Trailer Weekly #81 (all timely, all Koreanly)

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

Review:「桐島、部活やめるってよ」(Kirishima, Bukatsu Yamerutteyo/The Kirishima Thing)

Tags

Hashimoto Ai, Higashide Masahiro, Kamiki Ryunosuke

Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Yoshida Daihachi
Studio: NTV, Showgate
Adaptation from: Asai Ryo’s 2010 novel of the same title
Screenplay: Kiyasu Kohei, Yoshida Daihachi
Cinematography: Kondo Ryoto
Soundscore: Kondo Tatsuro
Cast: Kamiki Ryunosuke, Hashimoto Ai, Higashide Masahiro, Ohgo Suzuka, Shimiza Kurumi, Yamamoto Kizuki, Matsuoka Mayu, Ochiai Motoki, Maeno Tomoya, Kurihara Goro & others
Runtime: 103 min
Distribution: Showgate
Film’s official website: http://www.kirishima-movie.com/index.html
Twitter: @kirishima_movie

Trailer: 

Kirishima, the titular hero of the Japan Academy’s Best Picture of the Year, is rather like Godot: although everyone is waiting for him to appear, he never actually shows up. Different from Godot, however, we can be fairly certain that the character – a teenage boy and star athlete at his school – does exist, it’s just that he seems to have literally vanished off the face of the earth after suddenly quitting the volleyball team he previously captained. His resignation is, for a long time, pretty much the most eventful thing that happens in this tale, but takes place not just off-screen but also before the narrative begins, the film itself concerning itself only with the aftermath of the event.

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.

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).

Dorama Actresses Special Trailer Weekly #71

Tags

London, Studio Ghibli, trailers

Sunday was Chinese New Year so I will begin this Trailer Weekly with 恭喜发财! (Gong xi fa cai!). I actually ventured out to London’s Chinatown with a friend, fully intent on enjoying some Taiwanese food but the restaurant I had in mind had a queue about a mile long, even at 3 in the afternoon. In the end we opted for Japanese (vegetable & tofu tempura bento, plus lovely gyōza) and later watched a Japanese film at my friend’s house (Ghibli’s 「おもひでぽろぽろ」/ Omohide Poro Poro/Only Yesterday, 1991, after initially considering 「火垂るの墓」 / Hotaru no Haka/Grave of the Fireflies, 1988, even buying some comfort food and then copping out. Jajaja…). Anyhow, it ended up being a  pretty un-Chinese Chinese New Year, despite all intentions. Ah well.

In terms of this belated Trailer Weekly, I thought it was time for another ‘Special’, with J-actresses that I know from doramas as the focus: Anne, Karina, Koyuki, Yoko Maki, Ueno Juri and Takeuchi Yuko.

Review: 「愛と誠」 (Ai to Makoto/For Love’s Sake)

Alternative English Title: The Legend of Love and Sincerity
Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Miike Takashi
Adaptation from: Kajiwara Ikki’s manga「愛と誠」(Ai to Makoto, 1973-1976)
Screenplay: Takuma Takayuki
Cinematography: Kita Nobuyasu
Soundscore: Kobayashi Takeshi
Cast: Tsumabuki Satoshi, Takei Emi, Saito Takumi, Ono Ito, Andō Sakura, Ihara Tsuyoshi, Yo Kimiko
Runtime: 134 min
Film’s official website: aiandmakoto.jp (in Japanese)

Trailer:

Seen at the film’s UK premiere at the 56th London International Film Festival.

Back in the 70s Kajiwara Ikki wrote, in manga form, the story of Ai to Makoto (literally Ai and Makoto, names which also mean ‘love’ and ‘sincerity’), two teenagers on very different rungs of the social ladder whose paths fatefully cross. Angelic Ai inhabits the strata of the upper class, coming from a wealthy family that has sheltered her from all the hardships that exist in life. Makoto, meanwhile, is at the very bottom of the hierarchy: abandoned by his father and mother, he survives as a fist-fighting delinquent in the lowest echelons of Tokyo. It’s probably not the most original of stories – a modern-day Romeo and Juliet tale – but Kajiwara’s manga, which originally ran from 1973 to 1976 in the Weekly Shōnen Magazine (Kodansha), was almost immediately adapted to a dorama (1974) and to three films (1974, 1975 and 1976). More than forty-years on cult-director Miike Takashi (「クローズZERO」/Kurōzu Zero/Crows Zero, 2007; 「十三人の刺客」/Jûsan-nin no shikaku/Thirteen Assassins, 2010) dug the story out again and made it into…. well, that’s the question.

Trailer Weekly #55

Tags

Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, London, trailers

So here I am with the Trailer Weekly a day late. It’s such a busy time for me both at university as well as with all my gazillion part-time jobs and now with the London Film Festival added on top, I’m just barely squeezing in a few hours of sleep each night and not really doing much else! Hence the lack of posting.

I have however been jotting down notes on the films I have seen so far -「おおかみこどもの雨と雪」 (Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki/Wolf Children, Japan, 2012),「愛と誠 」(Ai to Makoto/For Love’s Sake, Japan, 2012), 「夢売るふたり」 (Yume Uru Futari/Dreams for Sale, Japan, 2012),  물고기 (Mulgogi/A Fish, South Korea, 2011) and「ライク・サムワン・イン・ラブ」 (Raiku samuwan in rabu/Like Someone in Love, Japan/France, 2012) - with several more still to come. Only Yume Uru Futari didn’t impress me all that much, most others (most of all Ookami Kodomo and Ai to Makoto!) I wish I could rewatch already tomorrow!

By the way, I think all the film posters this week – except the one for the Iranian film – are super boring. Boohoo.

Film Galore: The 56th London International Film Festival

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BFI, BFI Film Festival, Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, London

Where to start? The British Film Institute’s London International Film Festival – running from 10-21 October this year – is such a big event that its programme release is always a little overwhelming. You don’t quite know where to look first, even if you have cinematic preferences. The BFI, in an attempt to revamp the festival (or maybe just for the new festival director Clare Stewart to make her mark), introduced thematic strands this year for the first time, but fortunately you can still browse offerings by country or director. That’s a good thing, especially since the BFI’s website (including its search function) is generally a nightmare (still no hits if you search for Tiger & Bunny, which they are screening on September 23rd).

Trailer Weekly #48

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KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Studio Ghibli, trailers

Trailer Weekly day. I’m back in London and suffering from the sudden 15 degree drop in temperature (the weather is just miserable!) and the fact that my breakfast doesn’t include mango anymore. Boohoooo. Never mind that the autumn months are looking insanely busy already, leaving me unsure whether I’ll have even time to breathe… all my September weekends are already planned out and some of October’s as well. Although I’m still a bit disappointed that I had to turn down presenting at the Cultural Translation and East Asia: Film, Literature and Art conference, which takes place in Bangor, Wales, next week, I know it was the more sensible decision in terms of time and workload. Despite the full schedule ahead, I’m hoping I will fit in more film reviews this month, as only three in August was a new low – sorry!

On to trailers, trailers: we are 50/50 this week: 50% Korean, 50% Japanese.

Trailer Weekly #47

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documentary, Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, trailers

Films this week come from a variety of sources – some more from the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) catalogue, one (and a half) from Twitter and one from an invitation email for the monthly ICA members’ preview – so it’s a mixed selection that is somehow dominated by Korean connections. And, for once, nothing Japanese, at least not in the trailer section. The Bonus Bits, meanwhile, are all about Japan.

Review: 「ライアーゲーム -再生-」 (Raia Gemu – Saisei /Liar Game – Reborn)

Tags

adaptation

Year: 2012
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Matsuyama Hiroaki
Adaptation from: Shinobu Kaitani’s manga「ライアーゲーム」(Raia Gemu/Liar Game)
Screenplay: not credited
Cinematography: Miyata Nobu
Soundscore: not credited
Cast: Matsuda Shota, Tabe Mikako
Runtime: 131 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Film’s official website: in Japanese only

Seen on a British Airways flight from London to New Delhi (August 2012). The theatrical and/or DVD versions may differ slightly.

As you might guess from a title like Raia Gemu – Saisei, there is a lot that precedes this film. It all starts with a manga,「ライアーゲーム」(Raia Gemu/Liar Game, 2005 – ongoing), which went on to inspire two seasons of a TV drama (2007, 2009), a first film (「ライアーゲーム　ザ・ファイナルステージ」/Raia Gemu za Fainaru Suteji/Liar Game – The Final Stage, 2010), a spin-off drama series  「アリス　イン　ライアーゲーム」 (Arisu in Raiagemu/Alice in Liar Game, 2012) and of course Raia Gemu – Saisei itself.

Full Length Trailer Musings for「るろうに剣心」 (Rurōnikenshin/Rurouni Kenshin, Japan, 2012)

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adaptation, trailers

Recently, in Trailer Weekly 43, I posted a teaser trailer for「るろうに剣心」  (Rurōnikenshin/Rurouni Kenshin, Japan, 2012). A full length trailer now is available on the official YouTube channel of the film, not only in Japanese, but with subtitles in four different languages: English, French, Spanish and Chinese. The multi-language effort in itself is interesting, as it surely must indicate something about the audience the film is aiming for.

Trailer Weekly #43

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BFI Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, Korean Film Night, Year of 12 Directors

Juuuuust posting this in time before Sunday is over – I had nearly finished the Trailer Weekly a few hours ago, but then a Japanese friend of mine came for dinner and I was (happily) distracted for a while, enjoying lovely company and yum food (oven grilled summer veg from the farmers’ market + couscous with sour cherries and pistachios + Korean style edamame & cucumber salad + cherries + Greek coffee).

This week’s Trailer Weekly begins with lots of USAmericana (including some big budget films), but trailers from Japan and Korea follow as well.

Trailer Weekly #42

This is going to be an anime Trailer Weekly. Just because. A super short one too, but I’m literally falling asleep here and just cannot concentrate (「スローダンス」/Slow Dance, Japan, 2005 is to be blamed for this. I was watching till 3 a.m. – up to and including episode 9 – and had to get up at 6:30 for work). Apologies for any typos. I will fix them tomorrow.

Manga Jiman Competition

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competition, Japanese Embassy London

When I attending the Japanese Embassy’s monthly film screening of Aiki (Japan, 2002 – review to follow) last night, I picked up a leaflet for the 6th Manga Jiman competition. (The picture above is a scan – leaflet ended up slightly crumpled in typical alua-fashion .)

Anime Updates for the US of A: Studio Ghibli Retrospective, From up on Poppy Hill & A Letter to Momo

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Film Festival, Miyazaki Goro, Studio Ghibli

Totoroooooo. Love this image. Makes me grin from one ear to the other.

Updates, updates… of the “oh yay!” kind although you will have to practice some patience also. Some of these news bits are actually from a while ago, but I wasn’t, umm, being too attentive.

Review and Reflections: ヒミズ (Himizu/Himizu) as Manga and Film Adaptation

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adaptation, Film Festival

Year: 2011
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Director: Sono Sion
Screenplay: Sono Sion
Original Manga: Furuya Minoru
Cinematography: Tanikawa Sohei
Cast: Sometani Shōta, Nikaidō Fumi, Watanabe Tetsu, Denden, Murakami Jun, Watanabe Makiko, Mitsuishi Ken, Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Kagurazaka Megumi, Kurosawa Asuka, Suwa Taro, Kubozuka Yosuke, Horibe Keisuke, Nishijima Takahiro
Runtime: 129 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Official Website: Himizu (in Japanese)

Seen at the film’s European premiere at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival in London. Himizu screens on the British Isles from June 1st. See for details below.

Note: Manga images included read right to left. 

When Furuya Minora first published ヒミズ (Himizu) in 2001, many fans were bitterly disappointed. Up until then Furuya had established his name as a comedy manga artist, starting with 行け!稲中卓球部 (Ike! Inachū takkyū-bu/Ping-Pong Club, original run from 1993-1996) which was so successful that it “set the standard for comedy manga” (wikipedia). Ike! Inachū takkyū-bu was followed by 僕といっしょ (Boku to Issho/Together with Me, 1998) and グリーンヒル (Gurīnhiru/ Green Hill, 2000), which both did reflect on difficulties of life in an increasingly capitalist society, but still packed this into comedic storylines. Then came Himizu.

June Events Calendar

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Barbican, Edinburgh, Film Festival, ICA, Japanese Embassy London, KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London

UPDATED 9/6/2012 – BFI links fixed!

A great range of events this month. Lots of fabulous films. The ICA in particular is showing plenty of love for Korean cinema and then there is of course the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which has all kind of gems on offer.

Of Exams, Uneventful Travels, M & Things to Come

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Film Festival, Japanese Embassy London, KCCUK, London, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli, trailers

Pile. Of things to watch. To review. Or some, just to rewatch for joy. And a few, like Kokowääh, to never look at again. (The books are mostly uni stuff.)

I’m back – back from my blog hiatus and recently back in the UK also.

Trailer Weekly #32

Before we get started on trailers, please head over to indiewire.com, check the four films nominated for “Project of the Week” and vote. (Hint: I voted Remember O Goddess. I did check out the others, but it’s still Remember O Goddess I want to see the most.)

As for this week’s trailers:

May Events Calendar

Tags

Film Festival, ICA, Japanese Embassy London, KCCUK, Korean Film Night, London, Studio Ghibli

There are loads, so get ready:

Weekend Showcase in June: Anime Season at the BFI

A Letter to Momo: New place. New friends?

I kind of just want to dance around the room right now. I just heard the BFI is holding a special showcase for recent anime in June (June 8-10, 2012 to be exact), and the line-up makes me all giddy.

A Letter to Momo! A Letter to Momo! A Letter to Momo! Yep, that one from Trailer Weekly #14.

Trailer Weekly #30

Tags

Film Festival, London, trailers

Things I hate: when a perfectly good film festival comes along and I only find out about it right in the middle of it. That’s what happened this morning, when there was a mention of the Argentine Film Festival, running from April 19-22, in the Film London Newsletter. Why oh why? Why can’t they mention it a week or two in advance? Not only have I missed two days of the festival, but

a) I have another film scheduled to see tonight (Karl Markovics’s Atmen/Breathing) which I could have perfectly well seen on another date because it is on general release in the UK and

b) some films that I would have liked to see, like Medianeras (featured in my Trailer Weekly #4 and mentioned again in Trailer Weekly #7), are of course long booked out by now.

Wahhh! So all I can do is put those films I would have very, very much liked to see but am missing in this week’s Trailer Weekly. (And I’ll get off my ranting pedestal now and keep my fingers crossed that I will get to watch these some other time.)

Review: 攻殻機動隊 (Gōsuto In Za Sheru – Kōkaku Kidōtai/Ghost in the Shell)

Year: 1995 (original film), 2008 (digitally remastered version Ghost in the Shell 2.0)
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Genre: Cyberpunk
Director: Oshii Mamoru (押井 守)
Original Manga by: Shirō Masamune (士郎 正宗 )
Screenplay: Itō Kazunori (伊藤 和典)
Art Direction: Ogura Hiromasa
Animation Direction: Nishikubo Toshihiko
Runtime: 83 min
Trailer: Teaser and longer trailer on YouTube (both not subtitled)

Seen at a special one-off screening at Prince Charles Cinema as part of their weekly Double Bill event. The other film screened as part of the “Most Manga Double Bill” was アキラ (Akira, Japan, 1988) – retrospectively, I should have watched that one too. Both screenings were completely sold out – lots of otaku about London it seems.

With some films, watching them once or twice does not suffice, but multiple viewings are required in order to fully understand and appreciate them – and 「攻殻機動隊」 (Ghost in the Shell) is, without doubt, one of these magnificently layered creations. Seeing the cult anime for the first time earlier this week at a special screening organised by London’s Prince Charles Cinema, this means what I can offer at this point is a first impression of a work that I plan to revisit many times

Trailer Weekly #28

Tags

Studio Ghibli, trailers

Yeppers, I’m late. I was tired from work on Saturday and then I browsed the raws of the webtoon 유토피아 (Utopia) which just sort of made me a little depressed and not in the mood to do anything productive like writing a blog post… Utopia, by the way, has a great premise, even if its tagline (“two extra-ordinary people in ordinary love”) sounds a little cheesy. But the ‘extra-ordinary’ refers to two social outcasts, a teen girl, who communicates only in writing, and an orphaned boy who is seriously maimed in a car accident, losing his left leg, as well as suffering facial disfigurement and brain damage. I would have said that’s sufficient hardship to explore in one story, but [spoiler alert!] judging from the raws there is no happy ending to this. Wahhh….

As for trailers this week, the focus is on Taiwan, a country that holds a special place in my TCK heart. As you may know, coming up in May is the Taiwan Cinefest (I will write a separate blog post on the programme and other details soon) and as I was researching the films to be screened, I stumbled across “Taiwan Cinema – Shining through the 21st Century”, a freely downloadable document prepared in cooperation between the Government Information Office and the Taipei Film Commission.  The file contains synopses for a whole lot of T-films from the past couple of years plus details on upcoming releases. Highlights: