First of all I'd like to wish a big omedetou gozaimasu to Midnight Eye on their first 10 years of existence! Midnight Eye is the Grandaddy, the Godfather, the Goombah of Japanese cinema websites. Don't believe me? Look at the illustrious list of people M.E. has interviewed over the past decade. Or the fascinating selection of in-depth essays and overviews of Japanese cinema trends and history in the feature archive. The review archive is constantly growing, and contains numerous titles which have never been reviewed anywhere else. It's been a pleasure contributing over the years (see links to some of my pieces in the right hand column of the blog). Through Midnight Eye I've also forged friendships with founders Tom Mes & Jasper Sharp, and US honcho Nicholas Rucka, which is priceless.
To celebrate, Midnight Eye has published our lists of the best Japanese films of the first decade of the 21st century. See the results here.
The lists (which include that of loyal site designer Martin Mes) are interesting in that everyone seemed to take a different approach and has different thoughts for the future. I declined to write a blurb about each film as I had either written about them before on previous annual best of lists or they're so well-known no more needs to be said. All of my titles except a couple appear elsewhere on the page.
When you're done reading all that, vote for your own and leave comments on what you think are the shining examples of Japanese cinema from 2000-2009.
Also part of the latest update is a fantastic interview with directing it-girl Andô Momoko, who speaks about her startling debut Kakera - A Piece of Our Life (Kakera,『カケラ』). Trace back from my March 11 entry to read more.
For those of you in Tokyo, the film opens at Eurospace On April 3. According Kakera's Japanese twitter page, there's also an event at HMV Shibuya tomorrow (March 31).
And in a very rare release pattern for a Japanese film, it's simultaneously screening in London at the ICA beginning April 2nd (details here), to be followed by other venues. Adam Torel's Third Window Films is really doing its part to support distribution of great J-cinema in the UK. Jasper Sharp writes about this and other emerging indie filmmakers on his blog here.
Here's to the next 10 years of Midnight Eye!
Update: For those reading this post through an RSS feed, you may want to check the comments where once again logboy provides a list of all the available English-subbed DVDs for the writers' picks. Happily, it's almost all of them.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010
Meta-Commentary on Article "Japanese actors who can actually act"
Yesterday a piece I wrote entitled "Japanese actors who can actually act" went live on CNNGo and has spawned hundreds of comments on Twitter and around the net, particularly on J-dorama or J-pop fan sites (this particular blog spawned 200 remarks).
The piece was commissioned by CNNGo Tokyo editor David Marx (aka Marxy) and I readily agreed. Originally it was simply going to be Japan's best actors of the current generation. The kind of names listed in the intro -- Watanabe, Asano etc. But I thought it'd be more worthwhile to highlight some lesser-known names, as in lesser-known outside of Japan.
Beginning with the headline -- article headlines, which any journalist or media literate person will tell you, are written by editors, not writers. It seems it was taken the wrong way by a certain amount of readers. Further to what I tweeted, the article contains absolutely no implication that Japanese actors are any worse than those of any other country. Headlines are meant to grab attention, which it did. Personally I would've qualified it with: "Japanese actors who can actually act (unlike what often passes for acting on TV and in movies)".
The point of the article wasn't only the names chosen, but the fact that it's difficult for good actors not attached to the right agency to break through. And even when they do, there are those who take risks and those who don't (see this article by Philip Brasor in the Japan Times for what I'm talking about). Some of those on the list are attached to bigger shops, but I believe they moved up by virtue of their talent, not their ability to shill.
In Japan's unique talent agency infrastructure, jimusho wield much more power than the equivalent entities in any other country I can think of. Managers are able to move and insert actors (who are salaried employees) at their will and hold sway over the major broadcasters and movie studios. They often join movie production consortiums and are usually the strongest voice at the table.
And forget the romantic image of open auditions -- small agencies aren't even given the chance to send their people, many of whom have devoted their lives to acting rather than just becoming famous. There are occasional exceptions for young female roles (Taira Airi from the 2nd and 3rd installments of 20th Century Boys for example).
Moving on, while the text about each actor was untouched, the intro to the piece was considerably rewritten to stick the knife in more. It amused me and put things into starker relief so I didn't protest the changes. Dear David has a love for collusion in the entertainment industry that's unmatched. My original version read:
It doesn't come off as dismissing all TV drama acting, just most of it. While I fully admit being a film person with only minor interest in J-television, in my ten years here I have watched my share. I don't deny that that many fine actors got their starts on TV, and there are examples of strong performances but it's not where I would tell someone to look for good acting -- because too much of it is awfully telegraphed "pretend." I won't go too far with comparisons to the astounding quality of writing and acting in the likes of The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men or numerous shows in the UK (take your pick) because the production and financing scenarios are so different, but you get my point. Period dramas are another story, I would say. Many people who do feel obligated to pay for their NHK service probably watch the Taiga dramas, which are undeniably prestigious and last all year long. I like the successive renditions of Chûshingura myself, which feature many of the biggest names around.
The part about the actors on the list not "get[ing] enough love in the Japanese media" is of course at odds with someone like Ninomiya constantly being in the spotlight (Johnny & Associates make sure of that with all their signees). If it said "English language media" instead it'd work. As a member of Arashi, Ninomiya is one of the biggest idol names there is, with a million engagements from product endorsements, photo shoots, live concerts, variety bangumi appearances and on and on. That's why it's even more impressive to me that he's able to concentrate on creating a character. It's also why I made a point of mentioning his "natural talent" -- his acting ability has nothing to do with what he would've learned at his jimusho, other than getting over stage fright perhaps (I doubt he ever had it). I assume his career will follow a similar trajectory to the members in SMAP and TOKIO, but it'll be interesting to see what kind of characters he plays in his 30s, 40s and beyond. It looks as if October 1st release Oh-oku (『大奥』) will be a major test of his appeal as a leading man.
Regarding the responses saying "Where is such-and-such actor?" -- obviously space was limited (paid wordage is not blogging). Rather than expand it to 10 or 12 names and only write a couple of lines I wanted to give a full graph to each person.
There also seemed to be a lot of calls for Kubozuka Yôsuke to be on the list. If they hadn't skimmed over the Kimura Tae entry they would see that he is mentioned. The original list of names I submitted had him with a full graph but I looked at his filmography again and I thought "So close, but..." He didn't really belong with the actors mentioned in the intro but Tokyo Island gave me a way to include him.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that happily, nobody called for anybody to be taken off the list and the piece gets quite high marks despite the slamming in the intro. Thanks to all the Nino fans out there?
So who are your favourite unsung thespians in J-cinema today?
The piece was commissioned by CNNGo Tokyo editor David Marx (aka Marxy) and I readily agreed. Originally it was simply going to be Japan's best actors of the current generation. The kind of names listed in the intro -- Watanabe, Asano etc. But I thought it'd be more worthwhile to highlight some lesser-known names, as in lesser-known outside of Japan.
Beginning with the headline -- article headlines, which any journalist or media literate person will tell you, are written by editors, not writers. It seems it was taken the wrong way by a certain amount of readers. Further to what I tweeted, the article contains absolutely no implication that Japanese actors are any worse than those of any other country. Headlines are meant to grab attention, which it did. Personally I would've qualified it with: "Japanese actors who can actually act (unlike what often passes for acting on TV and in movies)".
The point of the article wasn't only the names chosen, but the fact that it's difficult for good actors not attached to the right agency to break through. And even when they do, there are those who take risks and those who don't (see this article by Philip Brasor in the Japan Times for what I'm talking about). Some of those on the list are attached to bigger shops, but I believe they moved up by virtue of their talent, not their ability to shill.
In Japan's unique talent agency infrastructure, jimusho wield much more power than the equivalent entities in any other country I can think of. Managers are able to move and insert actors (who are salaried employees) at their will and hold sway over the major broadcasters and movie studios. They often join movie production consortiums and are usually the strongest voice at the table.
And forget the romantic image of open auditions -- small agencies aren't even given the chance to send their people, many of whom have devoted their lives to acting rather than just becoming famous. There are occasional exceptions for young female roles (Taira Airi from the 2nd and 3rd installments of 20th Century Boys for example).
Moving on, while the text about each actor was untouched, the intro to the piece was considerably rewritten to stick the knife in more. It amused me and put things into starker relief so I didn't protest the changes. Dear David has a love for collusion in the entertainment industry that's unmatched. My original version read:
If you've ever watched Japanese television dorama, there's a style of highly-mannered, predictable "acting" that dominates. With tight schedules and performers juggling several commitments, TV can be forgiven, but the lazy habits have carried over to movies, too (many of which are produced by the major broadcasters).
It doesn't come off as dismissing all TV drama acting, just most of it. While I fully admit being a film person with only minor interest in J-television, in my ten years here I have watched my share. I don't deny that that many fine actors got their starts on TV, and there are examples of strong performances but it's not where I would tell someone to look for good acting -- because too much of it is awfully telegraphed "pretend." I won't go too far with comparisons to the astounding quality of writing and acting in the likes of The Wire, The Sopranos, Mad Men or numerous shows in the UK (take your pick) because the production and financing scenarios are so different, but you get my point. Period dramas are another story, I would say. Many people who do feel obligated to pay for their NHK service probably watch the Taiga dramas, which are undeniably prestigious and last all year long. I like the successive renditions of Chûshingura myself, which feature many of the biggest names around.
The part about the actors on the list not "get[ing] enough love in the Japanese media" is of course at odds with someone like Ninomiya constantly being in the spotlight (Johnny & Associates make sure of that with all their signees). If it said "English language media" instead it'd work. As a member of Arashi, Ninomiya is one of the biggest idol names there is, with a million engagements from product endorsements, photo shoots, live concerts, variety bangumi appearances and on and on. That's why it's even more impressive to me that he's able to concentrate on creating a character. It's also why I made a point of mentioning his "natural talent" -- his acting ability has nothing to do with what he would've learned at his jimusho, other than getting over stage fright perhaps (I doubt he ever had it). I assume his career will follow a similar trajectory to the members in SMAP and TOKIO, but it'll be interesting to see what kind of characters he plays in his 30s, 40s and beyond. It looks as if October 1st release Oh-oku (『大奥』) will be a major test of his appeal as a leading man.
Regarding the responses saying "Where is such-and-such actor?" -- obviously space was limited (paid wordage is not blogging). Rather than expand it to 10 or 12 names and only write a couple of lines I wanted to give a full graph to each person.
There also seemed to be a lot of calls for Kubozuka Yôsuke to be on the list. If they hadn't skimmed over the Kimura Tae entry they would see that he is mentioned. The original list of names I submitted had him with a full graph but I looked at his filmography again and I thought "So close, but..." He didn't really belong with the actors mentioned in the intro but Tokyo Island gave me a way to include him.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that happily, nobody called for anybody to be taken off the list and the piece gets quite high marks despite the slamming in the intro. Thanks to all the Nino fans out there?
So who are your favourite unsung thespians in J-cinema today?
Monday, March 22, 2010
Brief Impressions of Zebraman 2 / Riisa Naka Comes Into Her Own
On Friday I caught a press screening of Miike Takashi's Zebraman 2 (Zebraman: Zebra City no Gyakushû,『ゼブラーマン -ゼブラシティの逆襲-』) at the Akiba Theater (an excellent venue where I caught Kagerou Touge back in December) in Akihabara. You can get a look at the latest trailer for the film posted on Twitch a couple of weeks ago, with a mini-debate on Miike's current merits as a director. My policy is to take each Miike film as it comes without expectations, but at the same time never underestimate what he can do. I don't think Zebraman 2 is going to convert anybody, and may not even preach to the converted, but it will certainly create a formidable army of Naka Riisa fans.
Spoilers Ahead
For those of you who don't follow me on Twitter, or use the blasted thing at all, these were some of my tweets about the movie on the day of the screening:
"Heading to Akihabara for screening of Miike Takashi's Zebraman 2. World premiere at next week's Okinawa film fest. General release on 5/1"
"Zebraman 2 『ゼブラーマン -ゼブラシティの逆襲-』 big bloated sequel, but fun. Full of CG but Naka Riisa's body is by far best effect. Miike fetishes intact"
"Zebraman 2 contains possibly the goofiest method of defeating a kaiju ever filmed. Would've been fun to see Miike's direction to Aikawa"
"Zebraman 2 also features a nod to the tentacles of Urotsukidoji, with Naka Riisa squirming as they probe. She's by far the best thing in Z2"
I'm a reasonable fan of Aikawa Show but he didn't really leave any impression on me in this sequel, not that I remember the 2004 original that well to be honest. But the circumstances Aikawa's character found himself in in that film created a certain amount of loser charm. There is a little buzz in the last act of Z2 when he finally transforms into full-power Zebraman (prior to that he plays a ragged semi-white then pure white version) but Aikawa seems to phone it all in. I'd blame a considerable part of that on Kudô Kankurô's script, which gives him memory loss and little to do but mug surprise for a large part of the film.
As you know, the sequel is set in 2025. Zebraman (Shin'ichi) is now homeless and sleeping on the streets of Tokyo, rechristened Zebra City. He awakens to see the metropolis veiled in a zebra pattern force field as pop idol Zebra Queen's #1 song pumps through the streets. It signals a twice daily 5-minute period known as "zebra time," when Storm trooper-like police marauders gun for regular citizens with heavy artillery. This time it's grey-haired Shin'ichi they fill with lead. It's the kind of suitably furious opening that Miike specializes in.
Stil alive, Shin'ichi is taken to a run-down commune outside of the city where zebra time victims are given shelter and treated. The young doctor (an incredibly bland Inoue Masahiro) who runs the place recognizes Shin'ichi as his childhood hero Zebraman. Even more excited is another commune worker (Tanaka Naoki), who once played Zebraman on a cheap tokusatsu TV show. His character's enthusiasm is amusing and gives Kudokan a chance to flex his self-reflexive muscles. Nevertheless, Shin'ichi himself has no recollection of his former herodom. It's only when he comes into contact with an enigmatic litle girl at the commune that his powers are rebooted. But why is his costume sans black?
A flashback shows us Zebraman being whipped around in a giant G-force contraption (Spies Like Us came to mind) until his innate darkness and lightness are separated into elemental black goo and white goo. Naka Riisa's black Zebrawoman emerges from the tar while Shin'ichi crawls out of his milky sac (shades of Gozu). "I'm the black part of you, freed from common sense, justice and morality. Evil made flesh!" Zebrawoman declares.
And Naka Riisa proceeds to blow him, and everyone else, off the screen. In a way, Fukada Kyôko as Doronjo in Miike's Yatterman (a movie I cared little for) laid the way for Zebrawoman but Naka trumps her in every way. She's white hot.
In Naka's pop idol guise of Zebra Queen aka Yui, she rules the music charts while her sociopathic father (Gadarukanaru Taka) runs Zebra City. Daddy is a former Japan Defense Agency worker gone bad who designed the aforementioned machine that gave birth to Zebrawoman. But she isn't satisfied with being his Zebra City shill -- she wants world domination, which will involve the bulbous green aliens of the first film.
Naka fuses sexuality and menace in a variety of outlandish and very sexy costumes, with a nice nod to the eye makeup of Pris in Blade Runner. The film's full-length music videos of her performing "Zebra Queen" and title track "Namida - Kokoro Abaite" is worth the price of admission alone. Lady who?
I'm now much more motivated to check out in-release Time Traveller (live action ver. of Toki wo Kakeru Shôjo) and maybe take another look at Cafe Isobe. But you still won't get me to watch Halfway. Just as I was about to post this entry I realized, in shock, Naka was also in Pandora's Box (Pandora no Hako, 『パンドラの匣』). I really liked her cute character in that film but it didn't click it was the same actress. We may have a chameleon on our hands.
Ultimately Z2 is a pumped-up sequel packed with more action and CG and a couple social commentary bones thrown in, but there seemed to be a lack of humanity to the proceedings. But, and it's a big but, this decade has a new queen of ass kicking who may just keep her crown for years to come.「女が最強」indeed.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Japanese Sex Films in 3D
When Jasper Sharp was in Tokyo recently the topic of sex films came up (who'd have thought?), specifically the recent release of the latest installment in the Perfect Education series. The R15+ rated Perfect Education: Maid For You (Kanzen Naru Shiiku - Maid For You, 『完全なる飼育 〜メイド、for you』), directed by Fukusaku Kenta, came and went without much fanfare in late January. But it has the unique distinction of being the territory's first movie to feature 3D sex scenes. Well, actually the second film if you include old-school 35mm 3D, but more on that later. I remembered that I had I shot some video on my iPhone on the day of the film's January 23rd press screening in Akihabara, broadcasting it live over the internet through a service called Ustream. The video quality is of course not great but the audio is quite good. You can see the selection of clips with my brilliant running commentary here (jump to page 2 to start at the first clip). Post-screening I give my brief impressions of the 3D and the movie itself. I think fantastic fest programmers could have a goofy crowd-pleaser on their hands with this one. If you're interested, get in contact with me.
Japanese 3D sex film trivia, courtesy of Nippon Connection's Alex Zahlten: Apparently Japan's first ever 3D film, in any genre, was indeed a pink film, shot in the 1970s. Hoping Dr. Zahlten writes something about it at some point.
Also see the third installment in Jasper Sharp's "Cinematism, Realism, and Spectacle" series on his blog, which is what tipped me to write this entry.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Kakera Screening at the FCCJ
As you may remember, I previously wrote about Andô Momoko's directorial debut Kakera - A Piece of Our Life (Kakera,『カケラ』) last September. It also found a secure spot in my recent best of 2009 list. Those of you outside of Japan may have caught it at London's Raindance Film Festival thanks to programmer Jasper Sharp. It played at fests in Paris and Stockholm as well. The fall domestic release didn't happen but the film is now scheduled for an April 3rd bow at Eurospace in Shibuya followed by other venues.
Before that, there will be a special screening at the Foreign Correspondents' Press Club of Japan on March 23. Details are here. If you've been to FCCJ screenings before, you know that Karen Severns and her partner Koichi of KiSMet Productions arrange everything -- including special guests and interesting post-screening Q&As. Director Andô Momoko will be in attendance.
The film's advertising imagery, which I've rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise to see more easily, has gotten in a touch of trouble with Japan Rail for the playful lesbianism it depicts and some of the border text, which includes a partially censored kintama/キンタマ ("testicles" or "balls") and an uncensored oppai/オッパイ ("breasts" or "tits"). The text was altered and the butt-play portion of the photo has apparently been ungracefully covered up. Too bad.
Kakera - A Piece of Our Life official site (Japanese), twitter (Japanese), Raindance page.
Monday, March 01, 2010
Midnight Eye Best of 2009 Poll Results
Just a short post to point out Midnight Eye's latest update, which includes the results of the Best of 2009 poll. Not surprisingly, Sono Sion's Love Exposure -- my number one J-film of last year -- racked up an impressive 31.71% of the votes to grab the top spot. Titles such as Still Walking, Departures, Air Doll and Fish Story also had strong showings.
As an aside, I mentioned in my Best of 2008 article that I hadn't seen Kore-eda Hirokazu's Still Walking at the time. Because I live at the source of these movies, I'm quite strict about choosing titles that get a theatrical release during the calendar year, thus Kore-eda's gentle-but-powerful family portrait didn't show up in my 2009 selection. If I had included it, it would've easily come in at #2.
The Midnight Eye update also features reviews on some interesting looking films that I admit I hadn't heard of before, let alone seen. Anyone can pad a site with reviews of easily obtainable DVDs. It's 2010 blogmeisters and twitterers -- tell me something I don't know. Por favor.
Update: If you're reading this through an RSS feed you might want to check out the comments on the original post where logboy has broken the ME voters' and writers' lists down into available and upcoming DVD releases.
As an aside, I mentioned in my Best of 2008 article that I hadn't seen Kore-eda Hirokazu's Still Walking at the time. Because I live at the source of these movies, I'm quite strict about choosing titles that get a theatrical release during the calendar year, thus Kore-eda's gentle-but-powerful family portrait didn't show up in my 2009 selection. If I had included it, it would've easily come in at #2.
The Midnight Eye update also features reviews on some interesting looking films that I admit I hadn't heard of before, let alone seen. Anyone can pad a site with reviews of easily obtainable DVDs. It's 2010 blogmeisters and twitterers -- tell me something I don't know. Por favor.
Update: If you're reading this through an RSS feed you might want to check out the comments on the original post where logboy has broken the ME voters' and writers' lists down into available and upcoming DVD releases.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)