Terracotta 2013 = East Asia x 27

Tags

Film Festival, London, Terracotta, trailers

Here it is… the much awaited line-up for this year’s Terracotta Film Festival, bigger and better than ever. It’s divided into four sections (Current Films, Terror Cotta,  Spotlight on Indonesia and In Memoriam of Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui), all screening at the Prince Charles Cinema (June 6–9), except for the Indonesia section, which will be held at the ICA (June 11-15). Further festival highlights include masterclasses and a short film competition (with a trip to Hong Kong as top prize).

Because it’s such a lengthy list of films, I’ve limited myself to one-sentence synopses. If it grabs your interest, watch the trailer and/or hop over to the official festival website, where longer summaries are featured.

The official website has just gone live, although links for booking (which is meant to open today) don’t yet work. I would expect booking to be available some time later this afternoon.

Trailer Weekly #83

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Ayano Gou, Ishii Gakuryu, Matsuda Shota, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli, Tatsushi Omori, trailers

Trailer time. (Sorry, being brief here – busy busy!)

May 2013 Events

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#Women on Screen, BFI, Derby, Film Festival, Korean Film Night, Leicester, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Prince Charles Cinema, Studio Ghibli, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Year of 4 Actors

May brings Cannes with many exciting film premieres. With the English Channel in our way, we’ll however have to make do with events on this island instead. Luckily, a whole lot is on offer this month, in all corners of the UK – Derby, London, Leicester and even Inverness. You can get a taste of Hong Kong cinema as well as watch quite a number of Japanese olden goldies (directed by Ozu Yasushiro and Kurosawa Akira, among others) at various cinemas and festivals across the country. There is also the Chinese Visual Festival, but nothing Taiwanese this month. Korean films fare a bit better – though only because our beloved Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) is, as always, screening two films as part of its Year of 4 Actors Korean Film Nights for year. The good news, however, is that the KCCUK has just launched another film season, Women on Screen, which commences in May and will run until August, doubling the monthly offering of screenings.

For trailers, click on film titles (where available).

Note: As always, I’ll update this post if I hear about any other events.

Last updated: 6/5/2013

Women on Screen: Special KCCUK Season

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KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London

The KCCUK has announced a new, special film season entitled “Women on Screen: Understanding Korean Society and Women through Films”, which will run from May 9 to August 22, 2013. This season comes on top of their Year of 4 Actors Korean Film Nights.

Remember O Goddess Update: Mr. Padam Padam

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Jung Woo-sung, Lee Yoon Jung, Remember O Goddess

It’s been a while since we have had news about the indie film project 나를 잊지 말아요 (Naleul Ijji Malayo/Remember O Goddess, South Korea), but Lee Yoon Jung recently posted an update with some big news: there has been a change of cast! Not just any cast member either, but the lead.

Trailer Weekly #81 (all timely, all Koreanly)

And one more, this one being country-themed: it’s all films from South Korea.

Coming to Cannes in 2013: Koreeda, Miike, Zhangke & Co

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Cannes, Film Festival, Koreeda Hirokazu

As May approaches, so does the Cannes, which is of course one of the highlights of the European film festival calendar. This morning the line-up was revealed, with a number of films from Asia to look foward to. I have listed them all below, with trailer and synopses as far as they are available.

April 2013 Events

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BFI, Dublin, Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, Korean Film Night, Leeds, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Prince Charles Cinema, Shinkai Makoto, Studio Ghibli, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Year of 4 Actors

April, April… this year is flying by… I would rather not think about it though. Instead, let’s just see what April has in store for us, film-wise mostly but also otherwise as there are some exciting events at the London Book Fair and elsewhere too.

Note: As always, I’ll update this post if I hear about any other events.

Last updated: 17/4/2013

Trailer Weekly #78

What to say? I was going to introduce this post with a few words on all the food thoughts I had today thanks to filling my bag with lots of goodies from the farmers’ market today (tomatoes, for the first time in months!) and my cooking plans (1, 2, 3) for the week (to spoil my ‘little sister’ that will be visiting), but after a long day at work I’m a bit tired and too lazy to write anything much. So, we’ll get right to this week’s trailers instead.

Leesong Hee-il Trilogy Review: 백야 (White Night), 지난여름, 갑자기 (Suddenly, Last Summer) & 남쪽으로 간다 (Going South)

Tags

BFI, Film Festival, LLGFF, London, London Lesbian Gay Film Festival

Year: 2012
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Leesong Hee-il
Screenplay:  Leesong Hee-il
Cinematography: Yoon Ji-Yoon (Baekya)
Cast: Won Tae-hee, Li Yi-kyung (Baekya); Kim Young-jae, Han Joo-wan (Jinanyeoreum, Gapjagi); Kim Jae-heung, Chun Shin-hwan (Namjjokeuro Ganda)
Runtime: 75 min, 37 min, 45 min
Distribution: CinemaDal

Trailers: see below

Seen at the 27th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival at two separate screenings.

Although there was not all that much on offer from South East Asia at this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the BFI did do a mini-feature on Leesong Hee-il, whom they called “one of the most exciting contemporary gay Asian directors” in their festival programme. Leesong has, by now, quite a number of films to his name, all featuring a gay storyline in one way or another. His cinematic debut came in 2004 with a short featured in 동백꽃 (Dongbaegkkoch/ Camellia Project, 2004), but he is probably better known for his 2006 film 후회하지 않아 (Huhoehaji Anha/No Regret). In 2009 the director contributed to the 황금시대 (Hwang-geumsidae/Short! Short! Short!) omnibus project and also made the feature-length 탈주 (Talju/Break Away, 2009), finally following up in 2012 with the ‘One Night and Two Days’ trilogy of 백야 (Baekya/White Night), 지난여름, 갑자기 (Jinanyeoreum, Gapjagi/Suddenly, Last Summer) and 남쪽으로 간다 (Namjjokeuro Ganda/Going South), three unconnected stories which all began as shorts but the first of which was later extended into a 75-minute movie.

Trailer Weekly #77

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Kora Kengo, Sometani Shota, trailers

I didn’t quite manage to finish this Trailer Weekly last night, staying out somewhat late to attend one final screening of the London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival (the Leesong Hee-il double bill). I rather enjoyed all films I watched as part of LLGFF this year (reviews to come), although I was struck by the fact that at most events viewers were predominantly male. Admittedly, except for آینه های روبرو (Aynehaye Rooberoo/Facing Mirrors, Iran/Germany, 2011), a drama on transgender identity, all films I saw focused on male-male relationships, but still… Does this mean that the audience of this festival is mostly made up of gay attendees? (If so, why?) And that those will often gravitate towards films reflecting their own sexuality/gender?

Trailers now:

Trailer Weekly #76

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Sometani Shota, trailers

Posting early today as I’m off to see two films at the BFI Lesbian & Gay Film Festival this afternoon/evening (with a visit to Chinatown in between).

Leeds Young People’s Film Festival: J-Anime x 3 and Korean Adoption Anime Docu

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Film Festival, Leeds, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli

Couleur de peau: Miel.

The Leeds Young People’s Film Festival, the children’s offshoot of the regular festival, released its programme yesterday. The festival runs from March 25 until April 5 and tickets are fairly cheap (£2 for under-19, £5/£4 for adults), so if you live in the area, treat yourself. There are a few films from Japan & Korea:

News Bites, from All Corners

Tokyo Waka.

All kinds of things were happening this week, not quite substantial enough for each to make it into a post of their own and a bit too much to squeeze them into the Bonus Bits section of the Trailer Weekly, so, instead, I’ve assembled them into this post.

Trailer Weekly #75

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Hosoda Mamoru, Lim Soon-rye, Sometani Shota, Toma Ikuta, trailers, Tsumabuki Satoshi

The Pan Asia Film Festival began this week and I skipped my Japanese class to attend the screening of《女朋友。男朋友》(Nyeobungu. Nambungu/GF*BF, Taiwan, 2013) and somehow – despite that backlog of reviews that reaches to the moon - reviewed it within two days (admittedly, staying up till four in the morning was part of this)*. I didn’t however go to see Lotte Reiniger’s Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed), the world’s first feature-length animation from 1926, as I had originally planned – purely for reasons of laziness and the fact that it didn’t seem possible to book concession tickets at the Southbank online (and the £15 full price was a little steep). I am kind of kicking myself for this lack of self-motivation, because that is definitely not a film that screens every day, plus it’s just lame of me as someone who loves animation to skip such an event *hangs head in shame*. Coming up next week is more of the Pan Asia Film Festival, the bimonthly KCCUK screening and lots of the London Lesbian Gay Film Festival, which I’m super-excited for.

Trailers…….this Trailer Weekly somehow ended up being full of images (alternative posters and things of the sort) but most of all I think it’s a really fabulous selection of films this week. Just because I wish I could watch half of them like right now.

*And then of course, no one comments on the review that I lost sleep over! Oh, you lovely lurkers. Either that or it’s badly written.

Trailer Weekly #74

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Ann Hui, Horikita Maki, Kora Kengo, Matsuda Shota, Sato Takeru, Sometani Shota, trailers

I’m actually not multiple days late with this Trailer Weekly but just right on time! I haven’t had dinner yet though … but that’s more so because I can’t make up my mind what to have. Ideally soup (which is comfort food in my book) with dumplings (gyoza, mandu, momos, whichever) but I haven’t got any dumplings and I’m not about to start making any from scratch on a Sunday night at 10 p.m. (if I had wonton wrappers, maybe). Ramen would do as well, but no ramen noodles in the house either so I think it’ll end up being a soup concoction involving some sort of Asian noodles, seaweed and miso. No tofu though, boohoooo. I really wish, by the way, corner shops would carry tofu (I eyed some halloumi cheese today, vaguely hoping it might turn out to be a block of soy, but of course it wasn’t). Anyhow, before I get too deep into my food contemplations, better I go cook something and leave you to peruse this week’s Trailer Weekly selection.

K-Anime Review: 돼지의 왕 (Daegieui wang/The King of Pigs)

Tags

K-Anime Season, Terracotta

Year: 2011
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Yeun Sang-Ho
Studio: Studio Dadashow, KT&G Sangsangmadang
Screenplay: Yeun Sang-Ho
Art Direction: N/A
Animation Direction: N/A
Soundscore: Eom Been
Voice Cast: Yang Ik-joon, Oh Jung-se, Kim Hye-na, Kim Kkobbi, Park Hee-von
Runtime: 97 min
Distribution: Terracotta (UK)
Trailer (subtitled):

Seen at the Terracotta on Tour screening at the Genesis Cinema thanks to winning tickets from Eastern Kicks. Special thanks also go to the Korean Film Council, which provided me with online access to the film. The King of Pigs will screen in London on March 8, 2013 as part of the Pan-Asia Film Festival and will be released on DVD by Terracotta on March 11, 2013.

This review is part of the K-Animation Season on Otherwhere.

Dark themes in Hakkyo 2013: Best enemies (top row); parental neglect & abuse (bottom left); driven to suicide (bottom right).

학교 2013 (Hakkyo 2013/School 2013, South Korea, 2013), a television drama that recently aired on KBS2, explores the life and struggles of high school students on a number of levels, tackling issues such as the pressure of academic achievement, strained relationships with parents and suicide, but also the hierarchical structures of classrooms and bullying, breaking with the silence that still surrounds many of these problems in Korean society. Hakkyo 2013 deserves praise for the candid as well as sensitive portrayal of these issues, but it does not go all the way, for although the picture it presents is surprisingly dark, it is not one entirely without hope. Indeed, as television productions face the judgment of a media regulation agency and weekly viewing figures from an audience that remains hesitant about open conversations on such issues, it is left to a few, audacious films to play out the worst scenarios imaginable until the very end. One of these films – in animated form – is 돼지의 왕 (Daegieui wang/The King of Pigs, 2011).

March 2013 Events

Lots of stuff again – something from pretty much every (South East) Asian country. And nicely spread out over all the UK too, so it’s not just film-fun for Londoners!

Click on titles for links to trailers (when available).

As always, if I’ve missed anything, get in touch!

LAST UPDATED: 17/3/2013

Trailer Weekly #72

Tags

Kora Kengo, Matsuda Shota, trailers, Tsumabuki Satoshi

This is actually last week’s Trailer Weekly, with a second one to follow later. At least I hope so, because I’m having a bit of hard time getting myself to do anything today. It’s the after-effect of having pulled an almost all-nighter - a friend from Costa Rica was passing through London so we chatted till about 3 a.m. at which point we were so tired that we slept for a couple of hours before my friend had to head off to Heathrow to catch his morning flight back to lovely Ticolandia ♥ (i.e. the country of Ticos, as Costa Ricans are affectionately known). I’m absolutely chuffed about all the Costa Rican goodies I’ve now got in the house now, from coffee from Heredia to Café Britt chocolates to dried piña-banano, but also very nostalgic, wishing I could myself hop on a plane to Central America this instant – I haven’t been back since I left in 2009 and that’s just too long.

Leesong Hee-il (and More) at the BFI’s London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival

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BFI, LLGFF, UWC

Leesong Hee-il

The BFI has released its line-up for this year’s London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, with Leesong Hee-il films appearing threefold:

We have a feature and two mini-features from one of the most exciting contemporary gay Asian directors Leesong Hee-il with White Night, and Going South and Suddenly, Last Summer – moody, melancholic tales of suppressed desires.

February 2013 Events

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Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Film Festival, Glasgow, ICA, Japanese Embassy London, KCCUK, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield, Studio Ghibli

You are not going to run out things to do (or, rather, films to watch) in February, regardless of where you are in the UK.

Note: I’m not really providing synopses this time round, there are simply too many films. Just click on the external links, where you’ll find more info.

As always, if I’ve missed anything, get in touch!

LAST UPDATED: 6/2/2013

Pan-Asia Update: Full Programme

The programme for the Fifth Pan-Asia Film Festival has been finalised and, as I predicted, there are several more goodies for us to enjoy now. In addition to films already announced - 穷人榴莲吗要偷渡客 (Qióngrén liúlián ma yào tōudù kè/Poor Folk, Taiwan/Myanmar/Thailand, 2012), पतंग (Patang/The Kite, India/USA, 2011),「ラビット・ホラー３Ｄ」(Rabitto horā 3D/Tormented 3D, Japan, 2011), 111 Dokhtar (111 Girls, Iran/Iraq, 2012)* and ฝนตกขึ้นฟ้า (Headshot, Thailand, 2012), see also my previous post on the festival - there are seven more feature-length productions, plus a slot for shorts.

Trailer Weekly #68

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Kon Satoshi

I had a friend visiting over the weekend so I was a little distracted. Me apologies for being late here…

Animation in Korea: K-Animation Season

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K-Anime Season

Lately I have been getting more and more interested in Korean animations. While there has always been something that has made me want to explore any creative forms that exist on the fringes of what was traditionally defined as ‘art’ (from children’s literature to graphic novels) but that has found increasing acceptance in academic circles in the past decade or two, my curiosity about Korean animations stems from a number of projects from the last couple of years: films like 돼지의 왕 (Daegieui Wang/The King of Pigs, 2011), 파닥파닥 (Padak Padak/Padak, 2012) and 은실이 (Eunsili/The Dearest, 2011), which have one particular thing in common: they all deal with serious and, in some cases, hopelessly dark subject matters.

Review: 와이키키 브라더스 (Waikiki Beuradeoseu/Waikiki Brothers)

Tags

KCCUK, Korean Film Night, Year of 12 Directors

Year: 2001
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Lim Soon-rye
Screenplay: Lim Soon-rye
Cinematography: Choi Jee-Yul
Soundscore: N/a
Cast: Lee Eol, Park Won-sang, Hwang Jung-min, Oh Gwang-rok, Ryoo Seung-bum, Oh Ji-hye, Park Hae-il, Kim Jong-eon, Jeong Dae-yong, Moon Hye-won
Runtime: 109 min

Trailer (in Korean):

Seen at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) during the Lim Soon-rye (임순례) month of KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.

Waikiki Beuradeoseu begins, somewhat aimlessly, with a band of musicians, middle-aged and in a sort of midlife crisis. The four members of the Waikiki Brothers play songs they don’t like at events and places (small weddings, third-rate clubs) where they do not wish to be. The gigs are underpaid, barely allowing them to scrape by, and audiences could not care less about the group performing on the stage. It is far from the dream that the (original) Brothers had in mind twenty, thirty years ago when they first screamed their voices hoarse at school assemblies, trying to impress teenage girls.