Review Japanese Films at Leeds International Film Festival
Matthew Durrant looks over some of the biggest Japanese releases which came to Leeds
Review: Japanese Films at Leeds International Film Festival
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Since the international success of films like celebrated horror Ring and Hayao Mizayaki’s Spirited Away, Japan has come to the fore of world cinema as a maker of edgy, exciting live-action and animated films. This year’s Leeds International Film Festival was host to ten of Japan’s biggest releases of 2009 and 2010.
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009) is the second film in director Hideaki Anno’s four-film remake of his immensely popular 1995 anime TV series ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’. Continuing the saga, the film sees a handful of teenage pilots essentially forced to pilot enormous, freakishly-built robots called Evas to protect Tokyo-3 from a succession of mysterious attackers called Angels. The first film was almost a shot-for-shot remake of the TV series with better animation, but the sequel – perhaps wisely – departs from its TV roots with big changes to the story and a more subtle approach to the occasionally heavy-handed religious symbolism that was a hallmark of the original.
Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010) from superstar director Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) is the sequel to his 2004 film Zebraman. A surreal superhero parody and tribute to corny 70s sci-fi serials, Zebraman 2 features Sho Aikawa as mild-mannered ex-teacher Shinichi Ichikawa by day and clueless crimefighter Zebraman by night, who finds battling the forces of the sultry Zebra Queen, a Lady Gaga-esque pop star who rules a future dystopian Tokyo with an iron fist. Miike, no stranger to social commentary, explores contemporary issues of young Japanese avoiding adult responsibility and the power of modern media and celebrity politics, and proves he hasn’t lost the edge that made him a star.
Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (2010) is the brand-new opening chapter of a long-awaited cyberpunk trilogy from first-time director Susumu Kodo, based on an award-winning series of sci-fi novels by up-and-coming novelist Tow Ubukata. With a nod to the visual flair and neon futurism of early anime classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, Mardock Scramble takes us into the murky depths of Mardock City, where murdered teenager Rune Balot is resurrected as a powerful cyborg and equipped with a shape-shifting mouse called Eufcoque to track down her murderer, callous playboy Shell Septinos. The story may sound a tad hackneyed, but the film – as with its 80s and 90s cyberpunk influences – succeeds in digging deep into the darkest recess of the human psyche. Balot might be a hyper-powered action heroine, but she’s also barely more than a terrified child lost in the sinister dystopia sketched by Ubukata.
One Piece: Strong World (2009) is the tenth film in the long-running anime series based on the pirate manga One Piece. The story is enjoyable and the fight scenes spectacular, but there’s a definite sense of going through the motions for this tenth instalment. Still, as a stand-alone story, Strong World does a decent job of introducing newcomers to the fantasy piratepunk world of young Monkey D. Luffy, and his motley crew of strongly-characterised heroes are fun to watch as they find themselves battling monsters across a strange island after being scattered by legendary pirate Shiki.
Sweet Little Lies (2009) is a classic Japanese love story of powerful emotion concealed deep behind a calm exterior, the tale of Ruriko and her husband Satoshi who find their three-year old marriage starting to pull apart, caught living out the daily grind in their empty apartment with little interest in each other. Inevitably, both start to find solace in other people – Satoshi with old acquaintance Miura, Ruriko with kind-natured stranger Haruo – and they find themselves living a secret life of passion as their marriage drifts apart. It’s a complex film, challenging the viewer to take sides and choose between passion or commitment, and director Hitoshi Yazaki – returning from a four-year absence after 2006’s acclaimed Strawberry Shortcakes – provides no easy answers in the end.
Posted on Thursday 2nd December 2010
Leeds International Film Festival
Leeds Film, Town Hall, The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 3AD
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