Japanese Movies - 16 April 2009 - One Missed Call

On Thursday 16 April 2009 (early Friday morning) from 12:00 am, SBS is screening the high school J-horror flick 着信アリ – One Missed Call).

During an evening get-together with friends, Murasaki Yoko’s cell phone suddenly rings in an unusual tone. Not recognizing the tone, Yoko doesn’t pick up soon enough and the call goes into “voice mail” (chakushin). When she sees that the call/message was from her own phone number and dated two days into the future both she and her friend Nakamura Yumi listen intently to the message. What they hear is the voice of Yoko in casual chit-chat, followed by a horrendous scream, and then dead silence.

Of course the two girls attempt to laugh this off and even share the story with their friends, but when Yumi receives a phone call on the very moment…

Dark Water & Evangelion

SBS has been kind enough to give us several hours of Japanese TV tonight (Monday 12 Jan 2009). From 11:25pm, it’s the horrific Dark Water (仄暗い水の底から)).

From the director of The Ring movies, Hideo Nakata, this film follows a single mother who moves into an apartment building that is haunted by a girl’s ghost. Yoshimi Matsubara is going through a messy divorce over the custody of her five-year-old daughter Ikuko and her husband insists that she is mentally unstable. Yoshimi is determined to start a new life with her daughter and moves to a new apartment.

But this dark and musty apartment building holds unimagined horrors. Water drips from the ceiling, and as the volume increases, Yoshimi investigates by going to the apartment above. While it is empty, when the door is ajar she glimpses a little girl in a yellow plastic raincoat. It turns out that this child died two years previously. The little girl re-appears, with devastating consequences.

Dark Water is subtitled in English. Here’s some interesting info from Wikipedia:

A U.S. remake of the film, directed by Walter Salles and starring Jennifer Connelly, was released on July 8, 2005.
A possible Indian remake of the film has been announced, starring Kareena Kapoor.

From 1am, more Evangelion.

Japanese movie: Antenna

Tonight (Fri Jan 9 2009) on SBS, Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Antenna is screening from 10:55 pm. It’s based on a novel by Randy Taguchi.

Yuichiro, a postgraduate student of philosophy, had a little sister called Marie who disappeared 15 years ago. His uncle killed himself after Marie’s disappearance, and his father also died some years later.

News of a kidnapped girl found after nine years stirs up the remaining members of Yuichiro’s family. When he returns to his family home to support his mother and brother, he discovers how his mother has coped with the loss of her daughter. Yuichiro, on the other hand, resorts to inflicting physical pain on himself. When he meets Naomi, a dominatrix, he continues his study on sadomasochistic experience as a means of coping with personal pain.

This film was screened at the 2003 Venice Film Festival and Ryo Kase received Best Actor at the Japanese Professional Movie Awards.

Not one to show the kids, but sounds like it might be worth a look! Subtitled in English.

Death and Rebirth

No, not us.
But it is nice to be back – happy new year to everybody!

Tonight, Monday 5 Jan 09, from 1am (i.e. Tuesday morning), our friends at SBS are showing the cult Japanese anime Neon Genesis Evangelion”: Death and Rebirth.

Evangelion: Death, the first part of the film, is a digest of clips from the first 24 episodes of the TV series Neon Genesis Evangelion) (1995). It covers the fight against the invading giant robots known as Angels. The only defence against them is the NERV organisation’s EVAs, giant biomechanical robots piloted by humans.

Evangelion: Rebirth reveals why humanity and the Angels cannot co-exist: the Angels were not aliens but failed attempts by the organisation SEELE (German for “soul”) to move humanity onto a higher plane of evolution by subsuming all individual souls into one giant soul – a plan known as the Human Instrumentality Project.

It’s dubbed into English.

Tales of an Osaka Love Thief

On Thursday 27 November 2008 (early Friday morning) from 12:55 am, SBS is rescreening Tales of an Osaka Love Thief, a very interesting inside look at host bars in Japan, the people who work there, and their clients. It’s a side of Japan that most people have not had full-on contact with, and the ultimate ambiguity of this great doco is fitting. Subtitles in English.

Stylish Café Rakkyo is a host club in Minami, Osaka. Its owner Issei is reputedly the best-earning host in the area. He has many clients willing to pay sometimes thousands of dollars in one visit. The clients seek to be entertained and even to fall in love. But sometimes the boys’ attachments to particular clients gets in the way of their earnings. The strain of their work takes its emotional toll and the top hosts confess they cannot fall in love even if they want to.

Tony Takitani

Like Haruki Murakami? Yeah, yeah, get in line. And while you’re waiting, check out Tony Takitani – on SBS this Thursday, 6 November 2008, from 10:05 pm. Japanese with English subtitles.

Because of his Western name, Tony was shunned by other kids and spent a solitary childhood. Though gifted as an artist, his drawings lacked feeling, so as an adult, he carved a career as a technical illustrator. In middle age, the reclusive Tony falls for a pretty young woman, Eiko Konuma, who visits him one day on business. Eiko is like an angel in Tony’s daily existence, and for the first time in his life, he feels connected to the outside world. However, Eiko does have one (fatal) fault: she’s a clothing shopaholic.

This movie is actually far more melancholic than the blurb suggests. It’s not typical Murakami (although the lead might seem familiar), but it is based on one of his short stories. Enjoy it – but you will feel terrible at the end.

The Outdoor Room: Japanese garden

For anybody who watches Channel 7’s The Outdoor Room from 6:30pm on Sundays, you’ll know they apparently plan their backyard renovations by sending Jamie Durie to overseas countries and having him check out local art and architecture.

The next episode (which, according to the website, is Sunday October 12, rather than this Sunday, October 5) features a Japanese garden makeover. Check it out and get some ideas for your own garden. All I want is a nice roten-buro!

There will apparently be a recipe for tuna tataki with soba noodles and wasabi dressing too (as if you needed it).

Japanese Film: Aragami - The Raging God of Battle

On Thursday night (Friday morning) 18/19 September 2008 from 1 am, SBS is screening Aragami, a 2003 Japanese action film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura. It was Kitamura’s contribution to the Duel Project, a challenge issued by producer Shinya Kawai to him and fellow director Yukihiko Tsutsumi to film a feature length movie with only two actors, battling in one setting, in only the time frame of one week. The other movie in the Project was 2LDK, which was on SBS earlier this year.

Two seriously wounded samurai find refuge from a storm at an isolated temple, the home of a swordsman and a mysterious young woman.

One samurai awakes to find that not only has his comrade died, but that his wounds have miraculously healed. He discovers that he has been given the power of immortality by the swordsman, a man once known as the legendary Miyamoto Musashi, who now lives an endless existence as Aragami, a “god of battle”.

Starring Takao Osawa, Masaya Kato and Kanae Uotani.

Japanese with English subtitles – perfect for language learners of either!

Japanese Anime - Wed 10 September 2008

From 10:05 pm this Wednesday, 10 September 2008, SBS is screening Miyazaki Hayao’s anime Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Kiki, a young witch, has turned 13, and according to the ancient tradition she must leave home to find her own place in the world. She flies her broom to a coastal town where she finds a room above a local bakery, run by Mrs Osono, and sets up a delivery service. Despite a few misadventures, Kiki is doing fine until one day she discovers that her powers have disappeared – she cannot fly her broomstick and she can no longer communicate with her cat Jiji. Ursula, a painter Kiki has met on one of her delivery runs, explains artist’s block and how something similar may have affected Kiki.

This is the fifth Studio Ghibli anime film, produced, written, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 1989. It was the fourth theatrically released film from the studio, and was also the second feature film that Miyazaki directed but did not originally write himself. The movie won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1989. The movie is based on Eiko Kadono’s novel of the same name, which is the first in a series originally published by Fukuinkan Shoten in 1985.

Dubbed in English. Several towns in Australia are said to have provided the inspiration for the setting!

Japanese Anime - Wed 3 September 2008

From 10:05 pm this Wednesday, 3 September 2008, SBS is screening Miyazaki Hayao’s anime Laputa: Castle in the Sky .

According to legend, humans were fascinated with the sky; therefore they created increasingly sophisticated ways of lifting aircraft from the ground. This eventually led to flying cities and fortresses. Over time, the cities came crashing back to the ground, forcing the survivors to live on the ground as before. One city, Laputa, is said to remain in the sky, concealed within the swirling clouds of a violent thunderstorm. While most people consider it to be fictional, some believe the legend is true and have sought to find the ancient city. Airships still remain in common use.

This is a film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, released in 1986. It is the first film created and released by Studio Ghibli, although is considered the second by some since Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was created by the founding members two years before. Laputa: Castle in the Sky won the Animage Anime Grand Prix in 1986.

Dubbed in English.