Japan’s film industry has been having its biggest box office in years, but all its mainstream movies have been intensely local, based on television shows or vehicles for pop stars. Usually our festival has a ton of big, mainstream Japanese movies, but this year they just don’t exist in a meaningful fashion unless you watch a lot of Japanese TV or follow Japanese music. As Tom Mes writes, over on Midnight Eye:

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“This industry has become increasingly polarised, with more higher-budgeted productions that rely on formula and commercially viable concepts on the one hand, and more very under-funded struggling independents on the other. Today, the middle ground that spawned a film like [Takashi Miike's] DEAD OR ALIVE simply no longer exists. The yakuza genre has essentially become dormant once again – it certainly will never again be what it was during the 1990s. Production and distribution companies from that middle tier are going bankrupt at an alarming rate.”

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Fortunately, the we like to dig, and once we started watching movies we hit that rich vein of underfunded, struggling independents he’s talking about. These low budget films offer the kind of unhinged insanity and passion that we used to get from the mainstream. It’s an independent movie scene that’s as raw and potent as moonshine, and we’re not only bringing over the movies, we’re bringing over every single one of the directors.

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8000 MILES and 8000 MILES 2: GIRL RAPPERS

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Director Yu Irie shot his rappers-in-the-middle-of-nowhere comedy in Saitama, a precinct of Japan that’s famous for its broccoli, a Bonsai Museum and a tatty John Lennon Museum. Excitement, thy name is not Saitama. But it’s Yu’s hometown, and he got friends, family and local business owners to help him make his feature and it  took off like a rocket, winning the Grand Prize at the Yubari Film Festival and becoming a sleeper hit in Japan, settling in for a long, extended run supported by word-of-mouth praise. It peels back the baggy jeans, Kangol hats and North Face Jackets to find the heart of these guys who are going nowhere fast and who know it.

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Get more info. Read a review.

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Yu Irie will be here for both screenings of the film. (Buy tickets)

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Even more impressive is the sequel 8000 MILES 2: GIRL RAPPERS. Made with money he won with 8000 MILES, it’s virtually the same story, but set in nearby Gunma Prefecture and focusing on a gang of female wannabe rappers, known as B-Hack. Pulling a gender switch makes a huge difference, and 8000 MILES 2 is more of a slow burn movie that builds to a climax that will devastate you. Released in June of this year in Japan, this cast of first-time actors (except for LOVE EXPOSURE bad girl, Sakura Ando) are heroic and heart-breaking.

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Get more info here.

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You can buy tickets here, and Yu Irie will be at the screening.

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ANNYONG YUMIKA

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The “iron woman” of Japanese erotic film, Yumika Hayashi starred in critically acclaimed pink eiga LUNCHBOX and once had a telefilm screened at Cannes. She died in June 2005 at age 35, after a 16-year-career, that earned her a front page obituary in Japanese newspapers and a 380 + page biography. Truly iconic, Tetsuaki Matsue chose work she did in an obscure Korean production, JUNKO: STORY OF A TOKYO HOUSEWIFE, as an entry point into a documentary about her career and her colleagues that manages to become one part personal diary, one part memorial and one part celebration of one of the most famous actresses in Japan. Director Tetsuaki Matsue will be at the screenings.

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Get more info and buy tickets!

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LIVE TAPE

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What more is there to say about this concert film, shot in one astonishing 74-minute shot and starring Kenta Maeno, who is sometimes called the “Bob Dylan of Japan.” Check out the press:

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Midnight Eye: “That such a compelling and life-affirming work has been realised on such minimal resources renews one’s faith in cinema as an art form…” (read the rest)

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Japan Times: “I felt as though I had taken a journey though, not just Maeno’s repertoire, but his lonely heart…” (read the rest)

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Twitch: “…a testament to the cathartic and joyful power of music.” (read the rest)

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Director Tetsuaki Matsue and musician Kenta Maeno will be at each screening. But in addition, Kenta Maeno and his drummer, POP Suzuki, will perform a live set after each screening of the film, and Kenta will be playing a few shows around town that we’ll post the details of later.

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Buy tickets and get more details.

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Comments (1) Jun 21 2010