Thursday, December 13, 2007

おそいひと ー Late Bloomer


Hi Blog,

My close friend Shibata Go's long finished delirious psycho freak-out LATE BLOOMER (Osoi hito) has finally started its official theatrical run in Japan this past December 1st at PorePore Higashi Nakano ポレポレ東中野. Telling of Sumida - a barely ambulatory handicap man who speaks with the aid of a Japanese speak and spell-- and how he becomes a serial murderer, it is one of my favorite films that's come out of Japan in the past five years.

There's nothing I can say here that I haven't already written about on Midnighteye (Shibata interview link), so I'll leave you with those links. Suffice to say, Shibata has earned his moment in the sun-- this film has taken almost 7 years to get to this point. Seriously. Regardless of what you might think of the film, it's nice that Shibata can finally put this film to rest and get on to newer projects (of which I can't speak about at the moment). お疲れ様!

Oh and one more thing, my review has been translated and quoted on both the Chirashi for the film and on the website; how's that for nepotism?



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've been wanting to see this since you showed me a clip years ago. Hopefully this means it may be easier in the future, AWESOME!
-grey

Nicholas Rucka said...

Well, with any luck you'll be seeing it soon on DVD. Tidepoint Pictures owns the US rights (I introduced them to the film, of course). Check out their for more info.

Jason Gray said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jason Gray said...

It was great to see this film in competition at Tokyo FILMeX back in 2004 (!). Glad it finally got a theatrical release. Will have to roll down to Porepore and check it out again (and grab the chirashi).

Nicholas Rucka said...

Hey Jason-- Thanks for stopping in! Definitely catch it once again on the big screen if you can. I know that it's playing the late show at Pore Pore, but I think it's a good film to see with an audience and also nice and loud.
-Nicholas

Anonymous said...

almost looks like chris cunningham and richard jamese made a feature film together... nice.

Nicholas Rucka said...

You got it, but with a twist of scum punk. Camera technology is a bit dated now, but that's kind of the aesthetic it rocks.

Jason Gray said...

This was a headline on the Bunka Tsushin site today:

「ポレポレ東中野公開中「おそいひと」、ロングラン上映決定 (12/18)」

Nicholas Rucka said...

Thanks for the head's up, Jason. I went to the site and.... what you pasted is what I found. How come it's not hyperlinked? Is it a subscription site?

Anyway, glad to see its finally getting its dues. I know that Shibata's very happy about this. It must be a huge relief.