After years of making films in his native Japan, writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi found unexpected global success in 2021 with “Drive My Car.”
Adapted and expanded from short stories by Haruki Murakami, it’s an exquisite drama about a grieving theater director staging a multilingual “Uncle Vanya,” and his relationship with the pensive young woman employed to drive his cherry-red Saab.
Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, where Hamaguchi and co-writer Takamasa Oe won the Best Screenplay prize, “Drive My Car” went on to dominate the fall festival circuit. The film clocked up an astonishing four nominations at the 2022 Oscars, including Best Picture and a Best Director nod for Hamaguchi, and went on to win Japan’s first Oscar for Best International Film.
Hamaguchi’s latest film, “Evil Does Not Exist” is to some extent a response to that overwhelming acclaim. “I knew that I wanted my next work to be very...
Adapted and expanded from short stories by Haruki Murakami, it’s an exquisite drama about a grieving theater director staging a multilingual “Uncle Vanya,” and his relationship with the pensive young woman employed to drive his cherry-red Saab.
Premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, where Hamaguchi and co-writer Takamasa Oe won the Best Screenplay prize, “Drive My Car” went on to dominate the fall festival circuit. The film clocked up an astonishing four nominations at the 2022 Oscars, including Best Picture and a Best Director nod for Hamaguchi, and went on to win Japan’s first Oscar for Best International Film.
Hamaguchi’s latest film, “Evil Does Not Exist” is to some extent a response to that overwhelming acclaim. “I knew that I wanted my next work to be very...
- 4/30/2024
- by John Forde
- Indiewire
Lee Chang-dong set Cannes ablaze in 2018 with the uneasily beautiful “Burning,” a loose Haruki Murakami adaptation about the folie à troix between an alienated delivery man (Ah-in Yoo), the wily young woman (Jong-seo Jun) he covets, and the handsome charisma machine who blows them apart. The South Korean director’s sixth film made history as Korea’s first to make the International Feature Oscar shortlist (it wasn’t nominated) but is perhaps best remembered for two scenes: the woman, Haemi (Jun), dancing topless for them to the tune of Miles Davis’ “Elevator to the Gallows” soundtrack, and for its abruptly violent ending involving murder and arson in the nude. Then, there’s a missing cat that may have never existed — pure Murakami.
“Burning” remains a new classic of the 2010s, an elusive portrait of loneliness and desire that never spills on its narrative secrets. It grossed an impressive $718,000 at the U.
“Burning” remains a new classic of the 2010s, an elusive portrait of loneliness and desire that never spills on its narrative secrets. It grossed an impressive $718,000 at the U.
- 4/10/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Evil Does Not ExistPhoto: Janus Films
There are few things more bone-chilling than the real-life evils set upon our planet and its people each and every day. This is the type of horror Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi is contending with in Evil Does Not Exist, the stirring and eerie follow-up to his Oscar-winning 2021 film,...
There are few things more bone-chilling than the real-life evils set upon our planet and its people each and every day. This is the type of horror Japanese director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi is contending with in Evil Does Not Exist, the stirring and eerie follow-up to his Oscar-winning 2021 film,...
- 3/26/2024
- by Emma Keates
- avclub.com
Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi became globally known after the success of Drive My Car, which earned him three major Oscar nominations, and one win (Best International Feature). After adapting Haruki Murakami’s short story, Hamaguchi has moved on to a new project, which was presented to audiences last year in Venice, where it won five out of the six awards it was nominated for. Evil Does Not Exist is the movie we are talking about, and ahead of this year’s American premiere, an official trailer for the movie has been released.
The movie is based on an original screenplay by Hamaguchi and based on the success it has had so far, the movie is slated to be another big hit for the Japanese filmmaker, which might earn him several awards later this year and next year.
The film will feature Hitoshi Omika as Takumi, Ryo Nishikawa as Hana, Ryuji Kosaka as Takahashi,...
The movie is based on an original screenplay by Hamaguchi and based on the success it has had so far, the movie is slated to be another big hit for the Japanese filmmaker, which might earn him several awards later this year and next year.
The film will feature Hitoshi Omika as Takumi, Ryo Nishikawa as Hana, Ryuji Kosaka as Takahashi,...
- 3/26/2024
- by Arthur S. Poe
- Fiction Horizon
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Quick Answer: Watch Sydney Sweeney host SNL online for free with trials to DirecTV Stream and fuboTV.
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Madame Web and Immaculate star Sydney Sweeney will host Saturday Night Live for the first time tonight. The Anyone But You actress will be joined by musical guest Kacey Musgraves, who’s set to release her new LP, Deeper Well, on March 15. Here’s what...
Quick Answer: Watch Sydney Sweeney host SNL online for free with trials to DirecTV Stream and fuboTV.
Get Free Trial at DirecTV Stream
Madame Web and Immaculate star Sydney Sweeney will host Saturday Night Live for the first time tonight. The Anyone But You actress will be joined by musical guest Kacey Musgraves, who’s set to release her new LP, Deeper Well, on March 15. Here’s what...
- 3/2/2024
- by John Lonsdale
- Rollingstone.com
The first promo for her Saturday Night Live hosting debut finds Sydney Sweeney strolling through studio 8H, book in hand, when she bumps into castmember Michael Longfellow. She drops her book, he picks it up and goes into a reverie about the title – Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore – as romantic music swells. We hear Longfellow’s internal monologue as he gets the courage up to ask Sweeney out, but then the clip cuts to Sweeney and, well, let’s say she’s not interested.
You can watch it below.
Sweeney is coming off the back of one hit movie and one that flopped. She stars alongside Glen Powell in romantic comedy Anyone But You, which has become a surprise box office hit with nearly a $200M worldwide opening. She is also in Madame Web, alongside Dakota Johnson, crawled to a $26M opening in and received bad reviews.
SNL...
You can watch it below.
Sweeney is coming off the back of one hit movie and one that flopped. She stars alongside Glen Powell in romantic comedy Anyone But You, which has become a surprise box office hit with nearly a $200M worldwide opening. She is also in Madame Web, alongside Dakota Johnson, crawled to a $26M opening in and received bad reviews.
SNL...
- 2/28/2024
- by Tom Tapp
- Deadline Film + TV
I was watching a video of a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show for the Rabbit R1, an AI gadget that promises to act as a sort of personal assistant, when a feeling of doom took hold of me.
It wasn’t just that Rabbit’s CEO Jesse Lyu radiates the energy of a Kirkland-brand Steve Jobs. And it wasn’t even Lyu’s awkward demonstration of how the Rabbit’s camera can recognize a photo of Rick Astley and Rickroll the owner — even though that segment was...
It wasn’t just that Rabbit’s CEO Jesse Lyu radiates the energy of a Kirkland-brand Steve Jobs. And it wasn’t even Lyu’s awkward demonstration of how the Rabbit’s camera can recognize a photo of Rick Astley and Rickroll the owner — even though that segment was...
- 1/27/2024
- by Robert Evans
- Rollingstone.com
It’s that time of year again. While some directors annually share their favorite films of the year, Steven Soderbergh lists everything he consumed, media-wise. For 2023––another year in which he not only Magic Mike’s Last Dance Review: Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum Take a Familiar, Gentle Bow”>released a new film, but dropped two TV series (Full Circle and Command Z“>Command Z) and shot another film (the Sundance-bound Presence)––he still got plenty of watching in.
Along with catching up on 2023’s new releases, Ferrari, Anatomy of a Fall, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Air, Reality, Dead Reckoning, among others), he took in plenty of classics, including Eyes Wide Shut, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Casablanca, Out of the Past, The Shining, the epic War and Peace, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and, following Tom Wilkinson’s passing, Michael Clayton. He also got an early look at Pussy Island,...
Along with catching up on 2023’s new releases, Ferrari, Anatomy of a Fall, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Air, Reality, Dead Reckoning, among others), he took in plenty of classics, including Eyes Wide Shut, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Casablanca, Out of the Past, The Shining, the epic War and Peace, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and, following Tom Wilkinson’s passing, Michael Clayton. He also got an early look at Pussy Island,...
- 1/4/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
When 24-year-old Zoe Jackson scrolls her for-you-page, there are books all the way down. As a BookTok creator, Jackson spends much of her time on TikTok watching videos and recommendations surrounding the best books out there, from newly published novels to classic tomes. But while the average reader might stop scrolling when they recognize a book cover from high school English or a college course — like Catcher In The Rye, The Brothers Karamazov, or Infinite Jest, Jackson usually keeps it moving in an effort to avoid one of BookTok’s biggest icks: bro-lit.
- 10/19/2023
- by CT Jones
- Rollingstone.com
Exclusive: Lighthouse Media & Management has signed the multi-hyphenate Kiko Mizuhara, best known for starring in Toho’s adaptation of Norwegian Wood and the beloved manga Attack on Titan, for representation in all areas.
Based on the novel by Haruki Murakami, the former film follows Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), a young man in 1960s Tokyo, as he grapples with the suicide of a friend, as well as fledgling relationships with both the friend’s girlfriend and another woman. Mizuhara played the latter, Midori. After world premiering in Venice, the film was released in Japan in 2010, making its way to the U.S. two years later.
Released in two parts in 2015, Shinji Higuchi’s live-action Attack on Titan — based on the Hajime Isayama manga — is a post-apocalyptic actioner picking up with Eren (Haruma Miura) and his friends as they join a military group known as The Survey Corps, in order to take...
Based on the novel by Haruki Murakami, the former film follows Toru Watanabe (Kenichi Matsuyama), a young man in 1960s Tokyo, as he grapples with the suicide of a friend, as well as fledgling relationships with both the friend’s girlfriend and another woman. Mizuhara played the latter, Midori. After world premiering in Venice, the film was released in Japan in 2010, making its way to the U.S. two years later.
Released in two parts in 2015, Shinji Higuchi’s live-action Attack on Titan — based on the Hajime Isayama manga — is a post-apocalyptic actioner picking up with Eren (Haruma Miura) and his friends as they join a military group known as The Survey Corps, in order to take...
- 9/12/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Past Lives is a romantic drama movie written and directed by Celine Song. The A24 film follows the story of two childhood friends, who get separated as one of them moves out of South Korea, but decades later they meet again for a fateful week in which they ruminate about love and the choices they made in their lives. Past Lives stars Teo Yoo and Greta Lee in the lead roles of Hae Sung and Nora. So, if you loved the romantic drama film here are some similar movies you could check out next.
Lost in Translation (Netflix & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Universal Pictures
Synopsis: Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) are two Americans in Tokyo. Bob is a movie star in town to shoot a whiskey commercial, while Charlotte is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi). Unable to sleep, Bob...
Lost in Translation (Netflix & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Universal Pictures
Synopsis: Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) are two Americans in Tokyo. Bob is a movie star in town to shoot a whiskey commercial, while Charlotte is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi). Unable to sleep, Bob...
- 8/28/2023
- by Kulwant Singh
- Cinema Blind
Implementing stage play aesthetics, and particularly excessive dialogue, is a practice that occasionally works quite well for cinema, especially when the story and the characters doing the talking are interesting. If not, though, the approach tends to become overly problematic, since the audience definitely expects different things from cinema than they do from theater. Shinya Nakata in his second film, “Ten Years + One Day” implements a similar approach. Let us see how he fares.
Ten Years + One Day is screening at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival
On a rural roadside outside of the urban centers, Harasaki and Morita reunite for the first time in ten years. The latter immediately insists on going to meet Kikushima, another girl from their common past, but the young man is reluctant. Her insistence, however, “convinces” him and the two meet Kikushima, who never actually left the village they find themselves now. There seems to...
Ten Years + One Day is screening at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival
On a rural roadside outside of the urban centers, Harasaki and Morita reunite for the first time in ten years. The latter immediately insists on going to meet Kikushima, another girl from their common past, but the young man is reluctant. Her insistence, however, “convinces” him and the two meet Kikushima, who never actually left the village they find themselves now. There seems to...
- 7/20/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Annihilation (Alex Garland)
More terrifying than any creature Hollywood could dream up is the unraveling of one’s mind—the steady loss of a consciousness as defined by the memories, motivations, and knowledge built up from decades of experience and reflection. With Annihilation, Alex Garland’s beautiful, frightening follow-up to Ex Machina, he portrays this paralyzing sensation with a sense of vivid imagination, and also delivers a cadre of horrifying creatures to boot. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Barbarian (Zach Cregger)
The kind of horror film that resembles the experience of traveling down the dark recesses of one’s nightmares, Barbarian is also quite funny to boot. While its thin characterization and merely surface-level thrills hold it back from...
Annihilation (Alex Garland)
More terrifying than any creature Hollywood could dream up is the unraveling of one’s mind—the steady loss of a consciousness as defined by the memories, motivations, and knowledge built up from decades of experience and reflection. With Annihilation, Alex Garland’s beautiful, frightening follow-up to Ex Machina, he portrays this paralyzing sensation with a sense of vivid imagination, and also delivers a cadre of horrifying creatures to boot. – Jordan R. (full review)
Where to Stream: Netflix
Barbarian (Zach Cregger)
The kind of horror film that resembles the experience of traveling down the dark recesses of one’s nightmares, Barbarian is also quite funny to boot. While its thin characterization and merely surface-level thrills hold it back from...
- 6/30/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
[Editor’s Note: The following review contains spoilers for “The Bear” Season 2, including the ending.]
Richie’s arc in “The Bear” Season 2 is at once the most practical and the most endearing. Prompted by last season’s near-manslaughter scare and buoyed by Olivia Colman’s Episode 7 assurance that it’s “never too late to start over,” Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s character, who was once an obstinate obstacle to change, transforms into a definitive new man. Richie’s reading leads him to realize he doesn’t have a particular set of skills, or otherwise irreplaceable function at work, and if he’s going to provide for his daughter, then he needs a reliable source of income, preferably one that will bring a little happiness, too — whether The Bear succeeds or not.
With a little nudge from Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and a lot of patience from the good folks at Ever, he recognizes that source. He steps up. He finds his purpose.
Richie’s arc in “The Bear” Season 2 is at once the most practical and the most endearing. Prompted by last season’s near-manslaughter scare and buoyed by Olivia Colman’s Episode 7 assurance that it’s “never too late to start over,” Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s character, who was once an obstinate obstacle to change, transforms into a definitive new man. Richie’s reading leads him to realize he doesn’t have a particular set of skills, or otherwise irreplaceable function at work, and if he’s going to provide for his daughter, then he needs a reliable source of income, preferably one that will bring a little happiness, too — whether The Bear succeeds or not.
With a little nudge from Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and a lot of patience from the good folks at Ever, he recognizes that source. He steps up. He finds his purpose.
- 6/23/2023
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
While not the strongest film – even within director Jun Ichikawa's oeuvre – 2001's “Tokyo Marigold” is interesting within the context of Japan's ‘lost decades' and the changing face of the metropolis. At the turn of the millennium, the grime and gloom of 90s cinema was replaced by a cleaner, fresher look, as style replaced substance. Clearly a student of Ozu, Ichikawa's Tokyo story shows a Japan of the gloss and sheen of Haruki Murakami novels and Muji furnished apartments; of upwardly mobile young office workers in doomed, short-term love affairs.
Eriko (Rena Tanaka) is a young woman somewhat lost in adult life, working as a clerk for a car dealership, drifting through her days. Around her, colleagues and friends appear surer of themselves, going places with their lives, offering her friendly advice, job opportunities and chances at love: More exciting work comes when she bumps into an old school...
Eriko (Rena Tanaka) is a young woman somewhat lost in adult life, working as a clerk for a car dealership, drifting through her days. Around her, colleagues and friends appear surer of themselves, going places with their lives, offering her friendly advice, job opportunities and chances at love: More exciting work comes when she bumps into an old school...
- 4/30/2023
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
Recently, Katie Holmes was reading Haruki Murakami’s “Novelist as a Vocation.” Within the memoir, which is composed of 11 different essays from the revered Japanese writer, Holmes said she found a story that spoke directly to her own vocation: director.
Holmes said she was struck by a story the writer shared from early in his career, in which he lost a floppy disc that held an important first draft for a new work. “He was so upset, obviously, and had to rewrite [this section] and thought it wasn’t as good as the first draft,” Holmes said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “Years later, he found that floppy disk and he saw that actually that [lost] section wasn’t as good as what he ended up rewriting. And I thought, ‘Well, that’s kind of it.'”
That’s the way Holmes, who has directed three films since 2016 — two of them since...
Holmes said she was struck by a story the writer shared from early in his career, in which he lost a floppy disc that held an important first draft for a new work. “He was so upset, obviously, and had to rewrite [this section] and thought it wasn’t as good as the first draft,” Holmes said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “Years later, he found that floppy disk and he saw that actually that [lost] section wasn’t as good as what he ended up rewriting. And I thought, ‘Well, that’s kind of it.'”
That’s the way Holmes, who has directed three films since 2016 — two of them since...
- 4/14/2023
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
The recent films Drive My Car and Burning, two exquisite screen adaptations of Haruki Murakami’s fiction, delve into unsettling enigmas and longings, spun around performances of gripping subtlety. As a work of animation, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman can’t plumb behavioral depths and tics in quite the same way. But animation is an apt medium for exploring another aspect of Murakami’s work, his magic-realist spin on existential angst. Pierre Földes, a composer and visual artist at the helm of his first feature, has made something that mixes the painterly and the stylized, a film that’s lovely, mysterious and also, at times, fittingly odd.
The writer-director finds connective tissue among the various storylines in the idea of an earthquake as a psychic rupture, shaking loose the dissatisfactions and yearnings that are usually under wraps, keeping people shut off and stuck. Földes’ multiple roles here include writing the score,...
The writer-director finds connective tissue among the various storylines in the idea of an earthquake as a psychic rupture, shaking loose the dissatisfactions and yearnings that are usually under wraps, keeping people shut off and stuck. Földes’ multiple roles here include writing the score,...
- 4/14/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The short stories of Haruki Murakami are becoming an increasing fixture on the big screen––it may have taken considerably more time since their initial publications, but not since Stephen King’s earliest collections has an author’s back catalog found itself getting adapted so rapidly. After Lee Chang-dong and Ryusuke Hamaguchi managed to weave epic tales of obsession and grief from two comparatively conversational works (in their respective masterpieces Burning and Drive My Car), a handful of other tales are adapted far more faithfully for the screen in Pierre Földes’ animated anthology.
Named after Murakami’s 2006 collection of the same name, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman recontextualizes several of his more fantastical short stories, relocating them to a Tokyo still reeling from the devastating earthquakes of March 2011. In doing so, Földes creates something of an unofficial MCU (Murakami Cinematic Universe), tying together several narratives unrelated in their source materials via...
Named after Murakami’s 2006 collection of the same name, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman recontextualizes several of his more fantastical short stories, relocating them to a Tokyo still reeling from the devastating earthquakes of March 2011. In doing so, Földes creates something of an unofficial MCU (Murakami Cinematic Universe), tying together several narratives unrelated in their source materials via...
- 4/13/2023
- by Alistair Ryder
- The Film Stage
Ron Bernstein, a veteran rights agent who has brokered adaptive deals for modern classics like “No Country for Old Men” and “Blackhawk Down,” has joined the Agency for the Performing Arts.
He will serve as senior vice president of media rights, a mantle he will take up after a 23-year run at ICM Partners. Bernstein joins APA partners Steve Fisher and Debbie Deuble Hill in the publishing and media rights group. APA president Jim Osbourne announced Bernstein’s hire, effective Thursday. The addition is another big score for APA as the representation business continues to shift amid consolidation.
Over a long and enviable career, Bernstein has represented some of the most acclaimed novelists, authors and journalists in the marketplace and sold the rights to countless feature films, limited series and shows to major buyers.
Clients expected to join Bernstein at APA include Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Mark Bowden, John Burdett,...
He will serve as senior vice president of media rights, a mantle he will take up after a 23-year run at ICM Partners. Bernstein joins APA partners Steve Fisher and Debbie Deuble Hill in the publishing and media rights group. APA president Jim Osbourne announced Bernstein’s hire, effective Thursday. The addition is another big score for APA as the representation business continues to shift amid consolidation.
Over a long and enviable career, Bernstein has represented some of the most acclaimed novelists, authors and journalists in the marketplace and sold the rights to countless feature films, limited series and shows to major buyers.
Clients expected to join Bernstein at APA include Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Mark Bowden, John Burdett,...
- 4/13/2023
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
Haruki Murakami doesn’t write in any particular genre — the Japanese literary giant is a genre. While his expansive bibliography has seen him dip his toe into everything from magical realism and hardboiled mysteries to straightforward literary fiction and fitness commentary, his singular worldview ensures that every genre he chooses to play with is bent to his will — never the other way around.
At this point, the novelist’s trademarks are known to anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary literature. His stories unfold like steam rising off a lake, flowing in seemingly directionless patterns before forming something indescribably beautiful. His protagonists are often ambitionless men who appear content to let life happen to them. But as they get sucked into increasingly surreal adventures, their passive dispositions and willingness to go along with things quickly make Murakami’s bizarre plots seem relatively normal.
By seamlessly shifting his focus between...
At this point, the novelist’s trademarks are known to anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary literature. His stories unfold like steam rising off a lake, flowing in seemingly directionless patterns before forming something indescribably beautiful. His protagonists are often ambitionless men who appear content to let life happen to them. But as they get sucked into increasingly surreal adventures, their passive dispositions and willingness to go along with things quickly make Murakami’s bizarre plots seem relatively normal.
By seamlessly shifting his focus between...
- 4/11/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
As one of the most highly regarded current writers in the world, Haruki Murakami has plenty of fans. His works have often been adapted for film, and even his short stories lend themselves for being adapted into great long films. Hamaguchi Ryusuke's Drive My Car is an excellent recent example, as is Lee Chang-dong's Burning. French animator Pierre Földes, however, does something else: in his debut feature Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman he takes no less than six stories from the Japanese master, and weaves them together into a single, strange narrative. It's an approach which works because Murakami himself often leaves questions unanswered, being more interested in making his readers think than in providing them with a rigid story. Földes uses one story to plug...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 4/9/2023
- Screen Anarchy
Unfolding in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Pierre Földes’ animation - based on the work of Haruki Murakami - is filled with unexpected movement, from rumbling discontent to relationship aftershocks and from the real to the imagined. The sense of flow extends to the narrative, which weaves together a series of stories, connected not so much by plot intersection as by existential questions of purpose and loss.
Chief among the characters are two bank employees, Mr Komura (voiced by Ryan Bommarito in the English language dub that is currently on release in the UK) and Mr Katagiri (Marcelo Arroyo). Komura is facing a seismic shift in his life, after his girlfriend Kyoko (Shoshana Wilder) suddenly leaves him. Meanwhile, Katagiri, who is under immense stress in the loan department at work, begins to have strange visitations from a giant frog who wants him to help save...
Chief among the characters are two bank employees, Mr Komura (voiced by Ryan Bommarito in the English language dub that is currently on release in the UK) and Mr Katagiri (Marcelo Arroyo). Komura is facing a seismic shift in his life, after his girlfriend Kyoko (Shoshana Wilder) suddenly leaves him. Meanwhile, Katagiri, who is under immense stress in the loan department at work, begins to have strange visitations from a giant frog who wants him to help save...
- 4/4/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Animation ‘Mummies’, French hit ‘The Night Of The 12th’ also open.
Action adventure Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves sets off on its UK-Ireland box office run this weekend in 680 cinemas through eOne.
The film depicts a charming thief and band of unlikely adventurers who embark on a quest to retrieve a lost relic, but run afoul of the wrong people.
It is based on the tabletop role playing game that was first published in 1974, which has become one of the most popular tabletop games worldwide, with the game’s publisher Wizards Of The Coast claiming that over 50 million people...
Action adventure Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves sets off on its UK-Ireland box office run this weekend in 680 cinemas through eOne.
The film depicts a charming thief and band of unlikely adventurers who embark on a quest to retrieve a lost relic, but run afoul of the wrong people.
It is based on the tabletop role playing game that was first published in 1974, which has become one of the most popular tabletop games worldwide, with the game’s publisher Wizards Of The Coast claiming that over 50 million people...
- 3/31/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
In the 1970s, giant robot cartoons sparked a love affair with French fans (including Emmanuel Macron) – now the country is the world’s largest manga importer, and home to a new Murakami film
You might say that Vincent van Gogh was one of the first Japanese pop-culture otaku (geeks) in Europe. With the 19th-century japonisme craze in full swing, he coveted ukiyo-e woodblock prints like modern-day collectors hoard rare manga. Japanese art deeply influenced his work, from his flattening of perspective to his bold lines. He went to the south of France hoping to encounter the same radiant nature and spiritual freshness that figured in his east-Asian fantasia. Upon seeing Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa – a supposed inspiration for his own The Starry Night – he raved to his brother Theo in a letter: “The waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it.
You might say that Vincent van Gogh was one of the first Japanese pop-culture otaku (geeks) in Europe. With the 19th-century japonisme craze in full swing, he coveted ukiyo-e woodblock prints like modern-day collectors hoard rare manga. Japanese art deeply influenced his work, from his flattening of perspective to his bold lines. He went to the south of France hoping to encounter the same radiant nature and spiritual freshness that figured in his east-Asian fantasia. Upon seeing Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa – a supposed inspiration for his own The Starry Night – he raved to his brother Theo in a letter: “The waves are claws, the boat is caught in them, you can feel it.
- 3/29/2023
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
The seductively quirky sad-serious tone of the author is evident as a constellation of characters try and save the city – including a lost cat and a giant talkative frog
Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has inspired some prestigious movies, most recently Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car. Regardless of whether this new Murakami adaptation (based on his short story collection of the same name) comes to be considered the best, I think it might actually capture the elusive essence of Murakami more than any other – something in it being a Rotoscope animation of elegant simplicity. It has the ruminative lightness, almost weightlessness, the watercolour delicacy and reticence of the emotions, the sense of the uncanny, the insistent play of erotic possibility and that Murakami keynote: a cat.
Pierre Földes makes his feature directing debut here, having been long been a composer; his musical credits include Michael Cuesta’s L.I.E.
Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has inspired some prestigious movies, most recently Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car. Regardless of whether this new Murakami adaptation (based on his short story collection of the same name) comes to be considered the best, I think it might actually capture the elusive essence of Murakami more than any other – something in it being a Rotoscope animation of elegant simplicity. It has the ruminative lightness, almost weightlessness, the watercolour delicacy and reticence of the emotions, the sense of the uncanny, the insistent play of erotic possibility and that Murakami keynote: a cat.
Pierre Földes makes his feature directing debut here, having been long been a composer; his musical credits include Michael Cuesta’s L.I.E.
- 3/28/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Mamoru Oshii was jury president of the new prestigious animation event.
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman has scooped the grand prize at the inaugural edition of Niigata International Animation Film Festival (Niaff), which ran in the Japanese port city of Niigata from March 17-23.
The animated feature is the directorial debut of US-born French composer Pierre Földes, who also wrote the screenplay and score, and is based on a collection of short stories by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. It ollows the lives of multiple characters as they navigate existence after the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
Sold by The Match Factory, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman...
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman has scooped the grand prize at the inaugural edition of Niigata International Animation Film Festival (Niaff), which ran in the Japanese port city of Niigata from March 17-23.
The animated feature is the directorial debut of US-born French composer Pierre Földes, who also wrote the screenplay and score, and is based on a collection of short stories by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. It ollows the lives of multiple characters as they navigate existence after the 2011 tsunami in Japan.
Sold by The Match Factory, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman...
- 3/27/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Guy Maddin: “I’m just always shuffling around timelines in my head to make sense of time’s great flow.”
Guy Maddin on hacking my dreams, elevators and escalators, Franz Wright’s Kindertotenwald, Lois Weber, Haruki Murakami, Mathieu Amalric and Arnaud Desplechin’s dreamwork, thinking of numbers, Federico Fellini’s dream journal, A Director’s Notebooks, I Vitelloni and Rimini, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, and an enchanted place called Riminipeg were all discussed in the second instalment on The Rabbit Hunters, co-directed with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, and starring Isabella Rossellini as a “merged version” of Fellini and Giulietta Masina.
Guy Maddin with Anne-Katrin Titze on his hometown and Federico Fellini’s: “Fellini is from the city of Rimini in Italy, which is really just the Winnipeg of Italy.”
From Winnipeg, Guy Maddin joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on The Rabbit Hunters.
Anne-Katrin Titze:...
Guy Maddin on hacking my dreams, elevators and escalators, Franz Wright’s Kindertotenwald, Lois Weber, Haruki Murakami, Mathieu Amalric and Arnaud Desplechin’s dreamwork, thinking of numbers, Federico Fellini’s dream journal, A Director’s Notebooks, I Vitelloni and Rimini, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, and an enchanted place called Riminipeg were all discussed in the second instalment on The Rabbit Hunters, co-directed with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, and starring Isabella Rossellini as a “merged version” of Fellini and Giulietta Masina.
Guy Maddin with Anne-Katrin Titze on his hometown and Federico Fellini’s: “Fellini is from the city of Rimini in Italy, which is really just the Winnipeg of Italy.”
From Winnipeg, Guy Maddin joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on The Rabbit Hunters.
Anne-Katrin Titze:...
- 3/24/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
For our latest dive into recent books on or related to cinema, we’re spending time with some icons––fictional (James Bond) and non. Let’s start with 50 color palettes and one beautifully unique new text.
Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes by Charles Bramesco (Frances Lincoln)
Colors of Film is an engrossing study of how filmmakers utilize color in complex, ingenious, emotionally impactful ways. Some of these examples (e.g. the red jacket in Schindler’s List) have inspired much discourse. What makes this book––by the always-entertaining and -intelligent critic Charles Bramesco––so special is its focus on less-obvious films. A noteworthy case: Hype Williams’ Belly and its “flights of stylistic fancy.” During its hyper-stylized opening, as gangsters Buns and Sin “prowl through the dance floor, ceiling-mounted blacklights make the men look extraterrestrial, their eyeballs glowstick-turquoise against deeper blue skin.” Other entries focus on everything...
Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes by Charles Bramesco (Frances Lincoln)
Colors of Film is an engrossing study of how filmmakers utilize color in complex, ingenious, emotionally impactful ways. Some of these examples (e.g. the red jacket in Schindler’s List) have inspired much discourse. What makes this book––by the always-entertaining and -intelligent critic Charles Bramesco––so special is its focus on less-obvious films. A noteworthy case: Hype Williams’ Belly and its “flights of stylistic fancy.” During its hyper-stylized opening, as gangsters Buns and Sin “prowl through the dance floor, ceiling-mounted blacklights make the men look extraterrestrial, their eyeballs glowstick-turquoise against deeper blue skin.” Other entries focus on everything...
- 3/14/2023
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
"Living with you... was like living with a chunk of air." Zeitgeist Films has revealed the official US trailer with English dubbing for an acclaimed indie animated film titled Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, the feature directorial debut of composer Pierre Földes. This premiered at last year's Annecy Film Festival, also stopping by the Toronto & Busan Film Festivals. Based on several short stories by the renowned Japanese author Haruki Murakami. Utilizing a surreal hybrid animation style that incorporates live-action references, 3D modeling, and traditional layouts, the film begins in Tokyo just days after the earthquake of 2011. Aided by a lost cat and a loquacious giant frog, an unambitious salesman, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant are called upon to save their city from obliteration and find meaning in their lives. "It is sure to appeal to the wide range of Murakami fans and hopefully anyone who wants to take a...
- 3/3/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Three-time Grammy winner Cécile McLorin Salvant will team with French studio Miyu Productions and Belgian animator Lia Bertels on “Ogresse,” a wry and irreverent fairytale inspired by a narrative performance piece the musician has toured since 2019.
Described as a murder ballad set to a jazz tempo, the animated musical will hit tragicomic notes as it follows a forest-dwelling ogress, ostracized because of her physical difference and pursued by a young hunter determined to claim her heart in either love or combat. Salvant and Bertels — one a lauded vocalist and one a festival acclaimed auteur – will co-direct, marking their joint feature debut adapting the show for the big screen.
“‘Ogresse’ is a love story inspired by my own experiences,” says Cécile McLorin Salvant. “It explores self-love and beauty ideals with a brave, complex, sometimes cruel and always endearing heroine. It will be an eclectic, dense, rich, and genderless film that will...
Described as a murder ballad set to a jazz tempo, the animated musical will hit tragicomic notes as it follows a forest-dwelling ogress, ostracized because of her physical difference and pursued by a young hunter determined to claim her heart in either love or combat. Salvant and Bertels — one a lauded vocalist and one a festival acclaimed auteur – will co-direct, marking their joint feature debut adapting the show for the big screen.
“‘Ogresse’ is a love story inspired by my own experiences,” says Cécile McLorin Salvant. “It explores self-love and beauty ideals with a brave, complex, sometimes cruel and always endearing heroine. It will be an eclectic, dense, rich, and genderless film that will...
- 2/22/2023
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Adaptations of the celebrated Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s novels and short stories into live-action films, have always generated a mixed bag of outcomes; their success – in my opinion – being often inversely proportional to their adherence to the original source material. To mention some, “Tony Takitani” by Jun Ichikawa, “Hanalei Bay” by Daishi Matsunaga”, “Burning” by Lee Chang-dong and the most recent “Drive My Car” by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. The author’s rich universe, fluctuating between magical realism, mundanity and straight-out surrealism, makes visual representation an arduous enterprise. For his ambitious animated feature film debut, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman”, composer, screenwriter, and animator Pierre Földes draws inspiration from several Murakami’s short stories, to create his own tale about how trauma can open the doors of perception. The film is an international coproduction that involves France, Holland, Luxemburg and Canada, and, so far, has won the Jury Distinction in the Best...
- 2/9/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Kazuo Ishiguro, the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, is one of the world’s greatest living novelists — and a newly Oscar-nominated screenwriter, as well, for his adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru into the script for Oliver Hermanus’ 2022 film Living.
A Japanese-born Brit, Ishiguro has written eight novels over the last 41 years which have collectively sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S alone, most notably 1989’s The Remains of the Day, which was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize, and 2005’s Never Let Me Go, which Time chose as one of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923 and the Los Angeles Times described as “probably, thus far, the most important English-language novel of the new century.” (Both were adapted, by others, into highly acclaimed films.)
In recognition of Ishiguro’s collective body of work, he was chosen as the recipient of the...
A Japanese-born Brit, Ishiguro has written eight novels over the last 41 years which have collectively sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S alone, most notably 1989’s The Remains of the Day, which was awarded the prestigious Booker Prize, and 2005’s Never Let Me Go, which Time chose as one of the 100 greatest English-language novels since 1923 and the Los Angeles Times described as “probably, thus far, the most important English-language novel of the new century.” (Both were adapted, by others, into highly acclaimed films.)
In recognition of Ishiguro’s collective body of work, he was chosen as the recipient of the...
- 1/26/2023
- by Scott Feinberg
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Zeitgeist Films, in association with Kino Lorber, has acquired all U.S. rights to the animated feature Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman from The Match Factory.
The feature debut of composer Pierre Földes, will open theatrically at Film Forum in New York in April 2023 before expanding nationwide.
Based on several short stories by acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami (Drive My Car), the feature won the Jury Special Mention Award at Annecy and has played at Toronto, Rotterdam, and Busan.
Using a hybrid animation style that incorporates live-action references, 3D modeling, and traditional layouts, the movie begins in Tokyo just days after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. Aided by a lost cat and a loquacious giant frog, an unambitious salesman, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant are called upon to save their city from obliteration and find meaning in their lives.
Zeitgeist Co-Presidents Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo negotiated the...
The feature debut of composer Pierre Földes, will open theatrically at Film Forum in New York in April 2023 before expanding nationwide.
Based on several short stories by acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami (Drive My Car), the feature won the Jury Special Mention Award at Annecy and has played at Toronto, Rotterdam, and Busan.
Using a hybrid animation style that incorporates live-action references, 3D modeling, and traditional layouts, the movie begins in Tokyo just days after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011. Aided by a lost cat and a loquacious giant frog, an unambitious salesman, his frustrated wife and a schizophrenic accountant are called upon to save their city from obliteration and find meaning in their lives.
Zeitgeist Co-Presidents Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo negotiated the...
- 12/19/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted on the best films of the year on Sunday, announcing its selections via the organization’s official Twitter account. The annual awards are given out by more than 60 Lafca members in the Los Angeles area, with the online voting process spearheaded by the group’s president Claudia Puig.
Competition was stiff, given this year’s particularly wide field of Oscar contenders. Voters will have to choose between arthouse dramas from elite directors, critically acclaimed blockbusters, and bold international films.
The awards ended up being relatively evenly split between arthouse films and those with more popular sensibilities. “TÁR” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” shared the award for Best Film in a tie, and they both notched signature wins elsewhere in the competition. “TÁR” writer-director Todd Field won both Best Screenplay and Best Director, and Cate Blanchett shared Best Lead Performance with Bill Nighy...
Competition was stiff, given this year’s particularly wide field of Oscar contenders. Voters will have to choose between arthouse dramas from elite directors, critically acclaimed blockbusters, and bold international films.
The awards ended up being relatively evenly split between arthouse films and those with more popular sensibilities. “TÁR” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” shared the award for Best Film in a tie, and they both notched signature wins elsewhere in the competition. “TÁR” writer-director Todd Field won both Best Screenplay and Best Director, and Cate Blanchett shared Best Lead Performance with Bill Nighy...
- 12/11/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
"Cure" is a murder mystery whose culprits cannot remember why they chose to kill to begin with. It is a serial killer narrative whose mastermind may be nothing more than a vessel for the desires of others. The detective that hunts him is dedicated but untrustworthy. The film's editing deteriorates along with his psyche. His wife reads a copy of "Bluebeard," the famous French folk tale of a man who murdered his many wives. By the end of the film, the detective has killed her, compelled either by the hypnotic suggestion of a mysterious phonograph or by his own sublimated frustration. The most horrific aspect of "Cure" is that there may be no difference. All it takes to transform a law-abiding citizen into an unthinking killer is running water, the flicker of a lighter and a black X.
Critics have spent the past several years trying to figure out what...
Critics have spent the past several years trying to figure out what...
- 12/8/2022
- by Adam Wescott
- Slash Film
Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Rm, the leader of BTS, seems to know this truth all too well. As the seven-member group skyrocketed to the world stage, the 28-year-old singer, songwriter, and producer found himself becoming not only as his band’s de facto spokesperson due to his English fluency, but also an ambassador for his home country of South Korea and Asians across the diaspora. Though praised for his moving speeches at the United Nations General Assembly (thrice!) and the White House, he’s spoken about...
- 12/2/2022
- by Michelle Hyun Kim
- Rollingstone.com
"No matter what you wish for, you can never be anything but yourself." The Match Factory has revealed an official promo trailer for an indie animated film titled Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, marking the feature directorial debut of composer Pierre Földes. This premiered at the Annecy Film Festival and at TIFF this year, and has been released in France and Canada already, but nowhere else just yet. A lost cat, a giant talkative frog, and a tsunami help an unambitious bank employee, his frustrated wife, and a schizophrenic accountant to save Tokyo from an earthquake and find a meaning to their lives. It's based on the Haruki Murakami book of the same name. This sounds like a fascinating animated existential tale of identity and philosophy. The film's initial voice cast includes Marcello Arroyo, Michael Czyz, Zag Dorison, Pierre Földes, Jesse Noah Gruman, Katharine King So, John Vamvas, Nadia Verrucci, and Shoshana Wilder.
- 11/11/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
An early 2023 UK-Ireland release is planned.
UK distributor Modern Films has picked up Annecy premiere Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman for the UK and Ireland from German sales agent The Match Factory.
It is the directorial debut of US-born French composer Pierre Földes, who also wrote the screenplay and score, and is based on a collection of short stories by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Modern Films released Cannes premiere Drive My Car in the UK and Ireland in November 2021, also a Murakami adaptation.
The animation follows the lives of multiple characters as they navigate existence after the 2011 tsunami in Japan, including a bank employee without ambition,...
UK distributor Modern Films has picked up Annecy premiere Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman for the UK and Ireland from German sales agent The Match Factory.
It is the directorial debut of US-born French composer Pierre Földes, who also wrote the screenplay and score, and is based on a collection of short stories by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Modern Films released Cannes premiere Drive My Car in the UK and Ireland in November 2021, also a Murakami adaptation.
The animation follows the lives of multiple characters as they navigate existence after the 2011 tsunami in Japan, including a bank employee without ambition,...
- 11/10/2022
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Bright Future and Limelight titles first to be announced.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and industry platform CineMart are set to fully return in-person in 2023, with its first wave of titles announced today.
The 52nd edition of the festival is scheduled to take place from January 25 to February 5 and organisers said it plans to welcome back audiences with a complete programme of features, shorts, focus programmes, installations and performances.
The 40th edition of IFFR’s co-production market CineMart is also set to run from January 29 to February 1, with one-to-one meetings and informal networking taking place in person for the first time in three years.
International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and industry platform CineMart are set to fully return in-person in 2023, with its first wave of titles announced today.
The 52nd edition of the festival is scheduled to take place from January 25 to February 5 and organisers said it plans to welcome back audiences with a complete programme of features, shorts, focus programmes, installations and performances.
The 40th edition of IFFR’s co-production market CineMart is also set to run from January 29 to February 1, with one-to-one meetings and informal networking taking place in person for the first time in three years.
- 10/27/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
.
After inspiring two of the most stunning features in recent years with “Burning” and “Drive My Car,” it should come as no surprise that the work of author Haruki Murakami is ripe for adaptation. His short stories are truly special, texts that are as dense as they are accessible, and filmmaker Pierre Földes knows this well. Földes’s first feature, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” takes its title from a Murakami collection and anthologizes a number of the author’s short stories — “Super Frog Saves Tokyo,” “Birthday Girl,” “Dabchick,” “The Wind-Up Bird & Tuesday’s Women,” “Blind Willow Sleeping Woman,” and “UFO in Kushiro” — to create an intimate and playful study of characters looking for meaning in their lives.
Weaving together these stories — and their wide-ranging subject matter that includes break-ups, office-job monotony, strange wishes, and secret assassins — is a special endeavor of its own. And while the film stays true to Murakami’s sensibilities,...
After inspiring two of the most stunning features in recent years with “Burning” and “Drive My Car,” it should come as no surprise that the work of author Haruki Murakami is ripe for adaptation. His short stories are truly special, texts that are as dense as they are accessible, and filmmaker Pierre Földes knows this well. Földes’s first feature, “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman,” takes its title from a Murakami collection and anthologizes a number of the author’s short stories — “Super Frog Saves Tokyo,” “Birthday Girl,” “Dabchick,” “The Wind-Up Bird & Tuesday’s Women,” “Blind Willow Sleeping Woman,” and “UFO in Kushiro” — to create an intimate and playful study of characters looking for meaning in their lives.
Weaving together these stories — and their wide-ranging subject matter that includes break-ups, office-job monotony, strange wishes, and secret assassins — is a special endeavor of its own. And while the film stays true to Murakami’s sensibilities,...
- 9/29/2022
- by Juan Barquin
- Indiewire
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.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japanese drama Drive My Car has won the Fipresci Grand Prix for best film of 2022, awarded by the members of the International Federation of Film Critics.
Drive My Car premiered in Cannes last year, where it won best screenplay honors as well as the Cannes Fipresci prize, the start of an awards season run that peaked with it taking this year’s Oscar for best international feature. The slow-burning drama, which unfolds largely through conversations between a playwright and his female chauffeur, was adapted from a short story by acclaimed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.
For the top Fipresci honor, Drive My Car beat out this year’s other four Fipresci finalists: Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, as well as Joachim Trier’s...
Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japanese drama Drive My Car has won the Fipresci Grand Prix for best film of 2022, awarded by the members of the International Federation of Film Critics.
Drive My Car premiered in Cannes last year, where it won best screenplay honors as well as the Cannes Fipresci prize, the start of an awards season run that peaked with it taking this year’s Oscar for best international feature. The slow-burning drama, which unfolds largely through conversations between a playwright and his female chauffeur, was adapted from a short story by acclaimed Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.
For the top Fipresci honor, Drive My Car beat out this year’s other four Fipresci finalists: Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Ruben Östlund’s 2022 Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness, as well as Joachim Trier’s...
- 8/22/2022
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Burning"
Where You Can Stream It: Kanopy (Free), Pluto TV or Tubi (Free with ads)
The Pitch: An aspiring writer reconnects with a young woman he knew growing up, only to become mired in head games with her mysterious rich friend as she disappears without a trace.
In the wrong hands, ambiguity can be a cop-out and a crutch for weak storytelling. There are times when "open to interpretation" feels like code for "not a lot going on." While rewatching "Burning" this week, it occurred to me that part of the reason its narrative works so well and remains so tense and haunting is because, on one level, it's all about how we interpret life's ambiguities.
Rather than...
The Movie: "Burning"
Where You Can Stream It: Kanopy (Free), Pluto TV or Tubi (Free with ads)
The Pitch: An aspiring writer reconnects with a young woman he knew growing up, only to become mired in head games with her mysterious rich friend as she disappears without a trace.
In the wrong hands, ambiguity can be a cop-out and a crutch for weak storytelling. There are times when "open to interpretation" feels like code for "not a lot going on." While rewatching "Burning" this week, it occurred to me that part of the reason its narrative works so well and remains so tense and haunting is because, on one level, it's all about how we interpret life's ambiguities.
Rather than...
- 8/20/2022
- by Joshua Meyer
- Slash Film
The son of Hollywood legend Robin Williams, who passed away on August 11, 2014, remembered his father eight years after his demise. Zak Williams, 39, shared a throwback photo of the actor and wrote: “Dad, on the eighth anniversary of your passing, I’m remembering how incredibly kind and joyful you were,” ‘People’ magazine reported.
He added: “I deeply miss you, you wonderful, hairy man and will be celebrating your life today. Love you so so much!”
Williams had ended his life on August 11, 2014. His final autopsy report, released in November 2014, concluded that Williams’ death was a suicide resulting from “asphyxia due to hanging”.
According to ‘People’, the ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ star’s only daughter Zelda Williams, 33, also penned a sweet message in the form of a quote from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.
“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure,...
He added: “I deeply miss you, you wonderful, hairy man and will be celebrating your life today. Love you so so much!”
Williams had ended his life on August 11, 2014. His final autopsy report, released in November 2014, concluded that Williams’ death was a suicide resulting from “asphyxia due to hanging”.
According to ‘People’, the ‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ star’s only daughter Zelda Williams, 33, also penned a sweet message in the form of a quote from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.
“And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure,...
- 8/12/2022
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
Image Source: Getty / Joseph Okpako
It's a sign of the times! Texas State University's Honors College is gearing up to teach the world's first-ever Harry Styles course. While many of us are undoubtedly appalled to have received degrees so lacking in this very critical knowledge, it's encouraging to know that future generations are in good hands. The class, which is officially entitled "Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet and European Pop Culture," is slated to focus on the singer, as well as "the political development of the modern celebrity as related to questions of gender and sexuality, race, class, nation and globalism, media, fashion, fan culture, internet culture and consumerism," according to a flier shared by the class's professor.
The professor for the course, Louie Dean Valencia, broke the news over Twitter. "It's official, official. I'm teaching the world's first ever university course on the work...
It's a sign of the times! Texas State University's Honors College is gearing up to teach the world's first-ever Harry Styles course. While many of us are undoubtedly appalled to have received degrees so lacking in this very critical knowledge, it's encouraging to know that future generations are in good hands. The class, which is officially entitled "Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet and European Pop Culture," is slated to focus on the singer, as well as "the political development of the modern celebrity as related to questions of gender and sexuality, race, class, nation and globalism, media, fashion, fan culture, internet culture and consumerism," according to a flier shared by the class's professor.
The professor for the course, Louie Dean Valencia, broke the news over Twitter. "It's official, official. I'm teaching the world's first ever university course on the work...
- 7/19/2022
- by Chandler Plante
- Popsugar.com
It’s been a gloomy few years since Alvvays’ last album, and Molly Rankin has had enough. “I don’t necessarily want to pivot into something brand-new and wear a shiny suit and try and make it onto the radio,” observes the Toronto-based singer-songwriter, whose band will return on Oct. 7 with their third LP, Blue Rev. “I mean, I will always have some songs about people dying or walking into a lake or what have you. But I’m ready for some levity.”
Fans of Alvvays’ instant-classic 2014 debut and their 2017 follow-up,...
Fans of Alvvays’ instant-classic 2014 debut and their 2017 follow-up,...
- 7/6/2022
- by Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
“Little Nicholas – Happy As Can Be” scooped this year’s Annecy Animation Festival’s top Cristal Award for best feature, an award which can form a springboard for Oscar nomination, as was the case with “Flee” last year, or “I Want My Body” in 2019.
The biggest winners at Annecy this year, however, was the Festival itself, animation at large and, when it came to movie prizes, France in particular.
‘Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be’: Annecy Cristal, Best Feature
Directed by Benjamin Massoubre and Amandine Fredon, Annecy’s feature winner is classic French animated feature fare in artistic and industrial confection: 2D, based on a literary source – writer René Goscinny and illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé’s comic-strip, and featuring famed Gallic IP: Little Nicholas, France’s quintessential schoolboy, who here meets his makers, Goscinny and Sempé.
In industry terms, “Little Nicholas” is produced by Aton Soumache and producer of “The Little Prince,...
The biggest winners at Annecy this year, however, was the Festival itself, animation at large and, when it came to movie prizes, France in particular.
‘Little Nicholas – Happy as Can Be’: Annecy Cristal, Best Feature
Directed by Benjamin Massoubre and Amandine Fredon, Annecy’s feature winner is classic French animated feature fare in artistic and industrial confection: 2D, based on a literary source – writer René Goscinny and illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé’s comic-strip, and featuring famed Gallic IP: Little Nicholas, France’s quintessential schoolboy, who here meets his makers, Goscinny and Sempé.
In industry terms, “Little Nicholas” is produced by Aton Soumache and producer of “The Little Prince,...
- 6/18/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
After Poetry, it makes sense that Lee Chang-dong would find himself interested in deconstructing another literary genre: the murder mystery. Adapting Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning” for the screen, the South Korean master has created something that feels akin to a real page turner, with each cut, the tensions, and the mystery rise as we become desperate to know whatever happened to Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), the young woman who went missing, leaving her childhood friend Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) searching for her. With pulpy characters, including a delicious Steven Yeun as a mysterious Gatsby-like figure, and a dark sense of humor, the film also serves as a study of class and the way in which the...
Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
After Poetry, it makes sense that Lee Chang-dong would find himself interested in deconstructing another literary genre: the murder mystery. Adapting Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning” for the screen, the South Korean master has created something that feels akin to a real page turner, with each cut, the tensions, and the mystery rise as we become desperate to know whatever happened to Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), the young woman who went missing, leaving her childhood friend Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) searching for her. With pulpy characters, including a delicious Steven Yeun as a mysterious Gatsby-like figure, and a dark sense of humor, the film also serves as a study of class and the way in which the...
- 6/17/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
French studio Miyu Productions and L.A.-based Modern Magic – the event animation outfit recently launched by “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” writer-director and producer Rodney Rothman and former MGM co-president of production Adam Rosenberg – will offer an international show of force as they partner on the fantasy feature “The Long Night.”
Set for production in 2024, the Y.A.-skewing development project is based on an original idea by Cyril Pedrosa, a Disney trained animator turned award-winning graphic novelist; Pedrosa will also write and direct. “This film has occupied all my thoughts,” says the filmmaker. “It is a story that is both very personal and political, where the fantastic allows us to embody our fears and our anger, but also the best of ourselves.”
“We have wanted to work with Cyril on an animated feature film for a long time,” add Miyu chiefs Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron, who describe the drama...
Set for production in 2024, the Y.A.-skewing development project is based on an original idea by Cyril Pedrosa, a Disney trained animator turned award-winning graphic novelist; Pedrosa will also write and direct. “This film has occupied all my thoughts,” says the filmmaker. “It is a story that is both very personal and political, where the fantastic allows us to embody our fears and our anger, but also the best of ourselves.”
“We have wanted to work with Cyril on an animated feature film for a long time,” add Miyu chiefs Emmanuel-Alain Raynal and Pierre Baussaron, who describe the drama...
- 6/13/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
In “Drive My Car”, we follow an actor/director’s journey into finding things about another young driver he comes across. Soon he realizes that she doesn’t just become a vessel for him to get to his house, but also a way to his soul. The 2021 Japanese movie, which won Best International Film award at the Oscars this year, acts as a reminder of how we use art to hide, and eventually to heal. The images, after its 3-hour long runtime, leave you with a lingering feeling; like a towel the film soaks you with all subtle emotions as it moves like a perfectly well oiled- machine.
There’s a play within a play in the structure of the screenplay, literally, as characters from different backgrounds converse while we see subtitles projected on the screen in multiple languages. Through such choices, the screenplay, adapted from a Haruki Murakami’s...
There’s a play within a play in the structure of the screenplay, literally, as characters from different backgrounds converse while we see subtitles projected on the screen in multiple languages. Through such choices, the screenplay, adapted from a Haruki Murakami’s...
- 5/14/2022
- by Aryan Vyas
- AsianMoviePulse
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