April 2013 Events

Tags

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 #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.

Once Upon a Time in Japan: 10th Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme

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Birmingham, Edinburgh, Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, ICA, Japan Foundation, Katabuchi Sunao, London

Premiere Japan somehow never happened, but fortunately the Japan Foundation’s Touring Film Programme continues to exist – and that I know for certain thanks to an email in my inbox a few days ago, which came with all the details for the 10th edition of the event. Entitled “Once Upon a Time in Japan: Reinventing the Past Through the Eyes of Japanese Contemporary Filmmakers”, this (well, next) year’s focus is on the past. The “contemporary filmmakers” in the line-up include Miike Takashi, Katabuchi Sunao, Koreeda Hirokazu and Inudō Isshin among others.

UPDATED 3/1/2013

Trailer Weekly #63

Tags

Hosoda Mamoru, Kang Dong-won, The Hobbit

This is still last week’s Trailer Weekly – the actual one for today (#64) is in the works too, but probably won’t be finished quite in time for midnight. It’s been a busy week, I spent a lot of hours outdoors for work (freezing!) but I’m fortunately resistant enough not to get ill from that sort of thing (even when my socks end up wet, as they do quite often). With work keeping me busy and it also being the last week of term at uni, there wasn’t much filmwatching – I missed the KCCUK screening and I haven’t yet seen The Hobbit either (and won’t probably for another few weeks). The reviews for Peter Jackson’s latest Tolkien adaptation seem to be mixed (viewers feeling particularly ambivalent about the 48 fps format), but I wasn’t really expecting otherwise nor does it put it me off.

November Fests: Leeds International Film Festival

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Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru

Tomorrow the annual Leeds International Film Festival (LIFF) opens… and I’m finally finishing this post (but better now than never!). LIFF, one of the major events on the calendar of any cinephile living in the north of England, runs until November 18 and offers a diverse selection of films from all over, including some British premieres. There are quite a few Japanese and Korean films as well, most of which however have already had London screenings. While this means that there is probably not all that much reason for those of us in the capital to attend LIFF, anyone living up further north is in for some real treats – plus, I can offer you reviews (or at least a few words of recommendation) for some of the films on the programme.

Trailer Weekly #57

Tags

Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, Kon Satoshi, Miyazaki Hayao, Paris, Studio Ghibli, trailers, Tsumabuki Satoshi

Just in time this time round.

Hope you had a good weekend. It actually snowed in London, but only for 10 minutes and no one – except those of us up at 6 am on Saturday morning – noticed. I even saw three people in shorts at that hour, one being a runner, the other two… lunatics? At least I can’t figure out any other explanation for wearing shorts at 1 degree Celsius!

Anyhow, five trailers today (in order to be timely), all J plus one K.

After the Festival: Awards and Reflections

Tags

BFI, BFI Film Festival, Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, London, Tsumabuki Satoshi

The London Film Festival is over and I have to say I’m sort of suffering from film fatigue.  I did enjoy pretty much everything I watched, but I kind of like my time to reflect on each film I see before I delve into the next one and at festivals that’s kind of hard to do – the next screening is always only a few hours away.

Trailer Weekly #56

Tags

Hosoda Mamoru, trailers, Tsumabuki Satoshi

I know it’s Tuesday already. My apologies.

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.

Totoro Goes to Honolulu

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Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli

…or: Studio Ghibli at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

Trailer Weekly #54

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Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, London

I am almost forgot about the Trailer Weekly – I kind of got distracted looking at bento boxes. I mean, did you know that they sell things like nori punches? Nori punches! I can see how making bentos could get totally addictive, because I WANT A NORI PUNCH for onigiri with silly grins!

  On to trailers, which are a totally random bunch today (in just about every way). But then again, I was never very systematic with them, was I?

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 #47

Tags

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.

Scotland Loves Anime… and We Love Scotland (and Anime)

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Edinburgh, Film Festival, Hoshi o Ou Kodomo, Hosoda Mamoru, Shinkai Makoto

… well, I do in any case.

So here’s my promised full line-up post for Scotland Loves Anime, which enters its third year and is only getting bigger and better (so they say – I haven’t actually attended the event myself before). The festival will take place in Glasgow (October 12-14) and Edinburgh (October 19-21), with a slightly different programme for each location.

I’m starting with the Edinburgh line-up, just because I’m so excited about… I bet you can guess which film.

Yay yay yay! Ame to Yuki comes to Scotland!

Tags

Edinburgh, Film Festival, Glasgow, Hosoda Mamoru

This is going to be the super-fastest and shortest post ever, because I need to go to bed before my Dad yells at me, but I just heard that Hosoda’s「おおかみこどもの雨と雪」 (Ōkami No Kodomo Ame To Yuki/The Wolf Children Rain and Snow, Japan, 2012) is on the official line-up for Scotland Loves Anime! I will do a proper post on the full line-up tomorrow, but I just wanted to shout that out into the world.

Trailer Weekly #46

Tags

documentary, Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, trailers

There you go…. fingers crossed that WP will work long enough for me to post this! It’s been buggy all morning. Well, it may be the internet service but most other websites do work!

Trailer Weekly #43

Tags

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 #37 (Make-Up TW #2)

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BFI Film Festival, Hosoda Mamoru, Okada Masaki, Shinkai Makoto, Studio Ghibli, trailers, Tsumabuki Satoshi

I promised a make-up Trailer Weekly today for one of the skipped ones in May, so here it is. If I am honest, I am way more excited about the Bonus Bits (scroll down) than the trailers today – which is not to say that the films listed are not interesting. It’s just that some of the Bonus Bits are news that make me happy! Filmwise, I’m still in Cine-Japan-mode, with a few more entries from the Nippon Connection Festival, a couple of oh-this-actor-is-in-it! and some random finds.

Trailer Weekly #36

Tags

adaptation, Hosoda Mamoru, Miyazaki Hayao, Oguri Shun, Okada Masaki, Oshii Mamoru, Shinkai Makoto, Studio Ghibli, trailers

Feeling lazy today. Just one of those days! Lack of sleep due to marathoning 「花ざかりの君たちへ イケメン♂パラダイス」 (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen ♂ paradaisu/For You in Full Blossom better known as Hana Kimi, 2007) until, umm, daylight hours, is not helping the matter. Hana Kimi is a fun dorama, but, be warned, totally of the whacky, way-out-there, manga-kind – it is in fact based on a manga. Just the final couple episodes feel a little deflated. Still, for the most part it is – once you suspend all and any expectations of normality – crackingly funny and all the familiar faces (Oguri, Okada, Mizushiro, etc.) also warmed my heart.

The trailers this week? An almost exclusively Japanese affair.

New Trailer for Hosoda’s おおかみこどもの雨と雪 (Ōkami No Kodomo Ame To Yuki/The Wolf Children Rain and Snow)

Tags

Hosoda Mamoru, trailers

Screenshot from the film’s Japanese website

Hosoda Mamoru just posted a new trailer (not subtitled) for his upcoming animated film おおかみこどもの雨と雪 (Ōkami No Kodomo Ame To Yuki/The Wolf Children Rain and Snow) via his twitter feed. 

Review: 時をかける少女 (Toki o Kakeru Shoujo – The Girl Who Leapt through Time)

Tags

Hosoda Mamoru

Year: 2006
Director: Hosoda Mamoru
Screenplay: Okudera Satoko
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk9SAmD00Iw

Hosoda’s anime The Girl Who Leapt through Time (Toki o Kakeru Shōjo or short TokiKake) is a loose continuation of a 1967 novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka of the same title and tells the story of 17-year old tomboy schoolgirl Konno Makoto, who after an accident in the chemistry lab discovers that she is able to leap through time. In line with her initially somewhat immature and happy-go-lucky personality, Makoto uses her new ability to improve test grades and avoid her usual mishaps, but soon finds that it is not quite so easy to manipulate events and that self-serving choices have consequences for others. As a result, her close friendship with two classmates – the handsome, studious and kind Kousuke and the more nonchalant redhead Chiaki, who is portrayed as somewhat of a slacker – suddenly becomes more complicated.