Happy weekend, everyone!
I hope you are all well
A much better weekend of films than we have seen in a long time, mostly because of Miike and an interesting mix of documentaries rather than the usual over-reliance on TV spin-offs and anime. I recently watched a mix of films – Samurai Shifters (cute), The Wild Bunch (awesome), Blow Up (not a murder mystery, go watch Deep Red for that) and Vanishing Point. I’ll watch 1917 at some point.
What is released this weekend?
Happy postponed weekend…
This is last weekend’s trailer post. Not much else to say other than apologies for the delay. I’m aiming to get back on track and deliver regular trailer posts but there is a lot of content every week and I will be travelling. On a tangentially connected note, I finally saw Parasite at a cinema and was blown away by it.
What was released last weekend?
Happy postponed weekend!
This should have come out two weekends ago but I was busy writing for a film festival and I am going to continue being busy for the next two months so please bear with me if you like the trailer posts. I posted a few things since the last trailer post:
Japanese Films at the Glasgow Film Festival
Japanese Films at the Berlin International Film Festival
Programme Announcement for the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020
What was released last weekend?
Earlier this month, the organisers of the Osaka Asian Film Festival (OAFF) 2020 announced the full line-up for the festival which takes place from March 6-15. This is the best event to see a cross-section of Asian cinema and nearly all of the films will have English subs – the only exceptions we know so far are “Birthday”, ” House of Hummingbird”, and “Malmoe The Secret Mission”.
Despite the issues surrounding Coronavirus, the festival is still going ahead but one section, the co-hosted event “Come to Life! vol.2 Gutai and Nakanoshima”, has been cancelled due to the decision of the co-host organiser. This means six films have been removed which brings the number of selected films screened from a record 64 to 58 in total. This number includes 12 World Premieres, 12 International Premieres, and 3 Asian Premieres with films submitted from countries and regions such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Poland, South Korea, Japan, and South East Asia.
Continuing on from previous editions of the festival, OAFF remains a beacon of progressive programming as 25 female directors find their works selected with over half the films in the Competition section directed by women. The festival programme features characters from across the world contesting with issues such as war, crime, bullying, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and unionising in the workplace. OAFF continues to give a platform to filmmakers who face challenging issues, whether the films reckon with historical injustice or paint a brighter future through showing diverse characters navigating their way in our tumultuous world.
Please check the full line-up of OAFF 2020 which can be found here. Tickets for the films screening at the fest are already on sale.
Continue reading “Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020 Programme Announcement”
The Temple of Wild Geese 
雁の寺 「Gan no Tera」
Duration: 96 mins.
Release Date: December 26th, 1962
Director: Yuzo Kawashima
Writer: Kazuo Funabashi, Yuzo Kawashima (Screenplay), Tsutomu Minakami (Original Novel)
Starring: Ayako Wakao, Masao Mishima, Kuniichi Takami, Isao Kimura, Ganjiro Nakamura, Kunikazu Takami, Ryoko Kamo, Mineko Mandai, Kiwami Sazanka,
One of the chief ironies of life is that those who profess to be the most morally upstanding often end up being the most immoral. With this in mind, director Yuzo Kawashima, chief satirist of post-war Japan, finds great material to work with when it comes to those in the religious orders. However, instead of laughs it is all menace as dark passions surge out of control. His film’s dark material finds its match with its aesthetic, a charcoal-like texture and look and foreboding music which make this a chilling film as we venture into the moral hypocrisy of the inhabitants in a Buddhist temple, all of which affects one boy’s warped mentality.
Continue reading “The Temple of Wild Geese 雁の寺 Dir: Yuzo Kawashima (1962)”
The Berlin International Film Festival launches at the end of this week and runs from February 20th to March 01st. There are a fair few films from Japan on display with two classics mixed in with contemporary titles. If there is a general theme, it is the deconstruction of family as each of the titles looks at that topic from a particular angle. There is also a special talk event featuring Ang Lee and Hirokazu Koreeda with the film After Life screened.
What are the Japanese films programmed?
Continue reading “Japanese Films at the Berlin International Film Festival 2020”
The Glasgow Film Festival (February 26th – March 08th) will launch for its 16th edition at the end of the month and there are quite a few good anime titles plus one special indie which leads at the top of this post.
Here is what is on offer:
Continue reading “Japanese Films at the Glasgow International Film Festival 2020”
Happy weekend, everyone!
I hope everybody is fine and dandy!
I am in a zero time dilemma, as ever, as I try and fit in copious amounts of writing around my normal work routine so this trailer post is going to be short and sweet despite having so many titles. I posted about the Winter Showcase of foodie movies from the New York Asian Film Festival and I posted about the opening and closing films of the Osaka Asian Film Festival which takes place next month.
What is released this weekend?
Earlier today, the organisers of the 2020 edition of the Osaka Asian Film Festival announced their opening and closing films, both of which are completely different in form and content. Here’s the information direct from the festival website.
Everything kicks off on March 06th with the Malaysian film, The Garden of Evening Mists, a historical drama featuring a pan-Asian cast and crew who have adapted the award-winning novel by Twan Eng Tan.
Here’s a press release for a fantastic looking event fit for foodies who love films:
The New York Asian Film Festival ushers in the new decade with the second annual edition of its Winter Showcase. Held at Chelsea’s SVA Theatre over Valentine’s weekend, this year’s showcase celebrates our love of Asian films by turning the spotlight on food cultures through cinema. At a juncture when America still obsesses over Bong Joon-ho’s award winning Parasite, and some of its more minute plot points such as the wonders of Ram-Don (jjapaguri), it is timely to show that when it comes to putting food front and center, Asian movies do it best.
To celebrate a time-honored tradition of storytelling and the romantic holiday, this year’s lineup brings together trends-and-time-transcending classics as well as some remarkable foodie films of recent years, spanning several decades and different strands of filmmaking: regardless of where and when they are from, these stories pack in full plates of heart and soul, feasts for the eyes, and more than a few surprises demanding to be seen on the big screen.
Genkinahito 