Friday, July 20, 2007
Pia Film Festival Wraps - This World Of Ours Rocks Shibuya (and Tochô)
Normally I don't post articles I've written for Screen International on my blog as Screen is a subscription-based service (though it's not as if my little blog would affect the coffers in London anyway). Besides, good festivals like the Pia Film Festival and the young, independent filmmakers they showcase deserve more publicity so here's the piece I filed this evening, with hyperlinks and Japanese titles inserted (for short synopses of all the films, click here).
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Pia Film Festival awards grand prix to Bare-assed Japan
Jason Gray in Tokyo
20 Jul 2007 12:45
Director Yuya Ishii's Bare-assed Japan (Mukidashi Nippon, 『剥き出しにっぽん』) won the Grand Prix at this year's Pia Film Festival (PFF), which ran July 14-20 in Tokyo's Shibuya district.
A total of 14 films, both feature-length and shorts, were selected to screen in competition from 780 submissions.
Shot for a budget of $31,500 as a film school graduation project, Bare-assed Japan was the only entry in the line-up to have been shot on film (16mm).
The quirky ensemble comedy depicts the relationship between a father, his son and the girl he likes after they all move to a dilapidated farm in the countryside. The accolade also carried a cash prize of one million yen ($8,147). The film also won the award for Best Music.
The runner-up prize went to Yoshihito Ozaki's short film The Child (Sono Kodomo, 『その子供』) while feature The Blue Monkey (Aoi Saru, 『青い猿』) received the Audience Award.
Hard-hitting feature This World Of Ours (Oretachi No Sekai, 『俺たちの世界』), directed by Ryo Nakajima, grabbed three prizes including one of three Special Jury Prizes, the Imagica-sponsored Technical Prize and the Avex Entertainment-sponsored Entertainment Award. Short films Beyond Aomi's Second Ward (Aomi Ni-chome-saki, 『青海二丁目先』) and Ki-Ka (『季夏』) each won Special Jury Prizes. Gaku Yamaguchi's Height (Se, 『背』) won prizes from sponsors TBS and GyaO.
The 2007 jury included actor Tadanobu Asano, veteran genre film director Noribumi Suzuki, producer Hiroyuki Negishi, artist Tatsuya Ishii and manga artist Sakumi Yoshino.
This year marked the 29th edition of PFF, seen as one of the country's leading independent film festivals and the place where directors such as Lee Sang-il (Hula Girls, also see my interview), Nobuhiro Suwa (H Story) and Yoshimitsu Morita, who is currently directing a remake of Akira Kurosawa's Sanjuro, got their starts.
PFF is unique for its scholarship programme, eligible to filmmakers who win prizes in the competition. Launched in 1984, the programme funds one 35mm feature film per year. Izuru Kumasaka's Park And Love Hotel (『パークアンドラブホテル』) screened at this year's edition.
The festival also mounted an 11-film retrospective of late director Robert Altman's films, which will continue to run into August.
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Asano was in t-shirts and jeans most of the time, but looked very sharp in a pinstripe suit with carnation at the awards this evening. It was flashbulb city. Suzuki Noribumi ("Norifumi" is more common, but he was introduced on stage and credited in the catalogue as "Noribumi") was total Toei old school. It was good to say hi to Negishi-san again -- he was the producer of Linda Linda Linda.
If I had to single out one film, it would definitely be Ryo Nakajima's This World Of Ours. It begins with images from the 9/11 attacks and ends with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government buildings in a similar, smoldering state. Throughout, it's punctuated with scenes of bullying, suicide attempts, gang rape and complete despair. It has a crazy energy but somehow ties everything together in a powerful way. Nakajima started working on the script at 19, when he was still a hard core hikikomori.
The acting was good pretty well across the board, but my favourite performance was Okutsu Satoshi's (pictured), as a bully who has the tables turned on him leading him down a path of violence, murder and finally terrorism. As I watched I thought "This kid is going to be a great actor in future films." When I asked the director about him, I found out that he's unfortunately "retired" from film and works in a hospital.
With a soundtrack equal parts classical and Clockwork Orange influenced retro-electro as well as visual nods to Serpico and Natural Born Killers, Nakajima likes tough cinema and wants to make films that shake things up and disturb. I hope he's selected for the upcoming PFF scholarship.
Not only that, but he's seriously into English. He insisted on talking to me in English, has English credits on his film, and has an excellent bilingual website, as well as a subtitled version of the trailer on YouTube. Check out some of the wild images in the gallery on the Japanese side of the site.
In short, this is the kind of young filmmaker Japan needs more of!
Update: Twitch head honcho Todd Brown spreads the word about This World Of Ours to far more readers than I could reach.
7 comments:
This World Of Ours is now officially on my radar. Is there any realistic possibility of the film seeing a decent dvd release? It might be a bit much to expect this to get subtitled but it sounds visually interesting enough for me to cope with my light japanese skills!
Thanks for the write-up J.
Oh man, you really got me hyped on Nakajima's movie.
The director being an eigo otaku, I think it's very likely to get a subbed DVD-release, ne?
Oh man, you really got me hyped on Nakajima's movie.
The director being an eigo otaku, I think it's very likely to get a subbed DVD-release, ne?
Thanks for the scoop, Jason. To be honest, the trailer leaves me a bit cool with it's total ennui, but my interest is piqued since you a) dug it so much and b) the fact that Ryo was once a hikikomori himself. I'll keep my eyes out for it.
Wow, NORIFUMI SUZUKI was on the jury. He is one of the most under-rated directors of Japan. He directed many Great and entertaining films from the Toei 70's. Definitely someone whose filmography needs to be exposed. Did you get a chance to speak with him? He would prolly make a very interesting and informative interview (for a geek like me).
You're right, the trailer is not that hot -- a much better one could be cut from that film (I'd like to take a shot at it myself). The movie itself doesn't come across like that -- it's more of a slow boil that you know is going to end up as a 3-alarm fire.
Again, this is a debut feature by a young guy of only 23 or 24, so don't expect perfection. I was just psyched to finally see a film with some ba**s. It has unconventional rhythms, camera angles and a gonzo ending that's epic in its own way.
Suzuki presented the film one of its three awards -- he loved it, and if a director like him likes your movie you're probably on the right track.
Didn't talk to Suzuki (he was busy!), though I'm a big fan of Seijû Gakuen.
indeed, this film does look superb...
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