The 12th Japanese Film Festival, 2009
When you think Japanese cinema, you probably think about anime, right? Or samurai flicks. Or mind-f*ck horror. Or a lurid blend of bizarre sex and graphic violence. For 12 years now, The Japan Foundation has been bringing discerning cinemagoers all this... and much, much more!
Like wasabi hitting your sinuses, the festival kicks off with plot-twisting crime comedy AFTER SCHOOL.
MIFF Auteur Picks
Sure, it's a whole city away. But if you're headed down south in the next couple of weeks you really should book a ticket or two to MIFF.
Let's start with some of the festival regulars who show up each year with a new film. You're already familiar with their work, so they make comforting first choices if the program's heft is freaking you out.
Reel Anime
The onslaught of anime in the ‘90s brought us tentacle sex, exploding heads, ninjas drowning in molten gold and psychic children who might be god. There been so much of it since that it's easy to ignore, so Reel Anime 2008 is throwing four new titles up on the big screen to catch your eye.
A Night of Horror
There's something special about a cumulative effect of the scares, gore, and slow-burning dread contained in a horror festival. April's ‘A Night of Horror' focuses on new horror flicks - in fact, some so new that their IMDB pages still read as being ‘in production'.
If zombie comedies, old-school slasher homages, or an ‘Undead Rockabilly Dance' sound appealing, you'll be in heaven.
Black Watch
Any play which opens a national parliament must be worth its weight in reputation, and that is what BLACK WATCH did recently when it was chosen to open Scottish parliament. It's hard to imagine a play kicking off Canberra, but the fierce nationalist pride that the newly formed National Theatre of Scotland seems to be reflected in this its most successful touring theatre piece.
Dest Fest
Three afternoons of film and talk? Compared to the exhausting three-week grind offered by other Australian festivals, the inaugural Destination Festival's tightly curated selections and candid panel discussions sound like bliss.
Week One features international cinema, notably the Australian premiere of WHOLPIN VOLUME IV, the DVD magazine from everyone's favourite hipster overlords Dave Eggers, Brett Hoff, and MCSWEENY'S.
Summer Rain
Antonio Banderas’, ‘Summer Rain’ treads new ground since his directing debut of ‘Crazy in Alabama’, the fluffy romantic comedy of 1999. Set in Southern Spain of the 1970s the heavily stylised story runs within the allegorical parallels of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’, Antonio Soler’s prize-winning novel and Banderas’ autobiography.
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