, Biography)
6th: My Broken Mariko (2022 / Drama, Road movie, Sisterhood)
7th: I am what I am (2022 / Drama, LGBTQ+)
8th: Single8 (2023 / Drama,Coming-of-age,SF)
9th: BL Metamorphosis (2022 / Drama, LGBTQ+, BL)
10th: School Meals Time Graduation (2022 / Food, Comedy, Drama)
7 Likes
Yep! I meant to put this in a post here but I forgot haha. I thought it was fun to compare the top 10 with what everyone here has been watching. No mention of Baby Assassins, even though it’s a popular pick around here, and first prize for the romance movie!
4 Likes
Interesting
7th: I am what I am (2022 / Drama, LGBTQ+)
10th: School Meals Time Graduation (2022 / Food, Comedy, Drama)
These two don’t interest me at all. Not planning on watching either of them.
I did just watch what I expected to be awesome and my favorite movie so far (and yes it is)
Just ordered the blu-ray and the book
The Lines that Define Me
Makes me wish I had any drawing skills at all 
Maybe one of these days I’ll give it a try - even if im probably going to be horrible at it, but would be interesting to take one of my own bwir images and see what it could become in sumi-e
Two movies left! Milky Way and Wedding
4 Likes
Just watched My Broken Mariko. I originally wasn’t planning on it, because it didn’t really look like my genre (plus it seemed to fall into that Japanese style of genre that starts depressing and only gets more so), but with all y’all hyping it up… and it actually turned out much more heartwarming than I’d expected.
And I apologise to Omi Toshinori for accusing him of being typecast, though to be fair, his character in this one was so far outside his usual role that I genuinely didn’t recognise him at first. Though, his face was only shown clearly for about five seconds. 
Next on my list is Beautiful Bouquet, another I hadn’t been planning on watching because it’s not really my genre, and then finish off with BL Metamorphasis.
9 Likes
Just finished Father of the Milky Way Railroad.
About what I was expecting but what I wasn’t expecting was whoever did the lighting for that film was amazing! the warm/cool and low key stuff was fantastic!
One thing I did notice
Was his mom really didn’t ever seem to read any of his work (or if she did it wasn’t on scene).
Historically Japanese wives in the early 1900s, wonder how true to life this was, silly thoughts maybe but compared with 2024 and how the world has changed and gotten so much smaller; thought it was an interesting peak into history.
one left Wedding High (tomorrow)
kind of feel like I should watch all of them (completionism - lol)
3 Likes
I’m not sufficiently interested in the last few to try for completion.
3 Likes
me either
but my head is like soooooo close 
wasn’t going to watch wedding high but talked into it by everyone
4 Likes
Some East Asians (Chinese, Korean and Japanese people) lack an enzyme necessary to breakdown alcohol into more harmless substances so drinking even the smallest amount of alcohol can make them very sick (I have a Japanese friend with this genetic condition) which might explain the drunk after one cocktail scenario Why do people with East Asian heritage get flushed after drinking alcohol? : Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne
5 Likes
„This is because people feel so bad after drinking alcohol, they tend to drink very little, if at all.“
I think the author has never been to Japan 
2 Likes
You all convinced me to watch Wedding High, and this put my curiosity over the edge
I thoroughly enjoyed it. I could critique the ending but the runaway nature of the slapstick stickiness was actually pretty fun overall.
The timing of the resolutions and reveals at the end was strange to say the least. It felt a bit like any one of five scenarios could have been the ending and they just went aw you know what let’s do all of them.
7 Likes
Has anyone else had this issue on android that if you start watching a film then it won’t load again in the future?
I can watch anything I haven’t ever loaded. But for a few films that I opened once last week they won’t open - whether I use a different browser or account or clear the browser. Anyone have any other ideas aside from a different device?
1 Like
Just finished BL Metamorphosis - sweet film with the unusual premise of an intergenerational friendship, but I wasn’t particularly moved by it. So far my favourites remain:
My Broken Mariko
Wedding High
We Made a Beautiful Bouquet.
6 Likes
I’ve watched everything (or at least attempted to, if after 30 min it wasn’t for me, I skipped to the end) and really enjoyed this festival! It was my first time participating and I’ve watched more Japanese movies in two weeks than in… my whole life I think 
Will write my favorites now, as there are a few days left, then people have still some time to watch:
- Baby Assassins
- We Made a Beautiful Bouquet
- Wedding High
- Single 8
Looking forward to next year, thanks a lot for hosting @soggyboy !!
9 Likes
Just finished watching Bouquet, and, uh… I honestly found it kinda tedious. The foregone conclusion of their relationship meant the whole second half of the movie was like watching a corpse that hadn’t realised it was dead yet. The guy agreeing to do his drawings at one third the contracted rate was the start of the end, but the moment he opened his idiot mouth after getting a job and said “I’ll be home by 5pm every day for sure”, that was the death knell. It was so painful by the end that the sequence of them still living together after they broke up was genuinely a relief. I wanna eat yakisoba-pan now, though.
I’ve still got BL Metamorphasis to watch (tomorrow), but since we’re playing favourites now, here’s mine, in no particular order:
- Wedding High
- My Broken Mariko
- Zen Diary
That all of these happen to include Omi Toshinori is a complete coincidence.
Think I’ve posted more specific comments on all the films I watched this week in the thread somewhere. I saw Baby Assassins, Father of the Milky Way Railroad, We’re Broke My Lord and The Lines that Define Me in the cinema last year, and all of them were pretty good, but not quite there.
Each movie page has, under the “watch now” button, the following text:
【For those watching on Android devices】
You may not be able to watch on Google Chrome. In that case, restart the browser and try again. If you are still unable to watch, try a different browser.
There’s still the next phase of this one: drama series. Starts Wednesday.
5 Likes