Marriage counselor advises concerned parents to help their sonny boy get laid

A seminar, on the theme of “The Current Marriage Situation in Japan,” was held at an auditorium on the campus of a national university. The attendees were several dozen male and female participants ranging in age from their 40s to their 60s.

The real reason people attended, reports Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 30), is that they want to commiserate on why their children seem unable to find a marriage partner.

The guest speaker, marriage consultant Hiromi Ikeuchi, doesn’t pull any punches. Read more

Tokyo Filmex wraps, ‘Love Addiction’ wins Grand Prize

TOKYO (TR) – The 11th Tokyo Filmex concluded on Sunday with its Grand Prize being awarded to the drama “Love Addiction,” the third feature from helmer Nobuteru Uchida.

Uchida made his feature-length debut with the love story “Kaza-ana” three years ago. “Love Addiction” covers similar themes, profiling the complicated romantic relationships between four co-workers.

“I think that Japanese independent films are of high quality,” said Uchida. “I am hoping that all of my colleagues who make films like this will continue to move forward in the future.”

The pic was awarded 1 million yen, which is 100,000 yen less than the film’s budget. The jury appreciated the low-budget nature of the film, saying that its intensity — largely created through strong acting and the use of a hand-held camera — conveyed a powerful expression.

Jury chairperson Ulrich Gregor, the director of the International Forum of New Cinema, said that it was a pleasure for the jury to discuss the 10 films in competition on their own merits and collectively. “We found that there were quite many films which fascinated us, thrilled us, told us important things about the way of living today, about our society, politics, and the state of mind of men and women,” Gregor said. Read more

Sion Sono’s ‘Cold Fish’ nets Japan premiere at Tokyo Filmex

TOKYO (TR) – Getting its Japan premiere at Tokyo Filmex on Saturday was art-house helmer Sion Sono’s latest pic, the gore fest “Tsumetai Nettaigyo” (Cold Fish), which he said goes in a completely different direction from his last pic, “Love Exposure.”

His inspiration for making the film came from two areas.

“There are many crime cases in Japan that have interested me,” said Sono following the screening at the Yurakucho Asahi Hall in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward. “I also wanted to depict a sense of total hopelessness, which I feel is lacking in Japanese films.”

The grotesque, sometimes humorous, often farcical pic, which is based on an actual killing spree committed by a dog kennel owner in the 1980s, tells the story of a family of three that becomes entangled in a string of ongoing murders perpetrated by a tropical fish salesman in Shizuoka Prefecture. Read more

Shibuya underground: Tokyu to link Fukutoshin and Toyoko lines in 2012

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, November 25, 2010) Read more

Absence makes the heart seek marathon sex

“I’m a beautician, and my guy works in his company’s sales department. We’re both damn busy and it’s hard to coordinate our days off, which is why we hadn’t had a chance to meet for the past several months.”

Thus begins an erotic account extracted from the December issue of women’s soft porn magazine Ai no Taiken Special Deluxe, as appearing in Shukan Bunshun (Nov. 25).

The narrator’s solution was for her and her beau to both take their paid holidays, which combined with regular work holidays added up to a full week.

“On the first day, I went over to his apartment,” the woman relates. “I’d barely taken off my shoes when we were going at it on the bed. I think I might have even told him, ‘Ohh, I really missed you,’ but for the life of me all I remember is seeing his earnest face as he kissed me. Read more

Buddhist priest busted for hiring junior high hooker

Should a Buddhist priest dabble in the pleasures of the flesh it is hardly news, well, unless it involves the body of a teenage girl, reports weekly tabloid Shukan Jitsuwa (Dec. 2).

On November 5, officers from the Yamanashi prefectural police and the Fuefuki Police Station finalized the arrest of Nobuaki Matsumoto, 57, the head priest of Fukuo-ji Temple in Minami Alps City, for violating national prostitution and pornography statutes.

According to the investigation, Matsumoto met up with a 14-year-old junior high school girl, a resident of Kai City, through broker Takanori Mochizuki (37) at JR Ryuo Station on August 9. They then went to a nearby love hotel. Also arrested was Mochizuki, who is a company director and also a resident of Minami Alps City.

The Mainichi Shimbun (Nov. 6) indicates that Matsumoto and Mochizuki became acquainted through a mobile phone matchmaking site. Read more

Japan being overrun by sexually oriented senior citizens

On Nov. 19, Chiba police arrested 75-year-old Morimitsu Iha on the charge of groping a 46-year-old woman aboard the JR Sobu Line.

“Energetic,” was the word that Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 23) uses to describe the suspect.

“Iha was wearing a dark suit, possibly to make it easier to flee,” a police source confides to the tabloid. “The victim had been holding a strap. He had moved behind her and begun rubbing his groin against her buttocks.” Read more

Tokyo Filmex opens with ‘Uncle Boonmee’

TOKYO (TR) – Billing itself as a festival that seeks out the endless creativity and possibilities of cinema, the week-long Tokyo Filmex opened on Saturday in Chuo Ward.

Hundreds of biz luminaries, including legendary film historian Donald Richie, packed the Tokyo International Forum for the opening film, helmer Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.”

Jury chairperson Ulrich Gregor, the director of the International Forum of New Cinema, said in an opening address that he has been a long-time admirer of the collection of unique films and filmmakers that Filmex attracts. “What unites us all is the passion for film, the hope for a brilliant future of cinema and further development,” said Gregor. Read more

Carnival ‘snake lady’ at Hanazono Shrine in Shinjuku

(Photo by Tokyo Reporter, November 19, 2010) Read more

Tokyo drifter: Yoichi Higashi goes ‘Wandering Home’

TOKYO (TR) – Veteran helmer Yoichi Higashi tackles the difficult subject of a family being torn apart by alcoholism in his latest film, the drama “Wandering Home.”

The often brutal and sometimes humorous pic, to be released next next month, is based on the autobiography of the late journalist Yutaka Kamoshida, who detailed his struggle with alcohol dependency and the resulting burden placed upon his wife, manga artist Rieko Saibara, and two young children.

“I didn’t have the sense that I was making a film about a person suffering from alcohol dependency,” said the 76-year-old Higashi following an evening press screening at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Monday. “I had the sense that I was making a film about a pilgrim, about someone who was wandering, searching for a path in life.”

The Japanese title reads, “I’ll Come Home When I’m Sober,” and Yasu, Kamoshida’s character played by Tadanobu Asano, spends very little time at his west Tokyo residence. After abusing his wife (Hiromi Nagasaku, who recently appeared in “Cast Me If You Can”), and multiple ambulance trips to the hospital, one of which follows a violent blood-vomiting incident, he is admitted to a specialized rehab facility for long-term care. Yet Higashi takes such a difficult subject and mixes dark comedy into the script, such as Yasu’s obsession with receiving curry meals. Read more

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