Now Showing April 7

At the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony ‘Up in the Air’ received six Academy Award nominations in categories including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress. Released here in Japan on March 20, the film is expected to become a smash hit in the Japanese box office. George Clooney portrays Ryan Bingham, a corporate downsizer who travels around America firing employees for companies. The film takes a very human and amusing look at relationships, the way people communicate in modern society and, of course, restructuring.

In order to lay off employees, Ryan spends 322 days of the year travelling around America – with the personal goal of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles. Never staying in one place, he extols the virtues of a carefree life, believing that the things you can’t fit into a backpack don’t warrant fussing about. When a new and ambitious young co-worker, Natalie, threatens Ryan’s way of life with plans to create a new system of firing people over the Internet, Ryan, who up until now has revelled in his own solitary existence, begins to see the importance of human relationships.

One particularly talked about aspect of the film is the fact that it features ordinary members of the public who have lost their jobs due to restructuring. Rather than simply rely on his imagination, director, Jason Reitman – thinking that there is nothing more real than the actual feelings and reactions of people who have experienced losing their jobs in reality – enlisted the help of sixty members of the public who had recently lost their jobs, whom he interviewed and filmed. Of these sixty individuals, twenty-two made it into the actual film. Furthermore, the song that can be heard midway through film’s ending credit roll, entitled ‘Up in the Air’, is sung by a man named Kevin Renick, who – in a decision to try to realize a personal dream of becoming a singer-songwriter – wrote the piece shortly after being suddenly laid off from a company he had worked at for over 52 years. An emotional song about the emotional turmoil of being laid off, Renick’s song adds that little bit more to the film, making it all the more compelling and sincere.

Up in the Air

Japanese Title: Mileage, My Life
USA, 2009
Opened: Mar 20
Director, writer, producer: Jason Reitman
Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman
Distributor: Paramount Pictures Japan
Website: www.mile-life.jp/ (Japanese only)

Lovely, Still

The story of an elderly man who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease as he falls in love with his own wife again, this touching tale of a family’s deep love will echo in the hearts of all who see it.

USA, 2008
Opened: Mar 27
Director, writer: Nicholas Fackler
Cast: Martin Landau, Ellen Burstyn
Distributor: PiX
Website: avex-pix.co.jp/okurimono/ (Japanese only)

Shelter

A supernatural horror-thriller in which a psychiatrist discovers more than she bargains for when she delves into the past of a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder.

USA, 2009
Opened: Mar 27
Director: Måns Målind, Björn Stein
Cast: Julianne Moore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Distributor: Broadmedia Studios
Website: www.shelter-movie.jp/ (Japanese only)

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

An emotional love story involving three very different boys and one Japanese high school student, who loses four years of her memory the day after she falls in love.

Japan, 2009
Opened: Mar 27
Director: Hans Canosa
Cast: Maki Horikita, Kennichi Matsuyama, Yuya Tegoshi, Anton Yelchin
Distributor: Toei
Website: darekiss.com/

The Age of the Stupid

An environmental documentary about global warming by the director of ‘McLibel’ and the producer of ‘One Day in September’, winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

UK, 2009
Opened: Apr 3
Director: Franny Armstrong
Producer: Peter Armstrong
Distributor: T-Joy
Website: www.t-joy.net/aos/ (Japanese only)

Solanin

A live-action adaptation of the acclaimed Japanese best-selling comic series of the same name by manga artist Inio Asano, Solanin tells the story of a girl, played by Aoi Miyazaki (who also plays the guitar and sings to fulfil the role), who finds herself through a song written by a boyfriend who has passed away.

Japan, 2009
Opened: Apr 3
Director: Takahiro Miki
Cast: Aoi Miyazaki, Kengo Kora, Kenta Kiritani, Youichi Kondou, Ayumi Ito, Ayato Nagayama
Distributor: Asmik Ace
Website: solanin-movie.jp/

Related Articles:
・Now showing March 31
　‘I Love You Phillip Morris’ and other listings
・Tokyo’s unique movie theatres
　Find your favourite theatre to immerse yourself in film
・Film: overview
　A city of silver screens