A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu on Blu-ray released to the Criterion Collection on May 7th, 2024.
This marked only my third and forth film by Yasujiro Ozu. I already owned the Criterion Collection releases of Tokyo Story and Good Morning, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, with Good Morning instantly becoming one of my favorite experiences with Japanese cinema. Part of what makes the Criterion Collection so great is the way it makes important films easily accessible for collectors.
A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu Plot
An actor traveling with a theater group set up shop in a small village where he reconnects with an old lover and his estranged son. Emotions boil over as the former lovers rekindle their romantic flame.
The Critique
Floating Weeds
It’s always interesting when a filmmaker remakes one of their own films.
This marked only my third and forth film by Yasujiro Ozu. I already owned the Criterion Collection releases of Tokyo Story and Good Morning, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, with Good Morning instantly becoming one of my favorite experiences with Japanese cinema. Part of what makes the Criterion Collection so great is the way it makes important films easily accessible for collectors.
A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu Plot
An actor traveling with a theater group set up shop in a small village where he reconnects with an old lover and his estranged son. Emotions boil over as the former lovers rekindle their romantic flame.
The Critique
Floating Weeds
It’s always interesting when a filmmaker remakes one of their own films.
- 5/31/2024
- by Joshua Ryan
- FandomWire
To mark the centenary of Yasujiro Ozu's birth, Hou Hsiao-Hsien made his own Tokyo story, “Café Lumière,” a film with Hou's individuality, but full of subtle nuances in tribute to the Japanese master. The family drama gets a modern-day setting, with cultural change seen across the generations.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Yoko (Taiwanese-Japanese musician Yo Hitoto) is a journalist who switches her time between Tokyo and Taiwan. Researching Taiwanese composer Wen-Ye Jiang, she seeks out a cafe the composer frequented when based in Tokyo. And in tribute to Ozu, who favored dialogue over story, that is about that in terms of plot.
Family and its changing nature is a theme hinted at throughout, with Yoko being pregnant by her boyfriend in Taiwan. However, she has a somewhat blasé attitude towards the pregnancy, and indeed her boyfriend; unconcerned as to whether she sees him again,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Yoko (Taiwanese-Japanese musician Yo Hitoto) is a journalist who switches her time between Tokyo and Taiwan. Researching Taiwanese composer Wen-Ye Jiang, she seeks out a cafe the composer frequented when based in Tokyo. And in tribute to Ozu, who favored dialogue over story, that is about that in terms of plot.
Family and its changing nature is a theme hinted at throughout, with Yoko being pregnant by her boyfriend in Taiwan. However, she has a somewhat blasé attitude towards the pregnancy, and indeed her boyfriend; unconcerned as to whether she sees him again,...
- 4/3/2024
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
Turner Classic Movies has picked up the exclusive North American television rights to the forthcoming documentary The Ozu Diaries, from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim. An intimate exploration of the life and legacy of Japanese cinematic master Yasujiro Ozu, the film will premiere on the festival circuit this year, followed by a theatrical release in 2025.
Produced with the support of the Ozu estate and Shochiku, the historic Japanese studio behind the director’s greatest works, The Ozu Diaries is a cinema history documentary that portrays the iconic filmmaker through his diaries, personal letters and interviews, plus rare archival footage, movie clips and new insights from some of his closest collaborators.
The project was initiated in 2023 to mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth. The movie will trace his journey from a rebellious young painter and cinephile in 1920s Japan to the globally renowned creator of classics like I Was Born,...
Produced with the support of the Ozu estate and Shochiku, the historic Japanese studio behind the director’s greatest works, The Ozu Diaries is a cinema history documentary that portrays the iconic filmmaker through his diaries, personal letters and interviews, plus rare archival footage, movie clips and new insights from some of his closest collaborators.
The project was initiated in 2023 to mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth. The movie will trace his journey from a rebellious young painter and cinephile in 1920s Japan to the globally renowned creator of classics like I Was Born,...
- 1/22/2024
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After a career as producer and few short films, independent director Kim Cho-hee brings to light her debut feature, “Lucky Chan-sil”, a charming story of, well … a film producer, dealing with the challenges that life throws at her. Like many of this year's movies, her work was caught in the COVID19 storm, just in between Festival runs and (cancelled) theatrical releases; therefore, after gaining a rich palmarès in Festivals (Kbs Independent Film Award and the Cgv Arthouse Award at Biff and the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival), got stalled abruptly. Hopefully not for long.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Offbeat sweet ‘n' sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Offbeat sweet ‘n' sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur,...
- 1/12/2024
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Leading filmmakers from China, Germany, Japan and the U.S. spoke of their admiration for Yasujiro Ozu as part of the celebrations at Tokyo International Film Festival for the 120th anniversary of the legendary Japanese director’s birth.
Wim Wenders opened proceedings by introducing a screening of a 4K digitally restored version of the 1959 comedy Good Morning, describing Ozu as “the master,” before a talk event featuring Jia Zhangke, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Kelly Reichardt.
A passionate acolyte of Ozu, Wenders shot a documentary about the acclaimed director titled Tokyo-ga four decades ago, and 10 years later came to the Tokyo fest for his 90th anniversary celebrations.
Good Morning, the second film he shot in color, is a light but perceptive chronicle of family life in postwar Japan of the kind Ozu was so adept at creating.
“Watching Good Morning for the first time in a long time, I was struck...
Wim Wenders opened proceedings by introducing a screening of a 4K digitally restored version of the 1959 comedy Good Morning, describing Ozu as “the master,” before a talk event featuring Jia Zhangke, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Kelly Reichardt.
A passionate acolyte of Ozu, Wenders shot a documentary about the acclaimed director titled Tokyo-ga four decades ago, and 10 years later came to the Tokyo fest for his 90th anniversary celebrations.
Good Morning, the second film he shot in color, is a light but perceptive chronicle of family life in postwar Japan of the kind Ozu was so adept at creating.
“Watching Good Morning for the first time in a long time, I was struck...
- 10/28/2023
- by Gavin J Blair
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Martin Scorsese Explains Why Robert De Niro And Leonardo DiCaprio Are His Most Trusted Collaborators
The idea of putting together a group that enjoys working as a team is a notion as old as time, yet there remains something special about the notion of an artistic repertory company. This is a group that exists not just to perform a task with a certain level of quality, but to explore each of their own personalities (as well as each other's) while plumbing the human condition for new corners of interest. In other words, it's about combining the familiarity and camaraderie of long-time friends and coworkers with the blank slate of artistic creation.
Of course, these explorations can't go as far or be as truthful without a remarkable amount of trust being involved, and that's precisely what director Martin Scorsese values in his own "repertory company" members. Some of Scorsese's detractors may think of his continued casting of Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio as a sort of laziness,...
Of course, these explorations can't go as far or be as truthful without a remarkable amount of trust being involved, and that's precisely what director Martin Scorsese values in his own "repertory company" members. Some of Scorsese's detractors may think of his continued casting of Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio as a sort of laziness,...
- 10/23/2023
- by Bill Bria
- Slash Film
Apple Original Films’ Killers of the Flower Moon marks the 16th time Martin Scorsese has worked with either Robert De Niro or Leonardo DiCaprio in a feature-length film, yet it’s the first Scorsese film that includes both actors in starring roles. Scorsese and De Niro began their 50-year association with 1973’s Mean Streets. 1976’s Taxi Driver, 1977’s New York, New York, 1980’s Raging Bull, 1983’s The King of Comedy, 1990’s Goodfellas, 1991’s Cape Fear, and 1995’s Casino followed, cementing their relationship as one of the most successful actor-director teams.
After a nearly 25-year break, Scorsese and De Niro reunited for 2019’s The Irishman, and now they’re back together again for 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
During the two-decade break in the Scorsese / De Niro films, the Oscar-winning director cast Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002’s Gangs of New York, 2004’s The Aviator, 2006’s The Departed, 2010’s Shutter Island, and...
After a nearly 25-year break, Scorsese and De Niro reunited for 2019’s The Irishman, and now they’re back together again for 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
During the two-decade break in the Scorsese / De Niro films, the Oscar-winning director cast Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002’s Gangs of New York, 2004’s The Aviator, 2006’s The Departed, 2010’s Shutter Island, and...
- 10/19/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” is a culmination of sorts for Scorsese and his two most frequent collaborators, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. The upcoming Apple film – which debuts in theaters on October 20 via Paramount – marks the 10th time Scorsese and De Niro have worked together on a feature and the sixth time Scorsese and DiCaprio have joined forces. It’s also the first film of Scorsese’s lengthy career to feature both actors simultaneously.
That it took so long for the three men to work together on a film might seem surprising – Scorsese has said De Niro was at least about both “Gangs of New York” and “The Departed” – but it was also kind of inevitable. After all, Scorsese first heard about DiCaprio from De Niro after the “Raging Bull” Oscar winner starred in “This Boy’s Life” opposite the young actor.
“He said, ‘You should...
That it took so long for the three men to work together on a film might seem surprising – Scorsese has said De Niro was at least about both “Gangs of New York” and “The Departed” – but it was also kind of inevitable. After all, Scorsese first heard about DiCaprio from De Niro after the “Raging Bull” Oscar winner starred in “This Boy’s Life” opposite the young actor.
“He said, ‘You should...
- 10/17/2023
- by Christopher Rosen
- Gold Derby
Ozu Yasujiro, the leading Japanese film director behind classics including “Tokyo Story” and “Late Spring,” has had his double birth and death anniversaries – Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, a little more than a year after the release of his last film “An Autumn Afternoon” – celebrated throughout 2023 at places as varied as the Cannes Film Festival, Los Angeles’ Margaret Herrick Library and the Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute.
But it falls to October’s Tokyo International Film Festival to put on this year’s biggest and most comprehensive reconstruction of Ozu’s surprisingly varied career.
Working in conjunction with the National Film Archive of Japan, the festival will present an extensive retrospective that covers almost all the films that Ozu directed (TIFF/Nfaj Classics: Ozu Yasujiro Week) from Oct. 24-29.
Ozu spent his entire career, from camera assistant in 1923 to renown director in 1962, as an employee of major Japanese studio Shochiku,...
But it falls to October’s Tokyo International Film Festival to put on this year’s biggest and most comprehensive reconstruction of Ozu’s surprisingly varied career.
Working in conjunction with the National Film Archive of Japan, the festival will present an extensive retrospective that covers almost all the films that Ozu directed (TIFF/Nfaj Classics: Ozu Yasujiro Week) from Oct. 24-29.
Ozu spent his entire career, from camera assistant in 1923 to renown director in 1962, as an employee of major Japanese studio Shochiku,...
- 9/20/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song’s tremendous feature debut tells the poignant tale of childhood sweethearts separated by fate and thousands of miles
This supremely confident feature debut from Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song is a spine-tingling gem – a tale of not-so-brief encounters between star-crossed souls, played out over a period of 24 years. Combining the aching yearning of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love with the casual intimacy of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, it paints a picture of unresolved affection as delicate as it is profound, interweaving timeless themes of fate and providence with more playfully down-to-earth musings on happenstance and shapeshifting identity. The result, which has one foot in South Korea and the other in North America, feels at times like an impossible mashup of Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul and Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle, shot through with a stoical melancholia that recalls the final...
This supremely confident feature debut from Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song is a spine-tingling gem – a tale of not-so-brief encounters between star-crossed souls, played out over a period of 24 years. Combining the aching yearning of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love with the casual intimacy of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, it paints a picture of unresolved affection as delicate as it is profound, interweaving timeless themes of fate and providence with more playfully down-to-earth musings on happenstance and shapeshifting identity. The result, which has one foot in South Korea and the other in North America, feels at times like an impossible mashup of Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul and Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle, shot through with a stoical melancholia that recalls the final...
- 9/10/2023
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Showtime’s Dreaming Whilst Black is not the story of its own making, but it kind of feels like it could be. Described as being “loosely inspired by real-life events,” the comedy follows Kwabena (co-creator Adjani Salmon), whom we find toiling away at a dreary office job while dreaming (figuratively and literally; he’s napping on the clock) of being a filmmaker.
But the road to making it is a rocky one for any novice — and, as the title hints, even more so for Black artists trying to forge ahead in an industry still dominated by white people. That Dreaming Whilst Black exists at all feels like a victory after watching Kwabena struggle to realize his vision amid financial troubles, unhelpful advice and skeptical film execs. That it comes blessed with such an observant eye and such a confident comic voice is cause for celebration.
Talent, Kwabena has in spades...
But the road to making it is a rocky one for any novice — and, as the title hints, even more so for Black artists trying to forge ahead in an industry still dominated by white people. That Dreaming Whilst Black exists at all feels like a victory after watching Kwabena struggle to realize his vision amid financial troubles, unhelpful advice and skeptical film execs. That it comes blessed with such an observant eye and such a confident comic voice is cause for celebration.
Talent, Kwabena has in spades...
- 9/9/2023
- by Angie Han
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Further openers are Sony’s ’Equalizer 3’, Mub’s ’Passages’ and Lionsgate’s ‘Cobweb’ .
Seventeen new films launch into UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend in a sign of the release schedule returning to its pre-pandemic state; as exhibitors look for a post-Barbenheimer success, and to capitalise on this year’s National Cinema Day, on Saturday, September 2.
Tickets for all films are available for £3 at over 630 cinemas across the UK and Ireland; last year’s National Cinema Day brought in 1.46m admissions.
Angel Studios is releasing Alejandro Monteverde’s biographical drama Sound Of Freedom, about a government agent-turned-vigilante who aims to rescue children from sex traffickers,...
Seventeen new films launch into UK-Ireland cinemas this weekend in a sign of the release schedule returning to its pre-pandemic state; as exhibitors look for a post-Barbenheimer success, and to capitalise on this year’s National Cinema Day, on Saturday, September 2.
Tickets for all films are available for £3 at over 630 cinemas across the UK and Ireland; last year’s National Cinema Day brought in 1.46m admissions.
Angel Studios is releasing Alejandro Monteverde’s biographical drama Sound Of Freedom, about a government agent-turned-vigilante who aims to rescue children from sex traffickers,...
- 9/1/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
‘Perfect Days’ director Wim Wenders will also preside over the festival’s international competition jury.
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is set to open this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, which has also set monster feature Godzilla Minus One as its closing film.
Perfect Days will receive its Asian premiere at TIFF, which runs from October 23 to November 1. The film premiered in Competition at Cannes in May, where lead actor Koji Yakusho received the best actor award, and will screen at Toronto in September.
Set in Tokyo, it follows a toiler cleaner who seems utterly content as he goes about...
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is set to open this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, which has also set monster feature Godzilla Minus One as its closing film.
Perfect Days will receive its Asian premiere at TIFF, which runs from October 23 to November 1. The film premiered in Competition at Cannes in May, where lead actor Koji Yakusho received the best actor award, and will screen at Toronto in September.
Set in Tokyo, it follows a toiler cleaner who seems utterly content as he goes about...
- 8/30/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
If you are looking for a room in the coastal town of Onomichi, you better not check in at the Ohashi apartments. Except if you want your very own meet-and-greet with J-Pop Idol Shiori Kubo, who happens to play the ghost trapped inside room 101 in Natsuki Takahashi's “A Girl in My Room”.
A Girl in My Room is streaming as part of Jff+ Independent Cinema
Based on the popular manga by Chugaku Yamamoto, the story revolves around the heartbroken Yohei, who gets dumped by his girlfriend and is left behind in the former love nest. Out of nowhere, a curious girl ghost appears and wants to experience a feeling she never felt during her life as a human, love. Yohei is annoyed by her curiosity and even tries to exorcise her, but slowly realises that she is more human than he thought.
The fantasy romantic comedy was filmed on...
A Girl in My Room is streaming as part of Jff+ Independent Cinema
Based on the popular manga by Chugaku Yamamoto, the story revolves around the heartbroken Yohei, who gets dumped by his girlfriend and is left behind in the former love nest. Out of nowhere, a curious girl ghost appears and wants to experience a feeling she never felt during her life as a human, love. Yohei is annoyed by her curiosity and even tries to exorcise her, but slowly realises that she is more human than he thought.
The fantasy romantic comedy was filmed on...
- 8/23/2023
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
In 2022, Jane Campion made history as the first female director to be nominated for Best Director twice. And then, for “The Power of Dog,” she followed through and won, becoming the third female director to take home the top prize.
The win was a triumphant and long overdue achievement for Campion, who has consistently been one of the best directors actively working since her 1989 feature debut “Sweetie.” The black comedy about a dysfunctional family marked the New Zealand-born director as a great talent immediately, entering the Cannes Film Festival and taking home an Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film shortly afterwards. Just a year later, Campion released her first masterpiece: the Janet Frame biopic, “An Angel at My Table.”
From there, her 1993 feature “The Piano” netted Campion her first Best Director nomination, while efforts like “The Portrait of a Lady,” “Holy Smoke,” “In the Cut,” and “Bright Star” received acclaim.
The win was a triumphant and long overdue achievement for Campion, who has consistently been one of the best directors actively working since her 1989 feature debut “Sweetie.” The black comedy about a dysfunctional family marked the New Zealand-born director as a great talent immediately, entering the Cannes Film Festival and taking home an Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film shortly afterwards. Just a year later, Campion released her first masterpiece: the Janet Frame biopic, “An Angel at My Table.”
From there, her 1993 feature “The Piano” netted Campion her first Best Director nomination, while efforts like “The Portrait of a Lady,” “Holy Smoke,” “In the Cut,” and “Bright Star” received acclaim.
- 8/23/2023
- by Wilson Chapman
- Indiewire
James Gunn's sci-fi adventure film "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" takes place on a free-floating space station that was once the head of an ineffable space deity. On board the head, called Knowhere, a wide variety of aliens and creatures live in a cramped complex of apartments, trying to reside as comfortably as possible. Knowhere is also the home to the Guardians of the Galaxy, a loosely associated group of aliens — and one human — who occasionally commit acts of heroism for hire. In the first "Guardians" film, they came into the possession of Cosmo, a Soviet space dog that was salvaged by an unusual being called the Collector. By the third "Guardians," Cosmo could speak through a psychic collar (Cosmo was voiced by Maria Bakalova) and float objects with her mind.
Cosmo's breed is never spoken aloud, but she looks like a labrador or a golden retriever. In other words,...
Cosmo's breed is never spoken aloud, but she looks like a labrador or a golden retriever. In other words,...
- 8/18/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Tokyo Appointment
Noted Japanese director Ando Momoko has been named as the ambassador for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
She also features, alongside her father Okuda Eiji in the festival’s newly-released poster, which recreates a scene from Ozu Yasujiro’s “Tokyo Story” and in which Okuda and Ando represent the classic film’s Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko characters. The poster image, shot at the rooftop garden of Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo Station in the background, was designed by Koshino Junko, who has created the festival’s key visuals for the past three years.
Tokyo Iff 2023 festival poster.
This is the 120th anniversary of Japanese film master Ozu’s birth, and the 60th anniversary of his death.
The festival, which says that its key themes this year will be “diversity” and “the possibilities of cinema,” will run Oct. 23 – Nov. 1 in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area.
The 36thTIFF opening...
Noted Japanese director Ando Momoko has been named as the ambassador for this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
She also features, alongside her father Okuda Eiji in the festival’s newly-released poster, which recreates a scene from Ozu Yasujiro’s “Tokyo Story” and in which Okuda and Ando represent the classic film’s Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko characters. The poster image, shot at the rooftop garden of Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo Station in the background, was designed by Koshino Junko, who has created the festival’s key visuals for the past three years.
Tokyo Iff 2023 festival poster.
This is the 120th anniversary of Japanese film master Ozu’s birth, and the 60th anniversary of his death.
The festival, which says that its key themes this year will be “diversity” and “the possibilities of cinema,” will run Oct. 23 – Nov. 1 in the Hibiya-Yurakucho-Marunouchi-Ginza area.
The 36thTIFF opening...
- 8/17/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Japan’s Tokyo Film Festival (TIFF) has revealed the official poster for its 2023 edition, which pays tribute to the country’s seminal filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu on the 120th anniversary of his birth. Check out the full poster below.
The poster was designed as a visual tribute to Ozu’s 1952 pic Tokyo Story and features actor-filmmaker Eiji Okuda and his daughter, filmmaker Momoko Ando, representing the relationship between Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko in Ozu’s film.
The resulting image was shot on the rooftop garden of the Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo station’s domes in the background. The visuals were created by Junko Koshino, a Japanese fashion designer who has worked on TIFF’s visuals since 2021. The posters will be displayed at theaters from August 18. This year, Momoko has also been appointed to the ceremonial role of TIFF festival navigator, formerly known as festival ambassador. Beginning as a filmmaker, Momoko now also operates an arthouse cinema in Kochi, southwestern Japan.
Discussing her new role, Momoko said: “Cinema can embody any story. Cinema can change the world. The world can be changed by films. I honestly believe that is true. Films reflect our thoughts. They project invisible winds, tiny creatures, and all life. They memorize and record the past and future in our minds. Now in 2023, what will we gaze at, and where will we be led? Film festivals are the compass of the world. Now, here, from Tokyo.”
Running October 23 — November 1, TIFF will host a large-scale tribute to Ozu throughout its program. Specific details about the festival’s Ozu tribute have yet to be announced.
The 36th TIFF opening ceremony will take place at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, as it did last year, while the closing ceremony will be held at Toho Cinemas Hibiya. In addition to three large theaters, Marunouchi Toei, Marunouchi Piccadilly, and Toho Cinemas Hibiya, Hulic Hall Tokyo will join as a new screening venue, along with TIFF’s regular theaters, Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho, Cine Switch Ginza, Humantrust Cinema Yurakucho and Toho Cinemas Chanter.
The poster was designed as a visual tribute to Ozu’s 1952 pic Tokyo Story and features actor-filmmaker Eiji Okuda and his daughter, filmmaker Momoko Ando, representing the relationship between Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko in Ozu’s film.
The resulting image was shot on the rooftop garden of the Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo station’s domes in the background. The visuals were created by Junko Koshino, a Japanese fashion designer who has worked on TIFF’s visuals since 2021. The posters will be displayed at theaters from August 18. This year, Momoko has also been appointed to the ceremonial role of TIFF festival navigator, formerly known as festival ambassador. Beginning as a filmmaker, Momoko now also operates an arthouse cinema in Kochi, southwestern Japan.
Discussing her new role, Momoko said: “Cinema can embody any story. Cinema can change the world. The world can be changed by films. I honestly believe that is true. Films reflect our thoughts. They project invisible winds, tiny creatures, and all life. They memorize and record the past and future in our minds. Now in 2023, what will we gaze at, and where will we be led? Film festivals are the compass of the world. Now, here, from Tokyo.”
Running October 23 — November 1, TIFF will host a large-scale tribute to Ozu throughout its program. Specific details about the festival’s Ozu tribute have yet to be announced.
The 36th TIFF opening ceremony will take place at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, as it did last year, while the closing ceremony will be held at Toho Cinemas Hibiya. In addition to three large theaters, Marunouchi Toei, Marunouchi Piccadilly, and Toho Cinemas Hibiya, Hulic Hall Tokyo will join as a new screening venue, along with TIFF’s regular theaters, Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho, Cine Switch Ginza, Humantrust Cinema Yurakucho and Toho Cinemas Chanter.
- 8/17/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The selection of two restored films by Ozu Yasujiro for the Cannes Classics section will kick-off a six-month long celebration of the iconic Japanese auteur around the world.
Cannes revealed last week that it will showcase Ozu’s 1947 “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” and his 1950 picture “The Muneteka Sisters.”
The screenings mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth and the 60th anniversary of his death. Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, a little more than a year after the release of his last film “An Autumn Afternoon.”
Major studio, Shochiku, where Ozu spent the majority of career and made his iconic movies, is planning a series of curated retrospectives, festival screenings, and special events around the world that pay homage to his enduring legacy as one of the most influential directors in cinema. These will last until the end of 2023.
Shochiku was responsible for the...
Cannes revealed last week that it will showcase Ozu’s 1947 “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” and his 1950 picture “The Muneteka Sisters.”
The screenings mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth and the 60th anniversary of his death. Ozu died in 1963 on the day of his 60th birthday, a little more than a year after the release of his last film “An Autumn Afternoon.”
Major studio, Shochiku, where Ozu spent the majority of career and made his iconic movies, is planning a series of curated retrospectives, festival screenings, and special events around the world that pay homage to his enduring legacy as one of the most influential directors in cinema. These will last until the end of 2023.
Shochiku was responsible for the...
- 5/10/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The work of Paul Dale is never likely to be considered great art, but nevertheless, there is an art to it. Killer Kites is, in its own way, an exercise in the tradition of Lars Von Trier’s Dogville or Yasujiro Ozo’s Tokyo Story. It’s stripped right down to a basic formula, with minimalist sets and props. Dale and Frosch know how to structure and frame a horror film so well that practically any monster could be slotted into it – this would be easy to recut into a fresh feature with a different creature and some minor dubbing. Whilst one might interpret that as a bad thing, it’s remarkably entertaining to watch.
Dale’s last effort was the similarly pleasing Sewer Gators, which is hard to overlook, as he takes every opportunity for product placement here and the two films share some of their...
Dale’s last effort was the similarly pleasing Sewer Gators, which is hard to overlook, as he takes every opportunity for product placement here and the two films share some of their...
- 5/3/2023
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Roxy Cinema
The Last Temptation of Christ and The Flowers of St. Francis have 35mm showings for Easter Weekend, while Barbarella and The Terminator also screen on film; Ken Jacobs’ Two Wrenching Departures plays on Sunday with Jacobs present.
IFC Center
Gregg Araki presents Something Wild on 35mm this Friday, while his film The Doom Generation opens in a director’s cut; Beau Travail offers a Claire Denis fix; Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight screen, while Akira and Barb Wire have late showings, with Wild Things showing on 35mm.
Bam
One of Shôhei Imamura’s last films, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, is screening, while “Queering the Canon” offers films by Lizzie Borden, Funeral Parade of Roses, and more.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on Jeanne Dielman‘s influences brings the film itself and work by Varda,...
Roxy Cinema
The Last Temptation of Christ and The Flowers of St. Francis have 35mm showings for Easter Weekend, while Barbarella and The Terminator also screen on film; Ken Jacobs’ Two Wrenching Departures plays on Sunday with Jacobs present.
IFC Center
Gregg Araki presents Something Wild on 35mm this Friday, while his film The Doom Generation opens in a director’s cut; Beau Travail offers a Claire Denis fix; Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight screen, while Akira and Barb Wire have late showings, with Wild Things showing on 35mm.
Bam
One of Shôhei Imamura’s last films, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, is screening, while “Queering the Canon” offers films by Lizzie Borden, Funeral Parade of Roses, and more.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on Jeanne Dielman‘s influences brings the film itself and work by Varda,...
- 4/7/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The world of Japanese cinema is one of the most acclaimed and beloved. This video examines many of the classics, the most essential films ever made in Japan or by Japanese filmmakers. Why is the appreciation of Japanese cinema so enduring? "Narrator Luiza Liz Bond emphasized the 'heightened aesthetic sensibility' of Japanese filmmakers, on display in 'the tender observation of Ozu's Tokyo Story, the poetic rhapsody of Kurosawa's Dreams, the harrowing feminine gaze of Videophobia." The video essay is split into different chapters covering different styles of films: Bushidō, Wabi-Sabi, Mono No Aware, Yūgen, Guro, and Hen. Many all-timer films are featured including The Sword of Doom, Seven Samurai, Hausu, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tampopo, Love Exposure, Sansho the Bailiff, Tokyo Sonata + many more. Discover films below. // Continue Reading ›...
- 3/31/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Museum of the Moving Image
Tokyo Story plays on 35mm this Friday and Sunday.
Film Forum
Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity plays in a 4K restoration; Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ’45 and The Conformist continue their runs; a Jeanne Moreau retrospective highlights her three, rarely screened directing efforts as well as her onscreen work; Panahi’s The White Balloon plays on 35mm this Sunday.
Anthology Film Archives
Films by Luis Buñuel screen through the weekend in Essential Cinema.
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Tod Browning’s dark world brings the likes of Freaks and Dracula, while the newly restored Drylongso continues screening. (Read our interview with director Cauleen Smith here.)
IFC Center
Before Sunrise screens, while Fight Club, Akira, Jaws, Barb Wire, and Poison Ivy have late showings.
Roxy Cinema
Synecdoche, New York and Paul Williams...
Museum of the Moving Image
Tokyo Story plays on 35mm this Friday and Sunday.
Film Forum
Bob Fosse’s Sweet Charity plays in a 4K restoration; Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ’45 and The Conformist continue their runs; a Jeanne Moreau retrospective highlights her three, rarely screened directing efforts as well as her onscreen work; Panahi’s The White Balloon plays on 35mm this Sunday.
Anthology Film Archives
Films by Luis Buñuel screen through the weekend in Essential Cinema.
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Tod Browning’s dark world brings the likes of Freaks and Dracula, while the newly restored Drylongso continues screening. (Read our interview with director Cauleen Smith here.)
IFC Center
Before Sunrise screens, while Fight Club, Akira, Jaws, Barb Wire, and Poison Ivy have late showings.
Roxy Cinema
Synecdoche, New York and Paul Williams...
- 3/24/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This year, all the Oscar-contending directors are nominated for original screenplay: the Daniels, Todd Field, Martin McDonagh, Ruben Östlund and Steven Spielberg (writing with Tony Kushner).
This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.
The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.
So here’s Film History 101.
In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.
In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.
However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.
This is the first time it’s happened in AMPAS history.
The only year that came close was 2017, when all five helmers had written or co-written their scripts, though they didn’t all get writing noms.
So here’s Film History 101.
In Hollywood lore, Preston Sturges is often credited as the first scribe to become a hyphenate, as writer-director of the 1940 “The Great McGinty.” But as with all Hollywood “facts,” there is only an element of truth here.
In the next few years, he was joined by some heavyweights: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”) and John Huston (“The Maltese Falcon”) in 1941; Leo McCarey (co-writer of “Going My Way”); Billy Wilder (writing with Raymond Chandler) for “Double Indemnity” in 1944; and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“Dragonwyck”), 1946.
However, a writer-director wasn’t an innovation.
- 3/3/2023
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
The novels of Kazuo Ishiguro have, as the Nobel Prize committee asserted in 2017, “Uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” The beloved Japanese-born British writer, 68, has gained an international reputation for his coiled, emotional works such as “The Remains of the Day,” “Never Let Me Go” and “The Buried Giant,” among others.
Ishiguro has also written a few movie scripts, including for directors Guy Maddin and James Ivory. But his screenplay of 2022’s “Living,” an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru” (1952), set in 1950s London, marks Ishiguro’s purest expression of his talent in the film world. The Nobel committee’s “uncovered the abyss” quote could apply to this story of a reserved bureaucrat (played by an incandescent Bill Nighy) facing his own mortality.
Also Read:
Oscar Nominations 2023: Andrea Riseborough, Brian Tyree Henry and Paul Mescal Break Into the Race (Complete List)
On Tuesday,...
Ishiguro has also written a few movie scripts, including for directors Guy Maddin and James Ivory. But his screenplay of 2022’s “Living,” an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s “Ikiru” (1952), set in 1950s London, marks Ishiguro’s purest expression of his talent in the film world. The Nobel committee’s “uncovered the abyss” quote could apply to this story of a reserved bureaucrat (played by an incandescent Bill Nighy) facing his own mortality.
Also Read:
Oscar Nominations 2023: Andrea Riseborough, Brian Tyree Henry and Paul Mescal Break Into the Race (Complete List)
On Tuesday,...
- 1/25/2023
- by Joe McGovern
- The Wrap
Click here to read the full article.
Two of the most anticipated Japanese films showing at the Venice Film Festival this year — Kei Ishikawa’s mystery drama A Man (2022) and a digitally remastered version of Yasujirō Ozu’s timeless classic A Hen in the Wind (1948) — share a uniquely curious distinction. The two Japanese films, separated by 74 years, were both written in the exact same room.
Ozu, one of the great masters of cinema history, famously spent long stretches of the 1940s and 1950s — his most productive period — residing and working at Chigasaki-kan, a small ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn, located on a quiet stretch of coast to the southwest of Tokyo. Ozu’s hideaway within the inn was its “niban no oheya,” or “room 2.” A modest space befitting an Ozu drama, the room was designed in Japan’s traditional washitsu style: tatami mats, a simple floor-level table and sliding shoji...
Two of the most anticipated Japanese films showing at the Venice Film Festival this year — Kei Ishikawa’s mystery drama A Man (2022) and a digitally remastered version of Yasujirō Ozu’s timeless classic A Hen in the Wind (1948) — share a uniquely curious distinction. The two Japanese films, separated by 74 years, were both written in the exact same room.
Ozu, one of the great masters of cinema history, famously spent long stretches of the 1940s and 1950s — his most productive period — residing and working at Chigasaki-kan, a small ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn, located on a quiet stretch of coast to the southwest of Tokyo. Ozu’s hideaway within the inn was its “niban no oheya,” or “room 2.” A modest space befitting an Ozu drama, the room was designed in Japan’s traditional washitsu style: tatami mats, a simple floor-level table and sliding shoji...
- 9/1/2022
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After her directorial debut “Love Letter” in 1953, Kinuyo Tanaka had received some international recognition, with the feature being a contestant at Cannes Film Festival in 1954. It also marked the end of her working relationship with director Kenji Mizoguchi, with whom she had collaborated on “Oharu” and “Sansho the Bailiff”, which cemented her reputation as one of the leading ladies of Japanese cinema. However, while the famous filmmaker was against this next step in her career, the experience of her first directorial effort encouraged her to continue working behind the camera as well. Her next project would be “The Moon Has Risen”, a family drama/ light comedy, which was co-written by Yasujiro Ozu, who originally had planned to direct it himself. While Ozu’s signature themes are still quite obvious, Tanaka proved her growth as a visual storyteller, making her sophomore feature a remarkable development in her career.
“The Moon Has...
“The Moon Has...
- 8/10/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
One Shot is a series that seeks to find an essence of cinema history in one single image of a movie. Surrounded by the stillness and tranquillity of nature, anchored by the building facade of her eldest son’s home, Tomi (Chieko Higashiyama) quietly watches her grandson play with the grass of the fields that surround them. This enigmatic shot is from Yasujirō Ozu‘s Tokyo Story (1953), a film widely considered to be the director’s magnus opus and one deeply rooted in the examination of everyday life in 1950s Japan, yet universal in its exploration of familial relations, loss, and the upending of tradition. The story follows an aging couple, played by Ozu regulars Chishu Ryu and Higashiyama, who travel from their tiny town of Onomichi to bustling postwar Tokyo in order to visit their adult children. The couple, however, discover that they are too preoccupied with their demanding...
- 8/1/2022
- MUBI
Okinawa and its status is one of those difficult subjects not often discussed when considering it as an island paradise. Part Japanese holiday destination, part US army base, it is used and controlled by those other than Okinawans. In one of his lesser-known works, Nagisa Oshima explores Okinawa as the illegitimate child of distant parents, but one rich in culture.
Dear Summer Sister is screening at Japan Society
14-year-old Sunaoko (Hiromi Kurita) travels from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa, with her father’s young fiancée Momoko (Lily) in search of her half-brother whom she has never met. On arrival, she meets a young tour guide and musician (Shoji Ishibashi) who translates Okinawan dialect for tourists. Searching for her brother’s mother, Tsuru (Akiko Koyama), it soon becomes clear that the tour guide is the brother she has been looking for. With the arrival of Sunaoko’s father Kikuchi (Hosei Komatsu), discussions...
Dear Summer Sister is screening at Japan Society
14-year-old Sunaoko (Hiromi Kurita) travels from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa, with her father’s young fiancée Momoko (Lily) in search of her half-brother whom she has never met. On arrival, she meets a young tour guide and musician (Shoji Ishibashi) who translates Okinawan dialect for tourists. Searching for her brother’s mother, Tsuru (Akiko Koyama), it soon becomes clear that the tour guide is the brother she has been looking for. With the arrival of Sunaoko’s father Kikuchi (Hosei Komatsu), discussions...
- 5/6/2022
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
Bruce Tuchman-backed Rialto International has launched a branded on-demand streaming service in Japan, focused on independent film, and housed on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.
Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.
In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films. Confirmed content at launch or going forward includes Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider”; an homage to the recently departed director Peter Bogdanovich with “The Last Picture Show”; Brad Pitt and Jason Statham in Guy Richie’s “Snatch”; Michael Caine in “Harry Brown”; Sean Connery in Gus Van Sant’s “Finding Forrester”; Ewan McGregor and actor/director Don Cheadle’s “Miles Ahead”; Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva”; Michelle Williams in Wim Wenders’ “Land of Plenty”; Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law in “Gattaca”; and “8Mm,...
Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.
In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films. Confirmed content at launch or going forward includes Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider”; an homage to the recently departed director Peter Bogdanovich with “The Last Picture Show”; Brad Pitt and Jason Statham in Guy Richie’s “Snatch”; Michael Caine in “Harry Brown”; Sean Connery in Gus Van Sant’s “Finding Forrester”; Ewan McGregor and actor/director Don Cheadle’s “Miles Ahead”; Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva”; Michelle Williams in Wim Wenders’ “Land of Plenty”; Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law in “Gattaca”; and “8Mm,...
- 3/23/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
It's Beauty And The Beast at root, but as with any retelling there's depth and nuance to what it considers beautiful, what it considers beastly. Belle is not just a tour de force of animation but a loving homage to film-making, dripping with reference that rewards not just fans of animation but of movies in general. It starts with an expanding horizon, aptly, and will hopefully provide the same for its audience.
With two distinct animation styles for the 'real' and the 'meta', the high school days of Suzu and the digitally enhanced realm of her alter-ego Belle intertwine. In the real the backgrounds are painted, beautifully so, one location straight from Tokyo Story. Over them characters whose simplicity draws from animation traditions, outlines gaining features with each step towards the camera, anger replacing mouths with improbable outlines and flushed cheeks that Snoopy would recognise.
In 'U', accessed through a.
With two distinct animation styles for the 'real' and the 'meta', the high school days of Suzu and the digitally enhanced realm of her alter-ego Belle intertwine. In the real the backgrounds are painted, beautifully so, one location straight from Tokyo Story. Over them characters whose simplicity draws from animation traditions, outlines gaining features with each step towards the camera, anger replacing mouths with improbable outlines and flushed cheeks that Snoopy would recognise.
In 'U', accessed through a.
- 2/20/2022
- by Andrew Robertson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The second of three blocks of the Asian Cinema Education International Journalism and Film Criticism Course focused on journalistic skills which are essential for film festivals organisers.
There are two ways to take part in the course:
in the full version, with registration, the participant gets the possibility of direct contact with tutors and consultation of own written work (registration ended on September 28);the webinars can also be watched without registration.
Participation in the course is free of charge. All webinars are conducted in English only – this is the working language of the whole course.
You can find the whole course here Festival skills – course info
Festivals play an important role in the life cycle of a film but are equally important for film critics. New talents find an audience there, like-minded people from different places meet. Not only is it a place for film critics and journalists to broaden their horizons,...
There are two ways to take part in the course:
in the full version, with registration, the participant gets the possibility of direct contact with tutors and consultation of own written work (registration ended on September 28);the webinars can also be watched without registration.
Participation in the course is free of charge. All webinars are conducted in English only – this is the working language of the whole course.
You can find the whole course here Festival skills – course info
Festivals play an important role in the life cycle of a film but are equally important for film critics. New talents find an audience there, like-minded people from different places meet. Not only is it a place for film critics and journalists to broaden their horizons,...
- 10/1/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Becoming a parent is one of the most significant moments in one’s life, which is at times overcast by this event being somewhat expected of you by society or your elders. Considering the development of our world, more than once people decide not to have children, as the responsibility is simply too great, and they simply cannot respond differently to the aforementioned dilemma. Director Hal Torii found himself facing the same question and made a short feature titled “Tokyo Story” about his thoughts on bringing a child into this world, essentially telling his own Tokyo Story.
Tokyo Story screened at Japanese Avant-Garde and Experimental Film Festival
As explained in the description to the feature, the two-minute-short tells the story of a mother giving birth, and how the relationship with her child evolves over time. While her baby is in need of her and searches for her in the streets of the Japanese capital,...
Tokyo Story screened at Japanese Avant-Garde and Experimental Film Festival
As explained in the description to the feature, the two-minute-short tells the story of a mother giving birth, and how the relationship with her child evolves over time. While her baby is in need of her and searches for her in the streets of the Japanese capital,...
- 9/20/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
We're revisiting 1937 this month leading up to the next Supporting Actress Smackdown. As always Nick Taylor will suggest a few alternates to Oscar's ballot.
We begin 1937 with Fay Bainter, the third-ever winner of the Supporting Actress Oscar for Jezebel in 1938 (you may have heard about it last year!) in Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow. McCarey viewed the film as his greatest achievement, to the point that when he received his Best Director Oscar for The Awful Truth the same year Make Way for Tomorrow earned no nominations, he opened his acceptance speech by saying he won for the wrong movie. We can discuss the considerable merits of both films about couples splitting up and staying together, along with how brilliantly they showcase McCarey’s skills with tone, blocking, performance shaping, scene construction, as well as its enduring legacy in films like Tokyo Story and Love is Strange. Bainter...
We begin 1937 with Fay Bainter, the third-ever winner of the Supporting Actress Oscar for Jezebel in 1938 (you may have heard about it last year!) in Leo McCarey’s Make Way for Tomorrow. McCarey viewed the film as his greatest achievement, to the point that when he received his Best Director Oscar for The Awful Truth the same year Make Way for Tomorrow earned no nominations, he opened his acceptance speech by saying he won for the wrong movie. We can discuss the considerable merits of both films about couples splitting up and staying together, along with how brilliantly they showcase McCarey’s skills with tone, blocking, performance shaping, scene construction, as well as its enduring legacy in films like Tokyo Story and Love is Strange. Bainter...
- 9/16/2021
- by Nick Taylor
- FilmExperience
Fresh off Juho Kuosmanen’s win at Cannes – where his “Compartment No. 6” was awarded the Grand Prix in July, sharing the prize with Asghar Farhadi’s “A Hero” – Finland’s Aamu Film Company will focus its attention on Tia Kouvo’s “Family Time,” scheduled to shoot in February and March 2022.
Produced by Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka, the film, primarily set at Christmas, will show a family of eight struggling to communicate and echoing Tolstoy’s statement that while all happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
“I have been working with the same directors for years, saying no to many interesting projects. Then I saw Tia’s graduation short and realized we have to find room for one more,” says Rantamäki, also behind Kuosmanen’s Un Certain Regard winner “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki” and Hamy Ramezan’s Berlinale entry “Any Day Now.
Produced by Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Haukka, the film, primarily set at Christmas, will show a family of eight struggling to communicate and echoing Tolstoy’s statement that while all happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
“I have been working with the same directors for years, saying no to many interesting projects. Then I saw Tia’s graduation short and realized we have to find room for one more,” says Rantamäki, also behind Kuosmanen’s Un Certain Regard winner “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki” and Hamy Ramezan’s Berlinale entry “Any Day Now.
- 9/15/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Japanese Avant-garde and Experimental Film Festival are very excited to announce their full programme for Jaeff 2021: Bodies. Curated alongside the delayed 2020 Olympics, this year’s festival aims to explore the human body – in motion, at rest, in agony and in ecstasy.
Tickets go on sale to Barbican Members on 21 July, and to the general public on the 22nd. Stay tuned to our socials for further info (and links!).
Jaeff look forward to seeing you this Autumn!
Thursday 16/9
18:00 – Nanami: The Inferno of First Love + A.I. Mama
Friday 17/9
18:00 Portrait of Mr O + Anma + Rose Color Dance + In Passing
20:30 – Lovers are Wet
Saturday 18/9
Navel and a Bomb
17:50 – Boxer + Transparent, the world is.
Sunday 19/9
11:00 – Japan’s Cinematic Body (Panel Discussion)
13:20 Nippon Express Carries the Olympics to Tokyo + Tokyo Story
16:00 – Tokyo Olympiad...
Tickets go on sale to Barbican Members on 21 July, and to the general public on the 22nd. Stay tuned to our socials for further info (and links!).
Jaeff look forward to seeing you this Autumn!
Thursday 16/9
18:00 – Nanami: The Inferno of First Love + A.I. Mama
Friday 17/9
18:00 Portrait of Mr O + Anma + Rose Color Dance + In Passing
20:30 – Lovers are Wet
Saturday 18/9
Navel and a Bomb
17:50 – Boxer + Transparent, the world is.
Sunday 19/9
11:00 – Japan’s Cinematic Body (Panel Discussion)
13:20 Nippon Express Carries the Olympics to Tokyo + Tokyo Story
16:00 – Tokyo Olympiad...
- 7/18/2021
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
“It’s sad to get old in any period.” Tayoko (Tayoko Shiojiri) has just watched Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story on television and it’s struck a nerve of melancholy. The Japanese master’s great films tend to do this to viewers, especially those who find themselves in the midst of painful transition. Her husband Junji (Kaoru Iwahana) has become increasingly ill over the last few months, and the slow passage of time has suddenly taken a different meaning for the woman who spends so many hours outside in the fields cultivating crops.
This observation about aging comes in one of many journal entries that comprise the spine of The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin), an experimental study in duration and devotion that intricately overlaps voiceover and ambient sound design to create a symphonic cinematic space in the quietest of locations. If the incessant trilling of insects,...
This observation about aging comes in one of many journal entries that comprise the spine of The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin), an experimental study in duration and devotion that intricately overlaps voiceover and ambient sound design to create a symphonic cinematic space in the quietest of locations. If the incessant trilling of insects,...
- 7/15/2021
- by Glenn Heath Jr.
- The Film Stage
After a career as producer and few short films, independent director Kim Cho-hee brings to light her debut feature, “Lucky Chan-sil”, a charming story of, well … a film producer, dealing with the challenges that life throws at her. Like many of this year’s movies, her work was caught in the COVID19 storm, just in between Festival runs and (cancelled) theatrical releases; therefore, after gaining a rich palmarès in Festivals (Kbs Independent Film Award and the Cgv Arthouse Award at Biff and the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival), got stalled abruptly. Hopefully not for long.
“Lucky Chan-sil” is screening in Hong Kong Arts Centre on Saturday 17/4 at 7:30 pm
as part of Women Direct. Korean Indies! – Korean Women Independent Film series, under the signature programme of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, Independently Yours
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film...
“Lucky Chan-sil” is screening in Hong Kong Arts Centre on Saturday 17/4 at 7:30 pm
as part of Women Direct. Korean Indies! – Korean Women Independent Film series, under the signature programme of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, Independently Yours
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film...
- 3/29/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
After a career as producer and few short films, independent director Kim Cho-hee brings to light her debut feature, “Lucky Chan-sil”, a charming story of, well … a film producer, dealing with the challenges that life throws at her. Like many of this year’s movies, her work was caught in the COVID19 storm, just in between Festival runs and (cancelled) theatrical releases; therefore, after gaining a rich palmarès in Festivals (Kbs Independent Film Award and the Cgv Arthouse Award at Biff and the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival), got stalled abruptly. Hopefully not for long.
“Lucky Chan-sil” is Screening at Black Movie
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur, and he...
“Lucky Chan-sil” is Screening at Black Movie
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur, and he...
- 1/26/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
by Tom Wilmot
Sandwiched between the acclaimed masterpieces “Late Spring” and “Tokyo Story”, “Early Summer” is the middle entry in Yasujiro Ozu’s unofficial Noriko trilogy. Released in 1951, the film marked the second collaboration between the Japanese director and actress Setsuko Hara, who would go on to work with the filmmaker four more times. A cheerful addition to Ozu’s post-war filmography, the film is nevertheless tinged with the melancholy that one would come to expect from the master director.
Noriko Mamiya (Setsuko Hara) lives with her parents, brother, sister-in-law and troublesome nephews in her family’s Tokyo home. We follow each family member as they go about their daily lives, working, parenting, and socialising. Noriko cares for her parents and meets with friends, who mostly squabble amongst themselves over matters regarding marriage. While indifferent to the idea at first, Noriko soon finds herself staring down an arranged engagement,...
Sandwiched between the acclaimed masterpieces “Late Spring” and “Tokyo Story”, “Early Summer” is the middle entry in Yasujiro Ozu’s unofficial Noriko trilogy. Released in 1951, the film marked the second collaboration between the Japanese director and actress Setsuko Hara, who would go on to work with the filmmaker four more times. A cheerful addition to Ozu’s post-war filmography, the film is nevertheless tinged with the melancholy that one would come to expect from the master director.
Noriko Mamiya (Setsuko Hara) lives with her parents, brother, sister-in-law and troublesome nephews in her family’s Tokyo home. We follow each family member as they go about their daily lives, working, parenting, and socialising. Noriko cares for her parents and meets with friends, who mostly squabble amongst themselves over matters regarding marriage. While indifferent to the idea at first, Noriko soon finds herself staring down an arranged engagement,...
- 12/30/2020
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
After a career as producer and few short films, independent director Kim Cho-hee brings to light her debut feature, “Lucky Chan-sil”, a charming story of, well … a film producer, dealing with the challenges that life throws at her. Like many of this year’s movies, her work was caught in the COVID19 storm, just in between Festival runs and (cancelled) theatrical releases; therefore, after gaining a rich palmarès in Festivals (Kbs Independent Film Award and the Cgv Arthouse Award at Biff and the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival), got stalled abruptly. Hopefully not for long.
“Lucky Chan-sil” is Screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur,...
“Lucky Chan-sil” is Screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur,...
- 11/30/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
After a career as producer and few short films, independent director Kim Cho-hee brings to light her debut feature, “Lucky Chan-sil”, a charming story of, well … a film producer, dealing with the challenges that life throws at her. Like many of this year’s movies, her work was caught in the COVID19 storm, just in between Festival runs and (cancelled) theatrical releases; therefore, after gaining a rich palmarès in Festivals (Kbs Independent Film Award and the Cgv Arthouse Award at Biff and the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival), got stalled abruptly. Hopefully not for long.
“Lucky Chan-sil” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival 2020
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur,...
“Lucky Chan-sil” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival 2020
Offbeat sweet ‘n’ sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur,...
- 7/2/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
The British Film Institute (BFI) is launching a major six-month season, Japan 2020, on BFI Player from 11 May, with new collections including Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, independent, cult, anime, 21st century and J-Horror.
This major season will spotlight filmmakers who have inspired admiration and fascination around the world. It will start with Akira Kurosawa, and over the coming months it’ll present films from the Golden Age, a focus on Yasujiro Ozu, new wave rebels, the visionary creations of anime, the netherworlds of J-horror, and so much more from archive rarities to contemporary works and cult classics.
New online collections will be released each month, and is expected to be presented at BFI Southbank and cinemas nationwide later this year.
BFI Japan will include:
A major season on BFI Player, divided into thematic collections and released between May and October: Akira Kurosawa (11 May), Classics (11 May), Yasujiro Ozu (5 June), Cult (3 July), Anime...
This major season will spotlight filmmakers who have inspired admiration and fascination around the world. It will start with Akira Kurosawa, and over the coming months it’ll present films from the Golden Age, a focus on Yasujiro Ozu, new wave rebels, the visionary creations of anime, the netherworlds of J-horror, and so much more from archive rarities to contemporary works and cult classics.
New online collections will be released each month, and is expected to be presented at BFI Southbank and cinemas nationwide later this year.
BFI Japan will include:
A major season on BFI Player, divided into thematic collections and released between May and October: Akira Kurosawa (11 May), Classics (11 May), Yasujiro Ozu (5 June), Cult (3 July), Anime...
- 5/11/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Yasujirô Ozu’s films use minimalist storytelling and an emphasis on character to paint a portrait of family life and the relationships between the generations.Made the year before his career defining masterpiece “Tokyo Story” (which will be released on Blu-ray by the BFI on 15 June) “The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice” is one of Yasujirô Ozu’s most beautiful domestic sagas, a subtly piercing portrait of a marriage coming quietly undone.
Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship of a childless, middle aged couple, as the wife’s city bred sophistication clashes with the husband’s small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household. Ozu’s expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home, to the...
Secrets and deceptions strain the already tenuous relationship of a childless, middle aged couple, as the wife’s city bred sophistication clashes with the husband’s small town simplicity, and a generational sea change in the form of their headstrong, modern niece sweeps over their household. Ozu’s expert grasp of family dynamics receives one of its most spirited treatments, with a wry, tender humour and an expansiveness that moves the action from the home, to the...
- 5/8/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
This audiovisual essay proposes an understanding of cinema as a transformative device able to affect a series of re-signifying operations, involving political and historical re-examination as well as shifts in the subjective experience of time-space. The essay is focused on the transformation that takes place in the viewer’s perception of a specific kind of cinematic entity: filmed void spaces, and how they may turn out to be read as places of memory.Cinema has the possibility of qualifying spaces, materializing information and connotations that, at first sight, seem invisible. This potentiality of cinema unveils the paradoxical complexity of filmed void spaces: something simultaneously is and is no longer there.This is a double transfiguration between each unity of image and sound and what that specific image-sound brick communicates, since they effect each other respectively and at the same time, as a result revealing what is condensed in the shot,...
- 4/5/2020
- MUBI
There are worse things than being a cinephile who’s stuck in quarantine. Finally, there’s time to catch-up on those obscure Criterion Channel classics you’ve put off for years — Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s nearly-16-hour “Berlin Alexanderplatz,” anyone? — or revisit some of your old comfort favorites. But for other cinephiles also getting an education, quarantine means that physical film schools are shuttered, as are theaters, leaving students of cinema and moviegoers challenged without that vital element of watching a movie in a dark room alongside other people.
Film historian and filmmaker Mark Cousins, whom you may known as the man behind the must-see 2011 documentary film survey “The Story of Film: An Odyssey,” has a temporary reprieve for deprived scholars of film. He’s put together “40 Days to Learn Film,” a massive undertaking at even just under two and a half hours. More a visual-essay style, poetic lecture than a typical film course,...
Film historian and filmmaker Mark Cousins, whom you may known as the man behind the must-see 2011 documentary film survey “The Story of Film: An Odyssey,” has a temporary reprieve for deprived scholars of film. He’s put together “40 Days to Learn Film,” a massive undertaking at even just under two and a half hours. More a visual-essay style, poetic lecture than a typical film course,...
- 3/23/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Tilda Swinton has arrived just when we need her most to share a list of 11 favorite movies. The Oscar winner teamed up with the British Film Institute this month to list a selection of films she wants every moviegoer to see. Even better news is that Swinton’s list is accompanied by captions in which the actress shares some personal thoughts on each of her selections. Topping the list is Yasujiro Ozu’s 1932 drama “I Was Born But…,” which Swinton hailed as “a beautiful silent masterpiece about childhood, brotherhood, and learning about how to negotiate fathers and learn the rules of the game.”
The most recent entry on the list is Alain Guiraudie’s 2013 gay romance thriller “Stranger by the Lake,” about a young man who falls in love with a mysterious stranger at a gay cruising beach in France. Swinton said of the movie, “Exquisitely atmospheric summer cruising. Boys...
The most recent entry on the list is Alain Guiraudie’s 2013 gay romance thriller “Stranger by the Lake,” about a young man who falls in love with a mysterious stranger at a gay cruising beach in France. Swinton said of the movie, “Exquisitely atmospheric summer cruising. Boys...
- 3/18/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
In these strange times, one can find some comfort hearing stories from one of cinema’s most adventurous actors. Recipient of this year’s BFI Fellowship, Tilda Swinton recently took part in a fascinating one-hour, career-spanning conversation discussing her formative early days as an actor including deeply collaborative creative relationships with Derek Jarman and Sally Potter, as well as working with Lynne Ramsay, Bong Joon Ho, and her Oscar-winning work in Michael Clayton. (Fun side note: she had never watched the Oscars ceremony before winning.)
First, however, she also shared eleven of her favorite films, in case you need some viewing recommendations during self-isolation:
I Was Born, but… / Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu)Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini)La Belle et la Bête (Jean Cocteau)M (Fritz Lang)Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini)My Childhood / My Ain Folk / My Way Home (Bill Douglas)Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)Uncle Boonmee Who...
First, however, she also shared eleven of her favorite films, in case you need some viewing recommendations during self-isolation:
I Was Born, but… / Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu)Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini)La Belle et la Bête (Jean Cocteau)M (Fritz Lang)Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini)My Childhood / My Ain Folk / My Way Home (Bill Douglas)Stranger by the Lake (Alain Guiraudie)Uncle Boonmee Who...
- 3/18/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Considering we are no longer getting a James Bond film this spring, those seeking slick espionage thrills will get a healthy dose (and much more of the unexpected) with The Whistlers, the latest work from Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu, which is now in theaters. Clearly inspired by a number of noir films, today we’re taking a more general look at his favorite movies of all-time.
As voted on in the latest Sight & Sound poll, as well as a recent feature from our friends at Le Cinéma Club, his picks range include a healthy range of world cinema, from Apichatpong Weerasethakul to Michelangelo Antonioni to Éric Rohmer to Yasujirô Ozu. “All of them influenced my way of making movies and also my way of seeing world,” he said of the majority of the selections. Speaking about La Dolce Vita, he added, “I watched it by chance when I was 18 years old.
As voted on in the latest Sight & Sound poll, as well as a recent feature from our friends at Le Cinéma Club, his picks range include a healthy range of world cinema, from Apichatpong Weerasethakul to Michelangelo Antonioni to Éric Rohmer to Yasujirô Ozu. “All of them influenced my way of making movies and also my way of seeing world,” he said of the majority of the selections. Speaking about La Dolce Vita, he added, “I watched it by chance when I was 18 years old.
- 3/11/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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