Image: Outrage - Kitano and Kase

The Past 4 Months, The Next 8

As I mentioned at the beginning of the year, I'd be booked up until spring. The past four months has been one of the busiest stretches I've had. Blog entries are obviously less frequent than before but I try to make them count.

Below is a recap of what I've been doing and some updates on certain projects. More than anything it serves as a snapshot for me to look back on. The rest of this year is up in the air. As I tweeted in recent weeks, I'd like the remainder of 2010 to be more about screenwriting and production.

- I translated a screenplay by Kurosawa Kiyoshi. The producers have requested to keep details under wraps so I can't say what it's about. What I can say is that it's an ambitious project and also quite different from any of Kurosawa's previous films in several respects. I hope it makes it to the big screen.

- I've subtitled a couple of films so far this year, one of them being Lee Toshio's BOX! (『ボックス！』), which will have a print burned for Cannes after the final simulation screening this week. Based on Hyakuta Naoki's novel, BOX! is an enjoyable youth sports drama with rousing fight scenes. It's more orthodox than kooky Detroit Metal City but close to Lee's heart. Indeed, the kanji for Lee's first name Toshio (闘士男), given to him by his boxing-mad father, literally mean "fighter/warrior man". Lee even dabbled in the Sweet Science. Star Ichihara Hayato is convincing as a hot-headed boxing prodigy (with the Osaka-ben laid on thick) and Kôra Kengo is solid as his more serious foil. Both performers obviously trained very hard.

- Max Mannix screenplay Family Matters has found a home. The company that bought it has invested in quite a few films in the last four years. They're working on signing a director now. Most films take years to get going here.

- Sabu's Arrested Memories (see collected posts) now has a UK-based production company on board. Sabu is very excited by the prospect of shooting his first overseas film. In other Sabu news, his new late-night genre TV drama Troubleman (『トラブルマン』) is airing every Friday night on TV Tokyo. There's a good possibility it'll get subtitled for export. Also stay tuned for an upcoming Sabu retrospective in NYC.

- I've been helping coordinate part of a Canal+ documentary on Tokyo. Japanese Cinema -- specifically the crazy creations of Nishimura/Iguchi/Sakaguchi & friends -- will be one topic touched on in the 90-minute show, hosted by famous French guy Antoine de Caunes. Shooting gets underway soon.

- I still write for Screen, though it's more based around commissions for the monthly magazine and festival issues rather than daily news nowadays. Screen switched to a square-bound monthly "mook" after almost 25 years as a weekly. The daily news site is also behind a pay wall though you can still read most stories if you take a certain route on the net. I have a piece on the film acquisition situation here in the upcoming Cannes issue. Also did some writing for CNNGo and Midnight Eye (see my earlier posts this year).

- I translated a set of director interviews conducted during last fall's Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival (YIDFF). Translations continue to be added to the interview page. Don at Ryuganji also did a stack of these.

- In a return to a job I hadn't done since the early noughties, I translated a large chunk of UniJapan's annual "Japanese Film" catalog, which contains synopses of 2009's releases as well as industry data and contacts.

There were other little jobs peppered between all that but the above is what formed the first third of my 2010.

The Cove - Japan Theatrical Release Still in Doubt!

You've already heard the good news that a rights buyer named Medallion Media and a distributor named Unplugged, both here in Japan, have been bold enough to take on Louis Psihoyos' Oscar-winning documentary The Cove. As you can see on the film's official Japanese website, it's slated for release in the early summer (end of June, I've been told). The film's American site also has a Japanese subsite with background on the film and the localized trailer, complete with blurred faces (an understandable concession Unplugged made).

A good friend is working on the publicity team for The Cove and is worried that certain members of Japan's uyoku (right wing) and representatives of Taiji, the town where the dolphin cull takes place, will exert so much pressure on exhibitors that they'll end up without any screens to show the film on. These groups are already ramping up threats which is making theatrical bookings difficult. See this CNN segment on the protests held outside of the distribution offices earlier this month.

Whatever you think of The Cove or its makers, it deserves to be released here. The people of Japan are big boys and girls -- they're able to watch a film about an aspect of their own country and discuss it, or dismiss it, like adults. But first they need to be allowed to see it. A couple of years ago a similar situation brewed with "controversial" documentary Yasukuni until it finally got its release and people were able to talk about it.

Aside from local media shining a light on the issue (more on that below), foreign language outlets should also bring attention to the situation. If you're a journalist writing for a website or publication of note and believe The Cove should be released, do your part to make that known. There will be another upcoming press screening (under police guard) where you can see the film and learn more about the difficult circumstances it's facing here.

If you're interested in going to the screening you can contact me via the "contact" link in the right-hand column (日本語でも構いません).

In the meantime, Fuji TV weekly morning show Tokudane (「とくダネ」) will take a look at views on the film from both the US and Japanese perspective tomorrow morning, April 22nd, at 8:00~9:55 Japan time. I'll be watching (a recording, later in the day).

Update: The Tokudane segment has been bumped to tomorrow morning (April 23). Hmmm.

Update 2: It seems the segment was again not shown, although it did cover PETA activities. Will find out what happened.

Update 3:A planned screening of The Cove at a U.S. military base in Yokota has been cancelled (yes, I had to read it twice, too). Article.

Outrage!

When news of this year's Cannes International Film Festival lineup hit the press today, it was no surprise that Kitano Takeshi's Outrage (『アウトレイジ』) would vie for the Palme d'Or. Nonetheless it's a welcome return for J-cinema to the competition lineup since Kawase Naomi won the Grand Prix for Mogari no Mori in 2007. Kitano may be most strongly associated with Venice, but as a country France loves him more. Kitano was named a Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters of France last month. In other Cannes news, Nakata Hideo's UK thriller Chatroom will screen in the Un Certain Regard section.


Official publicity blub:

OUTRAGE
a film by Takeshi Kitano

In a ruthless battle for power, several yakuza clans vie for the favor of their head family in the Japanese underworld. The rival bosses seek to rise through the ranks by scheming and making allegiances sworn over saké. Their vengeful disputes over money, turf and betrayals are seldom settled without violence and death. Veteran yakuza henchman Otomo (Beat Takeshi) has seen his kind go from elaborate body tattoos and severed fingertips to becoming important players on the stock market. Theirs is a never-ending struggle to end up on top, or at least survive, in a world where there are no heroes... From the director of ZATOICHI, BROTHER and HANA-BI.

(Once again, Celluloid Dreams is handling world sales)

Short synopsis (first translated and presented on Ryuganji):

The story begins with Sekiuchi (Kitamura Soichiro), boss of the Sannokai, a huge organised crime syndicate controlling the entire Kanto region, issuing a stern warning to his lieutenant Kato (Miura Tomokazu) and right-hand man Ikemoto (Kunimura Jun), head of the Ikemoto-gumi. Kato orders Ikemoto to bring the unassociated Murase-gumi gang in line, and he immediately passes the task on to his subordinate Otomo (Beat Takeshi), who runs his own crew. The tricky jobs that no-one wants to do always end up in Otomo's lap...

Full Trailer:



Brief on set impressions (October 1, 2009):

"Kitano's New Yakuza Film Before Cameras"

Wakamatsu's "Caterpillar" at the FCCJ

Yesterday evening the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) held the Japan premiere of Wakamatsu Kôji's film Caterpillar (『キャタピラー』) to an absolutely packed room. As you can see in the photo I snapped, Wakamatsu and lead actors Terajima Shinobu and Ohnishi Shima were in attendance.

I like to recycle so here are a couple of tweets I made about the film on the way home:

Just saw Wakamatsu's Caterpillar. A powerful, economically made anti-war missile. Terajima and Ohnishi both fantastic.

Caterpillar is no-holds barred but also has a moments of peace and humour.

Needless to say, Terajima deserved every bit of the prestigious best actress award she won in Berlin. Her performance as war hero wife Shigeko encompasses just about every conflicting emotion a woman could feel. Terajima never steps wrong and proves once again that to refuse or compromise a great role because it requires nudity is ridiculous, but an attitude all too common in Japan (see my October 11, 2009 entry for more on this issue). I'm even happier Terajima's face adorns the top of my recent CNNGo article on great actors (see my March 26 entry). Ohnishi also deserves much credit for a physically tough role that relies almost entirely on his eyes.

As you may have read, this startling film was shot in 12 days and edited in 13 hours(!) Caterpillar comes in at 85 minutes with not one second wasted. (Even at three-plus hours, Wakamatsu's previous film United Red Army has an extremely low body fat index.) There are countless things young filmmakers could learn from a director like Wakamatsu. The simple intercutting of the film's denouement has more power in its pinkie finger than what most directors with ten times the resources manage.

The post-screening Q&A covered many topics: Wakamatsu's amusing thoughts on the Tennô sei (Japan's Emperor system); reducing the amount of music in the film to let Terajima's performance shine through; how a famous Japanese musician may contribute to the soundtrack before the film's roll-out release (which coincides with various WWII memorial dates); how each actor regarded their characters; Wakamatsu's memories of his wartime childhood; and how great Terajima looks in monpe (women's work pants).

Keep an eye on world sales company Dissidenz' official site for news of upcoming screenings of this great film.

Cherry Blossom Tragedy

Sakura season has arrived in Tokyo and my mono no aware is kicking into high gear.

Cherry blossoms in bloom have served as the scenic backdrop to endless movies and TV shows. Sometimes it's a central image, as was the 200-year-old shidarezakura (weeping cherry blossom tree) in Yukisada Isao's Year One in the North (Kita no Zeronen) -- a magnificent tree which I've visited in person.

One of the early cinematic impressions of sakura I remember is the famous shot of wheelchair-bound Ôsugi Ren facing a wall of blossoms in Kitano Takeshi's Hana-Bi.

To celebrate their beauty, pictured above is a stunning image from Nakashima Tetsuya's (中島哲也監督) upcoming Confession (Kokuhaku, 『告白』). Which of the 37 13-year-old students in Matsu Takako's junior high school class murdered her pretty 4-year-old daughter? We'll find out on June 5th.

If you don't read Japanese and don't want to navigate the official site you can read some background and see the trailer for the film on Nippon Cinema here. It's easily one of best trailers for a Japanese film I've seen in years, creating that same sense of alluring power that Battle Royale and Love Exposure had.