Cinema 155
Ujicha
By Tom Wilmot. One of the most appealing aspects of animation is that the form offers so much variety. From traditional hand-drawn cel animation to stop-motion work, the medium has continued to grow, giving creators numerous ways to express themselves. And then there’s geki-mation, the production method that 35-year-old auteur Ujicha uses to bring his […]
Japan Foundation Film Tour 2021
By Jasper Sharp. The ongoing Coronavirus crisis may have disrupted many aspects of the cultural calendar, but it is heartening to report that one the Japan Foundation UK Touring Film Programme is still pushing ahead. Its 18-film line-up for 2021 is organised under the theme “This is My Place: Carving out a sense of existence […]
Burst City
By Tom Wilmot. Shinya Tsukamoto, Takashi Miike and Kiyoshi Kurosawa are just a few of the names that come to mind when thinking of acclaimed Japanese cult filmmakers in the late twentieth century. However, without the work of another incredibly influential auteur, we may not have these directors as we know them: Sogo Ishii. Distribution […]
CG in Anime
By Andrew Osmond. Last year, the film magazine Little White Lies interviewed Shoji Kawamori, famed for his creative role in Macross. He was asked what future he saw for hand-drawn animation in anime. His reply was blunt. “I imagine,” Kawamori said, “that in about ten or twenty years, (hand-drawn animation) will be heading in the […]
Books: Chinese Movie Mags
By Jasper Sharp. In these days of cosplay conventions and K-drama and Chinese sci-fi blockbusters on Netflix, it is easy to forget how little access to – and, let’s face it, interest in – Asian popular culture the West had for the vast bulk of the twentieth century. Not so in the other direction, however, […]