UK Japanese Film Events

[J.sharp]

> Its such an annoyance all these things going on over the pond so to speak,
> we in England need more Japanese cinema events.

There are plenty of Japanese film-related events in the coming months going
on in the UK, and ones to suit every taste and interest.

I posted a few weeks ago to the list about several of these. The details are
up already on www.midnighteye.com/calendar/index.shtml.

Raindance Film Festival in London is going on as we speak, and while some of
the screenings have been rather poorly attended, mainly due to poor press
coverage for the Asian section and strange scheduling times (Dear Pyonyang
for example really suffered), this weekend’s screenings of Little Birds,
Moon and Cherry and A Stranger of Mine were incredibly well attended and
well-received. Stranger of Mine practically got a standing ovation.

Probably too late you to attend this, but I will mention again the
independent animator Koji Yamamura will be in London to introduce his works
on  16 October 2006 from 6.30pm, in a FREE event hosted by the Japan
Foundation, and is later going on to the Norwich Film Festival,

Most importantly for me is the Compass of Horror event in Bristol on
November 4-5th in the Arnolfini, which I have been involved in from the
start. The Eastern point will be screening Rampo Noir, and Alex Zahlten,
Hisayasu Sato and myself will be giving a talk about the origins and history
of Japanese horror.

I did post about this before, the official website is now online, so read
and weep with joy
: www.compass-film.co.uk/

These are all ones I have mentioned before.
The other definite is the Wild Japan Outlaws season of classic Japanese cult
films, which features “Twelve ultra-rare film prints. Wild Japan : Outlaw
Masters plays at the National Film Theatre from 3rd November before touring
Filmhouse Edinburgh & GFT (Glasgow) in late November/December and Watershed
(Bristol)/Showroom (Sheffield)/Irish Film Institute (Dublin) in early 2007.”

Actually, the program for this looks pretty interesting – as well as
presenting the usual suspects such as FEMALE CONVICT SCORPION and BRANDED TO
KILL, there’s a few wildcards in the program, including JIGOKU, Nobuhiro
Kobayashi’s HOUSE, and FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES.

I don’t think the website is ready yet, but the url is
www.bfi.org.uk/wildjapan, so bookmark it for the future.

I’ve been involved in several of these projects, and I’ll also reveal that I
have a couple of others in the hatching for 2007, the only one which I can
really say anything about is the Japan Foundation touring program that will
be happening next year, which will show a lot of really good recent releases
of the type deemed “uncommercial” (ie not horror!) by distributors.

In other words, I think the next couple of months and beyond are shaping up
pretty well for UK film fans given how logistically difficult it is to get
prints from Japan and persuade venues that there is a good reason to show
all this stuff. And the UK is a lot smaller than the States, so there’s no
need to jump on a plane if you don’t live in places like London, Bristol,
Edinburgh, Sheffield, etc.

Anyway, I'd be happy to talk more about any of these events, and certainly
look forward to seeing any Kinejapanners who can make any of them.


Jasper Sharp

--
Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
www.midnighteye.com

===

Available now in bookstores everywhere:
The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film (Stone Bridge Press)
by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp
http://www.midnighteye.com/features/midnighteye_guide.shtml
"Easily one of the most important books on Japanese cinema ever released in
English."
- Newtype USA



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