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Summer at the Keys
"They say that it was so hot in the city today, grown men were walking up to cops on street corners begging them to shoot them." - Ricky Roma, Glengarry Glen Ross
Like a dog under the blazing sun with its belly on the asphalt and its tongue lolling out of its mouth, the blog has pretty much ground to a halt. Tokyo is sweaty, I don't have a lot to say, and I'm being more selfish with my time these days.
For the next year or so I'm concentrating on screenwriting. While I've written some short pieces in recent years I haven't focused on features since the mid-noughties, though there have been plenty of J-E script translations. For my daiichidan (opening shot), I've written a dark thriller based on a treatment I banged out two or three years ago. I'm in the middle of deciding which ending to go with. Hope to have some good news regarding this project by the time the heat subsides.
In the effort to focus I'm limiting my other writing to Screen International and not much else. However, I was kindly asked by director Sabu to translate his 12-episode action-dramedy TV series Trouble Man (『トラブルマン』) earlier this year (see my April 26 entry). It's a fun show that Sabu wrote and directed as if it were a movie (he's not interested in TV, even labeling it "A Sabu Film" in the promos). The series' broadcast run on TV Tokyo just ended and there's a DVD box set coming out this August, but it's unsubbed of course. I'm also working on getting Trouble Man shown in the US. More on that later this year.
One additional small job I took on was subtitling a short film. Despite the mountains of film-related translation I've done since 2002 I realized I'd never translated a short, aside from some silent films back in 2005. The film, entitled Dark on Dark, is directed by well-known comedian, actor, radio personality and author Ôtake Makoto (大竹まこと). It's part of a larger feature omnibus called City Boys Film Noir ( 『シティボーイズのFilm noir』) starring the members of Ôtake's famed City Boys comedy troupe, established in 1979. Ôtake makes his directing debut while one of the other shorts was helmed by hot young director Okita Shûichi of The Chef of South Polar (Nankyoku Ryôrinin,『南極料理人』). The shorts became a hit as part the City Boys live performance in May and will screen as a late-show feature at Theatre Shinjuku from this Saturday (July 24) to August 6.
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Japanese Film Festival Singapore
Back on June 24 I highlighted some international festivals showing Japanese films. Among then was the Japanese Film Festival Singapore (August 19-29).
I mentioned I'd be updating that entry with details of the JFF lineup when they became available, but it's such an interesting selection I thought it deserved its own entry. As the official site adds more details, the following is an abbreviated version of yesterday's press release:
Japanese Film Festival Singapore 2010 spotlights on YOUTH and brings 31 Singapore Premieres of groundbreaking Japanese classics, independent cinema and awarding-winning films to Singapore from August 19 to 29.
This year, our festival will attempt to capture the Youth in Japanese Cinema through showcasing:
1) Works of directors who led the revolutionary change in the 1960s which became known as the Japanese New Wave – a major turning point in the history of Japanese cinema
Focus on JAPANESE NEW WAVE and OSHIMA Nagisa
From the 1960s, we celebrate the works of OSHIMA Nagisa, one of the foremost directors associated with leading the Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. OSHIMA’s acclaimed works in the line-up are Boy, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, Sing a Song of Sex and Sinner in Paradise. Together with him, works by his contemporaries and leading auteurs themselves – Good For Nothing and Bloody Thirst by YOSHIDA Yoshishige, Hogs and Warships and A Man Vanishes by IMAMURA Shohei and A Flame at the Pier by SHINODA Masahiro, provide us precious glimpses of the triumph of Japanese New Wave in the 1960s. As a contrast, ICHIKAWA Kon’s highly acclaimed Ototo will be screened.
2) Works by young, aspiring directors birthed from 2 current initiatives in Japan: the PIA Film Festival in Tokyo and the VIPO’s NDJC program. The independently funded PIA Film Festival has gained much acclaim in its mission to discover and nurture young talents. Under the VIPO Program, government-linked organisations commissions and supports films by young directors.
Focus on PIA FILM FESTIVAL
As part of its spotlight on young Japanese filmmakers today, this year's festival will highlight the contributions of PIA FILM FESTIVAL from Tokyo, which lays claim to being the first film festival in Japan, and in its 33 years have continued to nurture budding directing talents. In 2006, this festival screened YOSHINO’S BARBER SHOP by OGIGAMI Naoko - one of our festival guests in 2006. YOSHINO’S BARBER SHOP was the 13th PIA scholarship film. This year, we will be screening the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th films, as well as a film from its competition in 2008. More about this legendary festival can be found in the appendix.
• A Stranger of Mine – 3 awards from Cannes International Film Festival 2005
• Water Flower – Berlin International Film Festival 2006
• Fourteen – NETPAC Award International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007
• ASYL - Best First Feature Award - Berlin International Film Festival 2008
• Mime-Mime – Vancouver International Film Festival 2008
Directions - Focus on NDJC
Directions focuses non-feature films from young filmmaking talents
Every year, VIPO (Visual Industry Promotion Organisation) produces five films under its New Directions in Japanese Cinema programme, as part of an effort to foster Japanese filmmaking. Filmmaking skills are imparted and polished through workshops for talented young filmmakers. Its goal is to discover and foster the next generation of feature-length film directors. The festival will showcase 10 short films from 2007 and 2008.
3) Latest award-winning films from up-and-coming Japanese filmmakers that are blazing a trail in the international film circuit.
Japanese Currents
Best in Contemporary Cinema, Festival Hits and Independent Cinema from Japan
Highlights include
• Air Doll by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
– Un Certain Regard Cannes International Film Festival 2009
• Live Tape by MATSUE Tetsuaki (JFF2008 Guest)
– Best Film at Tokyo International Film Festival 2009
• Yuriko's Aroma by YOSHIDA Kota
– Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2010
• Fish Story by NAKAMURA Yoshihiro - Fantasia Film Festival 2010
• LALAPIPO by MIYANO Masayuki - Fantasia Film Festival 2009
• Bare Essence of Life by YOKOHAMA Satoko
– Premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2009
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Plot Details for Shinji Imaoka / Christopher Doyle Pink Film
A brief update to the announcement I posted last Friday about new pink film musical Underwater Love (Onna no Kappa,『おんなの河童』) directed by Imaoka Shinji and shot by legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle.
I received the first set of press notes yesterday after visiting the set in Ibaraki Prefecture. I thought Twitch Film would be the best place to get details out, so you can read all about it in its baffling glory here.
Despite a low budget (though higher than the usual pinku eiga production!), Underwater Love has some very special locations and sequences in store. Yesterday took me two hours outside of Tokyo to a small rural factory situated next to Kasumigaura Lake, complete with quaint old fishing boats and a log pier.
As I tweeted yesterday, Underwater Love is the most surreal set I've ever been on. Watching Chris Doyle work under the blazing hot sun was inspiring, and only added to the strange beauty of what transpired.
Imagine, if you will: Doyle and his crack pink film crew capture three kappa (including a female one), a buxom vixen, a Rastafarian-inspired "God of Death" and a group of rubber-aproned female fish factory workers as they do a goofy para para dance routine to music by Stereo Total playing on a cheap boom box on the grass in front of expansive green lotus fields.
I'll be writing more impressions of my set visit along with some great photos, which again will be posted on Twitch first.
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Japan Cuts / Shinsedai Cinema Festival / Japan Film Festival Singapore
With Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a multitude of other self-promotion tools I don't highlight a lot of J-film events on the blog anymore, but here's a brief roundup of a few exciting looking festivals.
The following trailer for JAPAN CUTS Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema (July 1-16) impressed me, as did this year's 24-title lineup.
With the New York Asian Film Festival kicking off tomorrow (June 25-July 8) it'll be a three week J-film moriawase in NYC. Also check out NYAFF's own kaiju-inspired trailer.
In my old stomping grounds of Toronto, literally walking distance from where I grew up, the second edition of the Shinsedai Cinema Festival (July 22-25) kicks off in just under a month. The films are programmed by my old cohort Jasper Sharp and Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow blogmaster Chris Magee. Tickets are on sale now.
For those based in Asia, the Japanese Film Festival Singapore takes place from August 19-29. The lineup should be announced very soon, after which I'll update this entry.
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Christopher Doyle to shoot pink film musical
Over the past couple of years I've heard bits and pieces about a pink film musical to be directed by Imaoka Shinji, co-funded by Kokuei and German film distribution company Rapid Eye Movies as their first venture into production (R.E. is run by one of the nicest guys in the film industry, Stephan Holl).
Last year Alex Zahlten of Nippon Connection let it slip that legendary cinematographer Christopher Doyle was well up for the job and just waiting for everything to be sorted out. After many revisions of the screenplay (more like page-one rewrites), many of them translated by Dr. Alex, things are now settled and the shoot will go ahead later this month in Tokyo. Additionally, good friend Tom Mes of Midnight Eye had a hand in the draft that eventually became the shooting script.
Congratulations to everyone for getting this cinematic craziness off the ground!
Here's the mini-press release from Rapid Eye Movies:
Dear friends,
I am proud to announce that principal photography of
Kokuei/Rapideyemovies coproduction
UNDERWATER LOVE(working title)
starts June 25th till July 1st
in and nearby Tokyo.
The film marks rapideyemovies first venture into production
and Kokuei's more then 500th feature film in its 50(!) anniversary year.
Directed by Imaoka Shinji, shot by Christopher Doyle, Music by Stereo Total,
The film will be completed winter 2010.
I will keep you posted
With warm regards,
Stephan Holl
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Jason Gray 
