Comprising international premieres, short programs, and some of the country’s finest-ever films in new restorations, 2024’s Japan Cuts––running July 10-21 at New York’s Japan Society––has been unveiled. It’s in the festival’s nature that numerous works and directors are lesser-known on American shores, though a cursory search has one regularly stopping: new films by Takeshi Kitano (Kubi), Shunji Iwai (Kyrie), Shinya Tsukamoto (Shadow of Fire), and Gakuryu Ishii (The Box Man) populate the selection. Meanwhile, Hideaki Anno’s modern classic Shin Godzilla debuts in a new, black-and-white cut Shin Godzilla: ORTHOchromatic.
Its classics section is three-for-three: Ishii’s August in the Water, Shinji Somai’s Moving, and Toshiharu Ikeda Mermaid Legend, which is more or less one of the greatest films ever made. One can anticipate at least a couple of Japan Cuts’ current unknowns are tomorrow’s figureheads.
See the full lineup below:...
Its classics section is three-for-three: Ishii’s August in the Water, Shinji Somai’s Moving, and Toshiharu Ikeda Mermaid Legend, which is more or less one of the greatest films ever made. One can anticipate at least a couple of Japan Cuts’ current unknowns are tomorrow’s figureheads.
See the full lineup below:...
- 6/4/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The dark fantasy “Flashback Before Death” is the directorial debut of composer Hiroyuki Onogawa, who is best known for his collaborations with Sogo Ishii, and his wife Rii Ishihara. Set in 1930s Japan, the director tells an eerie story about death and sorrow.
Flashback Before Death is screening at Japan Cuts
After completing his studies in France to become a translator, Kikuo, played by Masatoshi Kihara, returns home to his sister Tsuruha (Hanae Seike). It is a stormy and gloomy night as she embraces him at the door and leads him to a dinner table with a creepy doll. The audience is also kept in the dark about the main plot points and has to gather hints to make sense of the events. The doll used to be Tsuruha's child and was named Hinano. Due to a disability, she had to suffer a lot and was longing for death. Hinano's...
Flashback Before Death is screening at Japan Cuts
After completing his studies in France to become a translator, Kikuo, played by Masatoshi Kihara, returns home to his sister Tsuruha (Hanae Seike). It is a stormy and gloomy night as she embraces him at the door and leads him to a dinner table with a creepy doll. The audience is also kept in the dark about the main plot points and has to gather hints to make sense of the events. The doll used to be Tsuruha's child and was named Hinano. Due to a disability, she had to suffer a lot and was longing for death. Hinano's...
- 8/3/2023
- by Alexander Knoth
- AsianMoviePulse
Known largely for his fast-paced punk-inspired films like “Electric Dragon 80 000 V” and “Punk Samurai Slash Down“, Gakryu Ishii (formerly known as Sogo Ishii) has also crafted a multitude of more considered and surreal drama’s that often go overlooked when people discuss his work. Notably, films such as “Mirror Mind” and “Bitter Honey” shuck the sensational in-your-face attitude of the director’s punk films, opting for a more serene and beautiful visual approach. One such film that shows the director taking a more reserved approach is “August in Water”.
“August in Water” takes place during a drought affecting the people of Japan, creating a general malaise among the students at a school with the summer heat sapping their energy, and in extreme cases, citizens end up petrified from the inside. Insight into the surreal events is granted to a young student named Izumi Hazuki, who after...
“August in Water” takes place during a drought affecting the people of Japan, creating a general malaise among the students at a school with the summer heat sapping their energy, and in extreme cases, citizens end up petrified from the inside. Insight into the surreal events is granted to a young student named Izumi Hazuki, who after...
- 2/5/2023
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
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