If you ever asked an anime fan about their views on a live-action adaptation of their favorite anime or manga series, you wouldn’t get a positive response from them. Live-action adaptations have always managed to disappoint fans and have never been liked by fans until Netlfix’s One Piece live-action came and changed the scene.
Poster of City-Hunter
Following the success of One Piece, there has been a surge of live-action, and one of the most acclaimed manga series, City Hunter, is getting its own live-action adaptation, which will be released on Netflix on April 25, 2024. Netflix recently released information about two more cast members and they are Masanobu Ando and Fumino Kimura.
Netflix’s City Hunter Live-Action adaptation cast members revealed
Live-action adaptations are the new trend in the entertainment industry, as many fan-favorite anime and manga franchises are getting adapted into movies and the characters are being brought to television,...
Poster of City-Hunter
Following the success of One Piece, there has been a surge of live-action, and one of the most acclaimed manga series, City Hunter, is getting its own live-action adaptation, which will be released on Netflix on April 25, 2024. Netflix recently released information about two more cast members and they are Masanobu Ando and Fumino Kimura.
Netflix’s City Hunter Live-Action adaptation cast members revealed
Live-action adaptations are the new trend in the entertainment industry, as many fan-favorite anime and manga franchises are getting adapted into movies and the characters are being brought to television,...
- 2/27/2024
- by Jiyad Shaikh
- FandomWire
The opening stretch of Fukada Kôji’s Love Life is rich in textures that put the characters’ present-day lives into nuanced context. When we first meet Taeko (Kimura Fumino), she’s playing a game of Othello—a modern version of Reversi—against Keita (Shimada Tetsuta), her young son from a prior marriage. They live with her current husband, Jiro (Nagayama Kento), in an apartment furnished by his parents and currently decorated to celebrate Keita’s win in an Othello tournament. When Taeko steps out to the balcony, she calls out to some of her friends, who are rehearsing a routine to hold up congratulatory signage. Then she drops by the soup kitchen where she works, and on her day off, after being called in to defuse a situation.
The significance behind some of those details and how it slowly comes into focus is one of Fukada’s signatures. Several scenes...
The significance behind some of those details and how it slowly comes into focus is one of Fukada’s signatures. Several scenes...
- 8/7/2023
- by Steven Scaife
- Slant Magazine
A lot of smaller films are coming out this month to help fill the void left by titles that members of the AMPTP have recently pushed back indefinitely––a move that seems to prove just how valuable creatives are to the filmmaking process before and after a movie is completed and their worth to be paid fairly in that role. Theaters need product to survive, so here’s hoping a return to more independent fare reminds ticket buyers what it was like before the big studios monopolized screens.
Inventive marketing is therefore needed more than ever to cut through the noise. How will that poster of a small film compete with the giant standee in the lobby? It’s one thing to finally get it on the wall, it’s another to make certain customers see it there.
Cutouts
Because the trailer for Jules feels like an old 1980s movie...
Inventive marketing is therefore needed more than ever to cut through the noise. How will that poster of a small film compete with the giant standee in the lobby? It’s one thing to finally get it on the wall, it’s another to make certain customers see it there.
Cutouts
Because the trailer for Jules feels like an old 1980s movie...
- 8/4/2023
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
"I never told her about you." "That was cowardly of you." Oscilloscope Labs has unveiled an official trailer for Love Life, an emotional Japanese drama that first premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival last year. It will be playing in select art house theaters in the US starting later in August, if anyone is curious about watching. Taeko and her new husband Jiro are living a simple life with her young son Keita, when a tragic accident brings the boy's long-lost father, Park, back into her life. To cope with her pain and guilt, Taeko throws herself into helping Park, who is also deaf and currently homeless. With nuanced performances and craftsmanship, Love Life is a melodramatic and moving meditation on grief and acceptance. The film stars Win Morisaki, Fumino Kimura, and Tomorô Taguchi. I watched this in Venice and while I do think the performances are excellent, the rest...
- 8/3/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Award
Paramount+ and Tving‘s Korean series “Bargain” has won the critics’ choice award at the Seriencamp Festival in Cologne. In April, “Bargain” became the first-ever Korean series to win best screenplay at the Canneseries Festival in France.
The series stars actors Jun Jong-seo (“Money Heist: Korea”) and Jin Seon-kyu (“Extreme Job”) and is an adaptation of director Lee Chung-hyun’s 2015 short film of the same name. Director Jun Woo-sung, who was part of the production team of the short, picked up the story and developed it into a six-part series. “Bargain” revolves around a group of strangers who gather at a remote motel with ulterior motives – seeking to bargain. Unlike the original film, the series follows the characters after an unexpected earthquake traps them inside the building. With no one to trust, they must find a way to survive.
“Bargain” is developed by Paramount+ and Tving, out of Paramount...
Paramount+ and Tving‘s Korean series “Bargain” has won the critics’ choice award at the Seriencamp Festival in Cologne. In April, “Bargain” became the first-ever Korean series to win best screenplay at the Canneseries Festival in France.
The series stars actors Jun Jong-seo (“Money Heist: Korea”) and Jin Seon-kyu (“Extreme Job”) and is an adaptation of director Lee Chung-hyun’s 2015 short film of the same name. Director Jun Woo-sung, who was part of the production team of the short, picked up the story and developed it into a six-part series. “Bargain” revolves around a group of strangers who gather at a remote motel with ulterior motives – seeking to bargain. Unlike the original film, the series follows the characters after an unexpected earthquake traps them inside the building. With no one to trust, they must find a way to survive.
“Bargain” is developed by Paramount+ and Tving, out of Paramount...
- 6/19/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Stan Refreshes Lionsgate Output Deal
Australian streamer Stan has refreshed its output deal with Lionsgate. The new agreement means Stan lands the local first-run of shows including the upcoming CIA thriller series Gray, starring Patricia Clarkson, Lydia West and Rupert Everett. Also on the menu are Son of a Critch, Welcome to Flatch and Steven K. Knight’s Spartacus sequel series. Theatrical features include White Bird, Alice and Darling. Stan will remain the Aussie home of the Power franchise, The Serpent Queen, Minx, Bmf, Gaslit and Hightown and also picks up Lionsgate catalog titles such as Mad Men, Weeds, The Spanish Princess, Black Sails, La La Land and Twilight.
Indigenous Canadian Stand-Up Show Readied
Exclusive: Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and the Canada Media Fund are among the backers of a comedy TV series billed as the first all-Canadian and Indigenous stand-up show. They have signed on to develop...
Australian streamer Stan has refreshed its output deal with Lionsgate. The new agreement means Stan lands the local first-run of shows including the upcoming CIA thriller series Gray, starring Patricia Clarkson, Lydia West and Rupert Everett. Also on the menu are Son of a Critch, Welcome to Flatch and Steven K. Knight’s Spartacus sequel series. Theatrical features include White Bird, Alice and Darling. Stan will remain the Aussie home of the Power franchise, The Serpent Queen, Minx, Bmf, Gaslit and Hightown and also picks up Lionsgate catalog titles such as Mad Men, Weeds, The Spanish Princess, Black Sails, La La Land and Twilight.
Indigenous Canadian Stand-Up Show Readied
Exclusive: Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and the Canada Media Fund are among the backers of a comedy TV series billed as the first all-Canadian and Indigenous stand-up show. They have signed on to develop...
- 6/19/2023
- by Jesse Whittock, Max Goldbart and Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada is back with another middle-class (melo)drama about common people in uncommon life situations. “Love Life” premiered at Venice and after that went on the tour of festivals.
“Love Life” is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2023 program
Taeko and her husband Jiro live a peaceful life. At the beginning, their mood could be seen as celebratory, since they are throwing a party for his stern father's 65th birthday, and also celebrating her son Keita's local Othello championship title. However, Jiro's father has a hard time accepting the fact that his son married a divorcee with a child from her previous marriage.
A sudden tragedy resulting in Keita's accidental death starts the spiral of events. Firstly, Keita's biological father Park (Atom Sunada) suddenly appears at the funeral and Taeko has the urge to do her best to...
“Love Life” is screening at the Museum of the Moving Image, as part of the First Look 2023 program
Taeko and her husband Jiro live a peaceful life. At the beginning, their mood could be seen as celebratory, since they are throwing a party for his stern father's 65th birthday, and also celebrating her son Keita's local Othello championship title. However, Jiro's father has a hard time accepting the fact that his son married a divorcee with a child from her previous marriage.
A sudden tragedy resulting in Keita's accidental death starts the spiral of events. Firstly, Keita's biological father Park (Atom Sunada) suddenly appears at the funeral and Taeko has the urge to do her best to...
- 3/13/2023
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired North American rights to Japanese director Kôji Fukada’s drama Love Life.
The film world premiered in Competition in Venice last year (you can check out the Deadline reveal of a first clip here) and went on to play at multiple festivals including Toronto and London.
The acquisition announcement followed hot on the heels of news that the film had been selected for the Museum of The Moving Images (MoMI) First Look Festival, running in New York from March 15 to 19.
Oscilloscope will release the film this year.
The film stars Fumino Kimura as Taeko, a woman living a peaceful life with her husband (Kento Nagayama) and young son.
A tragic accident brings Taeko’s ex-husband, who is the father of her son, back into her life. He is deaf, down on his luck and homeless. To deal with her own pain and guilt, she throws herself into helping him out,...
The film world premiered in Competition in Venice last year (you can check out the Deadline reveal of a first clip here) and went on to play at multiple festivals including Toronto and London.
The acquisition announcement followed hot on the heels of news that the film had been selected for the Museum of The Moving Images (MoMI) First Look Festival, running in New York from March 15 to 19.
Oscilloscope will release the film this year.
The film stars Fumino Kimura as Taeko, a woman living a peaceful life with her husband (Kento Nagayama) and young son.
A tragic accident brings Taeko’s ex-husband, who is the father of her son, back into her life. He is deaf, down on his luck and homeless. To deal with her own pain and guilt, she throws herself into helping him out,...
- 2/10/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada is back with another middle-class (melo)drama about common people in uncommon life situations. “Love Life” premiered at Venice and after that went on the tour of festivals.
Love Life is screening at Black Movie
Taeko and her husband Jiro live a peaceful life. At the beginning, their mood could be seen as celebratory, since they are throwing a party for his stern father’s 65th birthday, and also celebrating her son Keita’s local Othello championship title. However, Jiro’s father has a hard time accepting the fact that his son married a divorcee with a child from her previous marriage.
A sudden tragedy resulting in Keita’s accidental death starts the spiral of events. Firstly, Keita’s biological father Park (Atom Sunada) suddenly appears at the funeral and Taeko has the urge to do her best to help this troubled deaf homeless Korean man.
Love Life is screening at Black Movie
Taeko and her husband Jiro live a peaceful life. At the beginning, their mood could be seen as celebratory, since they are throwing a party for his stern father’s 65th birthday, and also celebrating her son Keita’s local Othello championship title. However, Jiro’s father has a hard time accepting the fact that his son married a divorcee with a child from her previous marriage.
A sudden tragedy resulting in Keita’s accidental death starts the spiral of events. Firstly, Keita’s biological father Park (Atom Sunada) suddenly appears at the funeral and Taeko has the urge to do her best to help this troubled deaf homeless Korean man.
- 1/22/2023
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada is back with another middle-class (melo)drama about common people in uncommon life situations. “Love Life” premiered at Venice and after that went on the tour of festivals. We caught it at a special screening at Zagreb Film Festival.
Taeko and her husband Jiro live a peaceful life. At the beginning, their mood could be seen as celebratory, since they are throwing a party for his stern father’s 65th birthday, and also celebrating her son Keita’s local Othello championship title. However, Jiro’s father has a hard time accepting the fact that his son married a divorcee with a child from her previous marriage.
A sudden tragedy resulting in Keita’s accidental death starts the spiral of events. Firstly, Keita’s biological father Park (Atom Sunada) suddenly appears at the funeral and Taeko has the urge to do her best to help this troubled deaf homeless Korean man.
Taeko and her husband Jiro live a peaceful life. At the beginning, their mood could be seen as celebratory, since they are throwing a party for his stern father’s 65th birthday, and also celebrating her son Keita’s local Othello championship title. However, Jiro’s father has a hard time accepting the fact that his son married a divorcee with a child from her previous marriage.
A sudden tragedy resulting in Keita’s accidental death starts the spiral of events. Firstly, Keita’s biological father Park (Atom Sunada) suddenly appears at the funeral and Taeko has the urge to do her best to help this troubled deaf homeless Korean man.
- 11/5/2022
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
Quite a different romantic movie than the usual style of the category, “The Tale of Nishino” essentially begins with the death of the protagonist, after hanging out with ex-girlfriend Natsumi and her daughter Minami, and then makes a flash forward ten years later when Nishino returns as a ghost to Minami, with the two attending his funeral. There the girl talks to a friend of his, who shares a rather extensive story about his past, and particularly his relationship with a number of women, all of which, though, ended up dumping him.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The unusual story is based on the homonymous novel by Hiromi Kawakami, and for the most part, focuses on the everyday life of Nishino, the fact that many women found themselves attracted to him, and his effort to not say no to anyone, which actually is the...
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The unusual story is based on the homonymous novel by Hiromi Kawakami, and for the most part, focuses on the everyday life of Nishino, the fact that many women found themselves attracted to him, and his effort to not say no to anyone, which actually is the...
- 9/18/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The Film Circuit begins with Telluride, a small but perfect film festival in the mountains of Colorado as simultaneously Venice unfurls the films that will soon be released in the wonderful arthouse cinemas of Europe, followed closely by Toronto whose films foretell the coming year’s Oscars nominees. It is a very exciting time to be on the festival circuit.
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
- 9/10/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. Oscilloscope releases the film in select theaters on Friday, August 11.
An enormously poignant melodrama told at the volume of a broken whisper, Kōji Fukada’s “Love Life” represents a major breakthrough for a filmmaker who’s found the perfect story for his probing but distant style. In that light, it doesn’t seem incidental that “Love Life” is a story about distance — specifically the distance between people who reach for each other in the wake of a tragedy that strands them far away from themselves.
Inspired by the plaintive 1991 Akiko Yano song of the same name, “Love Life” introduces us to a domestic idyll that it disrupts with a deceptive casualness typical of Fukada’s work. The bloom comes off the rose slowly at first, and then all at once in a single moment of everyday awfulness.
An enormously poignant melodrama told at the volume of a broken whisper, Kōji Fukada’s “Love Life” represents a major breakthrough for a filmmaker who’s found the perfect story for his probing but distant style. In that light, it doesn’t seem incidental that “Love Life” is a story about distance — specifically the distance between people who reach for each other in the wake of a tragedy that strands them far away from themselves.
Inspired by the plaintive 1991 Akiko Yano song of the same name, “Love Life” introduces us to a domestic idyll that it disrupts with a deceptive casualness typical of Fukada’s work. The bloom comes off the rose slowly at first, and then all at once in a single moment of everyday awfulness.
- 9/7/2022
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Venice film festival: Japanese director Kôji Fukada has crafted a richly painful and quietly comic human drama
Might the title be an instruction? If so, it’s not so easy to obey, judging from this movie from Japanese director Kôji Fukada who made such an impression with his sweet, Rohmeresque feature Goodbye Summer in 2013. Love Life is an inexpressibly tragic and painful human drama about complicated lives, a movie that interleaves the utter desolation with a dry understated comedy and a sense of emotional tangle and chaos, a film that moreover blindsides its leading female character – and us, the audience – with an entirely unexpected coda section away from Japan in South Korea. In Shakespearean terms, this could be a filmic “problem play”.
A married young couple are living together in a small flat: Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and her husband Jiro (Kento Nagayama) and their lively eight-year-old son Keita (Tetsuda Shimada...
Might the title be an instruction? If so, it’s not so easy to obey, judging from this movie from Japanese director Kôji Fukada who made such an impression with his sweet, Rohmeresque feature Goodbye Summer in 2013. Love Life is an inexpressibly tragic and painful human drama about complicated lives, a movie that interleaves the utter desolation with a dry understated comedy and a sense of emotional tangle and chaos, a film that moreover blindsides its leading female character – and us, the audience – with an entirely unexpected coda section away from Japan in South Korea. In Shakespearean terms, this could be a filmic “problem play”.
A married young couple are living together in a small flat: Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and her husband Jiro (Kento Nagayama) and their lively eight-year-old son Keita (Tetsuda Shimada...
- 9/7/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Love Life is one of those films that really wears its screenplay. The plot follows a mother’s attempts to come to terms with the death of a child, but it’s more about unusual paths the journey takes for her to get there. The director is Kôji Fukada, a filmmaker who studied under Kiyoshi Kurosawa and cites Rohmer as a key influence. The first of Fukada’s films to complete for one of the grand festival awards, it premiered this week in what has been if not the best, then at least the glitziest Venice lineup in recent memory. Amongst the stars, Love Life (named for an Akiko Yano song of the same name) is jarringly everyday in color palette and setting, but has just the right amount of scope, filmmaking nous, and unusual choices to hold its own and even stand out.
A neat film of knotty ideas,...
A neat film of knotty ideas,...
- 9/6/2022
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
‘Love Life’ Review: Koji Fukada’s Life-After-Loss Drama is Full of Tragedy But Strangely Lightweight
Even the most solidly founded of marriages can be strained and shattered by the death of a child. For handsome, wholesome Japanese couple Taeko and Jiro, however, that tragedy shows up all the fault lines that were already in their young relationship, and that’s before living ghosts of the past show up for both partners. Koji Fukada’s “Love Life” unabashedly embraces melodramatic contrivance in its examination of modern middle-class love tested as much by social prejudices as by personal demons; it just does so with such pallid, polite reserve that its sentimentality never becomes transcendently moving. As such, this agreeable but overlong pic finds the Japanese writer-director still struggling to regain the form of his jolting 2016 Cannes prizewinner “Harmonium.”
That film was an exercise in disorienting tonal contrast and conflict, with a vein of blood-dark comedy running through severely tragic events. “Love Life,” on the other hand, is an earnest,...
That film was an exercise in disorienting tonal contrast and conflict, with a vein of blood-dark comedy running through severely tragic events. “Love Life,” on the other hand, is an earnest,...
- 9/6/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Grief and guilt are the twin quiet rivers running beneath Koji Fukada’s ambiguously titled Venice competition entry Love Life, a delicately tangled story of generational conflict and the silences that, without being overtly aggressive, can drive people apart. Anyone familiar with the work of Japan’s greatest cinema maestro, Yasuhiro Ozu, will recognize the general territory. It is a space within which tectonic social shifts are disguised under layers of traditional social observance, often involving large meals, and where profound emotions may be — and often must be — contained within a glance.
Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and Jiro (Kento Nagayama) have been married for around a year, having met several years earlier in the social welfare office where they now both work. Taeko already had a child, Keita (Tetta Shimada), from a previous marriage to a man who abandoned them when Keita was a baby, perhaps because he was barely able...
Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and Jiro (Kento Nagayama) have been married for around a year, having met several years earlier in the social welfare office where they now both work. Taeko already had a child, Keita (Tetta Shimada), from a previous marriage to a man who abandoned them when Keita was a baby, perhaps because he was barely able...
- 9/6/2022
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
Enormous personal events unfold throughout Kôji Fukada’s soulful Japanese drama “Love Life,” premiering at the Venice Film Festival: a marriage, a reunion, an affair and, most notably, a death. And yet the scale in which Fukada works — as both writer and director — is so deliberately intimate that immense experiences feel microcosmic, while tiny moments make a huge impact.
His heroine, Taeko (Fumino Kimura), is so self-effacing that it often feels as though she would erase herself if she could. Most of the time, she is able to look to others for meaning and definition; in her small, generic flat within a block of large, generic apartment buildings, she serves her in-laws, her husband, her son Keita (Tetta Shimada). At work, from a cubicle or a sidewalk, she serves as a social advocate, helping unhoused and otherwise disadvantaged strangers.
When she can’t find something to do, she lingers in near-immobility,...
His heroine, Taeko (Fumino Kimura), is so self-effacing that it often feels as though she would erase herself if she could. Most of the time, she is able to look to others for meaning and definition; in her small, generic flat within a block of large, generic apartment buildings, she serves her in-laws, her husband, her son Keita (Tetta Shimada). At work, from a cubicle or a sidewalk, she serves as a social advocate, helping unhoused and otherwise disadvantaged strangers.
When she can’t find something to do, she lingers in near-immobility,...
- 9/5/2022
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
Click here to read the full article.
The apartment at the center of Love Life, Koji Fukada’s mellow study of grief and dislocation, is, like the film, compact and practical. A long table, surrounded by a narrow bench and various chairs, occupies the center of the living room. The kitchen is tucked in a corner. Near the entrance: a bathroom with a short tub, a sink, a toilet. Toward the rear: sliding doors leading to a balcony overlooking a hideous concrete lot; a bedroom on the right. Evidence of family life is everywhere: height marks etched into a wall, trophies, diplomas, a child’s drawings, books, clothes on hooks, shoes in corner.
Taeko (Fumino Kimura), Jiro (Kento Nagayama) and their 6-year-old son, Keita (Tetta Shimada), live in this unfussy space, and how they interact with it is one of the most edifying aspects of Fukada’s latest feature. With Love Life,...
The apartment at the center of Love Life, Koji Fukada’s mellow study of grief and dislocation, is, like the film, compact and practical. A long table, surrounded by a narrow bench and various chairs, occupies the center of the living room. The kitchen is tucked in a corner. Near the entrance: a bathroom with a short tub, a sink, a toilet. Toward the rear: sliding doors leading to a balcony overlooking a hideous concrete lot; a bedroom on the right. Evidence of family life is everywhere: height marks etched into a wall, trophies, diplomas, a child’s drawings, books, clothes on hooks, shoes in corner.
Taeko (Fumino Kimura), Jiro (Kento Nagayama) and their 6-year-old son, Keita (Tetta Shimada), live in this unfussy space, and how they interact with it is one of the most edifying aspects of Fukada’s latest feature. With Love Life,...
- 9/5/2022
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The tragedy at the center of “Love Life,” the new film from Japanese director Kōji Fukada which premieres in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, does not come to disrupt a perfectly happy family. Cracks are visible in the facade of the life shared by Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and Jiro (Kento Nagayama) even before the fatal accident that claims the life of Keita (Tetta Shimada), her young son from a previous marriage.
Continue reading ‘Love Life’ Review: Kōji Fukada’s Film Is An Uneven Melodrama On Grief And Intimacy [Venice] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Love Life’ Review: Kōji Fukada’s Film Is An Uneven Melodrama On Grief And Intimacy [Venice] at The Playlist.
- 9/5/2022
- by Elena Lazic
- The Playlist
MK2 Films has scored key territory deals on Japanese director Koji Fukada’s “Love Life,” which makes its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
Set in contemporary Japan, “Love Life” is a character-driven film revolving around Taeko and her husband, Jiro, who are living a peaceful existence with her young son, Keita. When a tragic accident brings the boy’s long-lost father, Park, back into her life, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man to cope with the pain and guilt. Popular Japanese actress Fumino Kimura (“The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill”) headlines the film.
MK2 Films has now sold the movie to Teodora (Italy), Imagine (Benelux), Leopardo (Portugal), Demiurg (Ex Yugoslavia), New Cinema (Israel), Swallow Wings (Taiwan), Edko (Hong Kong), Impact Films (India) and Encore Inflight (Airlines).
Fukada’s credits include the 2016 movie “Harmonium,” which won the jury prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard,...
Set in contemporary Japan, “Love Life” is a character-driven film revolving around Taeko and her husband, Jiro, who are living a peaceful existence with her young son, Keita. When a tragic accident brings the boy’s long-lost father, Park, back into her life, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man to cope with the pain and guilt. Popular Japanese actress Fumino Kimura (“The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill”) headlines the film.
MK2 Films has now sold the movie to Teodora (Italy), Imagine (Benelux), Leopardo (Portugal), Demiurg (Ex Yugoslavia), New Cinema (Israel), Swallow Wings (Taiwan), Edko (Hong Kong), Impact Films (India) and Encore Inflight (Airlines).
Fukada’s credits include the 2016 movie “Harmonium,” which won the jury prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard,...
- 9/5/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Six years after his 2016 film Harmonium won Cannes’ jury prize in the Un Certain Regard section, Japanese director Koji Fukada is taking the big step up into Venice’s main competition with the emotionally intense family drama Love Life.
Fukada’s rise to the top tier of the international festival circuit has been telegraphed for some time. His breakthrough family comedy Hospitalité won best picture in the Japanese cinema category of the 2010 Tokyo International Film Festival, and in 2020 that same event featured him as its director in focus with a mini-retrospective. Effectively, the Tokyo festival’s organizers were arguing that Fukada was worthy of the type of top-level industry attention that Venice has now bestowed upon him.
Fukada’s ninth feature, Love Life tells a taut domestic drama about a newly married Japanese couple (Fumino Kimura and Kento Nagayama) enjoying a peaceful existence...
Six years after his 2016 film Harmonium won Cannes’ jury prize in the Un Certain Regard section, Japanese director Koji Fukada is taking the big step up into Venice’s main competition with the emotionally intense family drama Love Life.
Fukada’s rise to the top tier of the international festival circuit has been telegraphed for some time. His breakthrough family comedy Hospitalité won best picture in the Japanese cinema category of the 2010 Tokyo International Film Festival, and in 2020 that same event featured him as its director in focus with a mini-retrospective. Effectively, the Tokyo festival’s organizers were arguing that Fukada was worthy of the type of top-level industry attention that Venice has now bestowed upon him.
Fukada’s ninth feature, Love Life tells a taut domestic drama about a newly married Japanese couple (Fumino Kimura and Kento Nagayama) enjoying a peaceful existence...
- 9/1/2022
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Click here to read the full article.
For the 79th Venice Film Festival, artistic director Alberto Barbera has put together one of the most well-curated lineups of his career. Both studios and streamers are well represented.
Netflix scored an opening-night coup with Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, with buzz promising that it’ll wow the Lido, alongside Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, with Ana de Armas; Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Mexican epic Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths; and Romain Gavras’ French action thriller Athena.
Studio fare is well represented by Warner Bros.’ Don’t Worry Darling from director Olivia Wilde; Focus has Todd Field’s Tár with Cate Blanchett and Mark Strong; MGM will debut Luca Guadagnino’s Timothée Chalamet-Taylor Russell starrer Bones and All; Searchlight presents The Banshees of Inisherin from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri director Martin McDonagh; and Sony Pictures Classics will be...
For the 79th Venice Film Festival, artistic director Alberto Barbera has put together one of the most well-curated lineups of his career. Both studios and streamers are well represented.
Netflix scored an opening-night coup with Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, with buzz promising that it’ll wow the Lido, alongside Andrew Dominik’s Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, with Ana de Armas; Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Mexican epic Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths; and Romain Gavras’ French action thriller Athena.
Studio fare is well represented by Warner Bros.’ Don’t Worry Darling from director Olivia Wilde; Focus has Todd Field’s Tár with Cate Blanchett and Mark Strong; MGM will debut Luca Guadagnino’s Timothée Chalamet-Taylor Russell starrer Bones and All; Searchlight presents The Banshees of Inisherin from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri director Martin McDonagh; and Sony Pictures Classics will be...
- 8/30/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 79th Venice International Film Festival has just announced the line-up for the next edition. The 79th Venice International Film Festival is organised by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera. It will take place at Venice Lido from 31 August to 10 September 2022. The Festival is officially recognised by the Fiapf (International Federation of Film Producers Association).
The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organises retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.
Here are all the Asian Titles on the Programme:
Competition:
Love Life
Director Koji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi,...
The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organises retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.
Here are all the Asian Titles on the Programme:
Competition:
Love Life
Director Koji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi,...
- 7/26/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
“Nobuto Urita is a boxer who loves his sport more than anything. No matter how hard he tries, he keeps losing his matches. Meanwhile, Kazuki Ogawa who spars with Urita at the same gym is a boxer with elite talent and skills; his eventual road to the championship is assured. Ogawa is also engaged to Chika Amano. She is a childhood friend of Urita and his first love. Also on hand is Narasaki who comes to train simply to look “cool” but discovers his own talent and passion.”
“Blue” will be screening at Aca Cinema Project: New Films from Japan
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter...
“Blue” will be screening at Aca Cinema Project: New Films from Japan
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter...
- 2/25/2022
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (Aca) will present the third Aca Cinema Project series: New Films from Japan organized as part of a “Japan Film Overseas Expansion Enhancement Project”, in collaboration with the IFC Center and Visual Industry Promotion Organization (Vipo) with theatrical engagements of Yujiro Harumoto’s A Balance and Keisuke Yoshida’s Blue, March 11-17, 2022.
Aca Cinema Project is proud to introduce US audiences to the best of recent Japanese cinema including Keisuke Yoshida’s Blue, a gripping boxing drama starring Kenichi Matsuyama, Masahiro Higashide and Fumino Kimura, the former two actors appearing on-screen together for the first time since Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow. Earning the title of “The Master of Psychological Drama” Yoshida was honored with a special Director in Focus program at 2021’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
Winner of the New Current Award at the Busan International Film Festival and an official selection at Berlinale,...
Aca Cinema Project is proud to introduce US audiences to the best of recent Japanese cinema including Keisuke Yoshida’s Blue, a gripping boxing drama starring Kenichi Matsuyama, Masahiro Higashide and Fumino Kimura, the former two actors appearing on-screen together for the first time since Satoshi: A Move for Tomorrow. Earning the title of “The Master of Psychological Drama” Yoshida was honored with a special Director in Focus program at 2021’s Tokyo International Film Festival.
Winner of the New Current Award at the Busan International Film Festival and an official selection at Berlinale,...
- 2/19/2022
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
MK2 Films, the banner behind Joachim Trier’s “The Worst Person in the World,” has boarded “Love Life,” the anticipated next film of laureled Japanese director Koji Fukada.
Fukada’s credits include the 2016 movie “Harmonium” which won the jury prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, as well as “A Girl Missing” which played at Toronto. His latest film, “The Real Thing” was part of Cannes 2020’s Official Selection.
Set in contemporary Japan, “Love Life” is a character-driven film revolving around Taeko and her husband, Jiro, who are living a peaceful existence with her young son, Keita. When a tragic accident brings the boy’s long-lost father, Park, back into her life, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man to cope with the pain and guilt. Popular Japanese actress Fumino Kimura (“The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill”) headlines the film.
“We are proud to be teaming up...
Fukada’s credits include the 2016 movie “Harmonium” which won the jury prize at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, as well as “A Girl Missing” which played at Toronto. His latest film, “The Real Thing” was part of Cannes 2020’s Official Selection.
Set in contemporary Japan, “Love Life” is a character-driven film revolving around Taeko and her husband, Jiro, who are living a peaceful existence with her young son, Keita. When a tragic accident brings the boy’s long-lost father, Park, back into her life, Taeko throws herself into helping this deaf and homeless man to cope with the pain and guilt. Popular Japanese actress Fumino Kimura (“The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill”) headlines the film.
“We are proud to be teaming up...
- 2/13/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
“Nobuto Urita is a boxer who loves his sport more than anything. No matter how hard he tries, he keeps losing his matches. Meanwhile, Kazuki Ogawa who spars with Urita at the same gym is a boxer with elite talent and skills; his eventual road to the championship is assured. Ogawa is also engaged to Chika Amano. She is a childhood friend of Urita and his first love. Also on hand is Narasaki who comes to train simply to look “cool” but discovers his own talent and passion.”
“Blue” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more...
“Blue” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more...
- 11/21/2021
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
Truth be told, the sequel of one of the best action movies of the decade was not exactly something I expected, despite the fact that manga/anime adaptations tend to repeat their recipe, particularly if the initial one was as successful as “The Fable”. The surprise, however, was a pleasant one, particularly because the second movie was equally entertaining.
“The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill” is screening at Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival
Expert assassin disguised as an ordinary citizen Akira Sato continues to live in Osaka with colleague Yoko, who is tasked with forbidding him from killing any more. Akira works as a graphic designer in a small film, where his rather childish drawings have found some appeal among customers, even if his boss, CEO Takoda and employee Misaki, frequently laugh with both their quality and the amount of effort he puts into them. Eventually though, Akira reunites with Hinako,...
“The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill” is screening at Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival
Expert assassin disguised as an ordinary citizen Akira Sato continues to live in Osaka with colleague Yoko, who is tasked with forbidding him from killing any more. Akira works as a graphic designer in a small film, where his rather childish drawings have found some appeal among customers, even if his boss, CEO Takoda and employee Misaki, frequently laugh with both their quality and the amount of effort he puts into them. Eventually though, Akira reunites with Hinako,...
- 7/6/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
“Nobuto Urita is a boxer who loves his sport more than anything. No matter how hard he tries, he keeps losing his matches. Meanwhile, Kazuki Ogawa who spars with Urita at the same gym is a boxer with elite talent and skills; his eventual road to the championship is assured. Ogawa is also engaged to Chika Amano. She is a childhood friend of Urita and his first love. Also on hand is Narasaki who comes to train simply to look “cool” but discovers his own talent and passion.”
“Blue” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more difficult...
“Blue” is screening at Toronto Japanese Film Festival
Cinema exploring the world of combat sports often chooses one of two paths, either geared towards heavy action sequences capturing the physical prowess of the combatants or drama pieces which examine the personal struggles within the demanding profession. While both of these approaches have their own potential shortcomings, the latter is arguably more difficult...
- 6/9/2021
- by Adam Symchuk
- AsianMoviePulse
The “obsession” with the 80’s never actually ceased in the 21st century, and Japan could not be an exception, with “Initiation Love” being a testament to the fact. The script is based on the homonymous novel by Kurumi Inui, although Yukihiko Tsutsumi took some liberties with the original.
The film is portrayed in the classic music format of an “A-b sided cassette tape”, with the story completely changing setting and style half through the movie.
“Initiation Love” is part of The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
Suzuki is a university student in Shizuoka, who is the personification of the “loser”. He is fat, kind of ugly, dresses like a nerd, has almost no friends, and cannot even think about a girlfriend. His luck, however, changes, when he agrees to accompany some of his fellow students in a party, where he is actually just invited in order to even the number with the girls coming.
The film is portrayed in the classic music format of an “A-b sided cassette tape”, with the story completely changing setting and style half through the movie.
“Initiation Love” is part of The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme
Suzuki is a university student in Shizuoka, who is the personification of the “loser”. He is fat, kind of ugly, dresses like a nerd, has almost no friends, and cannot even think about a girlfriend. His luck, however, changes, when he agrees to accompany some of his fellow students in a party, where he is actually just invited in order to even the number with the girls coming.
- 1/6/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Live-action adaptations of manga are a booming business in Japan. While this trend is not applauded by everyone – a proliferation structuring the business, one cannot deny that the potential these narratives have often led to enjoyable end products – e.g. “Moteki” (2011), “Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno” (2014), and “Tokyo Ghoul” (2017). Is Kan Eguchi, an unknown director with a limited oeuvre but with excellent credentials, able to adapt Katsuhisa Minami’s manga “The Fable” in something worthy of our time? Let’s find out in our review.
“The Scoundrels” is screening at New York Asian Film Festival
One day, Fable (Junichi Okada), a famous contract-killer, is ordered to stay low for a year in Osaka. While he receives Akira Sato as his alter-ego, his partner (Fumino Kimura) is given the identity of Yoko Sato, Akira’s younger sister.
When contract killer Fudo (Sota Fukushi) and his partner inspect Fable’s last work of art,...
“The Scoundrels” is screening at New York Asian Film Festival
One day, Fable (Junichi Okada), a famous contract-killer, is ordered to stay low for a year in Osaka. While he receives Akira Sato as his alter-ego, his partner (Fumino Kimura) is given the identity of Yoko Sato, Akira’s younger sister.
When contract killer Fudo (Sota Fukushi) and his partner inspect Fable’s last work of art,...
- 7/2/2019
- by Pieter-Jan Van Haecke
- AsianMoviePulse
After dealing with the samurai genre in comedic style with the two “Samurai Hustle” movies, (and after the excellent “Recall” of last year) Katsuhide Motoki decided to tackle the category with a more serious approach, in a film based on the novel series “Inemuri Iwane Edo Zoshi” by Yasuhide Saeki.
Iwane: Sword of Serenity is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The story is split in two parts. In the first one, and as the story begins, the titular character is studying swordsmanship in a dojo in Edo with his two childhood friends, Kinpei and Shinnosuke. Kinpei has two sisters; Mao, who is married to Shinnosuke, and Nao who will marry Iwane. When they return to their home county though, tragedy strikes immediately. Shinnosuke’s uncle shares a rumor with him that Mao is having an affair, and an enraged Shinnosuke ends up killing her the same night. Kinpei...
Iwane: Sword of Serenity is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The story is split in two parts. In the first one, and as the story begins, the titular character is studying swordsmanship in a dojo in Edo with his two childhood friends, Kinpei and Shinnosuke. Kinpei has two sisters; Mao, who is married to Shinnosuke, and Nao who will marry Iwane. When they return to their home county though, tragedy strikes immediately. Shinnosuke’s uncle shares a rumor with him that Mao is having an affair, and an enraged Shinnosuke ends up killing her the same night. Kinpei...
- 6/8/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
As I have mentioned many times before, anime/manga adaptations form one of the largest categories of films in Japanese cinema, with a number of works being produced every year, frequently with great commercial result, although not so frequently with significant artistic value. In that fashion, it is great to see a title that manages to embrace this second aspect fully, in a movie that does not take itself seriously at all and succeeds just because of that.
“The Fable” is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The story is based on Katsuhisa Minami’s manga, and revolves around an elite contract killer nicknamed Fable. His uncanny abilities are presented from the beginning of the film, in a scene that could be easily perceived as a parody of the initial scene of “Ghost in the Shell|” (closer to the Scarlet Johansson one than the actual anime). Eventually, his bosses,...
“The Fable” is screening at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival
The story is based on Katsuhisa Minami’s manga, and revolves around an elite contract killer nicknamed Fable. His uncanny abilities are presented from the beginning of the film, in a scene that could be easily perceived as a parody of the initial scene of “Ghost in the Shell|” (closer to the Scarlet Johansson one than the actual anime). Eventually, his bosses,...
- 6/7/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Mika Ninagawa’s Diner, Yuya Ishii’s Almost A Miracle and Kan Eguchi’s The Fable are all set for local release in summer.
Japan’s Nippon TV is launching sales on three new titles at Filmart led by Diner, directed by Mika Ninagawa (Helter Skelter) and starring Tatsuya Fujiwara (Death Note).
Based on a novel by Yumeaki Hirayama, the suspense thriller follows a girl who is forced to work at a members-only diner that caters exclusively to murderers. Even the chef is a former assassin, and she can’t afford to make a single wrong move. Produced by Cine Bazar Inc,...
Japan’s Nippon TV is launching sales on three new titles at Filmart led by Diner, directed by Mika Ninagawa (Helter Skelter) and starring Tatsuya Fujiwara (Death Note).
Based on a novel by Yumeaki Hirayama, the suspense thriller follows a girl who is forced to work at a members-only diner that caters exclusively to murderers. Even the chef is a former assassin, and she can’t afford to make a single wrong move. Produced by Cine Bazar Inc,...
- 3/17/2019
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
Integration and second opportunities are only two of the ideas that director Daihachi Yoshida has included in his multifaceted latest movie. Based on Tatsuhiko Yamagami and Mikio Igarashi’s manga Hitsuji no Ki (羊の木), “The Scythian Lamb“ won the Kim Ji Seok award at the 2017 Busan International Film Festival and subsequently has been well received in many important Festivals.
Scythian Lamb is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival
The title itself is cryptic and opened to many interpretations; the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Agnus Scythicus) is a legendary zoophyte of Central Asia, believed to grow sheep as fruit. The sheep were connected to the plant by an umbilical cord and grazed the grass around the plant. When the food was gone or – in other versions of the legend – when the cord was severed, both the plant and sheep died. An intriguing and slightly disturbing myth, just like the tone of the movie.
Scythian Lamb is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival
The title itself is cryptic and opened to many interpretations; the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary (Agnus Scythicus) is a legendary zoophyte of Central Asia, believed to grow sheep as fruit. The sheep were connected to the plant by an umbilical cord and grazed the grass around the plant. When the food was gone or – in other versions of the legend – when the cord was severed, both the plant and sheep died. An intriguing and slightly disturbing myth, just like the tone of the movie.
- 7/7/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
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