Japanese Film Screenings at the Bloor Cinema

JAPANESE FILM SCREENINGS 2008
Award-Winning Films from Japan
at the BLOOR CINEMA

November 26 - 29

The Japan Foundation presents four free screenings of recent Japanese films at the Bloor Cinema. Films include a stop motion puppet animation, a crime drama, a drama set in Okinawa and a comedy from cult favourite Takashi Miike. See www.bloorcinema.com or www.jftor.org for more information.

Films:
-Wednesday, November 26, 7:00 pm BOOK OF THE DEAD
-Friday, November 28, 7:00 pm SHANGRI-LA
-Saturday, November 29, 4:30 pm BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT
-Saturday, November 29, 7:00 pm HALF A CONFESSION

Location: BLOOR CINEMA, 506 Bloor Street West. Toronto, ON

Admission: FREE. No ticket or reservation is required. Please arrive early to ensure seating.


Wednesday, November 26, 7:00 pm
THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
Dir: Kihachiro Kawamoto
Japan, 2005

A stop motion puppet animation film set in a time when Buddhism was first being introduced to Japan, The Book of the Dead tells the story of Princess Iratsume, a devoted Buddhist who encounters the ghost of Otsu, a long-dead prince with a legendary connection to one of her ancestors. Winner of the Excellence Prize for Animation, 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival. In Japanese with English subtitles. 70 min. (PG)


Friday, November 28, 7:00 pm
SHANGRI-LA
Dir: Takashi Miike
Japan, 2002

Umemoto (Yu Tokui), the owner of a small printing company, loses everything when his largest customer, Uwazoko-ya, goes bankrupt and defaults on their debts. Umemoto ends up at an orderly homeless people's community called Shangri-La where, under the guidance of an ex-assassin known as the Village Chief (Sho Aikawa), he and the people of Shangri-la decide to seek revenge against the Uwazoko-ya organization. In Japanese with English subtitles. 104 min. (PG)


Saturday, November 29, 4:30 pm
BREATHE IN, BREATHE OUT
Dir: Tetsuo Shinohara
Japan, 2004

Hinami (Karina) applies for a part-time job cutting sugarcane on a plantation in Okinawa. She finds herself working with four other young men and women under the supervision of the experienced Yutaka (Nao Omori). Their task is to harvest all 70,000 sugar cane plants by the end of March, but the demanding physical labor and Yutaka's leadership soon cause problems. In Japanese with English subtitles. 123 min. (PG)


Saturday, November 29, 7:00 pm
HALF A CONFESSION
Dir: Kiyoshi Sasabe
Japan, 2004

Former police detective Soichiro (Akira Terao) turns himself in to the police and confesses to the murder of his wife (Mieko Harada), explaining that the shock of their son's death brought about the onset of Alzheimer's disease in his wife, leading her to ask him to end her suffering. However, he refuses to explain his movements in the two days between his wife's death and his surrender. Winner of Best Film and Best Actor, 2005 Japan Academy Awards. In Japanese with English subtitles. 122 min. (PG)


Supported by the Consulate-General of Japan in Toronto

In celebration of the 80th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Japan and Canada
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A new year for Cine Club

Hello everyone and welcome to another year of Cine Club. This year we have several plans for exciting events and screenings. We hope that the new direction we are taking will be more stimulating and attractive to members. 

We have a new executive body representing the club. Fresh faces eager to make this year the best ever. During the next couple weeks representatives from the club will be visiting your classes to apprise you of our plas for the term. We hope you will be as thrilled by them as we are.

We will also be moving our email and web address to York University's servers which should mean better and more frequent updates.

See you soon,

Jason

Cinema/Movement Conference

A quick reminder that the Cinema/Movement conference commences today at 2P.M. in the Mirkopoulos cinema (ACE 004). Speakers include Hirasawa Go, Anne McKnight and Sharon Hayashi. The conference will run from 2P.M. to 5P.M.

At 7P.M. screenings of Hi Red Shelter Plan, Wols, Gewaltopia Trailer and Shinjuku Station will be held. The screenings will be introduced by Johnathan Hall (UC Irvine) and total running time is 63 minutes.

Hope to see you there,

Jason

Cinema/Movement Screenings

I am pleased to announce that Ciné Club, in conjunction with the Department of Film at York University, will be screening three 16mm prints of rare Japanese films. As a part of the Cinema/Movement conference and screening series being held 12 Nov-19 Nov, we have the fortune of access to three wonderful films, Rice Bowl, PouPou and Crazy Love.

This Monday 12 November we will be screening two films produced by the Nihon University Cinema Club, Rice Bowl and PouPou. Screenings will be held in Room 135 in the Centre for Film & Theatre beginning at 6:00 P.M.

The Nihon University Cinema Club (Nichidai Eiken) was an organization formed in 1957 by Hirano Katsumi, Kanbara Hiroshi, Ko Hiro, and Jonouchi Motoharu. Employing a collective production method that eschewed the name of the author, the group mixed documentary and surrealist tendencies to confront the increasing political tensions arising in Japan.

Sparked by the security treaty with the US (Anpo) the group reformed and Wan (1961) was the first work by the newly formed collective. Through a narrative of matricide in a country village, the film metaphorically critiqued the failure to prevent the security treaty, its restrained black and white compositions and lack of dialogue projecting the darkly oppres- sive spirit of the time. According to Iimura the surrealist poem-exercise Pou Pou is a “film describing some unusual acts by youths attempting to break out of the stifl ing patterns of culture... daydreaming that yields them nothing. A mob of children enact a burial rite; the place of the ‘corpse’ is taken by one of the rebellious youths... Beautiful and rare images... one of the best Japanese films.”

On Monday 19 November we will screen Crazy Love by director Okabe Michio at 6 P.M. in 135 CFT.

Okabe Michio began his career in the fine arts. Inspired by the works of Kenneth Anger and the American underground, he gravitated towards fi lmmaking. Crazy Love was his second work and the fi rst feature length underground fi lm in Japan. Eschewing narrative and meaning, Okabe instead layered the fi lm with the music he liked from the Beatles and James Brown to Enka and Group Sounds and peopled it with friends and artists, inserting sequences of performances and happenings, making it a true document of the Shinjuku underground scene. Okabe himself appears recreating his favorite roles from Bonnie and Clyde to Spaghetti Westerns, as well as incorporating quotations by inserting stills of Godard, Kennedy’s assassination and the Vietnam War. Correlated with Susan Sontag’s theorization of kitsch as well as employing the queer lingo of “camp,” the film’s relentless equal opportunity pop-art montage shattered the foundations of conventional cinema, including the experiments of the early 60s, liberating infinite new possibilities.

For a full list of conference and screening times and dates please click here.



Special thank you to Sharon Hayashi

CineSiege

Next Monday 29 October is CineSiege "a juried showcase screening of outstanding productions of 2006-2007 by talented young filmmakers in York University's Department of Film". (via YorkU Film)

Given the occasion we are cancelling Monday's screening and encouraging everyone to attend CineSiege.





CineSiege 2007
October 29, 2007 - 7:00 pm
The Royal - 608 College St. Toronto
Free admission

A second chance mon amour...

On Monday 22 October we will be screening Alain Resnais' 1959 film Hiroshima mon amour at 6:30 P.M. in the SMIL screening room.

Allow the nouvelle vague inspire you...

On Monday 15 October we will be screening Alain Resnais' 1959 film Hiroshima mon amour at 6:30 P.M. in the SMIL screening room.

Roughly fifty years ago groups of young cinema fans met at ciné clubs like ours and watched movie after endless movie. Some of these film lovers started the cahier du cinéma and eventually became some of the most acclaimed film makers of any generation. It all started with watching films. Be us production or studies students, we are all here because we love to watch movies. They entertain us; make us cry and make us laugh; scare us; teach us; and most of all, change us. Movies shape who we are, open our eyes and show us the world in a different way each time we gaze at the screen. It all begins with watching. Ask any famous director and you'll get a story about the first film that was his inspiration. How can we better ourselves as filmmakers and film scholars if we do not watch films.

Ciné Club is here for all of us, to provide a forum to watch and discuss films outside of the classroom environment. You can bring your ideas, your thoughts and even your favourite movies to the club to an atmosphere that welcomes discussion. If you are a production student you can learn some neat tricks to use in your next film or discuss film-making ideas with other students. As a studies student you can rub off of the production folks and share with them ideas on how to make smarter films. Best of all we can get together and work as a team, without the lines that separate our two programme streams. We can contribute to each other, take up projects together. In Ciné Club we are all on equal ground because we all love film.

Ciné Club needs new members. We need individuals who will join us in making this club one that is available and a benefit to all film students. We are not just a group that screens films. We are comprised of individuals willing to fight to secure film students opportunities and events that would otherwise pass us by. We are interested in inviting guest speakers, in bringing in rare and interesting films, and providing students with an opportunity to present their own works. We will be working on a programme of short films and hopefully this will include works by fellow undergraduate and graduate students. Yet, we need your support to make this happen. If you are interested in helping us out, either as an active group member who will participate in organising events, as a rep for your year, or simply as a voting member with no other obligations, we are interested in hearing from you. Please contact us and let us know who you are and what interests you about film and Ciné Club. Help us make Ciné Club something we can all be proud to be a part of.

Sincerely,

Jason and Kerry-Anne