Please check out the Uchida Tomu Retrospective at the Cinematheque Ontario(Oct 26-Nov14). Not to be missed are A Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji (1955, Nov 14, 7:30pm), Policeman (1933, Nov 12, 7;30pm silent with piano accompaniment) and the scope print of A Fujitive from the Past (1964, Oct 28, 3pm).
http://www.cinemathequeontario.ca/programme.aspx?programmeId=153
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (November 14-18)
is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from the
Asian diaspora. Works include films and videos by East and Southeast
Asian artist in Canada, the U.S., Asia and all over the world. Reel
Asian has been named Toronto’s Best Small Festival by NOW Magazine:
“(Reel Asian) strikes the best balance between cutting edge and
community. Strong programming and deep roots attract a
super-hyphenated tribe.”
The festival fosters the exchange of cultural and artistic ideals
between east and west, provides a public forum for homegrown Asian
media artists and their work, and fuels the growing appreciation for
Asian cinema in Canada.
http://www.reelasian.com
Greetings, fellow Japanese film students,
I was just sort of thinking about how we were watching Kurosawa last week, when a thought donned on me, that I wanted to bringt up. I thought I’d posted it already, but evidently I was wrong, so, here it is.
Over the last few years, the Japanese animation studio, Gonzo(no relation to the Muppet), has been producing anime versions of stories that have come to be considered classics. I’m not sure how many in total, but these are the three I know of: The Count of Monte Cristo; William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet; and Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The anime themselves are known as Gankutsuo: The Count of Monte Cristo, RomeoXJuliet, and Samurai 7, respectively.
This animation of classic stories, both of Japanese and Western culture, is rather interesting: is it a sign of a lack of originality, in coming up with stories? Possibly, but given how drastically they reinvent the worlds the stories occur in (ie. Samurai 7 is set in a sort of post-Apocalyptic future, where the bandits pilot giant robots), I don’t really think so. I think it’s more of an effort to raise awareness of the public of these classics—Eastern AND Western—by making them more appealing to a modern audience. Is this a good thing, though?
There’s more: this is not the first time that Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai has been reworked. Back in the ’60s, Hollywood produced a Western about seven cowboys, brought to a small Mexican village to fend off a gang of banditos. It was called The Magnificent Seven, starring Steve McQueen. So I’ve got to ask, what do people think this says about Kurosawa’s story of the seven samurai? That it’s a classic can be applied to all sorts of settings and cultures, with a little reworking? Or that it’s one of the lowest forms of reproducible film-types imaginable?
Just some food for thought. I’ll see you all in class!
Gregory Cruikshank
Hi everybody, Mackenzie here. I just have a small announcement to make. Since our class is about Japanese Cinema and we talk about Japanese culture, I thought that everyone might want to know that on Friday October 26th there will be a presentation and question period with the coordinator of the JET (Japanese Exchange and Teaching) program. For those of you who may not know, the Japanese embassy in Canada has run this program since 1988 and it is a program whereby Canadian citizens who wish to can apply to teach English in Japan for one year, after graduating with a BA. You do not need to have a degree in English or any previous knowledge of the Japanese language to apply. There are different types of positions available and more information is available at their Canadian Homepage located here: <http://www.ca.emb-japan.go.jp/ExchangeProgram/jetweb/index.html>.
For those who are interested this presentation/question period with the coordinator will be held at 10:30 AM Friday October 26, 2007 at Glendon College in York Hall room B213 and it will be 1.5 hours. I have been told that there will probably be another presentation at the Keele Campus but no date has been set yet. If you live at the Keele Campus, you can take the Glendon-Keele shuttle bus free of charge if there is room at any of the times listed on the parking services website for York University. For those of you who live off-campus and wish to attend, Glendon is located at the intersection of Bayview Avenue & Lawrence Avenue. If taking the TTC, probably the easiest way to get here is to take the Subway to Lawrence Station and take the 124 Bus and get off at either the Toronto French School or Bayview Avenue and then just walk right on in.
If I have any more information on this, I will post it and if you have any questions you can email me at macsalt@yorku.ca. Also if you could let me know if you plan on attending, that would be great.
Cheers,
Mackenzie Salt
Hi everyone,
I want to post a quick reminder to everyone that at 6:30 P.M. on Monday 15 October the Ciné Club will be screening Hiroshima mon amour by director Alain Resnais in the SMIL screening room.
It may be interesting to see how a French new wave director such as Resnais represents Japan and Hiroshima. It would also be intriguing to see how the footage taken of Hiroshima after the bombing is used inside a narrative (albeit somewhat surrealist) text rather than documentary. Although not a Japanese film, I believe that we could easily fit this within the context of what we have been studying.
You can view a trailer for the film here (I apologise, there are no English subtitles on the trailer).
Update: The screening has been held over until next week. Due to low turnout we chose to postpone the screening of Hiroshima mon amour until the 22 of October. Hope to see some of you there!
For anyone interested in Japanese film stills, I found a website here:
http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=film_stills&keyword=–Foreign+Films:+Japan&filter=all
If you click on the main page, there might be some other Japanese movies posted, depending: http://community.livejournal.com/film_stills/
One of the most disturbing film stills I have seen come from Tetsuo The Iron Man (I couldn’t even finish this movie). Images for this can be found here: http://community.livejournal.com/film_stills/483897.html
Erin
On Friday, Oct.5th, a team of cultural critics, art historians, and film scholars will be visiting York University. They will be lecturing on the new New Wave of Chinese Cinema, on the philosophy in Chinese scroll painting, and on teaching Fine Arts in China.
York International and York Fine Arts will be hosting three guests from the School of Arts at Peking University.
ASPECTS OF THE ARTS IN CHINA: THE INSIDER’S EYE
Friday October 5 2007
9:30-11:00 ACCOLADE EAST 004
Dr. Peng Jixiang, Associate Dean, School of Arts, Peking University
“EMBRACING THE FOURTH SIGNIFICANT WAVE OF CHINESE CINEMA”
11:30-1:00 GCFA 312
Dr. Ding Ning, Associate Dean, School of Arts, Peking University
“JOURNEY THROUGH CHINESE ART: LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY IN SCROLL PAINTING”
2:30-4:00 GCFA 214 (Faculty Lounge)
Dr. Ye Lang, Dean, School of Arts, Peking University
“THE TRADITION OF TEACHING THE FINE ARTS IN PEKING UNIVERSITY”
Isolde Standish, Genres and Gender (Jsaon P, Logan C)
“Cinema/Movement: The Interaction between Artistic and Social Praxis in Japanese Filmmaking of the 1960s and 1970s.”
–Roland Domenig, The Anticipation of Freedom: Art Theatre Guild and Japanese Independent Cinema (midnight eye) (Natasha R., Alex T)
–Hirasawa Go, Underground Cinema and the Art Theatre Guild (Jessie S)
–Donald Richie, Japanese Experimental Film, 1960-1980 (Jaime A)