ACF 311: Detroit Motor City

VIZ UNLEASHES THE WILDEST, SHOCKINGLY FUNNY MANGA FOR THE NOT SO FAINT OF HEART, DETROIT METAL CITY

Johannes Krauser II Is The Outrageous Demonic Front Man
Of The Heaviest Death Metal Band In Japan
But Off Stage He’s A Pop Music-Listening Wimp –
Can He Ever Reconcile His Two Personas?

Rock & Roll and manga fans nationwide should be delighted with the debut of DETROIT METAL CITY on June 9th from VIZ. The new manga series is rated ‘M’ for Mature Audiences and carries an MSRP of $12.99 U.S. / $15.00 CAN. The first print run of volume one also contains limited edition tattoos. Read on for more info from VIZ.

Prepare to have your mortal soul devoured by the demonic Johannes Krauser II, front man for Detroit Metal City, the most outrageous death metal band on the Japanese indie rock scene! Soichi Negishi dreamed of moving to Tokyo and starting a bubblegum pop band, but now he’s fronting the most scandalous and demented death metal band in Japanese rock! Deep down, Soichi still dreams of acoustic guitars and trips to Paris, but when the makeup comes on and he transforms into his alter ego, Krauser II, not even the denizens of hell are safe from his soul-devouring death metal sound. Can Soichi reconcile his sensitive inner yearnings with his wild on-stage persona – the vilest hard rocker in Japanese (and possibly world) history?

DETROIT METAL CITY takes the zany rock antics inspired by films like Spinal Tap to hilarious new extremes in this witty series created by Kiminori Wakasugi. First appearing in the pages of Japan’s Young Animal manga magazine, the manga quickly became a national sensation. The series has already sold more than 2 million copies in Japan. The DETROIT METAL CITY animated counterpart has also gained a major following across North America. A live action version of the film was recently released in Japan featuring cameos by Gene Simmons (KISS) and Marty Friedman (Megadeth).

“The hilarious on- and off-stage antics of Soichi Negishi and his swaggering alter ego Johannes Krauser II promises to make DETROIT METAL CITY the most over-the-top, profane, and funniest hard rock manga satire to ever hit North American shores.” says Gonzalo Ferreyra, Vice President Sales & Marketing for VIZ Media. “We look forward to it resonating not only with manga readers but also with music fans who will relish this eccentric heavy metal adventure.”

ACF 310: Oscar winner 'Departures' opens at 3 NY theaters and elsewhere tomorrow

Departures / Okuribito

Directed by Yojiro Takita
Starring Masaniro Motoki, Ryoko Hirosue,
and Tsutomu Yamazaki
Japan, 2007, 130 min.

This film surprised many when it won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars. With its theatrical release tomorrow, May 29th, 2009 in New York and other cities, general audiences will have the chance to see it and understand why it deserved this and the numerous other awards it has won.

The story is about Daigo Kobayashi (Masamiro Motoki), who loses his job as a cellist when his orchestra is dissolved. His wife Mika (Ryoko Hirosue) agrees to moving from Tokyo back to Yamagata, his home town, where they can live in a building his deceased mother left to him.

Daigo answers an employment ad that he thinks pertains to a job in the travel industry because it features the word "departures." He's shocked to find out from his would-be employer Mr. Sasaki (Tsumotomu Yamazaki) that the ad had a misprint and that the job is learning how to assist in "encoffination" of deceased persons. This is the ritualistic preparation of the body for cremation.

Director Takita has done a marvelous job of injecting enough humor in the story to keep it from being morbid even though death is such a prominent element in the narrative. At the same time, the humor is sufficiently restrained so that the film does not devolve into farce.

And the entire cast is marvelous.

For some reason I neglected to include a rating in my initial review on May 5th, but have no doubt about it, Departures gets 4 out of 4 stars and my highest recommendation. It's beautiful, warm and touching, an outstanding example of great world cinema.

Check local listings for locations or visit the film's website at www.departures-themovie.com for the release schdule and other info.

Read Mike Hale's recent NY Times article about Director Takita-san here.

ACF 309: Four more films announced for 8th annual NY Asian Film Festival!!!

The 8th annual New York Asian Film Festival will be upon us in just over three weeks!!!

And those wonderful, hard-workin' folks at Subway Cinema have just announced the addition of four more titles.

For the skinny on them , click here.

ACF 308: 'The Flower Girl' At The Korea Society Thursday, May 28th, 2009

The Flower Girl
Directed by Choi Ik–kyu and Pak Hak
Starring Hong Yong–hee, Pak Hwa-son, Kim Ryong-rin and Ryu Hu-nam
North Korea, 1972, 120 minutes

The Korea Society's second Films from the North series concludes this Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 6: 30 PM with this film adapted from an anti-imperialist opera from the 1930s.

The Flower Girl is a tragic story of a family cruelly exploited by the Japanese colonial authorities and a clarion call for the Korean people to fight for the socialist revolution. The film was so popular when it was released domestically that Hong Yong–hee's picture was printed on North Korean currency.

The film will be shown at The Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York City. The building entrance is on the southwest corner of 57th Street and Third Avenue.

More info or purchasing tickets online available here.

ACF 307: 'The Sky Crawlers' DVDs from Sony due out this Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Sky Crawlers / Sukai kurora

Directed by Mamoru Oshii
Japan, 2008, animated, 121 min.

The Sky Crawlers, from master director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell), is scheduled to be released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on both Blu-ray High-Def and DVD this Tuesday.

Since I wrote fairly extensively about the film in my original review, I'll just provide a brief synopsis here and focus more on the DVD package.

Yuichi Kannami arrives at his new assignment

In an alternate reality, war as we know it has been replaced by corporate-sponsored combat between rival air forces. The pilots are known as Kildren, adolescent youths who never age and who seem to exist only to engage in combat.

The story's central character is Yuichi and we meet him as he is assigned to a new base and plane. The base commander is Suito, another Kildren, and a rather strange, intimate relationship develops between the two of them. Yuichi also develops another relationship with Fooco, a prostitute and a normal human. She and one of her co-workers are kind of fighter pilot groupies.

Base Commander Suito (l) and pilot Yuichi

There are a number of mysteries played out over the course of the film. What happened to Jinroh Kurita, the pilot whose plane Yuichi is assigned? And why is there so often a sense of deja vu while at the same time actual memories tend to be very limited? These make the film quite intriguing.

Fooco and Yuichi

But for me the biggest draw of the film are the aerial scenes, particularly the dogfights. The animation is a combination of 2-D (the characters and backgrounds) and 3-D (the airplanes). So the non-flight scenes are largely standard animation, while the flight scenes are nearly photo-realistic.

And let me tell you, the aerial scenes are totally awesome! I felt like I was watching actual combat footage. A truly incredible achievement by Oshii and his team.

There are two special features on the discs of both formats and an extra one on the Blu-ray version. (See disc info below for specifics.) Not having a Blu-ray player yet, my screener was the standard DVD. The research featurette is devoted to location scouting, primarily in Europe including a Polish airfield. Though it did not really drag, I personally felt that it could've been trimmed a little bit.

The other featurette is concerned mainly with sound effects, music and the dubbing of the Japanese language version of the film. (The disc also has a very good English language version that adds to the replay value of an already great film.)

The only real fault I found with the extras was that people are not identified. I'd never seen Oshii before, and it was easy to quickly figure out who he was. I also recognized Rinko Kikuchi (Babel), who provides the voice for Commander Suito Kusanagi and Chiaki Kuriyama (Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Exte: Hair Extensions), who voiced another character. For me, it would've been nice if all the principal individuals had been ID'd. On the other hand, I will acknowledge that since both featurettes are subtitled, doing so might've run the risk of visual overload.

The bottom line is that The Sky Crawlers is a fantastic film that will delight devoted fans of anime and newcomers alike. The transfer, even on standard DVD, is first-rate and drop-dead gorgeous. I've seen the film three times: last fall in a theater and recently twice on DVD (both the Japanese and English language versions). It totally holds up for repeat viewings.

Check it out for yourself by watching the Blu-ray & DVD trailer here. And keep your eyes peeled for the quote from my original review of the film. It appears roughly 1/3rd of the way through the trailer.

The Sky Crawlers

Rated: PG-13 for material involving violence, some sexual content and smoking

DVD Catalog #: 30748

DVD UPC Code: 043396307483

DVD SLP: $27.96

Blu-ray Catalog #: 30752

Blu-ray UPC Code: 043396307520

Blu-ray SLP: $39.95

Running Time: 121

BLU-RAY DISC & DVD SPECIAL FEATURES

· "Animation Research for The Sky Crawlers" Featurette

· "The Sound Design and Animation of The Sky Crawlers" Featurette

BLU-RAY DISC EXCLUSIVE

· "Sky's the Limit: An Interview with Director Mamoru Oshii" Featurette