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Midnight Eye Update / Shinsedai Cinema Festival

A couple of of updates that I'm sure J-cinema fans are already aware of, but just in case.

First is a fresh batch of material on Midnight Eye including reviews of Taiwan-set Japanese propaganda film The Story of Wu Fong, Ichikawa Kon's Alone Across the Pacific, and Shimizu Hiroshi's Sayon's Bell, which starred "Shirley" Yamaguchi Yoshiko.

There's also an interview with author Ian Buruma (always thought that was a great name for a Japan expert) about his intriguing 2008 novel The China Lover, which casts Yamaguchi as the protagonist. Film rights are mentioned at the end which reminded me of Kore-eda Hirokazu's 2007 HAF project Night-fragrant Flower (PDF notes here) which unfortunately never got off the ground.


Next is the launch of a new Japanese film event in my old hometown of Toronto at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. Dubbed the Shinsedai Cinema Festival (Aug 21-23), the event will introduce Torontonians to some key independent films from recent years. I've championed two of them previously -- Chikuma Yasutomo's Now, I... (collected posts) and Ichii Masahide's Naked Of Defenses (Midnight Eye Best of 2008).

I spent a lot of time in Phlegmingdon Park as a child and recall a field trip to the pleasant JCCC for a shodô lesson where I learned to write the kanji for the numbers 1-3. I seem to remember 4 blowing my mind.

Posted by Jason Gray at 6/07/2009 03:03:00 AM