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Director: Zeze Takahisa. Review: Adam Wing. Outbreak gets a Japanese makeover in Zeze Takahisa’s crisis drama, in which a deadly virus is the key to mankind’s annihilation, infecting millions of people and threatening to destroy the lives of many more. Tsumabuki Satoshi (Dororo) stars as a young doctor who finds himself centre stage in a fight against a highly contagious illness that begins with flu-like symptoms and ends in death. Dan Rei (Love and Honour) plays a World Health Organization officer, not to mention token love interest, who joins him in the race against time to find a cure. They used to be lovers but personal ambition drove them apart, and now they must work together in order to survive the relentless chaos that threatens to consume them. Directed by Zeze Takahisa (Flying Rabbits), Pandemic spreads fear through the heart of an impressive supporting cast including the likes...

“Pandemic” sees Japanese cinema again taking on the time honoured disaster movie formula, this time with the tale of a deadly virus threatening the country as various stars try to save themselves and their loved ones. Very much in the style of the 1995 Hollywood outing “Outbreak”, the film was directed by Zeze Takahisa, (best known for the offbeat vampire effort “Moon Child”), with actor Tsumabuki Satoshi (“Dororo”) and actress Dan Rei (“Love and Honor”) in the lead roles, and a supporting ensemble cast including Sato Koichi (“The Magic Hour”), Ikewaki Chizuru (“Strawberry Shortcakes”), Fuji Tatsuya (“Flavor of Happiness”), Kuninaka Ryoko (“Train Man”), and Mitsuishi Ken. Arriving shortly on region 2 DVD via Mvm, the film was originally released domestically back in 2009, at a time when global virus scares were still very much making headline news, and given recent events in Japan, its scenes of eerily empty cities and destruction still ring sadly true.

The award winners for the 2008 edition of the New York Asian Film Festival have been announced and, with a drum roll please, here they are:

This year the New York Asian Film Festival gave two sets of awards this year. One was the Audience Award that we give every year, selected by the audience, then, for the first time ever, we had a jury who gave out five awards, including a Grand Prize.

The winners of the jury awards for the New York Asian Film Festival 2008 are:

- Winner - New York Asian Film Festival Grand Prize

Sad Vacation directed by Shinji Aoyama

- Honorable Mention and Best Ensemble Cast

Sparrow

Strawberry Shortcakes

- Best Visual Achievement

Lee Myung-Se for M

Joko Anwar for Kala

- Outstanding Achievement

Koji Wakamatsu for United Red Army

- Best Debut Feature

Ryo Nakajima for This World Of Ours

For the Audience Award we...

• Asian cinema fans rejoice, the New York Asian Film Festival is back with a vengeance! Every summer since 2002 Grady Hendrix and the fine folks over at Subway Cinema roll out a collection of some 30 films representing the best Asia has to offer. Now in its 7th year, the Nyaff has established itself as one of the very best Asian film fests going anywhere, with a cross-section of art-house, big budget, and plain weird pictures abound.This year’s fest promises to be the largest in its short history with 43 films screening along with two programs of short films out of South Korea. They’ve also scored some big time guests to present their latest works including Myung-se Lee (M) and Ryo Iwamatsu (Then Summer Came). In a major coup for the fest, legendary (and infamous) film provocateur Koji Wakamatsu will hold a live Q&A via satellite for his latest United Red Army.

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