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feature films · hawaii film festival · hiff · honolulu · indie film · judge · movies · oahu · Reviews Cinema · waikiki · Oct 14, 2011

Hawaii International Film Festival Judging

It’s been a year and HIFF is starting now. Check out their site HIFF.ORG. As many of you in Hawaii already know, that if you miss it here, you’ll have missed it completely. I’ll also be judging this film festival’s Features Competition section, so yes, I’ll be out there to see some films and take it in the events. I shall remain impartial and do what I can. You’d think that judging is easy and fun, but when you think about it, these films have the investment of some people’s lives. Doing this right, matters to me. Also judging is Tamlyn Tomita, 25 years after Karate Kid II. Yes, I am the man who is still fighting for her honor.

9/11 · battle royale · battle royale ii · black panthers · david z morris · japan · japanese hip hop · junichiro koizumi · k dub shine · king giddra · metal gear solid 2 · metal gear solid 2: sons of liberty · movies · new york times · News · ps2 · september 11 · shinzo abe · sons of liberty · South Korea · the host · video games · zeebra · Sep 11, 2011

9/11 in Japanese Pop Culture

A decade has passed since Al Qaeda’s attack on the World Trade Center. Multiple news sources have commemorated the event as a moment of self-reflection in which America and the world have evolved–for better or worse–in the Post-9/11 world. Salon ran a story by Matt Zoller Seitz describing some of the ways in which popular culture changed and reacted to the event. We know about America. How did the rest of Asia fare? Mark Austin recalled what it was like in the newsroom at the Daily Yomiuri when both planes struck America’s shoulders. Nothing too interesting to tell and as far as I know, no one has openly recalled on this anniversary of anniversaries how the War on Terror influenced Japanese pop culture. Let’s start with cinema. Battle Royale II: Requiem contained several less than subtle references to the landscape of the time. The most unsettling part about the sequel is that the survivors of the first film formed their own terrorist cell called the “Wild Seven.” The movie veered dangerously close to glorifying terrorism and resistance as a mode of existential relevancy. For video games, Konami released Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, shortly after the attacks. The moral ambiguity of the terrorist antagonists of the game didn’t cause any substantial changes or delays. However, developer Hideo Kojima had to make some last minute changes to the script and cut scenes where downtown “Arsenal Gear” devastated Ellis Island and downtown Manhattan. He further more removed a scene where the American flag fell on the Solidus’s corpse. Additionally, Japan’s Hip Hop scene had a few words of their own to say on the matter. The controversial rap group, King Giddra, released their single, “911,” on the first anniversary of the attack. They criticized the hypocrisy of America’s War on Terror and the Japanese government’s complicity in America’s grand agenda. With the exception of Hideo Kojima, these twoexamples represent a moment in which America’s position in the world came into question. To a certain extent, I wonder whether it marked a moment where Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution on the country’s pacifism came into question. As we all remember, 9/11 eventually led to the Iraq War and then Prime Minister Koizumi supported the invasion with a provision of troops from the Japanese Self Defense Force. America’s inability to secure an immediate victory further called the article’s legitimacy into doubt. If America couldn’t protect itself or prevail as a super power, then how are they going to safeguard Japan? No sooner than this, then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a review of the constitution in 2007 to endow Japan with a stronger role in the world and bolster the country’s national pride. What I’m getting at is that 9/11 may have temporarily thrown the ball further into the Japanese Right’s court. K Dub Shine of King Giddra possessed some right wing views of his own. He produced the soundtrack to the Sakura of Madness film where a Neo-Tojo gang targets...

daniel wu · movies · Reviews Cinema · Aug 19, 2011

Daniel Wu and Martial Arts Movies

Our friend and contributor Daniel Wu is working on yet another project. It’s not just making movies, that’s old, he’s doing that, but finding that next martial arts star? Yes. So who is this new youngster? Is he a wushu star? A Shaolin monk? Will Smith’s son? – not. (China Daily – Daniel Wu)

2 girls 1 cup · akihiro kitamura · cup chicks · dieter laser · film · hokkaido · horror · human centipede · japan · movies · News · sapporo · tom six · wtf · Aug 09, 2011

Human Centipede Comes to Japan. Seriously.

It’s been well over a year since the infamous Human Centipede film made its theatrical release in America and it looks like it finally hit the Japanese market. According to IMDB, the film gained distribution in Tokyo on July 2, 2011. For those that don’t know, Human Centipede is a horror movie about a mad scientist who surgically grafts three people together…from anus to mouth. As a result, they each share the same digestive tract in the worst way imaginable. Fans and critics have both described it as the “2 Girls, 1 Cup” of horror. Japan’s pop culture is reputably the land of “WTF.” I bet the movie’s marketers thought long and hard to think of ways to out-weird the movie’s original premise. This advertisement is the end result.

biracial · documentaries · Features · hafu · hapa · interviews · japan · japanese americans · movies · nikkei · Jul 14, 2011

Interview: Filmmakers Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi – The Hafu Documentary

From left to right: Megumi Nishikura, Marcia Yumi Lise, and Lara Perez Takagi. Photo credit: Ryu Kodama.

Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi are two filmmakers living in Tokyo, Japan. Their next project, The Hafu Documentary, focuses on a lesser-known part of Japan’s demographic: biracial individuals. Hafu is the Japanese loan word for half-Japanese. The documentary features a Mexican-Japanese family (the Oi’s), a Ghanian-Japanese model named David, a Venezualan-Japanese community organizer named Ed, an Australian-Japanese expatriot named Sophia, and lastly, an unannounced Hafu of mixed Japanese and Asian descent. Both Nishikura and Takagi are half-Japanese themselves and I last interviewed them before the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. Once again, they take time out from their busy schedules to discuss their documentary and its progress since then.

Lara and Megumi in action. Photo credit: Michael Connolly.

Giant Robot: How has production progressed so far?

Megumi Nishikura: “Sophia” is the fourth person. We put up a new image for her on the website. [When we first met her] it all came naturally. She wanted to show that she was part of this movie. She has her own blog and started writing about her participation in the film, and she tweets about us now and then. Her story is on the website and she grew up in Sydney, [Australia]. She spent a few summers in Japan here and there visiting her relatives, but doesn’t have too much experience in Japan. Last year, she decided that this was her last chance. If she didn’t take it now then she would never come and live here. She moved here and is tried to find a job, take Japanese lessons, and figure her way out while abroad.