Hello all. Happy New Year! I am once more back in the GTA, refreshed and ready to get a start on 2011. This year will hopefully bring about a few more posts and reviews here as well as other projects and pursuits elsewhere.
Speaking of, there are a few interesting things going on over at the website for the VCinema Podcast and Blog, which specializes in news, reviews and podcast episodes on Asian cinema. Recently, they posted a series of three articles in which a variety of writers, scholars and all-around Asian cinema fans spoke up about their favorite Asian film experiences in 2010, revealing a broad variety of tastes and experiences. I was one of those contributors, as was my editor and compadre John Berra, who was a guest on Episode 13 of the podcast and regularly writes reviews for VCinema. You can check out our entries here; the other two articles in the series can be found here and here.
The VCinema podcast will soon be celebrating its first anniversary on January 31st, 2011. In order to celebrate the special event, they are currently holding a special contest that I'm sure will be worth taking part in - if your knowledge of Asian cinema is up to snuff. Here is editor and producer Coffin Jon's blurb on the contest:
Episode 22 of our podcast, scheduled for release on January 31st, 2011, will mark the VCinema podcast’s first anniversary. Can you believe it?! We can’t either. Anyway, in this episode, we will have our first discussion of an entire film trilogy (we normally only discuss one film per episode) and this is where the contest comes in. Email us at vcinema@variedcelluloid.net with the name of the director whose trilogy we will discuss and you will earn a chance to win a prize, the winner of which we will determined by random draw during episode 22.
Now, that’s leaving you all sort of high and dry because there must be a million Asian directors who have directed a million film trilogies, so how would you know which we chose unless you could read our minds (and you can’t, CAN YOU?!) Well, here’s a hint:
This director, who shares the last name with another famous Japanese director, got his start in Japanese pinku and direct-to-video yakuza films before later becoming popular during the “J-Horror” film boom in the late ’90s to mid 2000′s.
OK, got it?! Only one entry per person and all entries must be in by Sunday, January 16th at midnight PST to be considered for the prize, so get your entry in as soon as possible.
Also, be sure to listen to episode 21, out on January 17, 2011, for a second chance at an entry into this contest!
*VCinema will not use your email address for marketing or spam. We will only contact you if you are the winner or you have a question about the contest.
There ya have it. Be sure to bookmark the VCinema website and check it regularly for your fill of everything Asian cinema.
Finally, it's worth mentioning that Jon was recently interviewed by the San Francisco-based website SF360 regarding the history of the VCinema podcast and what he and his co-hosts (Josh Samford of Varied Celluloid and Rufus de Rham of CineAWESOME!) hope to accomplish with their discussions of Asian films and filmmakers. Check it out here!
Showing posts with label best films of 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best films of 2010. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
The End of a Good 2010
Hello all. As promised, here I am with my final post of 2010 - which, overall, I found to be a pretty good year. Certainly two big highlights were the Nippon Connection film festival, which I attended in Frankfurt, Germany with my good friend and whip-crackin' editor Chris MaGee of the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow, and the Shinsedai Cinema Festival, which was co-programmed by Chris and Midnight Eye's Jasper Sharp. I was quite busy during Shinsedai this year, namely with two assignments. Throughout the fest, I reported on the films I saw with the VCinema Podcast's producer and host Coffin Jon Jung, which was a ton of fun (click here for links to the festival coverage episodes). I was also asked by Midnight Eye to do an interview with Gen Takahashi, who was in Toronto to present his excellent film Confessions of a Dog. The result was an informative conversation with a true maverick of Japanese independent cinema - and a very, very nice guy. Check out that interview here.
Before finally signing off for the remainder of the year, I'll share my list of the 20 favorite films I saw in 2010. There are some noticeable films missing from the list - simply because I haven't had the chance to see them yet. Thus, you won't find The Social Network, True Grit, 127 Hours, The American nor Enter the Void. Plus, it should be mentioned that this list was arranged according to my own personal tastes - not what I believe to be the "best" films of the year. In other words, these are the 20 flicks that simply tickled my fancy the most.
1) Scott Pilgrim VS the World (U.S./Canada, dir. Edgar Wright)
2) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand, Loong Boonmee raleuk chat, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3) Shutter Island (U.S., dir. Martin Scorsese)
4) Confessions of a Dog (Japan, Pochi no kokuhaku, dir. Gen Takahashi)
5) Wild Grass (France, Les Herbes Folles, dir. Alain Resnais)
6) Inception (U.S., dir. Christopher Nolan)
7) Live Tape (Japan, Raibu têpu, dir. Tetsuaki Matsue)
8) Film Socialism (France, Film socialisme, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
9) Oh, My Buddha AKA The Shikisoku Generation (Japan, Shikisoku zenereishon, dir. Tomorowo Taguchi)
10) I Saw The Devil (South Korea, Akmareul boattda, dir. Kim Ji-woon)
11) Autumn Adagio (Japan, Fuwaku no adagio, dir. Tsuki Inoue)
12) Our Brief Eternity (Japan, dir. Takuya Fukushima)
13) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I (U.K., dir. David Yates)
14) Crime or Punishment?!? (Japan, Tsumi toka batsu toka, dir. Keralino Sandorovich)
15) The Red Spot (Japan/Germany, Der rote punkt, dir. Marie Miyayama)
16) Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (Japan, Kakera, dir. Momoko Ando)
17) Locked Out (Japan, Rokkuauto, dir. Yasunobu Takahashi)
18) A Normal Life, Please! (Japan, Futsu no Shigoto ga Shitai, dir: Tokachi Tsuchiya)
19) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden, Män som hatar kvinnor, dir. Niels Arden Oplev)
20) Kick-Ass (U.S., dir. Matthew Vaughn)
If you're curious, check Row Three within the next few days to see how my picks match up with those of the other writers for that site.
Well, with all that said, I hope everyone has a very happy New Years celebration, wherever you may be spending it! After my soon-approaching trip to British Columbia (which will take me away from the comforts of the GTA and into the rainy wilderness of the West coast for two weeks), I'll start off the new year with a gathered list of fond memories that truly made 2010 special. See you in 2011!
Confessions of a Dog writer/director Gen Takahashi at the 2010 Shinsedai Cinema Festival
Before finally signing off for the remainder of the year, I'll share my list of the 20 favorite films I saw in 2010. There are some noticeable films missing from the list - simply because I haven't had the chance to see them yet. Thus, you won't find The Social Network, True Grit, 127 Hours, The American nor Enter the Void. Plus, it should be mentioned that this list was arranged according to my own personal tastes - not what I believe to be the "best" films of the year. In other words, these are the 20 flicks that simply tickled my fancy the most.
1) Scott Pilgrim VS the World (U.S./Canada, dir. Edgar Wright)
2) Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand, Loong Boonmee raleuk chat, dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
3) Shutter Island (U.S., dir. Martin Scorsese)
4) Confessions of a Dog (Japan, Pochi no kokuhaku, dir. Gen Takahashi)
5) Wild Grass (France, Les Herbes Folles, dir. Alain Resnais)
6) Inception (U.S., dir. Christopher Nolan)
7) Live Tape (Japan, Raibu têpu, dir. Tetsuaki Matsue)
8) Film Socialism (France, Film socialisme, dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
9) Oh, My Buddha AKA The Shikisoku Generation (Japan, Shikisoku zenereishon, dir. Tomorowo Taguchi)
10) I Saw The Devil (South Korea, Akmareul boattda, dir. Kim Ji-woon)
11) Autumn Adagio (Japan, Fuwaku no adagio, dir. Tsuki Inoue)
12) Our Brief Eternity (Japan, dir. Takuya Fukushima)
13) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I (U.K., dir. David Yates)
14) Crime or Punishment?!? (Japan, Tsumi toka batsu toka, dir. Keralino Sandorovich)
15) The Red Spot (Japan/Germany, Der rote punkt, dir. Marie Miyayama)
16) Kakera: A Piece of Our Life (Japan, Kakera, dir. Momoko Ando)
17) Locked Out (Japan, Rokkuauto, dir. Yasunobu Takahashi)
18) A Normal Life, Please! (Japan, Futsu no Shigoto ga Shitai, dir: Tokachi Tsuchiya)
19) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden, Män som hatar kvinnor, dir. Niels Arden Oplev)
20) Kick-Ass (U.S., dir. Matthew Vaughn)
If you're curious, check Row Three within the next few days to see how my picks match up with those of the other writers for that site.
Well, with all that said, I hope everyone has a very happy New Years celebration, wherever you may be spending it! After my soon-approaching trip to British Columbia (which will take me away from the comforts of the GTA and into the rainy wilderness of the West coast for two weeks), I'll start off the new year with a gathered list of fond memories that truly made 2010 special. See you in 2011!
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