Sabu On the Run Again!

As I hinted at on Twitter back in July, director Sabu, whose latest film The Crab Cannery Ship / Kanikosen (see collected posts) just wrapped up a good run at Shibuya's Cinema Rise and is still playing or set to open at other places around the country, was hired to direct what's dubbed in Japanese as an "inspire short film" streaming exclusively online ahead of the September 4th domestic release of Tony Scott's The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (retitled Subway 123: Gekitotsu in Japan).

Entitled Dash & Cash -- the names of lead characters played by Sasaki Ippei and Yamakawa Kazutoshi -- the 5-minute film sees Sabu royally return to his running roots with a backdrop of speeding trains. Are their characters chasing or being chased? The gag at the end is ridiculous and almost becomes some kind of modern dance performance (you'll understand). Sabu told me this slick little short was completed in one day of shooting and two days of editing. Watch it here.

Original short films that promote products (sometimes without the product even appearing) are nothing new in Japan or anywhere else, but a short film by a famous director of one country as the opening act for the big budget release of another is a pretty new concept -- at least a first in Japan. Kudos to United Cinemas, my favourite theater chain which also happens to be my local.


Sabu is also active on another creative front -- still photographs. Taken as part of the "artist's life" campaign promoting the new Olympus Pen series of cameras. Sabu snapped a series of photos taken while he was in Paris for Paris Project with "Arrested Memories" (see my June 13 entry). As he mentions in the interview portion, meetings went very well and it's looking like a fall 2010 shoot. He also laments the difficulties directors face in trying get original scripts off the ground in Japan. As I've mentioned on here and in more than a few industry articles, companies are becoming even more risk averse and want a strong gensaku (TV show, manga, novel, remake) to allay their investment fears.

Anyway, Sabu's Olympus shots alternate between scenery and self portraits, Sabu style (he had me pick the laceless Converse in Germany last year -- can't get them in Japan I guess?).

JG Gets a Media Shout Out from a Friend

If you follow Japanese cinema you've heard about the growing number of female directors in recent years. Well, there are also women working behind the camera as cinematographers, editors, art directors, costumers, sales agents and yes producers -- the people that make it all happen.

Kitô Yukie (木藤幸江さん) is a unique figure in the Japanese film world. She entered the business overseas and upon returning to Japan learned the local industry under Ichise Takashige, becoming a producer herself. She's worked with directors as diverse as Mira Nair, Ethan Hawke, Wayne Wang and of course Kurosawa Kiyoshi for Tokyo Sonata (collected posts that mention the film here).

Despite her packed schedule at home and overseas she has found the time to keep up an excellent blog about her adventures in the film business on the website of Roadshow -- a long-running Japanese Hollywood movie magazine that went fully digital last year. Yukie and I always have a good chat about the state of the business with a bit of gossip thrown in, but it always comes down to getting excited about the great films that haven't been made yet. Yukie is very upbeat and enjoys what she does (film company workers, take note). Friends like that rub off on you.

She kindly included a little about me in her latest blog entry when we went out for lunch at the refurbished Las Chicas in Aoyama. We agreed that one project in particular had to get off the ground, but that it would take positive pushing from various sides.

Symbol Promotion - Matsumoto's Pyjamas on Kitty-chan

Normally I would just tweet news like this, but I thought it was such an odd korabo (collaboration) and kimokawaii visual that I'd post it on the blog.



What you're looking at is a tie-up between Matsumoto Hitoshi's mysterious sophomore directorial effort Symbol (trace back from my June 12 entry) and Sanrio icon Hello Kitty. You can see more goods (stationary, stickers, plush toy etc) here.

Shochiku opens Symbol in Japan on September 12 and for those lucky enough to be in Toronto next month my good friend Colin Geddes has programmed Symbol's international premiere in the Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness section (see here). That's where I'll be catching it.

Yamagata Documentary Fest Looking for Translators

For those of you based in Japan (or who will be in Japan this October), able to translate from Japanese to English and with an interest in documentary cinema, there are two volunteer openings at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF), which runs October 8-15 in, yes, Yamagata City. There is a token payment which would cover transportation and lodging and you will have time to catch some films at one of the world's best and most important documentary film festivals.

If you head up to Yamagata early or stay after the festival (not during!) you could take a side trip to Shônai Eigamura in Tsuruoka City where films such as Sukiyaki Western Django, Thirteen Assassins and Zatoichi: The Last were shot.


If you're interested please contact Fujioka Asako. Details as follows:


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The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival is looking for two volunteer translators for the festival period of Oct 8 to 15, to translate Japanese to English for our Festival Daily Bulletin. It’s a daily newspaper that reports events and interviews throughout the festival. It’s unique as it is run (reporters, photographers, editors) completely by volunteers, amateurs in journalism but professionals in passion. As it is bilingual, we are always in need of translators, English language writers, and editors. We can offer (a measley) 50,000 yen for your participation, which will only barely cover bullet train to Yamagata and dormitory (sorry). Every day there will be 500 yen food tickets distributed twice daily for your meals. Sound like Kanikosen? Well, it is a lot of work but also lots of fun. We are looking for two English language translators to work in shifts, so you can enjoy the festival too. Please write or call if you are interested.

YIDFF Tokyo Office
www.yidff.jp

山形国際ドキュメンタリー映画祭　東京事務局
〒162-0054　東京都新宿区河田町7−6
ID河田町ビル３F
TEL 03-5362-0672 / FAX 03-5362-0670
EMAIL fujioka[at]tokyo.yidff.jp
www.yidff.jp

Japanese Film Biz Feeling the Heat...

Japan's current recession and the global financial crisis has cast the haves and have nots into even starker relief, with movie companies no exception. Toho continues to be impervious to hardship while other majors fall in and out of success. For those who don't subscribe to Screen International's RSS news feed for Asia or visit the website, here's my overview of the first half of the year: Japanese box office up 17.6% in first half of 2009.

Rosy cheeks at the top but when it comes to small-medium outfits there's a pallor -- even jaundice. And finally gangrene. Despite uncontrollable economic factors, it's still pretty clear that the fatal blows come down to a style of decision-making at these bankrupt and suffering companies:

Movie-Eye Entertainment (good people and intentions but crazed spending)
Gaga Communications (legendary spending, Golden Compass madness, losses of $80m last year and over $100m the year before, sold for $2m)
Japan Digital Contents (buying a used Lexus with investor money? it's called trust for a reason. hopefully new leadership and FSA directives help regain it, but image of film funds is forever damaged)
Wise Policy (rumour of president always living it up in Cannes, even while company folded this May)
Rumble Fish (a guy who wants to make great films but just has bad luck at box office?)

Another company that produced several lauded films has also ceased production but has yet to officially announce it while two more (one of them with a prez gone AWOL) are set to file for bankruptcy.

Harsh times unless you live on monster island...

Update: I once mentioned CG artist Florian Perret back in the comments of my first Nouvelle Tsunami post in December 2007. Florian worked at Gonzo in Tokyo's animation wonderland , Nerima (Gonzo lobby pic here). Gonzo is another company in trouble, recently delisting after the failure of a video royalties investment fund. What I didn't know about was the type of excess that went on there when they were flush with cash. Florian posted a reply to this blog entry on Facebook, offering further evidence of the conditions many animators in Japan put up with:

[Gonzo] got huge money from Goldman Sachs, then the top managements bought Mazeratti , Ferrari and Condos while the animators were still eating instant ramen. They hired hundreds of people to do absolutely nothing for 1 year. The plan was that the movie should be distributed by Gaga.

Summer Festival Notes 3 (Pia Fest Winners)

The Pia Film Festival wrapped up today with its award ceremony and closing screening at the National Film Center in Kyôbashi. I've been writing about PFF on here and more importantly (for the filmmakers) in Screen for a few years now. I'm very sad to say that PFF is no longer worthy of correspondent coverage according to Screen HQ's new budget cuts on festival wordage. In the past year we've seen professional (i.e. corporate owned) Asian film industry news operations neutered or simply put to sleep. Screen is no different. It used to be.

Below is the article (at least I can include Japanese). I mentioned a few of the winning films in my previous summer festival posts (1 and 2) and tweeted my predictions here.

Oh, and Matsuda Ryûhei was dressed more casually than the other jury members and didn't say a lot (as usual) but was genuinely impressed with the quality of the films this year.








The Temperature Of A Second wins top prize at Japan's Pia Film Festival

Director Masayuki Inoue’s feature debut The Temperature Of A Second (Ichibyô no Ondo, 『一秒の温度』) won the grand prix at the 31st edition of the Pia Film Festival (PFF), which ran July 17 to 31 at the National Film Center in Tokyo.

The Temperature Of A Second follows a bumbling coward (Inoue) as he deals with the various people in his life. The award also carried a cash prize of $10,500 (Y1m).

The runner-up prize and $2,100 (Y200,000) went to Ryô Iizuka's 61-minute In The Fog (Moya No Naka, 『靄の中』).

Three special jury prizes were awarded to Shôko Kimura's Ordinary Love (Futsû No Koi, 『普通の恋』), Akihito Kajiya's Chain and Hajime Ôhata's A Big Gun (Dai Kenjû,『大拳銃』), all shorts.
Shujian Ren's feature My Lyrical Age (Watashi no Jojôteki na Jidai, 『私の叙情的な時代』was awarded the TBS project prize and Imagica technical prize while Tetsuichirô Tsuta’s feature Dream Island (Yume no Shima, 『夢の島』) grabbed the audience award.

The competition jury included actor Ryûhei Matsuda, director Nobuhiro Suwa, producer Atsuyuki Shimoda, novelist Shion Miura and director Daihachi Yoshida. The 16 self-produced features and shorts were selected from 569 submissions (down from 601 last year).

PFF also sponsors a scholarship for one winning filmmaker, funding one 35mm feature per year. Yûya Ishii’s comedy drama Sawako Decides (Kawa no Soko kara Konnichiwa, 『川の底からこんにちは』) screened at this year’s edition.

Last year’s scholarship film, Takatsugu Naitô's The Dark Harbour, went on to compete in Rotterdam and won a special mention at the Taipei film festival while Masahide Ichii's grand prix winner Naked Of Defenses won the new currents prize in Pusan.

PFF also featured retrospectives on Nagisa Ôshima and Clint Eastwood.