Angelinos! Kurosawa Kiyoshi Coming to LA 3/10!

Hi Blog,

Just learned that Kurosawa Kiyoshi will be giving a talk at a Japan Film Festival** symposium next Tuesday, March 10th!

I've met him several times and even had an opportunity to interpret for him and can promise you that it's well worth your time to attend this talk. (Plus, it's free!) Not only is Kurosawa one of the best directors currently working in Japan, he's also very intelligent and articulate with an encyclopedic knowledge of world cinema -- as to be expect from a man who is both a professor and critical film theorist.

Japan Film Festival Symposium co-hosted by JVTA/ UCLA-JABA
Theme: Creating Films for an International Audience

Date: March 10 (Tue)
Time: Open 4:30pm　Start 5:00pm
Place: UCLA Korn Convocation Hall
Admission: Free

Special Guest: Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Japan Film Festival Committee and Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy are proud to present prolific Japanese director; Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Mr. Kurosawa will speak about his experiences as a director and explain how to correlate Japanese culture through film. There will be a Q&A session at the end of this presentation.

Do not miss this exciting event!!

Due to the limited seating, please RSVP to contact@jffla.org with your name and number of attendees.

http://www.jffla.org/event?lang=en

Incidentally, I'm betting that the Japan Film Festival will screen TOKYO SONATA, even though it played at the LA Film Festival last November.

Link to the Midnight Eye interview with Kurosawa Kiyoshi.

Here's the trailer for one of my personal Kurosawa faves, CURE:



** This is the same film festival that I spoke at last year.

Death and the Debt Collectors

Hi Blog,

This isn't Japan† related, but I'm posting it because, well, I've been waiting for this day to come for a while now. Today's NY Times has what I felt is a mindbogglingly horrifying article on debt collecting from the recently deceased.

So why am I posting about it? Well, you see, I've long believed that it's only a matter of time before the collection agencies figure out how to enter the afterlife -- FLATLINERS like -- and get their payments* and this article appears to be the first broad step in that direction. The question is, how will they exact the payment? I think it'll be indentured servitude via the afterlife. Something like setting up a database or call a center from the land of the dead or something like that. (The plus side for the corporations is that the undead a) don't get tired and therefore don't need breaks and b) no health care costs or worker's comp claims to contend with.)

Anyway, you can read the article here and be gobsmacked by the total lack of decency and class that the DCM folks are operating under. I was particularly impressed by the three-week sensitivity training course that the operators undergo to better cajole the money out of the bereaved-- who incidentally are under no obligation to pay back the deceased's debt, but are never alerted to this fact.

"New hires at DCM train for three weeks in what the company calls “empathic active listening,” which mixes the comforting air of a funeral director with the nonjudgmental tones of a friend. The new employees learn to use such anger-deflecting phrases as “If I hear you correctly, you’d like...”

“You get to be the person who cares,” the training manager, Autumn Boomgaarden, told a class of four new hires."

What a bunch of vultures.

Try reading the article while listening to Faith No More's classic: 'Surprise! You're Dead!' I've embeded it below.



† Apparently in Japan there is a responsibility to pay debt, but this can be passed on to other (more distant) family members if the appropriate forms are filed with the government. But do you really want to mess with Japanese debt collectors - aka. the Yakuza?

* Incidentally, some people believe that this won't be the case. They feel that in fact credit will be given against your future offspring's indentured servitude. Could be...

That queasy feeling you have in your stomach? It's the bugs.

Hi Blog,

People collect bugs in Japan. This isn't the something just for kids-- but in fact adults, with paychecks, buy them in stores or even on Yahoo! Auction.

Look this one here ->

Costs 4100円。

(Here's the auction page if you want to buy it.)

Anyhoo, it appears that sometimes folks also collect bugs to watch them fight. And sometimes they record these fights and post them on the interwubs with pro-wrestling announcements and flying graphics. Like this site: Japanesebugfights.com.

Before you think that this is a free-for-all, apparently there are rules. Three of them. And they are not to be broken. ("Rule 3: No Outside Weapons." !?)


I will freely admit that I couldn't stop watching these videos and that I had the creeps the whole time. That queasy feeling you have in your stomach? It's the bugs.

Here're a couple of the fights. (For some reason, the folks who do this site love fighting with scorpions. I've tried to mix it up a bit.)











Oh! And if you have your own bug fights that you've recorded and want to share with Japan Bug Fights, go for it! There's a submission link on their front page.

Dozo.

Midnight Eye Best of 2008!

Hi Blog,

Woah, so I'm like totally, totally, really, unbelievably late in posting this. And I'm sure that most of you fine folks who read this blog have already checked it out so maybe this is totally useless, and yet I'll announce it nonetheless...

The Midnight Eye Best of 2008 list is finally up on-line! As usual, I'm represented there. This is something like year seven for me to contribute to the list and as always, you should keep in mind that this is just one man's opinion. (For better or for worse...)

The one film that I would've totally added to my list if I had seen it in time is Johnnie To's SPARROW. What an amazing film. It's as if LE SAMOURAI were a light-footed musical with some Johnnie To ELECTION tossed in for good measure. Anyway, it'll undoubtedly show up on my best of 2009 list, just as a super advanced head's up.

Here's the link.

Out of the Darkness Now Playing in NYC!

Hi Blog,

My film Out of the Darkness has been playing on Monday nights in NYC-- in Elmhurst, Queens specifically-- this month (Feb '09) as part of a screening series called CINEMONDAYS. I know there's only like, ONE more Monday left this month, but if you can swing by the Terraza 7 Train Cafe, you can see it along with some other short films. You know, maybe have a drink there as well.

Terraza 7 Train Café
40-19 Gleane Street
Elmhurst, NY 11373

Info here.

ウララ ウララ ウラウララ〜♪ Time for a Yamamoto Linda Hip Thrust

Hi Blog,

Ooh la la indeed!!

Getting bogged down here in writing and desperately need a pick me up. Sure a shot of espresso or a some ice cubes down the pants could work, but it's not nearly as satisfying as watching the glorious sequined 1970s bombshell Yamamoto Linda belt out some tunes courtesy of the old YouTube time machine.

Up first, 狙いうち (Nerai-Uchi! - Aim and Fire!):



Up next, どうにもとまらない (Donimo tomaranai! - Can't Stop Myself!):



いいね！If you like her stuff, there's plenty more of it on line. I leave you to find it on your own. (BTW, she's not nearly as interesting now... But that's the way it goes, I suppose...)

Studio 4ºC UPDATE: Genius Party Box Set & Mind Game in Los Angeles

Hi Blog,

I'm happy to report to two tasty bite-sized bits of Studio 4ºC news: the mind-blowingly awesome and totally worth your time in every way possible anime MIND GAME will play in Los Angeles this FRIDAY night at midnight. Although it's a digital projection (can't be helped, I suppose) it is Studio 4ºC sanctioned and as such, it should be supported.

Now why should you go and see this? Two reasons really: it is one of the most inspiring films I've seen in a long time -- seriously, you will leave the theater reassessing and reprioritizing your life. Also, you will come to an perspective shifting realization that animation in the west is trapped in some 20th century stasis like a mosquito in amber while Studio 4ºC's animation has been created and broadcast to us like Ranman aliens with higher evolved aesthetics and execution. (Or something.)

Anyhoo, do see the film. It's playing at the Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles. Friday. Midnight. Details here.

Also, I just received an email from a producer at Studio 4ºC and she is happy to announce that the uber-excellent GENIUS PARTY and GENIUS PARTY BEYOND will be released this March in a 3-disc box set in Japan. Although, Midnight Eye has been slow to post our critical picks for 2008, those two films easily made my best of list and if I ever get off of my ass and write it, I have a lot of thoughts to share about those films that I'd like to put in a review.

But, come on Rucka, is GENIUS PARTY really that good? Well, to be frank, since it's an 'omnibus' collection there's the good stuff and the not so good stuff. But what's always so cool about watching a Studio 4ºC release is that when the good stuff works, MAN does it work! As the west trends towards photo-realism and CGI, Studio 4ºC is working on challenging the very form of anime: from experimenting with the use of voice talent all the way to choosing new ways of photographing and animating their cell animation. (Some of it bordering on experimentalism.)

Maybe, eventually, we'll see this kind of fresh thinking out here in the west. But in the meantime, I'm sure it'll show up on the internubs on March 21st with sub par fansubs (although, it could be like the MIND GAME DVD and have excellent subs already on it?) and that'll be the way that the fans will be able to watch it until a proper export edition comes out...

You can buy it through Amazon Japan.

Lots and LOTS of previous posts about MIND GAME and Studio 4ºC here!

Interview that I did with the head of Studio 4ºC, Ms. Eiko Tanaka, here!