- A double-whammy from Ryuichi Hiroki this week. First up, his phenomenal Vibrator, a film I had previously listed as one of 5 hidden gems that everyone should see, finally sees US DVD release today. His latest, a documentary about Japanese kinbaku masters, is currently premiering at Rotterdam – hit the link for a humorless Variety writeup!
- The final nominees for the 26th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards were announced this past weekend, with some great surprises in store. Chief among them in my book would be the multiple nominations for my favorite Asian picture of the past year, Isabella. Edmond Pang’s finest turn to date roped in five nominations, including a Best Actress nod for the ethereal Isabella Leong, a well-deserved Best Cinematography nod for Chris Doyle’s heir-apparent, Charlie Lam, a shoe-in Best Original Score nod for Peter Kam (the film took a similar prize at Berlin), as well as Art Direction and Costume & Make-Up Design nods. Check the full list at the awards’ official site.
- Read the first English review of Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance director Park Chan-wook’s latest, I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay, courtesy of Kyu Hyun Kim at Koreanfilm.org.
- Ryuihei Kitamura returns to his independent roots for his latest, LoveDeath. Twitch reports that the film’s distribution rights hit the European Film Market this week. Here is some information on the film from last year’s Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival (YIFFF) – “This is a story about an extremely crazy and cool couple. The violent erotic comedy dances on the screen one after another.” Well, I’m sold.
- Expat director John Williams is making quite a splash this week with the release of his second feature, Starfish Hotel. Metropolis has an interesting article about the barriers Williams had to face to work within the insular Japanese film industry as well as a brief history of foreign filmmakers working in Japan. Over at The Japan Times, Mark Schilling interviews Williams and reviews the film.
- Finally, I encourage every supporter of foreign cinema to check out the beta of Jaman, an internet film delivery service that allows you to download independent and world films in high resolution. The rental service is free during the beta, and you can start by digging through more than 50 remastered films from the Shaw Brothers Studio, recently represented at the Walker during the Heroic Grace retrospective.
Just wanted to pop up and say that I discovered the Walker Art filmblog a few weeks back and have been enjoying your posts…!
Comment by girish — February 7, 2007 @ 7:17 pm
Thanks very much! If you end up discovering some films you enjoy because of the posts, then my work is complete!
Comment by Mike Lyon — February 7, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
“ This is a story about an extremely crazy and cool couple. The violent erotic comedy dances on the screen one after another.”
Are you sure they are not talking about Godzilla Final Wars? Ha ha.
Comment by Kathie Smith — February 7, 2007 @ 10:29 pm