Japanese Film Festival 2013 (Galway and Waterford)

johnny_ultimate

Happening throughout April in venues around the country (yes, you non-Dublinites are getting some foreign films for a change :P).

Light House Cinema, Dublin : 11-14 April
Triskel Arts Centre, Cork 12-17 April
University of Limerick 15-16 April,
EYE Cinema Galway 21-24 April
Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford 23-25 April.

Full schedule yet to be announced - Access Cinema are going to announce a film a day over the next week or so - but an email sent around by the Japanese embassy earlier suggests Ace Attorney (aka Phoenix Wright) and Wolf Children (latest from Summer Wars / Girl Who Leapt Through Time director) are going to feature . Fingers crossed Eva 3.0 will also make it!

missingtime

Saw Girl Who Leapt Through Time and a few others at this years ago, hopefully I'll catch some again. Really enjoyed it the last time.

johnny_ultimate

From Up On Poppy Hill - the film that at least partially allows Goro Miyazaki to make amends for Tales from Earthcrap - has been announced, along with confirmation for Wolf Children and Ace Attorney.

You Can (Not) Redo watch continues.

Bollocks, I can't make it up to Dublin when it's on as I'm busy in Galway and when it comes to Galway I'll be busy up in Dublin.

johnny_ultimate

Full line-up release: http://www.accesscinema.ie/jff.html

Think Rent-a-Cat is meant to be a lot of fun.

And The Woodsman and The Rain is fantastic for anyone yet to pick up the DVD or BluRay!

No Eva

Tar.Aldarion

going to see from up on poppy hill, rent-a-cat. What else would you sggest? Might jsut go to those as it's dear t see them all.

Wolf children sounds good?

johnny_ultimate

I'm very excited about Wolf Children: based on the director's previous stuff and any reviews I've read it should be excellent.

As said Woodsman and the Rain is great, although that's available on DVD already if that makes any difference. I saw it at a festival a year ago and it was a delight. By the guy who directed Chef of South Polar at the last JFF.

The second Berserk film is I think meant to be really intense and extreme. Although it follows that you'd need to see the first too

I assume the Nagisa Oshina docu will primarily be of interest to Oshima fans!

Apart from Ace Attorney haven't heard a whole lot about the rest of the featured films. It's a shame there doesn't seem to be a season pass, it's certainly expensive to go to anymore than a few. And the Lighthouse Cinema doesn't handle multiple ticket booking very well.

Tar.Aldarion

I really wish there was some sort of pass like that. Hmm, choices choices!

johnny_ultimate

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

I really wish there was some sort of pass like that. Hmm, choices choices!

They announced on Facebook last night that you can get five tickets for €35 if you call into the Lighthouse box office personally! Or €14 for the Berserk films. Think I'll go for the former deal on top of the two I already booked.

Kinski

Wolf Children sounds good (though I've lost count of the number of disappointing anime features I've see at this stage.)

Tar.Aldarion

This must be because I asked on there a few days ago right?
Must consider it now!

noodler

Full schedule announced.

http://www.ie.emb-japan.go.jp/jff2013en.html

Really good looking lineup.

johnny_ultimate

Kicking off tomorrow! Not seeing anything 'til Friday but looking forward to a bit of a marathon over the weekend

Parents with kids might be interested to know the Poppy Hill screening on Sunday morning will be the dubbed version.

Everyone else should be warned that the Poppy Hill screening on Sunday morning will be the dubbed version

e_e

Dagnamnit, was planning on going Sunday morning instead but not if it's the dubbed version.

Tar.Aldarion

Heading in to it tomorrow, then the cat film. That's it for us then!

johnny_ultimate

Wolf Children was beautiful. Genuinely great cinema. Such a rich tapestry of themes, emotions, humour, drama, insight, imagination and all brought together by incredibly strongly defined & loveable characters. Visually impossible to fault, and one of the most gorgeously composed soundtracks any film could ever be graced with. It's not only easily the best animated film I've seen since, hell, Summer Wars, its the best new film I've seen in a good half year. Completely surpassed my high expectations. It's a disgrace this will be limited to home releases and one-off festival screenings - it's the kind of film that shows how devoid of imagination and warmth recent American animation has been. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Just Pretended to Hear was a pleasant surprise. A slow, thoughtful and poignant drama about a young girl coping with questions of mortality.

Tar.Aldarion

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Wolf Children was beautiful. Genuinely great cinema. Such a rich tapestry of themes, emotions, humour, drama, insight, imagination and all brought together by incredibly strongly defined & loveable characters. Visually impossible to fault, and one of the most gorgeously composed soundtracks any film could ever be graced with. It's not only easily the best animated film I've seen since, hell, Summer Wars, its the best new film I've seen in a good half year. Completely surpassed my high expectations. It's a disgrace this will be limited to home releases and one-off festival screenings - it's the kind of film that shows how devoid of imagination and warmth recent American animation has been. I'd recommend it to anyone.

Just Pretended to Hear was a pleasant surprise. A slow, thoughtful and poignant drama about a young girl coping with questions of mortality.

Wolf children was indeed great, loved from up on poppy hill too (although gf gave it a b ) , wolf children was much better though. I was thinking about how Japanese films show how crap American films are, beautiful slices of imagination and story.

e_e

I absolutely loved Ace Attorney and from the sounds of it everyone else there did too.

Although to the really naff picture quality I only have one thing to say: OBJECTION!!!

johnny_ultimate

The picture quality for the festival in general has been wildly variable. Wolf Children had a full DCP as far as I could tell, and My Back Pages was 35mm (and unfortunately had some screen positioning issues during reel changes, requiring a reset near the end). The two Berserk films, though, were probably Blu-Ray, and Pretended to Hear looked pretty poor, especially lots of noisy, distorted blacks. Could have even been a DVD! I forgive it partially given the limited resources the festival have to work with it, and the fact that many of these films are unlikely to ever get even a small international release. But I definitely think there should be more effort put into procuring high quality copies. What format was Ace Attorney? Baffling if it didn't have a good quality copy, as there are surely plenty of them knocking around the festival circuit.

Good to hear it was well received. It's a lot of fun, and easily the finest game adaptation yet. It has a few rough edges (as a game fan, I think the music and Gumshoe particularly were underwhelming) but when it works it works well. The scene where

Phoenix interrogates the bird

is a slice of bizarre genius :P

As for today's films, the two Berserk films were alright. Watchable, nothing remarkable. My Back Pages was pretty good - overlong, but a nice sense of place and an interesting look at the student riots in early 1970s Japan. There were some well realised character work, and an engaging look at the nature of journalism and personal ambition. Nothing particularly special or anything, but a solid watch.

e_e

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

What format was Ace Attorney? Baffling if it didn't have a good quality copy, as there are surely plenty of them knocking around the festival circuit.

It was on video unbelievably, the projectionist had to switch tapes halfway through. :pac:

It's telling about how enjoyable the film was that it didn't even matter. That bird scene was pretty hysterical!

e_e

e_e wrote: »

It was on video unbelievably, the projectionist had to switch tapes halfway through. :pac:

It's telling about how enjoyable the film was that it didn't even matter. That bird scene was pretty hysterical!

When you say video you don't mean a VHS tape, do you?

megaten

Deleted User wrote: »

When you say video you don't mean a VHS tape, do you?

I think the dude at the start said it was one some variant of Betamax?

e_e

Yeah it was something with "beta" in the title. I've seen DVDs projected that looked better tbh.

Surely a HD transfer wouldn't have been too difficult to get?

e_e

e_e wrote: »

Yeah it was something with "beta" in the title. I've seen DVDs projected that looked better tbh.

Surely a HD transfer wouldn't have been too difficult to get?

Must have been projected from digbeta or Beta SP then. If that's the case then I think I may skip the screening here and hold out for the inevitable Blu-Ray release as there's nothing that will ruin a film quicker than a poor quality source.

e_e

It's a shame because it's the kind of film that works best with an enthusiastic audience. This was easily the most fun communal experience I've had in a cinema since The Raid, I can only imagine how much better it would have been with a nice print. Enormous applause at the end too.

johnny_ultimate

I don't think I've ever heard of a film being shown from a digibeta before (well aside from short films down at the film fleadh). Really, really bizarre. I watched the film at home on better source material than that :pac:

Tar.Aldarion

Really enjoyed the rent-a-cat film (Rentaneko). Repetition got a bit annoying but very enjoyable and funny.

johnny_ultimate

Thought Rent-a-Cat was a terrific time. It's obviously genuinely funny - a strong case for how comedy isn't necessarily lost in translation - but I think there's a lot of interesting themes and motifs running through it, both subtle and obvious. The purposeful repetition came across as a little odd at first (deja vu indeed) but I really warmed to the structure as the director managed to get a lot of life out of remixing jokes. Like a lot of Japanese films, I'd accuse it of having a couple of false endings, but other than that I found it extremely charming.

Rebirth was solid, sometimes really good. The tale of a woman abducting a child and raising her for four years, the film has basically three different 'chronologies' running at once, although the focus is on the four years itself and the abducted child around fifteen years later. It's very long at nearly two and a half hours, but it mostly justifies it. The performances are strong, and the ways the stories intersect and resonate are engaging. The director also has a good grasp of the power of close-ups. The final scene is way too melodramatic, which is a sour note to end on. But while it falls short of greatness (oftentimes too conservative to really wow), it's very watchable and well-made stuff. I can see why it was a critical and audience darling domestically.

A good weekend all in all, didn't regret watching any of the films which I guess is a good sign :pac: Wolf Children was an obvious highlight, followed by Just Pretended to Hear and Rent-a-Cat. The two Berserk films I could take or leave - watchable enough, but the teaser for the third film looks more interesting.

Might go to 'for loves sake' in ul on tuesday evening...iv been watching a lot of asian cinema lately..trailer looks crazy enough too..

Tar.Aldarion

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Thought Rent-a-Cat was a terrific time. It's obviously genuinely funny - a strong case for how comedy isn't necessarily lost in translation - but I think there's a lot of interesting themes and motifs running through it, both subtle and obvious. The purposeful repetition came across as a little odd at first (deja vu indeed) but I really warmed to the structure as the director managed to get a lot of life out of remixing jokes. Like a lot of Japanese films, I'd accuse it of having a couple of false endings, but other than that I found it extremely charming.

Rebirth was solid, sometimes really good. The tale of a woman abducting a child and raising her for four years, the film has basically three different 'chronologies' running at once, although the focus is on the four years itself and the abducted child around fifteen years later. It's very long at nearly two and a half hours, but it mostly justifies it. The performances are strong, and the ways the stories intersect and resonate are engaging. The director also has a good grasp of the power of close-ups. The final scene is way too melodramatic, which is a sour note to end on. But while it falls short of greatness (oftentimes too conservative to really wow), it's very watchable and well-made stuff. I can see why it was a critical and audience darling domestically.

A good weekend all in all, didn't regret watching any of the films which I guess is a good sign :pac: Wolf Children was an obvious highlight, followed by Just Pretended to Hear and Rent-a-Cat. The two Bleach films I could take or leave - watchable enough, but the teaser for the third film looks more interesting.

Awh man I missed the bleach films :pac: Wanted to see those Berserk films but saw enough at 18e a pop for two, or 28 for that double bill. If it had been more spread out I would have went to everything. Can't wait til their next anime in there, they don't show them often enough. But tbf, even anime fans don't turn out. A lot of disappointingly empty screenings during the year.

For Rentaneko, I thought that the repetition of jokes was a good thing, I didn't like it have in the exact same wording and delivery and such, change it up a little. Minor niggle in a great funny film. The main actress was fantastic.
I'm rarely let down by anything Japanese I've seen.

johnny_ultimate

Deleted User wrote: »

Might go to 'for loves sake' in ul on tuesday evening...iv been watching a lot of asian cinema lately..trailer looks crazy enough too..

I was surprised that wasn't on the Dublin schedule. Thought Third Window would have preferred to have that out there in advance of their DVD release rather than Woodsman and the Rain which has been out for a month or two now. Looking froward to it on home release anyway, getting a very positive response.

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Awh man I missed the bleach films :pac:

I always mix them up

I'm rarely let down by anything Japanese I've seen.

There's a hell of a lot of bad Japanese cinema out there, genuinely appalling stuff. It's like any country's cinematic output, really: the good stuff is always a minority. On the plus side, a lot of the stuff that filters through to English speaking territories does so with good cause, and much of the crap is left in Nippon where it should stay. On the negative side, there's an awful lot of amazing films that never leave Japan as well, or if they do do so with years and years of a delay.

Japanese distributors still almost entirely disregard the international audience for their produce, which means it's an uphill struggle to get stuff to show or release over here. A yearly festival is really not enough. But we should still be grateful, as it's much better than nothing, and they had a good selection this year (although plenty of noticeable absences).

Hoping they'll have a few one-off showings again during the year, even if it's only anime. While some of the screenings were relatively quiet this year (never less than 20-30 people, though) others were packed (was genuinely taken aback at how many were at Rent-a-Cat), which is hopefully an encouraging sign.

Tar.Aldarion

Yeah I suppose any stuff I even hear about is cream of the crop all right. I can definitely see why rent-a-cat was popular, although I was surprised it was full up. Reading the synopsis' out for these films, there was one that seemed to stand out, and I'd say it did to most people, renting cats! People dig cats. I thought it was going to be more of a documentary myself ;D I am hopeful things will continue throughout the year, but the showings of 20-30 people, are they really enough for them to warrant it? Disappointed in turnouts generally. The only good turnouts I've seen are Journey to Agartha (Children Who Chase Lost Voices ) and Rent-a-Cat. The former due to the appearance of the man associated with it, can't remember his name and they also handed out the giant posters of this http://images.eyeonasia.co.uk/images/products/zoom/1355082334-41156500.jpg. After that I've gone to each and every showing and they were always quiet. And I'm not somebody that watches anime all the time unlike a lot of people in Ireland, they just don't seem to bother/know. If several thousand can go to eirtakon, this shouldn't be as quiet as it is.

johnny_ultimate

Just a heads up Galway is getting some of the best films this weekend, including the unmissable Wolf Children. If you can make it to the Eye for the screenings, do try and get there! I haven't seen Thermae Romae, but the other four are definitely worth watching (assuming they've sorted the Ace Attorney display issues)

Waterford gets a trio of films next week too.

Had planned to go see all the films showing in the Eye but decided instead to just make a big ass Blu-Ray and DVD order and get a number of Japanese films I've been after. Ace Attorney, Wolf Children and a load of others are on their way as I type.