The Skip City International D-Cinema Festival 2024 will celebrate its 21st edition from July 13th (Sat) to 21st (Sun), 2024 for 9 days at Skip City, which is an integrated institution for digital cinema production.
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 31st, 2024 (Wed) – March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival remains committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now calling for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director's 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
All nominated films in competition categories are eligible for the Festival Organizers awards.
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 31st, 2024 (Wed) – March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival remains committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now calling for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director's 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2024 (Fri)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
All nominated films in competition categories are eligible for the Festival Organizers awards.
- 2/2/2024
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Daisuke Miyazaki in New York City, July 2023. Photo courtesy of the author.Near the end of Daisuke Miyazaki’s Yamato (California) (2016), an aspiring rapper with stage fright finally raps unfettered. As she wanders through a meadow, an unmotivated movie light cuts through the natural daylight, illuminating her face in her overdue moment of release.Near the end of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth (2019), a travel reporter with fantasies of singing finally does so unfettered. As she wanders through a meadow, an unmotivated movie light cuts through the natural daylight, illuminating her face in her overdue moment of release. Miyazaki’s mid-2010s work undoubtedly influenced Kurosawa’s film. Both Yamato (California) and To the Ends of the Earth were shot by the same cinematographer, veteran Akiko Ashizawa. Miyazaki had also worked with Kurosawa once before, as an assistant director on Tokyo Sonata (2008), and the two remained in touch.
- 8/30/2023
- MUBI
Director Keishi Ohtomo returns to feudal Japan with his newest picture, “The Legend and Butterfly.” Having concluded the live-action “Rurouni Kenshin” film series, Ohtomo shifts gears for his latest feature, focusing more on real Japanese history, albeit with a heavily fictitious spin in a screenplay by Ryota Kosawa. The story deals with the rise and fall of Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga and explores his relationship with his wife, Nohime. This feature wouldn't be the first time Lord Nobunaga has been depicted in film or television. Still, with a big budget and an all-star cast, this epic was set to sweep away audiences and the box office while commemorating the 70th-anniversary celebration of Toei Company. Yet, despite a strong opening, it quickly dwindled in popularity and was met with mixed reception.
The Legend and Butterfly is screening at Japan Cuts
The story takes place over 30 years, beginning with a politically driven...
The Legend and Butterfly is screening at Japan Cuts
The story takes place over 30 years, beginning with a politically driven...
- 8/2/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Takumi Saitoh is a truly unique talent, who, after proving his prowess as an actor (he now has 165 credits to his name) continued in the same level as a director, with his segments in “Folklore” and “Food Lore”, and the features “Blank 13” and “Comply+-ance” being truly top notch. As such, his latest work, “Home Sweet Home”, based on the homonymous 2019 novel by Rinko Kamizu was one of the most anticipated films of the year. Let us see how he fared.
Home Sweet Home is screening at New York Asian Film Festival
Living in the harsh winter of Nagano, Kenji Kiyosawa, a sports instructor, is tired of being cold along with his wife, Hitomi, and newborn. As such, when he stumbles upon a company that manufactures pre-built houses that implement a technology that can warm the whole establishment with a single air-conditioner, his enthusiasm is unprecedented, as much as for his wife.
Home Sweet Home is screening at New York Asian Film Festival
Living in the harsh winter of Nagano, Kenji Kiyosawa, a sports instructor, is tired of being cold along with his wife, Hitomi, and newborn. As such, when he stumbles upon a company that manufactures pre-built houses that implement a technology that can warm the whole establishment with a single air-conditioner, his enthusiasm is unprecedented, as much as for his wife.
- 7/27/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
We are happy to announce that the Skip City International D-Cinema Festival 2023 will celebrate its 20th anniversary edition from July 15th (Sat) to 23th (Sun), 2023 for 9 days at Skip City, which is an integrated institution for digital cinema production
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 25th, 2023 (Wed) – March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
We remain committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now we call for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director’s 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
Our International Competition welcomes you!
(See: https://www.skipcity-dcf.jp/en/)
Submission period: January 25th, 2023 (Wed) – March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
We remain committed to discovering and nurturing new talent, with the aim of helping these filmmakers seize new business opportunities that have arisen in the changing landscape of the film industry. Now we call for works (60 min. or longer) that have been shot digitally and must be the director’s 1st, 2nd, or 3rd feature film from all over the world for the International Competition section.
Call for entries for the International Competition!!
Entry Deadline: Must be received by March 1st, 2023 (Wed)
Submit via FilmFreeway
https://filmfreeway.com/Skipcityinternationald-CinemaFESTIVAL (Online registration / Free)
Our International Competition welcomes you!
- 1/25/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Kicking off next week, Japan Society and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan will present an essential look at the remarkable and overlooked contributions of women in contemporary Japanese cinema. “The Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers from Japan Cuts and Beyond,” which takes place November 11 through 20, focuses on the essential roles that female artists play from behind the camera in Japanese cinema—ranging from directing and screenwriting to production and cinematography. Ahead of the Aca Cinema Project series, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the festival trailer along with the announcement of the Closing Night selection.
Chie Hayakawa’s Plan 75, a Cannes winner and Japan’s selection for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, will make its East Coast Premiere to close out the festival. The film imagines a near future in which Japan’s aging crisis has hit critical levels, resulting in a government initiative...
Chie Hayakawa’s Plan 75, a Cannes winner and Japan’s selection for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards, will make its East Coast Premiere to close out the festival. The film imagines a near future in which Japan’s aging crisis has hit critical levels, resulting in a government initiative...
- 11/2/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A survey of the growing prominence and visibility of women in film, the latest Aca Cinema Project series The Female Gaze: Women Filmmakers
from Japan Cuts and Beyond focuses on the essential roles that female artists play from behind the camera in Japanese cinema—ranging from directing and screenwriting to production and cinematography. Presenting an exciting array of screenings and premieres—that include
new mainstream and independent works from Japan Cuts alumni and rising talents alongside a classics selection—The Female Gaze offers a much-needed deep dive into the remarkable and overlooked contributions of women in contemporary Japanese cinema.
Kicking off on November 11 with the North American premiere of Japan Cuts favorite Akiko Ohku’s Wedding High followed by a post-screening discussion and Q&a with the filmmaker and an opening night party, The Female Gaze continues with the latest works of Japan Cuts alumni Riho Kudo (Orphan Blues) and...
from Japan Cuts and Beyond focuses on the essential roles that female artists play from behind the camera in Japanese cinema—ranging from directing and screenwriting to production and cinematography. Presenting an exciting array of screenings and premieres—that include
new mainstream and independent works from Japan Cuts alumni and rising talents alongside a classics selection—The Female Gaze offers a much-needed deep dive into the remarkable and overlooked contributions of women in contemporary Japanese cinema.
Kicking off on November 11 with the North American premiere of Japan Cuts favorite Akiko Ohku’s Wedding High followed by a post-screening discussion and Q&a with the filmmaker and an opening night party, The Female Gaze continues with the latest works of Japan Cuts alumni Riho Kudo (Orphan Blues) and...
- 10/22/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The 19th edition of Skip City International D-Cinema Festival had been physically held in three years from July 16 to July 24 (and virtually from July 21 to July 27), and wrapped at the Closing Ceremony, Sunday July 24. Jury and Audience award winners were announced at the Ceremony.
Softie (France), directed by Samuel Theis, received the Grand Prize in the International Competition. Magnetic Beats, directed by Vincent Maël Cardona, won the Best Director and Utama, directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, received Special Jury Prize. This year’s jury members were Shinobu Terajima, President of the Jury and the Berlinale Silver Bear winning actress, Daishi Matsunaga, the director of Hanalei Bay and Pieta in the Toilet, and Nam Dong-chul, Busan International Film Festival, Program Director. In addition, Her Way (France), directed by Cécile Ducrocq, was chosen for the Audience Award.
Skip City Award, which is selected from all Japanese films both in the International Competition and the Japanese Film Competition,...
Softie (France), directed by Samuel Theis, received the Grand Prize in the International Competition. Magnetic Beats, directed by Vincent Maël Cardona, won the Best Director and Utama, directed by Alejandro Loayza Grisi, received Special Jury Prize. This year’s jury members were Shinobu Terajima, President of the Jury and the Berlinale Silver Bear winning actress, Daishi Matsunaga, the director of Hanalei Bay and Pieta in the Toilet, and Nam Dong-chul, Busan International Film Festival, Program Director. In addition, Her Way (France), directed by Cécile Ducrocq, was chosen for the Audience Award.
Skip City Award, which is selected from all Japanese films both in the International Competition and the Japanese Film Competition,...
- 7/27/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Skip City International D-Cinema Festival which started in 2004 in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, has been held every year as a “gateway for emerging talent” centered on the International Competition and the Japanese Film Competition (features and shorts). The festival launched the careers of Kazuya Shiraishi (Lesson in Murder), Ryota Nakano (The Asadas), Shinichiro Ueda (One Cut of the Dead), Shinzo Katayama (Missing) and many other directors who are leading the Japanese film industry as top runners and whose new movies audiences are looking forward to seeing.
The 19th edition will be held both at theaters and online from Saturday, July 16th in Skip City, Kawaguchi City in Saitama, with the physical screenings for the first time in three years since 2019.
On Wednesday, June 15th, a press conference was held to announce the full line-up, with the attendance of President of the Jury for International Competition, Shinobu Terajima (Actress) and President...
The 19th edition will be held both at theaters and online from Saturday, July 16th in Skip City, Kawaguchi City in Saitama, with the physical screenings for the first time in three years since 2019.
On Wednesday, June 15th, a press conference was held to announce the full line-up, with the attendance of President of the Jury for International Competition, Shinobu Terajima (Actress) and President...
- 6/16/2022
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
Festival opens with Teppe Isobe’s ’Deadly School’.
Eight local features wiill have their world premiere at Japan’s Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, which is running as a hybrid event from July 16.
The festival opens with the world premiere of Teppe Isobe’s coming of age drama Deadly School, which is adapted from the play by Kaoru Asakusa about high school girls working hard for their school festival. Teppe Isobe has won prizes at Skip City for three of his films Who Knows about My Life (2018), F is for Future (2019) and Cornflakes (2020).
Held in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, Skip City focuses on emerging talent,...
Eight local features wiill have their world premiere at Japan’s Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, which is running as a hybrid event from July 16.
The festival opens with the world premiere of Teppe Isobe’s coming of age drama Deadly School, which is adapted from the play by Kaoru Asakusa about high school girls working hard for their school festival. Teppe Isobe has won prizes at Skip City for three of his films Who Knows about My Life (2018), F is for Future (2019) and Cornflakes (2020).
Held in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, Skip City focuses on emerging talent,...
- 6/15/2022
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
If we could summarize Koji Fukada’s cinematic style in four terms, these would definitely include his love for French cinema, his knack for experimentation, theatricality, and the concept of the stranger who appears suddenly and turns everything upside down. “Sayonara” seems to embody all of the four, with the last one having a meta hypostasis here, since the ‘stranger’ is not part of the story, but of the actual production, with Geminoid F, a female android created by Hiroshi Ishiguro, having a protagonist role. The story is based on a play by Oriza Hirata, and was promoted as “the first movie to feature a Gynoid performing opposite a human actor”
“Sayonara” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The story takes place in a not so distant future, when Japan has experienced another nuclear incident and is gradually becoming uninhabitable. The whole population has to evacuate to avoid radiation poisoning,...
“Sayonara” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The story takes place in a not so distant future, when Japan has experienced another nuclear incident and is gradually becoming uninhabitable. The whole population has to evacuate to avoid radiation poisoning,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Indian helmer Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show” walked off on Saturday with the top prize, the Golden Spike, at the 66th Valladolid Intl. Film Festival, one of Spain’s biggest and oldest film events and a bastion of festival-prized art film titles.
The French-Indian co-production marks Nalin’s homage to celluloid and is told through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy whose life is turned on its head after he watches his first film at the cinema. World premiering at Tribeca, it became the first foreign-language feature to score as the first runner up for Tribeca’s Audience Award.
Writer and director Pan Nalin said: “What we started in our solitude in a remote countryside of Gujarat has now started to echoing in multitudes the world over. Winning the best picture Golden Spike at the Seminci is like belonging to the rich history of cinema that Valladolid has stood for nearly seven decades.
The French-Indian co-production marks Nalin’s homage to celluloid and is told through the eyes of a nine-year-old boy whose life is turned on its head after he watches his first film at the cinema. World premiering at Tribeca, it became the first foreign-language feature to score as the first runner up for Tribeca’s Audience Award.
Writer and director Pan Nalin said: “What we started in our solitude in a remote countryside of Gujarat has now started to echoing in multitudes the world over. Winning the best picture Golden Spike at the Seminci is like belonging to the rich history of cinema that Valladolid has stood for nearly seven decades.
- 11/1/2021
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
Nominations in the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Apsa) were revealed today with nods for 38 films from 25 Asia Pacific countries and regions. Winners will be announced on Thursday, November 11, at the 14th Apsa Ceremony on the Australia Gold Coast. Nominations include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, which won the best screenplay award at Cannes, Asghar Farhadi’s Cannes Grand Prix winning, film A Hero, and the TIFF Platform award winning film Yuni directed by Kamila Andini.
Apsa celebrates cinema from over 70 countries, with an enhanced focus on content that reflects the region’s diversity.
Below is the full list of nominees.
Best Feature Film
A Hero (Ghahreman)
Directed by Asghar Farhadi
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Directed by Payal Kapadia
Drive My Car
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
The Pencil (Prostoy karandash)
Directed by Natalya Nazarova
There is No Evil (Sheytan vojud nadarad)
Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof
Best Youth Feature...
Apsa celebrates cinema from over 70 countries, with an enhanced focus on content that reflects the region’s diversity.
Below is the full list of nominees.
Best Feature Film
A Hero (Ghahreman)
Directed by Asghar Farhadi
A Night of Knowing Nothing
Directed by Payal Kapadia
Drive My Car
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
The Pencil (Prostoy karandash)
Directed by Natalya Nazarova
There is No Evil (Sheytan vojud nadarad)
Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof
Best Youth Feature...
- 10/13/2021
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Winners will be announced on November 11.
Cannes winners Drive My Car, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero lead the nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Academy (Apsa) awards.
Drive My Car is Japan’s entry for the best international feature Oscar and the Cannes 2021 Competition best screenplay winner. It follows a theatre actor and director who is grappling with grief for his lost wife.
A Hero, which won the grand prix at Cannes, is a French-Iranian co-production which looks at what happens when an unlikely hero finds himself caught up in a social media storm.
Both...
Cannes winners Drive My Car, directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and Asghar Farhadi’s A Hero lead the nominations at the Asia Pacific Screen Academy (Apsa) awards.
Drive My Car is Japan’s entry for the best international feature Oscar and the Cannes 2021 Competition best screenplay winner. It follows a theatre actor and director who is grappling with grief for his lost wife.
A Hero, which won the grand prix at Cannes, is a French-Iranian co-production which looks at what happens when an unlikely hero finds himself caught up in a social media storm.
Both...
- 10/13/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Above: Edwin. Photo ©Erieknjuragan.Opening on two motorcyclists playing a reckless game of chicken for petty cash in an unfashionable outskirt of Bandung in 1989, Indonesian writer-director Edwin’s sixth feature, the Golden Leopard-winning Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, is intent on challenging any and all expectations its punchy title might evoke from the very start. As the winner of the contest, rat-tailed protagonist Ajo Kawir (Marthino Lio), sets off on a victory lap, he passes a painted advertising board, which promptly comes alive and offers the audience a glimpse beneath the veneer of Ajo’s masculine swagger: “Only a man who can’t get it up can face death without fear.” Our hero, for all his readiness to take on multiple people in any kind of fight, is impotent. But this perceived sexual inadequacy is not the fatal flaw that will come to haunt Ajo on his hero’s journey.
- 8/22/2021
- MUBI
By Spencer Nafekh-Blanchette
Six years after “Cure” solidified Kiyoshi Kurosawa as a maestro of slow-burn horror, the director does a victory lap with “Retribution.” It might not amount to his J-horror masterpiece, but feels equally dreadful and haunting.
Noboru Yoshioka is a detective who finds himself wrapped up in a mysterious murder case after the corpse of an unknown woman in a red dress is discovered at a Tokyo waterfront. Not much later, Yoshioka visits the scene of the crime and hears screaming but cannot pinpoint where it is coming from. As more evidence begins to turn up within the course of a few days, Yoshioka is terrified to discover that the only viable suspect is himself, even though he has no recollection of doing anything.
As is characteristic of Kurosawa’s directorial style, the mystery in “Retribution” does not solve itself, but merely becomes more surreal and psychologically complex as it progresses.
Six years after “Cure” solidified Kiyoshi Kurosawa as a maestro of slow-burn horror, the director does a victory lap with “Retribution.” It might not amount to his J-horror masterpiece, but feels equally dreadful and haunting.
Noboru Yoshioka is a detective who finds himself wrapped up in a mysterious murder case after the corpse of an unknown woman in a red dress is discovered at a Tokyo waterfront. Not much later, Yoshioka visits the scene of the crime and hears screaming but cannot pinpoint where it is coming from. As more evidence begins to turn up within the course of a few days, Yoshioka is terrified to discover that the only viable suspect is himself, even though he has no recollection of doing anything.
As is characteristic of Kurosawa’s directorial style, the mystery in “Retribution” does not solve itself, but merely becomes more surreal and psychologically complex as it progresses.
- 11/18/2020
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
One of last year’s best films would, by extension, prove a clear highlight of 2020 even if a normal theatrical climate persisted. Sneaking in just under the wire, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To the Ends of the Earth will be released by Kimstim on December 11 via Metrograph, and they’ve debuted a U.S. trailer on Indiewire. that does well to capture the movie’s panoply of tones: disquieting without proving grim, the elemental and magnificent bound together.
We gave the film nice marks at its Locarno premiere, while managing editor Nick Newman named it his second-favorite feature of 2019, saying “Most filmmakers, even great ones, would use their displacement to gawk and play easy notes about fish-out-of-water life; Kiyoshi Kurosawa instead created a paean to the perpetually lost–rarely has anything in any medium so succinctly captured the constant unease and occasional terror of international travel.”
Find the trailer and poster...
We gave the film nice marks at its Locarno premiere, while managing editor Nick Newman named it his second-favorite feature of 2019, saying “Most filmmakers, even great ones, would use their displacement to gawk and play easy notes about fish-out-of-water life; Kiyoshi Kurosawa instead created a paean to the perpetually lost–rarely has anything in any medium so succinctly captured the constant unease and occasional terror of international travel.”
Find the trailer and poster...
- 11/16/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa may be best known for cult favorites like “Pulse,” “Cure,” and “Tokyo Sonata,” but he’s been steadily pouring out films on the festival circuit and into arthouses for four decades. His latest to hit the U.S. is “To the Ends of the Earth,” a road odyssey that picked up acclaim across the Locarno, Toronto, New York, and AFI film festivals in 2019. The film begins an exclusive virtual run on Friday, December 11 via the Metrograph, and IndieWire shares the exclusive first trailer. Watch it below.
Here’s the synopsis: “Yoko (former J-pop idol Atsuko Maeda) travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan (breathtakingly captured by veteran Dp Akiko Ashizawa) to shoot an episode of her travel reality show. In front of the camera, her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted. Despite her best efforts, the filming of the television series ends unsuccessfully,...
Here’s the synopsis: “Yoko (former J-pop idol Atsuko Maeda) travels with a small crew to Uzbekistan (breathtakingly captured by veteran Dp Akiko Ashizawa) to shoot an episode of her travel reality show. In front of the camera, her persona is carefree and happy-go-lucky, but behind the scenes she is cautious and introverted. Despite her best efforts, the filming of the television series ends unsuccessfully,...
- 11/13/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
“Yamato (California)” is Japanese director Daisuke Miyazaki’s second feature film. The title reminds us of Wim Wenders’ “Paris, Taxis,” but “Yamato” invokes more than just a sense of displacement. It also points to a greater geopolitical reality. It turns out, there is a part of Yamato which doesn’t belong to the Japanese government, but the U.S. It’s one of the many U.S. military bases in Japan. The director wants to make sure that we grasp the extraordinariness of this town; at the beginning of the film, a title card explains to us the background of the U.S. military base. Then, a long mobile shot shows us the never ending fences the U.S. military built to divide the military base and the civilian sphere. Later in the film, when the main character Sakura (played by the Korean-Japanese actress Hanae Kan) finally bonds with her...
- 7/10/2020
- by I-Lin Liu
- AsianMoviePulse
Kiyoshi Kurosawa made a break from J-Horror to direct a family drama, thus resulting in a true masterpiece of the genre that won a number of awards, including the Jury Prize of the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes.
The Sasakis are a middle class family, living a more or less regular life in Tokyo. Ryuhei, the father, is a successful senior member of a company with a more than adequate income. At some point, his company terminates his employment, thus resulting in the egress of the family’s issues. Shamed by his dismissal, he keeps it a secret by hypocritically continuing his everyday routine. He actually goes to the employment agency in the morning and spends the remainder of the day roaming the streets, until the time he usually arrives home. He meets Kurosu, another individual like him, who explains that there are many men in...
The Sasakis are a middle class family, living a more or less regular life in Tokyo. Ryuhei, the father, is a successful senior member of a company with a more than adequate income. At some point, his company terminates his employment, thus resulting in the egress of the family’s issues. Shamed by his dismissal, he keeps it a secret by hypocritically continuing his everyday routine. He actually goes to the employment agency in the morning and spends the remainder of the day roaming the streets, until the time he usually arrives home. He meets Kurosu, another individual like him, who explains that there are many men in...
- 1/19/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
“To the Ends of the Earth” was jointly commissioned by Japan and Uzbekistan to commemorate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, as well as the 70th anniversary of the Navoi Theater in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which was constructed by Japanese prisoners of war after World War II. Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, whose filmography boasts of various genres but is probably most well-known for his earlier J-horror films like “Cure” and “Pulse”, was hired to write and direct the film.
“To the Ends of the Earth” screened at San Diego Asian Film Festival
Yoko is in Uzbekistan as a reporter to shoot a travel documentary about the country for a variety show, but it’s not going as smoothly as her team or she expects. A rare, almost mythical fish apparently native to a lake there which they want to catch and film won’t bite, the rice in...
“To the Ends of the Earth” screened at San Diego Asian Film Festival
Yoko is in Uzbekistan as a reporter to shoot a travel documentary about the country for a variety show, but it’s not going as smoothly as her team or she expects. A rare, almost mythical fish apparently native to a lake there which they want to catch and film won’t bite, the rice in...
- 11/20/2019
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
“To the Ends of the Earth,” the story of a young Japanese journalist’s experiences in Uzbekistan filming a report for a Japanese TV travel show, was originally commissioned to celebrate 25 years of cordial diplomatic relations between director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s hyper-developed island homeland and the less affluent, landlocked Central Asian nation. As such we might have expected a straightforwardly celebratory, mildly quirky travelogue, but Kurosawa’s discreetly offbeat approach makes it much more rewarding and, in its way, revealing than that: an insightful and ambivalent interrogation of the strange and often compromised experience that is cultural tourism in the mass media age.
A great deal of Kurosawa’s recent output has been disappointingly wan, blending thinly plotted sci-fi or melodrama with stock elements of the J-horror genre he quietly, creepily revolutionized in the late ’90s and early aughts in films like “Pulse” and “Cure.” But in the most surprising...
A great deal of Kurosawa’s recent output has been disappointingly wan, blending thinly plotted sci-fi or melodrama with stock elements of the J-horror genre he quietly, creepily revolutionized in the late ’90s and early aughts in films like “Pulse” and “Cure.” But in the most surprising...
- 10/15/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
TV reporter Yoko sits with a member of her crew in the breakfast room of Tashkent’s Uzbekistan Hotel. She’s miles away from her native Tokyo turf, on an assignment that shipped her all the way to the central Asian republic, ostensibly to film a “bramul,” a gigantic fish said to reach up to two meters in length. Except the fish is a most elusive creature, and the trip is turning into a disaster of epic proportions. The look on Yoko’s face has little to do with the failed quest though; her eyes are going grim, her face sending out less light. She tells the cameraman she fears her job is steering her away from what she truly wants to do: sing. The man consoles her (“singing and reporting to an audience aren’t much different”), but she won’t have it. “I feel different. Singing needs emotion,...
- 8/22/2019
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Newcomer director Natsuki Nakagawa made an appearance at Nippon Connection in Frankfurt to present her debut film “She is Alone“. We took the opportunity and talked with the aspiring filmmaker about film studies, university and her strong female lead character.
“She is Alone” screened at Nippon Connection
You graduated from Rikkyo University and studied filmmaking, psychology and Cinematic Arts. As I understand, “She is Alone” is your thesis film. When did you decide to study film? And how much do film and psychology interact?
I wanted to learn how to make a film after I graduated from college. I thought about making a movie from a young age. However, I actually wanted to make a movie when I was looking for a job. The name of the department at my university can lead to misunderstandings because of its name. My department is further divided into psychology and cinematic arts. The...
“She is Alone” screened at Nippon Connection
You graduated from Rikkyo University and studied filmmaking, psychology and Cinematic Arts. As I understand, “She is Alone” is your thesis film. When did you decide to study film? And how much do film and psychology interact?
I wanted to learn how to make a film after I graduated from college. I thought about making a movie from a young age. However, I actually wanted to make a movie when I was looking for a job. The name of the department at my university can lead to misunderstandings because of its name. My department is further divided into psychology and cinematic arts. The...
- 6/11/2019
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
“She is Alone” is the first feature film of Natsuko Nakagawa. The young filmmaker, who studied cinematic arts and contemporary psychology, tells the story of the suicidal girl Sumiko. Her destructive traits and revenge fantasies cause a lot of chaos within the social construct that goes by the name “high school”.
“She is Alone” is screening at Nippon Connection
After losing her mother to suicide, Sumiko tries to kill herself, too. But the attempt fails and she is under the suspicion of her father, friends, and teachers from then on. Everybody feels responsible and Sumiko is surrounded by an overbearing network of people. “She is Alone” reveals the hypocrisy of this network.
The female lead is characterized by apathy. Having come back from the edge of death, Sumiko spends her days aimlessly as she begins to blackmail her classmate Hideaki, who is dating a teacher at school. Akari Fukunaga (“Unten...
“She is Alone” is screening at Nippon Connection
After losing her mother to suicide, Sumiko tries to kill herself, too. But the attempt fails and she is under the suspicion of her father, friends, and teachers from then on. Everybody feels responsible and Sumiko is surrounded by an overbearing network of people. “She is Alone” reveals the hypocrisy of this network.
The female lead is characterized by apathy. Having come back from the edge of death, Sumiko spends her days aimlessly as she begins to blackmail her classmate Hideaki, who is dating a teacher at school. Akari Fukunaga (“Unten...
- 5/30/2019
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Those left unsatisfied with Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s more distant, ethereal Journey to the Shore — those few who saw it on the festival circuit before it disappeared, at least — should be elated by the advance word on Creepy, his full-blooded return to horror. The fact that it received very fine notices upon premiering at Berlin doesn’t guarantee we in the U.S. can see it soon, however, so perhaps a longer preview will sate some desires for now.
The good news is that, if our review was on-point, not too much is conceded herein. As we said at the time, “With the threat to the protagonists unequivocally established, the ensuing narrative is essentially a smokescreen that allows Kurosawa to raise tension in the lead-up to a grand finale. Again working with Akiko Ashizawa, his regular cinematographer over the last decade, he constructs elaborate compositions that almost always contain elements furtively moving in the periphery.
The good news is that, if our review was on-point, not too much is conceded herein. As we said at the time, “With the threat to the protagonists unequivocally established, the ensuing narrative is essentially a smokescreen that allows Kurosawa to raise tension in the lead-up to a grand finale. Again working with Akiko Ashizawa, his regular cinematographer over the last decade, he constructs elaborate compositions that almost always contain elements furtively moving in the periphery.
- 3/23/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
One has to appreciate Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s winking self-awareness in calling his new feature Creepy. It’s as if the Coen brothers released a film entitled Snarky, or Eli Roth named his next stomach-churner Gory. Kurosawa, who’s still best known for Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001), two rare outstanding examples of the highly variable J-Horror genre, instills a sense of creepiness into virtually anything he does, regardless of subject matter. His latest, which sees him return to the realm of horror after excursions into more arthouse territory, certainly lives up to its name and has a lot of fun doing so.
In the excellent, mood-setting opening, we’re introduced to Koichi (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a brilliant detective with an ill-fated fascination for psychopaths. As he interrogates a young and cheerfully remorseless serial killer, he can barely contain his excitement at being able to probe such a compelling subject. His smug over-confidence results...
In the excellent, mood-setting opening, we’re introduced to Koichi (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a brilliant detective with an ill-fated fascination for psychopaths. As he interrogates a young and cheerfully remorseless serial killer, he can barely contain his excitement at being able to probe such a compelling subject. His smug over-confidence results...
- 2/16/2016
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- The Film Stage
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa is best known for some of the more famous Japanese horror films of the past decade such as Doppelgangerm, Pulse and Cure. With Tokyo Sonata he has made an engrossing drama that captures the current attitude of the economically troubled world by focusing on a seemingly ordinary Japanese family and the shame and catastrophes that are visited on them when the father loses his job. Part parable, comedy, low-key thriller, and social commentary, Tokyo Sonata is a superb and timely domestic saga that is firmly grounded in today’s economically anxious times, but it’s also a strange, unnerving film and there were times when I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to take it seriously or if I was being treated to farce.
Tokyo Sonata tells the story of 46 year old Japanese businessman Yuhei Sasaki who’s suddenly and unceremoniously dumped from administrative job for...
Tokyo Sonata tells the story of 46 year old Japanese businessman Yuhei Sasaki who’s suddenly and unceremoniously dumped from administrative job for...
- 7/10/2009
- by Tom
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
After a couple of months that for all intents and purposes defined "moribund," actual moviegoing, at least in the major cities, is getting interesting again, with several masterworks or near-masterworks creeping into theaters. Jan Troell's scrupulous, beautiful "Everlasting Moments," Olivier Assayas' genuinely Renoir-esque "Summer Hours" and Philippe Garrel's blunt, idiosyncratic "Frontier of Dawn" are all exceptionally exciting and rewarding pictures, and the fact that they're all being distributed by the sister company of the one that's hosting me as a critic this month looks...well, funny, I know. What can I tell you? IFC Entertainment's acquisitions folks have excellent taste, and they're into...acquiring.
Still in all, I'm slightly relieved, if only for the sake of appearances, that the latest wonderment from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, "Tokyo Sonata," premieres on U.S. screens this week courtesy of Regent Releasing. Kurosawa, who, as most of his fans already know,...
Still in all, I'm slightly relieved, if only for the sake of appearances, that the latest wonderment from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, "Tokyo Sonata," premieres on U.S. screens this week courtesy of Regent Releasing. Kurosawa, who, as most of his fans already know,...
- 3/11/2009
- by Glenn Kenny
- ifc.com
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