japan cuts 2019

JAPAN CUTS Review: Makoto Sasaki’s NIGHT CRUISING Envisions A Whole New Ball Game In Cinema For All

For as long as I can remember about buying DVDs, one of the best things I’ve enjoyed is getting to immers myself in the extensive behind-the-scenes featurettes. This especially attrributes to my love for action films since I enjoy seeing the creative process unfold, watching how the director, cast and crew work together between meetings and bustling on-set schedules. This is particularly what made watching Makoto Sasaki’s latest documentary, Night Cruising, such a feat – one as transformative and palpable in nature highlighting the efforts of a congenitally blind musician and editor named Hideyuki Kato dare to go boldly where blind people rarely tread: filmmaking. Save for its budget, he’s not playing it safe either – this a bold, experimental sci-fi action short that does a number of things to challenge conventional filmmaking methods. Indeed, what we get for the two-hours and twenty-four minutes of Sasaki’s Night Cruising is a […]

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JAPAN CUTS Review: 21 Years Later, Shinya Tsukamoto’s BULLET BALLET Still Hits Its Mark

Lee B. Golden III

Just shy of half a century is how long its been since director Shinya Tsukamoto entered filmmaking. He’s become one of the most celebrated filmmakers of this generation next to the likes of Takashi Miike and Sono Sion, and for good reason, aptly applying his visionary and stylish craft to numbers like his 1998 film, Bullet Ballet. Granted, Tsukamoto’s accolades didn’t come without some requisite pot-stirring along the way, which is exactly what Bullet Ballet achieved at the time, becoming one of the most polarizing pieces of work. Some critics have taken a liking to his “aggro art” style more so than others in the years since surfacing on the cinema map. The film certainly even goes out of its way breaking all sorts of rules during the more raucousing moments of action and danger, culminating its psychedelic, trippy, edgy indie feel to go hand-in-hand with its 35mm black-and-white lensing. […]

JAPAN CUTS Review: Sayaka Kai’s RED SNOW, The Color Of Ambiguity, And The Power Of Closure

Lee B. Golden III

In Red Snow, Masatoshi Nagase stars as a Kazuki, a varnish artist who works on bowls for a living with acrylic paints. He resides on a coastal northern island in Japan, afflicted by a past he can barely remember between his hazy memory and the lurid, snowdriven dreamscape he awakens from in the morning. This is the continued aftermath afflicting him in the decades since chasing his brother up a path amid a heavy snowfall, only to see him disappear right before his eyes. Thirty years later, he’s buried much of his emotions though lives in what appears to be a constant state of emotionless wonderment. It’s just another cold day on the island though, it seems, until one day when a journalist named Shogo (Arata Iura) shows up with details that renew the investigation of his brother’s disappearance. When Kazuki declines to comment, Shogo’s inquiry then lands him the […]

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JAPAN CUTS Review: Shinya Tsukamoto’s KILLING Cuts Deep Into The Existential And Horrific

Lee B. Golden III

Shinya Tsukamoto’s latest film takes a toll on the senses with Killing, a chilling eight-minute chanbara drama that suitably provides a template on which the multi-hat wearing filmmaker gets to exhibit the more visionary ends of his craft. The story and setting are encompassed by a foreboding undertone in Killing in which we engage the story of Mokunoshin Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu), a samurai tentatively housed with a farming family. Partaking on his share of the workload, he also spars at wooden swords with the son of the family Ichisuke (Ryusei Maeda), whose sister, Yu (Yu Aoi), shares all but concern regard her brother’s desire to be as talented a samurai as is their guest. The same goes for Tsuzuki who plans on leaving for Edo very soon for the battlefield. One day, a chance meeting with Jiaremon Sawamura (Shinya Tsukamoto), an aged ronin upon whom they spotted in a duel […]

JAPAN CUTS Review: Leo Sato’s THE KAMAGASAKI CAULDRON WAR, And The Power Of Staying Hungry

Lee B. Golden III

Leo Sato’s directorial debut, The Kamagasaki Cauldron War, takes you right into the heart of an impoverished community in Osaka. His script evokes some pretty brilliant messaging in the process about the value we place in things big or small, executing it with a delightful cast and story that always stays kinetic and palpable. Such a thing in this instance is a “kama”, a ritual cauldron that belongs to the local Kamatari yakuza organization. Much becomes ado with the cauldron one evening when Henmi, a kabuki dancer struggling to support his son, Kantaro, who wants to go to school, steals the cauldron for himself, sparking an epic search for the cauldron, as well as Kantaro’s own fight for survival when the yakuza come looking. Kantaro eventually lands in the care of a prostitute named Mei, and a resident hoarder named Nikichi at the behest of Father Eichizen, a reformed yakuza […]

JAPAN CUTS Review: Genta Matsugami’s DEMOLITION GIRL Goes Out Swinging

Lee B. Golden III

Debut director Genta Matsugami takes the mantle this year with a striking teen drama in Demolition Girl. The film has already garnered some critical and awarded acclaim since beginning a festival run since late last year ahead of its release this August. Demotlition Girl serves up a strong and compelling contemplative focus on a number of things standing in the way of a young high school girl. She’s looking to get out in the world, but with a horde of obstacles and strict societal conventions impeding her, it takes an underlying emotional toll that magnifies just why it is we root for her in the first place. Initially resigned to getting a job after graduation, Cocoa (Aya Kitai) comes to see an opportunity to attend college in Tokyo. She’d been working part time selling sausages while also engaging in a secret trade as a foot fetish video star. Except for […]

RED SNOW: Catch The Official Japan Cuts Trailer For Sayaka Kai’s U.S. Premiere

Lee B. Golden III

After screening at Marrakech late last year and releasing in February, Japan Cuts is proudly premiering newcome director Sayaka Kai’s searing mystery crime tale, Red Snow, which premieres on July 23 at Japan Society. Actors Masatoshi Nagase and Arata Iura, and actresses Nahana and Yui Natsukawa lead the cast along with Koichi Sato for a chilling story set in a wintery coastal village in Japan where a 30 year-old kidnapping case foments once more with new evidence. Sales outfit Kadowkawa Corporation is handling the film internationally during its festival run. Click here to learn more abou the programme, and feel free to get tickets here.

DEMOLITION GIRL: Aya Kitai Stomps Her Way To Japan Cuts This Summer

Lee B. Golden III

The thirteenth installment of Japan Cuts kicks off in New York City on July 19 and local folks will be more than pleased with this year’s illustrious and artful line-up, including debut director Genta Matsugami’s Demolition Girl. Actress Aya Kitai leads the way as a stoic high school girl whose renewed hope in a college career and growth in the real world finds itself hampered by a series of obstacles – all ranging from poverty and family secrets, to her secret occupation as a foot fetish snuff video star. The film, which took home a Japan Cuts Award win at this year’s Osaka Asian Film Festival in March, will have its North American premiere on July 22. Click here for more info.

JAPAN CUTS XIII: Dance With Me, Killing, Jesus, Night Cruising And More Outline Next Month’s Sprawling New York City Event

Lee B. Golden III

Following last week’s announcement of Japanese cinema auteur Shinya Tsukamoto’s centerpiece ceremony for this year’s Japan Cuts, the official line-up is now online from Japan Society along with a robust new trailer. The line-up is ripe with the usual assortment of features host to colorful cinematic stylings from a raft of directors on the feature-length and shortfilm front, as well as Q&A segments with directors. With any luck I’ll get some screening going on my end as there are several titles on this list I would love to check out, including documentary Night Cruising, Tsukamoto’s latest celebrated hit, Killing, and even Samurai Shifters among others. Tickets are available on the official website where you’ll find film trailers and details on next month’s event. Japan Society Announces Full Lineup for the 13th Annual JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema presents a […]

JAPAN CUTS XIII: Japanese Auteur Shinya Tsukamoto Takes Center Stage For Centerpiece Presentation & CUT ABOVE Prize In July

Lee B. Golden III

Japan Society’s 13th Japan Cuts festival is poised to kick off its nine-day event on July 19. Screening among nearly 30 feature films, ranging from a variety of titles amid multiple genres to be announced on June 11 will be the festival’ss Centerpiece Presentation: Japanese film auteur Shinya Tsukamoto whose new period sword drama, Killing, on July 24. Killing is described as a subversive samurai drama from influential cult director Shinya Tsukamoto that the filmmaker has described as a “scream” in response to the current state of the world. The film has been widely received at festivals since premiering last summer in Venice with international sales firm Nikkatsu shepherding sales rights. Nikkatsu also recently acquired the rights to Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992), Tokyo Fist (1995), Bullet Ballet (1998), A Snake Of June (2002), Vital (2004), Haze (2005) and Kotoko (2011), and The Adventure Of […]