Famed Japanese action/horror director Takashi Miike, of films such as Full Metal Yakuza, Audition, and Ichi the Killer, has finished his latest movie entitled Sukiyaki Western: Django. A western set a few hundred years after the Gempei War (1180-1185), this film seems to explore a skirmish between the still-battling Heike and Genji clans in the backwater town of Yuta. The interesting thing about the movie is that while all (with exception of one or two Americans, including famed American director/actor Quentin Tarantino) the actors in the movie are Japanese, it is done entirely in English. Miike apparently claimed that, among other reasons, he aims to show the world that the Japanese can make their own movie in English that doesn't "lose" to Memoirs of a Geisha (an American-made movie about Japan with hardly any Japanese actors and done entirely in English). It opens world-wide in September and I am excited to see what Miike can do with the western genre! If you're interested, check out the official site, where there is a trailer for the movie.
In other, older, Japan movie news: remember Team America, how it was a cute idea for them to make a movie with all puppets and stuff, (opinion alert!) but it just wasn't funny and generally boring? Well, director Hideaki Anno has decided to take it to the next level and make a REAL movie with stunning visuals and intricate plot, using entirely marionettes. Strings opened here a month or so ago, and the critics have been treating it well, and it's another one I'd like to see but probably won't get the chance to (plus movies here are absurdly expensive). Click here to check out the trailer (you'll need Windows Media Player).
1 comment:
right, so, i finally have reliable internet access, and i must start from the beginning. onward.
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