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 #41

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BFI, documentary, Katabuchi Sunao, Kon Satoshi, Miyazaki Hayao, Studio Ghibli, trailers

Apologies for not posting much lately (so it feels to me in any case), but I’m quite busy with my studies and work at the moment. I won’t be in the UK for the entire month of August (gotta escape the chaos of the Olympics), and am trying to get as many hours in as possible before going away. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that I will be particularly less busy next month, just that I won’t have immediate deadlines and meetings with my supervisors.

Review: 風の又三郎 ガラスのマソト (Kaze no Matasaburō: Garasu no masoto/The Glass Cape)

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Japanese Embassy London, Katabuchi Sunao, Studio Ghibli

Year: 1989
Director: Toshiya Itoh
Screenplay: Tsutui Tomomi, Toshiya Itoh
Cinematography: N/A
Cast: Hayase Misato, Kobayashi Yu, Shiga Junichi, Amasaga Toshiyuki, Uchida Asao, Dan Fumi, Kusakari Masao
Runtime: 107 min
Trailer: no trailer available, but 4 min clip of the opening is on YouTube

Seen at a screening as part of the Films at the Embassy of Japan programme.

It’s another film that is simply magical. Kaze no Matasaburō: Garasu no masoto (literally Matasaburō of the Wind: Cape of Glass) depicts a story of childhood in the rural Japan of the 1920s. At the heart of the tale is Takada (Kobayashi Yu), a young boy, whose father is transferred to a remote village in the Tōhoku region. Takada arrives there on the very windy 210th day of the year, which immediately raises suspicion in the village children: he must, they whisper amongst themselves, be Matasaburō, the son of the wind god, who appears on this day and stays until the 220th – a suspicion that seems confirmed when it turns out that Takada’s first name is Saburō.

Review: マイマイ新子と千年の魔法 (Maimai Shinko to sen-nen no mahō/Mai Mai Miracle)

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adaptation, Katabuchi Sunao, Studio Ghibli

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.