KineJun Best Ten 2001

[Stephen Cremin]

For those on the list who don't recognise the Japanese titles of the 
Kinema Junpo Best Ten, here are the official English titles with 
directors listed.

01. GO (Yukisada Isao)
02. HUSH! (Hashiguchi Ryosuke)
03. SPIRITED AWAY (Miyazaki Hayao)
04. EUREKA (Aoyama Shinji)
05. KAZAHANA (Somai Shinji)
06. BAD COMPANY (Furumaya Tomoyuki)
07. ALL ABOUT LILY CHOU-CHOU (Iwai Shunji)
08. WATERBOYS (Yaguchi Shinobu)
09. RAIN OF LIGHT (Takahashi Banmei)
10. WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE (Imamura Shohei)

Personally, I'm completely thrilled to see GO at number one in such a 
(usually) conservative poll.  It was the most exciting film I saw last 
year and Kubozuka knocked Asano and Ando off the map.  Like others on 
this list I never had much time for him before and thought his acting in 
the forthcoming LAUNDRY was overshadowed by Koyuki and Naito Takashi.  
It's playing this week at the Palm Springs festival on the West Coast 
for anybody in the area.

GO was released in Korea in late November following its presentation at 
Pusan International Film Festival.  Word of mouth was sensational, but 
the release was just too small for it to take off despite great posters, 
etc.  At the Pusan screening, the audience was literally screaming at 
the stage guests ... could just be hysteria given that none of the 
director or stars' other work is legally available in Korea.  And with 
Kubozuka sporting a completely bald head for work on PING PONG I don't 
think he had any magnetism off the screen.

Stephen