Did you know that the Raindance Film festival is on in London? I totally forgot and they had a good selection of Japanese films which ends today with the closing night gala screening of Bonsai. I should have reported it but I have been busy with various things like going back to Japanese class – great fun. I’ll try and get some Japanese language posts up this month – I could cover the ―て form… or maybe not 
The 24th Tokyo International Film Festival is at the end of this month and Zipangu Fest is next month so I will keep my ear to the ground and highlight any interesting titles.
In any case enough apologies and Japanese language lessons here are the film trailers!
Warped Forest
Release date: N/A
Running time: 82 mins.
Director: Shunichiro Miki
Starring: Rinko Kikuchi, Fumi Nikaido, Boba, Kanji Tuda, Yoshiyuki Morishita
Look at that cast! More specifically look at Rinko Kikuchi (Norwegian Wood), fine actress that see is. Also in this film is Yoshiyuki Morishita from Survive Style 5+. Anyway this is the first trailer for The Warped Forest by Shunichiro Miki who directed The First Contact segment of Funky Forest. What’s warped forest about?
A collection of weird characters in a weird world are put on display. This is a world where there is a giant shopgirl unable to fit into the store she works in, nymphs harass a heart-broken woman with suggestive fruit and bedroom’s have weird green pods in them.
The Raven
Release date: N/A
Running time: N/A
Director: James McTeigue
Starring: John Cusack, Luke Evans, Alice Eve, Brendan Gleeson,
I am a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe so the prospect of watching a modern reboot in the style of the recent Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes has me intrigued.
19th century Baltimore, a mother and daughter are murdered in circumstances that mirror a collection of stories currently being run in a newspaper and written by social pariah and struggling author Edgar Allan Poe (John Cusack). Poe is brought in for police questioning but another murder occurs using the writer’s stories for inspiration and it looks like the author might be next! A Baltimore detective named Emmett Fields (Luke Evans) decides to team up with the author to hunt down the murderer.
UK DVD Releases – contains images NSFW.
Tokyo Decadence
Release date: 24th of October
Running time: 82 mins.
Director: Ryu Murakami
Starring: Miho Nikaido, Sayoko Amano, Tenmei Kano
Tokyo Decadence (1991) gets a (pointless?) DVD re-release in the UK on the 24th of October thanks to ArrowDrome (who release Giallo films and cult movies). I have to admit that I have avoided this in the past due to the film’s subject matter but I mention it because it is written and directed by Ryu Murakami, author of stunningly brutal light novels – Piercing, In the Miso Soup and Audition which the Miike film was based on and he wrote the screenplay to. Tokyo Decadence also has music by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Hell, Tom Mes from Midnight Eye gave it a good write-up so maybe there is something here other than porn masquerading as art.
Ai is struggling to get over the ending of her relationship with a gallery artist and so delves into the world of an S&M artist where she is degraded by various clients. Part of her attempt ro recover her lover is following the instructions of a fortune-teller and invading the artist’s house.
Ninja Girl
Release date: 10th of October
Running time: 82 mins.
Director: Seiji Chiba
Starring: Rina Takeda, Mitsuki Koga, Masanori Mimoto, Yuichi Sato
Rina Takeda is awesome. Not only is she a karate champion but she is a rising star in Japanese action movies. Now UK anime label MVM are releasing her latest film Ninja Girl. The DVD is released on the 10th of October.
As the fierce rivalry between the Iga and Kouga ninja clans rages on, a pair of psychotic eunuch ninjas, are tasked with abducting young women to serve as “tools of pleasure”. Little do they realise that one of their latest victims is a kunoichi, a highly skilled female ninja (Rina Takeda). But also a kunoichi on a mission of revenge. Determined to smash the evil flesh trafficking heritage to which her own mother once fell victim. A beautiful, avenging angel of death – with a kick!
Now that sounds like FUN! – with a KICK!
Yeah Tokyo decadence has always looked a bit dodge to me, so I’ve always avoided it as well. I’m also not a fan of the Ryu(or as I call him, the other) Murakami(speaking of Murakami’s though I am looking foward to IQ84 which is out soon) didn’t know it needed a re release though as I always see it in the shop.
Also yes please to Nihongo posts! I’m back in class now too. What do you mean by form though(I’m such a noob)?
Hey there, dear fellow!
I’ve read a lot of works by Ryu Murakami but Audition is hist best. I’m a major Haruki Murakami fan. I saw some book blogs reviewing IQ84 but avoided reading them. I want to go in fresh.
The te form is used for verbs conjugations. An example might be a verb in the middle of a sentence or making a request. It’s daunting at first but with a bit of practice you’ll remember it easily. My teacher has a cool rhyme to help the class remember.
Oh that sounds good,don’t forget to post it when you have the time!
I too am avoiding reviews of IQ84, which is actually out day isn’t it? As for Ryu Murakmi, well I’m just not really into the whole shocking, sensationalist horror kind of thing (although I’m sure he does more), I think I read about 1 page of Coin Locker Babies and had to stop immediately.
All the best!
There’s quite a few on YouTube so when I do a post on the te form I’ll drag them out. I’ll try and cook something up for the week of Halloween. I find that the violence in Ryu Murakami’s novels so ludicrous and over the top as to be distancing and the characters are never believable. Audition was different because he spent time building a believable world with characters you can relate to. I have yet to read Coin Locker Babies so I might miss that.