Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
The bad or even sometimes good guys who get split open in samurai movies get forgotten, but there’s one who’s been at it for decades and he’s still going. Some might think it’s easy to die with a sword, but evidently it’s not. He’s been killed on screen 50,000 times. Is that even possible? A charming story. (NPR – samurai)
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Hunger Games / Battle Royale? The author of Hunger Games does something so similar and then gives the famous line of “I didn’t know about the other” line. It’s the oldest tactic of ripping something else off. Imagine, editors and staff (tons of them) at publishing houses, literary agents, publishers who passed on the project, friends perhaps, and none could say, “this is a Battle Royale copy?” Not one ever saw the big cult hit movie? (North County Public Radio – Hunger Games)
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The film is actually called Daylight Savings. It’s debuting at the SXSW film festival, but a day later, it’s in SF. The tickets are available at CAAM. It’s the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. That’s Goh Nakamura (right) and Ayako Fujitani (left).
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Michelle Yeoh promoting The Lady in a Q and A we didn’t do. That said, it’s great that she’s found a role that’s not just swashbuckling or ass kicking, but using her abilities as an actress. That’s the role that she needed to progress in her career. What’s next? A film with Korean American Gina Kim. (Filmbiz – Michelle Yeoh)
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It’s hard to write about 3.11 from this side of the planet. I watched the horrors on television, Ustream, and Twitter just an hour or so after attending an after event for an exhibition by James Jean, where I stood when I heard about the quake and tsunami. Like 9.11, you’ll remember what you were doing and who was around when you heard, and like with most, I experienced the devastation virtually. Living just a few blocks away, I’ve known filmmaker Shunji Iwai for a bit over a year as he was working on projects outside of Japan. He often discussed his life in America that didn’t include a need to work in Japan any time soon. Over many meals, he talked about the quake and had powerful views of how dangerous the radiation was for Tokyoites and of course the surrounding areas of Fukushima. Depressed, he was positive that if he was in Tokyo, he’d have moved far away as should everyone else. He knew the media was lying. He newly established an office, staff, had a completed film “Vampire,” and before I knew it he left America nearly overnight for Osaka. I’ve often wondered how my neighbor was doing. Just the other day I ran into him on Facebook. He messaged me that he’d send me his film about 3.11. I only loosely heard of his project and expected something that would be cinematic – in his way. It’s not. At least that’s what I thought at first. By the end, it is. It’s more of what can be thought of as a text book on film that’s heavy with interviews. As you’d expect there will be scenes of wreckage, but what Iwai captures is also his own experience that he shares with his new friends including a young girl activist. He too is experiencing the scenes, explanation and people as you are when you watch it. It’s not cinematic in a sense that he’s not trying to sway your emotions with pretty shots, but you are pushed deeply into understanding what 3.11 means from angles of indie media, nuclear plants, locals, professors, involved actors, and more. I was most touched by a professor in Kyoto who’s remarks about the children affected by the radiation was especially touching and only then does his film crescendo into something that I could see crafted by Iwai’s hands. It’s all in the last last few minutes that you realize his artistic vision for this film.
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