A car driven by someone from the
Kyoto Association for the Preservation of Ancient Cultures reversed into Japan’s oldest public bathroom or
tosu, an important cultural property part of the Tofukuji Temple in Kyoto. And the day before, members of the Chinese Dragon gang were involved in a scuffle at a French restaurant on the 58th floor of a building in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro. The gang with ties to Japan and China live in limbo; gang-like but not gang-like enough, falling outside of organized crime laws and considered a nuisance more than a criminal element. Elsewhere, directed by Sho Miyake and previewed in Berlin earlier this year,
“Small, Slow But Steady” (or
Keiko, me o su-masete), from 2022, loosely adapts the novel
Don’t Give Up (
Makenaide) by Keiko Ogasawara, the first hearing-impaired professional female boxer in Japan.