It was a weird year for Busan in terms of selection, particularly because this time, there were no definite masterpieces particularly among the Korean and Japanese titles, who are usually the source of this kind of films. At the same time, though, the industry seems to gradually pick up once more after the Covid impact, as one could find a really significant number of good and very good films in the selection, highlighting the progress of Asian cinema this year. Furthermore, the choice to focus on Indonesian cinema was an ideal one, considering that the future of Asian movies seems to lie, currently, somewhere among the Asean countries, particularly story-wise. Furthermore, the South Asian entries also were particularly strong this year, cementing what we just mentioned. Lastly, and in a trend that seems to be picking up during the last few years, the short selection seems even more interesting on occasion that the features…...
- 10/22/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
On the occasion of his presence as a jury member for the Biff Mecenat Award, Kazuo Hara speaks with Panos Kotzathanasis about his career and how he has changed through the years, following up on his documentary subjects and particularly the people of Reiwa Uprising, whether cinema and documentary in particular are able to make a change and the difference between fiction and documentary.
- 10/14/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Documentary festival IDFA, which runs Nov. 8 to 19 in Amsterdam, has revealed its first 50 titles, including the top 10 Chinese films selected by Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing, IDFA’s Guest of Honor.
The festival has also revealed the films playing in two of the three Focus programs: Fabrications, which probes the difference between reality and realism, and 16 Worlds on 16, an homage to 16mm film.
Wang’s selection will take the viewer “on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema,” according to the festival. “The films and their politics are subtle in their film language, representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.”
The selection (see below), which covers films produced since 1999, includes Lixin Fan’s 2009 film “Last Train Home,” which was supported by IDFA’s Bertha Fund. The film documents the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.
Fabrications explores the relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences,...
The festival has also revealed the films playing in two of the three Focus programs: Fabrications, which probes the difference between reality and realism, and 16 Worlds on 16, an homage to 16mm film.
Wang’s selection will take the viewer “on a contemplative journey into contemporary Chinese cinema,” according to the festival. “The films and their politics are subtle in their film language, representing a wave of filmmaking rarely shown internationally.”
The selection (see below), which covers films produced since 1999, includes Lixin Fan’s 2009 film “Last Train Home,” which was supported by IDFA’s Bertha Fund. The film documents the millions of migrant factory workers that travel home for Spring Festival each year.
Fabrications explores the relationship of trust between documentary film and audiences,...
- 9/19/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film Forum
Michael Roemer’s great The Plot Against Harry and the Tarantino-presented Winter Kills both screen on 35mm; Contempt continues
Roxy Cinema
Madonna fans can flock to Dick Tracy and Evita on 35mm, while a print of Perdita Durango also plays.
Film at Lincoln Center
Kira Muratova’s The Long Farewell and Brief Encounters are both screening in new restorations.
Museum of Modern Art
The earliest color films screen in a new series.
Anthology Film Archives
Documentaries by the great Kazuo Hara are subject of a new retrospective.
Museum of the Moving Image
Nope, Starman, Airport, and 2001 play on 70mm in a new series; Baby Boy and Idlewild have screenings.
IFC Center
The Bling Ring, Event Horizon, and Fist of Fury have late showings, while Oldboy and The Others play in new restorations; The Age of Innocence and...
Film Forum
Michael Roemer’s great The Plot Against Harry and the Tarantino-presented Winter Kills both screen on 35mm; Contempt continues
Roxy Cinema
Madonna fans can flock to Dick Tracy and Evita on 35mm, while a print of Perdita Durango also plays.
Film at Lincoln Center
Kira Muratova’s The Long Farewell and Brief Encounters are both screening in new restorations.
Museum of Modern Art
The earliest color films screen in a new series.
Anthology Film Archives
Documentaries by the great Kazuo Hara are subject of a new retrospective.
Museum of the Moving Image
Nope, Starman, Airport, and 2001 play on 70mm in a new series; Baby Boy and Idlewild have screenings.
IFC Center
The Bling Ring, Event Horizon, and Fist of Fury have late showings, while Oldboy and The Others play in new restorations; The Age of Innocence and...
- 8/25/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Roxy Cinema
Because the people of New York can’t get enough, the 35mm print of Rio Bravo we programmed has yet another screening on Sunday; Swingers, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Body of Evidence, and James Toback’s Black and White also play on film, while Madonna: Truth or Dare has a screening.
Museum of Modern Art
Films by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Harvard’s Sel, Maren Ade, and more play in a new series.
Film at Lincoln Center
A new 70mm print of Boogie Nights has begun daily showings.
Anthology Film Archives
Documentaries by the great Kazuo Hara are subject of a new retrospective, while work by the crew of How to with John Wilson is highlighted this Saturday.
Bam
A restoration of the recently rediscovered Tokyo Pop continues, while a new animation series includes Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers.
Roxy Cinema
Because the people of New York can’t get enough, the 35mm print of Rio Bravo we programmed has yet another screening on Sunday; Swingers, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Body of Evidence, and James Toback’s Black and White also play on film, while Madonna: Truth or Dare has a screening.
Museum of Modern Art
Films by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kelly Reichardt, Harvard’s Sel, Maren Ade, and more play in a new series.
Film at Lincoln Center
A new 70mm print of Boogie Nights has begun daily showings.
Anthology Film Archives
Documentaries by the great Kazuo Hara are subject of a new retrospective, while work by the crew of How to with John Wilson is highlighted this Saturday.
Bam
A restoration of the recently rediscovered Tokyo Pop continues, while a new animation series includes Satoshi Kon’s Tokyo Godfathers.
- 8/17/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSUncut Gems.According to Adam Sandler in a new Vanity Fair profile, he will be shooting a new film with the Safdie brothers this winter. Not much is known about the project, but Sandler had previously mentioned that the film would take place in “the world of sports.” Artist-filmmaker Sky Hopinka has been named as one of 25 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship’s prestigious “genius grant.” (Michael Sicinski interviewed Hopinka for Notebook in 2020.)A new TV series based on Herbert Asbury’s 1927 nonfiction book The Gangs of New York has been announced. Martin Scorsese, who directed the book’s 2002 feature film adaptation, is attached as executive producer of the series and director of the first two episodes.Recommended Viewinga trailer has arrived for Laura Poitras’s latest feature All the Beauty and the Bloodshed...
- 10/21/2022
- MUBI
“Shin Ultraman” wouldn’t be the first time filmmakers Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi reimagined a popular tokusatsu character. A few years prior, they gave audiences “Shin Godzilla,” an alternate title for the feature being “Godzilla Resurgence.” It is a film that is not only an entertaining monster flick but a suspenseful political thriller with clever commentary. Also reinstated are the themes of the original “Godzilla” directed by Ishiro Honda on the horrors of nuclear warfare. In conjunction with that is satire inspired by the Japanese government’s poor handling of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
Japan is thrust into panic and chaos when a giant creature appears and starts causing destruction. The beast is referred to as Godzilla, and it is constantly evolving. The government works to prevent further catastrophe while overcoming bureaucratic red tape. The story is simple but engaging, balancing humor...
Japan is thrust into panic and chaos when a giant creature appears and starts causing destruction. The beast is referred to as Godzilla, and it is constantly evolving. The government works to prevent further catastrophe while overcoming bureaucratic red tape. The story is simple but engaging, balancing humor...
- 8/13/2022
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Filmed over a span of 22 years and produced by a local television network, the documentary follows the patriarch Torao Inuzuka and his family of seven children living together on Goto Island in Nagasaki prefecture. Based on strict rules, the family-run Udon business dominates the daily routine of the children, which ultimately leads to conflict and departure. As some of the children gradually move away to the mainland to chase after their dreams, Torao becomes more and more addicted to alcohol.
Bittersweet, melancholic, and highly educational, “Tora-San of Goto” tells an epic story about homecoming and family dynamics. Oura’s blunt and realistic style leads deep into the core of human beings revealing all its negative but also positive aspects. In the tradition of the old cinematic grandmaster of Japanese family drama such as Yazujiro Ozu (Film Review: Early Summer (1951) by Yasujiro Ozu), the everchanging circle of life and death is...
Bittersweet, melancholic, and highly educational, “Tora-San of Goto” tells an epic story about homecoming and family dynamics. Oura’s blunt and realistic style leads deep into the core of human beings revealing all its negative but also positive aspects. In the tradition of the old cinematic grandmaster of Japanese family drama such as Yazujiro Ozu (Film Review: Early Summer (1951) by Yasujiro Ozu), the everchanging circle of life and death is...
- 6/26/2022
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
The end of WWII for Japan, and particularly the fact that some of its soldiers refused or did not received the order to surrender has been one of the most dramatic episodes in the country’s history, with Kazuo Hara’s “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” being one of the most impactful presentations of the concept in cinema. Arthur Harari moves in the same path, choosing to base his movie on the life of Hiroo Onoda, an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who did not surrender at the war’s end in August 1945, but spent 29 years hiding in the Philippines until his former commander traveled from Japan to formally relieve him from duty by order of Emperor Showa in 1974. “Onoda” opened Cannes’ “Un Certain Regard” section in July 2021.
on Terracotta
The story unfolds in two intermingling time frames, as it starts with Onoda’s arrival in Lubang,...
on Terracotta
The story unfolds in two intermingling time frames, as it starts with Onoda’s arrival in Lubang,...
- 4/5/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Rarely one finds a friend on the Criterion Channel—discounting the parasitic relationship we form with filmmakers, I mean—but it’s great seeing their March lineup give light to Sophy Romvari, the <bias>exceptionally talented</bias> filmmaker and curator whose work has perhaps earned comparisons to Agnès Varda and Chantal Akerman but charts its own path of history and reflection. It’s a good way to lead into an exceptionally strong month, featuring as it does numerous films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the great Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara, newfound cult classic Arrebato, and a number of Criterion editions.
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
On the last front we have The Age of Innocence, Bull Durham, A Raisin in the Sun, The Celebration, Merrily We Go to Hell, and Design for Living. There’s always something lingering on the watchlist, but it might have to wait a second longer—March is an opened floodgate.
See the full...
- 2/21/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
When a supporter of a group of Minamata victims going to trail in Osaka approached director Kazuo Hara to make a documentary about the Minamata disease, neither of them realized the enormousness of the project that awaited. “Minamata Mandala” started out as a project with a small budget, but it would take over 15 years of filming and 5 years of editing to make, with a final budget 10 times higher than the original private funding. The result is an epic three-part film of 372 minutes long.
Minamata Mandala is screening at Japan Society
Minamata is a town in the Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu. Its inhabitants were primarily fishermen and life in their beautiful surroundings might not always be easy, but it is simple. This changes dramatically in the 50’s. First, animals start behaving strangely: cats are dancing, and birds drop dead from the sky. Later, young children exhibit sudden and...
Minamata Mandala is screening at Japan Society
Minamata is a town in the Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu. Its inhabitants were primarily fishermen and life in their beautiful surroundings might not always be easy, but it is simple. This changes dramatically in the 50’s. First, animals start behaving strangely: cats are dancing, and birds drop dead from the sky. Later, young children exhibit sudden and...
- 7/2/2021
- by Nancy Fornoville
- AsianMoviePulse
You might read the title of this movie and think it absurd or hyberbolic, the way every other pizza place in New York claims to serve the most mouthwatering, delicious pizza the Big Apple has to offer. However, if you think this, you’d be wrong, as the title of Kazuo Hara’s 1974 home-video style documentary may be absurd, but is anything but hyperbolic. Truthfully, as the name suggests, “Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974” is an extremely private study of womanhood in 70s Japan, told via a nothing-is-off-limits profile of Hara’s ex-girlfriend and her home life. 50 years later, the work remains a triumph in the Japanese documentarian’s already impressively daring ouvre.
“Extreme Private Eros Love” is screening at Japan Society
The movie opens with Hara going to visit his ex-lover, radical feminist, and mother of his child, Miyuki Takeda. Miyuki and her son are currently living in Okinawa,...
“Extreme Private Eros Love” is screening at Japan Society
The movie opens with Hara going to visit his ex-lover, radical feminist, and mother of his child, Miyuki Takeda. Miyuki and her son are currently living in Okinawa,...
- 6/28/2021
- by Luke Georgiades
- AsianMoviePulse
While cinephiles mostly associate Kazuo Hara with documentaries such as “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On”, the director has also made a feature film in 2005, together with his long-term partner producer and screenwriter Sachiko Kobayashi. However, “The Many Faces of Chika”, which follows the story of a woman through four stages in her life, contains similar qualities, especially a sharp eye for human relationships and flaws, along with a critical view on Japan’s society and politics. Given the background of the tumultuous 1960s, with a specific allusion to the student protests, “The Many Faces of Chika” tells a story of a women’s journey into uncertainty and her many facets, which mirror the social and political changes of the times.
The Many Faces of Chika is screening at Japan Society
In her youth, Chika (Takami Yoshimoto) was a talented gymnast who even participated in the Tokyo Olympics, but...
The Many Faces of Chika is screening at Japan Society
In her youth, Chika (Takami Yoshimoto) was a talented gymnast who even participated in the Tokyo Olympics, but...
- 6/27/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Following on from his crowning glory “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On”, Kazuo Hara travelled around Japan with another determined figure, but one facing an altogether different battle. Mitsuharu Inoue wasn’t as well-known a novelist around the world as some of his peers, but certainly had his admirers in Japan. Certainly charismatic, “A Dedicated Life” paints a portrait of a man living in a world of contradictions and inconsistencies, with his life itself his greatest work of art.
A Dedicatd Life is screening at Japan Society
Within the opening fifteen minutes, Hara shows a man of many talents: a showman, an extrovert, a flirt, a performer, a charismatic anecdotalist, a powerful talker and a man who can become intensely angry at the drop of a hat. A stereotypical struggling artist, Inoue lives with his wife in a modest house surrounded by books and regularly visited by learned friends and students.
A Dedicatd Life is screening at Japan Society
Within the opening fifteen minutes, Hara shows a man of many talents: a showman, an extrovert, a flirt, a performer, a charismatic anecdotalist, a powerful talker and a man who can become intensely angry at the drop of a hat. A stereotypical struggling artist, Inoue lives with his wife in a modest house surrounded by books and regularly visited by learned friends and students.
- 6/25/2021
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
When filming a documentary, you might expect the director, or rather the camera, to keep a certain distance towards the subject, thus allowing the audience to make up its mind about the events which unfold. When dealing with issues such as war, abuse and politics, a level of distance may encourage a thought process in the viewer’s mind, but then again if you, as a filmmaker, feel strongly about a topic or want to uncover perhaps more, which might otherwise be hidden from the eye, perhaps this distance can be quite an obstacle. In the case of the documentaries by Japanese director Kazuo Hara, this concept comes into place, and is maybe best suited considering the often quite personal connection of the subject to the filmmaker’s biography. In his 1987 feature “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On”, one of the most well-known documentaries by the director, he chooses...
- 6/22/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Japan Society Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Independent Film Company Shisso Productions with Online Retrospective that Includes their Latest 372-minute Documentary Epic Minamata Mandala
June 4–July 2
Japan Society announces Cinema as Struggle: The Films of Kazuo Hara & Sachiko Kobayashi, a career-spanning online retrospective that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Shisso Productions, the independent film company founded by influential Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara and his wife, producer and collaborator, influential Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara and his wife, producer and collaborator, Sachiko Kobayashi in 1971. The series includes nearly all of the pair’s films, including their most recent release, “Minamata Mandala”—a sprawling three-part epic 15 years in the making. All films will stream nationwide through Japan Society’s virtual cinema from June 4-July 2 with some films also available to stream in Canada.
Widely-recognized for their complicated and deeply personal portraits of iconoclastic individuals, Hara and Kobayashi’s work—hailed by documentary luminaries...
June 4–July 2
Japan Society announces Cinema as Struggle: The Films of Kazuo Hara & Sachiko Kobayashi, a career-spanning online retrospective that celebrates the 50th anniversary of Shisso Productions, the independent film company founded by influential Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara and his wife, producer and collaborator, influential Japanese documentarian Kazuo Hara and his wife, producer and collaborator, Sachiko Kobayashi in 1971. The series includes nearly all of the pair’s films, including their most recent release, “Minamata Mandala”—a sprawling three-part epic 15 years in the making. All films will stream nationwide through Japan Society’s virtual cinema from June 4-July 2 with some films also available to stream in Canada.
Widely-recognized for their complicated and deeply personal portraits of iconoclastic individuals, Hara and Kobayashi’s work—hailed by documentary luminaries...
- 6/5/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Charles Grodin in Beethoven's 2nd (1993)Beloved actor Charles Grodin, known for his roles in The Heartbreak Kid, Midnight Run, as well as the Beethoven films and The Great Muppet Caper, has died. Paul Schrader's The Card Counter has been slated for a release by Focus Features on September 10, after an extended delay during the early months of the pandemic. Written and directed by Schrader, the film follows a gambler who assists a young man in his revenge against a military colonel. Robert Eggers has also managed to complete his Viking epic The Northman after a long pause in 2020 due to the pandemic. Starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, Willem Dafoe, Ethan Hawke, and Björk, the film will be released on April 8, 2022. Meanwhile, Wes Anderson, whose film The French Dispatch will be premiering at Cannes this July,...
- 5/19/2021
- MUBI
The Sheffield DocFest has unveiled its line-up for its 2021 programme that includes the World Premiere of the first instalment of Academy Award winner Steve McQueen’s new series for the BBC, ‘Uprising’.
For the first time, Sheffield DocFest goes nationwide with five premiere screenings showing in up to 16 partner cinemas in cities around the UK, and online, followed by pre-recorded Q&As. It also includes the previously announced Retrospective: Films belong to those who need them – fragments from the history of Black British Cinema.
The celebration of Black British screen culture – curated by guest curators including David Olusoga. Films of all lengths will all be presented as part of the retrospective including titles such as ‘Burning An Illusion’ by Menelik Shabazz, ‘It Ain’t Half Racist’, ‘Mum’ by Stuart Hall, ‘Looking for Langston’ by Isaac Julien, ‘Second Coming’ by Debbie Tucker Green, ‘The Black Safari’ by Colin Luke, ‘Baby Mother...
For the first time, Sheffield DocFest goes nationwide with five premiere screenings showing in up to 16 partner cinemas in cities around the UK, and online, followed by pre-recorded Q&As. It also includes the previously announced Retrospective: Films belong to those who need them – fragments from the history of Black British Cinema.
The celebration of Black British screen culture – curated by guest curators including David Olusoga. Films of all lengths will all be presented as part of the retrospective including titles such as ‘Burning An Illusion’ by Menelik Shabazz, ‘It Ain’t Half Racist’, ‘Mum’ by Stuart Hall, ‘Looking for Langston’ by Isaac Julien, ‘Second Coming’ by Debbie Tucker Green, ‘The Black Safari’ by Colin Luke, ‘Baby Mother...
- 5/17/2021
- by Zehra Phelan
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The 2021 Sheffield Doc/Fest will open with the European premiere of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s “Summer of Soul” and close with the world premiere of Mark Cousins’ “The Story of Looking.”
“Summer of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” explores the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which celebrated African American music and culture, and promoted Black pride and unity.
“The Story of Looking” is a fresh look into the world’s complexities, contradictions and beauty. Cousins will also be in conversation, live-streamed from Sheffield, about his personal relationship to film and images.
Both films will also simultaneously premiere in cinemas around the U.K.
“We’re honored to premiere our film on the closing night of Sheffield’s acclaimed Doc/Fest,” Cousins said. “We hope it will send audiences and delegates back out into the world with hearts aglow and fresh eyes.”
“We wanted to open and close with...
“Summer of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” explores the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which celebrated African American music and culture, and promoted Black pride and unity.
“The Story of Looking” is a fresh look into the world’s complexities, contradictions and beauty. Cousins will also be in conversation, live-streamed from Sheffield, about his personal relationship to film and images.
Both films will also simultaneously premiere in cinemas around the U.K.
“We’re honored to premiere our film on the closing night of Sheffield’s acclaimed Doc/Fest,” Cousins said. “We hope it will send audiences and delegates back out into the world with hearts aglow and fresh eyes.”
“We wanted to open and close with...
- 4/22/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
UK documentary festival Sheffield Doc/Fest (June 4-13) will open with the European premiere of Questlove’s acclaimed Summer Of Soul, which scooped the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance this year. The doc chronicles the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and will be released by Searchlight Pictures and Hulu this summer (in cinemas and on Disney+ Star in the UK).
The festival will close with The Story of Looking, the latest documentary from prolific filmmaker Mark Cousins. This time out, Cousins turns his lens to looking at the world’s complexities, contradictions and beauty in the context of people’s long confinements at home and constant assault from images. Cousins will also appear in conversation at the event.
In a first for Doc/Fest, the event will also screen its opening night (June 4) and closing (June 12) simultaneously in cinemas around the UK. At present, venues are set to re-open...
The festival will close with The Story of Looking, the latest documentary from prolific filmmaker Mark Cousins. This time out, Cousins turns his lens to looking at the world’s complexities, contradictions and beauty in the context of people’s long confinements at home and constant assault from images. Cousins will also appear in conversation at the event.
In a first for Doc/Fest, the event will also screen its opening night (June 4) and closing (June 12) simultaneously in cinemas around the UK. At present, venues are set to re-open...
- 4/22/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
World premiere of Mark Cousins’ ‘The Story Of Looking’ will close the UK documentary festival.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer Of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) will open the UK’s Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021 (June 4-13). The festival has united with UK cinemas for the first time to simultaneously premiere the documentary.
The festival will close with the world premiere of Mark Cousins’ The Story Of Looking, which will also debut simultaneously at several partner cinemas around the UK, including London’s BFI Southbank, Glasgow Film Theatre and Home in Manchester.
This year’s Doc/Fest...
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer Of Soul (…Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) will open the UK’s Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021 (June 4-13). The festival has united with UK cinemas for the first time to simultaneously premiere the documentary.
The festival will close with the world premiere of Mark Cousins’ The Story Of Looking, which will also debut simultaneously at several partner cinemas around the UK, including London’s BFI Southbank, Glasgow Film Theatre and Home in Manchester.
This year’s Doc/Fest...
- 4/22/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Philip Yung’s Where The Wind Blows and Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong will open the festival.
The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced it will open with the world premiere of Philip Yung’s Where The Wind Blows and the gala premiere of omnibus Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong.
However, Where The Wind Blows is being announced as “Tbc” suggesting that it still needs to finalise mainland China censorship clearance. Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung Chiu-wai star in the big-budget crime drama, based on the true stories of two notoriously corrupt Hong Kong police officers...
The 45th Hong Kong International Film Festival has announced it will open with the world premiere of Philip Yung’s Where The Wind Blows and the gala premiere of omnibus Septet: The Story Of Hong Kong.
However, Where The Wind Blows is being announced as “Tbc” suggesting that it still needs to finalise mainland China censorship clearance. Aaron Kwok and Tony Leung Chiu-wai star in the big-budget crime drama, based on the true stories of two notoriously corrupt Hong Kong police officers...
- 3/9/2021
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Siân Heder's Coda (2021). The winners of this year's Sundance Film Festival have been announced, with Siân Heder's Coda and Questlove's Summer of Soul sweeping the top prizes. Chloé Zhao's Nomadland, David Fincher's Mank, and Jason Woliner's Borat Subsequent Moviefilm lead the Golden Globe film nominations, also announced today. See more hereThe international jury of the 71st Berlinale includes six previous winners of the Golden Bear: Mohammad Rasoulof, Nadav Lapid, Adina Pintilie, Ildikó Enyedi, Gianfranco Rosi and, finally, Jasmila Žbanić. The festival's industry event will be taking place March 1-5, with a "summer special" taking place in June. More information has emerged regarding Tilda Swinton and Joanna Hogg's next collaboration, The Eternal Daughter. Executive-produced by Martin Scorsese and filmed in Wales during lockdown, the film follows a middle-aged daughter and...
- 2/3/2021
- MUBI
China has struggled to get viewers back into cinemas this week, but the Shanghai Intl. Film Festival (Siff) has found a way to break through: screen all eight of the “Harry Potter” franchise films in a row, with limited seating due to Covid-19 distancing measures, and watch the public duke it out for the privilege to attend.
They must be doing something right in their selection, however: the festival sold 108,000 tickets in the first ten minutes of online sales. That contrasted with only slow box office in commercial cinemas which resumed operating on Monday.
Siff is set to run July 25 to Aug. 2 with an eclectic selection shown in a mix of screenings with a live audience, outdoor viewings and online streaming.
More than 400 films will screen in 29 designated cinemas, including Jordan Peele’s “Us,” a 4K restoration of “Apocalypse Now,” and “1917,” the only studio film new to Chinese audiences among the various offerings.
They must be doing something right in their selection, however: the festival sold 108,000 tickets in the first ten minutes of online sales. That contrasted with only slow box office in commercial cinemas which resumed operating on Monday.
Siff is set to run July 25 to Aug. 2 with an eclectic selection shown in a mix of screenings with a live audience, outdoor viewings and online streaming.
More than 400 films will screen in 29 designated cinemas, including Jordan Peele’s “Us,” a 4K restoration of “Apocalypse Now,” and “1917,” the only studio film new to Chinese audiences among the various offerings.
- 7/23/2020
- by Rebecca Davis and Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Only this week officially confirmed as going ahead, the Shanghai International Film Festival has announced some of the first titles to be selected.
The festival will run 25 July to Aug. 2 combining a mixture of theatrical screenings in front of live audiences, outdoor screenings and online streaming. It will include a conference series known as the Golden Goblet Forum, its International Film and TV Market, a Belt and Road Film Week, and the Siff project market.
Cinemas in China only begin to operate from Monday 20 July. And the festival will be expected to play its part in minimizing the spread of the coronavirus. There will be no festival guests from overseas and tickets will only be sold online, starting from July 20 through vendor Taopiaopiao.
The first nine titles announced for the Golden Goblet competition section include: “Feel Your Memories,” from Italian director Cristina Comencini; “Helene,” a biopic about Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck directed by Antti Jokinen,...
The festival will run 25 July to Aug. 2 combining a mixture of theatrical screenings in front of live audiences, outdoor screenings and online streaming. It will include a conference series known as the Golden Goblet Forum, its International Film and TV Market, a Belt and Road Film Week, and the Siff project market.
Cinemas in China only begin to operate from Monday 20 July. And the festival will be expected to play its part in minimizing the spread of the coronavirus. There will be no festival guests from overseas and tickets will only be sold online, starting from July 20 through vendor Taopiaopiao.
The first nine titles announced for the Golden Goblet competition section include: “Feel Your Memories,” from Italian director Cristina Comencini; “Helene,” a biopic about Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck directed by Antti Jokinen,...
- 7/19/2020
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema, Japan Cuts, has selected 30 features and 12 shorts for a 2020 edition that will take place entirely online due to continued corona disruption.
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
- 6/24/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
After our last interview with Kazuo Hara at Japan Cuts 2018, we’re back with the Japanese documentary filmmaking legend at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr). Kazuo Hara actively questions the institutions upon which Japanese society is built upon; his newest 248-minute long film, “Reiwa Uprising” is just as gripping as it is long. The film revolves around the mayoral campaign of trans activist Ayumi Yasutomi and her eclectic band hoping to shake up the local politique. With its first premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival and now a screening Iffr’s Tyger Burns program, the film will screen in the Museum of Modern Art in New York next.
We sat down with him (for a considerably shorter talk) at Iffr before his international premiere. Kazuo Hara opened up about his experience working on the film, on Japanese politics — but more importantly, on the enduring search for truth.
This interview was...
We sat down with him (for a considerably shorter talk) at Iffr before his international premiere. Kazuo Hara opened up about his experience working on the film, on Japanese politics — but more importantly, on the enduring search for truth.
This interview was...
- 2/24/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Kazuo Hara has always aligned himself with the political left, but it was nevertheless surprising to hear about his latest film, Reiwa Uprising, which depicts the ascent of Japan’s newest left-wing political party, Reiwa Shinsengumi, from grassroots agitators to seated parliamentarians during the 2019 election. It is not unusual for Hara, best known for Extreme Private Eros (1974) and The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987), to take almost a decade or even longer between films, yet Reiwa Uprising follows Sennan Asbestos Disaster by just two years. That expedited time to completion was largely out of necessity: Reiwa Shinsengumi was […]...
- 2/12/2020
- by Forrest Cardamenis
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Kazuo Hara has always aligned himself with the political left, but it was nevertheless surprising to hear about his latest film, Reiwa Uprising, which depicts the ascent of Japan’s newest left-wing political party, Reiwa Shinsengumi, from grassroots agitators to seated parliamentarians during the 2019 election. It is not unusual for Hara, best known for Extreme Private Eros (1974) and The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987), to take almost a decade or even longer between films, yet Reiwa Uprising follows Sennan Asbestos Disaster by just two years. That expedited time to completion was largely out of necessity: Reiwa Shinsengumi was […]...
- 2/12/2020
- by Forrest Cardamenis
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Ok, I have to admit that when I saw that the documentary was 270 minutes, I thought “what a bother”, and the beginning of the film, where Kazuo Hara lets his audience know that there is an additional scene after the ending titles, did not help, even if it made me laugh a bit. However, I was surprised to come across a film that actually retains the interest, if not for the whole of its duration than definitely for the most part, as the band of extremely unlikely candidates for the Japanese diet, and particularly Ayumi Yasutomi who is the main point focus, are more than interesting.
“Reiwa Uprising” is screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam
Kazuo Hara follows Ayumi Yasutomi, a cross-dressing Tokyo University professor, as she embarks on a campaign for the Diet’s Upper House, as member of the Reiwa Shinshengumi, a political party led by Taro Yamamoto,...
“Reiwa Uprising” is screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam
Kazuo Hara follows Ayumi Yasutomi, a cross-dressing Tokyo University professor, as she embarks on a campaign for the Diet’s Upper House, as member of the Reiwa Shinshengumi, a political party led by Taro Yamamoto,...
- 1/28/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Veteran programmer Yoshi Yatabe and his team have steadily steered the Tokyo International Film Festival competition away from the mediocrity of its early years, when even the winners couldn’t get distribution deals in Japan. The 14-film competition line-up for this year’s 32nd edition is a mix of seven world premieres and titles previously screened at Venice and elsewhere, including the Venice Orrizonti grand prize winner “Atlantis.”
“Ideally, all the films in an A-class festival like ours should be world premieres. That may be better for the reputation of the festival,” Yatabe tells Variety. “But I sometimes think it’s a waste not to take a film just because it’s been in, say, Venice’s Orrizonti section. For example, ‘Atlantis’ is a wonderful film that I’m sure our audience will like.”
“I’m always in a dilemma about whether to think first about the audience or the festival’s worldwide reputation,...
“Ideally, all the films in an A-class festival like ours should be world premieres. That may be better for the reputation of the festival,” Yatabe tells Variety. “But I sometimes think it’s a waste not to take a film just because it’s been in, say, Venice’s Orrizonti section. For example, ‘Atlantis’ is a wonderful film that I’m sure our audience will like.”
“I’m always in a dilemma about whether to think first about the audience or the festival’s worldwide reputation,...
- 10/28/2019
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
Conceived by Shôhei Imamura, Kazuo Hara’s audacious, deeply unsettling documentary feature follows Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran who has fought tirelessly and often violently to bring to justice Japan’s Emperor Hirohito and the Army commanders whom he holds responsible for the countless deaths and other atrocities involving Japanese soldiers during the war in the Pacific.
Harrowing, unflinching and extraordinarily powerful, Hara’s film pushes against the proprieties of Japanese society (the film remains unreleased in its home country), and forces us to question the relationship between documentary filmmaker and protagonist.
Special Features:
• A new filmed interview with Kazuo Hara, shot exclusively for this release.
• Kazuo Hara Masterclass: the filmmaker in conversation at the 2018 London Open City Documentary Festival event.
• 20-page booklet featuring writing by film historians Tony Rayns, Jason Wood and Abé Mark Nornes.
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Region free Blu-ray and DVD.
Harrowing, unflinching and extraordinarily powerful, Hara’s film pushes against the proprieties of Japanese society (the film remains unreleased in its home country), and forces us to question the relationship between documentary filmmaker and protagonist.
Special Features:
• A new filmed interview with Kazuo Hara, shot exclusively for this release.
• Kazuo Hara Masterclass: the filmmaker in conversation at the 2018 London Open City Documentary Festival event.
• 20-page booklet featuring writing by film historians Tony Rayns, Jason Wood and Abé Mark Nornes.
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Region free Blu-ray and DVD.
- 10/26/2019
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSProlific title designer Wayne Fitzgerald, who created the titles for films like The Godfather, Touch of Evil, and even Beverly Hills Ninja, has died. You can find the many infamous title cards designed by Fitzgerald on Annyas. Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, as introduced by Robert De Niro on Jimmy Fallon. Read our review of the film from the New York Film Festival here. The 4K restoration of Béla Tarr's slow cinema masterpiece, Sátántangó (1994), about a collective of Hungarian villagers seeking refuge during the fall of communism. Kazuo Hara's latest, Reiwa Uprising, follows "Ayumi Yasutomi, a cross-dressing candidate, who is also a Tokyo University professor, as she embarks on a national campaign for a seat in Japan's Upper House." For Sight & Sound, critic Charlie Lyne delves into...
- 10/1/2019
- MUBI
The 80-minutes documentary by American filmmaker Ian Thomas Ash shows the daily routine of Dr. Kaoru Konta and her team of nurses as they provide hospice care to their elderly patients.
“Sending Off” is screening at Camera Japan 2019
The director starts without any hesitation. We are thrown into a situation where the nurses pay a visit to a dying woman. Uncommented and with a silent distance, the camera focuses on the relationship between patients and nurse. In the tradition of Kazuo Hara and his observational style, Ash leaves us completely alone with his images. Long shots support the meditative and calm spirit that the nurses radiate during their work.
“Sending Off” operates on two different levels. First, it satisfies the curiosity of the foreigner viewer, who is confronted with the widely unknown customs of the Japanese people in the field of elderly care and burial habits. Second, the movie takes away the fear of death.
“Sending Off” is screening at Camera Japan 2019
The director starts without any hesitation. We are thrown into a situation where the nurses pay a visit to a dying woman. Uncommented and with a silent distance, the camera focuses on the relationship between patients and nurse. In the tradition of Kazuo Hara and his observational style, Ash leaves us completely alone with his images. Long shots support the meditative and calm spirit that the nurses radiate during their work.
“Sending Off” operates on two different levels. First, it satisfies the curiosity of the foreigner viewer, who is confronted with the widely unknown customs of the Japanese people in the field of elderly care and burial habits. Second, the movie takes away the fear of death.
- 9/30/2019
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Tickets are now on sale for Jaeff 2019: Nation!
This year’s festival will be held at the Barbican Centre, Close-Up Film Centre and MetFilm School from Friday 20 September through Sunday 22 September. Jaeff 2019: Nation will see five feature-length films screened alongside seven short-form films. We will again be hosting a panel discussion at the Barbican, and are very excited to announce a free filmmakers’ workshop at the MetFilm School.
Friday 20 September 201 – Barbican Cinema 3 – 6pm
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
USA 1985, Dir Paul Schrader, 120 mins, Digital presentation
+ Patriotism (Yūkoku)
Japan 1966, Dir Yukio Mishima and Domoto Masaki, 28 mins, Digital presentation
Reimagined in vibrant, expressionist colour, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters marries an author to his fiction—a vivid middle where man and myth collide. Yukio Mishima (Ken Ogata) is considered to be one of Japan’s most important novelists, and via Paul and Leonard Schrader’s unique framing, is...
This year’s festival will be held at the Barbican Centre, Close-Up Film Centre and MetFilm School from Friday 20 September through Sunday 22 September. Jaeff 2019: Nation will see five feature-length films screened alongside seven short-form films. We will again be hosting a panel discussion at the Barbican, and are very excited to announce a free filmmakers’ workshop at the MetFilm School.
Friday 20 September 201 – Barbican Cinema 3 – 6pm
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
USA 1985, Dir Paul Schrader, 120 mins, Digital presentation
+ Patriotism (Yūkoku)
Japan 1966, Dir Yukio Mishima and Domoto Masaki, 28 mins, Digital presentation
Reimagined in vibrant, expressionist colour, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters marries an author to his fiction—a vivid middle where man and myth collide. Yukio Mishima (Ken Ogata) is considered to be one of Japan’s most important novelists, and via Paul and Leonard Schrader’s unique framing, is...
- 7/19/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
“The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down” is nowadays an almost overused proverb to describe the conformity of Japanese society. The filmmaker Kazuo Hara takes a closer look at those nails that stick out. In doing so, his movies become hammers. But instead of hammering those individuals down, the hammer is aiming at the audience. Piece by piece, he is shattering down the viewers presumed idea of Japanese identity.
“Sennan Asbestos Disaster” screened at Japan Cuts 2018
Kazuo Hara, who won a number of renowned Prices, including the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award and the Japan Academy Price, gained prominence in the field of documentary filming, because of his raw and sometimes graphic representation of the covert parts of Japanese life.
Starting 46 years ago with “Goodbye Cp” (1972), a movie about people with cerebral palsy, and the infamously groundbreaking “The Emporer’s Naked Army Marches On” from 1987, in...
“Sennan Asbestos Disaster” screened at Japan Cuts 2018
Kazuo Hara, who won a number of renowned Prices, including the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award and the Japan Academy Price, gained prominence in the field of documentary filming, because of his raw and sometimes graphic representation of the covert parts of Japanese life.
Starting 46 years ago with “Goodbye Cp” (1972), a movie about people with cerebral palsy, and the infamously groundbreaking “The Emporer’s Naked Army Marches On” from 1987, in...
- 6/30/2019
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Museum of the Moving Image
A particularly outstanding weekend for “See It Big! Action” offers Big Trouble in Little China on Friday, a John Woo double-bill of Hard Boiled and Face/Off on Saturday, and Die Hard this Sunday.
A Carlos Reygadas series is underway, with all of his pre-Our Time features screening through Sunday.
Museum of the Moving Image
A particularly outstanding weekend for “See It Big! Action” offers Big Trouble in Little China on Friday, a John Woo double-bill of Hard Boiled and Face/Off on Saturday, and Die Hard this Sunday.
A Carlos Reygadas series is underway, with all of his pre-Our Time features screening through Sunday.
- 6/6/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Peter Strickland's In Fabric, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman who purchases a haunted dress from a sinister boutique. The long awaited trailer to Hideo Kojima's new boundary-pushing video game Death Stranding, which by way of motion capture stars the likes of Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Guillermo del Toro.Alien: The Play, a North Bergen High School production that features handmade costumes made of recycled materials, is now available online in its entirety. In the latest edition of the Museum of Modern Art's "How To See" series, curator Dave Kehr discusses how the nitrate prints and negatives of cinema's early days inspired audiences by expanding their perception of the world. Miranda July directs the music video for Sleater-Kinney's "Hurry On Home,...
- 5/29/2019
- MUBI
Kazuhiro Soda was working for a production company in New York, producing more than 50 productions for the Japanese State Television, Nhk. Inspired by the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, he began to establish his own “observation”-style. Soda, who used to be tied to scripts and schedules in his former job, now chooses an uncaged concept of filmmaking. No scripts, no research, but only the camera and the reality in front of him.
The director returned to Japan in 2005 to shoot a movie about mental health but ended up documenting the election campaign of an old classmate, Yamauchi Kazuhiko, who ran for the council of Kawasaki. Hereby, “Campaign” was pretty much done by accident and got its release in 2007, winning the Peabody Award for Best Documentary.
From the beginning, it is obvious that Yamauchi is not the ideal candidate for this seat. He has never been involved in...
The director returned to Japan in 2005 to shoot a movie about mental health but ended up documenting the election campaign of an old classmate, Yamauchi Kazuhiko, who ran for the council of Kawasaki. Hereby, “Campaign” was pretty much done by accident and got its release in 2007, winning the Peabody Award for Best Documentary.
From the beginning, it is obvious that Yamauchi is not the ideal candidate for this seat. He has never been involved in...
- 2/26/2019
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Who doesn’t feel like an alien in this world sometimes? Yuma Tanaka is 23 years old and wants to become a professional manga artist. She lives with her mom and is having a hard time to find somebody to love.
Sounds like a normal coming-of-age plotline to you? But wait, here comes the twist. Yuma has Cerebral Palsy and is sitting in a wheelchair. The debut film of Japanese director Hikari features the unusual story of a special girl who has to deal with the everyday hurdles, plus a little more.
Yuma takes part in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and is portrayed as a person with cultural interest and empathy. In doing so, the camera levels with her perspective, using shots often from an Ozu-like ground position.
“37 Seconds” portrays Yuma’s struggle to break free from her overprotective mother and trying to establish herself as a Manga-ka. In...
Sounds like a normal coming-of-age plotline to you? But wait, here comes the twist. Yuma has Cerebral Palsy and is sitting in a wheelchair. The debut film of Japanese director Hikari features the unusual story of a special girl who has to deal with the everyday hurdles, plus a little more.
Yuma takes part in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and is portrayed as a person with cultural interest and empathy. In doing so, the camera levels with her perspective, using shots often from an Ozu-like ground position.
“37 Seconds” portrays Yuma’s struggle to break free from her overprotective mother and trying to establish herself as a Manga-ka. In...
- 2/12/2019
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Evidently, not the most popular category of films out there; nevertheless, documentaries can offer as much entertainment as any movie, and in the process, educate, remind, and have a considerable impact on their audience.
This year’s selection entails a number of subjects that includes socieal, political, social media, music, art, humanistic and history themes, from countries that include a rather large part of the area.
Without further ado, here are the Best Asian (themed) Documentaries of 2018, in random order. Some may have premiered in 2017, but since they mostly circulated in 2018, we decided to include them.
1. Reason
Patwardhan’s vision invokes many concerns. Not only about future scenarios for India. Unfortunately, affairs such as religion interfering with swelling number of aspects of the public life’s, the national pride rhetoric combined with supremacy gripping over the majority of a population, and the revisionism hitting the history textbooks seem to become...
This year’s selection entails a number of subjects that includes socieal, political, social media, music, art, humanistic and history themes, from countries that include a rather large part of the area.
Without further ado, here are the Best Asian (themed) Documentaries of 2018, in random order. Some may have premiered in 2017, but since they mostly circulated in 2018, we decided to include them.
1. Reason
Patwardhan’s vision invokes many concerns. Not only about future scenarios for India. Unfortunately, affairs such as religion interfering with swelling number of aspects of the public life’s, the national pride rhetoric combined with supremacy gripping over the majority of a population, and the revisionism hitting the history textbooks seem to become...
- 1/3/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Kazuo Hara is currently touring his 2017 film “Sennan Asbestos Disaster,” a somber 3.5-hour long investigation of Asbestos poisoning in Japan. It is Hara’s first film in 10 years.
Hara is perhaps best known for his internationally acclaimed film “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” (1987), which unveils Japanese cannibalism during the Pacific War. The filmmaker is no stranger to controversy: in his debut “Goodbye Cp,” Hara follows an activist-poet with Cerebral Palsy; in “Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974,” Hara turns the camera on himself and his ex-lover, even filming her giving birth to their child.
Compared to such early experiments, “Sennan Asbestos Disaster” is more tame and thoughtful, yet no less political. It chronicles 8.5 years of struggle, as former asbestos factory workers, mostly centered around Sennan, Japan, fight for reparations from the government. The victims are largely elderly or middle aged, and most have worked in asbestos factories.
Hara is perhaps best known for his internationally acclaimed film “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” (1987), which unveils Japanese cannibalism during the Pacific War. The filmmaker is no stranger to controversy: in his debut “Goodbye Cp,” Hara follows an activist-poet with Cerebral Palsy; in “Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974,” Hara turns the camera on himself and his ex-lover, even filming her giving birth to their child.
Compared to such early experiments, “Sennan Asbestos Disaster” is more tame and thoughtful, yet no less political. It chronicles 8.5 years of struggle, as former asbestos factory workers, mostly centered around Sennan, Japan, fight for reparations from the government. The victims are largely elderly or middle aged, and most have worked in asbestos factories.
- 8/25/2018
- by Julia Alekseyeva
- AsianMoviePulse
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSApichatpong Weerasethakul's Blue.The Toronto International Film Festival is continuing to roll out an impressive (and massive) lineup of films, this time for its Masters and Wavelengths sections, including a mysterious 12-minute "portrait of feverish slumber" by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, entitled Blue, the international premiere of Naomi Kawase's Vision, about a woman's search for a Japanese medicinal plant in a strange forest, and the North American premiere of Jia Zhangke's gangster film Ash is Purest White.Recommended VIEWINGWith fall festival season upon us, a slew of new trailers has arrived: Firstly, Gaspar Noé is back with what is destined, based on reviews from Cannes, to be yet another contentious film. Lawrence Garcia wrote about the "virtuosic, infernal" film for Notebook. Here's the U.S. trailer. A sublime, oneiric first trailer for Naomi Kawase's aforementioned Tiff-bound Vision,...
- 8/15/2018
- MUBI
“The nail that sticks out shall be hammered down” is nowadays an almost overused proverb to describe the conformity of Japanese society. The filmmaker Kazuo Hara takes a closer look at those nails that stick out. In doing so, his movies become hammers. But instead of hammering those individuals down, the hammer is aiming at the audience. Piece by piece, he is shattering down the viewers presumed idea of Japanese identity.
Sennan Asbestos Disaster is screening at Japan Cuts 2018
Kazuo Hara, who won a number of renowned Prices, including the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award and the Japan Academy Price, gained prominence in the field of documentary filming, because of his raw and sometimes graphic representation of the covert parts of Japanese life.
Starting 46 years ago with “Goodbye Cp” (1972), a movie about people with cerebral palsy, and the infamously groundbreaking “The Emporer’s Naked Army Marches On” from...
Sennan Asbestos Disaster is screening at Japan Cuts 2018
Kazuo Hara, who won a number of renowned Prices, including the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award and the Japan Academy Price, gained prominence in the field of documentary filming, because of his raw and sometimes graphic representation of the covert parts of Japanese life.
Starting 46 years ago with “Goodbye Cp” (1972), a movie about people with cerebral palsy, and the infamously groundbreaking “The Emporer’s Naked Army Marches On” from...
- 7/25/2018
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Now in its 12th year, Japan Cuts continues to grow as the largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema in North America. Bringing a wide range of the best and hardest-to-see films made in and around Japan today — from blockbusters, independent productions and anime, to documentaries, avant-garde works, short films, and new restorations — Japan Cuts is the place to experience Japan’s dynamic film culture in New York City. Like every year, this thrilling 10-day festival offers exclusive premieres, special guest filmmakers and stars, fun-filled parties, live music and more! Tickets are on-sale now!
The festival programmers Aiko Masubuchi, Kazu Watanabe and Joel Neville Andersonhave highlighted in a note that “perhaps most strikingly, the struggle for dignity and individual rights reverberates throughout the lineup—including Lgbtq advocacy (“Of Love & Law”), reparations for government abuse (“Sennan Asbestos Disaster”) or the plight of refugees (“Passage of Life”). Additionally, multiple films deal with the...
The festival programmers Aiko Masubuchi, Kazu Watanabe and Joel Neville Andersonhave highlighted in a note that “perhaps most strikingly, the struggle for dignity and individual rights reverberates throughout the lineup—including Lgbtq advocacy (“Of Love & Law”), reparations for government abuse (“Sennan Asbestos Disaster”) or the plight of refugees (“Passage of Life”). Additionally, multiple films deal with the...
- 6/25/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Sennan Asbestos Disaster. Image courtesy of Shisso Productions.With Sennan Asbestos Disaster (2017), iconoclastic director Kazuo Hara makes a return ten years in progress, following his previous film The Many Faces of Chika (2005). At three hours and thirty-five minutes (usually screened with a short intermission), the film has many apparent differences from the past breathless titles for which he became known beginning in the early 1970s. Focused on a strong central protagonist pursuing a radical goal, these works depended on sustained conflict and collaboration between filmmaker and subject, defining a model of filmmaking he would theorize as “action documentary.” In distinction, this latest work is an ensemble piece assembled over a long period of time. Sennan Asbestos Disaster is focused on members of the Citizen Group for Sennan Asbestos Damage and their long legal battle that began with the filing of a lawsuit against the government in 2006 and went up to the Supreme Court.
- 11/28/2017
- MUBI
Three decades after using tales of wartime cannibalism to condemn the political maneuvers of Japan's ruling class, firebrand filmmaker Kazuo Hara returns with another j'accuse against his country’s officialdom with Sennan Asbestos Disaster. Running nearly four hours, the documentary chronicles the protracted struggle in getting the Japanese government to admit to ignoring the deadly consequences of the country's asbestos factories — considered a driving force behind Japan's economic resurgence after the Second World War.
With an original title that translates as "The Japanese State vs Sennan Asbestos Villages," the documentary offers more than just a harrowing account of the suffering...
With an original title that translates as "The Japanese State vs Sennan Asbestos Villages," the documentary offers more than just a harrowing account of the suffering...
- 11/28/2017
- by Clarence Tsui
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Melissa Anderson and Amélie Garin-Davet have curated a week-long series opening Friday, Dim All the Lights: Disco and the Movies, occasioned by the world theatrical premiere of Derek Jarman’s Will You Dance With Me? (1984) at the Metrograph. More goings on: Louis Malle's feature debut, Elevator to the Gallows with Jeanne Moreau at Film Forum, four films by the late Peter Hutton at the Museum of Art and Design, revival screenings of work by Jean Rollin, Maurice Pialat and Kazuo Hara and a talk with Guillermo del Toro about the exhibition of models, sculpture, first-edition literary classics, art work, illustrations and props in Los Angeles. » - David Hudson...
- 8/3/2016
- Keyframe
Melissa Anderson and Amélie Garin-Davet have curated a week-long series opening Friday, Dim All the Lights: Disco and the Movies, occasioned by the world theatrical premiere of Derek Jarman’s Will You Dance With Me? (1984) at the Metrograph. More goings on: Louis Malle's feature debut, Elevator to the Gallows with Jeanne Moreau at Film Forum, four films by the late Peter Hutton at the Museum of Art and Design, revival screenings of work by Jean Rollin, Maurice Pialat and Kazuo Hara and a talk with Guillermo del Toro about the exhibition of models, sculpture, first-edition literary classics, art work, illustrations and props in Los Angeles. » - David Hudson...
- 8/3/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Six months after announcing intentions to double the number of female and minority members in its ranks by 2020, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 683 new members to join the organization. Forty-six percent of new invitees are female and 41 percent ethnic minorities, the Academy said, adding that the roster boasts 28 Oscar winners and 98 nominees. The youngest invitee is 24 and the oldest 91. Here is the list of the Asians included.
Actors
Kim Daniel-dae S. Korea
Lee Byung-hun S. Korea
Tatsuya Nakadai Japan
Cinematographers
Peter Pau China
Poon Hang-Sang China
Nelson Yu Lik-Wai China
Zhao Fei China
Designers
Yoshihito Akatsuka Japan
Directors
Hou Hsiao-Hsien China
Naomi Kawase Japan
Kim So-yong S. Jorea
Kiyoshi Kurosawa Japan
Apichatpong Weerasethakul Thailand
Park Chan-wook S. Korea
Documentary
Kazuo Hara JApan
Emiko Omori Japan
Trinh T. Minh-ha Vietnam
Jean Tsien Taiwan
Wang Bing China
Music
Shigeru Umebayashi Japan
Producers
Albert Lee China
Short...
Actors
Kim Daniel-dae S. Korea
Lee Byung-hun S. Korea
Tatsuya Nakadai Japan
Cinematographers
Peter Pau China
Poon Hang-Sang China
Nelson Yu Lik-Wai China
Zhao Fei China
Designers
Yoshihito Akatsuka Japan
Directors
Hou Hsiao-Hsien China
Naomi Kawase Japan
Kim So-yong S. Jorea
Kiyoshi Kurosawa Japan
Apichatpong Weerasethakul Thailand
Park Chan-wook S. Korea
Documentary
Kazuo Hara JApan
Emiko Omori Japan
Trinh T. Minh-ha Vietnam
Jean Tsien Taiwan
Wang Bing China
Music
Shigeru Umebayashi Japan
Producers
Albert Lee China
Short...
- 6/30/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
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