Tag: cinema
January 29, 2020 · 0 comments
Japanese Box Office in 2019
By Jasper Sharp. As is customary, the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, or Eiren, has just released figures for the previous year’s box office, presenting the opportunity to consider the current state of Japanese cinema as an industry, if not as an art. There is some cause for celebration on this first score, at […]
January 21, 2020 · 0 comments
Jo Shishido (1933-2020)
Jo Shishido, who died yesterday in Tokyo, will be remembered as the charismatic moon-faced star of many a Nikkatsu Action film from the 1960s. He is best-known in the West for his iconic turn as the cold-hearted contract killer of Seijun Suzuki’s cult classic Branded to Kill (1967).
January 15, 2020 · 0 comments
Interview: The Inland Sea
By Jasper Sharp. Almost fifty years ago, Donald Richie, the author and cultural critic who introduced Japanese cinema to the West, embarked on an epic odyssey of self-discovery amongst the island communities between Shikoku, Honshu and Kyushu, resulting in one of his most personal and highly-regarded books, The Inland Sea (1971). Two decades later, filmmaker […]
December 18, 2019 · 0 comments
Japan Foundation Film Tour 2020
By Jasper Sharp. In customary fashion for the time of year, the Japan Foundation has just announced the programme for its annual touring film season to give us something to look forward to in these dark and joyless winter months. With 20 titles heading to 22 venues across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland between […]
November 24, 2019 · 0 comments
I Lost My Body
The hand stood up on three fingers and its thumb, and craned its forefinger like a long nose… Slowly the hand crept over the stones, searching. I Lost My Body, screening in selected cinemas before hitting Netflix on Friday, isn’t anime. But this outstanding French animation is the kind of film that pushes animation – […]