Hmmm…I don’t know exactly how to feel about this yet. I’ve seen the trailer a couple times now. Hip hop’s RZA has his directorial debut and stars alongside Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu. A martial arts epic with a white dude, a black dude, and an asian girl all presented by Quentin Tarantino, a collaborator of RZA. Sounds about right. Looks pretty nuts via Eli Roth. Here’s a tip, if you want to see the clip above, just say you are 60. It’s NSFW unless you work at Mcdonald’s. Stay tuned for a release date.
I was so sad to hear that they weren’t releasing this until March 2013 in the states. Luckily for fans you can now order the DVD in a whole bunch of confusing packages with sticker sets and Bluray. Check all that here. Watch the trailer below!
I’ve now watched it over 5 times. Love every minute of it! Goro (Hayao Miyazaki’s son) really did right with this Tetsurō Sayama comic. Get the DVD with subtitles before you get brainwashed by the English language dubs with celebrities recruited by the Mouse.
Love the soundtrack as well! Get it nowwww!
If you haven’t heard of Studio Ghibli and it’s entourage of wonderful and odd characters and personalities, I actually feel happy for you! You soon (better be) checking out all those wonderful films but wait…there’s so much more. The swell people at American Cinematheque are showing a fat handful of these favorites in two theaters in LA! But crap I wrote about this so late while not sharing this news. You still got time, the animation parade ends this month. These films, that have never been released in US theaters are not only screening, but they are brand new 35 mm prints of pure filmic glory. Buy tickets before they sell out!
I can’t afford them boots but Palladium did just give us a really sweet documentary hosted by Pharrell who is evidently quite fond of Japan for it’s stylo, art, culture, etc. Pretty cool perspectives of the spirit of Japan from artists and musicians. There are 5 parts and a bonus so be sure to peep’em all!
Just like the title says. You need to go see Hanna. Watched it last night with some friends and I was blown away. The handhelds and long shots of Joe Wrights signatures were right on. The syncing of scenes with the incredible Chemical Brothers on the soundtrack–amazing. Even if you somehow didn’t know the movie, the soundtrack alone is killer. Immediately after the film, I wanted to see it again. Cate Blanchett’s in-n-out accents, Saoirse Ronan’s chilling looks, and colorful settings with hella swag pistols, point on.
BTW, Saoirse Ronan? The Irish, 17 year-olds name sounds like a Ninja character in an Anime. Lots of interesting parallels in the film, but I won’t spoil it. Go see it and get that soundtrack. Check the article in NYTimes with Joe Wright, very cool stuff and love the David Lynch spills. Excerpt — “[Hanna is] not set in the real world, but a kind of mystical world just beyond rational perception. It’s a dream of adolescence — or a nightmare really.”
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Watch this wonderful film Free! COI won 13 awards including Best Feature at Newport International Film Fest and the Special Jury Award at San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. Not bad for a first feature, Tze Chun.
“Two young children living illegally in a model apartment outside Boston are left to fend for themselves when their hardworking mother disappears.”
If you’ve ever seen The Brothers Bloom you must certainly remember Bang Bang, the Japanese sidekick to Mark Ruffalo’s character who made things go boom! Yesterday I was randomly checking out the IMDB credits for one of my favorite films called Sideways and found out that they did a Japanese remake version starring Bang Bang aka Rinko Kikuchi. That led me to her role in Haruki Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. Wait, you mean the famous award winning highly acclaimed novelist book writer, artist, and marathon runner? Yes, thatMurakami. Apparently Tran Anh Hung (Cyclo ’95 Venice Film Fest) asked (begged) for years to be given the rights to adapt the novel into a film. The novel, and consequently the film is named after a Beatles’ song. Needless to say Murakami gave in.
The story is entirely a 1960s adolescent reminiscence of a young Toru Watanabe (Ken’ichi Matsuyama), who loses his best friend Kizuki and begins to fall in love with his ex-girlfriend, Naoko (bang bang!) due to the obvious common grounds of mutual loss. From there Naoko enters a world of pain, and begins to literally withdraw from society in a slow depression. Toru sticks with her in painful dedication but eventually meets Midori (model/actress Kiko Mizuhara) who throws herself into his life. He is caught between his depressed love Naoko, and the seemingly perfect and available Midori.
Props to Hung’s persistence for the adaptation of a “prestigious” 40-language translated novel, the beautiful subtle yet simple shots and the 60′s Japanese gear which is hard to notice sometimes because uniforms are still worn as well as a modern retro movement in fashion. Hung’s incredible boldness to raise up his film career or completely destroy it as a filmmaker is noteworthy and will never be taken lightly. Toru’s seemingly passive attitude shows an experimental youth but is often waxed through his continuous love for Naoko and odd resistance to Midori which keeps us curious. The film’s bright to dark moments are carefully composed and equally carried through Radiohead’s Johnny Greenwood who won a best composer award at the 7th Dubai International Film Festival. The film premiered at last year’s Venice Int’l Film Fest and continues the circuit hunting for distributors…come on Murakami, help us out here. I understood the film via subtitles which probably makes Murakami frustrated but I still think this adaptation, though only a tease to the depth of the book, was appropriate and emerging. The 80s Japanese youth emptied retail bookshelves and 24 years later a film, using the same origin, would be told visually to a new generation. Chew on that. Then go watch the film. =)
Come on Focus Features, I know it’s all asian people but come on, it’ll work! The language of cinema is a vastly complicated yet blissfully delightful world…for reals.
I just saw this rad vid on NOWNESS. Filmmaker Jonathan de Villiers shot this little docu about one of my new favorite things: Keirin racing culture. Love it. Keirin seriously kicks.
Inside the High-Octane and Lucrative World of Japan’s Cycling Spectacle
Before fixed-gear bikes became de rigueur for urban aesthetes, they were the weapon of choice for Japan’s fearless Keirin cyclists. A gladiatorial incarnation of track cycling that dates back to 1948, the Japanese sporting phenomenon operates by an intricate set of rules that sees competitors jostling for position on steeply banked tracks at lightning fast speeds, all but encouraging spectacular crashes. In today’s film for NOWNESS, Jonathan de Villiers (whose fashion photography and portraiture has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Wallpaper* and Fantastic Man) traveled to the national Keirin school in Tokyo and the Tachikawa and Yokkaichi velodromes to decode the strategy that governs the racing phenomenon. “I knew next to nothing about it when I went,” says de Villiers, “but I’m a big admirer of the anthropological documentary where you get taken into a whole different world. And what a strange, special and complex universe it turned out to be.” The state-run industry amasses tens of billions of dollars in gambling revenue each year.
RAIN!! I welcomed the grey clouds outside my window and over my head this morning…yess, yesss…this gloomy weather has soaked my brain with “emo” thoughts..or it can be that my brain is experiencing the after affects of this wonderfully beautiful film I watched the night before, The Illusionist. This film is an absolute treasure. Something you would want to bottle up and shake on a rainy day. The colors and line quality of each scene are so rich…and although the lack of dialog in a foreign animated film might make you a bit nervous, the unique gestures of each character communicate perfectly with the audience. As you watch the relationship between an outdated but devoted illusionist and a curious, young girl develop in a beautifully painted town in Scotland, don’t let your preconceived notions get the best of you. This film will leave you feeling deeply sad and enlightened.
Directed and written AND composed by french director, Sylvain Chomet and nominated for Best Animated Film in the 83rd Academy Awards (February 27, 2011). Well deserved for it’s beautiful imagery and wonderful music. On rainy days like these, this film is perfect to watch even in your soggy shoes
Recently, I went from completely unemployed to way overemployed, back to kind of employed, and finally I’m normallyemployed. Economy, blah blah blah – I’m sure we all could go on and on. The moral of my story is: music helps get you through it, for sure. In between joblessness and constantly writing, this has been a good chunk of what’s up in my Recently Played.
The playlist for all the busy madness as of late:
The Woodlands – In The Dark On Monday (Heavy Hands Remix)
Vincent Moon is the genius behind the La Blogotheque Take Away Shows and several amazing musician performance/documentary films. His films are an audio and visual trip. His recent tip is a film with wonderful performances by Efterklang, called An Island. “August 2010, French filmmaker Vincent Moon and Efterklang’s 8 piece-live band met up on an island in the Danish country side. The objective was to shoot a film. A film with the same length as an album, and a film full of performances, experiments and collaborations.
Over an intense period of 4 days Efterklang collaborated with more than 200 local musicians, kids and parents, creating new performances and interpretations of songs from their Magic Chairs album. It was all filmed by Vincent Moon who same time conducted several filmic and musical experiments with Efterklang as his dedicated play mates.”
Looks pretty much amazing. If you’re in the Vancouver area on Thursday, definitely go watch it at the FREE screening at W2 Storyeum (151 West Cordova Street – Vancouver). I hope they have an LA screening soon. RSVP here. PS Booooooom is awesome.
You love them. I love them. These people REALLLLY love them. Check out more of the Reserve 17 films here. They’re keepin’ it viral so be sure to post this somewhere else y’alls. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles–so hot right now.
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