Tag: Japan
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Sword of Desperation (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
The history of Japanese cinema has long been defined into a number of key genres that reflect the history of Japan itself. Arguably the most famous of these is the jidai-geki, or period dramas, and consist of films largely set in the Edo Period of Japan (1603 – 1868), with samurai cinema such as Rashomon,…
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The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones (Japanese Film Festival)
Prior to the availability of handheld GPS, people used to rely on these things called maps and surveying to find their way around the world. It sounds like some kind of madness, but apparently they didn’t have the Internet in those days either. (It’s ok, we can say what we like about them here: they’ll…
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Box! (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
Sport films tend to follow a fairly standard pattern, and are always good for a bit heart-string pulling in the audience. We’ve already had one sports film this year at the Japanese Film Festival in Feel the Wind, two if you count the competition performance calligraphy of Shodo Girls, both of which featured the underdog…
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Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
Production I.G. has always been a ground-breaker in the Japanese animation industry. Indeed, Production I.G. was the first company to film a series almost entirely in English with Japanese subtitles to reach a wider possible market, starting with the short feature Blood: The Last Vampire. With their latest feature, director Shinsuke Sato (Princess Blade) and animation director…
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Villon’s Wife (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
Based on the semi-autobiographical Osamu Dazai novel Villon no Tsuma.
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Confessions (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
There has been a fair amount of hype surrounding Confessions (告白), the latest film from Memories of Matsuko and Happy-Go-Lucky writer/director Tetsuya Nakashima. When it was released in Japan earlier this year, it spent a whopping four weeks at the top spot (although was admittedly knocked off by the unfortunately titled Bayside Shakedown 3: Set…
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Flavor of Happiness (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
It’s hard to turn on the television these days without someone telling you how to cook. Buoyed by the wave of success that shows such as MasterChef and Japan’s own Iron Chef, celebrity and amateur cooking has become popular across the globe. The reasons are not difficult to fathom: all humans, in one way or…
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Zero Focus (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
Based on the novel by Seicho Matsumoto, Zero Focus (ゼロの焦点) marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of that famous Japanese author. A prolific writer of mystery, historical and non-fiction works alike, “Zero no Shoten” (also known as Zero Focus) is arguably his most famous work. Previously made for the screen by director Yoshitaro Nomura…
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Dear Doctor (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
Dear Doctor (ディア・ドクター) was one of the most critically acclaimed Japanese films of 2009, topping both the Yokohama Film Festival and Kinema Jumpo lists, and placing at #2 on the prestigious Japan Times list behind Yoshihiro Nakamura’s Fish Story and joining such prestigious films as Villon’s Wife, Zero Focus and Summer Wars. Garnering multiple awards at the Hochi…
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FLOWERS (Japanese Film Festival 2010)
If there is a meme running through the 14th Japanese Film Festival, and indeed throughout the history of Japanese cinema, it is the changing nature of family with each generation. Opening night film About Her Brother drew on the traditions of the great Ozu by touching on the impact of family throughout several generations, yet…
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