Japan Cuts ’11: Wandering Home

Yôichi Higashi’s 2010 film Wandering Home, is an important reminder to everyone that while things may not be perfect in this life, there is always the hope and the possibility that no matter how bad things get one will not suffer alone.  Wandering Home follows the painful path of a family torn apart and ultimately brought back together by the alcohol-dependent father Tsukahara, played by Tadanobu Asano.  Once an award-winning photojournalist on the battlefield during war, alcohol becomes the father’s only escape.

Divorced from a beautiful and talented wife, played by Hiromi Nagasaku, Tsukahara lives with his mother and seemingly exists merely to drink his life away.  That is until he begins knocking on death’s door.  It’s a film about struggle and perseverance, and ultimately a film about a never ending love. Nagasaku is exceptionally exquisite in her role of the confused and torn wife and mother. The pain in her eyes floods the screen, and the love in her heart fills the soul.  Although a supporting role, Nagasaku steals the film in every scene in which she appears.

Although a bit slow at times the story remains true to actual life.  Life is not always fast-paced….it is not always interesting, and it does not always turn out how we want.  This is life.  It is full of heartache, suffering and most of all choices. Overall, Higashi’s Wandering Home shines a light on the perfectly imperfect family life and the unspoken love that brings them home.

Trailer was found thanks to Nippon Cinema!

This film is having its North American Premiere on Thursday July 21st at 9PM at The Japan Society. Tickets can be found here.

For Dr. Stan Glick’s take on the film you can head over to our sister site VCinema and read it here.

Japan Cuts/NYAFF ’11: Ninja Kids!!!

Takashi Miike has had a busy year. Scratch that. Miike is always busy. By far one of the most prolific filmmakers of our time Miike directed both13 Assassins (the director’s cut of which is playing at the NYAFF this Saturday) and Zebraman 2 just last year. If anyone thinks he has slowed down he recently showed his 3D remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 film Harakiri (Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai aka IchimeiPhoenix Wright video games as well as a film based off of the ninja manga Takeru. Tired yet? Neither is Miike because Japan Cuts, in one of their ten co-presentations with the NYAFF, is bringing you the world premiere of Miike’s other ninja movie: Ninja Kids!!!, a title that must be shouted with a fist in the air lest you forget the excitement that not one, not two but three exclamation points gives you. This is a kids film by way of Miike and if you have ever seen The Great Yokai War you may know what to expect. Based off of the long running anime and manga series Rantaro: The Ninja Boy (1,471 episodes) the movie follows Rantaro as he leaves his poor farming ninja family in order to go to ninja school and hopefully restore his family’s standing in the ninja world. Rantaro bonds with his class, which is full of more ninja misfits than you could shake a boken at, and begins the adventure of life. … Continue Reading

Japan Cuts/NYAFF ’11: Milocrorze: A Love Story

Co-presented by Japan Society’s Japan Cuts is one of the festival’s most anticipated films, at least in my opinion. Director Yoshimasa Ishibashi (of The Fuccons TV series fame) brings us a fever dream of colors, self help, violence, love, pain, destruction, revenge and slow motion action that is a behold to watch and not easily forgotten. But does it live up to the hype of style over substance or does it fall flat on its pretty head?

… Continue Reading

Japan Cuts ’11: Toilet

It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen a genuine family drama that delivers a simple, yet highly sophisticated narrative with both likeable, well developed characters and an easy-to-follow plot. Well much to my delight I recently came across Toilet (Naoko Ogigami, 2010), a quiet, yet powerful poetic tale of family love unspoken but expressed through individual and group actions. The film effectively removes the familiar melodrama known to pop up in most American cinema replacing it with psychological nuances with each character and powerful visual storytelling.

Ray (Alex House), is a boring, everyday 30-something engineer who collects Gundam robot models as hobby. His life reflects the machine toys he collects as by his own admission he has no interests, no desire, and believes that life is nothing more than boredom. Ray’s nihilism is put to the test when his mother dies at the start of the film leaving her house to him and his siblings, Maury (David Rendall) and Lisa (Tatiana Maslany), and their reclusive Japanese grandmother. After a fire destroys his apartment, Ray is left no choice but to move into the house (after having already refused Lisa’s invitation) with his family to sort out the fate of the property as well as its inhabitants. Eventually, the family begins to subtly bond and grow compassion for each other. … Continue Reading

Episode 005: Japan Cuts

Rufus and James take on the fifth year of Japan Cuts brought to you by the Japan Society. We talk about what films to watch, why you should watch them, and what we thought of Heaven’s Story Takahisa Zeze’s 2010 four and a half hour long epic that is making its North American debut at the festival. Other films we talk about are Milocrorze, A Liar and A Broken Girl, A Night in the Nude, and many more! Our coverage is in conjunction with: VCinema, AsianCineFest, and The Bourne Cinema Conspiracy.

There is only a regular version this time due to extra festival coverage.

Feedback:

iTunes Comments and Reviews Appreciated!
Twitter: @cineAWESOME
Email: podcast@cineawesome.com
Phone: 206-337-5077

Japan Cuts ’11: A Night in Nude: Salvation

I was especially excited to watch this film after hearing about it, and I fully expected a great neo-noir experience. It was only after watching the film that I learned it was a sequel to the 1993 film A Night in Nude (Takashi Ishii, 1993), and I was pleasantly surprised at how engaged I was with the complexities of the film despite having never heard of or seen the previous chapter. With that said I can honestly say I’m happy to have been able to see a grade A good old fashion neo-noir that is not just your run-of-the-mill conventional noir film, but a multi-leveled, narrative driven force.

The film is a mystery/thriller that follows Jiro Kurenai (Naoto Takenaka), a “handyman” who can do anything his clients need for the right price. Jiro gets involved with a mysterious beautiful woman when she hires him to find a missing Rolex watch that supposedly belonged to her dead father. Despite his initial suspicion of foul play, Jiro agrees to find the watch. After successfully recovering the missing timepiece, Jiro finds himself becoming more interested in his mystery woman sending him into a dark, hellish world of sex, violence, and betrayal. … Continue Reading

Win Tickets to See Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha at Japan Cuts

We and our friends over at VCinema are not only going to bring you coverage of the New York Asian Film Festival, we’re also going to send a couple of you to see the films themselves. In conjunction with NYAFF, Japan Cuts, and Variance Films, we’re proud to be able to give away a pair of tickets to one lucky person and a guest to one of two screenings of Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha: The Great Departure (2011) at the Japan Society on East 47th Street between 1st and 2nd avenues in New York.

To enter this contest, send an email to vcinema@variedcelluloid.net with the subject line “Send me to Buddha!” and include your name, your choice of the two available screenings (Thursday, July 7th at 6:45pm or Sunday, July 10th at 12:30pm), and an answer to the following trivia question:

Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha is based on a manga series. How many volumes are in the complete series?

All entries must be received by 11:59PST on Sunday, June 28th. One winner will be chosen randomly from all completed entries and their information will be sent to the folks at NYAFF. Only one entry per email address, please.

Japan Cuts’ description of Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha: The Great Departure:

The much-anticipated animated epic based on Osamu Tezuka’s landmark bio of the Buddha. A spectacular, philosophical drama of life told through the eyes of Siddhartha, who will later become the Buddha.

Want a chance to win tickets to see Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky at NYAFF too? Click here

For more information about the New York Asian Film Festival, check out Subway Cinema’s blog here.
For more information about Japan Cuts, check out their website here.