Jasper Sharp : Annyong Kimchee

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12
Nov
Tetsuaki Matsue’s Annyong Kimchee screening + lecture

Event: Putting the ‘I’ in Independent Filmmaking: An Introduction to ‘Jishu Eiga’ + Tetsuaki Matsue’s Annyong Kimchee screening

Date: 12 November 2010

Time: 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Venue: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, London University School of African and Oriental Studies, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Type of Event: Lecture + Screening

Tetsuaki Matsue's Annyong Kimchee (1999)

An abbreviation of ‘jishu seisaku eiga’, jishu eiga can be translated as something akin to “self-made,” “autonomously-produced” or “do-it-yourself” films. These are wholly independent works, self-financed and produced outside of the industry and screened predominantly in non-commercial venues. They are made by what might best be described as amateur filmmakers, although a good number of directors who have subsequently achieved some degree of prominence within the commercial industry, most notably Sôgo Ishii, Naomi Kawase, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Shinya Tsukamoto, cut their teeth in this field.

Jasper Sharp explores the history of this most vibrant of independent filmmaking subcultures in an illustrated lecture, looking at representative works such as Naomi Kawase’s depiction of her unconventional family history in Katatsumori (1994) and Murakami Kenji’s more playful look at coming to terms with his new living environment after he gets married and moves to the suburbs in How I Survive in Kawaguchi City (Kawaguchi de ikiru yo!, 2003).

This will be followed by a rare UK screening of Japanese-Korean filmmaker Tetsuaki Matsue’s Annyong Kimchee (1999), an investigation into the importance of ethnic and cultural roots and what it means to be Japanese.

All Welcome, the event is free and open to the public; no booking is required.

The event is part of Zipangu Fest.


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Posted at 19:00 on 12 November 2010 Filed under events.
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10
Nov
Zipangu Fest Update: Matsue no Mukidashi

I just wanted to post a quick reminder of this Friday’s Annyong Kimchee screening and lecture on jishu eiga at SOAS, details of which (including directionts) can be found here. It’s one of a number of events leading into the main week of full on Zipangu Fest excitement, and more specifically, cues up another free event taking place during the festival in which I’ll be interviewing this frontrunner of the Japanese indie scene in person, again at SOAS, from 3pm on the afternoon of the Wednesday 24th November. Details of this can be found on this page on the Zipangu Fest website, as can info about screenings of Matsue’s two most recent films, Live Tape and Annyong Yumika.

Tetsuaki Matsue in Conversation at Zipangu Fest, 24th November 2010

All of this, as well as the number of flyers going out around town, should leave you into no doubt that both Matsue and the subject of his exhilarating one-take opus Live Tape, Kenta Maeno, as well as the Chinese harpist Yuki Yoshida, will all be at the festival – you can see all of these guys on stage at Cafe 1001 on the evening of Thursday 25th, plus a screening of Rock Tanjo, Akihiro Murakane’s brilliant documentary on the genesis of Japanese prog rock music in the 1970s, all for a mere fiver. Yes, you read that correctly – two feature-length films and a live set for only five pounds!!! Now where else are you going to get a deal like that anywhere else in London?

Akihiro Murakane’s brilliant rockumentary Rock Tanjo at Cafe 1001, 25th Nov

These aren’t the only guests we’ve got at the first ever Zipangu Fest, but you’ll have to watch this space if you want to find out who else might be coming, or better still, sign up to the Zipangu Fest newsletter. Festival passes are scheduled to go on sale pretty soon, but they’re going to be announced to all our newsletter subscribers first, so if you want to stay ahead of the crowds….

And for those who have just stumbled onto this website with no clue as to what Zipangu Fest is, I’m appending the last press release to this post, and strongly advise you check out the festival website right away!

Press Release -Friday October 29th 2010

London’s premiere festival devoted to Japanese cinema announces programme.

During the sold-out Japanese Halloween Shlockfest Double Bill of RoboGeisha and Big Tits Zombie 3D at London’s Barbican Centre on October 29th, festival director Jasper Sharpannounced the full lineup of the inaugural Zipangu Fest, to be held at various venues across the East End of London from November 23rd to 28th.

Zipangu Fest begins on Tuesday, November 23rd with a special event entitled Nippon Year Zero: Japanese Experimental Film from the 1960s-1970s, presented in collaboration with Close-Up at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. This retrospective programme will introduce audiences to the early Japanese avant-garde filmmaking scene with rare screenings of works by three landmark figures, Donald Richie, Motoharu Jonouchi and Masanori Oe, who captured the zeigeist they were intrinsically a part of, articulating themselves in ways that range from the poetic to the abrasive.

The festival officially gets underway on Wednesday 24th with the Zipangu Fest Opening PARTY @ Café 1001 on Brick Lane, featuring the UK PREMIERE of Pyuupiru 2001 – 2008, Daishi Matsunaga’s moving documentary charting the physical, psychological and artistic metamorphosis of the flamboyant transgender artist Pyuupiru. The evening will also feature a selection of shorts and a screening of Rackgaki – Japanese Graffiti, a documentary examining Japan’s explosive graffiti scene, and concludes with a set from London’s top Japanese DJ ‐Tomoki Tamura + SUPERMETHOD. Tickets for the whole evening cost £5.

The following evening, on Thursday 25th, Zipangu Fest will continue at Café 1001 with the Live Tape ‘Live’ Night @ Café 1001, a musical-themed evening that sees the UK PREMIERES of Rock Tanjo: The Movement 70s, a documentary looking at the birth of ‘New Rock’ in 1970s Japan featuring interviews and performances from bands including the Flower Travellin’ Band, and Live Tape, the award-winning one-take concert film featuring singer-songwriter Kenta Maenothat has been making waves at festivals around the world. OSpecial Festival Guest, Live Tape dTetsuaki Matsue, be in attendance to introduce his film, which will be followed by a live set by Maeno accompanied by Yuki Yoshida on the Chinese Harp. Tickets for the entire evening cost £5.

Friday November 26th sees Zipangu Fest moving to Genesis Cinema in Mile End where our Main Festival Programme begins with Yuriko’s Aroma, Kota Yoshida’s humorous portrait of an aromatherapist besotted by the scent of a sweaty high-schooler, and ends with  the UK Premiere of Gen Takahashi’s epic Confessions of a Dog, a gripping indictment of corruption within the Japanese police, as the CLOSING FILM on Sunday 28 November.

Other UK premieres include Annyong Yumika, an innovative documentary homage to legendary Japanese pink film actress Yumika Hayashi who was mysteriously found dead after returning home from her 35th birthday celebrations, and the second title by Zipangu Fest special guest Tetsuaki Matsue; Love & Loathing & Lulu & Ayano, a revealing drama about exploitation and abuse in Japan’s Adult Video industry, directed by the infamous Hisayasu Sato, who will be in attendance to introduce the film, and Footed Tadpoles, a quirky coming-of-age drama from Tomoya Maeno.

Zipangu Fest is also proud to be presenting a selection of some of the finest in Japanese independent animation. The Ero Guro Mash Up Night features three nightmarishly morbid works in the ‘erotic grotesque’ tradition from the underground animators Hiroshi Harada and Naoyuki Niiya, while Beyond Anime: CALF Animation features recent envelope-pushing works from Mirai Mizue, Kei Oyama, Atsushi Wada and TOCHKA.

Also featuring as part of the main programme are the Zipangu Retro screenings of two classic but very different titles rarely shown in the UK, Children of the Beehive (1948) and NN-891102 (1999). Directed by one of the masters of Japanese cinema, Hiroshi Shimizu, Children of the Beehive relates the journey of a group of war orphans (in real life all orphans taken in and raised by the director) as they are taken under the wing of a nameless soldier and set out across a shattered, postwar landscape in search of a more certain future.  NN-891102, the debut feature by cult hero Go Shibata, depicts a traumatised Nagasaki survivor’s obsession with recreating the sound of the atomic bomb.

Following the festival, a selection of titles from the programme will be screened at the Arnolfini in Bristol, from Thursday 16th – Sunday 16th December. The Arnolfini programme consists of Annyong Yumika, Children of the Beehive, Footed Tadpoles, Live Tape, NN-891102, Confessions of a Dog and a selection of shorts.

Full details and descriptions of the films featured in the Main Festival Programme and other events taking place around the main festival dates can be found on the Zipangu Fest website at: http://zipangufest.com.

Posted at 17:54 on 10 November 2010 Filed under news.
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24
Oct
Nippon Year Zero: Zipangu Fest, the UK’s premiere event devoted to Japanese cinema, partners up with Close-Up for a programme of experimental films from the 1960s

Time marches on, with less than a week to go until Zipangu Fest announces its line-up to the world at the Halloween Schlockfest Double Bill this Friday, 29 October, at the Barbican. Tickets are just about sold out for this, although you might be lucky if you get in quick and grab one of the last ones. If you can’t make it, not to worry, as news about the main festival will be posted up here in due course, and no doubt on other sites across the web.

Tetsuaki Matsue's Annyong Kimchee at CUEAFS

In the meantime, I’m pleased to announce that our first pre-festival event, a lecture about jishu eiga by myself followed by a screening of Tetsuaki Matsue’s revealing debut Annyong Kimchee at the Coventry University East Asian Film Society went really well, with a great turnout and an enthusiastic response from all those who came to see it. Thanks to all who came, and also a big thanks to those CUEAFS members who took the time to film and interview me: here’s a video of me talking about the film and the fest from Youtube, with questions being fired at me by the delightful Michelle Bailey.

I’m also really happy to announce that for those who weren’t in Coventry, that I’ll be doing this same “Putting the ‘I’ in Independent” talk and Annyong Kimchee screening in London from 7-9pm, Friday 12 November, at the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre in the Russell Square campus for SOAS. Entry is free to anyone who wants to come, and you can find out more details about this here.

Which leads me on to the details of another Zipangu Fest event, this time directly prior to the main festival screenings at Cafe 1001 and the Genesis Cinema. On Tuesday 23 November, we’re collaborating with those legendary guardians of film culture in the East End, Close-Up, to present Nippon Year Zero: Japanese Experimental Film from the 1960s-1970s at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club. There’s more details on the Close-Up website here and the Zipangu Fest website here, and Chris Magee at the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow has also already covered it here.

Masanori Oe's Great Society, screening as part of the Nippon Year Zero event at the Bethnal Green Working Man's Club on 23 November.

We’re really excited about this programme, which showcases the works of three of the great underground/experimental/avant-garde directors of the 1960s, Motoharu Jonouchi, Masanori Oe and Donald Richie – yes, when he wasn’t writing books about Japanese film, Donald Richie made films in Japan, and damn fine ones too! All of the films we’re screening are pretty special, but I’m particularly excited about Oe’s dazzling multi-screen piece of swinging sixties zeitgeist, Great Society – nothing to do with David Cameron’s “Big Society”, mercifully, but a film I’ve been meaning to share more widely ever since I caught it at Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in 2003. Just a quick note, to say too, if there are any UK programmers or exhibitors who want to make use of these films while the prints are in the country, please drop me a line and we’ll see what we can do.

More news coming later this week, so keep your eye on the Zipangu Fest website …

Posted at 22:58 on 24 October 2010 Filed under news.
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