Kaurismäki + Kurosawa!

Hello all! It's been a good few months since I last had some new writing to share, which was when an essay I wrote about Aki Kaurismäki was published in the 92nd issue of the Toronto-based film journal CineAction. I have been keeping up with my exploration and admiration of Kaurismäki, whom I now consider to be possibly my absolute favourite filmmaker, and now I have a new piece to my name that examines his work! In my latest essay, which is included in the 71st issue of the online film journal Senses of Cinema, I pair the Finnish master of conscientious deadpan comedy up with an at-first unlikely counterpart: Akira Kurosawa, that fabled maker of samurai epics, nail-biting Tokyo noirs, and humanist dramas. It is within the last category where I find common ground between Kurosawa and Kaurismäki, particularly in the context of Kurosawa's One Wonderful Sunday and Dodes'ka-den and Kaurismäki's Drifting Clouds and The Man Without a Past.

Intrigued? Please check out the whole essay here - and feel free to let me know what you think! Also, take the time to sift through the other contents of the issue (tackling Alfonso Cuarón, David Lynch, The Hunger Games and Romanian cinema, to name just a few of the subjects!). As I so often am, I am very proud to be included amongst such talented soldiers of cinema.

As always, thanks for reading!

Early 2013 Activity: Rotterdam, Picks of 2012, RIP Donald Richie, Shinsedai

Hello all. I come to you today with a gathering of pieces, most of which I wrote, that have been recently posted:

· My report on the 42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam, which I attended in January and February, has just been posted in Senses of Cinema's 66th issue. In it, I talk about a healthy portion of the films I saw, from The Master, Stoker, and the Kaurismäki-Costa-Erice-de Oliveira-directed omnibus film Centro Histórico to such pleasant surprises as Manuela Morgaine's Foudre, Carlos Lechuga's Melaza, Alex Pitstra's Die Welt, Sebastián Hofmann's Halley, and Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus.

Sebastián Hofmann's Halley

Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus

Aki Kaurismäki's segment from Centro Histórico

· I was kindly invited to join a few of my other colleagues in Japanese cinema studies, including Chris MaGee and Julian Ross, in sharing my thoughts on the passing of Donald Richie, who was truly legendary for his contributions to writing on Japanese film and culture. Click here to view the group obit.

· The 2013 edition of the Shinsedai Cinema Festival, which has been showcasing independent Japanese films in Toronto every summer for the past four years, and which I have been personally involved with for just as long, has been officially cancelled due to a shortage of funds and sponsors. Read the announcement from Chris, the festival director, here.

· Finally, at both Senses of Cinema and Midnight Eye, I listed and wrote about my favourite films of 2012.

Thanks for reading - and happy first day of spring!

Kaurismäki Mania!

On July 31st, the Criterion Collection will be releasing on Blu-ray and DVD Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki's delightful French fairy tale from last year. I can't wait.




-Here is a wonderful interview that Simon Hattenstone conducted with the dour, funny Finn in London's Soho House.

-And finally, here is Kaurismäki paying tribute to one of his artistic heroes, the great Yasujiro Ozu:

Goings-On in Asian Film: Nippon Connection, Tsai Ming-Liang and Shinsedai!

Hello all. I just wanted to gather together a few of the exciting things I've been involved with recently in the Asian film community. First of all, Chris MaGee of the J-Film Pow-Wow and I recently returned from our annual trip out to Frankfurt, Germany, for the Nippon Connection Japanese film festival. While Chris had his hands full as one of the jurors for the Nippon Visions program, I took up press coverage duties. My report on my festival experience is now posted over at the Pow-Wow, along with links to individual film reviews for some of the works that were shown.

Shortly before I left for that trip, I took some time to once again pop up as a guest host on the VCinema Show. Concluding the three-part mini-series of podcasts focusing on Taiwanese filmmakers, I spoke with Jon Jung (AKA Coffin Jon), Josh Samford and Dr. Stan Glick about the divisive and (in my eyes) mesmerizing Tsai Ming-Liang film Goodbye, Dragon Inn. Click on the picture below to access the episode, or get it through VCinema's subscription channel on iTunes.

Finally, things are really gearing up here in Toronto for the 4th annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival, which will be happening from July 12th-15th at the Revue Cinema. The full lineup of independent Japanese films has been revealed; click here to check it out and follow the above link for further details on the festival. There is a lot of fascinating stuff lined up for that week that should amount to a great time for Toronto film-goers and fans of Asian cinema.

Have a look at the festival trailer below, edited together by Pow-Wow writer Matthew Hardstaff, for a peek at the films that will be shown in July:

Book Release: Directory of World Cinema: Japan 2

Hello all! Today I write to you about a new book release that will appeal to fans of Japanese cinema and film writing: the Directory of World Cinema: Japan 2, edited by John Berra and published by Intellect Ltd. Like the series' first volume on Japan's rich film culture, which was published in 2010, this one features several essays and film reviews touching on a wide variety of genres, directors and trends. As in the first book, you'll find sections devoted to blockbusters, period films (jidai-geki), anime, the Japanese New Wave, a key Japanese film festival (this one being Japan Cuts) and a "Film of the Year" (this one being Yuya Ishii's Sawako Decides), plus new chapters on subjects like Japanese youth cinema and films that portray the lower class.

This time around, I contributed an essay on the filmmaker Hiroshi Shimizu, whose body of work spans from the 1920s and '30s all the way to the end of the 1950s. Some of his more well-known works include Japanese Girls at the Harbor (1933), The Masseurs and a Woman (1938) and Ornamental Hairpin (1941), all of which are conveniently gathered in a great Eclipse set from the Criterion Collection. I also wrote film reviews on works from directors as diverse as Akira Kurosawa, Nagisa Oshima, Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike and Takuya Fukushima, who co-wrote and directed the spellbinding independent film Our Brief Eternity (2009).

But above all that, I simply feel so honored to be included alongside some truly talented writers, including John Berra himself, Catherine Munroe Hotes (of Nishikata Film Review), film curator Julian Ross, Brian Ruh (author of Stray Dog of Anime: The Films of Mamoru Oshii), Zachariah Rush, Fred Shimizu and fellow J-Film Pow-Wow cohorts Chris MaGee, Bob Turnbull and Matthew Hardstaff, plus many more devoted fans and scholars of Japanese cinema. They've all done some fantastic work in making this a comprehensive and well-crafted book for readers to sink their teeth into.

The book has recently come out in Europe, while its North American release has been pushed back to April 15th of this year. The corresponding button on the right sidebar will bring you to its page on Amazon.ca. Happy reading (and viewing)!

Gojira is Coming to the Criterion Collection

I especially like how the video below emphasizes the other qualities within Ishiro Honda's 1954 classic beyond the titular, now-iconic creature.





On a related note, I recently reviewed Honda's fun 1963 film Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People over at the J-Film Pow-Wow. Click here if you're curious.

Edmund Yeo's "Last Fragments of Winter" - VCinema Review

Hello all! A few days ago, I popped up once more at VCinema, that great online/podcasting hotspot for Asian cinema lovers everywhere. I wrote up something very special for them: a review of the latest short film from accomplished Malaysian filmmaker Edmund Yeo. The film, Last Fragments of Winter, is a beautifully crafted piece of work that was shot in Japan and Malaysia and recently had its world premiere at the 8th Dubai International Film Festival. Check out my review for it here, and if you ever have the chance, make sure to catch this fantastic gem!

New Trailer for Edmund Yeo's Exhalation

Hello all. I just wanted to share the release of a brand new trailer for the 2010 short film Exhalation, which was directed by Malaysian filmmaker Edmund Yeo. I've followed Edmund's remarkable progress for some time now and written about a number of his admirably crafted films, including Exhalation, The White Flower and Kingyo.

If you're in or around Tokyo in late October, you can catch it at the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival on the 23rd along with Lim Kah Wai's Magic and Loss. Check here for more information on the screening.

Plus, you can check out a short interview I did with Edmund about Exhalation over at the J-Film Pow-Wow.

Book Stuff!

Hello all. Marc here with a quick post regarding two film book-related tidbits for you. Firstly, John Berra, editor of such books as Directory of World Cinema: Japan and Directory of World Cinema: American Independent and current lecturer of film studies at China's Nanjing University, has recently released the cover image (see below) for the upcoming Directory of World Cinema: Japan 2, which he also edited. The new book will, like the first, feature reviews and essays covering various subjects in the world of Japanese cinema. Contributors include myself as well as fellow J-Film Pow-Wow writers Chris MaGee, Matthew Hardstaff and Bob Turnbull. Using an image from Tetsuya Nakashima's film Kamikaze Girls, it looks like the folks at Intellect behind the design decided to really run with the pink motif! The book will be released sometime in 2012.

Speaking of film books, there's a site that I've been meaning to plug here for some time now that covers in remarkable detail the goings on in the world of film writing. It is Toronto Film Review, run by fellow Toronto cinephile and film literature devotee David Davidson. Over at his blog, you'll find monthly editorials, book reviews, news and write-ups on film-related goings-on in Toronto and more. The easily detectable passion and incredible depth of David's pieces alone make his site worth visiting - check it out!

The 3rd Shinsedai Cinema Festival Comes to Toronto!

Now entering its third year, the Shinsedai Cinema Festival will once more be bringing a slew of independent Japanese films to Toronto this summer. Began in 2009 by author and Midnight Eye co-founder Jasper Sharp and J-Film Pow-Wow founder and editor-in-chief Chris MaGee, the festival is designed to highlight some of the newest filmmakers to emerge from Japan, giving North American viewers a rare chance to take a look at noteworthy films that have received attention elsewhere in the world. This year’s guests will include Kiki Sugino, the lead actress and producer of the opening night film, Koji Fukuda’s Hospitalité; comedian and director Devi Kobayashi, whose films Mariko Rose the Spook and Hikari will be shown back-to-back; and Ryugo Nakamura, a fifteen year-old filmmaker who already has an impressive number of short films (thirty, to be precise) to his name and will be presenting his latest feature, The Catcher on the Shore.

This year’s lineup looks like quite the diverse grab bag of cinematic treats, offering a wide selections of genres to choose from. Along with the above-mentioned films, I am quite intrigued by a few films I recognize from this year’s lineup from Frankfurt’s Nippon Connection film festival, which I had the pleasure of attending. Besides highlights like Koji Shiraishi’s Shirome, a mockumentary that features girl group Momoiro Clover thrust into a horror film scenario, and Yoichi Higashi’s Wandering Home, a family drama starring Tadanobu Asano as the alcoholic photojournalist Yutaka Kamoshida, I am perhaps most excited about Keita Kurosaka’s Midori-ko, a positively brilliant, beautifully strange work of hand-drawn animation that took its maker over ten years to complete.

The 3rd Shinsedai Cinema Festival will run from July 21st-24th, 2011, at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto. Full details on the films, schedule, tickets and passes and location can all be found at the festival’s main website. I will be doing some coverage of the festival for a few film sites, so stay tuned for links to those pieces once they are completed!

Check out the trailers for Hospitalité and Midori-ko below!

Frankfurt: Spring 2011

A few weeks ago, I returned from my second trip to Frankfurt for this year's Nippon Connection film festival, which ran from April 27th to May 5th. With great weather, wonderful people and interesting films, I certainly had an awesome time. To read the coverage that my buddy Chris MaGee and I wrote up on the fest and specific films, head over to the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow.

You can also scroll below to check out some of the pictures I snapped throughout that week: