A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu on Blu-ray released to the Criterion Collection on May 7th, 2024.
This marked only my third and forth film by Yasujiro Ozu. I already owned the Criterion Collection releases of Tokyo Story and Good Morning, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, with Good Morning instantly becoming one of my favorite experiences with Japanese cinema. Part of what makes the Criterion Collection so great is the way it makes important films easily accessible for collectors.
A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu Plot
An actor traveling with a theater group set up shop in a small village where he reconnects with an old lover and his estranged son. Emotions boil over as the former lovers rekindle their romantic flame.
The Critique
Floating Weeds
It’s always interesting when a filmmaker remakes one of their own films.
This marked only my third and forth film by Yasujiro Ozu. I already owned the Criterion Collection releases of Tokyo Story and Good Morning, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, with Good Morning instantly becoming one of my favorite experiences with Japanese cinema. Part of what makes the Criterion Collection so great is the way it makes important films easily accessible for collectors.
A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu Plot
An actor traveling with a theater group set up shop in a small village where he reconnects with an old lover and his estranged son. Emotions boil over as the former lovers rekindle their romantic flame.
The Critique
Floating Weeds
It’s always interesting when a filmmaker remakes one of their own films.
- 5/31/2024
- by Joshua Ryan
- FandomWire
Japanese Girls at the Harbor.In 1924, Hiroshi Shimizu, the 21-year-old son of a wealthy businessman, dropped his studies at an agricultural school in Hokkaido and moved to Tokyo to pursue his interest in filmmaking. The Japanese industry was in a state of flux, moving away from the jidaigeki, or period dramas, and towards gendaigeki, films about contemporary life: slapstick, romantic, and sport-themed comedies; crime films; and its trademark, shōshimin-eiga, social dramas concerned with working and middle class life.One of the major forces of this change was Shochiku, the studio where Shimizu landed a job, first as an assistant director, and then in 1925 as a full-fledged director. Under the leadership of Shiro Kido, an ambitious young executive, Shochiku was establishing itself as a distinctly modern film studio within a major metropolis. Tokyo was in the midst of a growth spurt, with urban sprawl accelerating and multitudes of people migrating from the countryside.
- 5/24/2024
- MUBI
The program of the 24th Japanese Film Festival Nippon Connection is complete! From May 28 to June 2, the festival offers the opportunity to delve into Japan's film and cultural scene. The festival presents around 100 short and feature-length films at eight venues, including numerous premieres. Over 60 filmmakers and artists will travel from Japan to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to present their works to the audience. At the freely accessible grounds of the festival centers Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm and Produktionshaus Naxos, visitors can enjoy the festival atmosphere with a large Japanese market featuring numerous food and craft stands. Detailed information and tickets for all films and events are available at NipponConnection.com.
This year's film selection promises exciting discoveries. Fans of genre films can enjoy Shinji Araki's acclaimed time-loop thriller Penalty Loop, Kaz I Kiriya's apocalyptic drama From The End Of The World, and Shimako Sato's action-packed fantasy adventure The Yin Yang Master Zero.
This year's film selection promises exciting discoveries. Fans of genre films can enjoy Shinji Araki's acclaimed time-loop thriller Penalty Loop, Kaz I Kiriya's apocalyptic drama From The End Of The World, and Shimako Sato's action-packed fantasy adventure The Yin Yang Master Zero.
- 5/13/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Mubi Picks at Posteritati is a series in which we invite our favorite artists to the prestigious movie art gallery in New York City to discuss their favorite movie posters of all time.Hot on the heels of his debut feature, Dogleg (2023), Al Warren joins us at Posteritati to share his love for the posters of Yasujiro Ozu, Robert Altman, David Lynch, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.Dogleg is now showing exclusively on Mubi in the United States and Canada.
- 5/3/2024
- MUBI
Floating Clouds.In the opening scene of Mikio Naruse’s Floating Clouds (1956), a group of repatriated Japanese civilians disembarks from a shabby boat. After two brief wide shots, Naruse cuts to a medium shot to introduce the film’s protagonist, Yukiko, singling her out from what is otherwise a crowd of anonymous faces. But the film’s screenplay elaborates on those who walk alongside Yukiko: Returnees from South Asia are getting off the ship. Among the crowd of women, which consists only of comfort women, geishas, nurses, typists, clerks and the like, there is also Kõda Yukiko, who is not outfitted with proper winter attire.“Comfort women” is a name given to women and girls forced into sexual slavery at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. According to Yoko Mizuki’s screenplay, some are present in the crowd, but it is impossible for the viewer to discern them. The...
- 4/25/2024
- MUBI
Floating Weeds Sitting inside his Tokyo home, surrounded by stacks of books and photos of John Ford and Jean-Luc Godard pinned to the wall, the venerated film and literary critic, writer, and scholar Shiguéhiko Hasumi admitted with a wry smile that he was not really in the mood to talk about Ozu. We were gathered for an interview about a new English translation of his book Directed by Yasujiro Ozu, but he had old Hollywood on his mind. As he spoke, he switched between Japanese and French-accented English. “This book was written 40 years ago,” he said. “My last monograph is about John Ford. And this is my latest book. I greatly admire the films of Don Siegel.” He pointed to What is a Shot?. “So, I am so far from Ozu.” Indeed, Hasumi, who turns 88 this month, remains prolific. Spread out on the coffee table in front of him by...
- 4/16/2024
- MUBI
While it was fascinating to see the results of the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, we’re just as curious to see what lies outside the established canon. As part of a comprehensive project at the essential resource They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?, Ángel González polled nearly 839 critics on the best films that didn’t receive a single vote on the Sight & Sound poll, which they’ve now compiled into a massive Beyond the Sight & Sound Canon, which initially features 1,030 films but expands to a whopping 14,558 total films.
As a preview, we’ve collected the films that received at least 20 votes in this new poll, which is 263. It’s led by Spike Jonze’s Her, and they’ve also noted the directors that were most represented. Fritz Lang leads the pack with eight films mentioned, while François Truffaut has seven, and Anthony Mann, Clint Eastwood, Eric Rohmer, John Ford, Samuel Fuller,...
As a preview, we’ve collected the films that received at least 20 votes in this new poll, which is 263. It’s led by Spike Jonze’s Her, and they’ve also noted the directors that were most represented. Fritz Lang leads the pack with eight films mentioned, while François Truffaut has seven, and Anthony Mann, Clint Eastwood, Eric Rohmer, John Ford, Samuel Fuller,...
- 4/8/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
To mark the centenary of Yasujiro Ozu's birth, Hou Hsiao-Hsien made his own Tokyo story, “Café Lumière,” a film with Hou's individuality, but full of subtle nuances in tribute to the Japanese master. The family drama gets a modern-day setting, with cultural change seen across the generations.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Yoko (Taiwanese-Japanese musician Yo Hitoto) is a journalist who switches her time between Tokyo and Taiwan. Researching Taiwanese composer Wen-Ye Jiang, she seeks out a cafe the composer frequented when based in Tokyo. And in tribute to Ozu, who favored dialogue over story, that is about that in terms of plot.
Family and its changing nature is a theme hinted at throughout, with Yoko being pregnant by her boyfriend in Taiwan. However, she has a somewhat blasé attitude towards the pregnancy, and indeed her boyfriend; unconcerned as to whether she sees him again,...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Yoko (Taiwanese-Japanese musician Yo Hitoto) is a journalist who switches her time between Tokyo and Taiwan. Researching Taiwanese composer Wen-Ye Jiang, she seeks out a cafe the composer frequented when based in Tokyo. And in tribute to Ozu, who favored dialogue over story, that is about that in terms of plot.
Family and its changing nature is a theme hinted at throughout, with Yoko being pregnant by her boyfriend in Taiwan. However, she has a somewhat blasé attitude towards the pregnancy, and indeed her boyfriend; unconcerned as to whether she sees him again,...
- 4/3/2024
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
Since the beginning of his career, Hirokazu Koreeda became recognized for his films representing the family cinema genre—intrinsically linked with the favorite of Western critics among Japanese filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu. This was already the case with Koreeda's 1995 debut film, “Maboroshi no hikari”, a visual meditation on loss and the passing of time, told through the eyes of a single mother who has just lost her beloved husband. Since the early 1960s and the death of Yasujiro Ozu, Western critics seemed to be engaged in an excruciating quest to find a new ancestor to Ozu's poetics of cinema—and finally, there was one; Koreeda became the new Ozu.
The similarity is there—a contemplative approach towards the mundane which translates to something more transcendental; a patient gaze onto the bonds of the family set against the backdrop of a modernizing world and changing traditions; or a talent to put...
The similarity is there—a contemplative approach towards the mundane which translates to something more transcendental; a patient gaze onto the bonds of the family set against the backdrop of a modernizing world and changing traditions; or a talent to put...
- 3/27/2024
- by Lukasz Mankowski
- AsianMoviePulse
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook.Newsa Different Man.IATSE, Teamsters, and the Hollywood Basic Crafts unions began bargaining jointly with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers after a thousands-strong rally in Los Angeles. In Variety, IATSE president Matthew Loeb discusses the union’s priorities and the threat of another strike after the current contract expires on July 31.In an open letter, Carlo Chatrian, the outgoing artistic director of the Berlinale, and Mark Peranson, the festival’s head of programming, respond to the backlash that followed the closing ceremony, at which a number of award recipients called for a ceasefire in Gaza: “This year’s festival was a place for dialogue and exchange for ten days; yet once the films stopped rolling, another form of communication...
- 3/6/2024
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHard Truths.Mike Leigh’s forthcoming Hard Truths will reunite him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, star of Secrets and Lies (1996). It will be the British director’s first film set in the present day since Another Year (2010).Jia Zhangke has divulged some details of We Shall Be All, now in the early stages of post-production. In production off and on since 2001, the film will be his first feature since Ash Is Purest White (2018). “I travelled with actors and a cameraman to shoot, without a script, without any obvious story,” the director told Variety. “This is a work of fiction, but I have applied many documentary methods.”Robert Bresson’s rarely seen Four Nights of a Dreamer is being restored by MK2 Films, set for a spring release.
- 2/28/2024
- MUBI
The family/social drama has always been a staple within the Japanese film industry with directors such as Yasujiro Ozu or Kenji Mozoguchi having shaped it during the course of their career. At the same time, while delving into family issues, these directors have taken a lesson from early works within the cinematic landscape of their culture as well as Italien Neo-realism, adding “a slice of life” to their works. In the last couple of years perhaps no other director has influenced (and to certain extent perfected) this formula than Hirokazu Koreeda. His debut feature “Maborosi” already showed the family as a mirror image of a society caught in between tradition and progress, family values and individualism. With his fourth feature “Nobody Knows”, inspired by a true case, Koreeda would not only reach international fame, but also manifest his take on the aforementioned formula which many have copied (or tried to) over the years.
- 2/23/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
As you go through the whole filmography of directors such as Yasujiro Ozu, you start to notice a certain pattern, not only in terms of the visual style but also considering elements of the story. The concept of marriage is, most of the time, when collisions and arguments start to erupt within the family unit, signifying the chasm within Japanese post-war society and some underlying issues in a conformist culture which, to this day, have not been fully resolved. In “Tokyo Twilight”, possibly one of his bleakest features stylistically and narratively, Ozu again shows the family as a mirror of society, its contradictions, regrets and guilt, posing the question of where the culture is headed and whether freedom and independence will bring the solution people wish for.
Tokyo Twilight is screening at Japan Society as part of the Family Portrait program
Shukichi Sugiyama (Chishu Ryu) is a respected employee in a Tokyo bank.
Tokyo Twilight is screening at Japan Society as part of the Family Portrait program
Shukichi Sugiyama (Chishu Ryu) is a respected employee in a Tokyo bank.
- 2/20/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The Criterion Collection follows an auteur-based diet of cinema, offering a wondrous variety of films from all over the world to sate your appetite. Case in point, consider what May 2024 will bring from the home video label. (All verbiage courtesy of Criterion.) "Three Revolutionary Films by Ousmane Sembène, three powerful 1970s works by the trailblazing Senegalese auteur; Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet's masterful examination of the line between truth and fiction; and Girlfight, Karyn Kusama's singular tale of a young woman's path to self-realization. "Plus: a Blu-ray upgrade of A Story of Floating Weeds / Floating Weeds: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu, a silent classic from one of cinema's greatest directors alongside his color remake, and Peeping Tom, Michael Powell's still-shocking masterpiece of...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/15/2024
- Screen Anarchy
“The last thing I hate is that life always forces us to keep moving forwards.”
In the aftermath of the New York Film Festival, reporter Vincent Canby wrote an article about the films of the festival he aptly named “Why Some Films Don't Travel Well”. Works such as Zhang Yimou's “Red Sorghum”, Andrei Konchalovsky's “Asya's Happiness” and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's “Daughter of the Nile” are mostly relevant thanks to their “sociology factor” Canby begins his article, an aspect that these works are and have been applauded for around the world while as films themselves they are not that interesting. Hou Hsiao-Hien, one of the most popular directors of Taiwanese New Cinema along with Edward Yang, was still trying to find a cinematic language for his films, one which strongly resembled the works of Yasujiro Ozu in terms of style and content, the sense of resignation, as he writes...
In the aftermath of the New York Film Festival, reporter Vincent Canby wrote an article about the films of the festival he aptly named “Why Some Films Don't Travel Well”. Works such as Zhang Yimou's “Red Sorghum”, Andrei Konchalovsky's “Asya's Happiness” and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's “Daughter of the Nile” are mostly relevant thanks to their “sociology factor” Canby begins his article, an aspect that these works are and have been applauded for around the world while as films themselves they are not that interesting. Hou Hsiao-Hien, one of the most popular directors of Taiwanese New Cinema along with Edward Yang, was still trying to find a cinematic language for his films, one which strongly resembled the works of Yasujiro Ozu in terms of style and content, the sense of resignation, as he writes...
- 2/13/2024
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Wim Wenders, the director of the Oscar-nominated Perfect Days on Hirayama’s (Kôji Yakusho) big lesson for his niece Niko (Arisa Nakano): “Come on, start living in the now. Now is now and then is then.” Photo: Master Mind Ltd.
On Tuesday, Wim Wenders' Perfect Days (co-written with Takuma Takasaki and starring Cannes Film Festival Best Actor winner Kôji Yakusho) received a Best International Feature Oscar nomination. Wenders has three Best Documentary Feature Oscar nominations:
Wim Wenders with Anne-Katrin Titze on using Yasujirō Ozu’s 3:4 format for Perfect Days and Anselm: “I got so much attached to it.”
In the second instalment with Wim Wenders we discuss the Yasujirō Ozu format and Cinemascope; Ts Eliot’s Little Gidding and returns to the...
On Tuesday, Wim Wenders' Perfect Days (co-written with Takuma Takasaki and starring Cannes Film Festival Best Actor winner Kôji Yakusho) received a Best International Feature Oscar nomination. Wenders has three Best Documentary Feature Oscar nominations:
Wim Wenders with Anne-Katrin Titze on using Yasujirō Ozu’s 3:4 format for Perfect Days and Anselm: “I got so much attached to it.”
In the second instalment with Wim Wenders we discuss the Yasujirō Ozu format and Cinemascope; Ts Eliot’s Little Gidding and returns to the...
- 1/27/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, and Japan Society
February 15-24, 2024 at Japan Society
and partner venues in NYC
New York, NY – Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan and Japan Society are proud to announce the eighth installment of the Aca Cinema Project film series – Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux – an ongoing initiative fostered by the Government of Japan to increase awareness and appreciation of Japanese films and filmmakers in the United States. The Aca Cinema Project has presented events in both New York and LA since 2021, and its upcoming edition will showcase over nine contemporary and classic films from February 15-24, 2024 all with the central theme of the modern family. The bonds of the Japanese family are often revered in the West, and this series will both celebrate these traditions as well as call into question their reality and relevance in our quickly changing modern world.
February 15-24, 2024 at Japan Society
and partner venues in NYC
New York, NY – Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan and Japan Society are proud to announce the eighth installment of the Aca Cinema Project film series – Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux – an ongoing initiative fostered by the Government of Japan to increase awareness and appreciation of Japanese films and filmmakers in the United States. The Aca Cinema Project has presented events in both New York and LA since 2021, and its upcoming edition will showcase over nine contemporary and classic films from February 15-24, 2024 all with the central theme of the modern family. The bonds of the Japanese family are often revered in the West, and this series will both celebrate these traditions as well as call into question their reality and relevance in our quickly changing modern world.
- 1/24/2024
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
While in England, German director Wim Wenders was sandwiched between a press tour and a brief lunch when a member of his team walked into the restaurant to secretly signal across the room that he was nominated for his first feature film Oscar with Japan’s Best International Feature Film, Perfect Days. “Someone came in raising their thumb, which was the sign that we had agreed on, and no word was spoken because there were too many guests in the restaurant,” Wenders laughed while retelling the Tuesday nomination. “So, I knew then I could let that meal go a little cold. It was lovely because I had prepared myself to not expect anything. I had completely prepared myself to not be on the list so that I wouldn’t be disappointed. So [this nomination] was quite a surprise today.”
The film Perfect Days, co-written and directed by Wenders, tells the story of...
The film Perfect Days, co-written and directed by Wenders, tells the story of...
- 1/24/2024
- by Destiny Jackson
- Deadline Film + TV
Veteran German director Wim Wenders broke new ground during the Oscar nominations on Tuesday morning when he was nominated for his Japanese-language drama Perfect Days in the best international feature category.
This isn’t Wenders’ first Oscars rodeo. The 78-year-old German director has three Academy Award nominations to his name but all have come in the best documentary category. He was nominated in 2000 for the music doc Buena Vista Social Club about aging Cuban street musicians; in 2012 for Pina, a groundbreaking 3D documentary tribute to the work of legendary dance choreographer Pina Bausch; and in 2015 for The Salt of the Earth, a portrait of famed Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, co-directed with Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Perfect Days does, however, mark Wenders’ first-ever Oscar nomination for a drama.
“It’s a bit ironic to be nominated for a Japanese-language film but at the same time a great honor for...
This isn’t Wenders’ first Oscars rodeo. The 78-year-old German director has three Academy Award nominations to his name but all have come in the best documentary category. He was nominated in 2000 for the music doc Buena Vista Social Club about aging Cuban street musicians; in 2012 for Pina, a groundbreaking 3D documentary tribute to the work of legendary dance choreographer Pina Bausch; and in 2015 for The Salt of the Earth, a portrait of famed Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado, co-directed with Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado. Perfect Days does, however, mark Wenders’ first-ever Oscar nomination for a drama.
“It’s a bit ironic to be nominated for a Japanese-language film but at the same time a great honor for...
- 1/23/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Turner Classic Movies has picked up the exclusive North American television rights to the forthcoming documentary The Ozu Diaries, from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Daniel Raim. An intimate exploration of the life and legacy of Japanese cinematic master Yasujiro Ozu, the film will premiere on the festival circuit this year, followed by a theatrical release in 2025.
Produced with the support of the Ozu estate and Shochiku, the historic Japanese studio behind the director’s greatest works, The Ozu Diaries is a cinema history documentary that portrays the iconic filmmaker through his diaries, personal letters and interviews, plus rare archival footage, movie clips and new insights from some of his closest collaborators.
The project was initiated in 2023 to mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth. The movie will trace his journey from a rebellious young painter and cinephile in 1920s Japan to the globally renowned creator of classics like I Was Born,...
Produced with the support of the Ozu estate and Shochiku, the historic Japanese studio behind the director’s greatest works, The Ozu Diaries is a cinema history documentary that portrays the iconic filmmaker through his diaries, personal letters and interviews, plus rare archival footage, movie clips and new insights from some of his closest collaborators.
The project was initiated in 2023 to mark the 120th anniversary of Ozu’s birth. The movie will trace his journey from a rebellious young painter and cinephile in 1920s Japan to the globally renowned creator of classics like I Was Born,...
- 1/22/2024
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of George Lucas' primary influences when making "Star Wars" was Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who is generally considered his country's best director aside from maybe Yasujirō Ozu. Whereas Ozu is famous for making domestic comedies and dramas, Kurosawa made movies that felt epic: samurai movies, noir thrillers ("High & Low"), and Shakespearean stories translated into his homeland's history ("Throne of Blood").
This may be one reason why "Star Wars" is popular in Japan. If you don't believe the box office, look at Japanese pop culture; anime cornerstones like "Gundam" owe a debt to Lucas. One Japanese "Star Wars" fan is Hiromu Arakawa, the manga artist most famous for creating "Fullmetal Alchemist." (Arakawa is not shy about expressing her opinions on the "Star Wars" films either.)
Set in a world where alchemy is more than just a pseudoscience, "Fullmetal Alchemist" primarily follows two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who search far...
This may be one reason why "Star Wars" is popular in Japan. If you don't believe the box office, look at Japanese pop culture; anime cornerstones like "Gundam" owe a debt to Lucas. One Japanese "Star Wars" fan is Hiromu Arakawa, the manga artist most famous for creating "Fullmetal Alchemist." (Arakawa is not shy about expressing her opinions on the "Star Wars" films either.)
Set in a world where alchemy is more than just a pseudoscience, "Fullmetal Alchemist" primarily follows two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who search far...
- 1/18/2024
- by Devin Meenan
- Slash Film
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDry Leaf.On Criterion’s Daily, David Hudson has shared a useful roundup of films that might be expected to premiere during 2024. Among the inclusions are: Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s first film since Parasite (2019); It’s Not Me, Leos Carax’s latest collaboration with Denis Lavant; and Dry Leaf, the enticing-sounding new film by Alexandre Koberidze (What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? [2021]), which is said to be about “a photographer who shoots soccer stadiums [who] goes missing.”A list of international filmmakers including Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pedro Costa, Radu Jude, Ira Sachs, Claire Denis, and Abderrahmane Sissako have signed a letter, published during the holiday season in the French newspaper Libération, demanding (as translated by the Film Stage) “an immediate end to the bombings on Gaza,...
- 1/10/2024
- MUBI
The British Film Institute (BFI) will present English director Christopher Nolan with its highest honor, the BFI Fellowship, in recognition of the Oppenheimer filmmaker’s “extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema,” the BFI announced Monday.
The BFI Fellowship will be presented to Christopher Nolan at the BFI Chair’s Dinner in London on February 14, 2024, hosted by BFI Chair Tim Richards. This will be followed by an “In Conversation” event with Nolan on Feb.15 at the BFI Southbank theater and a special introduction to Nolan’s 2020 sci-fi film Tenet at the BFI IMAX.
In a statement, the BFI called Nolan the “rare director who marries his epic vision with an intelligent, unique approach to filmmaking and storytelling” and listed his many achievements for his films, which have won a total of 11 Oscars.
“I’m delighted to be honoring and recognizing Christopher Nolan with a BFI Fellowship,” said Richards. “Christopher Nolan...
The BFI Fellowship will be presented to Christopher Nolan at the BFI Chair’s Dinner in London on February 14, 2024, hosted by BFI Chair Tim Richards. This will be followed by an “In Conversation” event with Nolan on Feb.15 at the BFI Southbank theater and a special introduction to Nolan’s 2020 sci-fi film Tenet at the BFI IMAX.
In a statement, the BFI called Nolan the “rare director who marries his epic vision with an intelligent, unique approach to filmmaking and storytelling” and listed his many achievements for his films, which have won a total of 11 Oscars.
“I’m delighted to be honoring and recognizing Christopher Nolan with a BFI Fellowship,” said Richards. “Christopher Nolan...
- 12/4/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“Oppenheimer” director Christopher Nolan is being accorded a BFI Fellowship, the highest honor bestowed by the British Film Institute.
“The fellowship recognizes Nolan’s extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema as one of the world’s most successful and influential film directors, constantly pushing the limits of what large-scale filmmaking can be whilst retaining a reverence for the history of the medium and the primacy of cinema-going,” the BFI said in a statement.
The fellowship will be presented to Nolan at the BFI chair’s dinner in London on Feb. 14, 2024, hosted by BFI Chair Tim Richards. This will be followed on Feb. 15, 2024, by an In Conversation event at BFI Southbank and an introduction to “Tenet” at BFI Imax. During his visit, Nolan will also visit the BFI National Archive’s Conservation Centre.
Nolan’s films, which also include “Memento,” “Batman Begins,” “Inception” and “Dunkirk,” have won 11 Oscars and grossed some $6.1 million globally.
“The fellowship recognizes Nolan’s extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema as one of the world’s most successful and influential film directors, constantly pushing the limits of what large-scale filmmaking can be whilst retaining a reverence for the history of the medium and the primacy of cinema-going,” the BFI said in a statement.
The fellowship will be presented to Nolan at the BFI chair’s dinner in London on Feb. 14, 2024, hosted by BFI Chair Tim Richards. This will be followed on Feb. 15, 2024, by an In Conversation event at BFI Southbank and an introduction to “Tenet” at BFI Imax. During his visit, Nolan will also visit the BFI National Archive’s Conservation Centre.
Nolan’s films, which also include “Memento,” “Batman Begins,” “Inception” and “Dunkirk,” have won 11 Oscars and grossed some $6.1 million globally.
- 12/4/2023
- by K.J. Yossman and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
To commemorate 100 years since Yasujiro Ozu's birth, Hou's Tokyo story is one that shows the Japanese director was clearly an influential figure in the Taiwanese director's love of cinema. Though while “Café Lumière” features many themes seen throughout Ozu's oeuvre, this is very much a work of Hou.
Much like Hou himself, Yoko (played by Taiwanese-Japanese Yo Hitoto) is visiting Tokyo from Taiwan to research a musician, seeking a café that he used to frequent in the capital. Pregnant by her Taiwanese boyfriend, this causes conflict with her strict, rural father, who feels out of place in the city and with his daughter. In true Ozu style, this is low on plot, with changing family dynamics and female empowerment key themes, with Yoko indifferent to her family and boyfriend's opinions on her pregnancy. She is happy to go it alone. Trains, another Ozu staple, run in the veins of this film,...
Much like Hou himself, Yoko (played by Taiwanese-Japanese Yo Hitoto) is visiting Tokyo from Taiwan to research a musician, seeking a café that he used to frequent in the capital. Pregnant by her Taiwanese boyfriend, this causes conflict with her strict, rural father, who feels out of place in the city and with his daughter. In true Ozu style, this is low on plot, with changing family dynamics and female empowerment key themes, with Yoko indifferent to her family and boyfriend's opinions on her pregnancy. She is happy to go it alone. Trains, another Ozu staple, run in the veins of this film,...
- 11/19/2023
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
The Criterion Channel is closing the year out with a bang––they’ve announced their December lineup. Among the highlights are retrospectives on Yasujiro Ozu (featuring nearly 40 films!), Ousmane Sembène, Alfred Hitchcock (along with Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut), and Parker Posey. Well-timed for the season is a holiday noir series that includes They Live By Night, Blast of Silence, Lady in the Lake, and more.
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
Other highlights are the recent restoration of Abel Gance’s La roue, an MGM Musicals series with introduction by Michael Koresky, Helena Wittmann’s riveting second feature Human Flowers of Flesh, the recent Sundance highlight The Mountains Are a Dream That Call To Me, the new restoration of The Cassandra Cat, Lynne Ramsay’s Morvern Callar, Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster, and more.
See the lineup below and learn more here.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam, 1988
An American in Paris, Vincente Minnelli,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“Always: Sunset on Third Street” is based on the manga series “Sunset on Third Street,” written and illustrated by Ryohei Saigan, which follows the lives of various characters in post-war Japan. Upon release, “Always: Sunset on Third Street” would be a box-office hit, receive an overwhelmingly positive reception, and be picked as the Picture of the Year at the 2006 Japanese Academy Awards. The success of the movie would spawn two sequels.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Set in 1958 Japan, during the post-war economic recovery, technology is evolving, with the rising advent of television and the building of the Tokyo Tower. The primary location is a lower-income neighborhood in the Yuhi district. Rural schoolgirl Mutsuko Hoshino arrives in the metropolitan city excited to work as an apprentice at Suzuki Auto. Yet, she's perplexed when she learns that her workplace is a rundown auto repair shop...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
Set in 1958 Japan, during the post-war economic recovery, technology is evolving, with the rising advent of television and the building of the Tokyo Tower. The primary location is a lower-income neighborhood in the Yuhi district. Rural schoolgirl Mutsuko Hoshino arrives in the metropolitan city excited to work as an apprentice at Suzuki Auto. Yet, she's perplexed when she learns that her workplace is a rundown auto repair shop...
- 11/4/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Leading filmmakers from China, Germany, Japan and the U.S. spoke of their admiration for Yasujiro Ozu as part of the celebrations at Tokyo International Film Festival for the 120th anniversary of the legendary Japanese director’s birth.
Wim Wenders opened proceedings by introducing a screening of a 4K digitally restored version of the 1959 comedy Good Morning, describing Ozu as “the master,” before a talk event featuring Jia Zhangke, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Kelly Reichardt.
A passionate acolyte of Ozu, Wenders shot a documentary about the acclaimed director titled Tokyo-ga four decades ago, and 10 years later came to the Tokyo fest for his 90th anniversary celebrations.
Good Morning, the second film he shot in color, is a light but perceptive chronicle of family life in postwar Japan of the kind Ozu was so adept at creating.
“Watching Good Morning for the first time in a long time, I was struck...
Wim Wenders opened proceedings by introducing a screening of a 4K digitally restored version of the 1959 comedy Good Morning, describing Ozu as “the master,” before a talk event featuring Jia Zhangke, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Kelly Reichardt.
A passionate acolyte of Ozu, Wenders shot a documentary about the acclaimed director titled Tokyo-ga four decades ago, and 10 years later came to the Tokyo fest for his 90th anniversary celebrations.
Good Morning, the second film he shot in color, is a light but perceptive chronicle of family life in postwar Japan of the kind Ozu was so adept at creating.
“Watching Good Morning for the first time in a long time, I was struck...
- 10/28/2023
- by Gavin J Blair
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Shozo Ichiyama’s first two years as programming director of the Tokyo International Film Festival were overshadowed by travel restrictions sparked by a stubborn and deadly pandemic, but now he is looking to this edition of the festival to fully reflect the lineup revamp he has been working toward.
A well-connected film festival veteran and international producer, Ichiyama’s aims are for a coherent and connected film slate, along with making Tokyo a place where the industry from Asia and beyond come to meet.
The latter aim takes a step toward being realized by the more than 600 overseas guests expected at the 2023 edition of the festival (compared to around 100 in 2022), and “more requests coming in every day,” with attendee numbers boosted by the return of an in-person Tiffcom content market after a three-year pandemic-inflicted hiatus.
Meanwhile, with film production globally now firing again on all cylinders, there has been an...
A well-connected film festival veteran and international producer, Ichiyama’s aims are for a coherent and connected film slate, along with making Tokyo a place where the industry from Asia and beyond come to meet.
The latter aim takes a step toward being realized by the more than 600 overseas guests expected at the 2023 edition of the festival (compared to around 100 in 2022), and “more requests coming in every day,” with attendee numbers boosted by the return of an in-person Tiffcom content market after a three-year pandemic-inflicted hiatus.
Meanwhile, with film production globally now firing again on all cylinders, there has been an...
- 10/23/2023
- by Gavin J Blair
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Following a generation of organizational drift, the Tokyo International Film Festival has charted a course towards greater global influence under the ambitious leadership of current chairman Hiroyasu Ando. A career diplomat for Japan’s Foreign Service, Ando took the helm of the Tokyo festival in mid-2019 and quickly set about remaking the event, changing its location, shaking up the programming ranks, recruiting arthouse star Hirokazu Kore-eda to program a seminar series and adding more glamor to the after-dark parties and filmmaker fetes. A lot of that revitalization went unseen by the international film community, however, thanks to the long interregnum of the pandemic. In 2023, the Tokyo festival’s renewed outlook will be harder to miss.
“Now that the coronavirus disaster is fully over, we were able to make further progress in moving forward and upgrading our festival,” Ando tells The Hollywood Reporter.
To leverage Japan’s strengths and boost the...
“Now that the coronavirus disaster is fully over, we were able to make further progress in moving forward and upgrading our festival,” Ando tells The Hollywood Reporter.
To leverage Japan’s strengths and boost the...
- 10/23/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tokyo’s International Film Festival returned this evening for its first completely unrestricted, post-covid-19 edition with a well-attended screening of Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days.
Fresh from an appearance at Thierry Frémaux’s Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, Wenders, who is also the head of the competition jury at Tokyo this year, was in attendance and introduced the pic alongside most of his cast, including leading man Koji Yakusho. Yakusho won the best actor award at Cannes for his performance in the pic.
During a comedic opening speech, Wenders told the audience inside Tokyo’s Takarazuka Theatre that he had long dreamt of completing a feature shot entirely in Japan, with Yakusho as the lead actor, and a premiere screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival. However, Wenders said there was one milestone he never thought the film would achieve.
“I didn’t dare dream that it was going to be...
Fresh from an appearance at Thierry Frémaux’s Lumière Film Festival in Lyon, Wenders, who is also the head of the competition jury at Tokyo this year, was in attendance and introduced the pic alongside most of his cast, including leading man Koji Yakusho. Yakusho won the best actor award at Cannes for his performance in the pic.
During a comedic opening speech, Wenders told the audience inside Tokyo’s Takarazuka Theatre that he had long dreamt of completing a feature shot entirely in Japan, with Yakusho as the lead actor, and a premiere screening at the Tokyo International Film Festival. However, Wenders said there was one milestone he never thought the film would achieve.
“I didn’t dare dream that it was going to be...
- 10/23/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The Tokyo Film Festival has set the lineup for its bumper 2023 edition, running October 23 to November 1. Scroll down for the full list.
In the main competition, the festival has set 10 world premieres. The features include Japanese filmmaker Kishi Yoshiyuki’s latest pic (Ab)normal Desire and Gu Xiaogang’s Dwelling by the West Lake. Xiaogang is also set to receive the festival’s Kurosawa Akira Award alongside Mouly Surya.
Of the main competition titles, six are from East Asia, and there is noticeably a feature from Russia, with Alexey German Jr. screening his latest film, Air. Elsewhere, the festival’s Gala section is chock-full of audience favorites from fall festivals. Titles like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh will screen alongside David Gordon Green’s remake The Exorcist: Believer. The Japanese films set for the Gala section include Kitano Takeshi’s Kubi, Miike Takashi’s Lumberjack the Monster,...
In the main competition, the festival has set 10 world premieres. The features include Japanese filmmaker Kishi Yoshiyuki’s latest pic (Ab)normal Desire and Gu Xiaogang’s Dwelling by the West Lake. Xiaogang is also set to receive the festival’s Kurosawa Akira Award alongside Mouly Surya.
Of the main competition titles, six are from East Asia, and there is noticeably a feature from Russia, with Alexey German Jr. screening his latest film, Air. Elsewhere, the festival’s Gala section is chock-full of audience favorites from fall festivals. Titles like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things and All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh will screen alongside David Gordon Green’s remake The Exorcist: Believer. The Japanese films set for the Gala section include Kitano Takeshi’s Kubi, Miike Takashi’s Lumberjack the Monster,...
- 9/27/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The Tokyo International Film Festival undertook a series of bold changes in 2020 to enhance its international reach, including a location change and major shakeups across staffing and programming. For the global film community, however, much of the overhaul went unfelt due to the travel restrictions of the pandemic. The Tokyo festival’s chairman, Hiroyasu Ando, emphasized at a press conference in the Japanese capital Wednesday that the event “aims to take a bigger leap” this year with its upcoming 36th edition, making good on its ambitions for a transformation.
“We’re really focussing on international interaction,” Ando said, noting that the festival would welcome some 600 overseas guests this year, including filmmakers, jury members and industry professionals, a major uptick from the 104 international industry VIPs who attended in 2022.
The Tokyo International Film Festival will open Oct. 23 with a gala screening of acclaimed German auteur Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days, which...
“We’re really focussing on international interaction,” Ando said, noting that the festival would welcome some 600 overseas guests this year, including filmmakers, jury members and industry professionals, a major uptick from the 104 international industry VIPs who attended in 2022.
The Tokyo International Film Festival will open Oct. 23 with a gala screening of acclaimed German auteur Wim Wenders’ Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days, which...
- 9/27/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The full lineup has been unveiled for the festival’s 36th edition.
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today revealed the lineup for its 36th edition, including 20 world premieres across its two competition strands.
The festival, set to run October 23 to November 1, will feature 15 titles in its main Competition section led by Japan and China, which each have three films in the selection.
Scroll down for full list
From China are crime drama A Long Shot from debut feature director Gao Peng; Snow Leopard by late Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, which premiered at Venice; and Dwelling By The West Lake by Gu Xiaogang,...
The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today revealed the lineup for its 36th edition, including 20 world premieres across its two competition strands.
The festival, set to run October 23 to November 1, will feature 15 titles in its main Competition section led by Japan and China, which each have three films in the selection.
Scroll down for full list
From China are crime drama A Long Shot from debut feature director Gao Peng; Snow Leopard by late Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden, which premiered at Venice; and Dwelling By The West Lake by Gu Xiaogang,...
- 9/27/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Lyon, France — Four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and “Time Bandits” helmer Terry Gilliam will join a star director-studded lineup at this year’s Lumière Film Festival including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Wim Wenders.
Cuarón is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner.
Gilliam will screen the newly restored version of his 1995 sci-fi thriller “Twelve Monkeys.”
One of Anderson’s latest shorts, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” part of four Roald Dahl adaptations to be released on Netflix later this month, will screen at Lyon’s plush 2,000-seat Auditorium, where he will give a masterclass.
Like other guests, he will not only be introducing a retrospective of his own films but works by others, as part of an ongoing drive by the festival “to strengthen the link between the past and the present of cinema,...
Cuarón is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner.
Gilliam will screen the newly restored version of his 1995 sci-fi thriller “Twelve Monkeys.”
One of Anderson’s latest shorts, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” part of four Roald Dahl adaptations to be released on Netflix later this month, will screen at Lyon’s plush 2,000-seat Auditorium, where he will give a masterclass.
Like other guests, he will not only be introducing a retrospective of his own films but works by others, as part of an ongoing drive by the festival “to strengthen the link between the past and the present of cinema,...
- 9/19/2023
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song’s tremendous feature debut tells the poignant tale of childhood sweethearts separated by fate and thousands of miles
This supremely confident feature debut from Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song is a spine-tingling gem – a tale of not-so-brief encounters between star-crossed souls, played out over a period of 24 years. Combining the aching yearning of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love with the casual intimacy of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, it paints a picture of unresolved affection as delicate as it is profound, interweaving timeless themes of fate and providence with more playfully down-to-earth musings on happenstance and shapeshifting identity. The result, which has one foot in South Korea and the other in North America, feels at times like an impossible mashup of Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul and Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle, shot through with a stoical melancholia that recalls the final...
This supremely confident feature debut from Korean-Canadian writer-director Celine Song is a spine-tingling gem – a tale of not-so-brief encounters between star-crossed souls, played out over a period of 24 years. Combining the aching yearning of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love with the casual intimacy of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, it paints a picture of unresolved affection as delicate as it is profound, interweaving timeless themes of fate and providence with more playfully down-to-earth musings on happenstance and shapeshifting identity. The result, which has one foot in South Korea and the other in North America, feels at times like an impossible mashup of Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul and Nora Ephron’s Sleepless in Seattle, shot through with a stoical melancholia that recalls the final...
- 9/10/2023
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
We recently had the good fortune to speak with the talented, prolific filmmaker Wayne Wang about his long career, in particular his film Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, whose Director-Approved Special Edition Blu-ray is now available from Criterion and also streaming on the Criterion Channel. Additional B-Sides we chatted about with Wang included Eat a Bowl of Tea, Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (also on Criterion Channel), Smoke (and its own B-Side Blue in the Face), Chinese Box, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.
Wang elaborated on making films efficiently, his career-long ambition to make a different kind of picture every time, how he constructed the perfect “pillow shot” (an homage to filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu) in Dim Sum, and some smaller films of his that he hopes more people discover. There’s also talk about his faltering first steps into Hollywood (Slam Dance) and...
Wang elaborated on making films efficiently, his career-long ambition to make a different kind of picture every time, how he constructed the perfect “pillow shot” (an homage to filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu) in Dim Sum, and some smaller films of his that he hopes more people discover. There’s also talk about his faltering first steps into Hollywood (Slam Dance) and...
- 9/6/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
Jean-Luc Godard famously said that all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun. Another version of that, at least based on French writer-director Élise Girard’s latest film, Sidonie in Japan (Sidonie au Japon), could be: All you need to make a movie is Isabelle Huppert wearing chic pantsuits and wandering around lots of picturesque Japanese locations.
That’s a good part of what happens in this sweetly minimalist international romance/ghost story, in which Huppert plays a writer who recalls her past lives while on a book tour through Osaka, Kyoto and a few other intoxicating places during a one-week excursion. Along the way, she strikes up a friendship — and perhaps something more — with her Japanese publisher, a man of few words who watches over her throughout the trip. Oh, and she also sees dead people.
Premiering in the Venice Days sidebar on the Lido,...
That’s a good part of what happens in this sweetly minimalist international romance/ghost story, in which Huppert plays a writer who recalls her past lives while on a book tour through Osaka, Kyoto and a few other intoxicating places during a one-week excursion. Along the way, she strikes up a friendship — and perhaps something more — with her Japanese publisher, a man of few words who watches over her throughout the trip. Oh, and she also sees dead people.
Premiering in the Venice Days sidebar on the Lido,...
- 9/1/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
An elderly couple visit their grownup children in this stunning work of art from 1953, now re-released for its 70th anniversary
The exquisite sadness of Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 film, now re-released for its 70th anniversary, does not get any more bearable or less overwhelming with time. With each repeated viewing, the film of tears obscuring my own view of its star Setsuko Hara appears earlier and earlier, making her heartbreakingly decent, courageous smile shimmer and wobble. Ozu’s distinctive and stylised idiom, with low shooting angles and direct sightlines into camera, creates something mesmerically formal to match the drama’s emotional restraint, which is more devastating when the dam is breached. When Hara’s smile finally drops, it is like a gunshot.
Chieko Higashiyama and Ozu’s repertory stalwart Chishu Ryu play the elderly Tomi and Shukichi, who live in the quiet town of Onomichi; they are gentle country mice, almost childlike in the calm,...
The exquisite sadness of Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 film, now re-released for its 70th anniversary, does not get any more bearable or less overwhelming with time. With each repeated viewing, the film of tears obscuring my own view of its star Setsuko Hara appears earlier and earlier, making her heartbreakingly decent, courageous smile shimmer and wobble. Ozu’s distinctive and stylised idiom, with low shooting angles and direct sightlines into camera, creates something mesmerically formal to match the drama’s emotional restraint, which is more devastating when the dam is breached. When Hara’s smile finally drops, it is like a gunshot.
Chieko Higashiyama and Ozu’s repertory stalwart Chishu Ryu play the elderly Tomi and Shukichi, who live in the quiet town of Onomichi; they are gentle country mice, almost childlike in the calm,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
‘Perfect Days’ director Wim Wenders will also preside over the festival’s international competition jury.
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is set to open this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, which has also set monster feature Godzilla Minus One as its closing film.
Perfect Days will receive its Asian premiere at TIFF, which runs from October 23 to November 1. The film premiered in Competition at Cannes in May, where lead actor Koji Yakusho received the best actor award, and will screen at Toronto in September.
Set in Tokyo, it follows a toiler cleaner who seems utterly content as he goes about...
Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is set to open this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, which has also set monster feature Godzilla Minus One as its closing film.
Perfect Days will receive its Asian premiere at TIFF, which runs from October 23 to November 1. The film premiered in Competition at Cannes in May, where lead actor Koji Yakusho received the best actor award, and will screen at Toronto in September.
Set in Tokyo, it follows a toiler cleaner who seems utterly content as he goes about...
- 8/30/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Welcome to The B-Side, from The Film Stage. Here we talk about movie directors! Not the movies that made them famous or kept them famous, but the ones that they made in between.
Surprise! Here’s a bonus episode in which we speak to the talented, prolific, and dynamic director Wayne Wang. Our main B-Side is Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, whose Director-Approved Special Edition Blu-ray is now available from Criterion.
Additional B-Sides include Eat a Bowl of Tea, Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (also on Criterion Channel), Smoke (and its own B-Side Blue in the Face), Chinese Box, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.
We talk to Wang about making films efficiently, his career-long ambition to make a different kind of film every time, how to construct the perfect “pillow shot” (an homage to filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu), combating boredom on set with ambition,...
Surprise! Here’s a bonus episode in which we speak to the talented, prolific, and dynamic director Wayne Wang. Our main B-Side is Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, whose Director-Approved Special Edition Blu-ray is now available from Criterion.
Additional B-Sides include Eat a Bowl of Tea, Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive (also on Criterion Channel), Smoke (and its own B-Side Blue in the Face), Chinese Box, and A Thousand Years of Good Prayers.
We talk to Wang about making films efficiently, his career-long ambition to make a different kind of film every time, how to construct the perfect “pillow shot” (an homage to filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu), combating boredom on set with ambition,...
- 8/18/2023
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
James Gunn's sci-fi adventure film "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" takes place on a free-floating space station that was once the head of an ineffable space deity. On board the head, called Knowhere, a wide variety of aliens and creatures live in a cramped complex of apartments, trying to reside as comfortably as possible. Knowhere is also the home to the Guardians of the Galaxy, a loosely associated group of aliens — and one human — who occasionally commit acts of heroism for hire. In the first "Guardians" film, they came into the possession of Cosmo, a Soviet space dog that was salvaged by an unusual being called the Collector. By the third "Guardians," Cosmo could speak through a psychic collar (Cosmo was voiced by Maria Bakalova) and float objects with her mind.
Cosmo's breed is never spoken aloud, but she looks like a labrador or a golden retriever. In other words,...
Cosmo's breed is never spoken aloud, but she looks like a labrador or a golden retriever. In other words,...
- 8/18/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Japan’s Tokyo Film Festival (TIFF) has revealed the official poster for its 2023 edition, which pays tribute to the country’s seminal filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu on the 120th anniversary of his birth. Check out the full poster below.
The poster was designed as a visual tribute to Ozu’s 1952 pic Tokyo Story and features actor-filmmaker Eiji Okuda and his daughter, filmmaker Momoko Ando, representing the relationship between Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko in Ozu’s film.
The resulting image was shot on the rooftop garden of the Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo station’s domes in the background. The visuals were created by Junko Koshino, a Japanese fashion designer who has worked on TIFF’s visuals since 2021. The posters will be displayed at theaters from August 18. This year, Momoko has also been appointed to the ceremonial role of TIFF festival navigator, formerly known as festival ambassador. Beginning as a filmmaker, Momoko now also operates an arthouse cinema in Kochi, southwestern Japan.
Discussing her new role, Momoko said: “Cinema can embody any story. Cinema can change the world. The world can be changed by films. I honestly believe that is true. Films reflect our thoughts. They project invisible winds, tiny creatures, and all life. They memorize and record the past and future in our minds. Now in 2023, what will we gaze at, and where will we be led? Film festivals are the compass of the world. Now, here, from Tokyo.”
Running October 23 — November 1, TIFF will host a large-scale tribute to Ozu throughout its program. Specific details about the festival’s Ozu tribute have yet to be announced.
The 36th TIFF opening ceremony will take place at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, as it did last year, while the closing ceremony will be held at Toho Cinemas Hibiya. In addition to three large theaters, Marunouchi Toei, Marunouchi Piccadilly, and Toho Cinemas Hibiya, Hulic Hall Tokyo will join as a new screening venue, along with TIFF’s regular theaters, Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho, Cine Switch Ginza, Humantrust Cinema Yurakucho and Toho Cinemas Chanter.
The poster was designed as a visual tribute to Ozu’s 1952 pic Tokyo Story and features actor-filmmaker Eiji Okuda and his daughter, filmmaker Momoko Ando, representing the relationship between Ryu Chishu and Hara Setsuko in Ozu’s film.
The resulting image was shot on the rooftop garden of the Kitte Marunouchi Building, with Tokyo station’s domes in the background. The visuals were created by Junko Koshino, a Japanese fashion designer who has worked on TIFF’s visuals since 2021. The posters will be displayed at theaters from August 18. This year, Momoko has also been appointed to the ceremonial role of TIFF festival navigator, formerly known as festival ambassador. Beginning as a filmmaker, Momoko now also operates an arthouse cinema in Kochi, southwestern Japan.
Discussing her new role, Momoko said: “Cinema can embody any story. Cinema can change the world. The world can be changed by films. I honestly believe that is true. Films reflect our thoughts. They project invisible winds, tiny creatures, and all life. They memorize and record the past and future in our minds. Now in 2023, what will we gaze at, and where will we be led? Film festivals are the compass of the world. Now, here, from Tokyo.”
Running October 23 — November 1, TIFF will host a large-scale tribute to Ozu throughout its program. Specific details about the festival’s Ozu tribute have yet to be announced.
The 36th TIFF opening ceremony will take place at the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, as it did last year, while the closing ceremony will be held at Toho Cinemas Hibiya. In addition to three large theaters, Marunouchi Toei, Marunouchi Piccadilly, and Toho Cinemas Hibiya, Hulic Hall Tokyo will join as a new screening venue, along with TIFF’s regular theaters, Kadokawa Cinema Yurakucho, Cine Switch Ginza, Humantrust Cinema Yurakucho and Toho Cinemas Chanter.
- 8/17/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
La BêteCOMPETITIONComandante (Edoardo De Angelis)The Promised Land (Nikolaj Arcel)Dogman (Luc Besson) La Bête (Bertrand Bonello) Hors-Saison (Stéphane Brizé) Enea (Pietro Castellitto) Maestro (Bradley Cooper)Priscilla (Sofia Coppola)Finalmente L’Alba (Saverio Costanzo)Lubo (Giorgio Diritti) Origin (Ava DuVernay) The Killer (David Fincher)Memory (Michel Franco)Io capitano (Matteo Garrone)Evil Does Not Exist (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)The Green Border (Agnieszka Holland)The Theory of Everything (Timm Kröger)Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)El conde (Pablo Larrain)Ferrari (Michael Mann)Adagio (Stefano Sollima)Woman OfHolly (Fien Troch)Out Of COMPETITIONFictionSociety of the Snow (J.A. Bayona)Coup de Chance (Woody Allen)The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson)The Penitent (Luca Barbareschi)L’Ordine Del Tempo (Liliana Cavani)Vivants (Alix Delaporte)Welcome to Paradise (Leonardo di Constanzo)Daaaaaali! (Quentin Dupieux)The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (William Friedkin)Making of (Cedric Kahn)Aggro Dr1ft (Harmony Korine)Hitman (Richard Linklater)The Palace (Roman Polanski...
- 7/29/2023
- MUBI
by Paweł Mizgalewicz
If we assume that films, like people, can be called „half-Asian”, then „Perfect Days” could be placed in such category. Of course, it takes place in Japan. It seems to be based on Japanese stories, the characters are Japanese, all the actors are Japanese, and they speak in Japanese (not that there is a lot of talking at all). But you can probably also feel at various points that the film's director, cinematographer and the post-production crew were European. It is quite obviously a Tokyo Story, influenced by Yasujiro Ozu strongly. It triumphs as a love letter to Ozu, and generally to what is often described as a wonder of Japanese culture. They're so humble! It's also a must-see for anyone fascinated with Tokyo, maintaining the “man, I love this city” vibe basically throughout the whole thing. But there is a reason why a love letter is...
If we assume that films, like people, can be called „half-Asian”, then „Perfect Days” could be placed in such category. Of course, it takes place in Japan. It seems to be based on Japanese stories, the characters are Japanese, all the actors are Japanese, and they speak in Japanese (not that there is a lot of talking at all). But you can probably also feel at various points that the film's director, cinematographer and the post-production crew were European. It is quite obviously a Tokyo Story, influenced by Yasujiro Ozu strongly. It triumphs as a love letter to Ozu, and generally to what is often described as a wonder of Japanese culture. They're so humble! It's also a must-see for anyone fascinated with Tokyo, maintaining the “man, I love this city” vibe basically throughout the whole thing. But there is a reason why a love letter is...
- 7/28/2023
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
At a certain point you care less about world premieres and fixate mostly on a festival’s repertory slate. And even by the high standards set with Cannes Classics or NYFF Revivals is this year’s Venice Classics in a class of its own. We could start at the new cuts for three of the greatest directors ever: One from the Heart is the latest film to be given a revision by Francis Ford Coppola, following recuts of Apocalypse Now, Twixt, and Dementia 13––to say nothing of restorations like The Rain People, of which we’re hosting the New York premiere next weekend––while Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev will debut in “the reconstruction of the complete original version, which was censored before its release and has never been seen until now.” Meanwhile one of Yasujiro Ozu’s greatest films, There Was a Father, has been amended by “recent rediscovery...
- 7/21/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The first screening of the uncensored version of ’Andrei Rublev’ by Andrei Tarkovsky has also been programmed.
Venice Classics will include a screening of ‘The Exorcist’ and tributes to late filmmakers Ruggero Deodato and Carlos Saura as part of its line-up of restored features for the 2023 edition.
The Exorcist, by William Friedkin, returns in a restored version, to mark the 100th anniversary of its distributor, Warner Bros.
Italian genre master Deodato passed away last year. One of his most extreme films, Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, has been programmed in tribute. This edition also pays homage to Italian actor Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January,...
Venice Classics will include a screening of ‘The Exorcist’ and tributes to late filmmakers Ruggero Deodato and Carlos Saura as part of its line-up of restored features for the 2023 edition.
The Exorcist, by William Friedkin, returns in a restored version, to mark the 100th anniversary of its distributor, Warner Bros.
Italian genre master Deodato passed away last year. One of his most extreme films, Ultimo Mondo Cannibale, has been programmed in tribute. This edition also pays homage to Italian actor Gina Lollobrigida, who died in January,...
- 7/21/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Recently restored versions of William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist,” Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “One From the Heart” feature in the Venice Classics section of the 80th Venice Film Festival.
The lineup of recently restored films in Venice Classics, which is curated by the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera in collaboration with Federico Gironi, was unveiled on Friday.
“The Exorcist” is screened, 50 years after it was produced by Warner Bros., alongside Disney’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” starring Shirley Temple and directed by “the prolific and sometimes brilliant” Allan Dwan, to mark the Hollywood studios’ 100th anniversaries.
“One From the Heart” and Arturo Ripstein’s “Deep Crimson” are “not just restored, but also revised by the filmmakers themselves in what are genuine Director’s Cuts,” Barbera and Gironi said, while Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece “Andrei Rublev” will be presented in the reconstruction of the original version,...
The lineup of recently restored films in Venice Classics, which is curated by the festival’s artistic director Alberto Barbera in collaboration with Federico Gironi, was unveiled on Friday.
“The Exorcist” is screened, 50 years after it was produced by Warner Bros., alongside Disney’s “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” starring Shirley Temple and directed by “the prolific and sometimes brilliant” Allan Dwan, to mark the Hollywood studios’ 100th anniversaries.
“One From the Heart” and Arturo Ripstein’s “Deep Crimson” are “not just restored, but also revised by the filmmakers themselves in what are genuine Director’s Cuts,” Barbera and Gironi said, while Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece “Andrei Rublev” will be presented in the reconstruction of the original version,...
- 7/21/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of Magnolia Pictures, has bought U.S. rights to “The Animal Kingdom,” Thomas Cailley’s creature-filled dystopian thriller which world premiered as the opening night selection of Cannes Un Certain Regard.
Produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord-Ouest Films, “The Animal Kingdom” was financed and co-produced by Studiocanal, which handles French distribution and international sales. The film is set in a world where mutations in human genetics cause people to transform into hybrid creatures. It boasts stellar performances by Roman Duris (“Final Cut”), Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) and Paul Kircher (“Winter Boy”). Magnet will release the film next year.
Duris stars as François, who sets off to save his wife, who has been affected by this mysterious condition. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, François embarks with Emile (Kircher), their 16-year-old son, on a quest to find her with...
Produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord-Ouest Films, “The Animal Kingdom” was financed and co-produced by Studiocanal, which handles French distribution and international sales. The film is set in a world where mutations in human genetics cause people to transform into hybrid creatures. It boasts stellar performances by Roman Duris (“Final Cut”), Adèle Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) and Paul Kircher (“Winter Boy”). Magnet will release the film next year.
Duris stars as François, who sets off to save his wife, who has been affected by this mysterious condition. As some of the creatures disappear into a nearby forest, François embarks with Emile (Kircher), their 16-year-old son, on a quest to find her with...
- 7/20/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHam on Rye.Tyler Taormina, director of the idiosyncratic Ham on Rye (2019) and Happer's Comet (2022), has wrapped production on his next feature. Filmed on Long Island, Christmas Eve In Miller’s Point is a Christmas comedy that stars Michael Cera, Elsie Fisher, and Gregg Turkington, plus the progeny of two prominent filmmakers in Francesca Scorsese and Sawyer Spielberg.The Guardian reports that filmmaker Brian Rose is attempting to “recreate” the lost version of Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), which was altered significantly by Rko prior to its release. Using “the latest technology to reconstruct lost material and animate charcoal sketches,” Rose has reportedly spent four years recreating “around 30,000 frames” of Welles’s original rough cut in order that viewers can visualize what Welles intended in lieu of seeing the director’s original cut,...
- 6/21/2023
- MUBI
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