News

As we have mentioned throughout our tribute to the Art Theatre Guild, the filmmakers whose works it produced, had utter creative freedom, both artistically and contextually, something they took advantage of, in order to portray comments and issues that no one else was referring to. “Apart from Life”, based on the novel by Mitsuharu Inoue, is one of those titles, as it deals with the concept of inter-discrimination among the discriminated victims of the atomic bomb radiation. The film screened in Berlin where it was nominated for the Golden Bear.

The story is set on Sasebo in Kyushu, where a US naval base exists close to Nagasaki, and focuses on a series of individuals, whose lives interconnect. Dr Unami is a middle-aged doctor who, as the film begins, reminisces his years as a soldier, and the affair he had with a Korean-Japanese girl at the beginning of World War II,...

Following on from his crowning glory “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On”, Kazuo Hara travelled around Japan with another determined figure, but one facing an altogether different battle. Mitsuharu Inoue wasn’t as well-known a novelist around the world as some of his peers, but certainly had his admirers in Japan. Certainly charismatic, “A Dedicated Life” paints a portrait of a man living in a world of contradictions and inconsistencies, with his life itself his greatest work of art.

A Dedicatd Life is screening at Japan Society

Within the opening fifteen minutes, Hara shows a man of many talents: a showman, an extrovert, a flirt, a performer, a charismatic anecdotalist, a powerful talker and a man who can become intensely angry at the drop of a hat. A stereotypical struggling artist, Inoue lives with his wife in a modest house surrounded by books and regularly visited by learned friends and students.

Sennan Asbestos Disaster. Image courtesy of Shisso Productions.With Sennan Asbestos Disaster (2017), iconoclastic director Kazuo Hara makes a return ten years in progress, following his previous film The Many Faces of Chika (2005). At three hours and thirty-five minutes (usually screened with a short intermission), the film has many apparent differences from the past breathless titles for which he became known beginning in the early 1970s. Focused on a strong central protagonist pursuing a radical goal, these works depended on sustained conflict and collaboration between filmmaker and subject, defining a model of filmmaking he would theorize as “action documentary.” In distinction, this latest work is an ensemble piece assembled over a long period of time. Sennan Asbestos Disaster is focused on members of the Citizen Group for Sennan Asbestos Damage and their long legal battle that began with the filing of a lawsuit against the government in 2006 and went up to the Supreme Court.

Today it was announced that Hiroshi Abe will be starring in an upcoming movie directed by Isao Yukisada titled Tsuya no Yoru (literally “Tsuya’s Nights”), which is based on a novel of the same name by Naoki Prize-winning author Areno Inoue.

Inoue is the eldest daughter of the late controversial writer Mitsuharu Inoue, subject of Kazuo Hara’s 1994 documentary A Dedicated Life.

This will be the first time Abe has worked with Yukisada, who hasn’t directed a feature film since Parade in 2009.

He’ll play a man named Matsuo who is still in love with his wife Tsuya even though she’s repeatedly had affairs with other men. When Tsuya falls into a coma caused by cancer, Matsuo comes up with the idea to personally notify her past lovers. His subsequent confrontations inject a bit of chaos into their lives as their current lovers, wives, and family members...

Toymaker Jakks Pacific enters into a partnership with Japanese animation producer Dentsu to produce a new animated TV series and toy line based on Monsuno (52 episodes), a boy 6-11 targeted action property. Set to launch simultaneously in North America, Europe and Asia, Monsuno follows a group of adventures-seeking boys who find themselves in possession of re-awakened monster DNA. Jakks and Dentsu will develop Monsuno in conjunction with Dentsu's La-based subsidiary, Dci-la. Additionally, Mitsuharu Inoue (former producer of Bakugan battle Brawlers) will serve as creative director on the project.

http://enews.cynopsis.com/html.asp?XZY2495471UTF60...

Jakks Pacific has teamed with Japanese animation company Dentsu to create an anime television show and corresponding line of toys.

For Jakks, the third-largest toy company in the U.S., it marks the first foray into co-producing and owning its own entertainment property. Jakks is better known for toys based on proven characters licensed from such giants as Disney, Nickelodeon and Warner Bros.

Dentsu, best known as an advertising and marketing company, will develop the show, "Monsuno," at its Dci-Los Angeles subsidiary.

Jakks and Dentsu have tapped Mitsuharu Inoue to serve as creative director. Inoue produces "Bakugan Battle Brawlers," an anime series on Cartoon Network based on one of the most popular toy lines in North America.

The "Monsuno" TV show and toys are expected to launch simultaneously next year, though a tele¬vision broadcast partner hasn't yet signed.

"Monsuno" targets boys 6-11 and is an original property about a...