Jasper Sharp : Midnight Eye Latest Update

27
Aug

Our 117th update, no less, since we kicked off the site back in 2001, and again, a slightly sex-themed one, with one of the most interesting voices from Japan’s new wave of women director talking about her new film, and a Roland Domenig’s latest installment in his highly informative look at the sex education genre.

There’s also details on a competition we’re running at the end of this post in conjunction with the BFI’s Nagisa Oshima season, which I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Hope you enjoy the read!

INTERVIEW: Yuki Tanada

Jasper Sharp interviews one of the leading lights of the new generation of Japanese filmmakers, director of such widely praised films as Moon and Cherry and Ain’t No Tomorrows.

(Just to give something of a taster for this year’s Raindance, I can now exclusively reveal that Yuki Tanada’s latest film, Ain’t No Tomorrows, is one of the titles by Japanese Women Directors playing at this year’s Raindance Festival. I hope to get a post out with the full lineup in the coming week.)

Sakura Ando in Ain't No Tomorrows

FEATURE: A History of Sex Education Films in Japan, Part 3

Our in-depth look continues in part three: the seiten films, in which we run into some very familiar names from Japanese film history. By Roland Domenig.

History of Sex Education Films in Japan

Midnight Eye Competition – Nagisa Oshima Retrospective Tickets

Starting August 28 and throughout September and October, the BFI Southbank in London will celebrate the astounding films of Japan’s foremost modern master Nagisa Oshima, with a complete retrospective of his films. The director spearheaded Japan’s new wave and in the 60s and 70s was as famous and influential as Godard. Plus a rare opportunity to see a selection of his television work.

As a centrepiece of the season the BFI will release In the Realm of the Senses (Ai no Corrida, 1976), which is considered Oshima’s masterpiece and one of the most erotic films ever made. The political repression in the Japan of 1936 serves as a backdrop to this sensuous exploration of sexual dependency, which is based on Japan’s most infamous sex-crime.

In the Realm of the Senses opens on 28 August at BFI Southbank and selected cinemas nationwide. For more information, visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/nagisa_oshima.

And now for the competition:

To coincide with its Nagisa Oshima season, the BFI is offering two pairs of tickets to see The Realm of the Senses during its run at the BFI Southbank, which will go to the first two people who can correctly name the first ever film treatment of the Sada Abe Incident – so we want the name of the film, the year, and its director please. Send your answers in to editorial@midnighteye.com.

Obviously, this competition is only open to UK residents, and if you’re not going to be anywhere near London during September, then there’s no point applying, as you’ll only be depriving someone else of the chance to see this film in all its uncut full-screen splendour.

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