Upcoming Japanese films in 2013

Tokyo Kazoku

Adapting classic Japanese films is a hazardous exercise, and they don't get much more classic than Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story. Veteran director Yoji Yamada substantially rewrote Tokyo Kazoku in the wake of March 11, and it looks like the film will be a loose reinterpretation of Ozu's 1953 original rather than a straight remake. Bunta Sugawara and Etsuko Ichihara star as the elderly parents visiting their city-slicker kids in the capital, with a cast including Satoshi Tsumabuki and Yu Aoi.
Release date: January 19
Official website: www.tokyo-kazoku.jp

Sado Tempest

It's been a long time since we heard from John Williams, the expat director responsible for the charming Firefly Dreams and the rather rum Starfish Hotel. For his third film, he heads to the barren island of Sado for a rock'n'roll musical loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest – and if the end results are any way near as demented as that pitch, this could be memorable.
Release date: February 16
Official website: www.100meterfilms.com/sadotempest/main.html

A Story of Yonosuke (Yokomichi Yonosuke)

Shuichi Okita's talent for artfully composed whimsy has made him one of Japan's most celebrated young directors. His follow-up to last year's enjoyable The Woodsman and the Rain is based on a coming-of-age novel by Shuichi Yoshida (Villain), with rising stars Kengo Kora and Yuriko Yoshitaka – both actors capable of elevating the flimsiest of material – in the leads. But at a bum-numbing 2 hours, 40 minutes in length, does this Yonosuke risk outstaying his welcome?
Release date: February 23
Official website: http://yonosuke-movie.com

Platina Data

There's more than a hint of Minority Report to this sci-fi tale, based on a book by bestselling genre writer Keigo Higashino. Set in a near-future Japan where DNA profiling has become the norm, Platina Data follows a top molecular analyst who finds himself implicated in a murder. With Kazunari Ninomiya in the lead role and perma-grizzled character actor Etsushi Toyokawa as his police detective antagonist, it has the makings of a solidly enjoyable bit of popcorn fodder.
Release date: March 16
Official website: www.platinadata.jp

Why Don't You Play in Hell? (Jigoku de Naze Warui)

Ever the contrarian, Sion Sono follows up radiation melodrama Land of Hope with yet another stylistic volte-face, this time making his first foray into – of all things – action comedy. Based on a 15-year-old script that the director himself admits might draw comparisons to Kill Bill, Why Don't You Play in Hell? stars Jun Kunimura and Shinichi Tsutsumi as a pair of feuding mobsters. Bets are off as to whether it will secure Sono the mainstream respectability now enjoyed by former bad-boy Takashi Miike (see below) – although that's assuming that he'd even want it.
Release date: March (TBC)
Official website: http://play-in-hell.com

Fune wo Amu

Prodigious young director Yuya Ishii has already clocked up eight features, and he's not even 30 yet. His follow-up to 2011 misfire Mitsuko Delivers promises to be a return to form, while the source material (a best-selling novel by Shion Miura) and cast mean that it's guaranteed to be his most high-profile film to date. Ryuhei Matsuda stars as a bookish nerd whose talent for words lands him a job producing a new dictionary, but leaves him painfully ill-equipped to express his affection for his landlady's granddaughter (Aoi Miyazaki).
Release date: April 13
Official website: http://fune-amu.com

Chugakusei Maruyama

Veteran screenwriter and sometime director Kankuro Kudo has been fairly quiet since pilfering the Spinal Tap playbook in 2009's uproarious, juvenile The Shonen Merikensack. His third directorial outing is again based on an original screenplay, this time centering on a junior high-school student with a rampantly perverse imagination who strikes up a friendship with an enigmatic single dad living in his apartment complex. And no, we don't mean that kind of 'friendship': with SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi in the lead role, you can rest assured that this will be relatively wholesome stuff.
Release date: April 20
Official website: http://maruyama-movie.jp

Jellyfish Eyes

He's already Japan's most famous contemporary artist, but obviously that isn't enough for Takashi Murakami. The Superflat progenitor makes his directorial debut this spring, with a film dedicated to 'those children who are today being born into a world full of challenges.' Blending live action with 3D digital animation, Jellyfish Eyes has been more than a decade in the making – and based on the teaser, it looks like it's going to be queasily cute.
Release date: April 26
Official website: http://mememe.gaga.ne.jp

Straw Shield (Wara no Tate)

One-time cult auteur Takashi Miike's move into straightforwardly commercial cinema has yielded uneven results, but this police thriller looks promising. When a wealthy politico puts a ¥1 billion bounty on the head of the man who killed his granddaughter, a group of elite cops led by Takao Osawa and Nanako Matsushima are tasked with transporting the suspect safely from Fukuoka to Tokyo.
Release date: April 26
Official website: wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/waranotate/

Saint Young Men (Saint Oniisan)

One of the most implausible manga hits of the past few years, Hikaru Nakamura's Saint Young Men takes two of the world's most iconic religious figures and plonks them in a cheap apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo. With over 8 million copies of the comic shifted so far, this big-screen adaptation seems guaranteed an easy ride at the box office. Gen Hoshino and Mirai Moriyama provide the voices of Buddha and Jesus, respectively.
Release date: May 10
Official website: www.saint023.com

It's Me, It's Me (Ore Ore)

Author Tomoyuki Hoshino snagged the Kenzaburo Oe Prize in 2011 for Ore Ore, an absurdist postmodern fantasy in which a young man finds his identities multiplying after he impersonates a stranger in a phone scam. Hardly the easiest source material for a film, but writer/director Satoshi Miki (Adrift in Tokyo) should be up to the task. Kat-Tun's Kazuya Kamenashi plays the 33 lead roles.
Release date: May 25
Official website: http://ore-ore.jp

Real: Kanzen Naru Kubinagaryu no Hi

Screen heartthrob Takeru Sato plays a young man who uses futuristic neuroscience to enter the subconscious of his comatose lover (Haruka Ayase), in an attempt to discover why she tried to commit suicide. The cast might be more suited to mainstream fluff, but with Kiyoshi Kurosawa in the director's chair – returning to the big screen for the first time since 2008 breakout hit Tokyo Sonata – this might just deliver the goods. Hopefully they can also come up with a catchier English title than the current one: 'The Day of the Real, Perfect Plesiosaur'. Ahem.
Release date: June 1

Kaze Tachinu | Kaguya-hime no Monogatari

It's probably safe to call these two as the highest-earning films of 2013. Studio Ghibli's first double-bill since pairing My Neighbor Totoro with Grave of the Fireflies in 1988 promises to reunite the directors behind those two animated masterworks. Hayao Miyazaki takes the reins in Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises), working from his own manga based on the life of Zero fighter designer Jiro Horikoshi, while Isao Takahata revisits an ancient Japanese folk tale in Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya).
Release date: Summer (TBC)
Official websites: http://kazetachinu.jp | http://kaguyahime-monogatari.jp