Shinsedai Cinema Festival 2012 - The Full Slate of Titles

The Shinsedai Cinema Festival is just over a month away and tickets are going on sale in a mere week and a half (June 21st). So it's high time I supplemented my initial preview of the first titles announced with a preview of the rest of the films Shinsedai will be screening at The Revue Cinema starting July 12th. Since that last preview was about a month and a half ago, let's not waste any further time...

The Ghost Cat And The Mysterious Shamisen

This 1938 little seen ancestor to Japanese horror is a remarkable addition to the lineup. I'm dying to see it as it sounds like an early example of so many of the well-worn (but oh-so-wonderful) tropes of the Japanese ghost story. Seijiro is a shamisen player and after his cat runs away, it returns with a beautiful woman (Okiya) and the two fall in love. This doesn't settle well with Seijiro's fiancee (played by Japan’s first “Scream Queen” Sumiko Suzuki) who kills both Okiya and the cat. Of course, cats don't take kindly to that sort of thing and soon, with the help of Okiya's younger sister, vengeance plays itself out. The film has been specially subtitled by Jasper Sharp and the JVTA (Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy).

"The Ghost Cat And The Mysterious Shamisen" screens on Friday, July 13th at 7:00PM.

Enter the Cosmos: Takashi Makino Special

"Be prepared to have your notions of cinema be challenged and expanded by this not to be missed experience". That little tag line from the Shinsedai web site should be enough to convince any adventurous film fan to come for this trifecta of short experimental films by Takashi Mikano. Each film has a different musician (Machinefabriek, Jim O'Rourke, as well as Makino himself) laying down the soundscapes to accompany the "layers of light, colour and visual dissonance". The run times are between 18 and 35 minutes, just enough time to expand the old noggin.

"Enter the Cosmos: Takashi Makino Special" screens on Thursday, July 12th at 9:30PM.

Hiroshima Nagasaki Download

The hibakusha are people who survived the WWII bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now, try for a moment to imagine what kind of memories are seared into their brains. Filmmaker Shinpei Takeda and producer Eiji Wakamatsu felt that we needed to do more than just imagine those stories - 65 years later, they track down some of these survivors who have moved to the United States and get them to relate their experiences to the camera (in other words, "download" them for safe keeping). During their road trip, they also find out how these 18 individuals have adapted to U.S. culture and what parts of their original heritage they have maintained. It's a short 73 minutes, but I don't expect it'll take long to feel the impact of the tales these people have to tell.

"Hiroshima Nagasaki Download" screens on Sunday, July 15th at 1:30PM.

Good For Nothing

This feature debut by director Sho Miyake is an attempt to make a "film without a frame". With comparisons popping up to Bela Tarr (and the gorgeous, languid black & white photography he typically uses) as well as Gus Van Sant's death trilogy, this 76-minute story of three young men fresh out of high school torn between continuing their rebellious acts of youth and taking adult responsibility is bound to be one of the more stylish of the festival. As the three get jobs with a security alarm company, they find their wills being tested.

"Good For Nothing" screens on Sunday, July 15th at 4:00PM.

Beyond Anime: The Outer Limits

This compendium of 16 shorts was originally curated by Jasper Sharp for the second annual Zipangu Fest (in London) and is now set to blow some minds on this side of the ocean. Less focused on traditional anime characters and more on pushing the boundaries of animation itself, this set of independently produced works will be a great way to help wind down the festival (it screens just before the closing film "Tentsuki"). I'm betting this may be one of the more highly anticipated and attended shows of the festival.

"Beyond Anime: The Outer Limits" screens on Sunday, July 15th at 6:00PM.



You can check out trailers for all these films at the Shinsedai YouTube channel. Tickets and passes for the festival go on sale June 21st. For more information on the fest be sure to visit the Shinsedai Cinema Festival website.

Trailer for 2012 Shinsedai Cinema Festival

Absolutely stellar work on the trailer for this year's Shinsedai Cinema Festival:





Yeah, I want to see each one of those right now too...Now that the full lineup has been announced and tickets are on sale June 21st, a final preview post to go along with my initial preview should follow along soon. In the meantime, just watch that trailer another couple of times...

Shinsedai Cinema Festival 2012 - An Early Look

OK, I'll be honest up front - I'm very biased towards the Shinsedai Cinema Festival. My good friend Chris MaGee is one of the founders of the fest (along with Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye) and I've seen him work his butt off to make the festival not just successful, but relevant. As it prepares for its 4th year (they've announced a chunk of their films which I'll get to below), it's clear Chris and Jasper have grown the reputation of the event each time out and are beginning to attract more and more attention. Chris will be on this year's jury for the Nippon Connection in Frankfurt (the largest Japanese film festival outside of Japan) and filmmakers are starting to ask if they can bring their films to Shinsedai. The mandate for the festival is to expose young, independent filmmakers to a wider audience and the focus has remained on exactly that. Things branch out occasionally - e.g. a wonderful showing of the silent Mizoguchi film "The Water Magician" (complete with a live soundtrack) a few years ago; this year's double bill of Pink Films - but the core of the festival has been about giving the new generation a forum for their films outside of Japan.

Chris has also done me the honour of asking me to be part of the Board of the festival - a role that doesn't exactly tax me at the moment since Chris and Jasper are the drivers and brains of the fest. This year has proven extra challenging due to a location shift away from the lovely Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre to a downtown theatre (The Revue Cinema - one of Toronto's fine repertory theatres), but, as the kids today say, it's all good. With much easier access to the theatre via public transportation and much more engaged PR help, the festival is definitely going to create more of a stir in 2012.

Particularly with the lineup so far announced:

Ringing in Their Ears

Described as an irreverent rock comedy/drama, Yu Irie's "Ringing in Their Ears" kicks off this year's Shinsedai with a mix of fact and fiction. Real-life band Shinsei Kamattechan moves from indie stardom to the majors and the film follows the attempts of their manager to preserve their artistic integrity while also keeping tabs on some of their odd fanbase. Live concert footage is mixed in to what I can only guess will be a wonderfully energetic way to start the fest.

"Ringing in their Ears" screens on Thursday, July 12th at 7:00PM.

Zero Man vs. The Half Virgin

The scriptwriter of two of Takashi Miike's more well-known films ("Ichi the Killer" and "Gozu") and the director of "Tokyo Zombie" have come together to bring us the story of Zero Man - a cop with amnesia who realizes he has the strange gift of being able to see numbers on people's foreheads. The match of scriptwriter and director is a perfect one since they both happen to be the same person - Sakichi Sato. He's also one of the biggest character actors in Japan and plays triple duty by also taking a supporting role in this surreal tale of policeman Sakuragi and his odd ability that only manifests itself when he is aroused. He comes to believe that these numbers indicate the amount of sexual partners each person has had (he sports a zero on his own forehead), but what does the 0.5 mean on the mysterious young woman who attracts him?

"Zero Man vs. The Half Virgin" screens on Friday, July 13th at 9:00PM.

The Naked Summer

Each summer famed butoh dancer Akaji Maro invites professional and amateur dancers to participate in an intensive retreat to study the avant-garde art form. Maro and his students are followed in this documentary through one entire summer as they explore the movements and philosophy of butoh and work towards a final performance out in the countryside.

"The Naked Summer" screens on Saturday, July 14th at 1:30PM.

From the Great White North: Yubari Fanta Special

The Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival takes place every year in Hokkaido (Japan's northern island) and has become one of the most important events for indie Japanese filmmakers. In collaboration with Yubari, Shinsedai presents "From the Great White North: Yubari Fanta Special" - a set of three short films selected with the help of Yubari festival director Yasuhiro Togawa - which captures part of the diverse and slightly skewed spirit of Yubari Fanta. There's the high school girl who has developed her own brand of sexual martial arts in "Hole And Pole", a short documentary entitled "The Student Wrestler" which shows the benefits of social misfits getting out their frustrations through professional wrestling and "Mrs. Akko and Her Husband" which tells the tale of a couple that needs to pull themselves out of their apathetic relationship.

"From the Great White North: Yubari Fanta Special" screens on Saturday, July 14th at 4:30PM.

End Of The Night

After Tamegoro assassinates a married couple, he decides to take their infant son home and raise him. The boy, Akira, ends up being a sociopath which just happens to be the perfect attribute to follow in Tamegoro's footsteps as a hired killer. But what happens when you meet someone who has survived one of your old hits? Director Daisuke Miyazaki (who was the assistant director of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2008 film "Tokyo Sonata") gives us "a 1960's Nikkatsu action film filtered through the deadpan aesthetic of Takeshi Kitano". Sounds pretty good to me.

"End Of The Night" screens on Saturday, July 14th at 7:00PM.

Battle Girls & Bondage: A Pink Film Double Bill

Shinsedai Co-programmer and Co-Director Jasper Sharp is somewhat of an expert on Japanese pink films (in fact, he authored the book "Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema") and the festival has finally managed to bring a few examples of the genre to Toronto (the first ever theatrical screenings of the genre here). In cooperation with distributor Pink Eiga, "Battle Girls & Bondage: A Pink Film Double Bill" will feature two hour-long examples: "Sexy Battle Girls" and "New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave". It goes without saying that you must be 18 or older to attend this particular event. Though one of the more controversial selections the festival has made, it may also prove to be one of the more surprising.

"Battle Girls & Bondage: A Pink Film Double Bill" screens on Saturday, July 14th at 9:30PM.

Tentsuki

David Lynch and Takashi Miike's names are mentioned as comparison points in Masafumi Yamada's story of a man running from the yakuza who ends up hiding out in a unmapped portion of Kyoto. He finds a job at a construction site and encounters a raft of characters while the tale drifts from comic to haunting.

Tentsuki will screens on Sunday, July 15th at 8:00PM.



You can check out trailers for all these films at the Shinsedai YouTube channel. The final round of films will be announced sometime next month, and tickets and passes for the festival go on sale June 21st. For more information on the fest be sure to visit the Shinsedai Cinema Festival website.

The Little Film Festival That Can (with a little additional help...)

The short version: please donate here.

And now for the somewhat longer version...Four or five years ago - just around the time I was getting into blogging - I met a fine young man named Chris MaGee online. He convinced me to write for his burgeoning Facebook group called the "Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow" and contribute short reviews of Japanese films. Shortly after I agreed, I had the chance to meet him briefly at a screening of the fan-damn-tastic "Survive Style 5+". We only chatted for a short time and then met again as I was rushing out of a Cinematheque showing of the classic "Kwaidan". It wasn't until Chris unveiled his grander plan to turn the group into a full-fledged blog and web site that we finally got to know each other - ie. quaff a few beers and argue about movies (he's still totally wrong about Takeshi Kitano's "Achilles And The Tortoise").

As the web site grew and a few of us contributed film reviews on an almost weekly basis, Chris started to roll out phase 2. By being on top of Japanese film news and making a name for himself as an authority, Chris started to build up his contacts and worked his way onto a panel at the Nippon Connection Film Festival in Frankfurt. That was all pretty impressive to us all - until, that is, he came back and announced that not only had he met noted Japanese film writer Jasper Sharp (also co-editor of Midnight Eye), but that he was going to start a new film festival with him...here in Toronto.

The Shinsedai Cinema Festival has grown every year since - just finishing up its third year this past Summer - and has been a springboard for several young filmmakers. The name of the fest literally means "New Generation" and was conceived to be (as the web site states) "an annual showcase of the best in new, independent and rarely seen Japanese films." It would have been easy to fold to financial pressure and bring in the bigger mainstream crowd-pleasers or gory, cyber-splatter genre flicks (neither of which are bad by definition), but the programmers have stuck to their original concept and are being embraced by the independent film community in Japan.

For the 4th go-around next year (July 12-15), a few changes are coming...The entire festival is moving to a more easily accessible downtown location - away from the classy spacious surroundings of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre and to the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Ave. - near the Dundas West subway). Though the festival did well in its more northern Toronto digs, it will likely have a wider reach now that it is moving to the thick of things. The downside is that new sponsors need to be discovered. Chris has been beating the bushes and certainly finding some support, but the time is now to cast a wider net to ask for financial support from film lovers of all stripes. The festival has set up a donation page through IndieGoGo where you can contribute whatever amount you wish - the drive is towards $7000 and this money would help pay for numerous costs not the least of which would enable filmmakers to attend in person.

If you love the passion of young filmmakers - whether they continue the traditions of the past or attempt to break new ground - the Shinsedai Cinema Festival is right there with you and is eager to continue to support the art form. If you can find a way to support the festival in return, it would be greatly appreciated. And you also get a visit from the spectre of Toshiro Mifune as he pays his respects to you. Uh, I think you might have to invest in one of the higher sponsorship levels for that little perk though...

Shinsedai 2010 - The Water Magician

At the tender age of 22, Takako Irie was already a power player in the Japanese film industry. Impressive for anyone, but triply so considering that she was able to do this as a young woman in 1933 Japan. She created her own production company and struck out into the world of independent film with Kenji Mizoguchi's "The Water Magician" as one of her first projects. She not only produced, but also took on its main starring role. Hearing these details in the introductory comments before its screening at this year's Shinsedai Cinema Festival provided some additional information as to why a silent film from a noted master of the artform managed to sneak into this year's lineup. After all, it's not really the first thing you think of to program in a festival dedicated to new Japanese films by young filmmakers (the term Shinsedai actually means "new generation"). One assumed the film was being screened simply because the opportunity was there - and if you could add on live musical accompaniment, why would you not? Especially when the music is by experimental Toronto band Vowls and the space within which they would perform it is the lovely confines (acoustically friendly one at that) of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.

It's somewhat hard at this stage to separate out the music from the movie since the ebbs and flows of the soundtrack provided by the 5-piece band (including many analog and digital effects) meshed with the pace of the movie. The tale is straightforward - a young woman named Taki no Shiraito travels around with a circus performing tricks with water and becomes taken with a young carriage driver. She's attracted to him, but is also impressed with the way he stands up to her and the other passengers who taunt the slowness of his buggy. She insists that he make something of himself and offers to pay for his education with the condition that he become an honourable gentleman. The slow build of Vowls' music during the film's opening exposition is initially hard to fit into the 80-year old look of the film and its characters, but it pulses and weaves its way into your head until you're hooked - into both the music and the story.




In the grand tradition of melodramatic storylines, the separated lovers are doomed to encounter each other again and, of course, in a fashion that tests those initial promises. It's all in the telling, though, and Mizoguchi has a couple of weapons at his disposal to make this a very engaging story. The first is his camera - it moves a great deal throughout the film pushing in, following, tracking and staying with our characters. Things just seemed more vibrant with all that movement. The second high-powered item in his arsenal is Takako Irie herself - specifically her beautiful, expressive and mischievous face. When the lovers are apart, we spend almost the entirety of the time with her, so that face gets a lot of screen time and I have to say that she makes use of it well. The emotions are high and her expressions match them, but it never feels like its played too broad. Because of the nature of the story, there certainly are moments when you think things like "if you'd just talk to that guy, it would all be fine!", but it's not meant to be...

If there was a small downside to the screening it was that the film had a great deal of subtitles that were explaining much of the action on screen - these were actually for the narration used by Benshi who would typically tell the story of the film to an audience while also speaking the roles of several characters on screen. This was common for many silent films in Japan and apparently true Benshi were performers in their own right and could elevate what they did to an artform. Unfortunately, without the Benshi present, it was just a whole lot of additional subtitles on the screen. After awhile you could safely ignore them and just read the intertitles, but it's hard to ignore that blaring white text at the bottom of the screen...It's a small annoyance though.

The score by Vowls kept enveloping the audience more and more as the film went on. One of its early peaks was during the sequence when Shiraito is hiding out with a young couple and is discovered and led away to jail on suspicion of murder. The band shifted gears a bit during this section to bring an overall darker and more insistent tone to the rhythms of the piece. The final 10 minutes or so seemed to be one constant build that completely fit the tone of the trapped feelings of the characters. If the band were not overly animated in their performance, they certainly knew how come up with intriguing sounds and stitch them all together to make a great film all that much better.

A magnificent evening.

Shinsedai 2010 - The first half

A little over a year ago my friend Chris MaGee was at the 2009 Nippon Connection film festival and emailed myself and a few of the other contributors to the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow (which he started in 2007) that he had met Jasper Sharp. This was exciting news to me as Jasper was somewhat responsible for my interest in Japanese film - I was already curious when I read the book The Midnight Eye Guide To New Japanese Film (which he co-authored with Tom Mes) and was instantly hooked after diving headlong through the chapters on individual directors like Fukasaku, Suzuki, Kurosawa (Kiyoshi) and Miike. Just in case the title of the book wasn't a dead giveaway, Sharp and Mes co-founded Midnight Eye - one of the premiere web sites for anything related to Japanese film.

Chris had more news in the months to come though. He and Jasper had hatched a plan to start a new film festival - one dedicated to young Japanese filmmakers working independently of studios and who were early in their careers. Even better (at least for me), it would be held in Toronto and Jasper would attend (it really was an honour and a pleasure to meet Jasper last year and to be able to thank him directly). That's how the Shinsedai Cinema Festival was born and last year's premiere outing was, to my mind, a roaring success. Filmmakers attended, press coverage was given and suddenly people were coming to Chris and Jasper.

What to do next? Hold the second annual festival of course! It kicked off this past Thursday (sigh, how good a friend am I that I'm only writing about it now?) with a crowded opening night reception at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre packed with local press, film writers, guests, several of the filmmakers and numerous bottles of Asahi Black. Jasper couldn't attend this year, but the crowd was willing to give him some slack due to his new status as a parent to a brand-spanking new bouncing 2 week old son. Among the other guests at the opening was Canadian director Deepa Mehta who caught the evening's first film as well.

I should say the evening's first 2 films since things started with the wonderful 6 minute animated short entitled Ladybird's Requiem by Akino Kondoh. It's essentially a series of small fantasies in a young girl's mind about ladybugs, buttons and the metaphysical which all occur after she has accidentally killed a single ladybug. Kondoh's art also adorns the poster for this year's festival (seen above). Her hand drawn panels are uncluttered and drift and merge together with seamless fluidity. I missed her film from last year's festival and regret that terribly now...




The first feature of the evening was Momoko Ando's full length debut Kakera: A Piece Of Our Life. It's the tale of a young university student named Haru who seems stuck with a selfish boyfriend (he hasn't quite yet got rid of his old girlfriend yet) and is appears to going through the motions of her life joylessly. She's not really stuck with him actually, it's just that it's too much fuss to get rid of him. Until she meets Riko that is. She's a rather forward young woman and simply walks up and introduces herself to Haru because she is interested in her. She claims she isn't necessarily a lesbian as she doesn't care about someone being a man or a woman, just that they are of interest to her and she feels an attraction to them. Haru is somewhat apprehensive, but is also curious and contacts her to see her again. They hit it off first as friends and soon as a couple, but it's still all quite confusing for Haru (played wonderfully by Hikari Mitsushima who was equally fine in Sion Sono's crazily good "Love Exposure") as she tries to deal with her feelings for Riko, her boyfriend's continued presence and a freshman's own attraction to her.

The performances of the two leads and their characters are the strongest part of the film. Riko is pushy and becomes clingy while Haru is frustratingly unable to make any decisions, but there's a charm to the two of them that keeps the story alive. Which is lucky since there are many issues with the rest of the film. The low budget is a bit too readily apparent sometimes, but it's the heavy-handedness of the script and plot points that weighs the whole movie down. Riko is a prosthetics artist (she creates realistic new body parts for people "missing" something) and Haru certainly fits the bill even if all her physical parts are present. The issue with the film's presentation can be summed up in a single scene: while tossing their bottles of soda back and forth during an early "date" they laugh and giggle until one of the bottles is thrown high up in the air, the camera follows it up and as it reaches the crest of its arc it turns into a 2-headed dove.

Though there aren't that many magical occurrences like this in the film (except another beautifully rendered scene of the night sky appearing in a pool), it gives an indication of the subtlety, or lack thereof, at work. However, due to the charms of the characters, I was happy to focus on their progression and not worry so much about getting hit over the head.

I misssed the evenings's second film (a retrospective on master puppeteer Kihachiro Kawamoto via several short films), but was able to catch both of Friday's offerings. The first was Kenji Mizoguchi's 1933 silent film "The Water Magician" complete with a new musical score played live by local band Vowls. The show was magnificent and requires its own post that will follow later.




The second film of the evening was described as taking certain stylistic cues from Seijun Suzuki's 1950-60s output as well as Kinji Fukasaku's dynamic street level filmmaking. So as evidenced by my earlier comments, I was obviously looking forward to Island Of Dreams. Director Tetsuichiro Tsuta's debut feature doesn't crib directly from its influences (something that may throw you off initially if you go in with lofty expectations), but certainly has them as antecedents through its tone and approach. The "you're with the action" hand-held camera adds some energy to a plot that doesn't contain quite as much as you might have expected (an eco-terrorist blows up a small cabin in the woods and then sets his sights on larger targets) and bits of humour pop in and out (mostly via detective Terayama who is chasing the bomber). I particularly liked the moment when Terayama is running full tilt down the edge of river in pursuit with blaring high-paced music - until he begins to slow down from being out of shape and the music slows to his own pace.

The Island of Dreams from the title is also the name of a man-made island that is used to hold all the garbage that Tokyo spits out. The bomber - a young disillusioned man named Alan - works daily at the island and has come to hate the consume-and-dispose society that surrounds him. The environmental message is extraordinarily heavy-handed - including a club band's sappy dedicated song to Mother Earth - but given the film's Black and White look (filmed on 16mm) and ancestry, it fit reasonably well and didn't cause the usual rolling of eyes. It also ties in nicely with some magic realism that the film pulls in towards the end in quite lovely fashion.




Something new this year is the usage of the Jishu Eiga Room at the JCCC to present several experimental films. Throughout the day several selections are continuously looped, so there were ample opportunities to catch some really new directions. One of these films is Kazuhiro Goshima's hour-long Different Cities - a gorgeous walk through the different corridors and corners of a large city via the eyes of several characters who seem to be out of sync with their surroundings and have lost their ability to navigate them. Whether it's the couple on an expressway with no exits and surrounded by incredibly tall buildings or the woman who follows what appears to be an animal's tracks over, under and through a myriad of different sections, the film takes you through a variety of structures imposed on the city that seem to trap its denizens. And yet, it also shows the beauty of some of this architecture. One sequence of a young man walking through a series of different staircases is quite extraordinary. Goshima seems to have an eye for picking interesting angles and creating perfectly composed frames. It's a lovely work and one of my favourite films of the festival so far.

Another 5 films from the Saturday and Sunday schedule to come...

Shinsedai Cinema Festival 2009 - "Maledict Car"

I need to write a bit more on the 4 feature films and several shorts I saw at Shinsedai this year (considering the quality of everything I saw, I really regret not packing more in), but I just wanted to quickly post one of my favourite short films: "Maledict Car".

It's actually a music video for the artist Jemapur directed by Kosai Sekine. It reminds me somewhat of some old Michel Gondry videos (in particular "Star Guitar" by The Chemical Brothers), but this stands on its own as a terrific use of slow camera movement and mirroring shots in 2, 4 and more sections. Here's the whole video:





I'll try to post a few more items about the lineup of films I saw over the next few days (I still desperately have to catch up on the After Dark films I saw). I was fortunate enough to meet Jasper Sharp (co-curator and co-director of this first, but certainly not last, Shinsedai festival) during the festival, so when you can end a fest by getting a signed copy of "Behind The Pink Curtain" by the man who is directly responsible for getting you into Japanese film in the first place as well as snagging several drinks of sake, you know it's been worthwhile...

Shinsedai Cinema Festival - The Full Slate!

Just over one week to go...The Shinsedai Cinema Festival begins it's inaugural run on August 21st and the festival is focused on The New Generation of Japanese Film. The lineup (curated by Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye and Chris MaGee of the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow) looks extremely varied and really interesting, so I'm hoping to catch as much as possible over the weekend length of the schedule. Here's a link to the full list including short films and a breakdown of the full length films below:



Naked Of Defenses
Masahide Ichii

At 8 months pregnant, Chinatsu begins a new job at a plastic factory. Her trainer Ritsuko has gone through a recent miscarriage, so you can imagine that there might be a few moments of tension between them. Slowly a friendship builds and the film sounds like one of those gentle and gradually revealing stories that rewards.



Hottentot Apron: A Sketch
Kei Shirichi

Experimental. Arty. WTF. If the trailer is accurate, these are all likely terms that may be bandied about after a screening of "Hottentot Apron: A Sketch". That's not necessarily a bad thing of course, since the film looks beautiful with plenty of interesting framings. The story follows a young woman as she enters into a fantasy world with a doll containing a large tumour located in the same spot as her own.




Freeter's Distress
Hiroki Iwabuchi

Young educated men and women who were forced to find menial labour jobs at low wages (after Japan's early 90s economic woes) are called "freeters". Director/Cinematograopher Hiroki Iwabuchi is one of them and this film is his document of what it's like living hand to mouth.




Little Birds
Takeharu Watai

A "street level" view of the Iraq War that has won its director several awards already. The film had been culled from hundreds of hours of footage taken in Baghdad, Samawa, Falluja and Abu Ghraib and follows several different people and families recounting (via their own voices) their losses and personal views of the war.



Aruongaku
Tomohisa Takashi

A 70 minute concert documentary of video artist and composer Takagi Masakatsu who has toured with Sigur Ros, David Sylvian and many others. He's also directed several music videos for Japanese artists and held many solo exhibitions of his work, so expect a visually rich experience to go with the music.



Thunderfish
Touru Hano

The short blurb at the Shinsedai web site describes this as reminiscent of a Japanese version of "The Wickerman". As long as they mean the original 1973 version, then I'm pretty much sold...A journalist is sent to track down his paper's missing photographer on Cantella Island (a licensed prostitution district) and encounters mysterious legends, stories and threats - including the legend of a huge fish that eats people's dreams. I love the look of this trailer...




Electric Button (Moon And Cherry)
Yuki Tanada

Mayama is a talented writer and member of an erotic creative writing club at her university (how come I never had elective courses like that?). She finds a font of new experiences via Tadokoro - a new member of the club and a virgin. At least, he was when he joined...



Now I...
Yasutomo Chikuma

NEET stands for Not engaged in Education, Employment or Training and is used to describe that segment of the population who are essentially spinning their wheels. This debut film (made on maxed-out credit cards) shows what happens when one particular NEET is forced to integrate with the rest of mainstream society.




The New God
Yutaka Tsuchiya

A documentary from 1999 focusing on the right wing views of punk singer Karin Amamiya. Her lyrics show decidedly anti-American viewpoints, but in front of the camera she begins to see things differently and this causes a rift in the band. Could be fascinating as long as it doesn't feel contrived.



Girl Sparks
Yuya Ishii

Saeko sounds like a typical teenage high school girl: dissatisfied with her current lot in life and not overly keen on spending much time with her parents - in particular her father. It's not just the crossdressing hobby or the fact that he runs a nail factory...She just doesn't like the guy. When he encounters the possibility of bankruptcy though, she is forced to help out. The trailer (even without subtitles) reminds me a bit of "Taste Of Tea" and this is one of my most anticipated of the bunch.

Shinsedai Cinema Festival

Now here is some news I'm very excited about...

My good friend Chris MaGee (founder of the J-Film Pow-Wow where I chip in with weekly reviews) has co-programmed with Midnight Eye's Jasper Sharp the brand new Shinsedai Cinema Festival - taking its maiden voyage from August 21-23 here in Toronto.




Shinsedai is a Japanese term for "new generation" and the festival will focus on a new breed of filmmakers coming from Japan covering a wide spectrum of genres and styles (including documentaries and short films as well). The event will take place at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in their brand spanking new theatre.

The lineup may be filled with little known filmmakers, but you can bet that there will be something of interest in just about everything chosen. Prowl through the lineup and I guarantee that something will jump out at you.

I can't wait.