As a fan of Japanese cinema, I feel it’s essential to support those who continually support the community in enriching and exposing Japanese cinema to an ever-increasing spectrum of viewers. With that in mind, the Japan Society in New York is going to be putting on their “Japan Cuts” Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema–which is now in their fourth consecutive year! By looking at the list of titles showcasing, it’s very impressive to say the least, with a variety of different titles that are sure to please. Please check out the excerpt down below, and visit the Japan Society and their subsequent JAPAN CUTS program page for showtime information and to purchase tickets. You can also visit the Japan Society Film Blog as well, which will be covering the festival for the entire 16-day run! Please support the Japan Society for what they offer towards exploring the culture, arts and cinema of Japan.

Information:

It’s that time of year again… JAPAN CUTS Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema (July 1-16) is coming to Japan Society for its fourth consecutive year, with its biggest line-up ever. With 24 titles and 30 screenings, this is the largest showcase of contemporary Japanese film outside Japan, with international and U.S. premieres, special guests (filmmakers Noboru Iguchi, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Tomorowo Taguchi, Toshiaki Toyoda, Hitoshi Yazaki, and Isao Yukisada; and actors Tatsuya Fujiwara and Daichi Watanabe), parties (Festival Launch Party on July 1^st, SUSHI TYPHOON! on July 3^rd and NIGHT OF THE FILMMAKERS on July 10^th) and giveaways. In addition to independent and big budget feature films from the past year and 8 titles co-presented with the New York Asian Film Festival, the 2010 edition caps the decade with the Best of Unreleased Japanese Films of the 00’s (the “Naughties”), a digest of overlooked films from the past ten years which—for whatever reason—have not been treated to U.S. distribution.

Highlights include Confessions (dir. Tetsuya Nakashima), Sawako Decides (dir. Yuya Ishii), About Her Brother (dir. Yoji Yamada), Blood of Rebirth (dir. Toshiaki Toyoda), Bare Essence of Life: Ultra Miracle Love Story (dir. Satoko Yokohama), Dear Doctor (dir. Miwa Nishikawa), Golden Slumber (dir. Yoshihiro Nakamura), Nightmare Detective II (dir. Shinya Tsukamoto), Parade (dir. Isao Yukisada), and Zero Focus (dir. Isshin Inudo). But really, we believe every single title in this year’s line-up is worth a watch.

2010 Schedule:

Full Schedule PDF in English and Japanese

*Director or actor introduction and/or Q&A!

Thursday, July 1st

Sawako Decides (112 min.), 6:45 pm
Confessions (106 min.), 9 pm

Friday, July 2nd

Golden Slumber (139 min.), 6:15 pm
Blood of Rebirth* (83 min.), 9 pm

Saturday, July 3rd

Dear Doctor (127 min.), 1 pm
Blood of Rebirth* (83 min.), 3:45 pm
Alien vs. Ninja (81 min.), 6 pm
Mutant Girls Squad* (85 min.), 8:30 pm

Sunday, July 4th

Boys on the Run (114 min.), 12 pm
Confessions (106 min.), 2 pm
Dear Doctor (127 min.), 4:15 pm

Tuesday, July 6th

The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck and God in a Coin Locker (110 min.), 6:15 pm
Hanging Garden* (114 min.), 8:30 pm

Wednesday, July 7th

Electric Button (Moon and Cherry) (82 min.), 6:30 pm
Bare Essence of Life: Ultra Miracle Love Story (120 min.), 8:30 pm

Thursday, July 8th

Accidental Kidnapper (111 min.), 6:15 pm
One Million Yen Girl (121 min.), 8:30 pm

Friday, July 9th

Zero Focus (130 min.), 6:30 pm
Parade* (118 min.), 9 pm

Saturday, July 10th

Parade* (118 min.), 12 pm
Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World* (138 min.), 3 pm
Oh, My Buddha!* (114 min.), 6 pm

Sunday, July 11th

King of Thorn (110 min.), 6 pm

Tuesday, July 13th

Oh, My Buddha!* (114 min.), 6:15 pm

Wednesday, July 14th

Villon’s Wife (114 min.), 6:30 pm
Nightmare Detective II (102 min.), 9 pm

Thursday, July 15th

Memories of Matsuko (130 min.), 6:15 pm
Zero Focus (130 min.), 9 pm

Friday, July 16th

About Her Brother (126 min.), 6:15 pm
Sweet Little Lies* (117 min.), 8:30 pm

Japan Cuts 2010 Preview:

About New York’s Japan Society:

Established in 1907, New York’s Japan Society has evolved into North America’s single major producer of high-quality content on Japan for an English-speaking audience. Presenting over 100 events annually through well established Corporate, Education, Film, Gallery, Lectures, Performing Arts and Innovators Network programs, the Society is an internationally recognized nonprofit, nonpolitical organization that provides access to information on Japan, offers opportunities to experience Japanese culture, and fosters sustained and open dialogue on issues important to the U.S., Japan, and East Asia.

PART ONE

PART TWO

Footage from the Sakura-con 2010 FUNimation Industry Panel showcasing their entire Q & A session. Footage courtesy of iSugoi.

Footage from the Sakura-con 2010 FUNimation Industry Panel showcasing the newly acquired titles by FUNimation. Footage courtesy of iSugoi staff member Shawn.

The new acquisitions are:
Black Butler
Spice & Wolf
Chobits
Eden of the East films

The final video for the cover song “Turning Japanese” has arrived from director McG (Terminator Salvation) and producer Takashi Murakami (advocate for the Superflat Japanese art style). The original song was released in 1980 by the band “The Vapors”, but what’s so unique about this cover song/video is that is has American actress Kirsten Dunst (Spiderman, Marie Antoinette) in a sailor-suit costume and a blue wig in Tokyo’s Akihabara otaku shopping district! While I’ll restrain from commenting on Dunst’s singing (you can be your own judge), it’s a wonderfully creative and colorful video that really brings to life the atmosphere of Akihabara. Check it out below.

Side note: If you look closely, you can catch Murakami in the video!

Akihabara Majokko Princess video

The Conversation is a segment in which two fellow iSugoi staff members—Douglas and Shawn—discuss various anime titles or films that they’ve watched. Not necessarily a review, it provides a conversational environment in which to discuss and highlight their initial thoughts concerning the series or film in question.

The Conversation in this segment will be of the infamous 3-episode OVA series entitled “Chōjin Densetsu Urotsukidōji [Legend of The Overfiend]“

Douglas: I’ve heard about this series for a while now, and I remember the people I’ve heard about it from always brought up the hentai aspect of it. I know it’s infamous for its tentacle element, and this was pretty much the first series to start it.

Shawn: Yeah, a lot of people seem to be focused on the shocking side of it, mostly the graphic sexual exploits of the film, and just brush it off as just another violent and sexual hentai-like anime. I guess it can be considered hentai, but I personally wouldn’t consider it entirely hentai. It’s definitely over sexualized and has extreme violence that you won’t find in other titles such as Dragonball Z, Bleach or Naruto. I’m surprised I actually got you to watch it! [laughs]

Douglas: [laughs] Yup, I usually don’t watch these types of series. The series of OVA’s are based on the manga series by manga-ka Toshio Maeda.

Shawn: You’re right, there is a manga series. Most anime titles are from manga series, but some series and film come from original concepts. In the case of this series, there are 16 episodes that have been produced. We basically watched the original three that started it all. So, what did you think of it?

Douglas: Well…[laughs]. I think you pretty much see every sexual position in this series, right?

Shawn: Right.

© West Cape, Team Mu

Douglas: And there’s a whole bunch of stuff involving the beast, demon and human world intermixing. The human world is where we start out at, but before that we have this narrator describe the Legend of The Overfiend, but we as the viewer don’t really know what the Overfiend actually signifies. We don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad thing. A lot of the characters within the series don’t even know what it is themselves, which I found funny. One of the Man-Beasts (half-man, half-beast) is named Amano, if I remember correctly?

Shawn: Yes, Amano Jyaku. He’s can be considered the protagonist of the series…but I really don’t want to consider him the main character. The story seemed to be focusing on him a lot, even though there are other characters.

Douglas: Yes, his mission is to find the Overfiend.

Shawn: He’s been searching for 300 years to find the Overfiend. He’s been searching the human realm for that long. According to the legend in the series, the Overfiend is reborn every 3,000 years, so Amano has been searching the human realm for the better half of his 300 years, trying to find the Overfiend. He can apparently sense the Overfiend when he nears him, and the Overfiend takes the shape of a human until he awakens. I don’t think this is really a spoiler, but his sense of judgment about the Overfiend is slightly off at times. Just a little bit.

Douglas: I felt that way too. He’s on this quest to protect the Overfiend, and unite the human, demon and beast world. From what I got watching it, the demons don’t want the worlds to unite, right? I mean, wouldn’t that be better though? It’s hard to understand that logic given the circumstances.

Shawn: Right, that’s what the legend says. They believe the Overfiend will unite the three realms. All three realms are on Earth, but are mostly unaware of each other.

Douglas: Yes, the narrator in the beginning mentions that too. He also mentions something along the line of “O, You Arrogant Humans!”…

Shawn: [laughs]…Yeah, you have to put up with that little annoying voice over for all three episodes. Each episode always starts out with that annoying bastard.

Douglas: Yeah, he is a little annoying! Anyways, let’s talk about the actual characters of the series.

Shawn: Okay.

© West Cape, Team Mu

Douglas: We have Amano, which we already discussed. We have Nagumo Tatsuo…

Shawn: Yes, Nagumo. Basically, he’s the archetype for every harem male lead…[laughs]. He’s a horny bastard.

Douglas: He’s not the guy you would envision as the Overfiend, but we later find out he is. We also have Akemi Ito.

Shawn: We have Akemi, who is the female school idol. I don’t think we have to go into any further discussing than that…[laughs].

Douglas: [laughs] Yes!

Shawn: You can just imagine what female and school idol in the same sentence means. Essentially, every guy wants to bang her, every girl wants to be her.

Douglas: Then we have Megumi Amano.

Shawn: Yes, she’s Amano’s sister. And she’s very, how should I say this…

Douglas: Promiscuous?

Shawn: Yes.

Douglas: Especially with the demons, right? [laughs]

Shawn: [laughs] Then we have Kuroko. He sorted reminded me of that little green alien in the TV series The Flinstones. I believe his name was “The Great Gazoo”? He reminded me of him for some reason. We finally have Norikazu Ozaki, who is the typical school jock.

Douglas: Yes. The story seemed to start off as a slapstick school comedy to be honest.

Shawn: Yes, very slice-of-life. We jump right into a basketball game, where the star player is making all the girls excited for him. What’s funny is that Amano believes he might be the Overfiend. This is basically the first couple of minutes of the series.

© West Cape, Team Mu

Douglas: I have to add that this series had this weird atmosphere of violence and sex. I do have to mention that this series had a lot of sex. A lot of sex. There is a lot of sex between different races too.

Shawn: [laughs] If you want to put it that way.

Douglas: There also seems to be a lot of ultra-violence as well. I would say there is a good mixture of both.

Shawn: Yeah, in this series you have people get their guts ripped out, just a lot of graphic shit.

Douglas: It’s one of those series where you expect a battle to end rather grotesquely, wouldn’t you agree?

Shawn: Yes, and if you’re for the faint of heart, this series is definitely test your will.

Douglas: The series gets progressively more sexual and violent as it get further along. You eventually get some scenes that go on for over 5 minutes in length, which is a little awkward at times. In the series, the demons seem to derive their power from performing sexual acts.

Shawn: I believe the demons need to perform the sexual acts to preserve their life. It’s very weird!

Douglas: There is plenty of fan service for sure, but I felt it was taken way to far at times. This is not your typical fan service at all.

Shawn: No, this is kind of stuff that if exposed and made apparent to some parental lobby group, will basically lobby it to Congress. You know how that goes. They will just considered this trash.

Douglas: When you have “beastly-rape” scenes in an animated series, I would imagine it would cause some serious commotion if it were made widely available and marketed.

Shawn: Yes, the “beastly-rape” scenes are an understatement. The majority of the series is dedicated to even more bizarre stuff than that.

© West Cape, Team Mu

Douglas: What makes it even funnier is that most of the male characters are complete losers that seem to get the ladies only after they’ve obtained the powers of a demon or beast. Very interesting concept there.

Shawn: I agree. I believe the creator was on to something.

Douglas: [laughs] Yeah. I mean, Nagumo didn’t have sex until after he displayed his demon powers. The same with Yuichi Niki. He couldn’t even approach a female until after he got the demon power in the series.

Shawn: That’s a strange way to put it. It seems like you have to obtain demon powers just a have sex with a girl. Is that what you’re saying?

Douglas: [laughs] Yes, but only in the series though. I’m not insinuating that doing that will help you in real life!

Shawn: [laughs]

Douglas: Besides all this, the story is not grounded in reality at all, and there is a lot of irrational stuff that occurs. For one, after Akemi get “violated” by a demon, she acts like nothing happened!

Shawn: She’s pretty screwed up in the head if she can just move on after something like that. What’s funny is that she basically goes out with Nagumo afterwards, which seems totally offbeat and forced.

Douglas: I also wanted to add that it’s pretty rare to find animated series of this magnitude today. This series pretty much created an entirely new genre, which is always fascinating to me. If anything, it should be respected in that regard, whether you agree with the content or not.

Shawn: I agree. I mean, let’s face it, Japanese animation is better known around the world today than it was when this series came out. Saying that, you don’t see a lot of series taking risks like this one nowadays.

Douglas: Yes, this is definitely more of a cult classic than anything.

Shawn: Yes. It started that whole tentacle-rape-monster-demon-thingy…[laughs].

Douglas: [laughs] Hey, for what it’s worth, it’s a very interesting series. Art-wise, the tentacle stuff has been around for a long time, but this was the first time to actually have it in animated form. Toshio Maeda should be proud! [laughs]

Shawn: For creating an entire genre, I would say he should be!

Reactions after watching it: It’s definitely not for everyone (really, it isn’t), but for what its worth, you get to view the invention of a new genre that is still persistent to this very day. While not fans of the particular genre, we respect the film for showing the rather wide audience that anime can curtail too, even if its extremely strange.

Live-action Gantz [Preview]

We’ve all heard the Gantz is getting the live-action treatment, but where is the footage? Well, some footage has finally been released and even though it’s not much, it will still allow people to speculate, which is always fun!  The first film will be released in early 2011 and the second will follow in the spring. The film will be released by Toho.

Space Battleship Yamato [TV Spot]

One of the anime classics is getting modernized with a new live-action film. The film will be getting a released from Toho in December 2010. Seems a little far away, but I’m sure it will be worth the wait for fans of the original anime series.

No Longer Human [Trailer]

Based on the novel by Osamu Dazai, “No Longer Human (The Fallen Angel)” follows a man who can’t seem the escape the sorrow and despair in his life. The novel was just recently adapted into an anime short. The trailer looks fantastic and the film will be released by Kadokawa Pictures on February 20, 2010

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time [Live-action] Trailer

Based on the Japanese novel written by Yasutaka Tsutsui. The novel The Girl Who Leapt Through Time has been adapted into various films, mangas, and anime. This live-action version will feature actress Riisa Naka (the voice of Makoto in the 2006 animated film) as Akari, the 18-year-old daughter of the protagonist of the original novel, Kazuko Yoshiyama (played by Narumi Yasuda).

I’m a big fan of the animated film as well as the 80′s film. This updated version seems interesting because it’s following the daughter of the original protagonist (similar to how the animated film dealt with the family connection to time travel).