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August 30, 2004
NYT Brilliance
Wow. From New York Times: "G.O.P. Opposes Abortion and Gay Unions." Whoever comes up with these headlines sure has a knack for the obvious.
Posted by brianruh at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
August 26, 2004
What Other People Have Bought
I like keeping track of how my book is doing. I was looking at listings for the book on both Amazon.com and bn.com today and noticed an odd discrepancy between the two sites in terms of what customers who purchsed my book have also bought.
From Amazon:
- The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
- The Dorama Encyclopedia : A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953 by Jonathan Clements, Motoko Tamamuro
- The Anime Companion: What's Japanese in Japanese Animation by Gilles Poitras
- The Yakuza Movie Book : A Guide to Japanese Gangster Films by Mark Schilling
- Anime Explosion! The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation by Patrick Drazen
Okay, that list makes sense -- anime, classic science fiction, and Japanese film and television. However, I'm still trying to puzzle through this list from Barnes and Noble:
- The Metrosexual Guide to Style: A Handbook for the Modern Man by Michael Flocker
- Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market by Eric Schlosser
- The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz
- My Point...and I Do Have One by Ellen DeGeneres, Susan Rose (Illustrator)
- 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know by Russ Kick
Um. Okay. Sure, why not? Not that there's anything wrong with those books, but I'm just trying to see the thematic relation here.
Posted by brianruh at 12:49 PM | Comments (1)
A Good Interview was Had By All
Last night I got my interview with Oshii! So I'm happy today. I'm working on transcribing it right now. Look for an upcoming article in PopMatters.
Posted by brianruh at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2004
Oshii Interview Tomorrow
So now it looks like I'll get the chance to speak with Oshii briefly tomorrow evening. It'll only be for about 10 minutes, so I won't get to ask too many questions, but it's better than nothing.
Posted by brianruh at 09:07 PM | Comments (0)
Kinshachi Lupin Competition
In anticipation of the Japan Expo 2005, some groups are going out of their way to try to focus more attention on the Expo and Nagoya in general. Case in point is the Kinshachi Lupin Competition, in which prizes will be awarded for the best story of someone stealing the two golden dolphin-like shachihoko statues that sit atop Nagoya Castle.
The Asahi Shimbun as an article on this contest here. Although the article says the name Lupin in the contest refers to the fictional French thief, more immediate associations between Lupin and Japan are conjured up by the famous Lupin III manga and anime, originally created by Monkey Punch.
Posted by brianruh at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2004
Feeling Hopeful...
If everything goes well tomorrow I'll get a chance to interview Japanese director Mamoru Oshii via phone. If things don't go well, I'll be inconsolable for a (hopefully short) period of time.
(This is because this would be the second interview with Oshii that has fallen through. At least I didn't fly all the way to Tokyo like last time, though.)
Posted by brianruh at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)
August 21, 2004
Memoirs of a Geisha Cast
The cast list for the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Geisha has just been announced, and I must say I am impressed. The film will feature Ken Watanabe (whose role was the highlight of The Last Samurai), Zhang Ziyi, Michelle Yeoh, and Youki Kudoh (whose name was not immediately familiar to me, but who apparently did the voice of Saya in Blood the Last Vampire).
I wasn't terribly enthusiastic when I first heard that Memoirs was going to be made into a film by the same guy who directed Chicago, but this cast might be enough to get me to change my mind.
Posted by brianruh at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2004
More Sugar, Baby!
I'm not a big horror fan. I'll admit that I've never seen a Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th film all the way through. I've just never had the inclination to do so. But there is an odd place in my heart for the Evil Dead films. (Rather, I love the third film in the trilogy, Army of Darkness, which really isn't a horror film.)
Although it's still being worked on right now, it looks like there might be a new film starring Ash (hero of the Evil Dead films, killer of the undead, and spouter of priceless dialogue) in which he gets to beat up on Freddy and Jason. And that's just too cool for words. So I'll stop here.
Posted by brianruh at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)
August 12, 2004
Anime's Success
It's interesting to contrast articles like this on the success of anime with other articles that are more pessimistic. (The latter article focuses on the toils the average Japanese animator must endure and laments the farming out of animation overseas.)
The wording in the first article can be rather vague, but it makes it sound like Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) will be providing economic support to the comics/animation industries. The article says "the ministry intends to support human resource development, research and development of new technologies, and the industry's overseas operations."
This isn't the first time I've heard such sentiments expressed and it brings up a question I've been wondering for a little while now -- by supporting anime, are we in some way toeing the Japanese government's official economic/cultural line?
Posted by brianruh at 12:15 AM | Comments (1)
August 11, 2004
Oshii's Newest Work?
According to the IMDB entry on Oshii, his next project is going to be a segment of the Cohen brother directed Paris, je t'aime. Other contributers look to include Jean-Luc Godard and Michel Gondry.
Posted by brianruh at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2004
Why Does it Always Rain on Oshii?
I just came across this video that analyzes some of the visual themes present in Oshii's films to the tune of Travis's "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?"
Posted by brianruh at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
So This is Why They Keep Making Those Films
File under: If only It Had Occurred in a Couple Months, It Could Have Been A Promo For the New Godzilla Movie. ("4 Workers Killed in Accident at Japan Nuclear Power Plant." The article calls it "the worst-ever accident at Japanese nuclear power plant.")
Posted by brianruh at 07:32 AM | Comments (0)
August 06, 2004
Code 46
I'm a sucker for films featuring near-future techno-Orientalist dystopias. That's why I'm really looking forward to Michael Winterbottom's Code 46. The film opens today, but not anywhere near my part of the country so it looks like I'll have to be a bit more patient.
Posted by brianruh at 09:03 AM | Comments (1)
August 02, 2004
Koizumi and F 9/11
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi criticizes Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 for being politically biased.
What? Mike is "politically biased"? I never would have guessed. And I just love it when prominent figures make the news for criticizing something they haven't even seen. (At Cannes this year Jean-Luc Godard received press when he said he didn't like F 9/11 even though he had yet to see the film.)
Posted by brianruh at 03:26 PM | Comments (2)
More Respect for Oshii
An entry on Japanese director Mamoru Oshii, about whom I wrote my first book, has recently been added to the Senses of Cinema great directors database.
Posted by brianruh at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
August 01, 2004
Real-life Japanese Superheroes
In something that reminds me of Takashi Miike's film Zebraman, The Daily Yomiuri is reporting on people in Japan who are dressing up like superheroes to bring attention to volunteer campaigns.
Posted by brianruh at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
Weekend Reading
Here's some good related reading for your Sunday enjoyment (some of which was culled from GreenCine Daily):
- Time's Richard Corliss trying to answer the question: "What's Hollywood doing knocking off Japanese horror films?"
- In the New York Press, more on Japanese horror but first up on the page a review of Takashi Miike's new film Gozu.
- An interview with Miike from indieWIRE.
- Also in indieWIRE, a brief rundown of the films screening in this year's Venice International Film Festival. The Japanese films this year are Café Lumière (dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien), Shijie (a Chinese co-production, dir. Jia Zhangke), Howl's Moving Castle (dir. Hayao Miyazaki), Steamboy (out of competition, dir. Katsuhiro Otomo), Izo (Venezia Orizzonti Section, dir. Takashi Miike), and Vital (Venezia Orizzonti Section, dir. Shinya Tsukamoto).
- From the Village Voice, more on Miike's Gozu and Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on: The Grudge.
- Fangoria has an interesting roundtable discussion with Miike, Guillermo del Toro, and Eli Roth. While you're there you can check out this brief news blurb from Takashi Shimizu as well as news that original Ring director Hideo Nakata will be directing a remake of a 1983 film called The Entity.
And if you're tired of all the movie links, check out the article in Time by Alex Kerr (author of Lost Japan and Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Modern Japan) on his home in the Iya Valley of Shikoku.
Posted by brianruh at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)