Busy days here, but I'm trying to get some new posts up.
I meant to post this several weeks back and this is being mentioned more as a head's up since Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp have yet to post anything about it on Midnighteye, but the new issue of KATEIGAHO International Edition, a Japanese lifestyle and culture magazine in English, has as one of its features a focus on modern Japanese cinema.
But as the title of this post indicates, as part of their Japanese cinema focus Kateigaho asked Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp (the founders of Midnighteye) to talk about modern Japanese cinema and submit a list of must see films. The choices are interesting-- but not surprising if you read their reviews with any regularity-- and whether you agree with all of the choices or not (I don't...) it's definitely worth a peek.
The rest of the Japanese Cinema round up is actually surprisingly interesting and not nearly as obvious in its focus on current Japanese cinema than one would have expected. The interviews and essays are pretty interesting and surprisingly timely and would be a good reference volume, if you collect such things.Issues of Kateigaho are available at your local Japanese book shop-- but be warned, they are pricey at ¥1,260 (!). (Conceivably, these are magazines you can keep on your coffee table for eternity... which might assuage your bruised wallet.)
Here's a link to an old interview with Tom and Jasper about the genesis of Midnighteye.
4 comments:
where's their list then?... i get a pointy finger thing on the article but no actual linkage.
The list isn't on-line and I didn't buy the issue. When I went back to Asahi-ya the issue was sold out. Maybe we should ask Tom or Jasper to reprint it?
Suffice to say, Tom stands behind Battle Royale (never much cared for this, but I'm against popular opinion) and Dead or Alive 2 (a personal fave).
Jasper has some pink films mentioned, which I totally don't remember (though Meike Mituru Hanae Sachiko might've been one of them).
They both support Yutaka Tsuchiya's controversial drama The New God, which is playing on-line on Firecracker TV and Sinozaki's old guy's take revenge film Not Forgotten.
There're others too, but as I mentioned before, I don't recall them. Seek out the issue!
fuck! you let us down. big style. tom, jasper? i ain't hitting them with emails, doesn't feel right.
i know tom thinks highly of 'dead or alive 2'. for me, it's perhaps the miike, bar 'bird people in china', that hit me hardest between the eyes. he also seems particualarly keen on 'kishiwada shonen gurentai : chikimuri junjo-hen'; i'm planning on framing my original poster of this, this weekend, to give my rather bloody-looking 'deadly outlaw rekka' one a rest. :)
You know, I think that Tom did mention Kishiwada Shonen Gurentai too, now that you mention it. Good films, both of them.
Sorry to let you down. Buy the mag and post the list here!
(BTW, I've asked Tom or Jasper to hook me up with the list or to possibly reprint it on Midnighteye so I can link to it. I'm waiting for their response.)
-Nicholas
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