Monday, February 26, 2007
Finally!
Martin Scorsese just won Best Achievement In Directing. It was a lonnnng time coming, but I believe it was deserved for The Departed as a single work and his incredible filmography thus far. He's been one of my directing Gods since I was a teenager, through film school, until the present day -- I'm so f***ing happy for him.
And this just coming in -- The Departed has won Best Picture. As much as I loved it -- it was probably my favourite film of 2006 -- I wasn't expecting it to take top honours. As we know, the Academy rewards films that earn well at the box office, and in its field The Departed was far ahead of the others. This bodes very well for the rumoured trilogy. Quality-wise, I thought all of this year's Best Picture nominees were strong contenders. There will be no embarrassment looking back at 2006.
Downstairs to my supermarket to get some champagne...
Oh, and one of the funniest things I've ever seen on Youtube.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Tokyo Sonata / Strawberry Shortcakes DVD / Nick Rucka
I'll be writing some coverage of Kurosawa Kiyoshi's upcoming film, Tokyo Sonata (tentative title), which will be vying for funding at the upcoming Hong Kong - Asia Film Financing Forum. It sounds like it'll be an excellent movie -- a snapshot of Japanese society imbued with the unique atmosphere Kurosawa creates. You can read detailed PDF notes on the project here.
Kore-eda Hirokazu also has a project there called Night-fragrant Flower (『夜來香 』), which depicts the fascinating life of Shirley Yamaguchi Yoshiko, who among her many credits had a role in Sam Fuller's cool House Of Bamboo, the first Hollywood feature to be shot in Japan. 
Doing some minor polishing of the subtitles for the DVD release of Strawberry Shortcakes (trace back). It'll be the first time one of the movies we've subtitled will come out in Japan with subs intact (and credited). The region 2 double-disc set will go on sale April 25th (this is for you, logboy). The film did fairly well on year-end lists, coming 3rd on film magazine Eiga Geijutsu's top 10, ranking 7th on the Yokohama Film Festival's annual best-of list (see here) and just missing Kinema Junpô's top 10, coming in 11th.
Update: Twitch's logboy writes about Strawberry Shortcakes' DVD release with a link to a pre-order page here.
Finally met with up Midnight Eye contributor Nicholas Rucka (also see his imdb entry) in Akasaka yesterday. He was the last of the long time ME crew that I'd never met in person. We know a lot of the same people and it was great talking about all kinds of films, not just Japanese cinema. He's had some success with his short films and was an editor on upcoming kamikaze-themed documentary Wings Of Defeat (aka Beyond The Sun), produced by well-known Japanese film industry figure and subtitling master Linda Hoaglund, who has a brand new site. Now Nick's writing features as part of a planned assault on HW. Best of luck!
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Kurosawa Interview / Dororo-ro-ro
Have to link to this interview with Kurosawa Kiyoshi in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Kurosawa discusses his great admiration for Eastwood, specifically the gleaming gold coin of Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima. Goto Taro (who does English subtitles for Japanese films over in California as well as working at sfindiefest) asks some great questions. Kurosawa's final answer in the interview is one of the most lucid statements I've read in a while.
Just as I was working on a piece for Screen about the Dororo sequels, Ryuganji broke the news on here. Like the Lord Of The Rings trology, the sequels will be shot back to back, and as with those films, maybe the new installments will increasingly improve on the original (which I enjoyed).
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Beat est de retour! - Partie deux / My Tomodachi: Colin Geddes
There wasn't any Beat Takeshi news for a while until recently (see my February 8th entry) but now there are even more developments on the Office Kitano front. 
If you follow news about Cannes, you know this year is the festival's 60th anniversary. To celebrate, the organisers have commissioned famous filmmakers from around the world to shoot short films commemorating the event
33 directors from 25 countries in 5 continents have 3 minutes to depict how that magic place known as the cinema inspires them. The project is entitled Chacun Son Cinema (To Each His Own Cinema). None of the creators were aware of the others' films. "Wenders filmed in the Congo, Tsai Ming Liang in Kuala Lumpur and Cronenberg in the... toilets!" says the press release. The films will be screened both at Cannes and broadcast on France's Canal+ on May 20th. Read the official press release, including the complete list of directors: French and English.
Beat Takeshi, who himself celebrated his 60th birthday last month, will of course represent Japan. During the 2005 edition of TOKYO FILMeX, a letter from Cannes head Gilles Jacob was passed to Kitano, requesting him to participate in the project. During a break in the filming of Kantoku - Banzai! last September, Kitano completed the short. The details of his entry are secret, as are the contents of each of the 33 directors' films from each other. "If other directors are thinking the same things as me, there might be some overlap. I wonder what kind of films everyone made," said Kitano.
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My good friend Colin Geddes is like a brother. We bonded in the late 80s over Hong Kong movies and it's been a romance ever since. If you don't know already, he's been the head programmer of the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness section since 1998. He scours all the major fests around the globe and counts most of the world's famous cult directors among his friends. Watch Colin introduce Boon Jong-ho's The Host here. And there's this already legendary selection of footage from Borat's world premiere screening, also programmed by Colin. 
He's also established up and coming distributor Ultra 8 Pictures (where you can find links to his dueling blogs). CG's also famous in Toronto for his countless screenings of classic kung fu movies and other delights from Asia over the years.
Now he's about to get on a plane to Europe as a member of the jury at Portugal's famous fantasporto fantastic film festival, which is in its 27th edition.
Hope you're not embarassed by all the praise -- I'm just proud, that's all.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Hula Girls - Lee Sang-il Interview
Was up latish on Friday night writing a piece for Screen on the outcome of the 30th Japan Academy Awards (officially known as the Japan Academy Prize, 日本アカデミー賞 [Japanese only] ). As you may have heard, Hula Girls (official site and imdb entry) did very well, picking up Best Picture, Best Director for Lee Sang-il (李相日監督), Best Supporting Actress for Aoi Yû (蒼井優) and Best Screenplay for Lee and Habara Daisuke. You can see the entire list of Academy winners on Hoga Central here.
Hula Girls also won top prize at this year's Blue Ribbon Awards (Wikipedia and the list of past winners [Japanese only] ), which are chosen by the film critics of Japan's major sports papers.
Last summer I did an interview with Lee-kantoku which ran in an edited down form in Screen. After the recent successes of the film, I thought I'd run the unabridged text. Click here to read it.
And for good measure, here's an earlier interview with Lee on Midnight Eye.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
My Aunt Anita...
If you've ever glanced at the links in the sidebar you may have noticed a link to my aunt Anita's site.
Dame Anita Roddick DBE (her full British title) is a pretty famous woman around the world (in addition to being my Mom's younger sister), but I was surprised to see her name in the headlines on CNN's website today. The story is about her contraction of Hepatitis C, known as a "silent killer". See the full article here.
My aunt's always fought for what she believes is right and practically created the concept of "awareness campaigns." Browse through her site and be prepared to be amazed! With that same spirit she's now talking and doing something about a disease that she's personally battling. Her take on it? "I have Hepatitis C. It's a bit of a bummer but you groan and move on." I can hear her saying the words in my head...
Love Always,
Jason
xox
ps. To keep it film related, here's her imdb entry (I didn't realise she appeared in Grammy-nominated 1 Giant Leap).
Monday, February 12, 2007
At the Old School (East and West Wings)
Back down to Ginza once again, this time for a press conference at Hotel Seiyo announcing a remake of Yamada Yôji's The Yellow Handkerchief (Shiawase no kiiroi hankachi, 『幸福の黄色いハンカチ』), the much loved 1977 picture starring Takakura Ken.
Legendary producer Arthur Cohn (see here and there) -- the only producer with six Oscars under his belt -- is behind the remake. The cast is very strong: William Hurt, Maria Bello and Eddie Redmayne (recently seen in The Good Shepherd). It goes before cameras in March on location in Louisiana, directed by Udayan Prasad and shot by top DOP, Chris Menges.
With most remakes being quick, pointless cash-ins, it's good to see one with some old world talent involved. Cohn spoke very eloquently about films that have a lasting impact and that greatness can be acheived without $100m budgets (this project is being done for a modest $15.5m).
Cohn is currently producing The Children of Huang Shi, which sounds like an interesting project, too.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Invisible Waves
Headed over to Ginza yesterday for a press screening of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Invisible Waves (official site, imdb entry and Japanese site). Although the film had international festival and release dates last year, it doesn't open on these shores until early May at Roppongi's Cinem@rt, which specializes in Asian films (there's also the recently opened Shinjuku branch and another in Osaka).
The film's gotten lukewarm reviews thus far and very few people seem to like it more than Last Life in the Universe, but I enjoyed it. The plot would fit on a napkin, but it's very lonnnng on atmosphere and filled with odd (some would say overly drawn out) moments. In some ways it reminded me of The Limey. With Christopher Doyle, usually every shot is worthy of wall mounting, but this time things are toned down and the look calls less attention to itself. There are definitely some hypnotic sequences and effective framing (the shot where Asano plummets through Hong Kong bamboo scaffolding is brilliant). The press book handed out has some great colour photo spreads. Pointers to in-depth reviews would be appreciated.
Pen-Ek's entry at last October's Tokyo Project Gathering was very interesting (and he had one of the best presentations). It's an adaptation of Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles. Not sure if it's still going into production this spring.
Earned some bread today, ate at a local izakaya and finished a long synopsis for the script. It's time for sleep (what's that?)...
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Beat is Back
The media reported this story about the latest film from Kitano Takeshi (see imdb and this fansite) this morning but nobody seems to have picked it up in English yet. Here are the details in point form. I'm sure more complete reports will follow.
Title: Kantoku - Banzai!, 『監督・ばんざい！』(kantoku means director)
Starring: Beat Takeshi, Emori Tôru, Matsuzaka Keiko, Kishimoto Kayoko (you remember her as Beat's wife in Hanabi), Uchida Yuki, etc.
Story: Beat Takeshi plays director "Kitano Takeshi," who makes a pledge not to shoot any more violent films and to finally produce a box office hit. He tries to come up with movies in different genres, including an Ozu-style drama, a love story, a nostalgic story set in the Showa era, a horror movie, a ninja film and a sci-fi picture. None of them work out and he ends up shooting a tale of a simple man and a needy mother and daughter, but things take an unexpected turn... Billed as a "fantastical comedy."
Production Status: The film was shot in secrecy last autumn. It's now completed and set for release in June 2007.
After TAKESHIS', Kitano stated he wanted to move into a new phase of his career where he would direct orthodox movies. It sounds like Kantoku - Banzai! ended up being a self-reflexive look at his creative process. Could be his Stardust Memories...
Update: Don at Ryuganji provides more details.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
We Have Liftoff...
The Director (trace back) has flown the nest. He's safely in another country with the script in hand. It's been a great writing experience for me. I hope to have more news in the coming months (and will start referring to him by his name instead of "The Director"). I'll be on set before the end of this year if all goes well.
Good Luck, Ganbatte, God Speed (that's not the title).
Monday, February 05, 2007
Dororo
Went to see Dororo (『どろろ』) tonight and was thoroughly entertained, though as with many Japanese films of late I thought it ran about 10-15 minutes too long. The stunning New Zealand locations really set Dororo apart from other period action epics, not to mention enjoyable performances from Tsumabuki Satoshi (妻夫木聡) as Hyakkimaru and Shibasaki Kou (柴咲コウ) as the titular tomboy.
The cinematography was interesting -- I'm pretty sure it was shot on HD video and processed to give it a filmic look. Some scenes recalled WKW's Ashes of Time, others spaghetti westerns, but at times it was murky and grainy. Legendary action director Ching Siu-tung's contribution didn't disappoint, with plenty of eye-popping battles using just the right amount of wirework. The film paraded out a lot more monsters than I expected. Most were CG creations, but there was one hilarious fight featuring a giant rubber Komodo dragon-type creature shot in a style similar to some of the old tokusatsu TV shows (Ultraman etc.) This was somewhat at odds with other more realistic battle scenes featuring thousands of massacred samurai, their heads and limbs lopped off. The soundtrack was an odd combination of flamenco and Morricone-inspired minimalism -- I quite liked it. 
Soon after I got home, I noticed the Nihon Eiga Senmon Channel was showing all 26 episodes of Fuji TV's 1969 series, also based on Tezuka Osamu's (手塚治虫) characters. Click on the image to see a short video clip shot on my mobile phone (QuickTime, 27s, 1.1Mb). As you can see, the original character of Dororo was a little girl (who acts like a boy). Shibasaki Kou's much older version of the character still swears she's male, but the producers obviously wanted to create some man-woman chemistry onscreen, which has now apparently continued offscreen.
I don't play video games, but I'm curious what the PS2 adaptation was like (released abroad as Blood Will Tell).
Trivia: I'd always wondered about the roots of animation companies in Nerima ward. While drafting this blog entry I read that Tezuka built a house in Fujimidai in the 60s. Could be the missing link.
Show Info on Tezuka Osamu World
Dororo Official Site
Dororo on Wikipedia
Japan Times review
Update: If you're reading this entry on the main page, be sure to check out the comments section, where Don Brown of Ryuganji and Nicholas Rucka of Maboroshii Productions and Midnight Eye weigh in.
