Jasper Sharp » ICA

Japan Foundation UK’s Annual Touring Programme Announced

Jasper — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:55:43 +0000

Jun Ichikawa's How to Become Myself

Posting for the first time in 2010 from an icy, snowbound London, I wanted to pass on details about this year’s touring programme across the UK from the Japan Foundation, for which, as I have done for the past few years, I acted as advisor. This year’s selection of six films is themed ‘Girls on Film: Females in Contemporary Japanese Cinema’, and runs from 9 to 17 February at the ICA in London, before heading off to other venues, details of which I’m providing below. Copying the blurb about the tour from the JF UK’s website:

“The Japan Foundation’s 2010 touring film programme looks at contemporary Japanese cinema made for, about, and, in some cases, by women. Touring to five venues during February and March, the programme is composed of works from the past few years and showcases how Japanese contemporary filmmakers, from the very established, such as the late Jun Ichikawa, to young and promising filmmakers, like Satoko Yokohama, approach the issues facing women and adolescents. This season also includes works by female directors, reflecting the exciting trend of a marked increase in the number of female directors working in the Japanese film industry. This is a unique collection of films not to be missed!”

Naoko Ogigami's Kamome Diner

I’ll also be giving a talk at the London Office in Russell Square to introduce the season, at 6.30pm on 4 February 2010. It’s free (and usually a few drinks involved too), but you’ll need to book with the Japan Foundation first. More details here.

The tour line up is as follows:

Fourteen (Ju-yon-sai, Hiromasa HIROSUE, 2006)

German Plus Rain (German + Ame, Satoko YOKOHAMA, 2007)

How to Become Myself (Ashita no watashi no tsukurikata, Jun ICHIKAWA, 2007)

Kamome Diner (Kamome shokudo, Naoko OGIGAMI, 2006)

Non-ko (Nonko 36-sai, Kazuyoshi KUMAKIRI, 2009)

Asyl: Park and Love Hotel (Pâku ando rabuhoteru, Izuru KUMASAKA, 2007)

Izuru Kumasaka's Asyl: Park and Love Hotel

And the dates:

9 to 17 February – ICA, London

22 February to 4 March – Showroom, Sheffield

5 to 9 March – Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast (Except Non-ko)

10 to 14 March – Filmhouse, Edinburgh

18 to 21 March – Arnolfini, Bristol

I’ll no doubt be posting up reminders and more details, as they arrive, throughout this month. You can find out information on some of these titles on Midnight Eye of course. Anyway, for most of the films, this is the first time they’re playing in the UK, so I really hope to see you at the screenings or the introductory talk, and please, spread the word!

Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's Nonko

Shion Sono’s Love Exposure released in London from this Friday.

Jasper — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:25:31 +0000

Hikari Mitsushima in Shion Sono's Love Exposure

It’s done great guns on the festival circuit and now, courtesy of Third Window Films, Love Exposure is just about to get its official UK release with a month-long run at the ICA in London this November, with a screening on November 14^th at Leeds International Film Festival and no doubt other dates in the UK to follow. It’s surely a bold move on the behalf of both Third Window Films and the ICA, but (and I’m getting almost tired of saying this), DO NOT BE PUT OFF BY THE 4-HOUR RUNNING TIME! This is the strongest film from Japan I’ve seen in a long-time. Read any review you can find online about it, ask anyone who has seen it. They’ll all tell you the same thing – it’s an absolutely fantastic experience, so intense you’ll be still struggling to assimilate it all for days, nay weeks, after you’ve seen it. The film whips along at such a cracking pace that you’re barely registering the time, and when the interval occurs, it seems like a major inconvenience.

Takahiro Nishijima, the star of Love Exposure

I’ve experienced the film twice already, firstly on DVD while looking for suitable titles for this year’s Raindance, and secondly at Raindance itself. The first time I thought it would take a couple of sittings to get through, but it didn’t take too long for me to realise I was in for the long haul. The second time, at the festival itself, was my first chance seeing it on a big screen, and I was so immersed in it that even then I knew I simply had to see it again, so I’ll most certainly be trotting off to the ICA at some juncture. And this seems to be the typical response. Several at the Japanese guests at Raindance had already seen the film several times. One chalked up their sixth viewing at the festival – that’s a full day in total of Shion Sono’s masterpiece! Another reported their experience of seeing the film in Tokyo, in which during the interval the other viewers could be seen wandering around with ecstatic expressions on their faces, and I couldn’t but help notice a similar phenomenon at Raindance. Ooh, I’m getting goose-pimples just thinking about it. My only regret is that the film was originally meant to be six hours, and Sono had to cut it down by a quarter at the insistence of his producer. I can only pray that at some point we’ll ever get a chance to see the full cut.

Sakura Ando and friends

Not sure what else I can say to anyone but to implore you to go see it. If you’ve seen it once, then see it again, tell your friends what a masterpiece it is. And if you have no idea of what I am talking about, then here’s a quick taster in the form of the trailer.

Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Shohei Imamura, London

Jasper — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:03:08 +0000

Event: Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Shohei Imamura
Venue: Institute of Contemporary Arts, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH
When: 23rd-31st October 2009

The Arnolfini’s Pigs, Eels & Insects: Reassessing The Legacy of Shohei Imamura season comes to London.
View Larger Map

Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Shohei Imamura at the ICA, London, 23rd-31st October 2009

Jasper — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:47:56 +0000

Profound Desire of the Gods

Some of you may recall my post from a few weeks back regarding the upcoming Shohei Imamura symposium and screenings at the Arnolfini in Bristol in October. These have been organised by Patrick Crogan of the University of the West of England, Alastair Cameron of the Arnolfini and myself.

I know there was some talk a while back between us of taking of advantage of having the prints in the country and getting them shown a little more widely. Well, it seems Alastair has been working his little bit of magic behind the scenes, as most of the films will now also be getting an airing at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London under the banner Carnal Knowledge: The Films of Shohei Imamura. The full line-up is here, and I’m particularly pleased to see that some of the less regularly screened films such as Profound Desire of the Gods are included in the programme (no Vengeance is Mine or The Pornographers, which have screened quite a lot recently in the UK).

This is going to be great news for all Londoners hankering to get their next fix of Japanese New Wave brilliance after the BFI’s Nagisa Oshima season that’s currently running. I’ll be a little partisan here and say that personally I prefer Imamura’s bawdy, messy pokes of fun at Japanese society than Oshima’s more cerebral and academic approach. In fact, he’s one of my favourite Japanese directors, so its great that these films are being brought to a wider audience. I might also add that the ICA also has a better bar than the BFI Southbank – I spent nearly half an hour waiting for a pint of Guinness the other day while three of the Benugo’s staff struggled to make a cocktail for the only other person who was waiting there. You probably couldn’t find a bottle of house red anywhere cheaper in central London than at the ICA, especially if you’re a member, where you get a 10% discount – membership is well worth it if you’re a Japanese film fan, because I know Third Window Films have got a couple of forthcoming releases that will be playing there in the near future.

Anyway, enough of this bar talk and back to Imamura. Now, for all I know, these films may well be playing other venues across the ICA, because I wasn’t really in the loop about the ICA screenings, so I’ll try and find out more, and if I hear of any other screenings, will be sure to post it here.