ryuganji: film news from japan

Another familiar face participating in an overseas omnibus project is Aoyama Shinji, whose 35-minute short film “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge” screened at the 61st Film Festival Locarno earlier this month. Paris creative centre Théâtre2Gennevilliers and “Demonlover” director Olivier Assayas commissioned Aoyama and two other filmmakers to make short films in the town of Gennevilliers, apparently using local actors and crew.

Delphine is 20. She is too young to have experienced the anarchist activism of the 70s, but for her it is not over. She decides to find something that will enable her to take action, and that, she says, will be to her credit. Directed by Shinji Aoyama, this short film interrogates the connection of political ideas between two eras.

Incidentally, does anyone out there know why Aoyama’s 2006 film “Crickets” (Korogi) hasn’t been released yet in Japan despite screening at festivals in Tokyo, Venice and elsewhere? Mark Schilling described it as “brilliantly loopy“, and with Suzuki Kyoka, Yamazaki Tsutomu, Ando Masanobu and Ito Ayumi in the cast you’d presume it would warrant at least a late show run or even go straight to DVD, but for some reason it’s disappeared without a trace…

Shimizu Takashi, Nakata Hideo, Tsuruta Norio, Kitamura Ryuichi… and now Iwai Shunji?! Although he’s hardly the kind of filmmaker you’d expect to see directing an American film one day, that’s exactly what he’s done with an instalment of the omnibus production “New York, I Love You“, which will screen as a work in progress in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Special Presentations category. Iwai has been popping up in snapshots on U.S.-based producer Ichise Taka’s blog for a wee while now, so now we know what he’s been doing stateside. Not much is known about the content of Iwai’s contribution except that Orlando Bloom and Christina Ricci will star (no idea if any Japanese actors appear). Apart from his 2006 Ichikawa Kon documentary and various screenplay credits under the nom-de-plume “Amino-san”, this will be his first dramatic work since “Hana and Alice” back in 2004.

A tad NSFW, but sheer genius.

Nicked from Zaeega.

Tokyograph inevitably got there first, but I thought I’d add a little more context to the news that actress Yoshino Kimika is going hardcore. Although it’s not uncommon for former gravure and teen idols to resort to porn to prolong their lifespan in showbiz (and pay off debts accrued during their bid for stardom), until now the furthest that most recognised actresses facing career downturns due to age or indifference have been willing to go is a nude photo/video shoot, or the scorched-earth approach of a tell-all book.

In that sense, Yoshino has become somewhat of a pioneer as the highest profile Japanese actress ever to go porno. Although far from a household name, she has nonetheless built up a solid filmography that includes the first two “Eko Eko Azarak” movies, Nagasaki Shunichi’s authentic karate actioner “Kuro-Obi”, and numerous straight-to-video titles. But she’s probably best known to readers of this blog as the yakuza moll who gives birth to Aikawa Sho in Miike Takashi’s “Gozu”, or as the unfortunate bystander that Tsutsumi Shinichi accidentally stabs on his way out of a bank heist in Sabu’s “Unlucky Monkey”.

Just as gravure idols endeavour to avoid a future in skin flicks by parlaying their physical attributes into acting or celebrity careers, many women who go into porn here harbor dreams of breaking into television and film by following the examples of the few who have made the jump, especially the resilient and now retired TV celebrity Iijima Ai. Among recent converts are Takagi Maria, who was quickly devoured by the dead in Sato Sakichi’s “Tokyo Zombie” and now finds regular gigs in television serials; Ozawa Maria, who Jason Gray reports has been cast in “Taiwan’s first-ever slasher horror”; and “The Machine Girl”’s Asami and Honoka, the latter of whom has snagged a role alongside Danny Glover in U.S.-Japan co-production “The Harimaya Bridge”.

Now that Yoshino and celebrity-seducing specialist AV label Muteki have penetrated the flesh ceiling, will we see more faded thesps tempted by hefty porn pay-days?

If “The Sky Crawlers” is really Oshii Mamoru’s stab at making something more accessible and commercial than the challengingly dense and philosophical films we’ve come to expect from him, then he really needs to get out more. For better and for worse, with an emphasis on the latter, it doesn’t stray far from his comfort zone at all.

Europe is at war as corporations vie for territorial dominance in aerial battles, employing eternally young fighter pilots called Killdore to engage the opposition while the detached and unaffected general populace keeps score via television. A new recruit named Kannami immediately impresses his teammates with his deadly proficiency but grows increasingly distracted in seeking the truth about the fate of his predecessor, which has something to do with his aloof commander and former ace pilot Kusanagi.

Instead of delivering yet another anti-war message, Oshii unashamedly depicts the mechanical carnage with his typically meticulous attention to detail and to great aeshetic result, while the considerably less engaging characters struggle with the more personal (or perhaps self-absorbed) dilemmas of their own im/mortality and the meaning of life. It’s this gap between the exhilarating technical mastery displayed in the all-too-brief battle scenes and the cold, gravely serious interaction on the ground comprising the bulk of the film’s running time that lets it down the most. The photorealistic CG dogfights are visually breathtaking, but it’s the equally detailed audio design by Skywalker Sound that truly puts you in the thick of the action. Screaming engines and stuttering cannons rip through the air, then the scene switches to within the cockpit and we experience the pilots’ respirator-assisted breathing and the muffled explosions outside the canopy. Even after the camera returns to earth, every rustle of the uniforms and creak of the furniture is imbued with life. Some fine performances by Kase Ryo as Kannami, Tanihara Shosuke as fellow pilot Tokino and especially Kikuchi Rinko as Kusanagi help breathe some much-needed humanity into their less than vibrant animated surrogates, but unfortunately the script largely confines them (and consequently the audience) to an interminable sequence of gloomy conversations and underwhelming revelations. Then there’s the gratituitous chain smoking, ostensibly used as a motif for the Killdore’s disillusionment with their immortality but might just as well be to give the doll-eyed stony faces something to do as they gaze blankly into space. Somewhat fittingly, due to the protagonists being perpetual teenagers, it makes the film look all the more ‘emo’.

Oshii been quoted as saying he’ll quit directing if this doesn’t succeed at the box office, but after opening in 7th well below the chart-topping trio of Ponyo, Pokemon and Naruto, he could have done worse.