Japan invades Venice festival
The line-up of japanese movie at this year’s Venice film festival is pretty impressive. Mamoru Oshii, Satoshi Kon, Shinji Aoyama, Kyoshi Kurosawa and Katsuhiro Otomo are sending their last effort there. Only two films are actually in competition and surprisingly enough those are anime.
On top of that studio Ghibli’s last effort Gedo Senki will also be shown. It’s the first full length directed by Hayao Myazaki’s son, Goro Miyazaki.
I was kind of surprised to hear about a new Otomo movie. Apparently Mushi shi, is a film adaptation of the anime tv show of the same name. Here’s the official website for the tv show in japanese of course.
It’s also interesting to note that the two movie in the official competion are from Otomo and Kon. Kon started his career at Otomo’s studio, he notably directed one of the sketches of Memories.
So we have a Master/student battle here, nice.
I have no idea what Kon’s movie, Paprika, is about, but the few images on the official site are just gorgeous. You can watch the trailer here, but it’s really a small. Up until now Kon has slowly imposed himself as an important animation filmmaker. His last effort the anime serie Paranoia Agent is probably one of the best thing coming out of japanese tv since Serial Experiment Lain.
Here’s the listing of all the japanese films for the Venice Biennale :
Competition
- Paprika, Kon SatoshiMushi-shi, Ôtomo Katsuhiro
Out of Competition
- Gedo senki (Tales from Earthsea), Miyazaki Goro
Out of Competition (Midnight)
- Sakebi, Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Horizons
- Kôrogi, Aoyama Shinji
Horizons (Documentary)
- Tachiguishi retsuden, Oshii Mamoru
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