<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV></DIV>...are rather like busses. You wait for ages for one to come along then three appear at the same time!
<DIV></DIV>Still, London fans of Japanese cinema certainly won't be finding their appetites unsated at the end of October. I posted a while back that the Raindance Festival in London is planning to showcase a number of prominent independent features from the past few years including Miike's VISITOR Q and Hiroki Ruichi's TOKYO TRASH BABY or whatever they've now decided to call it (TOKYO GOMI ONNA in Japanese).
<DIV></DIV>Well, at EXACTLY the same time the ICA are giving us Confronting the Future: the new producers of Japanese Cinema running from 19-10-2001 to 25-10-2001. The plural "new producers" of this misleading title is actually the defiantly singular figure of Takenori Sento. The schedule hasn't been confirmed yet, even though a seminar conducted by Tony Rayns has (with Sento-san present), but I had a chat with the programmer at the ICA and he mentioned a handful of (unconfirmed) titles that included Boys Choir, Gojoe, M/Other and Electric Dragon 80000V. He also mentioned that though the London Film Festival (in November) has exclusive screening rights to Bad Company, ICA are looking into a video release for the film.
<DIV></DIV>The ICA are in fact screening so many films that it'll be a full time job watching them all (yet alone writing about them), so what the *@&! the Barbican are doing putting on the Studio Ghibli Animation Festival at the same time (20-10-2001 to 11-11-2001) I really don't know. More proof that no one in this heaving capital actually communicates with each other. Still, hopefully it'll give me the chance to watch PORCO ROSSO.
<DIV></DIV>You can guarantee that press coverage/promotion/interest in London for all these events will be absolutely zero, but don't let that distract you.
<DIV></DIV>Finally, if all this is proving too much of a strain on your wallet, then the Japan Embassy are doing a load of free screenings throughout the twilight months of 2001 including Furuhata's Poppoya and Hideyuki Hirayama's Haunted School (Gakko no kaidan 4).
<DIV></DIV>None of the individual groups mentioned here have got any details on their websites yet, so I suggest all UK dwellers either check the www.japan2001.org.uk website right now, or alteratively have a look at Midnight Eye's calendar of events.
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<DIV></DIV><BR>Jasper Sharp<BR><BR>Midnight Eye - japan_cult_cinema
<DIV></DIV>www.midnighteye.com
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