The Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow sleeps off TIFF and an astounding 2009 until October 5th

by Chris MaGee

2009 thus far has been an absolutely astounding year for the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow. When the year began the Pow-Wow was still in its blogging infancy, but in the past nine months or so we've had interviews with the likes of Kazuhiro Soda, winner of the Peabody Award for his documentary "Campaign", the Criterion Collection's Marty Gross, video artist and composer Takagi Masakatsu, indie director (and one of my favorite current filmmakers) Yoshihiro Ito, "Tokyo Sonata" producer Yukie Kito, "Ain't No Tomorrow's" and "Electric Button" director Yuki Tanada, "Wings of Defeat" documentary filmmaker Risa Morimoto, up and coming filmmaker Edmund Yeo whose short film "Kingyo" was selected for this year's Venice Film Festival, and last but not least "GS Wonderland" director Ryuichi Honda and "Non-ko" director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri back to back in a roundtable discussion.

Just typing that list up makes me tired, but of course there's been more in 2009: Nippon Connection in Frankfurt, the Pow-Wow's Otaku O-tanjobi party in May, obviously the Shinsedai Cinema Festival with Midnight Eye's Jasper Sharp and now just finishing up our Toronto International Film Festival coverage. Add to that our day jobs and contributing writer Matthew Hardstaff making his first feature film (it's true!), the addition of film/ book reviewer Eric Evans to the team, and basically we're exhausted. So for the next two weeks the J-Film Pow-Wow blog will be going on a well deserved break. Frankly my own energy level has been so low after all that that I know I haven't been giving 100% to our daily updates, and that's just no good. So check back with us on Monday, October 5th when we'll be getting back to normal around here... and we may even have some updates and surprises for you too.

Off to nap... just like our salaryman friend above who comes courtesy of dannychoo.com.

TIFF'09 REVIEW: Kamui

カムイ 外伝 (Kamui Gaiden)

Released: 2009

Director:
Yoichi Sai

Starring:
Ken'ichi Matsuyama
Koyuki
Hideaki Ito
Kaoru Kobayashi
Anna Tsuchiya

Running time: 120 min.


Reviewed by Bob Turnbull

If I'm being kind, I'd say that Yoichi Sai's "post-modern sweeping Ninja epic" (as per the festival programmer's introduction) of the 1960-70's manga "Kamui Gaiden" (also known as "The Legend of Kamui") is a pretty faithful recreation of a graphic novel's frame by frame storytelling - cheesy CGI and all. If I'm being honest, I would say that's also its biggest problem. Short of a few scenes, much of the action and story feels like it is indeed taking place on a flat cartoon panel and never seems to realize it's a filmed adaptation. The 2-D space applies itself to the characters as well since they show very little depth and, consequently, very little reason to care for them.

It's not the fault of the story itself, though, since there are numerous interesting aspects to it. During the Tokugawa period in the 17th century, a young boy named Kamui is ostracized from his community. He's always felt like an outcast and so decides to build up his strength and speed in order that he may one day leave and find freedom for himself. Unfortunately, after striking out on his own he finds that he has few options outside of becoming a Ninja. His skills are already quite strong so he joins a team that hunts down former Ninjas who want to leave the life. As any Ninja warrior should know, you may be required at any moment to kill just about anyone - man, woman or child. For Sugaru, a formidable opponent that Kamui and his team battle, it's too much for her to continue killing without justification. The fearless battle in which she engages the Ninjas leaves a strong impression with the boy.

Many years later, Kamui has become a young adult and has developed a set of secret moves that put him a cut above the rest of the Ninjas. It's at this point that he too decides that his time has come to leave the life of killing and find some of the freedom he's been desiring since an early age. He almost finds it too: through numerous circumstances, Kamui ends up on the run and in a fishing village where he not only shares his secret with a former opponent, but may have also found himself a quiet happiness. It doesn't last long, of course, and he has to face traitorous behaviour, an emperor's bounty, a ship full of pirates and massive sharks.

It all sounds like meaty stuff for a good Ninja film chock full of battles. There are actually some early scenes that promise a fun romp ahead (using what seems to be not-quite-finished CGI effects, Kamui displays his Izuna Drop and Mirror Mist Kill moves), but it loses its way when Kamui gets on the bad side of the crazy, power hungry emperor and he meets Hanbei the fisherman. The fun drains from the story and there's not much inventiveness in bringing to life the characters. The special effects are very much short changed by this point too since we've gone beyond fight scenes and into big ocean storms and other events that are peripheral to the Ninja arc of the story (in particular, the huge killer sharks that encircle an island and leap from the water). Sai makes use of some good framing for many of his shots that seem to map to storyboard panels, but I never felt that he took it much further than that.

Having seen Sai work wonders with the story of Quill the seeing-eye dog (his 2004 film that avoided all the trappings of what could easily have been excess melodrama), I had confidence that Sai could put a new spin on a strong Ninja tale. From the post film Q&A with him, it appears that the Kamui Gaiden manga were of particular importance to him as a young man. My impression is that perhaps Sai couldn't quite remove himself from his reverence for the manga to create an intriguing and visually exciting tale.

Read more from Bob Turnbull at his blog.

Masahiro Mobayashi senior and junior team up for "Where Are You?"

by Chris MaGee

If you had to ask me what some of the most important films made in Japan in the past decade have been I'd definitely have to include Masahiro Kobayashi's bleak, brave and insightful drama "Bashing". It's story of a young aide worker recently released from being held hostage in Iraq being faced with shame and outrage by her fellow Japanese shows us a Japan not as we or even the Japanes themselves want to see it, but as it really is. That's great filmmaking, and it's that unvarnished approach that makes the 55-year-old Kobayashi's filmography so vital, so when I saw that Kevin Ouellette at Nippon Cinema (with the help of the ubiquitous logboy) had posted a trailer for Kobayashi's latest film "Where Are You?" I know I wanted to share it with you all.

“Where Are You?” stars Kobayashi's own son Yuto Kobayashi as a a 16-year-old boy named Ryo who has grown up with an estranged father and a severely ill mother. He works at a convenience store to make ends meet as best he can, but when his mother finally succumbs to her illness Ryo is left shoulder not only the grief at her passing, but also the financial burden of settling her estate and her funeral. Masahiro senior takes Masahiro junior's character on an odyssey to face the emotional and practical challenges of a child dealing with his parents death as well as his attempt to tie up the loose ends of his relationship with his absent father.

"Where are You?" already had it's international premiere at this year's Locarno Film Festival and will be receiving a limited theatrical run in Japan starting on November 14th. For now head over to Nippon Cinema here to check out the trailer.

TIFF'09 REVIEW: Toad's Oil

ガマの油 (Gama no abura)

Released: 2009

Director:
Kôji Yakusho

Starring:
Kôji Yakusho
Eita
Satomi Kobayashi
Junichi Sawayashiki
Fumi Nikaido

Running time: 131 min.


Reviewed by Marc Saint-Cyr

Kôji Yakusho is one of Japan’s best known actors, having performed in films as diverse as Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo,” Masayuki Suo’s international megahit “Shall We Dance?,” Shohei Imamura’s Palme d’Or-winning “The Eel” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Babel.” In 2009, he sat in the director’s chair for the first time to make the fascinatingly unique “Toad’s Oil,” which I was lucky enough to catch at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Yakusho stars as Takuro Yazawa, a lively man who makes his living as a day trader, constantly checking his rows of computer screens to keep himself updated on the millions of yen he can gain or lose within a day. He lives in a giant, mostly empty mansion with his wife Erumi (Satomi Kobayashi) and son Takuya (Eita), who has his heart set on becoming an astronaut. The family is joined by Saburo Akiba, a gentle-natured young man who comes to live with them after leaving a juvenile correction facility. Their peaceful lives are suddenly disrupted when Takuya is hit by a car and goes into a coma, initiating a period of change and self-discovery for all of them.

One of the most remarkable things about “Toad’s Oil” is the fine balance between comedy and drama that it gracefully maintains throughout its duration. Despite the grim turn of events that the plot veers towards, the overall tone of the film is light and engaging, helped considerably by Yakusho’s onscreen energy as the constantly entertaining Takuro, who often plays with his impressive arsenal of BB guns and screams with glee whenever he loses (yes, loses) money in his business ventures. One interesting storyline involves Takuya’s girlfriend Hikari, who frequently calls and e-mails him. After he goes into a coma, Takuro happens upon his cell phone and, posing as his son, simply keeps the correspondence going. The split-screened phone conversations between Takuro and the unsuspecting Hikari have a certain sweetness to them as the two teasingly banter and make up codenames for each other (astoundingly, these scenes never feel creepy in any way), but beneath each one lurks the devastating truth and potential disaster of discovery. The result is an unusual sort of screen suspense that makes it clear just how much Yakusho and co-writers Hideko Nakata and Urara make you care about the characters and their emotional well being.

When discussing the film after the screening, chief Pow-Wow editor Chris MaGee and I agreed that it has the same messy quality that Shohei Imamura’s films and Haruki Murakami’s novels are known for. As in those works, the storyline doesn’t proceed on a straight course so much as wanders in various directions, following the characters as they adapt in their individual ways to the changes brought about by Takuya’s accident. The viewers are consequently treated to a jumble of scenes running the gamut from funny to contemplative, including a piggy-backed walk through a peaceful forest, a lunch in front of Mount Fuji and a prolonged fight with a black bear. Interspersed through the film are scenes featuring a man and his wife from Takuro’s youth who represent a more traditional and fulfilling way of life, merrily entertaining children and hawking toad’s oil, a supposedly magical healing ointment.

“Toad’s Oil” proves to be an accomplished demonstration of Yakusho’s newfound directorial talents. He makes great use of his talented assortment of actors, which include newcomers Fumi Nikaidô as the spirited Hikari and K-1 champion fighter Junichi Sawayashiki as Saburo. The cinematography by Toyomichi Kurita is amazingly crisp and clear, filling the film with gorgeous color. Also, Yakusho manages to harness a refreshing vitality every step of the way, and while he uses some elements that could be considered indie movie clichés (such as a cross-country trek undertaken in a square-shaped mobile home), they miraculously never feel borrowed or contrived. Some additional cutting in the editing room would probably help it, but in its current form “Toad’s Oil” still very much succeeds as an entertaining, offbeat and heart-felt debut for what will hopefully be a productive filmmaking career for Yakusho.

Read more by Marc Saint-Cyr at his blog.

Here we go with Yoji Kuri!

by Chris MaGee

I find some of the best films by going on internet spelunking trips as I like to call them - vague Google searches on filmmakers, topics, or sometimes just keywords and then I spend a good hour our more just clicking links and following leads. On a recent spelunking trip searching out "Japanese indie animators" I came across a documentary on one of Japan's most respected independent animators, Yoji Kuri.

Now 81-years-old Kuri was the defacto leader of a trio of animators which included Hiroshi Manabe and Ryohei Yanagihara who first introduced animation as art into the Japanese mainstream during the 1960's. Sounds absurd, I know, seeing that anime is one of Japan's leading cultural exports now, but before 1960 animation wasn't nearly as respected as it is today. According to this wonderfully informative article over at Anipages Daily (make sure to read it) before 1960 the Japanese didn't even have a word for animation or anime. Animated films were entirely a commercial endeavor and were refered to studios and producers as simply "manga eiga", but once Kuri, Manabe, and Yanagihara started up their Animation Sannin no Kai (Animation Group of Three) as they called themselves in late 1960 this quickly began to change. These three men proved through their innovative, playful, and independently produced films that animation was equal to live-action filmmaking or any traditional fine art.

In 2008 documentary filmmaker Ryo Saitani produced a film about those pioneering days titled "Here We Go With Yoji Kuri!" that showed how Kuri, Manabe and Yanagihara's animated collaborations also drew in poets, musicians, authors, and actors into what Saitani refers to as an artistic bomb whose effects are still being felt in Japan today. The film screened at the Holland Animation Festival and the Hiroshima Animation Festival in 2008, but sadly my internet spelunking did not produce any trailer for it, but I can give you the next best thing - Kuri's 1964 short film "Ai (Love)" which won both the Best Animated Film at that year's Poland's Cracow Film Festival and the Lion of San Marco Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

REVIEW: The Bad Sleep Well

悪い奴ほどよく眠る (Warui yatsu hodo yoku nemuru)

Released: 1960

Director:
Akira Kurosawa

Starring:
Toshirô Mifune
Masayuki Mori
Kyôko Kagawa
Tatsuya Mihashi
Takashi Shimura

Running time: 151 min.

Reviewed by Marc Saint-Cyr

Of Akira Kurosawa’s three loose takes on classic Shakespeare plays, “The Bad Sleep Well” is the odd one out. Both 1957’s “Throne of Blood,” his interpretation of “Macbeth,” and 1985’s “Ran,” which borrows and modifies elements from “King Lear,” are majestic, large-scale tapestries of Japan’s feudal era while his 1960 approach to “Hamlet” is firmly situated in the then present day world of postwar Tokyo. As its great tile so clearly suggests, the film is just as influenced by film noir as the Bard’s drama, presenting a gripping tale of slick facades and shady goings-on behind closed doors and in the middle of the night.

It opens on a wedding ceremony for the marriage of Koichi Nishi (a bespectacled Toshirô Mifune) to the daughter of Iwabuchi, vice president of the prestigious Public Corporation. Hanging like a shadow over the occasion are suspicions of corruption regarding Public Corp.’s recent dealings with Dairyu Construction, reinforced by the suicide of one of the former’s employees five years previous. Soon enough, the investigation into spent public funds and rigged bids triggers a fresh string of strange suicides that are in fact devised to rid Public Corp. of its incriminating middlemen. However, their sketchy dealings are hindered by Nishi, who oversees a careful plan of revenge fueled by long-simmering anger.

In Alex Cox’s “The Last Emperor,” his documentary ode to Kurosawa, Francis Ford Coppola claims that the first forty minutes of “The Bad Sleep Well” “are as good as anything [that has] ever been made.” This is a fair statement, as the film features in abundance the filmmaker’s legendary storytelling talents. The action that takes place during the wedding is shown from the perspective of a group of curious journalists who provide context by skeptically discussing the wave of scandal that has hit Public Corp. and pointing out the assembled guilty parties. The event’s building tension, helped along by its stiff formality and the bride’s brother who, in his toast, outright threatens to kill the groom if he mistreats her, culminates with the surprise arrival of a massive cake shaped like the corporation’s ministry building with a rose sticking out of the seventh floor window from which the employee jumped. From there, Kurosawa hurls us into a montage of newspaper headlines, economically covering the investigation of Public Corp. with a clever handling of time and film technique. Wada (Kamatari Fujiwara), the assistant chief of contracts, is grilled by detectives, then pushed by the company towards suicide, but before he can complete the deed from the top of a tall, smoldering hill, Nishi stops him and recruits him as a “ghost” to torment the remaining villains. That’s when the film shifts from the smooth forty-ish minute-long exposition so favored by Mr. Coppola to a compelling revenge thriller driven by Mifune’s contained intensity.

As he often does in his films, Kurosawa keeps from clearly defining his characters as either good or evil, opting instead for a more complex consideration of human morality. For the most part, Iwabuchi (Masayuki Mori) and his right-hand man Moriyama (Takashi Shimura) are pretty despicable, but a family barbecue scene makes the scheming vice president out to be almost harmless. In one powerful scene, Nishi describes the driving force behind his craving for revenge and the emotional extremes he pushes himself towards, sometimes even reluctantly, in order to maintain it. An especially intriguing facet of the plot involves Nishi’s wife, Yoshiko (Kyôko Kagawa), her own place in his plans and how it affects their constantly evolving relationship. Kurosawa also once more shows he isn’t afraid to express his pessimistic view of the world and the rotten puppet masters who, however undeservingly, truly control it, not only finding ethical fault with Nishi’s actions, but also pitting him against increasingly grim odds.

Though it is firmly situated within a productive period in Kurosawa’s career, “The Bad Sleep Well” remains somewhat overshadowed by more widely recognized Mifune collaborations like “The Hidden Fortress,” “Yojimbo” and “High and Low.” But if its harrowing suspense, impressive performances and cutting-edge depiction of corporate greed are any indication, it truly deserves a place alongside the filmmaker’s best.

Read more by Marc Saint-Cyr at his blog.

This site really is a Good Movies Collection

by Chris MaGee

In my search for a poster image to accompany Marc Saint-Cyr's review of the classic 1960 Akira Kurosawa film "The Bad Sleep Well" I stumbled acorss this Japanese website called Good Movies Collection. It brings together vintage posters of both Japanese and Hollywood films like (above left to right) Ren Yoshimura's 1950 film starring Setsuko Hara "Shirayuki-sensei to kodomo-tachi", George Stevens' 1953 western "Shane", Fred M. Wilcox's 1956 sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet". Most of the images have "Good Movies Collection" superimposed somewhere across them, but it still gives you a good hour of exploring, so have fun and click away!

TIFF'09 REVIEW: Air Doll

空気人形 (Kuuki Ningyou)

Released: 2009

Director:
Hirokazu Kore-eda

Starring:
Bae Doo Na
Arata
Itsuji Itao
Jo Odagiri
Kimiko Yo

Running time: 116 min.



Reviewed by Chris MaGee

Hideo (Itsuji Itao) has a thankless existence as a waiter in a chain restaurant. His boss dislikes him, his customers mistreat him. If it weren't for the fact that Hideo has a faithful woman at home his life would be unbearable. This woman is Nozomi - quiet, a great listener, non-judgmental, and beautiful and sexually available to boot. What tired, work-a-day Japanese man could ask for more, plus she was a bargain at ¥5,995. You see Nozomi is an inflatable sex doll, or "Air Doll" and it's from this substitute for sexual desire by lonely men like Hideo that director Hirokazu Kore-eda takes the title of his latest film.

This tale of urban alienation has a twist though. Nozomi doesn't remain a vinyl sex aide. Through magic, circumstance or just constant use this air doll finds herself gaining a heart and suddenly coming to life. The newly sentient and mobile Nozomi (played by Korean actress Bae Doo Na of "The Host" and "Linda, Linda, Linda" fame) keeps this miracle a secret from Hideo, deciding to only get up and explore the human world when Hideo is at work. Dressing in the maid costume bought for her by Hideo she heads out into the streets of Tokyo observing its denizens with a child-like sense of wonder. It's on one of these forays that she stumbles into a video store called Cinema Circus, and it's there that she eventually gets a job and meets Junichi (Arata), a young man who will teach her newly awakened heart how to love.

There has been tremendous buzz building in advance of this, Hirokazu Kore-eda's seventh feature film. This is of course from the man who brought us such contemporary cinematic masterpieces as 1995's "Maborosi", 1998's "After Life" and 2004's "Nobody Knows". I am a huge fan of these three and credit "After Life" for being one of the films that introduced me to Japanese cinema, but I found myself liking instead of loving Kore-eda's last two feature outings, the jidai-geki comedy/drama "Hana" and the Yazujiro Ozu homage "Still Walking", so when I heard that "Air Doll" was his best film since "After Life" I grew even more excited, and cautious.

I was a bit disturbed that as I sat watching the first half of "Air Doll" I again found myself liking, but not loving, the story unfolding on the screen. Nozomi's new life and exploration of her world did indeed bring a smile to my face. The cinematography by Mark Lee Ping Bing, who shot portions of Wong Kar Wai's "In the Mood for Love" and many of Ho Hsiao Hsien's films, was as exquisite as ever, and the playful and moving score provided by World's End Girlfriend perfectly complimented the story. Still there was a feeling of cliche about this modern-day Pinocchio story, that I'd seen scenes from "Air Doll" in other similar films, Ron Howard's "Splash" and Steven Spielberg's "A.I." being two examples. The montage sequences in which Kore-eda shows us the people around Nozomi, the old man on a park bench, a father and his young daughter, a lonely bulimic woman, and an aging beauty (played by "Departures" Kimiko Yo) where wonderful aesthetic experiences and had me wishing that Kore-eda had made "Air Doll" an ensemble film. I feared that, like Nozomi, this film would be beautiful but empty, but it was the performance of Bae Doo Na that ends up giving "Air Doll" the heart that makes it a great film.

The character of Nozomi is a very difficult one. On one hand she can be interpreted as a symbol of female awakening, of a Japanese woman liberated from a servile role at home and bravely going out into the world to forge her own destiny. On the other hand, despite her newfound "heart" she is still a beautiful blank, empty inside and reliant on the men around her to fill her up and giver her meaning. Kore-eda based his film on Yoshiie Goda's manga "The Pneumatic Figure of a Girl" (his very first manga adaptation), the same manga author who brought us "Jigyaku no uta" which formed the basis of Yukihiko Tsutsumi's "Happily Ever After", a comedy about a woman stuck with an abusive spouse. Goda obviosuly wants her female characters to take us to unfamiliar or uncomfortable emotional territory, and Bae Doo Na's performance does the exact same thing. Her Nozomi is both sexually alluring, innocent, and funny while at the same time full of disappointment, confusion, and sadness. It's a real accomplishment on Bae Doo Na's part, and for me becomes the true accomplishment of Kore-eda's film - to give Japanese cinema and cinema in general an example of femininity that while enticing is never easy, that takes the metaphor of a sex doll to hone in on aspects of the female experience (liberation vs. servitude, desire vs. objectification) that film sometimes stops just short of addressing.

Kore-eda need not have driven home the point of how everyone in contemporary society is similar to Nozomi, all trying to find our way and all more than a bit empty. The heart of "Air Doll" is in the film's main character, a woman (inflatable or not) who due to some very unexpected twists in the plot (the less said the better) can stand alongside Kenji Mizoguchi's Oharu from "The Life of Oharu" and Yasujiro ozu's and Sestuko Hara's Noriko as complex and compelling cinematic females. It's this that indeed places "Air Doll" amongst Kore-eda's best works.

Weekly Trailers

Pandora's Box - Masanori Tominaga (2009)

Based on Osamu Dazai's 1945 novel of the same name "Pandora's Box" tells the story of Hibari (Shota Someya) who while recuperating from tuberculosis at a sanitarium becomes involved with two nurses: one young and lively, the other introverted and middle-aged. Set for release in Japanese theatres on October 10th.




Salaryman Chushingura - Toshio Sugie (1960)

There have been dozens of screen adaptations, both feature film and television, of the epic tale of the Loyal 47 Ronin, or as it's known in Japan "Chushingura", but in 1960 the tale of samurai honor and revenge was updated by director Toshio Sugie to the 20th-century with salarymen in the place of samurai. Ryo Ikebe stars as Asano, the man ordered to commit seppuku for attacking a daimyo lord and Hisaya Morishige stars as Oishi, his loyal servant who plots to avenge his master's death.

TIFF '09 REVIEW: Bare Essence of Life

ウルトラミラクルラブストーリー
(Urutora Miraku Rurabu Sutoorii)

Released: 2009

Director:
Satoko Yokohama

Starring:
Ken'ichi Matsuyama
Kumiko Aso
Misako Watanabe
Yoshio Harada

Running time: 120 min.


Reviewed by Bob Turnbull

The wiring in Yojin's head is different than most people's. It's not broken, it's just different. He tends to repeat words, can't sit still and loses focus on conversations. He's also prone to acting up, likes to throw things around the place and keeps a long string of alarm clocks set to remind him to do basic tasks. So even though the rest of him is 25 years old, his brain is actually in a very childish state. He doesn't worry about this much until Machiko, the new school teacher, arrives in town from Tokyo and he becomes smitten with her. Thus begins the plot of Satoko Yokohama's "Bare Essence Of Life" - a gentle, sometimes funny, sometimes strange and occasionally surreal look at these two people as well as our nature as human beings to control what scares us.

Yojin likes her immediately, but she's a bit frightened by his actions. One evening he tries to pull her out of her classroom through a window while she is still minding several children, so one can somewhat understand her concerns. The children, however, seem to love him and treat him like one of their own by pestering and playing with him in the same way as the rest of their class. This easy friendship Yojin has with kids leads him to play with a small boy in his backyard garden one day and it's here that he discovers something - getting sprayed with pesticide calms him down and clears his brain. That night he has a long talk with Machiko as he walks her home and he realizes that she might prefer the clear headed version of himself as opposed to the regular version. So he starts to spray himself regularly.

It's during one of these walks home (each done in lovely, long single takes) that the story's general theme surfaces. Machiko tells Yojin about her version of evolutionary theory - as humanity makes its world safer and further controls unpredictable elements like Mother Nature, we stop evolving. It's a bit of a circular argument (using Machiko's own example, if humanity evolves in order to find a way to stop any further wars won't we then hit another evolutionary wall?), but the details are somewhat besides the point. It's an interesting viewpoint on man's love/hate relationship with the natural world around us and the extent that we should combat it. The film is filled with references and ties between humanity, nature and our fears such as the dusting of crops via helicopter, beautiful close-ups of grass and insects, and Yojin's own struggles to make sense of his Grandfather's gardening lessons on audio tape as he tries to keep bugs away from the cabbage. It also provides a wonderful look at small town rural life and its languid pace.

We get to spend quality time with these characters via numerous long takes like those walks home. There's typically very few edits during conversations, so it gives the viewer a relaxed, comfortable and very natural way of getting to know both Yojin and Machiko (not unlike Nobuhiro Yamashita's "Linda Linda Linda" and "A Gentle Breeze In The Village"). Machiko is a bit unsteady herself since she lost the love of her life recently via a car accident. He was already essentially lost to her due to his philandering, but she seems deeply perturbed about the fact that his head was severed during the crash and as yet not found. She still somehow holds out hope that he may one day talk with her - if only that head could be found. Meanwhile, Yojin is convinced that he's actually evolving (he mixes up which pesticides he uses on himself so that he won't gain tolerance to them), but is actually beginning to suffer some real health problems. This leads to some very unexpected and magical moments that work their way into the latter portion of this very engaging film. It's a first the second feature by Yokohama (who also wrote the screenplay) and I look forward to any future theories she cares to share with us through her films.

Read more from Bob Turnbull at his blog.

Poster for cell phone novel adaptation "Tenshi no Koi" get yanked for being too racy

by Chris MaGee

Back in June we reported on how the cell phone novel "Tenshi no koi (Angel of Love)" was being adapted into a feature film by Gaga Communications and 25-year-old director and Shunji Iwai protege Yuri Kanchiku. The story follows a 17-year-old girl named Rio whose mind and heart are opened up after meeting a 35-year-old University professor.

Well, "Tenshi no Koi" is set to be released in on November 7th, but in advance of that the chirashi, the double-sided mini-posters used in to promote films in Japan, for it (above left) were sent out to movie theatres to help spread the word. The only problem was that the poster features 21-year-old model-turned-actress Nozomi Sasaki as Rio nude from the waist up, but with her back to the camera. Theatre owners felt a bit nervous about the display of bare skin, plus the reverse side of the poster shows Sasaki in a passionate kiss with 37-year-old actor Shosuke Tanihara who stars as her amorous teacher. That double whammy has had the posters yanked from theatres, and made the "Tenshi no Koi" chirashi a hot collector's item, especially with teen girls who were fans of the original cell phone novel.

Check out the 30-second teaser trailer for "Tenshi no Koi (Angel of Love)" below for your daily dose of soap opera romance, and thanks to CinemaCafe.net for the details on this story.

Dutch composer adapts Hirokazu Kore-eda's film "After Life" from screen to the opera stage

by Chris MaGee

One of the things that makes Hirokazu Kore-eda's 1998 film "After Life" such a masterpiece is that its take on life after death is utterly human and utterly universal. Asking the recently deceased "If you had to pick one memory of your life to take with you into the after life what would it be?" is so simple, but it's a question that cuts across cultures, religions, and languages. It also seems that the concept of the film can also jump from one medium to another if this article posted at Nippon Cinema is any indication.

In 2006 Dutch composer Michel van der Aa adapted Kore-eda's "After Life" into an opera and now it is being staged at the Dutch National Opera starting on September 28th, and the behind the scenes footage at the production's official site looks fascinating, but don't take my word for it. Check out this YouTube clip below that features van der Aa discussing the inspiration to adapt Kore-eda's film, as well as some of the ingenious stage design used to b ring it from screen to stage.

YouTube find of the month - Kon Ichikawa's very first puppet film

by Chris MaGee

It's a bit of a famous anecdote that the filmmaker that iconic Japanese director Kon Ichikawa credited as being the biggest influence on him was Walt Disney. It makes sense seeing that Ichikawa began as a cartoonist and illustrator before shifting to filmmaking in 1946. In fact of the nearly 90 films that he directed in his six decade career that very first film was a 20-minute marionette puppet play produced by Toho titled "A Girl at Dojo Temple (Musume Dojoji)". The film was based on the famous kabuki story of Anchin and Kiyohime in which a bellmaker is pursued by a magical maiden who transforms into a serpent. It was during a recent wander through YouTube that to my surprise I found that someone had posted the entire film split into two parts. You can watch the first half below and follow it up with the second half here. It's fascinating to watch it and then think of all the classics ("The Burmese Harp", "Fires on the Plain", "Odd Obsession", "The Inugami Family", etc.) that would follow from this master filmmaker.

Tokyo International Film Festival announces this year's line-up

by Chris MaGee

We're just a month away from the other TIFF that Japanese film fans are keeping an eye on, that being the 22nd Annual Tokyo International Film Festival (Sorry Toronto, you'll have to share your TIFF monikor), and to gear ourselves up the official festival website has been updated with this year's line-up of films. There's more on hand than can be covered in this article, but here are a few films that jump out at me that you might all be interested in.

First up is the latest from 26-year-old filmmaking powerhouse Yuya Ishii, "To Walk Beside You" (above). Recently we premiered Ishii's 2007 comedy "Girl Sparks" here in Toronto at the Shinsedai Cinema Festival, but this film seems to be shifting gears for Ishii with the storyline following the romance between a 34-year-old high school teacher and her student.

Next up is an omnibus film based around one of my favorite books of all time, Yasunari Kawabata's short story collection "Palm-of-the-Hand Stories". The title is very apt with none of the stories being longer than four pages (some are only a page in length), and in this film adaptation four directors (Takushi Tsubokawa, Nobuyuki Miyake, Tsukasa kishimoto, and Yuya Takahashi) translate these slight and subtle tales to the big screen.

One film that is already receiving a certain amount of buzz online is "Acacia" directed by Jinsei Tsuji. It stars former pro-wrestler Antonio Inoki as... here's a stretch... a former pro-wrestler named Daimajin who regretting his relationship with his own son tries to right those wrongs by befriending a lonely boy.

One last minute addition to the line-up is more than a bit of a surprise. According to Japan Today programmers added Louie Psihoyos's documentary "The Cove" to this year's fest at the very last minute, so last minute in fact that it wasn't even listed in the programme book. Instead it's been written up on a one page addendum inserted into the programme. For those of you who don't know "The Cove" follows dolphin trainer and eco-activist Ric O’Barry as he tries to expose the annual dolphin massacre that takes place in the seaside town of Taiji, Japan. It looks like a fascinating film, but one that most Japanese might have some trouble with. Check out the trailer below to see what I mean.

For more on what to expect from this year's Tokyo International Film Festival click here.