Unfortunately I could not make it to the opening night of Japan Cuts, July 2nd at the Japan Society in New York so I set my fishing net wide and large in search of detailed pieces about what's on the program of this Film Festival.
In Japan Cuts Above The Rest Peter Gutiérrez (Firefox News) picks some favorites such as United Red Army a docudrama on the leftist group, Dainipponjin which he describes as "a mockumentary about “Big Man Japan,” an ordinary guy who expands to Gojira proportions when gargantuan critters threaten to trample the skyline" (my illustration, below) and the closing night film Kisaragi, one of the best on offer in his view as a "fandom-set whodunit is that rarity in a movie mystery—the kind whose ample surprises never seem forced".
Martin Tsai (New York Observer) introduces his review Japan Cuts: Far Out in the Far East by asking:
"Do you ever wonder what the Japanese think of Hollywood's interpretations of "Speed Racer," "Transformers," or even "Memoirs of a Gesiha"? For those who want to experience that reverse lost-in-translation feeling firsthand, the second annual Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film, which begins today at Japan Society, offers a healthy swath of selections that will do the trick. What's more, the lineup is reflective of how the country's film industry is grappling with its global reach while struggling to defend its home turf"
As part of a broader New York Asian Film Festival overview The Brooklyn Rail adds to the list of must see Japan Cuts movies, Fine Totally Fine which "follows horror-obsessed slacker Teruo and the menagerie of square pegs that satellite around him. A gardener by day, Teruo spends his free time scaring his friends in clever ways and aspires to open a haunted house" and Adrift in Tokyo in which actor Joe Odagiri plays Takemura "a scruffy young law student with a serious amount of debt. Suddenly Fukuhara, a threatening debt collector, bursts into Takemura’s shabby apartment with a one day ultimatum: payment or intense pain. But the next day, calm, cool and collected Fukuhara shows a change of heart".
Hopefully this roundup for Tokyo Thursdays #45 will broaden your view of Japan Cuts.
The festival runs until July 13.
My previous piece: 'Japan Cuts', Not Sandwiches, New Japanese Films Festival, New York, July 2-13
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