समाचार

By Pawel Mizgalewicz

Looking back at the past, and the thought to fix it – either by covering it up, or by making it better – looks like a fitting choice of subject for Setsuro Wakamatsu, one of Japan’s most experienced directors. Born in 1949, Wakamatsu did not helm any gigantic hits that were shown widely abroad, but is a well known quality in the country and got to work with many of Japan’s popular actors, most famously with Ken Watanabe in „The Unbroken” (“Shizumanu Taiyo”). This time, the director took up a screenplay written by the 90-year-old So Kuramoto, another dependable veteran of the TV and film scene. With “Silence of the Sea”, they tell a story about genius painters at the end of their artistic journey, with dark secrets to untangle. Yet, they dive into the past not only to reminisce, but to use it as a canvas to paint a new masterpiece.

Everywhere has its own film culture, and no two nations have perfectly identical cinematography. Like all art, movies are inherently tied to their origins. A film from America carries American values, while a movie made in France will abide by French ideals. This fact is neither surprising nor necessarily subtle. For many, these built-in disparities are the greatest benefit of international films. That said, most Western films have a (mostly) homogenous cultural background. There will be minor social differences between works from different Western nations, but they generally abide by the same belief systems and traditions. The same cannot be said for other global regions, particularly Asia. There’s an inherent cultural barrier between Western audiences and Eastern — especially Japanese — films.

More importantly, there are different storytelling concepts. One of the most apparent differences is the emphatic inclusion of what Western studios would call “downtime.” East Asian films have no qualms about letting audiences breathe.

Universal Pictures International and Parco are teaming to release Baltasar Kormakur’s film Touch in Japan next week on January 24, 2025.

The film has particular local resonance, being the story of a decades-spanning love story between an Icelandic man and a Japanese woman who is a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack of 1945 and who battles the stigma associated with the survivors, known in Japan as Hibakusha.

The film is Iceland’s submission for the international film Academy Award and is on the 15-film shortlist. Pic features Japanese stars Koki, Masahiro Motoki and Masatoshi Nakamura alongside Icelandic actors Egill Olafsson and Palmi Kormakur.

The drama had its Japanese premiere at the Hiroshima International Film Festival in November last year attended by director Kormákur. It also screened in Oslo during the Nobel prize ceremonies in December where Nihon Hidankyo, the organisation of survivors from the bomb attacks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,...

Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest Netflix series, Asura, has been received very well – thanks to the brilliant storytelling, masterful direction, and fantastic acting performances by the cast. In this article, we’re going to look into who is playing what in the show and talk about the character for a bit.

Jun Kunimura as Kotaro

Veteran actor Jun Kunimura — whose most famous work is playing the Japanese priest in Korean director Na Hong-Jin’s The Wailing (2016), which I considered to be the greatest horror movie of this generation — plays Kotaro in Asura. The show begins with Takako discovering her seventy-something father – Kotaro – being unfaithful to her mother for a long time and even having a child. Kunimura is quite fantastic in the role, where most of the acting is done by expression and not words.

Keiko Matsuzaka as Fuji

Keiko Matsuzaka, who has a sprawling career and was also...

“Doesn’t everyone have something they’re not proud of?” This question, asked by the eldest sister Tsunako in the new trailer for Asura, sets the tone for a series that dives into family secrets and personal struggles. The Japanese drama remake, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, will premiere on January 9 and promises to engage audiences with its powerful story and talented cast.

The main cast includes Jun Kunimura as the sisters’ father Kotaro, Keiko Matsuzaka as their mother Fuji, and Masahiro Motoki as Makiko’s (Machiko Ono) husband Takao. Ryuhei Matsuda plays Katsumata, a private investigator who has feelings for Takiko (Yu Aoi).

Kisetsu Fujiwara appears as Sakiko’s (Suzu Hirose) boxer boyfriend Hide, while Seiyo Uchino portrays Sadaharu, a restaurant owner secretly involved with Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa). These supporting characters shine alongside the four sisters, building excitement for their on-screen dynamics.

Other notable roles include Yui Natsukawa as the wife of Tsunako’s lover,...

Exclusive: Baltasar Kormákur’s Icelandic box office hit Touch has been chosen as the country’s International Feature Oscar entry. This marks the fifth time that the filmmaker is repping Iceland in the category.

Touch is based on the Icelandic bestselling novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafssonand and the script is co-written by Ólafsson and Kormákur.

Focus Features has rights in all markets outside Iceland, where, in July, it became the highest-grossing movie of the year. Focus released the romantic drama in theaters July 12, with a $1.1 million North American gross so far and $2.4M global to date.

The film follows widower Kristofer (Egil Ólafsson), who, after receiving an early-stage dementia diagnosis at the outset of the Covid pandemic, leaves behind his Reykjavik home hoping to solve the greatest mystery of his life. As a student in London five decades earlier, Kristofer had fallen in love with Miko, whose father owned the...

Touch tenderly explores reconnection with the past, hope, and love through a beautifully moving story. The film effectively showcases the long-lasting effects of war on individuals and generations, filled with genuine emotion. Touch seamlessly moves between time periods, capturing the deep emotions and connections between characters.

Touch (2024) is about reconnection with ones past, with the more hopeful version of oneself, and with love. Theres a sense of regret wrapped into its story, but what the film does so wonderfully is reveal the long-lasting effects of war on a population, the repercussions of which are felt through generations. Directed by Baltasar Kormkur from a screenplay he co-wrote with Olaf Olaffson, Touch lovingly handles its subject matter and characters and reminds us that what was once lost can be found again.

Touch (2024)

Director Baltasar KormakurRelease Date July 12, 2024Studio(s) Good Chaos, Rvk StudiosDistributor(s) Focus Features, Universal PicturesWriters lafur Jhann lafsson, Baltasar KormakurCast Plmi Kormkur Baltasarsson,...

Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur is a rare sort these days. Here is a director who has built a successful, decades-long career making solid, genre-heavy programmers while often returning to Iceland to put in solid work. There was a time that this kind of output was the lifeblood of the industry. His type nearly extinct now, Kormákur beats on, telling stories for adults.

His new film, Touch, fits right into the mold. Talk about a relic: a mid-budget romantic drama released in theaters! Written by Kormákur and Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson (based on Ólafur’s 2022 novel of the same name), it tells the story of Kristófer (Egill Olafsson), an older widow who shuts down his restaurant in Iceland and travels to Japan in an attempt to find Miko, the love of his life from half a century ago.

It’s the beginning of 2020 and Covid-19 is swiftly shutting the world down. We...

On the surface, Touch seems to be a sudden change of pace for Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur, a quiet and polished film-of-the-book that could easily pass for a BBC presentation. It does, however, square with his action-thriller output, being the story of a man on a mission; admittedly, nothing to do with savage lions, mountaineering or Colombian drug cartels, but older audiences will respond to its hero’s perilous journey into the past, risking Covid and the disapproval of his stepdaughter in his bid to solve a mystery that has haunted him for 50 years.

If it wasn’t for the subtitles, you’d swear this was a British movie from the early 2000s, following the Brit-lit conventions established along the way by the film adaptations of bestsellers such as Ian McEwan’s Atonement and On Chesil Beach,...

Touch is a tale of lost love that spans five decades, revealing a man's powerful journey to rediscover happiness and profound truths. Director Baltasar Kormkur masterfully weaves a story that encapsulates the human experience with poetic honesty and emotional depth. Kristfer's indomitable will leads to a breathtaking climax that explores the enduring power of friendship, passion, and devotion.

Icelandic auteur Baltasar Kormkur crafts an achingly beautiful tale of lost love and the profound journey taken to rediscover happiness. Time, in this case a stunning five decades, can never dull the pain of heartbreak. Touch follows a sweet and gentle soul as he pursues the most personal of mysteries at the pandemic's dawn. Why did a magnetic attraction born by chance slip away for seemingly no reason? The answer will floor you with its devastating truth. Touch encapsulates the human experience with poetic honesty. Those we cherish can be cruelly torn away,...

Icelandic actor/director Baltasar Kormákur is a member of a growing cadre of international filmmakers who make films at home as well as Hollywood. Kormákur is best known for studio action adventures such as “Contraband” (2012), his remake of his 2000 breakout “101 Reykjavik.” Producer/star Mark Wahlberg took a shine to the rugged director, and went on to make another film with him, the $80-million actioner “2 Guns” (2013), co-starring Denzel Washington.

Accustomed to weathering harsh conditions while directing such films as the International Oscar-shortlisted survival film “The Deep” (2013), Kormákur used many tricks in his filmmaking arsenal for Jake Gyllenhaal starrer “Everest” (2015), blending a subzero soundstage with vertiginous ladders, real snow, location footage in the Dolomites, and CGI extensions.

But like many Hollywood imports, he returned to his own country to start a production company and live a double life. He makes some projects in Hollywood (2022’s “Beast” starring Idris Elba), and...

Baltasar Kormákur is back directing — but this time it’s not a survival drama, it’s a romance.

The “Adrift” and “Everest” filmmaker directs Focus Features’ “Touch,” based on the bestselling novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. The film tells a romantic and thrilling story that spans several decades and continents, with one widower trying to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago.

Director Kormákur co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Ólafsson. The original Icelandic novel was published by Ecco/Harper Collins in the U.S. in August 2022. The film was shot in Iceland and Japan.

The ensemble cast is led by Egill Ólafsson, Kōki, Pálmi Kormákur, Masahiro Motoki, Yoko Narahashi, Meg Kubota, and Tatsuya Tagawa, with Charles Nishikawa, Sigurður Ingvarsson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Kieran Buckeridge, Ruth Sheen, María Ellingsen, and Masatoshi Nakamura also starring.

Writer/director Kormákur produces along with Agnes Johansen and Mike Goodridge. Kormákur most recently directed 2022’s “Beast...

"I'm not going back." Focus Features has revealed the first trailer for a movie titled Touch, the latest from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur. After making action movies like Contraband, The Deep, 2 Guns, and Everest, Kormákur has returned to his homeland of Iceland to make more intimate movies again. This one is a passionate love story "years & miles in the making." Adapted from the best-selling novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, Touch is a romantic and thrilling story that spans several decades and continents. Touch follows one widower's emotional journey to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago, before his time runs out. Starring Egill Ólafsson as old Kristófer, with Palmi Kormakur as young Kristófer, plus Kōki, Masahiro Motoki, Sigurdur Ingvarsson, and Yoko Narahashi. His first love is a Japanese woman he met while in London, but her father takes her away and he loses contact with her for 50 years.

Exclusive: Focus Features we hear has set a July 12, 2024 limited theatrical release date for Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic-drama Touch.

Universal Pictures International is handling international distribution sans Iceland.

The movie is based on Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson’s bestselling Icelandic novel published by Ecco/Harper Collins in the U.S in August 2022. The movie follows one widower’s emotional journey to find his first love who disappeared 50 years ago before his time runs out. The story spans several decades and continents. Ólafsson and Kormákur co-wrote the movie.

Rvk Studios’ Kormákur and Agnes Johansen produced Touch alongside Good Chaos’ Mike Goodridge.

Touch stars Egill Ólafsson, Kōki, Pálmi Kormákur, Masahiro Motoki, Yoko Narahashi, Meg Kubota, Tatsuya Tagawa, Charles Nishikawa, Sigurður Ingvarsson, Starkaður Pétursson, Benedikt Erlingsson, Kieran Buckeridge, Ruth Sheen, María Ellingsen and Masatoshi Nakamura.

Focus Features’ 2024 lineup includes Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Drive-Away Dolls, the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black,...

Exclusive: Focus Features has boarded Beast and Everest filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur’s romantic drama Touch, which begins principal photography Sunday in London. Focus will release domestically, with Universal Pictures International handling overseas distribution (excluding Iceland).

Touch is based on the bestselling Icelandic novel by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson, which was published in the U.S. in August this year. Ólaffson co-wrote the script with Kormákur.

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The story spans several decades and continents as it follows one widower’s emotional journey to find his first love...

Hybrid is probably the word to best suit Michael Arias’ “Tekkonkinkreet”. Based on Taito Matsumoto’s manga “Black & White”, it is the story of Yin and Yang brothers Kuro (“Black”) and Shiro (“White”) as they battle to save their home from adults, greedy bad guys and inner demons.

Tekkonkinkreet is screening at Japan Society

Treasure Town is an island in the middle of the city – a lawless neighborhood that nobody runs, but everybody claims. Children run the streets, to the annoyance of the yakuza; while the police holds little real power. But this is the chaotic order in place. That is until Hebi and his evil empire want to raze Treasure Town to the ground and build an amusement park in the name of profit. This evil force unites the inhabitants against this outsider as they gradually realize the plans in place, and it’s up to out two young heroes to fight back.

Masayuki Suo is a director not afraid to touch on cultural taboos in his work, most notably with 1996’s breakthrough “Shall We Dance?”. There, he tackled a foreign influence in ballroom dancing, and its lack of acceptance as a respectable activity for a middle-aged salaryman. His earlier “Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t”, however, looks at a more traditional Japanese activity, but how a younger generation embrace the foreign and see the past as taboo.

“Youth” is screening at Japan Society

Shuhei (Masahiro Motoki) is a slacker student, confident that he has no need to go to class or make any efforts, as his family connections have already landed him a job on graduation. There’s just one problem with this: he actually has to graduate. As such, he feels it’s about time he met with his professor, Anayama (Akira Emoto).

Anayama is something of a sumo wrestling buff; a lean man,...

Straying far away from the techno-industrial style of the two Tetsuo, Shinya Tsukamoto based this particular film on the homonymous Edogawa Rampo story that takes place in the Meiji era, in order to present a mystery/thriller/costume drama combination, which, once again though, thrives on visual and contextual deliriousness.

The film revolves around Yukio Daitokuji, a famous doctor who was decorated for his services during the war, and has now succeeded his father in the practice, amassing fame for both his past deeds and his present. Yukio seems to live a very happy life in the family mansion, with his parents and his beautiful wife, Rin. However, not everything is idyllic in his life. His parents disapprove of his wedding, since Rin is an amnesiac who Yukio found in the banks of a nearby river and took in, and no one knows anything about her past.

To celebrate the release of the international series ‘Giri/Haji’ to BBC Two in October we are honoured to share nine exclusive first look images from the show.

The eight-part series, directed by Julian Farino, is said to be a soulful thriller that explores the butterfly effect of one murder upon two very different worlds.

The Story

The new series follows Kenzo (Takehiro Hira) a middle-aged Tokyo detective and family man, who travels to London in search of his younger brother, Yuto (Yosuke Kubozuka). The siblings, once devoted and now estranged, are driven to opposite sides of the world by the spiralling consequences of one violent, split-second decision. Fukuhara (Masahiro Motoki), a notorious Japanese gang-lord and feared Yakuza, hears of his nephew’s murder in London – and the ramifications of the crime erupt across the globe. As a result, Kenzo’s family’s honour and the fragile peace between the...

It’s been something of a long wait for the latest release from “Dreams for Sale” director Miwa Nishikawa. Her fifth feature film, “The Long Excuse” is a considered look at grief, and continues where her last film left off, looking at the concept of self-deception and how people cope with times of crisis.

“The Long Excuse” screened at the New York Asian Film Festival

Sachio (Masahiro Motoki), a writer whose career has turned more to TV celebrity than literary genius, receives a haircut from his hairdresser wife. Slightly drunk, they have a discussion where he shows his annoyance at his status and how his name is that of a baseball legend. Leaving for a trip with her best friend Yuki (Keiko Horiuchi), Natsuko’s (Eri Fukatsu) bus soon crashes on its way through the mountains, killing both, while her husband has an affair with a younger woman.

Having grown cynical,...

A rather unusual flick by Takashi Miike. No detached Body parts, no gory violence. Instead, we get to see a modern fairytail about the downside of globalization.

Wada, played by Masahiro Motoki, works for an energy company. One day he unwillingly replaces a colleague on a business trip to a Chinese jade mine. On his heels is the yakuza Ujiie (Renji Ishibashi), whose boss is also interested in the jade mine. In the beginning separated then together, both of them are going on a journey into the untouched parts of the Chinese jungle, only accompanied by a local guide.

Due to an accident, the guide is temporarily unconscious and the group is lost until locals rescue them and take them to the village next to the jade mine. Once there, they learn about the peculiarity of the villagers. According to an old legend, the people have the ability to fly.

The BBC and Netflix have unveiled the international cast and a first-look image of their ambitious bilingual drama “Giri/Haji,” which has begun filming in London. An acclaimed Japanese lineup, led by Takehiro Hira and Yosuke Kubozuka, is joined by Emmy-winning British actress Kelly Macdonald, British actor Charlie Creed-Miles and U.S. actor Justin Long.

The eight-part thriller, whose title translates as “Duty/Shame,” is shot in both Japanese and English and will be subtitled. Set between London and Tokyo across multiple time frames, the show explores the ripple effects of one murder on two cities. The shoot will move to Tokyo later this year.

“Giri/Haji” is created and written by BAFTA nominee Joe Barton and directed by BAFTA-winner and Emmy nominee Julian Farino. The Japanese cast also includes Masahiro Motoki, Yuko Nakamura, Aoi Okuyama, Mitsuko Oka, Togo Igawa, Katsuya and Yoshiki Minato. British actors Will Sharpe and Tony Pitts also star.

This great recent Japanese epic is all but unknown here — and is the kind of adult historical show that we seem incapable of these days. The intense diplomatic storm at the end of WW2 with an Army command willing to sacrifice the nation in a national suicide pact, is given an exciting, thoughtful treatment

The Emperor in August

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

2015 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 136 min. / Street Date August 15, 2017 / Nihon no ichiban nagai hi ketteiban / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store 29.95

Starring: Koji Yakusho, Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Shin’ichi Tsutsumi, Tori Matsuzaka, Kikuo Kaneuchi, Misuzu Kanno, Katsumi Kiba.

Cinematography: Takahide Shibanushi

Film Editor: Eugene Harada

Original Music: Harumi Fuki

Based on the novel by Kacutoshi Hando

Produced by Hirotaki Aragaki, Nozumi Enoki

Written and Directed by Masato Harada

How does Twilight Time do it? Every time they offer a foreign title I’ve never heard of, it comes up a winner.

Sachio Kinugasa is a formerly successful writer who currently makes his living by appearing on talk shows. He is married to a hairstylist, Natsuko, but constantly ignores her while he is having an affair with his editor. His life turns upside down when Natsuko is killed in a bus accident, along with her friend Yuko. The two widowers, Sachio and Yoichi deal with the incident in completely different fashion. Sachio tries to “seduce” the media once more, while Yoichi is utterly devastated. However, due to Yoichi’s efforts to become friends with him, the two men start socializing, and eventually Sachio agrees to act as a babysitter for Yoichi’s two kids, Shinpei and Akari. As he starts warming up to them, Sachio realizes the mistakes he has made in his life, particularly regarding his deceased wife.

Miwa Nishikawa directs and pens (actually adapts her own book) a touching movie that starts as a drama,...

Exclusive: Fifth film from Hirokazu Koreeda protégé stars Masahiro Motoki.

Paris-based Elle Driver has snapped up international sales on Japanese director Miwa Nishikawa’s heart-warming drama The Long Excuse ahead of its world premiere in Toronto’s Special Presentations strand.

Popular Japanese actor Masahiro Matoki - best known internationally for his performance in the 2008 Oscar-winning film Departures - plays Sachio Kinugasa, a popular writer coming to terms with the death of his wife in a bus crash alongside a friend.

Sachio had long checked out of his loveless marriage and was with another woman at the moment of his wife’s death so he has to fake his grief to keep up appearances.

The true implications of his loss are brought into sharp relief, however, when Sachio meets the devastated husband of his wife’s friend and offers to look after their children so the latter - a truck-driver - can go back to work.

It is the...

Miwa Nishikawa is no stranger to the Toronto International Film Festival, as her last film, “Dream for Sale,” was screened at Tiff in 2012. Now, the Japanese director and screenwriter is back with her latest film “The Long Excuse,” based on her novel of the same name.

The drama stars Masahiro Motoki as Sachio Kinugasa, a popular writer who is widowed after his wife (Eri Fukatsu) dies in a bus accident. Coming to terms with his grief, or lack of it, he offers to take care of another man’s children who also lost their mother in the same incident.

The film will be screened at Tiff on Saturday, September 17 and 18 and IndieWire has an exclusive new trailer that you can check out below.

Read More: ‘These Days’ Exclusive Trailer: Giuseppe Piccioni’s Venice Drama Follows The Complicated Bonds of Friendship

“The Long Excuse” is executive produced by Kazumi Kawashiro, Yasuhito Nakae,...

The Blue Ribbon Awards are film-specific prizes awarded solely by movie critics and writers in Tokyo, Japan.

The awards were established in 1950 by The Association of Tokyo Film Journalists which is composed of film correspondents from seven Tokyo-based sports newspapers. In 1961, the six major Japanese newspapers (Yomiuri Shinbun, Asahi Shinbun, Mainichi Shinbun, Sankei Shimbun, Tokyo Shimbun andNihon Keizai Shinbun) as well as the Japanese Associated Press withdrew their support for the Blue Ribbon Awards and established the Association of Japanese Film Journalists Awards, (which were held a mere six times). In 1967, the awards were cancelled as a result of the Black Mist Scandal, a baseball bribing case. In 1975, the awards were revived, and have continued until the present day. The annual award ceremony is held in a variety of places in Tokyo every February.

Although the award is not acclaimed highly on an international level, due to their long history and the rigorous screening process,...

The ceremony took place in the Grand Prince Hotel on the 4th of March and the winners were:

Best Picture: Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda)

Best Animated Film: The Boy and The beast (Mamoru Hosoda)

Best Director: Hirokazu Koreeda (Our Little Sister)

Best Actor: Kazunari Ninomiiya (Living with my Mother)

Best Actress: Sakura Ando (100 Yen Love)

Best Supporting Actor: Masahiro Motoki (The Emperor in August, Japan’s Longest Stay)

Best Supporting Actress: Haru Kuroki (Living with my Mother) Best Screenplay: Shin Adachi (100 Yen Love)

Best Cinematography: Mikiya Takimoto (Our Little Sister)

Best Lighting Direction: Norikiyo Fujii (Our Little Sister)

Best Music: Sakanaction (Bakuman)

Best Art Direction: Hidefumi Hanatani (125 Years Memory)

Best Sound Recording: Nobuhiko Matsukage (125 Years Memory)

Best Film Editing: Yasuyuki Ozeki (Bakuman)

Best Foreign Language Film: American Sniper

Newcomer of the Year: Kasumi Arimura (Flying Colors), Tao Tsuchiya (Orange), Ryosuke Yamada, (Assassination Classroom), Yojiro Noda (Pieta in the Toilet...

The award ceremony for the oldest Japanese cinema competition took place on February13 at the Bunkyo Civic Center, and the list of winners is:

Best Actor: Kazunari Ninomiya (Nagasaki: Memories of My Son)

Best Actress: Eri Fukatsu (Journey to the Shore, Parasyte The Final Chapter)

Best Supporting Actor: Masahiro Motoki (The Big Bee)

Best Supporting Actress: Haru Kuroki (When the Curtain Rises; Solomon’s Perjury)

Best Director (Japanese): Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three Stories of Love)

Best Director (Foreign): George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Screenplay: Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three Stories of Love)

Best New Actor: Atsushi Shinohara (Three Stories of Love)

Best New Actress: Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister)

Eri Fukatsu

Best Ten Japanese Feature Films

Three Stories of Love

Fires on the Plain

Happy Hour

Our Little Sister

Journey to the Shore

Gonin Saga

This Country’s Sky

Solomon’s Perjury

Nagasaki: Memories of My Son

Being Good...

The 28th ceremony took place at the New Otani Hotel, in Tokyo and the list of winners is:

Best Film: Solomon’s Perjury (Izuru Narashima)

Best Director: Masato Harada (The Emperor in August, Kakekomi)

Best Actor: Kengo Kora (TheMourner, Being Good)

Best Actress: Haruka Ayase (Our Little Sister)

Best Supporting Actor: Masahiro Motoki (The Emperor in August, The Big Bee)

Best Supporting Actress: Masami Nagasawa (Our Little Sister)

Best International Film: Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)

New Face Award: Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister)

Fan Award: Joker Game (Yu Irie)

Yujiro Ishihara Award: The Emperor in August

Achievement Award: Yukichi Shinada (film critic)

Kengo Kora

Masami Nagasawa

the winners...

You've heard that they're making a live action American version of Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (1988), right? That's the sci-fi cartoon that really opened the Anime floodgates here in the States. I have a faint memory of seeing the movie in the theater when it arrived in the States -- I think 1990? -- and that memory involves two things: my jaw was mostly open throughout from the epic violent craziness, and my best friend at the time who I went to every movie with (hi Kevan!) turned to me during the climactic battle when Tetsuo transforms hideously into this blob like creature and said something silly like "quivering mounds of blubbery goo" in a dramatic but silly voice. We started giggling and a rather, um, large patron in front of us turned around to give us hateful looks. Embarrassing! But we were just reacting to the visuals on screen, I promise.

For...

Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd The Wall (top); Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (middle); Masahiro Motoki in Yojiro Takita’s Oscar-winning Departures (bottom) The 2010 edition of Ebertfest, Roger Ebert’s film festival of overlooked (and not-so-overlooked) movies, kicked off at 7 p.m. this evening with a screening of Alan Parker’s (not-at-all) overlooked Pink Floyd The Wall. (I’m no fan of the film; I was told that to you need to be on acid to appreciate its artistry. I have no intention of ever taking up that suggestion.) Ebertfest 2010 highlights include Roy Andersson’s totally overlooked (in the United States, at least) You, the Living, which consists of dozens of vignettes featuring average people and their oftentimes comic/bizarre problems; Lee Isaac Chung’s Rwanda-set [...]...

Departures

Many viewers would be touched by the tale of an aspiring cellist, who accidentally becomes a mortician (an undertaker or a funeral director, to some) when he loses his dream job with a symphony orchestra. Many would even be stupefied by the ingenuity of the filmmakers to pick up a seemingly unique subject such as “encoffinment” as a subject for a feature film. Many others would be in awe of the Asian traditions that respect the dead, the elderly, and the institution of marriage until (and beyond!) “death do us part”. Many others would be equally intrigued by the Asian traditions that consider associating any profession relating to the dead as being somewhat demeaning and not worthy of public stature.

Director Yojiro Takita’s film is loosely based on Aoki Shinmon’s autobiographical book The Coffin Man, which was subsequently adapted for the screen by the scriptwriter Kundo Koyama.

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

I was able to sit down for a couple of years and pump out a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right Here for free.

Check out my new column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

Departures DVD - Review

The fact that this film beat out Waltz with Bashir and The Class at last year’s Academy Awards should be an indication of how good Departures really is. Not saying it should be a sticker on its box cover but it is a compelling fact on top of the one that this is really that good.

For those who need the CliffsNotes version of the story it is thus: A talented musician/father, Daigo (Masahiro Motoki), takes solace in his music as a professional cellist.

Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at last year's Oscars this off-shore indie sleeper is an achingly beautiful portrait of tender reconciliation from a culture where openly venting one's emotions is just not something that you do. Ten years in the making this gentle, drifting drama - the brainchild of it's leading man Masahiro Motoki - dares to question the value of its nation's ultra-conservative social approach and the chokehold people are expected to maintain on their feelings for the sake of appearance. Simply put, life's too short.

Crushed by the disbanding of his Tokyo opera and indebted over his expensive new instrument, disillusioned cellist Diago (Motoki) returns to his provincial home town with his adoring wife Mika (Hirosue) to live in the house his mother left him. Besieged by bad memories Diago finds himself haunted by gradually dissolving memories of the father who skipped out when he was still an infant.

2010 is in full swing and some really great movies are hitting store shelves this week for the first time and for the first time on Blu-ray. This week’s releases include Moon, Halloween II, Cliffhanger, Kathy Griffin: She’ll Cut a Bitch, I Can Do Bad All By Myself and the Blu-ray release of The Hurt Locker (pictured above).

Check out this week’s releases:

Movies

Amreeka ~ Yussuf Abu-Warda, Hiam Abbass, Alia Shawkat (DVD)

Big Fan ~ Patton Oswalt, Michael Rapaport, Matt Servitto (DVD and Blu-ray)

Cliffhanger ~ Sylvester Stallone (Blu-ray)

Departures ~ Masahiro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue (DVD)

8 1/2 (The Criterion Collection) ~ Marcello Mastroianni, Anouk Aimée, Claudia Cardinale (Blu-ray)

Halloween II (Unrated Director’s Cut) ~ Scout Taylor-Compton, Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie (DVD and Blu-ray)

I Can Do Bad All By Myself ~ Tyler Perry, Taraji P. Henson (DVD and Blu-ray)

In the Loop ~ James Gandolfini (DVD and Blu-ray)

The Hurt Locker ~ Ralph Fiennes,...

The Box (12A)

(Richard Kelly, 2009, Us) Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella. 116 mins

Will Kelly ever make another movie as good as Donnie Darko? There are signs here that he might, but he hasn't this time. The Twilight Zone plot – press the button on this box and you'll get $1m, but someone will die – opens up more moral/conspiracy/sci-fi elements than the film can handle. Still, too much is better than not enough, especially when it's as smoothly sinister, visually sophisticated and borderline bonkers as this.

Me And Orson Welles (12A)

(Richard Linklater, 2008, Us/UK) Zac Efron, Claire Danes. 114 mins

Efron graduates from High School backstage to Welles's 1930s theatre troupe in this sweet coming-of-age flick, holding his own against Christian McKay's rakish, bombastic Welles – even when they fall for the same girl.

Cracks (15)

(Jordan Scott, 2009, UK) Eva Green, Juno Temple. 104 mins

Set within the confines of a posh girls' boarding school,...

Yôjirô Takita's ­bitter-sweet tale of the Japanese funeral trade plays a bit like a formal service ­itself

Yôjirô Takita's ­bitter-sweet tale of the Japanese funeral trade plays a bit like a formal service ­itself. At the start there is some uncertain shuffling, a few inappropriate giggles; the odd spasm of embarrassment. Then the mood settles and the soberness of the ritual takes hold.

Masahiro Motoki (a former boy-band singer) plays the down-on-his-luck cellist who accepts a job administering to "the departures" in his hometown, tenderly washing and shaving the corpses on their last stop ­before the incinerator.

This was a surprise winner of this year's foreign film Oscar, which prompted some to joke that here, at last, was a movie the decrepit Academy ­voters could really relate to. Fortunately, Takita's wry, insightful handling ensures that it speaks to the rest of us as well.

Rating: 3/5

World cinemaDramaXan Brooks

guardian.

Here’s the new poster (click to enlarge) & trailer for the movie which won the Best Foreign Language film at the 2009 Academy Awards. It’s called Depeartures (Okuribito), stars Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki and is directed by Yôjirô Takita.

It’s being released in UK cinemas 4th December and you can check out the synopsis and trailer below.

A delightful and sensitive journey into the heartland of Japan and an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan’s cultural heritage, Departures tells the story of Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Matoki), a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved who now finds himself without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures” thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to...

A Japanese film about a Buddhist mortician is set to be an unlikely commercial success

There aren't many films about the Japanese art of corpse beautification. Still fewer made by a director who previously specialised in soft-core porn and starring an ex-boy band heart-throb. But Departures (Okuribito), which opens in Britain on Friday, is all these things. It won this year's best foreign language Oscar, beating two critically feted films, Waltz with Bashir and The Class.

But why? The film, after all, is hardly a Saturday night no-brainer. Loosely adapted from Aoki Simmons's autobiography Coffinman: The Journal of a Buddhist Mortician, it's about a redundant cellist who finds meaning in his life when he gets a job ceremonially washing bodies, preparing them for entry into the next life. Even in Japan, where films about death and funerals are not uncommon (see Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Ikiru), the role of the...

(And another film with no Twitch review. Allow me to put that right.)

The Longest Night in Shanghai could have been a disaster. It's a formula rom-com at heart, yet another riff on Pygmalion where a glossy pan-Asian cast is headed up by two lonely beautiful people who only need one fleeting meet-cute to establish they're meant for each other. It's helmed by an arthouse director, Zhang Yibai, coming off a shaky second picture (Curiosity Kills the Cat) in which the more predictable genre elements he tried to introduce killed a great deal of the atmosphere stone dead almost before it even got started.

But it's not a disaster. It's far from a perfect film; it's too long, and its multiple plot threads vary wildly in quality, but the sumptuous production values, stellar cast and gorgeous soundtrack paper over the (very) rough spots to leave the viewer with one of the quietest,...

(Screened as part of the 23rd Leeds International Film Festival which ran from 4th-22nd November 2009. Didn't see a Twitch review for this at all, so here we are.)

The biggest problem with Yōjirō Takita's Departures is probably how utterly predictable it is. After all, this is a film where the main character jumping (wrongly) to conclusions leads him to a life-changing epiphany he never expected, yet it's so ruthlessly put together nothing ever surprises. Nearly every pivotal moment is exactly what it seems.

Masahiro Motoki (The Bird People In China) plays Daigo Kobayashi, a cellist for a small orchestra who's just moved back to his home town after being made redundant. Struggling to find a job outside the big city, Daigo comes across a tiny classified ad for help wanted - the wording's a little ambiguous, but it seems to be something to do with travelling. Holiday bookings, perhaps?...

By Austin Lugar

for MovieSet.com

{Ed Note: ‘Departures‘ is also known by the Japanese title ‘Okuribito’}

Like most film nerds, I watched the Oscars with a lot of anticipation and predictions. So when the Best Foreign Film category came along, I was hoping The Class was going to beat out Waltz With Bashir because, as I mentioned, I’m a nerd. Yet Departures went home with the golden statue, which left all of America saying, “What in the world is Departures?” It only played at the Hawaii Film Festival in 2008, which qualified it for the Oscars and is only now starting to trickle to theatres across the country.

Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki) and Shokichi Hirata (Takashi Sasano) in 'Departures.'

So now that I’ve seen it, I can safely say: Yes, it deserves the prize. There are a lot of movies about death, but there aren’t many...

An unemployed cellist finds his true calling as a corpse cosmetician in the moving new Japanese film Departures. A smash hit in Japan, Departures, a film about death, life, and forgiveness, was an upset winner for best foreign film at this year’s Oscar ceremony and it’s easy to see why this sentimental art-house crowd pleaser won over the political favorite Waltz With Bashirs and the more challenging The Class. Departures is a well-acted and smartly directed drama that manages to be emotional without feeling manipulative. It is slightly overlong and slow paced and, despite the Oscar, I doubt that it will find much mainstream cross-over appeal. With Departures, director Yojiro Takita has created an engrossing film that is sweet, sad and funny, a portrait of a young man coming to terms with abandonment by his father and learning about himself through the process of his employment.

Daigo Kobayashi...

Departures (Okuribito)

Directed by: Yojiro Takita

Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue

Running Time: 2 hrs 10 mins

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: July 3, 2009

Plot: Daigo Kobayashi (Motoki) loses his job as a professional cellist. In debt and disappointed, he moves with his wife, Mika (Hirosue), to the home that his deceased mother left him. There he takes a job as an “encoffineer,” ritually preparing bodies for burial. But his work is looked down upon by his family and friends.

Who’s It For? Fans of well-crafted films. Especially if they don’t mind subtitles.

Expectations: Departures won the Best Foreign Film Oscar back in February, so I was hoping for a really great film.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Masahiro Motoki as Daigo Kobayashi: Daigo’s in the middle of a crisis. The orchestra he worked so hard to join is being disbanded due to lack of funds and he is in debt after purchasing a professional cello.

Release Date: May 29 (limited)Director: Yojiro Takita

Writer: Kundo Koyama

Cinematographer: Takeshi Hamada

Starring: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Kimiko Yo Studio/Run Time: Regent Releasing, 130 mins.

Affable but unfocused hit from Japan

On its face, the odd, clunky Japanese dramedy Departures pitches itself as a classic story of reinvention and renewal. It follows a young cellist (Masahiro Motoki) who is let go and lacks the talent to move to a different orchestra. He answers a newspaper ad and finds a job with a peculiar old man who prepares corpses for burial, a sticky profession he hides from his wife but quietly grows to like.

eath begets beauty in Departures, a moving new film that teaches us, and its reluctant hero Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), all about the fine art of encoffination: the delicate ritual preparation of a corpse for cremation, a last rite performed with the utmost discretion and quiet showmanship in front of the assembled family and funeral guests, before the coffin is plunged into the flames.

The greatest mystery of this year's Oscar ceremony was why the tear-jerker "Departures" won the foreign-language award.

Of the five nominees, "Departures" is definitely the weakest. It isn't a bad movie, but then again it isn't a great one. Call it a case of sap over substance.

Directed by Yojiro Takita, who got his start making erotic, soft-core flicks, "Departures" follows a classical cellist (Masahiro Motoki) who moves back to his hometown with his pert wife (Ryoko Hirosue) after his Tokyo orchestra goes under for lack of an audience.

He answers an ad for...

When Departures won the Oscar in February as best foreign-language film, no one was more surprised than director Yojiro Takita. But then, Departures was a surprise hit in its native Japan. The story of a cellist who loses his job and finds a new calling preparing bodies for burial, the film is an engrossingly soulful story of the many forms artistry takes and the way empathy and affection can give depth and meaning to the grieving process. As Takita and Masahiro Motoki, the film's star (and the driving force behind getting the picture made), said in a recent interview in New York (conducted through a translator), Departures has always been "the little movie that could." Q: Departures depicts a process called encoffining, in which the main character of the film washes and prepares the corpse for the coffin, in a ritual performed...

Films from Japan have rarely gotten the attention they deserve in the United States, even blockbuster horror films like the original "Grudge" and "Ring" movies, which were barely able to find an audience in theaters here before Hollywood got their hands on them. That is why it was quite exciting when Yojiro Takita's Departures surprised many by winning the Foreign Language Oscar earlier this year, showing that despite the vast cultural differences, Hollywood was finally starting to pay attention and understand that there was a lot of quality filmmaking coming out of the Land of the Rising Sun. Departures stars former pop singer Masahiro Motoki as Tokyo concert cellist Daigo Kobayashi, who returns home to his small village after his orchestra disbands....