Two Looks for Takashi Shimizu's Rabbit Horror 3D / Tormented

Two very different visual campaigns for Shimizu Takashi's upcoming psychological scarefest Rabbit Horror 3D (『ラビット・ホラー3D』), also known by the more generic export title Tormented.

The image on the right is sales agent Fortissimo Films' key visual for the film's Venice (Aug 31-Sept 10) and Sitges (Oct 6-16) one-two punch.

Between those two international fest dates the film receives its domestic release here in Japan on September 17th by Phantom Film.

Which style do you prefer?

A friend who worked on the set for the whole shoot said Tormented far surpasses The Shock Labyrinth 3D both as a film and in terms of the use of 3D (much "smarter" in this case). With an undeniably strong cast, he says it's a well crafted and acted psychological family drama with both fantasy and scare elements, but that hardcore horror fans expecting Ju-On redux might be disappointed. Looking forward to it.

Editing Yukuharu - The Fading of Spring

As it swelters outside (and I try to be frugal with the A/C inside) I'm holed up with my short film Yukuharu - The Fading of Spring (see my August 4th entry).

I'm cutting the film on an older Intel iMac with Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium and a phenomenal support utility called PluralEyes that syncs multiple sound sources automatically. So far everything is progressing smoothly, which enables me to get into "the zone". In the 90s that zone was sitting in a closet-sized editing suite with 16mm film hanging all around me and obsessing over single frames. I still do that, but without the whirring Steenbeck and clunking splicer.

Until around 2007 -- the last time I really shot and cut anything of note -- I had always been a Final Cut Pro person. However, after several discussions with my talented and highly-knowledgeable cinematographer Paul Leeming, I see now that Premiere (and its native integration with CS) has surpassed FCP in many respects. Not the mention the backlash against FCP X (dissed by some as "iMovie Pro"), which can't even open older FCP project files, while Premiere can.

Back to cutting. Hope to post some official high-res stills by the end of this month.

Hard Romanticker - Shota Matsuda Goes Gangster

Just a brief post on a movie I recently subtitled for Toei studios entitled Hard Romanticker (『ハードロマンチッカー』). There's no official site yet but Toei has a release page for it. When I translated the press notes it had been slated for an early spring 2012 release but has now been pushed forward to November 26.

The film is directed by Japan-born Korean Gu Su-yeon, whose last feature was The Yakiniku Movie: Bulgogi (『THE 焼肉 MOVIE プルコギ』), starring Matsuda Ryûhei. Hard Romanticker's cast is led by Ryûhei's younger brother Shôta, whom you know from Ikigami or TV drama/movie franchises Liar Game and Boys Over Flowers. Or if you're more kuwashii about your Japanese cinema, you may have seen him in Ômori Tatsushi's dark indie effort A Crowd of Three (Kenta to Jun to Kayo-chan no Kuni,『ケンタとジュンとカヨちゃんの国』) which had its world premiere at TOKYO FILMeX in 2009.

Hard Romanticker is based on Gu's semi-autobiographical eponymous novel published in 2001 by Kadokawa Haruki's imprint. With his hair dyed platinum blonde, Matsuda stars as "Gu," a second-generation Korean living life as a high school dropout working part-time jobs and getting into violent conflicts on the streets of Shimonoseki. A brutal act of revenge gone wrong sets the story in motion. Gu is tangentially involved at best, but with his paradoxical mix of guilt, cold detachment and violent nihilism he pisses off one too many people and ends up a target of the whole town.

Shimonoseki (Yamaguchi prefecture) is of course the birthplace of legendary Japanese film star Matsuda Yûsaku, daddy of both aforementioned Matsuda brothers and himself of half-Korean ancestry (see Midnight Eye's feature: Yusaku Matsuda: Lost Rebel). The project is going for synergy with the Matsuda name, its rebellious protagonist, the zainichi angle and the location (there's also a sojourn over the bridge to the blingy Kokura district of Kitakyûshû).

Toei Animation excepted, some feel Toei studios proper has lost its identity over the years. They're hoping to regain some of their old-school mojo with Hard Romanticker and future projects. I'll let the paid and pro-am film critics have the last word but I think Hard Romanticker is a fairly cool Mean Streets-like film for the current generation here.

Hard Romanticker features a large cast of juvenile delinquents played by Nagayama Kento, Emoto Tokio, Watabe Gôta, Kawano Naoki, Ochiai Tomoki, Endô Yûya, Kaneko Nobuaki, Ishigaki Yuma and Endô Kaname. Bringing a dose of adult reality to the film are Maki Claude (good to see him again), Watanabe Dai, Ashina Sei, Maki Yôko, Nakamura Shidô, Watabe Atsurô (amusing), Hakuryu and super-veteran Awaji Keiko (her debut was Kurosawa's Stray Dog!).

The "Niji-Iro 'Rainbow' Cinema Support Project"

If you've been following me on Twitter or Facebook (my personal page and/or Loaded Films) over the past few months you know I've mentioned "Niji-Iro Cinema" (にじいろシネマ) on many occasions. Niji-Iro (literally "Rainbow-coloured") Cinema is a non-profit organization that screens free movies for survivors of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that hit Japan this March and remains an ongoing catastrophe to this day.

Niji-Iro Cinema was founded by Saitama-based home theater company Budscene this April. My wife Eiko Mizuno Gray was the first member to join the team, followed by several other core members from the world of film. Thus far, there have been approximately fifteen Niji-Iro Cinema events across Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures (Iwate is being planned). Strong distributor support from the likes of 20th Century Fox, Asmik Ace, Universal Pictures, Shochiku and Toei Video has enabled a growing library of titles as well as t-shirts and other goods.

Niji-Iro Cinema's screenings of both Hollywood and Japanese movies come complete with free popcorn made in old-school cinema popcorn machines. When possible, hot food and cold ice cream have also been provided between screenings.

Budscene made a sizable outlay in the early days to get the ball rolling, but luckily the costs of transportation up to Tohoku are now subsidized and accommodations are managed by the Niji-Iro team at each location. What we're now trying to raise money for is food. To put it another way, we want to hire food providers as a means to give back to a region where jobs are very scarce.

If you take a look at the right-hand side of the blog you'll see a widget for the "Niji-Iro 'Rainbow' Cinema Support Project" IndieGoGo campaign. There, you can find out everything you need to know about what Niji-Iro Cinema is, how the money will be used and how contributors will feel the direct, positive impact they've made. To reiterate, the Niji-Iro Cinema screenings will continue on as they have since April. This is a related support campaign focused specifically on food, drinks and other items we'd love to offer kids and everyone else who attends.

Thanks for reading and please spread the word!

"Yukuharu - The Fading of Spring" Principal Photography Complete

It's been quite a while since I've touched the blog. I'd been in pre-production on my short film Yukuharu - The Fading of Spring (『行く春』). That was interspersed with doing my small part for Niji-Iro Cinema (a non-profit initiative that screens movies for disaster survivors across Tohoku), a bit of work for Screen and subtitle translation for a new Toei crime drama entitled Hard Romanticker (『ハードロマンチッカー』).

I'm happy to announce that principal photography on Yukuharu was completed this past weekend and it went very, very well. There was quite a lot of filming packed into two days but our cast and crew were fantastic. It had been over 10 years since I was behind a camera directing narrative -- it was a thrill to see the words on the page of my screenplay come to life. As I tweeted a couple of days ago "We captured Amazing images, performances, sounds and moments of humanity."

As I enter post-production I will be posting credits and more info about the film, as well as images. As Yukuharu was the first film produced under the Loaded Films Ltd. banner (our little company established earlier this year - see our Facebook page) there should be some kind of Yukuharu subsite under the official Loaded Films website when that's up and running. I also posted regular updates on the film's IndieGoGo project page. Another thank you to those who contributed.

More updates soon!