No running order, no intention to ply you into buying something you’re not interested in. Nothing beyond a reasonably typical kind of end-of-year list that you’ll no doubt have a certain amount of expectation for, and a chance to point out what I’ve picked up on this year, what I’ve enjoyed the most, and say why I liked them. A different day and a slightly different list, no doubt, but if you also enjoyed something in here then let us all know.

Continue Reading "Logboy’s Five Best for 2007."...

One of the many titles seemingly not appearing any time soon in an edition likely to get lots of people’s attention, Tsukamoto’s latest film to have hit screens in several countries will finally appear in America on DVD early in the new year; an Amazon.com listing has appeared, confirming the date (as it stands at this time) but it’s not active - keep your eye out from now on.

As with many films that have strong connections to a more promising market of awaiting fans and those that are at least aware of the man and his work to some extent (Ifew can still match Tsukamoto for how aware the non-domestic market is of his work), the lack of information is deafening with regards what you’ll get between now and then, or what you’ll get on release - no artwork, no specs, no obvious cinema release (though i’ve seen an American trailer for the film) and no really tangiable things to get you excited or at least begin to build the awareness, preparedness for the impeding release. The choice of film itself, well, that’s solid - it’s a more commercial blend of Tsukamoto’s oddness, more like ’Marebito‘ than any other film from his past, and it works a lot better than the other major journey into such an exercise, ‘’Hiruko the Goblin‘, but will likely simply get as little attention as many of the other superbly put-together projects which have followed over the years but never managed to depose the iconic status of late 80’s shocker ’Tetsuo‘.

A whole host of individual pieces lie between there and here, most obviously shifting in recent years with the colouful and deceptively-toned stunner ’Vital‘, diving again into more suggestive and unsettling territory with the very effective and inventive ’Marebito‘, turning towards a tale of people being attacked in their dreams within ’Nightmare Detective‘. The DVD released in Italy during 2007 by Raro Video seemed perfectly good to me at the time, and I suspect many who knew long ago they might be kept waiting will have taken a dive towards that disc… those focussing their options from within the larger (but not necessarily as broad) choice of films issued stateside will either already know they’re interested, or they will have already dismissed it through feeling they’re sure what they might expect or that there’s other things which at least appear or feel fresher, or have preconceptions about what they’ll get with bely how deftly Tsukamoto remains thoroughly individual and yet strangely capable of confidently slipping to a different take, tone, set of ideas to explore. May not be the best thing in recent years, but it’s a memorable, deep, and incredibly odd film.

The first of Yume PIctures 2008 releases for what should be five films in total from Nagisa Oshima… this should hopefully be popular with those who are gradually picking up on Japans New Wave films, those who are keen on Masumura in particular.

Synopsis for the UK Release, ”Oshima’s second feature is a shocking tale of youthful delinquency in post Hiroshima japan. Conveying the pent up sexuality and disillusionment among Japan’s post war generation it tells the story of teenage lovers Makato and Kiyoshi. She’s a good girl gone bad, dropping out of school and out of home; he’s a violent hoodlum, gambler and hustler. Making a living by performing shakedowns and attempting blackmail on unsuspecting middle aged men, the film affords a bleak, nihilistic take to the ‘taiyo-zako’ (Japanese cinema’s ‘delinquent youth’ films). Often billed as Japan’s Rebel Without A Cause, but whereas Jame Dean’s Jim Stark had the proverbial heart of gold, Kawazu’s Kiyoshi is filled only with rage and disgust. All of life’s harsh realities await Makoto and Kiyoshi - this is no morality lesson or cautionary tale, just a window into a terrible vision of humanity.” and a synopsis for the USA VHS Release from the late 90’s, ”Makoto and Kiyoshi’s generation follows their desires. She’s in high school when a university student, Kiyoshi, rescues her from an older man’s assault. The next day he takes her out, is alternately cruel and tender, insists roughly on sex, and then discards her. A week later she calls him; waiting for him at a bar, two pimps accost her. Again Kiyoshi rescues her, and their affair begins in earnest. She moves in with him, continues school, and they support themselves by extorting money from men who offer her a ride and then make a pass: Kiyoshi shows up to beat them. Things are semi-OK until pregnancy and a short stay in jail change their relationship.”

Information on Nagia Oshima at Wikipedia.
Information on ’Cruel Story of Youth‘ at Wikipedia.
‘Cruel Story of Youth‘ Review at Sarudama.
Article on ’Cruel Story of Youth‘ at Senses of Cinema, by Robert Kreser.
‘Cruel Story of Youth‘ Trailer at YouTube; with English Subtitles.

Pre-Order ’Naked Youth‘ (’Cruel Story of Youth‘, 1960) at Amazon.co.uk for Release February 25th 2008 on R2 UK DVD.

Twitch has (as do many sites) a relationship with NoShame‘s USA arm which goes back to their relatively recent inception and shrouded-in-mystery demise, or should I say apparent demise. People have been scrambling to pick-up DVDs from their reasonably prolific output of USA DVDs in recent times, fearing the worst and predicting they’ll be permanently OOP soon as there was no true and concrete sign NoShame would be back from a regrouping of their business, or from an apparent trip to secure USA rights for further releases - well, in with the rumors that had been flying around forums in recent months, there was a mention for a wider release for a TV Series of four hour-long films partly directed by Argento in his earlier career years, under a few different names as it happens, that has appeared in a scarce Dragon DVD over in Germany in years gone by. I’ve that set stuck away somewhere, but many didn’t get their hands on one of those several thousand sets, many have some to Argento (as they will) since. Here’s your chance then.

I will wait to hear more specific and detailed information about any permanent resurrection, but for now this listing seems to confirm we could hope for a revival of the company… I hope, this time around, that they continue some of their excellent choices with genres favored by American audiences, and that some of the weaker stuff few obviously connected too will avoid any other difficult times in their future - they’ve been a great source of some classics, and a good example (quite often) of how to go about things in terms of providing supporting information on a reliable basis.

‘Door Into Darkness‘ Information at Wikipedia.
Pre-Order Dario Argento’s ’Door Into Darkness‘ TV Series at Amazon.com for release February 26th 2008.

Mother of Tears USA Theatrical Trailer at Fangoria; embedded flash.

With another ’Delinquent Girl Boss‘ film coming along just a couple of weeks before this (’Blossoming Night Dreams‘ on January 29th 2008), it would seem to be that Media Blasters ’Exploitation Digital‘ sub-label has their hands on the remaining films from the series outside of the one cherry-picked by Panik House for their original box set of ’The Pinky Violence Collection‘, as this is Norifumi Suzuki’s ’Sukeban‘ under a different title, his early 1973 film which follows Panik House‘s also-selected title ’Sukeban Guerilla‘ from the previous year. Still have to hope these discs are decent, still likely to just pre-order them, but I’ll repeat that I’m not at all impressed by the first ’Rica‘ disc and so haven’t gone anywhere near the following two.

Here’s a synopsis from TLA Video, ”A car, loaded with delinquent girls, is headed to reform school when it crashes and the girls escape to freedom. On the run from the law, girl boss Komasa and her friends seek refuge right in the middle of Osaka’s hardcore gang territory. Rival gangs battle it out for supremacy in a corrupt world of money-hungry degenerates whose only objectives are to make a quick buck and score a quick score. When Komasa and her pals get involved, it throws the whole underworld into chaos and they soon find themselves at the mercy of some sinister thugs. Abused to no end at the hands of some rough customers, the girls find themselves the currency in a brutal transaction. But girl boss Komasa won’t consider any debts paid in full until she has her revenge!”.

Continue Reading "Norifumi Suzuki’s ‘Girl Boss Revenge’ (1973) R1 USA DVD February 19th 2008."...

Those who pick up film magazines in England might have spotted the full-page mention for Miike’s ’Sukiyaki Western Django‘ which states due 2008 for a western release.

Few things generally conspire against them though, one is the already mentioned likelihood that all territories outside of Japan will have a slimmed-down version of the film - it’s said to be losing 25 minutes for international distribution, american distribution at least, post-festival screenings at which it was criticized for being a wee bit too long. The Japanese DVD Specification released so far state the Japanese DVD will see the original 121 minute cut of the film, and not a rejig.

Remember, considering all you options in taking in contemporary or classic films from other countries, for those outside the bubble of the american market - the one which gives the illusion of ”all you need” rather than ”all you might want” - you’ll likely now have your eye on this disc as the better version, all other aspects completely out the window if your eye is on the film. More importantly, the idea that it’s hard to have faith in what you might get beyond the domestic borders for a film, particularly with regards how far-reaching any USA distribution might actually be, but also when you’ll actually get it as 2008 is a full 12 months or so in length, and America is not going to prioritize this, Tarantino or not, because it’s not domestic product and it’s not part of their wider picture.

You may see two alternative packages with additional discs for Japan ultimately getting listed when pre-orders appear in more places - I’m seeing only what appears to be the more special one mentioned right now (Product Code is GNBD-1430 for the Special Edition; GNBD-1429 for the Standard Edition, both seem to have English and Japanese Dubs, but only Japanese Subtitles) - and this one certainly comes with a making-of, mini feature on special effects, footage from VIFF and TIFF screenings. And yes, a first of all firsts! Japanese Subtitles!!!

Miike at Venice Coverage & Sukiyaki Western Review by Tom Mes.

MidnightEye contributor Jason Gray’s Review at his Blogspot Is also worth a nose.

Thanks to Midnight Eye‘s Jasper Sharp to passing along some much-needed information on the Tomu Uchida Retrospective that he and Alex Jacoby are arranging for lucky London folk to take in during December...

Coming to the British Film Institute throughout December is a dazzling new 16-film retrospective of the director Tomu Uchida, put together by Alex Jacoby and Midnight Eye‘s Jasper Sharp. Both will be on hand to introduce a number of the films, while Jasper Sharp will be involved in a panel discussion on December 5th with Tony Rayns, Julian Stringer and Isolde Standish entitled ”What’s Japanese Cinema Got to Do With it?”

Further Details in the dedicated BFI schedules.

The season will be playing in a slimmed down version of The Outsiders, A Hole of My Own Making, A Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji and Twilight Salooon at the Bristol Arnolfini (http://www.arnolfini.org.uk/) in January 2008 and also at the Edinburgh Filmhouse (http://www.filmhousecinema.com/).

Reviews of the films can be found on Midnight Eye from our round-up of the 2004 Tokyo FilmEx festival and an indepth look at the first ever Japanese ”Western”, The Outsiders.

”A consummate stylist, director of superior genre films and shrewd social critic, Tomu Uchida has too long been neglected in the West.”

Midnight Eye Round-up on Tomu Uchida at Tokyo Filmex 2004.
Midnight Eye Review for ’Outsiders‘ by Jasper Sharp.
Adam Nayman’s Reviews from recent retrospective screenings via Eye Weekly.
Glenn Sumi’s Overview of Tomu Uchida at another recent retrospective.

Few interlinking things buzzing around my head in recent weeks that could come together and give an interesting insight for those who can’t directly follow it all but do pick up on some of the happenings in British Comedy. It’s worth noting that the BBC is looking particularly over-stretched at the moment, having (in recent years) introduced extensive expansions to it’s online activities and projects, having added BBC News 24 (statistically said to have, at times, literally no viewers at all - probably in the earlier hours of the day) and given us the more niche channels BBC Three and BBC Four.

Three offered a new home for experiments in popularising new comedy projects, and has also quickly become something of a interbred and interrelated series of shows featuring over-exposed actors and writers, both new and old. Stuck right at the end of a long run of utter mediocrity came a show that features Ruth Jones (who also wrote this show - Gavin & Stacey - and it’s another show from Coogan’s Baby Cow) who by now is familiar as an actress from ’Nighty Night‘ and Steve Coogan’s ’Saxondale‘. Cue, then, a pretty much universal and globally-audible sigh of disappointment in how little identity, power and interest the show seemed to offer… cue extensive advertising and repeats (or so it felt) and little much actual obvious recognition.

Gavin & Stacey is up for seven particular awards in the British Comedy Awards 2007 - something of a record, apparently. Now, awards are a promotional tool, but taken as recognition and a good way to gain more publicity for work which often passes the casual viewer by, even if there’s a sense it’s impossible not to hear about all this stuff. The Awards here are very short shortlists, familiar faces, same old stuff, not in recognition of the quantity, quality, diversity, popularity and general overall feel of what’s on offer if you sit down to watch TV here on a regular basis. That said, ITV was the most recent screener of the B.C.A‘s, and having been embroiled in phone-vote scandals - TV here has become overly-reliant on finance earn from formats specifically designed to engage the viewers itchy dial finger all too often, resulting in scandals over rip-offs, lost votes being charged for, rigged votes, refunds, fines, resignations, and general temporary public disgust before they return to voting - and has suffered a fate-worse-than-most with a very suspiciously specific ITV dropping of the show in contradiction to their general policy of trying to cough loudly and sweep things under the carpet, a campaign to get it broadcast elsewhere (so far unsuccessful) and general disappointment that things seem to be firmly on a downturn.

So, you can expect odd happenings. The BBC is decruiting, restructuring, relocating, scrapping, shifting and weeding its way through a change of activities which will ultimately see a largely lackluster series of face-saving maneuvers to distract from the ideas most will have on offer from a public perspective; i.e stop spreading yourself so thin, get smarter, scrap Three and Four, News 24, maintain your long-held ideas of how the four (okay, five actually) main terrestrial channels still manage to set the benchmark for British TV, and stop trying to be so underhand with your audience. Less comedy is likely in coming years, little of what’s been around has ultimately been of much interest, new talent still needs an outlet but it also still needs to keep to traditional routes to stardom, and things are generally in relatively bad shape. Still, if you’re brave, start picking through older stuff, as the classics quickly get passed even by domestic audiences, and there’s a tonne of stuff revived on DVD. It’s not hard to pick out, you just need the individual motivation. Oh, and wait for the second (much better) series of ’Not Going Out‘ to hit DVD, as well as Peter Serafinowicz’s pretty good and imaginative sketch show to hopefully air on DVD also.

British Comedy Awards 2007 Full Nominations at Chortle.

Can’t ever really pull a list from the top of my head (but I do keep a folder of trailer I’ve downloaded), even though we’ve had a fairly flat year for really interesting new films out of Japan compared to recent times, but I will say this is one of only a few which really stands out for me as something which could be really good. The teaser was effective and memorable, the full trailer looks superb…

‘Zenzen Daijobu‘ Full Trailer at Official Site; might be necessary refresh to get the site to kick-in… look for far-right menu option for trailer after you click enter.

I know, it’s been offered around online for several days. Tried downloading it, and single-figure download speeds simply don’t do it for me - hey, soon we’ll have video, which was news to me - so I picked up YouTube and gave it a try. Bingo.

Anyway, I’m here on a tuesday morning after a long weekend of frustrating unintentional experiments left my main source of online activity out of action since Thursday night. Has me thinking though, that although it’s easy to see how things blow out of proportion very easily with a little instantaneous excitement to the appearance of a new snippet, once things have a few days to cool down they boil down to very little. Still, it’s important for the most part, to distinguish that there’s still important issues ongoing that require attention, and there’s stuff people get excited about because they need to lift their heads (and perhaps suggest others do also) to look out of the window doubtless somewhere near you in the room, and take a look at the outside world. Once in a while, at least, even if not every thirty seconds or so.

Catching-up then, what’ve I missed out on? New Production I.G anime with Shirow Masamune called ’Real Drive‘ - great, too little distinctive anime around, still waiting on a late-looking USA disc for ’Paprika‘ from Satoshi Kon, new TV to arrive to make the most of ’Tekkon Kinkreet‘ on Blu-ray - which is something that easily distinguishes itself. New Wisit Sasanatieng, which is nice, because I think ’Citizen Dog‘ is a clever piece of filmmaking if a little familiarly odd at times. Miike’s ’Sukiyaki Western Django‘ is trimmed for International release version - nice, so, I’ll buy the Japanese DVD then? Still no ’Zebraman‘ DVD, or all those others, still no Tokyo Zombie either. No Shamo‘ DVD yet. Still, none of this is that important in many respects, not as much as many issued online communities have long since tired of talking about.

Ultimately, there’s still things missing from the slate, still things people are picking-up on out of the masses of foreign releases and talking about online which you may or may not get to see in any kind of form somewhere down the line. Odd, isn’t it? I get the impression companies do come online and use the internet to some extent, but they’re not here daily, they’re not necessarily aware of all the ports of call for information, and they’re not necessarily that interested in the opportunities it presents to access a much larger audience - more have internet access than film festival access after all, more are building and growing their knowledge than simply waiting to plow into DVDs of films they’re aware of from their distant past. Shame, but kind of predictable by now…

Mad Detective Trailer at YouTube.

Media Blasters, their Exploitation Digital sub-label, seem particularly keen on Pinky Violence films right now. Ongoing at the moment, their ’Rica‘ trilogy is going down well for it’s content - though I’ve not really picked up on what I sensed when trying out the first of the three, that the mastering is probably the worst I’ve seen on any DVD anywhere - and many are already happily declaring their interest in a further venture into the ’Delinquent Girl Boss‘ series which Panik House picked ’Worthless to Confess‘ out for their Pinky Violence Collection set.

Back then, as is remembered by some, Panik House said they weren’t releasing a series - as these films often run for more than a few sequels if they went down well in Japan originally - but instead picking out their favourites from a slew of series. Now that the opportunity to catch more seemed to have passed us by, in come Media Blasters to pick up the torch, with what I seem to be able to discover was the first, known originally as ’Yume Wa Yoru Hirakua‘ (the previous film being the fourth - there may be a fifth also) and this does suggest to some we’ll see the gaps filled here.

Who knows for certain? Well, they do, we don’t, but we’ll hope to find out in time. Let’s hope - and I’m holding off on this one until I sense how it turned out - that the disc is a decent job and that the opportunity isn’t wasted, as ’Rica‘ looked like one of those really heavily compressed files that could have come from some Japan-only DTO scheme as some studios have seemed to supply material for… plenty of similar stuff is starting to appear on DVD in Japan, so there could be new masters being done for that market which MB can dip into.

Synopsis from TLA Video, ”After a life in reform school, Rika (Reiko Oshida) tries her hand at becoming a decent, upstanding citizen. But try as she might, she just can’t get the hang of the straight life. She finds herself back in the big city where the hippie revolution has taken hold and psychedelics are the drugs of choice. Back on the streets, she meets up with her old reform schoolmates and becomes embroiled in an underworld full of gangsters and shifty kidnappers who have a taste for money and women. Now, Rika must rely on her two greatest assets — her beauty and her butt-kicking skills — to help her friends take brutal revenge!”

There seems to be a fair few (perhaps only actually a handful) of figures whom it’s easy to come to recognise in the current generation of Japanese film stars. Their performances, distinctive and charming, have given them a certain amount of automatic appeal when they appear in a new production. Although, that said, people like Ryuhei Matsuda have also turned their hands to much more commercial (if not just plain cliched) affairs too, so you’ll always have to look for the most distinctive characteristics of a film in order to get a sense if it’s of interest. For me, the one key person in the past couple of years that I’ll jump at a chance to watch is Yoshiyoshi Arakawa, the chubby-face semi-gormless comedian whom was seen in very popular favourites like ’Survive Style 5+‘ and one of the finest of last year (for me...) ’Yaji & Kita : Midnight Pilgrims‘. Now, with an odd appearance in Miike’s ’Ryu Ga Gotoku‘ (’Like A Dragon‘) under his belt, Yoshiyoshi seems to be back on familiarly wacky territory with a film that has a rather smart, small teaser firmly scorched onto my memory already… opens early 2008 in Japan.

Stylejam’s English-Language Synopsis for ’Fine, Totally Fine‘.
‘Fine, Totally Fine‘ Embedded Teaser Trailer at Official Site; click small green button at the bottom!

Not long to wait now, and thankfully (this time around) we’ve some decent preview information to take a look at…

Visit Outcast Cinema for all that you need.

[Source : Ryuganji].

Two upcoming 2008 releases for Japan, both seem to have either been novels and/or manga’s in recent years, so you might find some more English Language stuff if you look around carefully. For now, the basics seem to be that we’re talking about two comedy-action-romance dramas with a certain amount of potential to become something of real interest.

Bokuchu or ’Us Versus The Police : 700 Day War‘ Background Information, ”The setting for this story is a country town in 1970’s Japan. One day, Saijo-kun, one of the biggest trouble makers of our school, was caught speeding on his scooter. As his friends, “we” commenced our counterattack on the local resident police officer. Our opponent was a newly appointed, motivated, and young Chuzai-san (resident local police officer). Chuzai-san kept getting back at us with his clever counterattacks! To boot, this Chuzai-san had a young and beautiful wife! Our prank war escalated, and its circumstances wrapped the whole town in confusion. This is the heartwarming story about “our” relationship with “Chuzai-san.” Two volumes of novel were published in April 2007. A live action movie is also being planned.” [Source : Kaji Masaki Live Journal].

Bokuchu Embedded Teaser Trailer at Official Site; Larger Version makes my browser crash!

”Gummi Chocolate Pine” is based on the autobiographical novel by Kenji Otsuki, vocalist of rock band Kinniku Shojotai. The film, which stars Takuya Ishida as Otsuki during his high school days, opens this December. [Source : Tokyograph}.

‘Gummi Chocolate Pine‘ Embedded Teaser Trailer at Official Site.

I’ve made (from memory) one selection in the past which I would call the pinnacle of modern comedy, now I’ll make one for modern drama. Yes, even though ’Grange Hill‘ is a childrens drama, having run since the late 1970’s (and still going relatively strong) it’s often the period which matches up to the audiences own school days that they’ll most fondly remember, but they often enjoy the show so much that it holds a special place in their hearts despite the difficulties they might have had then.

For me, being at school during the 1980’s, I perhaps most fondly remember the peak of it’s powers - it’s always arguable, that part - when we had the anti-drug campaign ’Just Say No‘, something which took some of the kids to the top of the charts with a song of the same name, and to meet Mrs.Reagan and perform in front of a crowd after, as it later turned out, some of them had admittedly chosen to, erm, ”Just Say Yes” as you might put it. How does it all work then? Well, the shows strength was in how directly and successfully it managed to approach subjects which were the undercurrent to the collective school populations real experiences in one way or another. Parents could complain, but they knew they reality and still reacted… kids could experience something they could relate to in a more complete and explained, resolved fashion, and the producers knew they were on the money if kids kept watching and the parents got more angry, but they were always willing and able to take it to the extremes that very few kids went through at school, and in such an abbreviated manner that it made for exciting viewing.

Usually starting with a new school year, the character shift around and go through their adventures in (and occasionally around) school grounds, and the highlight for me was always the chance that a season contained a particularly good school trip or holiday, the potential for danger, the relaxation of the relationships between the characters, the surprises that always had a chance of popping up. For me, all in all, the most important TV drama i’ve experienced, and I’ve always got a fond place in my heart for many of the characters who are as well remembered as people I actually shared my childhood with - I’m far from alone there, and it’s not an odd thing to experience or mention when you’ve bonded with people in a show as well portrayed as this.

Nothing was taboo here (sex and death, everything in between), so it’s also managed to maintain and grow an adult audience to the extent it’s also been the possible clear inspiration for more peak time or post-watershed shows such as ’Teachers‘ (from Channel 4) and a couple of others too. Oh, and if you must know my favourite, I really admire George Christopher for his work in the late 80’s… stunning stuff. We’ve been hoping for years to get another chance to see this drama, something we thought had been wiped and lost forever, so it’s great to see it coming around again.

Grange Hill Information at Wikipedia.

Pre-Order Series One & Two at Amazon.co.uk.
Pre-Order Series Three & Four at Amazon.co.uk.
Both sets are released on R2 UK DVD during November 2007. You can buy me these for Christmas, if you’re listening… anyone?!