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2009 | 2008

10 articles from 2009

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Tokyo! Blu-ray Review

15 August 2009 4:14 PM, PDT | FilmJunk | See recent FilmJunk news »

Tokyo! Directed by: Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Bong Joon-ho Written by: Gabrielle Bell, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Bong Joon-ho Starring: Ayako Fujitani, Ayumi Ito, Ryo Kase, Denis Lavant, Jean-François Balmer, Teruyuki Kagawa, Yû Aoi Historically, short films have never really received much mainstream attention because, let's face it, you can't exactly put them in a movie theatre and charge full price for admission. They've mostly been relegated to the realm of film festivals and YouTube, but every now and then someone comes up with a clever way to package a collection of short films and sell it to the public. The 2007 film Paris, Je T'aime had a fairly successful (albeit limited) theatrical run collecting 18 shorts from such directors as The Coen Brothers, Tom Tykwer, Gus Van Sant and Wes Craven. It eventually spawned a sequel of sorts called, New York, I Love You. Following in the footsteps of these films comes Tokyo! »

- Sean

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Tokyo Sonata - Trailer

20 April 2009 11:38 PM, PDT | Latemag.com/film | See recent LateFilmFull news »

Kiyoshi Kurosawa – the hugely acclaimed Japanese director famous for his groundbreaking, existential horror films such as Cure and Kairo [Pulse] – set Cannes alight last year with a surprising change of pace to, that staple of Japanese cinema, the family drama.

When Ryuhei Sasaki (played by Teruyuki Kagawa) is unceremoniously dumped from his ‘safe’ company job, his family's happy, humdrum life is put at risk. Unwilling to accept the shame of unemployment, the loyal salaryman decides not to tell anyone, instead leaving home each morning in suit and tie with briefcase, spending his days searching for work and lining up for soup with the homeless. Outstanding performances; serene, elegant direction; and Kurosawa's trademark chills are evident as he ratchets up the unsettling atmosphere and the grim hopelessness of Sasaki's unemployment.

Tokyo Sonata is showing theatrically in selected cinemas nationwide (UK) until June 2009 and is released on DVD and Blu-ray on 22 June 2009.

www. »

- Leigh

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Kiyoshi Kurosawa exhumes the heart of a Japanese family in Tokyo Sonata

12 April 2009 5:35 PM, PDT | The Hollywood Interview | See recent The Hollywood Interview news »

(Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and actor Teruyuki Kagawa, during the shooting of Tokyo Sonata, above.)

By Terry Keefe

This article is currently appearing in this month's Venice Magazine.

For filmmaker Kiyoski Kurosawa, it wasn’t that big a leap from the horror genre to the domestic-style terrors of a family melodrama. Kurosawa made his bones on horror-based stories such as 1997’s Cure, but his newest, Tokyo Sonata, follows the dissolution, and partial rebirth, of a Japanese traditional family, with no supernatural elements in play. Kurosawa’s trademark evocation of creeping dread and anxiety remain, however, and you still are never sure about what is around the next corner in his new work. Says Kurosawa about stepping outside his more familiar realm of murders and the supernatural, “Obviously, since this wasn’t a horror film, one change was that I didn’t have to make it deliberately frightening. But the part of »

- The Hollywood Interview.com

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Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Tokyo Sonata

25 March 2009 5:29 AM, PDT | Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews | See recent Filmmaker Magazine_Director Interviews news »

KYÔKO Koizumi, Inowaki Kai, Teruyuki Kagawa, And YÛ Koyanagi In Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa'S Tokyo Sonata. Courtesy Regent Releasing. Over the past decade or so, Kiyoshi Kurosawa has established himself as one of the most interesting genre directors in world cinema. The Japanese writer-director was born in Kobe in 1955, and first made 8mm shorts while studying Sociology at Rikko University. He began directing features in the early 1980s, working on direct-to-video titles, including yakuza movies, and studied under the tutelage of directors Shinji Somai and Kazuhiko Hasegawa. He then had minor successes with films like the college-set drama The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl (1985) and the blackly comic thriller Guard from the... »

- Nick Dawson

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Tokyo!/Tokyo Sonata

13 March 2009 1:26 PM, PDT | Pastemagazine.com | See recent PasteMagazine news »

Tokyo! - 80

Tokyo Sonata - 85

Tokyo!

Release Date: March 6

Directors/Writers: Michel Gondry, Leos Carax, Bong Joon-Ho

Cinematographers: Masami Inomoto, Caroline Champetier, Jun Fukomoto

Starring: Ayako Fujitani, Ryo Kase, Denis Lavant, Teruyuki Kagawa

Studio/Run Time: Liberation Entertainment, 112 mins.

Tokyo Sonata

Release Date: March 13

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Writers: Max Mannix, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sachiko Tanaka

Cinematographer: Akiko Ashiza

Starring: Teruyuki Kagawa, Kyoko Koizumi, Yu Koyanagi

Studio/Run Time: Regent Releasing, 119 mins.

Tokyo! and Tokyo Sonata, two films by four directors containing six narratives, propose the Japanese megalopolis as a site for major weirdness. A girl turns into a chair. A man drives a car from the beach into the ocean. A zombie in a green suit climbs from the sewers and wreaks havoc. »

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Kiyoshi Kurosawa Composes "Tokyo Sonata"

12 March 2009 6:46 AM, PDT | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

There are plenty of scares in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Tokyo Sonata," but none of the serial killers or ghosts that have populated his earlier films like "Pulse" and "Cure." Instead, in his latest film the director focuses on the effects of Japan's long-term recession on a nuclear family. After being laid off, patriarch Ryuhei Sasaki (Teruyuki Kagawa) pretends that he's still going to work, donning a suit and tie to hang out at the library and go to an open-air soup kitchen for free food. His wife (Kyoko Koizumi) and two sons are equally troubled. For once, Kurosawa has made a film that feels connected to earlier, more traditional Japanese cinema. His penchant for apocalyptic endings has come full circle -- "Tokyo Sonata" is about what it feels like to live in a society undergoing massive, disorienting change. I spoke to him by phone during a recent visit to L. »

- Steve Erickson

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Recession, Depression and Just Plain Depressing

11 March 2009 5:06 AM, PDT | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

After a couple of months that for all intents and purposes defined "moribund," actual moviegoing, at least in the major cities, is getting interesting again, with several masterworks or near-masterworks creeping into theaters. Jan Troell's scrupulous, beautiful "Everlasting Moments," Olivier Assayas' genuinely Renoir-esque "Summer Hours" and Philippe Garrel's blunt, idiosyncratic "Frontier of Dawn" are all exceptionally exciting and rewarding pictures, and the fact that they're all being distributed by the sister company of the one that's hosting me as a critic this month looks...well, funny, I know. What can I tell you? IFC Entertainment's acquisitions folks have excellent taste, and they're into...acquiring.

Still in all, I'm slightly relieved, if only for the sake of appearances, that the latest wonderment from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, "Tokyo Sonata," premieres on U.S. screens this week courtesy of Regent Releasing. Kurosawa, who, as most of his fans already know, »

- Glenn Kenny

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New "Tokyo!" clips added!

25 February 2009 | Movie Jungle | See recent Movie Jungle news »

      We have new clips in from Liberation Entertainment and Vitagraph Films' "Tokyo." They are as follows: · Interior Design clip: Dead Cat · Merde clip: Green Suit Guy · Shaking Tokyo clip: Blinding Light   All clips are in the same player above.   What are the films within "Tokyo" about?   "Interior Design" (Dir. Michel Gondry) Hiroko and Akira (Ayako Fujitani and Ryo Kase), a young couple, arrive in Tokyo to pursue their careers, moving in temporarily with Hiroko's old friend Akemi (Ayumi Ito), a career girl whose boyfriend quickly tires of the houseguests. Hiroko and Akira appear to have a solid and mutually supportive relationship that will seemingly carry them through any challenge. Akira, the young man, takes steps towards his ambition to become a filmmaker, but the woman is less sure of herself and gradually she begins to lose herself in the vast city. Ultimately she under-goes a surreal metamorphoses that gives her »

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Sfiaaff 2009: Kiyoshi Kurosawa—Serpent’s Path & Eyes of the Spider

19 February 2009 12:03 AM, PST | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

Brian Darr’s and Michael Hawley’s recent previews of the 27th edition of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (“Sfiaaff”) posted, respectively, at Hell on Frisco Bay and film-415, enumerate many reasons to be pleased with this year’s line-up; not the least of which is the seven-film tribute to Kiyoshi Kurosawa.  It will be no surprise to readers of The Evening Class to know how excited I am by this tribute, recalling the Kiyoshi Kurosawa Blogathon of last Summer, wherein I included my write-ups on Cure and Bright Future along with hosting essays from welcome contributors.  Likewise—anticipating the opportunity to interview Kurosawa at Tokyo Sonata‘s TIFF08 North American premiere—I provided an overview of interviews conducted with Kurosawa.  My dream to conduct my own interview with Kurosawa came true at the Toronto International and it now appears I will have a chance to follow-up »

- Michael Guillen

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Michel Gondry and 'The Host' Director Team for Director Triple Play

2 February 2009 1:59 PM, PST | Rope of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news »

A still from the "Merde" segment of Tokyo! directed by Leos Carax

Photo: Liberation Entertainment I am not a huge fan of Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Be Kind Rewind) as everyone else seems to be. I am also not a huge fan of Joon-ho Bong's The Host, which I am sure knocks me down another notch in the kitchy online movie world. On top of all that I have no idea who French helmer Leos Carax is, but the three are teaming together for a film called Tokyo! due out on March 6 in New York and March 20 in Los Angeles. The three directors will each have a segment in the film with storylines as follows: "Interior Design" (Dir. Michel Gondry)

Hiroko and Akira (Ayako Fujitani and Ryo Kase),a young couple, arrive in Tokyo to pursue their careers, moving in temporarily with Hiroko's old friend »

- Brad Brevet

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2009 | 2008

10 articles from 2009

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