29th July 2010
Category:News
The 67th Venice Film festival’s line-up is actually pretty exciting!
The official selection includes Tsui Hark’s Detective Dee, Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, Tran Anh Hun’s Norwegian Wood, Sion Sono’s Cold Fish, Hong Sang-soo’s Oki, Anti Gas Skin – indie k-film, John Woo’s Reign of Assassins, Shimizu’s Shock Labyrinth, Miike’s Zebraman 1 & 2, Andrew Lau’s Legend of Chen Zhen, plus few thai & chinese short films…!!!
That’s clearly more mainstream than Cannes, it’s great to see the oldest intl film fest picking so many asian titles (just to please this year’s president of the jury, Tarantino?).
The festival will run from sept 1st to the 11th, so stay tuned to read the early feedbacks!
Via Official website
The japanese cinema industry is based on a crossmedia (or mediamix) model. Turning a manga into an anime, or a film, or a product… For example, you’ve read Gantz, you’ve seen the TV series, and next year you’ll watch the action-live version. Even though, basically, in each case, it’s the same story. Kind-of frustrating.
This interview offers an interesting take on the subject. It’s not about crossmedia, more about transmedia. The difference? Offering new ways to experiment the universe of a story (each media has its own storytelling characteristics). That’s what director Leiji Matsumoto (Galaxy Express 999) did during the ’60s & ’70s.
But what now?
When TV execs have been producing ‘TV company films’ for years, and so on…?
The Japanese cinema industry isn’t the only one facing troubles, animation too. During this conference, screenwriter Dai Sato (Cowboy Bebop, Ergo Proxy) shared insightful comments about what is currently going wrong in the japanese anime industry.
To sum it up quickly: Read more…
20th July 2010
Category:News
IFC entertainment have just acquired North American rights to Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo 2 & Tetsuo The Bullet Man, plus, Im Sang-soo’s The Housemaid. An early 2011 release is planned, and in September, Housemaid will be at the Toronto film fest.
So far, The Bullet Man & Housemaid have received mixed reviews, Shinya Tsukamoto would bring nothing new to the Tetsuo mythology while Im Sang-soo’s directing would be all style for style’s sake.
Via PR, Asiae, @Newkoreancinema
19th July 2010
Category:News
Have you heard about High School of the Dead? It’s a zombie anime currently airing in Japan, with tons of fanservice. And some people are trying to explain that the idea of ‘fanservice’ is more deep that you can think. In this article, the author is offering a Freudian analysis of the show.
And it reminded me of an interesting point shared by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, which happens to be a real cinephile too. He said, he loved american horror films like Romero’s. But he was deeply surprised to discover the critical response in the West for these films.
Because, most of the time, western reviewers only saw zombies as a political metaphor. When, for Kurosawa, what makes zombies interesting is more the fact that they’re really frightening. And that’s it. Just ‘emotion’. Even commercial tools can be ‘fun’.
