Just a quick head's up that I'll be moderating a discussion with one of my favorite filmmakers, Shinya Tsukamoto, at the Tribeca Film Festival. He'll be in town supporting the rather badass TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN. The discussion will be happening THIS Saturday, April 24th, 2010 at the Apple Retail Store in SoHo, Manhattan. (103 Prince Street NY, NY)
Three random bits of trivia:
If it weren't for Tsukamoto, I wouldn't be as much of a Japanese film dork as I am.
If it weren't for Tsukamoto, I likely wouldn't have pursued filmmaking. I'd probably be making a living recycling bottles and searching the beach for loose change with a metal detector.
The SoHo Apple Store is right next door to my old Post Office, where I had my PO BOX for 6 years. (Coincidence? Or evidence of fate's hand?)
TETSUO: THE BULLET MAN will be having its US PREMIER at the Tribeca Film Festival on these dates:
Sun, Apr 25, 9:00PM
Village East Cinema 1
Tue, Apr 27, 7:30PM
Village East Cinema 7
Fri, Apr 30, 4:30PM
Village East Cinema 7
Sat, May 01, 11:45PM
Village East Cinema
It's a new cut that he spent all fall and winter working on, as I understand it, and I believe that Nine Inch Nails was involved in the new theme music, if I'm not mistaken. (Update: I haven't been able to confirm this, but I'll likely ask about this on Saturday. Stay tuned!)
So if you're in NYC, please do stop by the discussion. It's free and frankly, this is an unusually rare opportunity to hear the master speak about his art. Both lead actor Eric Bossick and producer Masayuki Tanishima, are also slated to attend the discussion.
Back in 1995 when I first went to Japan I found myself in a particularly bad spot. I had no money, I was alone in Tokyo, I knew no one, it was お正月, and I for reasons that are way too complicated to explain here had half of my belongings including my passport and flight ticket stuck over on the other side of the country. In short, I was royally screwed and without a plan.
Now, when you're down and out like this you either roll up into a little ball and give up or you draw power from different sources and fight back. I fought back and drew my power from Japanese film and music. Specifically noise and experimental (industrial) stuff. Things like Tsukamoto Shinya's TETSUO (鉄男) and the music of Ishikawa Chu's (石川忠) band (and Tsukamoto's composer of choice) Der Eisenrost. It was during this trip that I got my hands on my first Der Eisenrost music collection.
Here's quick write-up about the band, that I stole from their website:
"DER EISENROST" are formed back in April 1993 ,And since then, we have been appealing our metal-percussion with heavy rock and punk musical style to audience. In December 1993,Released live and studio mixed CD ;ARMORED WEAPON" from Jpan overseas label.. On December 1995, D.E.Rreleased"TOKYO FIST" on CD. It was soundtracks of SHINYA TSUKAMOTO's films"TOKYO FIST". 2 years after, DVD"TOKYO FIST" D.E.R.'s live video by SHINYA TSUKAMOTO special tracks. Live DVD out in 2005. We playing many club and musical festival, Some audience said "You are cool and so crazy!" "Your style are only you style!"In Japan, In 1993-1995 D.E.R .played with Esplendor Geometrico,dive(klink). [MIX2000] was famous big festival with 100 over bands in Sapporo Hokkaido.Joined from U.S. U.K.and many country. [Drive to 2000] 10days about 117bands. D.E.R. proud to join in this special program.DER EISENROST's metal percussion instruments are all made by ISHIKAWA. He has made so many instruments from metal scraps such as engine tank of a truck and wheels of motorbikes. At their live performances, the metallic beats generate more speed and tension than "TETSUO" film.
Of course, I would've loved nothing more than to have actually seen them perform live, but alas I wasn't able to. That said, for many years I've enjoyed Ishikawa's soundtrack work for Tsukamoto. Most recently I finally got around to watching Tsukamoto's entry into the omnibus film FEMALE (his entry is called TAMAMUSHI - 玉虫) and while I will review that soon here, it has a score by Ishikawa Chu that is very reminiscent of SNAKE OF JUNE (六月の蛇). This got me thinking about what ever happened to Ishikawa's band Der Eisenrost? I know that he's been working steadily, but is this band kaput?
No, in fact. It turns out that they're alive and well -- they just played a show at the end of Sept. in Osaka (!!) -- and have a recently updated MySpace page along with an (somewhat) English friendly homepage. Nice!
Listening to these old tracks on MySpace, after all of these years it's amazing to think that these guys are still collaborating and are even making commercially successful films together, like NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE 1 & 2 (悪夢探偵). (Don't know whethere ND2 will be successful or not, but you get what I mean.)
Anyway, here are some links to the Der Eisenrost stuff . Enjoy the music. I find that it makes me want to get to work and kick some ass. (Or get to work, kicking ass.)
On-line postings about the long rumored AKIRA live action US remake (perhaps) finally getting some traction has pissed off a load of fans in Japan-- inflaming comment boards on Mixi and the infamous Nichanneru.
But why now? The AKIRA remake has been one of those long planned projects that has (rightly) been in limbo for four years.
Well, as shown below, Warner Bros. has been trying to fast track it before tomorrow's long dreaded and looming writer's strike and apparently someone picked up on the following blurb from bloody-disgusting.com and translated it into Japanese. Now fans in Nippon are bristling with self-righteous indignity and calling for blood.
Here's the inflaming post:
One of the greatest post-apocalyptic thrillers ever told was the animated Manga Akira, which saw an announcement wayyyy back in July of 2003 that James Robinson would pen the adaptation with director Steven Norrington. I'm sure this has long passed, but we do have something official that just leaked to us through the grapevine, something that's going to blow your socks off. We've been informed that Warner Bros. Pictures is trying to get Akira off the ground pre-strike and have attached 29-year-old Oscar nominated Irish director Ruairi Robinson! No more details have been revealed other than he directed a mind blowing short film entitled The Silent City, which can be viewed over at BDTV. Watch this spot for more news soon and cross your fingers that this sucker gets rolling ASAP. (LINK)
Hey, you know what? The Japanese fans are absolutely right to be pissed off about this. But before they grab their pitchforks and torches let's remind them that there's another Kurosawa Akira remake about to happen in Japan and if they act fast they can stop it. (Link to this via Twitchfilm.net)
So, I got it on good authority that one of my all-time favorite filmmakers Tsukamoto Shinya (Tetsuo etc)-- and a major reason why I got so interested in Japanese filmmaking in the first place -- will be following up his 2007 hit movie Nightmare Detective (aka. Akumu Tantei) with a sequel that starts shooting in July.
This sequel info had been previously reported on Ryuganji, back in March but without the dates that production was to start. Matsuda Ryuhei will reprise his role. Link
Hurray!
Update 6-19-07: I learned recently that apparently Tsukamoto Shinya will be shooting NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE parts 2 and 3 in succession. I wonder if this was inspired by the recent success of DEATH NOTE 1 & 2?
