Departures: Final

I was solicited for a quote about Departures' success at the Oscars early in the week and didn't realize it ran in an article on the front page of the Yomiuri Shimbun on Tuesday the 24th. It's the last paragraph in the piece (click the image for an enlarged version).

Basically I say that the film depicts rituals that foreign audiences hadn't seen before, in a humanistic and remarkable way (Japanese audiences are just as intrigued -- most don't watch the beautifying process when it involves their own family member). I also mention the lead character's journey of self-discovery as another reason behind the film's victory.

This will be the final post about the movie on here -- there's enough text about Departures on the net to last a lifetime (and then some). See my collected posts here.

Thanks to Bryan Hartzheim for his shuzai. You can read Bryan's well-written reviews of Japanese cinema on Midnight Eye and UCLA's Asia Pacific Arts online magazine, among other places.

Subtitling of Takita Yôjirô's Sanpei The Fisher Boy, which is premiering at the in-progress Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, and other work will continue to keep the blog fairly quiet for a while yet.

The Departures Effect

Screen sum surges, shuttered cinema saikai stories, homage hearses hurry of the lot, book barn blitz, Shochiku stock soaring -- it's all because of the Departures effect. Subtitled screenings, too. Read about it on Screen here (and peruse the rest of our free Asian coverage).

Japan Wins Big at Oscars!

The media here is filled with the great news of Japan's huge success at tonight's Academy Awards, which are still in progress.

Departures (Okuribito, 『おくりびと』) has won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film! I honestly wasn't sure if it (or any film in the category) would be able to top Waltz With Bashir. A huge congratulations to my friends at both TBS (who produced the film) and Shochiku (who distributed the film and handled foreign sales, closing the US deal with Regent Releasing before ContentFilm took over). I've written a lot about Departures for Screen, culminating in an Oscar profile for our Feb 6 weekly, so it's great to see this all come to fruition.

The news is reporting that it's the first time ever for a Japanese film to win the award. Technically this is true, but both Rashômon and Samurai, The Legend of Musashi won honorary Academy Awards in the 1950s. See the entire list here.

See my collected Departures posts here.

Additionally, director Katô Kunio's La Maison en Petits Cubes (Tsumiki No Ie, 『つみきのいえ』) won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

A great day for Japanese cinema!

Goemon Gets Good Grades / Japan Academy Prize

An industry friend told me today they saw Goemon and thought it was excellent, in all respects. And much better than Kiriya's previous film Casshern.

Tuning into the Japan Academy Prize awards ceremony in just over an hour. NTV has the exclusive broadcast rights for those here in Japan. Look for my story on Screen later tonight.

Update: My article on all the winners is here. Don't forget that Asian news is free on Screendaily.com (and has been since last September). Hopefully there will be individual RSS feeds for each territory soon.

No time to recap the show but I enjoyed seeing pale skinned Hirosue Ryôko and Nakama Yukie in high definition. Kiki Kirin was very funny, too. I was really happy that Kimura Tae won best actress for her stunning performance in All Around Us (my #1 film of 2008). I think she was as shocked as everyone present that she actually won.

Tokyo Sonata: UK Trailer, Cinemas, and Video Update

In logboy's own magic words:


...it's up. QT. http://tokyosonata.co.uk/trailer.html

the screenings listings on the official site aren't the only screenings of this film. i was attending one of those listed, but when i spotted it was to play a couple of times at a better cinema that's as close to me, i opted to wait an extra few weeks. could be a digital projection for me - they have the ability - but it may just be the same print on a mini tour to follow the main engagements

if anyone is wondering how to spot other locals to see it at, try this : http://www.findanyfilm.com/search

but you'll have to keep coming back to it as i'm not sure how far in advance they list.

the UK DVD and BR are then set for late May 2009.

suggestion is that the BR will be zone-free :
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=4099
i don't know if this is their educated guess based upon MoC's disc for
'mad detective' or if they've been told, but it's potentially very useful.

DVD
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sonata-Masters-Cinema-Kiyoshi-Kurosawa/dp/B001R02A5A/
BR
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tokyo-Sonata-Masters-Cinema-Blu-ray/dp/B001RM92FE

people in the UK may find this cheaper, but it's a good
international / all round solution, as usual.

worth adding that the listings on the official site - and the review snippets -
have been vastly extended, but may still contain slight omissions. the cinema i'm attending is showing it on two dates, but only one date is shown.

Midnight Eye Best of 2008

Midnight Eye has published their annual Best (and Worst) list for 2008. I wrote my stuff a month ago but I still agree with it. You can also enjoy a new interview, reviews and a contest.

Blog on Hiatus / Open Call for Hideo Nakata Interview Publisher

The blog will be on hiatus for a while. Why? Because this month entails:

- Translating a treatment for the latest feature project from the director of The Ants, Ikeya Kaoru (池谷薫監督)

- Subtitling Sanpei The Fisher Boy (Tsurikichi Sanpei, 『釣りキチ三平』). This is the latest film from Departures director Takita Yôjirô (滝田洋二郎).

- Finishing off a script for a segment in an omnibus feature. It's about a very...odd woman.

- Profiles on the four Japanese projects participating in the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum.

- Another project, something big, involving very talented people.

- An interview with director Nakata Hideo about his latest, Foreign Filmmakers' Guide to Hollywood (Hollywood Kantoku Gakunyûmon, 『ハリウッド監督学入門』). I saw the film last week and it's a great little documentary! I interviewed Nakata-san a couple of times in 2007 (here, there) and I'm looking for a good publication to run a piece/interview on this film. Contact me via the form in the sidebar -- serious inquiries only, por favor.

So until probably the end of this month, the sign on the door reads 準備中

Del Toro and Day-Lewis for Scorsese's Silence?

I'm loathe to link to the competition but this news is too important to pass up (and the article's written by Patrick Frater, whose Variety Asia Online just got deep-sixed -- I do sympathize).

Martin Scorsese and producer Graham King are in negotiations with Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio Del Toro to star in his adaptation of Endô Shûsaku's Silence. Read about it here. As one of my favourite novels of all time, it's a very important project to me (see my May 2007 and October 2006 entries). The roles of Kichijiro and the Tokugawa general will be two of the biggest coups ever for Japanese actors in a foreign film. Who will play them...?

Asano as Dekoyan in Donju

Here's a bigger image of Asano Tadanobu as the character of Dekoyan in the upcoming film Donjû (『鈍獣』). I wrote a bit about the film and its director last July. Twitch has also been sweatily stalking the film. Gaga opens Donjû this May.