28 Thursday Feb 2013
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Japanese, OST
Another update from the lovely people preparing the (sell-out) stage adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke: they have received the blessing from the Japanese animation studio and Hisaishi Joe to use the original music score of the film for their performance. Continue reading »
19 Thursday Apr 2012
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Year: 1993
Director: Sawai Shinichirō (澤井信一郎)
Screenplay: Ito Ryoji, Miyazaki Akira, Sawai Shinichirō
Cinematography: Kimura Daisaku
Cast: Kazama Tōru, Washio Isako, Dan Fumi
Runtime: 125 min
Trailer: Not available
Seen at a screening as part of the Films at the Embassy of Japan programme (see also widget on Otherwhere’s left sidebar).
Every month the Japanese Embassy in London screens a film at its (aptly titled) “Films at the Japanese Embassy” event. I have only attended two screenings thus far – this particular one plus the one for 風の又三郎 ガラスのマソト (Kaze no Matasaburō: Garasu no masoto/The Glass Cape) – but my impression is that films are selected with much care and often include gems that are otherwise rather hard to come by. While Kaze no Matasaburō introduced a children’s tale that is much beloved in Japan but virtually unknown anywhere else, Waga ai no fu Taki Rentarō monogatari ventures into the country’s history of classical music. Continue reading »
17 Tuesday Apr 2012
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Year: 2011
Country: China/Taiwan
Language: Mandarin, Tibetan
Director: Du Jiayi
Based on the original book of the same title by: Xie Wanglin
Screenplay: Zhang Jialu, Cheng Hsiao-Tse
Cinematography: Jie Du
Soundscore: Ōshima Michiru
Cast: Chang Shuhao (also known as Bryan Chang), Li Xiao Chuan, Li Tao
Runtime: 89 min
Trailer: Trailer 1 at asianwiki.com, Trailer 2 on YouTube (slightly longer)
Seen at the film’s European premiere at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival in London. The film is due to screen at the 14th Udine Far East Film Festival on April 25, 2012.
When a film makes you cry halfway through, there is clearly something special about it. Although introduced at the Terracotta Film Festival as a production with ‘spectacular landscape scenery’, the real beauty and heart of Zhuǎn shān lie, no matter how jaw-dropping the views of the Himalayas get, in the very real depiction of human connections within the film – of strangers that find, despite the radically different worlds that they come from, that at the core they (and we) are all the same. Continue reading »
11 Wednesday Apr 2012
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Year: 2001
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Director: Song Il-gon
Screenplay: Song Il-gon
Cinematography: Kim Myung-jun
Cast: Seo Joo-hee, Im Yoo-jin, Kim Hye-Na
Music: Roh Young-sim, Lee Jae-jun, Jeong Jae-il
Runtime: 115 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Seen at the Korean Cultural Centre (KCCUK) during the Song Il-gon (송일곤) month of KCCUK’s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”.
In the southern sea of Korea there lies an island by the name of 꽃섬 (Ggotseom, or Flower Island) where all misery and sorrow is forgotten. Ggotseom is where Ok-nam (Seo Joo-hee), Hye-na (Kim Hye-Na) and Ju-jin (Im Yoo-jin) are headed, although their journey does not start together. At the beginning of Song Il-gon’s feature film the three women are strangers to one another – solitary beings wrangling with their own pain under the same grey sky of Seoul. Continue reading »
09 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Japanese, Manga / Manwha / Comic, OST, Review
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 Continue reading »
09 Monday Apr 2012
Posted in Events, Film, Korean, Manga / Manwha / Comic, OST
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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: Continue reading »
26 Monday Mar 2012
Year: 2011
Country: Italy/France
Languages: Italian, Chinese
Director: Andrea Segre
Screenplay: Marco Pettenello, Andrea Segre
Cinematography: Luca Bigazzi
Soundscore: François Couturier
Cast: Zhao Tao (赵涛), Rade Sherbedgia, Marco Paolini, Roberto Citran, Guiseppe Battiston
Runtime: 96 min
Trailer: at the film’s official website, plus some film clips
Film’s official website: Io sono Li (some sections only in Italian)
Seen at special screening at the BFI for the 2011 Satyajit Ray Award, which is given annually for “to the director, of any nationality, for their first Feature Film screened at the London Film Festival which best captures the artistry expressed in Ray’s own vision”. The screening was followed by a Q&A with the director.
Please note: Io sono Li does not yet have a UK distributor – a real pity for a film as outstanding as this one. I tried to do my tiny bit to promote it by reviewing Io sono Li on Otherwhere, if you like the sound of the film, please do like the review and/or share it widely, so that we can get a distributor to notice!
Chioggia, a city on the Venetian laguna, is the hometown of Andrea Segre, the film’s director, and representative of a very traditional Italy: of native fishermen that have been making their living off the sea generation after generation. Evenings are typically spent in pubs, where an older Italian Mamma rules the roost and serves the half-rough clientèle. On a visit to one such pub that Segre had known since childhood days, he found a new, completely alien face one day. Instead of one of the Mammas, who have become an institution in their own right in these places over the years, there was a Chinese woman, plainly signalling a change, a change that had been silently unfolding in the country for while already. The story of Shun Li, one of Io sono Li’s protagonists, found its beginning there, as Segre recounts: Continue reading »
29 Sunday Jan 2012
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Year: 2005
Director: Lee Myeong-se (이명세)
Screenplay: Lee Hae-kyeong (이해경), Lee Myeong-se (이명세)
Cinematography: Hwang Ki-seok (황기석)
Music: Jo Seong-woo (조성우)
Cast: Kang Dong-won (강동원), Ha Ji-won (하지원), Ahn Seong-gi (안성기), Song Yeong-chang (송영창)
Runtime: 111 min
Trailer: on YouTube (not subtitled)
Seen at the Apollo Cinema (Piccadilly Circus) as part of the KCCUK‘s Korean Film Night programme “2012: Year of the 12 Directors”. The screening included an introduction by Dr. Daniel Martin and a Q&A with the director after the film.
The first word that comes to mind – probably within a minute or two of watching Lee’s Hyeongsa - is ‘idiosyncratic’. Classed as part of the Korean New Wave of cinema – yet distinct from many of them – it was released within a few years of a slew of internationally successful East Asian martial arts films (also known as 武侠/wuxia). Hyeongsa was somewhat misunderstood by Western critics, as this short Guardian review readily demonstrates. Although equally a period drama involving spectacular sword fights, Hyeongsa is nothing like 臥虎藏龍 (Wòhǔ Cánglóng/Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, 2000) 英雄 (Yīngxióng/Hero, 2002) and 十面埋伏 (Shí Miàn Mái Fú/House of Flying Daggers, 2004) and did not fit into the mould of expectations created by these sleek productions. Continue reading »
06 Friday Jan 2012
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Japanese, Literature, OST, Review
Year: 2009
Director: Katabuchi Sunao
Screenplay: Katabuchi Sunao
Cinematography: Masumoto Yukihiro
Art Direction: Uehara Shinichi
Voice Cast: Fukuda Mayuko, Mizusawa Nako, Morisako Ei, Honjou Manami
Music: Murai Shusei, Minako “mooki” Obata
Theme song: こどものせかい (Kodomo no sekai/Children’s World) by Kotringo
Runtime: 95 min
Trailer: on YouTube (not subtitled)
Film’s official website: Mai-Mai (in Japanese)
Only one word is really needed to describe Mai Mai Miracle: it’s simply magical.
25 Sunday Dec 2011
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Year: 2004
Country: Korean/Japan
Director: Kim Ki-duk (김기덕)
Screenplay: Kim Ki-duk (김기덕)
Cinematography: Jang Seung-beck
Music: Slvian
Cast: Jae Hee, Lee Seung-yeon
Runtime: 88 min.
Trailer: on YouTube (not subtitled)
Film’s official website: US Distributor’s Website
It was last October when the idea first came to me. I was removing a flyer that was pasted over the keyhole of my front door when it suddenly occurred to me that the houses that had these ads intact for days must have been empty. The image of an empty house that no one enters led to a story of a very lonely person cut off from others. And I wanted to make a film about a man who goes in and fills that emptiness with warmth. (Kim Ki-duk)
11 Sunday Dec 2011
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Year: 2009
Country: Korea/Japan
Korean title: 보트 (Boat)
Japanese title: ノーボーイズ、ノークライ (No Boys, No Cry)
Languages: Korean, Japanese and some English
Director: Kim Young-nam (김영남)
Screenplay: Watanabe Aya (渡邊あや)
Cinematography: Tsutai Takahiro
Soundtrack: Sunihara Yoshinori
Cast: Ha Jung-woo, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Cha Soo-yeon, Kanjiya Shirohi, Tokunaga Eri, Emoto Tasuku, Lee Dae-yeon
Runtime: 115 minutes
Trailer: Japanese and Korean trailers at asianmediawiki (not subtitled)
Film’s official website: No Boys, No Cry
Waves crashing. The gentle sounds of a harbour. Cries of sea gulls in the distance. A young man, stretched out on a small boat in the middle of the day. Waves again. Mobile phones whirring. The man stirs, barely. The bright sun burns down on him. He blinks, glimpses up into a vast, cotton-cloud sky. A balloon floats by. He turns over to his side, lazing about. More sounds of waves.
And then, a pulse: Continue reading »
03 Saturday Dec 2011
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Film, Japanese, Korean, Literature, OST
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26 Saturday Nov 2011
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Year: 2011
Director: Asghar Farhadi
Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi
Cinematography: Mahmoud Kalari
Cast: Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat, Sarina Farhadi, Kimia Hosseini
Runtime: 123 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Seen at a screening as part of the Iranian Film Festival (UKIFF) at Ciné Lumière.
A Separation was the first Iranian film to win the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival (plus Silver Berlin Bears for Best Actor – Peyman Moaadi and Shahab Hosseini – as well as Best Actress – for both Leila Hatami and Sareh Bayat). It also won awards at the Sydney Film Festival, the Melbourne International Film Festival, the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the British Independent Film Awards, among others. (For a complete list see here.) It currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Continue reading »
23 Wednesday Nov 2011
Year: 2010
Languages: Japanese, English, Swedish
Director: Kamanaka Hitomi
Genre: Documentary
Runtime: 115 min
Trailer: Ashes to Honey (subtitled)
Official website: Ashes to Honey (both in Japanese and English)
Seen at a screening as part of the Zipangu Fest at the ICA.
Note: Ashes to Honey screened as part of Zipangu Fest’s Nuclear Reactions programme. Continue reading »
21 Monday Nov 2011
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Year: 2010
Director: Kato Naoki
Screenplay: Kato Naoki
Cinematography: Kondo Ryuto
Cast: Watanabe Kenji/Suneohair, Tomosaka Rie, Kobayashi Kaoru, Murai Ryouta, Hosshan
Runtime: 113 min
Trailer: on YouTube
Official website: Aburakusasu (in Japanese)
Seen at a screening as part of the Zipangu Fest at the ICA.
Based on the 2005 novel Aburakusasu no Matsuri (lit. ‘Abraxas Festival’) by Sōkyō Genyū, Abraxas is, in part, a music film and – not surprisingly – opens with music. The music is jarring: viewers watch a band rock away on a stage, in particular its lead singer, Jonen. Long hair hiding his face, he is jamming the guitar in an explosive manner and ends up writhing on the floor. Fast forward some twenty years and we see him again, now a shaven-headed Buddhist monk. But even in midlife Jonen is still very much a troubled soul and struggling with depression.
19 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Film, Japanese, Korean, Literature, Manga / Manwha / Comic, OST
12 Saturday Nov 2011
Posted in Film, Japanese, Literature, Manga / Manwha / Comic, OST
23 Sunday Oct 2011
Posted in Anime / Animated Film, Film, Japanese, OST, Review
Year: 2011
Director: Shinkai Makoto
Screenplay/Story: Shinkai Makoto
Animation and Character Design: Nishimura Takayo
Art Director: Tanji Takumi
Music: Tenmon
Runtime: 116 min
Trailer: on YouTube (not subtitled) and Teaser Trailer, followed by snippets of other Shinkai films (not subtitled) – watch the latter if you want to get a first sense of Shinkai’s visual feel.
Film’s official website: 星を追う子ども (in Japanese)
Seen at a screening at Vue West as part of the BFI Film Festival.
Hoshi o Ou Kodomo (literally Children Who Chase Stars) is Shinkai Makoto’s most Studio Ghibli-like work. This isn’t exactly praise, because Shinkai’s talent lies in something quite different than what enchants us with Miyazaki and other Studio Ghibli directors. Continue reading »
18 Tuesday Oct 2011
Year: 2011
Director: Koreeda Hirokazu
Screenplay: Koreeda Hirokazu
Cinematography: Yutaka Yamazaki
Cast: Maeda Koki, Maeda Oshiro, Odagiri Joe, Otsuka Nene, Hashizume Isao, Kiki Kirin
Runtime: 128 mins
Trailer: at nipponcinema (not subtitled)
Film’s official website: 奇跡 (in Japanese)
Seen at a screening at Vue West as part of the 2011 BFI Film Festival.
Kiseki (literally “Miracle”, but titled “I Wish” in English) is a film that belongs to the ‘slice of life’ genre. There is, however, a plot line: it revolves around two boys, Koichi and Ryu (wonderfully played by real life brothers Maeda Koki and Maeda Ohshiro), who have been living in different parts of Japan since their parents’ divorce six months prior. Continue reading »
14 Friday Oct 2011
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Year: 2011
Director: Takahiro Miki
Screenplay: Takahiro Miki
Cinematography: Masataka Kato
Cast: Yamazaki Kento, Hashimoto Ai
Runtime: 67 min.
Trailer: at nipponcinema (no subtitles) or on youtube (no subtitles)
Seen at its European Premiere at the 2011 Raindance Film Festival.
In 2008 the band Galileo Galilei from Wakkanai – Japan’s northernmost city on the island of Hokkaido – won the teenage talent festival Senkou Riot. When Director Takahiro Miki heard their first original song live in concert, he decided wanted to make a film based on it – the result being 管制塔 (Kanseitō/Control Tower). Continue reading »
