11/29/2005

via stauffen
Urahara diva Shunji Iwai has written a script to be directed, surpisingly enough, by Ryuhei Kitamura (Godzilla Final Wars, Versus).
The movie, Bandage, is about the indie rock scene in Japan during the 90’s.
I always found weird that someone like Iwai never got his due when the asian movie craze went mainstream in the mid 90’s. I’m not 100% positive about this but i don’t think any Iwai’s flick has been released in europe in the 90’s.
This is something that has plagued most “middleground” directors of asia. Only the true genre or the true author flicks from asia are getting in the mainstream media.
The fact is Iwai’s movies are not sophisticated enough for the art crowd and not entertaining enough for the movie geeks looking for thrills.
There’s also an economic factor, Iwai’s movie were very popular in Japan at the time. The foreign distribution rights must have been more expensive than the one for Kitano’s.
Kitano’s movies were totally ignored in Japan until he got international praise at Venice with Hana-bi.
Still, i’ve always enjoyed Iwai’s sophisticated teenage dramas and he was the one to discover Tadanobu Asano.
Anyway, Kitamura is japan’s Michael Bay on crunk juice so it might be interesting to see what he can do with an Iwai’s script probably dealing with the trials, tribulations and the resulting angst of an indie rock band.
Iden, Tity & Godzilla : Final war. Can’t wait to watch that.
Here’s Shunji Iwai’s official website and Bandage official press release in japanese.