Japanese film festival

Karl Hungus

This weekend we had the Japanese film festival in the Town Hall Theater in Galway. It's also playing in Limerick, Cork and Dublin over the course of November.

Over the last 2 days, I've seen:

Ponyo
Kamikaze Girls
A Stranger of Mine
Departures

Shall We Dance was also on, but I didn't go to see it.

Overall there was some absolutely fantastic films, but Departures was the highlight for me. Just incredibly beautiful, emotional and subtly comedic. Had a fantastic score by Joe Hisaishi as well, it was just perfect. Ponyo was a pretty close second, and I had been very surprised by A Stranger of Mine. Kamikaze Girls was fun, but probably the weakest of the films I saw over the weekend.

Anyone else seen these in Galway, or will be seeing them in Limerick, Cork or Dublin?

johnny_ultimate

Hopefully will get to see some of these in Dublin, interested in seeing Departures alright (surprised it hasn't got any sort of significant release yet, it did win best foreign film at the Oscars didn't it?). Ponyo on the Cliff is brilliant, wouldn't mind seeing it on the big screen. I'm guessing its the dubbed version though?

Karl Hungus

Yeah, Departures won an Oscar over the exceptional Waltz with Bashir, and having seen it, I can see why. It's just something truly special. I hope we'll see a DVD and Bluray release soon.

It was the dubbed version of Ponyo, but it wasn't that bad. I was recoiling in horror when I saw that one of the Jonas brothers and Miley Cyrus's little sister were doing voices for the film, but they really weren't bad at all. Nothing near as horrific as Dakota Fanning and her sister in My Neighbor Totoro.

johnny_ultimate

Karl Hungus wrote: »

It was the dubbed version of Ponyo, but it wasn't that bad. I was recoiling in horror when I saw that one of the Jonas brothers and Miley Cyrus's little sister were doing voices for the film, but they really weren't bad at all. Nothing near as horrific as Dakota Fanning and her sister in My Neighbor Totoro.

My objection to the dubbed version is more to this abomination:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bYDtPcRMlg

Which isn't in the spirit of the film at all, in contrast to the cheesy innocence of the Japanese original:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trm4roeuZ54

However, I will probably still go to see the film for comparisons sake, although I'm glad to have seen the Japanese version first!

Karl Hungus

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

My objection to the dubbed version is more to this abomination:

Yeah, that's certainly horrible alright.

On the subject, I found this, which is something I'm definitely going to have to get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw_XQ7Gonho

johnny_ultimate

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Yeah, that's certainly horrible alright.

On the subject, I found this, which is something I'm definitely going to have to get.

Yeah that DVD was everywhere in Japan this summer, think it was released alongside the Ponyo DVD (and available together as some crazy 7 disc set or something). I picked up a double disc CD of Ghibli songs, but unfortunately there isn't that many Hisaishi tracks on it.

Karl Hungus

I'll probably grab it for Christmas. Hisaishi is probably my favourite film composer, nobody scores a film like him. I think part of what made Departures such a powerful film was his work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHO_mZ3F974

Karl Hungus

Hmm, surprised at the lack of interest in this thread. There's some very good films being shown, check them out.

FruitLover

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Departures was the highlight for me

Yeah, saw this a while back and thought it was very good. Nobody I knew had even heard of it though (even Japanese). Since I heard about the film festival, I've been recommending it.

cine-man

In Dublin this is playing at Cineworld on Parnell Street; here is the link to the festival brochure: http://www.accesscinema.ie/documents/JFF%20Brochure%2009.pdf

Friday 20th November

18.30 Departures


21.00 Kamikaze Girls

Saturday 21st November

16.00 Ponyo


18.00 Shall We Dance?


20.30 Departures

Sunday 22nd November

16.00 Ponyo


18.00 A Stranger Of Mine



Tickets are not on sale yet, but I'll put the links up if I see them.

CodeMonkey

Karl Hungus wrote: »

On the subject, I found this, which is something I'm definitely going to have to get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw_XQ7Gonho

That Totoro music is awesome. Wish I can go to that live.

tread_softly

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Kamikaze Girls

hmmm, i'd be interested in this as i just watched Sakuran the other day with Anna Tsuchiya as the lead. I'd like to see her in something else and this looks appealing enough!

RoadKillTs

Watched Ponyo today. Really good. Cheers Karl.

cine-man

Just thought I would give this a bump up for anyone interested in going this weekend.

Raging Bob

Is Departures only showing the two nights in Dublin and that's it?

doctor evil

Departures sounds good.

Karl Hungus

Just to remind people, this starts tonight.

Raging Bob

Do you know if Departures will be showing at any other time? Can't make it tonight or tomorrow night unfortunately.

cine-man

This is the end of the festival it started in Galway on Halloween, and ends in Dublin this weekend.

Here is a link to the programme:

http://www.accesscinema.ie/documents/JFF%20Brochure%2009.pdf

johnny_ultimate

Went to see Departures tonight, really enjoyed it! I did think there were a few too many plot contrivances towards the end, but overall a very intelligent and emotionally engaging film about plenty of the 'big' questions (very sensible cinematic take on questions of death etc...).

Also, the soundtrack was brilliant.

Karl Hungus

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Also, the soundtrack was brilliant.

I ordered the CD. Anything Joe Hisaishi does is magic, and this was no different. Extremely stirring score, that's for sure.

johnny_ultimate

Karl Hungus wrote: »

I ordered the CD. Anything Joe Hisaishi does is magic, and this was no different. Extremely stirring score, that's for sure.

Yeah I definitely want to pick it up. Loved the music during the

montage where he was playing cello on the hill. Of course he didn't necessarily have to be playing cello on a hill, but the soundtrack made up for it! And the rest of the montage was extremely effective emotionally too.