coo new steamboy stuff for today, and this ones a 6-minute preview! 6 minutes of industrial steamboy goodness yo. that is all…

> steamboy preview (via anime nation)
> steamboy website

last post for the day. midnight eye has a long-winded (as they usually are) but praising review of the japanese movie casshern. the review summarizes the story rather well, which was up til now still rather obscure. the review also duly compares the movie to its original source, the straight-forward 70’s anime casshan: robot hunter, and points out that the connections between the two are rather shallow at best. this is however a good thing, as the director kazuaki kiriya has taken the simplistic good vs. evil plotline of the source and developed a dense and convoluted story of the inherent weaknesses of humanity…that also happens to look really swish. the production design in and of itself merits a look at the movie, so definitely check out casshern. the movie is both set to be released in the states and remade…potentially by kiriya himself.

> casshern review (via midnight eye)
> older casshern reviews
> casshern website

[ current selection | no doubt – its my life ]
[ feelin’ | sunny ]

hmm, i dont think the milk before bedtime is working anymore. i think i need to find something new to insure that im not waking up in the middle of the nite…grr. anyhoo, last nite was my first “official” outing to the nyaff, after fridays aborted plans to see hero. i met up with margie (who i havent seen in almost a year) in st. marks for some foodage at oh! taisho. we grabbed starbucks afterwards and then started making our way down to the anthology to sit in line for the korean flick please teach me english. eli and her friend…um…asian girl #2 (im terrible with names)…met up with us in line, and we all filed into the anthology. heres the quick rundown…clever, funny as shit, odd pacing, and the korean-american sister…holy shit she cant act. the movie however has a pig that understands english, which is always a big thumbs-up.

running on karma (bwahaha) is currently planned for sunday with another friend, and i have to see about planning for some other days before the nyaff ends on the 27th. planning hurts my brain.

> new york asian film festival

woo, new steamboy articles for today. its been a while since i last mentioned katsuhiro otomos steamboy, but two noteworthy items emerged today. the first is a new trailer on the steamboy website (alongside 2 other new ones i never mentioned…oops). the animation and styles looking cooler and cooler.

the second item worth mentioning is a new review that popped up on aicn. while the reviewer makes it a point to state that the story is nothing new (it in fact overtly resembles miyazakis laputa), they were still blown away by the movie…word. steamboy comes out in japan on july 17th…and hopefully on dvd shortly afterwards, so i can get my grubby hands on it.

> new steamboy trailers (via aicn)
> steamboy review (via aicn)
> steamboy website

argh…my brain is leaking out my nose. i think im dying. wheres my chicken noodle soup? since my brain isnt working to full capacity (lets say…half the cylinders are out of commission) i think ill take today to just highlight my new anime du jour (mois?)…azumanga daioh. this series features a staggering 130 episodes…that are um, 5 minutes each. hehe. lump some together, break it down, and i suppose you get 26 episodes. based off of kiyohiko azuma’s comic strip featured in the electric shock daio mangas, azumanga daioh follows the sometimes weird, sometimes asinine high school life of half a dozen girls, three of their teachers, a vicious cat, and a floating imaginary cat. right. amongst the myriad of characters, theres sakaki…the quiet athletic one whom girls look up to, tomo (the wildcat)…the hyper-competitive one who prefers “runner-up” to “loser”, ayumu…the brainless transfer from osaka who gets the nickname “osaka” just because shes from osaka, and chiyo…the 10-year old prodigy whom osaka is convinced has detachable pigtails.

azumanga is based off of a serial comic…more akin to western comics than manga (think 4-panels), so its something to see azumanga translated to an anime series. as such, an episode generally consists of 5 shorts that may or may not be related to each other. each ones like a little vignette, which could continue into the next vignette…so theres really no over-riding plot other than the fact that theyre going thru high school. azumanga actually kind of just cruises along, observing their everyday lives from their first day to graduation. the humor is never forced, and is instead drawn from simple and stupid circumstances…like watching two uncoordinated people attempt to practice volleyball (its rather sad), the brutal honesty of the pedophile classic lit teacher kimura when asked why he teaches (“because i like high school girls and stuff!“), and the trauma-inducing “yukari-mobile“. there are probably few animes out there that are even as remotely funny as azumanga, so def check it out. and dig the big floating orange cat.

> azumanga daioh official site
> azumanga daioh musical trailer

[ current selection | psykosonik – count to zero ]
[ feelin’ | bleh ]

todays first post is in honor of rockin’ asian cinema…because i feel like it. ok, and because the schedule for the 2004 new york asian film festival was just released over the weekend too. there are a few marquis movies on the lineup this year, such as zhang yimou’s hero and infernal affairs…both rockin’ movies, and other movies from asia including running on karma (bwahaha), the juon series, antenna, and please teach me english. last years lineup seemed a little more varied, but im hoping that there will be last-minute additions to the lineup. ive already got my tickets to hero (i knooo…but seeing it on the big screen is different from seeing it on dvd!) so everyones welcome to come along for the ride yo. or shit, suggest a movie that i wouldve otherwise passed by.

HERO
and speaking of zhang yimou’s hero, the movie is (finally) getting a north american theatrical release as well…and the new trailer was released just last week. apparently it took the likes of quentin tarentino to get the weinsteins off their fucking ass and release the movie (theyve held onto the movie for over a year now). the trailers actually nice, but i find it funny that they took some “artistic license” with certain scenes they use in the trailer. you would know what i meant if you had seen the movie and then listened to the trailer voice-over. also, the whole movies structure was based around the progressive revelations of each sides story as theyre told…truths peeled away as a new perspective was revealed. so the trailer basically whiffs it by laying out the whole story progression for you…albeit a little distorted. way to go. oh, and one final point that miffed me was the fact that only a single actor is mentioned in the trailer…jet li. i understand why, but they should still show respect and list daoming chen, maggie cheung, tony leung, zhang ziyi, and donnie “your ass is mine” yen. watch the trailer tho…its quite pretty.

HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
and on a final note, zhang yimou’s follow-up to hero, shi mian mai fu (ambushed from ten directions)…or house of flying daggers, was just acquired by sony pictures classics for distribution in north america. this is honestly a bit of a relief, because if miramax had gotten their hands on it, we wouldnt see it til 2010. sony pictures classics handled the north american distribution of crouching tiger, hidden dragon, and im sure theyll treat house of flying daggers with the level of respect that miramax lacked with their handling of hero, shaolin soccer, and shit…even legend of zu.

> 2004 new york asian film festival
> hero trailer
> house of flying daggers site

(more…)

first…a quick news bit. ign mentioned today a special matrix trilogy dvd set that will be coming out soon. and it has no less than…one, two, three…what comes after three? right, nine. its got nine dvds yo…three per movie, and features high-definition transfers, documentaries up the wazoo, and of particular note is the “extended” version of reloaded. sounds coo, but will probably cost a rooster, 2 goats, and a seasons worth of sorghum.

2046
and this movie news goes out to derrick. and um…i suppose other wong kar wai fans too. the guardian has the first review ive seen so far for wkw’s next movie 2046. a sort of “sequel” to his in the mood for love 2001 remix, 2046 is a hybrid sci-fi dream hidden within a romance/drama, where the writer chow (tony leung) hides away in the future settings of the novel he’s writing. the movie also stars zhang ziyi and wong faye and should be pretty trippy.

ADDENDUM
ny times has a nice article as well from cannes, or as a.o. scott refers to it…asia west. he describes not only the elusiveness of 2046, but also a myriad of other prevalent asian movies at the cannes film festival, including ghost in the shell: innocence, old boy (from the same director as sympathy), and zhang yimou’s house of flying daggers. the presence of asian cinema at cannes has been steadily rising in the past couple of years, and its coo to see it well presented this year by a diverse range of movies.

> matrix trilogy set (via ign)
> 2046 review at cannes (via google news)
> asian movies at cannes (via ny times)

[ current selection | shuntaro otino – cloud age symphony ]
[ feelin’ | groggy ]

ive been on a bit of an anime binge lately. its nearly summer time…im allowed to go otaku a little. having since been introduced to otaku den by fonz, ive gone and bought ghost in the shell: sac, abenobashi, and last exile. and since i started netflix in february, ive been catching up on all the anime series ive been meaning to watch. i finished up chobits last nite, haibane renmei and neo ranga before that, fish’s fooly cooly last weekend, and hellsing the weekend prior. fish is also lending me his gasaraki (finally), and ill probably be pushing azumanga daioh, yukikaze, and tokyo godfathers up on my netflix queue. wooha. as an aside, i also noticed the triplets of belleville on netflix last nite. shit, i guess i missed my chance to see it in the theaters.

THE INCREDIBLES
and on a side note, theres a coo new full trailer out for pixars next movie, the incredibles. its going to rock…thats all you need to know.

> the incredibles trailer (via aicn)

i also wanted to mention an interesting review (from a few weeks ago) of the new ghost in the shell: innocence on midnight eye. its not so much a review as it is an exposition on the philosophical preponderance of what real vs. artificial…a lengthy one at that. the review points out the japanese fascination with dolls and artificial mimics…the need to remake everything. purifying, in a sense, what it means to exist. the review even cites roland barthes for chrissakes…in a movie review. oshii’s innocence elaborates on these ideologies…where do realities lie if the natural can be replicated piece by piece? what boundaries exist between the real and the artificial? least to say, innocence seems to be a significant moment in anime, and the review is definitely worth reading for its philosphical musings.

> innocence review (via midnight eye)

the new trailer for m. night shyalamans movie the village is up, and the movies looking pretty creepy. whats particularly troubling however is moriartys take on the movie. since shyalamans first movie the sixth sense, hes been known to always have interesitng plot twists that make you go, “bugger!” according to moriarties early review of the screenplay however, viewers might be in for a major letdown. while only hinting at the twist and not giving away too much, he did state that the twist essentially invalidates the entire movie. in other words, the whole movies a farce, which is never a good thing because you dont want the twist to poo on the two hours you just spent getting to it. im hoping that my idea of what the twist could potentially be is wrong, because not only would it invalidate the movie, but it would also shit on the audience as well.

CASSHERN
and in happier news…two reviews for the japanese movie casshern were actually posted on aicn! the movie still has one of the slickest trailers ive seen in a long time…but theyre right in pointing out that too many times, asian trailers are usually much better than the movies theyre supposed to represent. *cough returner and azumi*. this time however, the movie apparently delivers (whew!). the reviews point out that the movie is a good balance of action and plot development…and theres some sick casshern vs. robot army action sequences to boot. the movies highly stylized and exquisitely crafted, thanks to its (first-time) director kazuaki kiriya, who began as a photographer and music video director, and also acts as the movies editor and director of photography. its worth noting that kazuaki kiriya also happens to be the husband of japanese-american jpop singer utada hikaru! i did not know…you learn something new everyday. im keeping my fingers crossed that casshern magically appears on the list of movies at the upcoming new york asian film festival.

ADDENDUM
and just as im thinking it, kfc reports that negotiations are already under way to both remake (feh) and release casshern (the original) in america. woo! kfc also mentions that kiriya kazuaki could direct the remake as well, which may make the remake more tolerable.

> the village trailer (via aicn)
> the village screenplay review (via aicn)
> casshern reviews (via aicn)
> casshern website
> casshern remake and us release (via kfc)