Yellow Earth at Tokyo Project Gathering 2010

I'm proud to announce that Max Mannix' ambitious WWII project Yellow Earth (working title) will participate in this year's Tokyo Project Gathering, held in late October as part of the TIFFCOM contents market. I will be part of the Yellow Earth team to help realize this film.

Yellow Earth recounts the story of the largest prison breakout during WWII (which remains one of the largest in history), at the Cowra POW camp in New South Wales, Australia.

Following is a one paragraph synopsis for the project:

In August of 1944, as war raged in The Pacific, and with Australia on the verge of being invaded by the Japanese Empire, Sergeant Major Akira Kanazawa, and his colleague, air force pilot Sergeant Hajime Toyoshima, lead 1100 Japanese prisoners of war in a mass breakout from an Australian prisoner of war camp. The reasons for the breakout were many, but for Kanazawa and Hajime, their vision was clear, they desired to re-join the war, and detach themselves from the shame of being prisoners.

As you may remember, Max participated in TPG last year with drama Family Matters, with the project ending up getting bought (trace back from my April 26 entry). Yellow Earth is an entirely different situation, with Max directing and strong support from Australia in place.

You can read about the full TPG lineup on Screen, written (not by me!) by our Deputy Asia Editor Jean Noh:

"Tokyo Project Gathering's 28 selections include Ryuichi Hiroki, Pen-ek Ratanaruang" (if you get a "subscription necessary" message try going through Google News and searching for "Tokyo Project Gathering").

I have to say it's the strongest lineup TPG has put together yet. It's also great that friends such as Edmund Yeo and Silvia Wong will be there. Looking forward to it!

Watch for more Yellow Earth updates in the coming months.

Japanese Presence at Pusan's PPP

The Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP) project market, now in its 13th year, has announced the 27 projects that will participate in the 2010 edition (Oct 10-13). With only two projects from Japan, visibility is on par with last year (when Aoyama Shinji's Decadent Sisters was there) but slightly down from 2008 (when Sabu's Arrested Memories was there). Noted Thai indie director Anocha Suwichakornpong's project The White Room also has Japanese investment attached.

Check out our Korea correspondent Jean Noh's informative article on the selection. A simple list of the projects is of course available on the official PPP site.

Detroit Metal City and BOX! director Lee Toshio (李闘士男監督) had his project Miracle (『ミラクル』) selected, which is good news. Earlier this year I translated the Miracle treatment and other materials after Lee-kantoku expressed his satisfaction with my work on BOX! (see my April 26 entry). I was told BOX! had a very positive audience reaction in Puchon last month, particularly the laughs (always a challenge when subtitling).

Miracle is based on the 1993 novel of the same name by author/film director/rock singer Tsuji Hitonari (辻仁成). Indeed, Miracle is predominantly set in Pusan itself, albeit it in the early 1980s when Western culture such as jazz music was severely restricted.

Miracle tells the story of alcoholic jazz pianist Sid and his young son Al. Sid can't come to terms with the passing of his wife, who died giving birth to Al five years ago. He hides the truth from his son, telling him that his mother is still alive and touring the world. Sid promises Al that the day it snows on Christmas will be the day he'll finally be able to meet her. And so, every Christmas Sid and Al make the journey from Seoul to Pusan, where snow rarely falls. Except this year...

Also of particular interest to J-film fans is director Ogigami Naoko's multi-faceted participation in this year's Pusan International Film Festival/PPP. From Jean's article:

Ogigami Naoko (Glasses) will be mentoring students at PIFF’s Asian Film Academy (AFA) and screening her feature film Toilet in the festival, as well as presenting her new project Suika and Kinoko at PPP. The film will tell the story of two French girls who are obsessed with Japanese manga and later decide to do a road trip across Europe to Japan.

Would like to head back to Pusan myself after being there in 2007 and 2008.

Update: Derek Elley files the first English language review of BOX! on Film Business Asia here (thanks to logboy). It's a very accurate take on the film, though I think it deserves a little more than 6/10 and I'm a bit warmer on Kôra's performance. Kakei Toshio, who's almost unrecognizable as the coach, deserves a nod. For reference, BOX!'s Yahoo! user rating is 4.04/5 which is very strong for a domestic film, beating Arrietty and even edging out Confessions.

Set Visit to Shinji Imaoka/Christoper Doyle Pink Film Underwater Love

My report from the set of Imaoka Shinji's Underwater Love (Onna no Kappa, 『おんなの河童』) is now up on Twitch -- you can read it here.

See previous Underwater Love posts here and there.

Update: For those of you who like Facebook there's actually a little page for the film there, with some nice images from other days of the shoot.