ICHI & Electric Dragon 80000V in Toronto

[Colin Geddes]

Just to let all KineJapan list members know, ELECTRIC DRAGON 80,000V 
will be screened as part of the Midnight Madness programme of the 
Toronto International FIlm Festival. Sadly Sogo Ishii will be unable 
to attend because he is going on a ten day fast!

Also from Japan this year in the Midnight Madness programme is the 
yakuza/samurai/zombie action film VERSUS by Ryuhei Kitamura and Miike 
Takashi's ICHI THE KILLER. Ichi is sick as expected from Miike and 
follows the manga almost panel for panel at times. The violence is so 
over the top and exaggerated that it is unmarketable in the West in 
my opinion. As it says in the promo material, "Makes Battle Royale 
look like child's play."

If you can make it to Toronto, you'll have a blast! The full list 
comes out in a few weeks.

http://www.bell.ca/filmfest

Now if we can just work a sponsorship deal with the Midnight Madness 
programme and Midnighteye.com......

Cheers
Colin Geddes



>I appreciate Don Brown's raising of Electric Dragon as a topic on 
>the list (refreshing
>after all the 'can you help me find this?' postings). But I would 
>like to challenge the
>implicit agreement he seeks (via his 'undoubtedly') in calling this 
>a dumb film. I'd like
>to know what Don says about the 'well hidden' brain of this film; 
>perhaps we aren't be in
>such disagreement.
>
>To me, this film is very 'intelligent' for a variety of reasons: 
>manga/anime, music video
>clip and narrative feature mixture, it plays on and with these forms 
>via an overarching
>theme of electricity. The retro-manga/US comic book story about how 
>a heavy dose of
>electricity has fried the rational higher level brain functions of 
>our hero, partially
>desroying their repressive function so that the 'primal' dragon 
>element of the brain
>always threatens to overflow into his reality and destroy him and it 
>may be less than
>'serious', 'diginified' and 'realistic' as per the traditional 
>expectations of live action
>feature narrative film. But it allows for a film that explores and 
>revels in intense
>affects and sound-images of extremity  that try to perform (rather 
>than represent) power,
>overflowing, collision, the loss of reason etc. The retro allusion 
>to industrial modernity
>(machines, electric guitars, steel and sparks and so forth) works 
>well with the dated
>narrative about electricity in an age when 'data' flows along 
>optical fibre register the
>modern cutting edge. The film has a wry nostalgia for the poetics of 
>(industrial) power
>and its potential for reappropriation that punk and heavy metal at 
>its best often achieved
>in a late romantic fashion.
>
>Don Brown wrote:
>
>>   It's undoubtedly a dumb
>>  movie, of the disengage-brain-at-the-door variety, but it does have one of
>>  its own (well hidden).  I liked it a lot.
>>
>
>Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii;
>  name="Patrick.Crogan.vcf"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>Content-Description: Card for patrick
>Content-Disposition: attachment;
>  filename="Patrick.Crogan.vcf"
>
>Attachment converted: Mr.Geddes:Patrick.Crogan.vcf (TEXT/ttxt) (0005FDF1)

-- 
Colin Geddes

HEADS UP! PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE USING MY
CURRENT EMAIL ADDRESS <ultra8 at sympatico.ca>
THAT OLD <interlog> ADDRESS WILL CLOSE SOON

To check out my latest screenings, go to...

http://www3.sympatico.ca/ultra8/kungfufridays.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------