ACF 802: Shojo manga KAMISAMA KISS available from VIZ December 7th

Kamisama Hajimemashita © Julietta Suzuki 2008/HAKUSENSHA, Inc.

VIZ MEDIA RELEASES DIVINE ROMANTIC COMEDY KAMISAMA KISS

A Kiss On The Forehead Is A Girl’s Ticket To A New Home
And An Unexpected Life As A Deity

VIZ Media will release the shojo manga (graphic novels for female readers) romantic comedy, KAMISAMA KISS, tomorrow, Tuesday, December 7th. The new series, created by Julietta Suzuki, will be published under the company’s Shojo Beat imprint, is rated ‘T’ for Teens, and will carry an MSRP of $9.99 U.S. / $12.99 CAN.

Nanami Momozono is alone and homeless after her dad skips town to evade his gambling debts and the debt collectors kick her out of her apartment. So when a mysterious man she's just saved from a dog attack offers her his home, she jumps at the opportunity. But it turns out that his place is a shrine, and Nanami has unwittingly taken over his job as a local deity!

“Plenty of surprises are in store for Nanami as she adjusts to life at the shrine, taking on new responsibilities and facing a whole range of hidden dangers that she doesn’t fully understand yet,” says Pancha Diaz, Editor. “A kiss on the forehead might have bestowed the land-god mark on Nanami, but she will have a lot to learn as she faces a bratty sky god, a mysterious swamp deity, and a strange, cute boy who might have supernatural powers of his own!”

Julietta Suzuki's debut manga The Day One Becomes A Star appeared in Hana to Yume Plus magazine in 2004. Her other published works include The Devil And Sweets, Karakuri Odette, and Kamisama Kiss, which is currently featured in Hana to Yume.

For more information on KAMISAMA KISS, or other shojo titles from VIZ Media, visit www.ShojoBeat.com.

ACF 801: Korean Architecture and Design Exhibition & Reception @ The Korea Society

Image Credit: Harvard GSD Seminar Participants

Architecture and Design in Korea
Cross-Disciplinary Exhibition
December 7, 2010 - February 10, 2011

Opening Reception and Panel Diescussion
When: Tuesday, December 7, 2010 from 6-9 PM
Where: The Korea Society, 950 Third Ave @ 57th Street, 8th Floor, NYC
Building entrance is on 57th Street,
South-West corner of the intersection
RSVP

The Korea Society, in cooperation with the architectural firm Single speed Design (SsD), the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and The Architectural League of New York, presents Convergent Flux: Korea, the first cross-disciplinary exhibition of Korean architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning and design mounted in New York City.

This exhibition examines the built environment and continuously emerging and hybridized conditions that have accompanied Korea’s rapid growth. The program extends The Korea Society’s recent Design Currents lecture series, as well as a Harvard Graduate School of Design lecture series and exhibition.

For more information at The Korea Society website, click here.

ACF 800: Free screening of Age Of Assassins at Asia Society this afternoon

Age of Assassins
Directed by Kihachi Okamoto
Japan, 1967, 99 minutes
When: Sunday December 5th, 2010 at 3:00
Where: Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), NYC
Japanese with English subtitles

Japanese Cinema 1960s, the series of five films jointly presented by Asia Society and Japan Foundation, will continue this afternoon with another free screening of a terrific movie from that decade of memorable cinema.

A creepy "mad scientist" who directs an insane asylum trains mental patients to become assassins. One of the targets, a vision-impaired nerd-turned-suave secret agent played by Tatsuya Nakadai, called "Japan’s most distinguished living actor," (Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times) is able to dodge all attempts on his life. This wacky, farcical chase comedy takes you on a wild ride through a surrealist landscape and a narrative filled with twists and turns. (Film also known as Epoch of Murder Madness.) (Toho Co., Ltd.)

"Dashing and angelically handsome, Tatsuya Nakadai is a screen idol to rival Toshiro Mifune."—David Fear, Time Out New York

"[a] sharp-edged lampoon that ... compares favorably with such other brilliant, tongue-in-cheek, mod sixties masterpieces as Elio Petri’s The Tenth Victim and Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill."—Chris Desjardins, Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film

Get Free Tickets/Watch Trailer

ACF 798: The Warrior's Way opens nationwide today! Catch the action!

Jang Don Gun

Kate Bosworth

Geoffrey Rush

Danny Huston

For my earlier post with an exciting clip from the movie, click here.

For my earlier post with information about the new iPhone application, click here.

And for my first post about this release, which includes a description of the film and a link to the iTunes trailer, click here.

ACF 797: Reminder - FREE screening of Naruse's YEARNING tonight in NY

Yearning /Madareru
Directed by Mikio Naruse
Japan, 1964, 100min, 35mm, B&W.
Where: Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), NYC
When: Friday, December 3, 2010, 6:45 PM
Japanese with English subtitles

Just a brief reminder that Japanese Cinema 1960s, the series of five free screenings jointly presented by Asia Society and Japan Foundation, continues this evening with this work by Naruse, one of Japan's finest film directors.

Reiko Morita (Hideko Takamine) stars as a widow whose husband died during World War II. She keeps her late husband’s family small store afloat against supermarket competition and the meddling of her in-laws, just as she keeps his memory and her love for him alive in her heart. Koji Morita (Yuzo Kayama) is her younger brother-in-law and has "special" feelings for her.

It's remarkable how the post-war economic changes in Japan as depicted here reflect many similar recent developments in the United States. Small stores, such as "mom & pop" video stores and independent bookstores, have largely disappeared due to competition from larger enterprises such as Blockbuster and Barnes & Noble, which in turn are being threatened from online ventures such as Netflix and Amazon.com.

The movie itself is perhaps a bit "talkie," but not troublesomely so. Although lacking his vibrant technicolor and being set in Japan, for me the film had a Douglas Sirk-like melodramatic quality. And I in no way mean this in a derogatory way. I enjoyed those films of Sirk I've watched on Criterion DVDs (such as All That Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind) , and very much enjoyed Yearning.

ACF Rating: 3 out of 4 stars, solidly recommended. And since it's being shown for free, you can't go wrong.