At the midpoint of its nine day run the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is running smoothly and on schedule in its futuristic setting, much like the local trains.The festival is centered in an ultra modern shopping and tourist complex known as "Roppongi Hills" but there are no hills in evidence, just an incredible array of glass towers, upscale restaurants and classy boutiques in a multi-tiered maze of shopping delights.(Roppongo "Bills" might be more like it, as "Bil" is Japanese ...

By Liza Foreman Los Angeles - Considering that The Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), (22-30October 2011), and its market arm TIFFCOM, two of Japan’s premiereentertainment industry events, place such a dedicated focus on initiatives tosave the planet – in keeping with Japan’s generally eco-friendly positioning - lastweek’s tragedy there seems all the more poignant. Still, as the Japanese government works to find a solution to its nuclearpower crisis and the devastating consequenc...

This Shin Toho 1960 production directed by  Ishikawa Yoshihiro is a fantasy pic, The Ghost Cat Of Otama Pond (Kaibyo Otama-ga-ike). It features a young couple  caught in a web of ghostly revenge, with a black cat monitoring the scenes between those living and those dead. The shadowy period atmosphere of a haunted mansion plunges a young  fiance to be possessed by a mysterious vision of an "old bag". Keiko's boyfriend is told that the spirit of the cat that possessed her...

The twelfth edition of FAREAST Film Festival has opened the lid of a treasure box containing vintage New films produced in the 50s and 60s, from the defunct SHIN-TOHO ("New Toho") film company, an off-shoot of the major TOHO-TOEI, created in 1947 to make genre films which the latter would distribute. The studio was one of six functioning during the Golden Age of Japanese cinema in the 1950's and employed some of the most famous directors like Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, a...

2010 edition will begin on 23 April and will present around sixty titles and two major retrospectives: one on the glorious Shin-Toho - which is to Japanese cinema what Roger Corman's Factory is to American film - and the other on Patrick Lung Kong, who inspired John Woo's masterpiece A Better Tomorrow  (Golden Lion, 2010). UDINE - 9 days of programming, from 23 April to 1 May, and over 60 films on their way from China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, ...

  On any poll where the greatest directors who ever lived is compiled, the name of Japansese director Akira Kurosawa is certain to show up in the top three slots. More loved outside of his homeland (as are many film artists) and acknowledged by film scholars as a true visual artist, the oeuvre of this cinematic giant is the focus of a 4-week festival to be held at the Film Forum, New York's great arthouse treasure. The 28-film festival celebrating the centennial of director Akira...

Rarely does a film festival stress popular and commercially successful movies, dispenses with intellectual and high brow aspiration, disregards art house films, and provides little or no amenities to journalist and media professionals. Yet the 4th annual New York Asian Film Festival presented thirty new Asian feature films not screened before in New York City in two venues, the venerable Anthology Film Archives and the uptown Imaginasian Theatre, In spite of the lack of festival accoutrement...

JAPAN'S SHORT SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS $60,000 IN PRIZESThe Short Shorts Film Festival kicked off its 7th annual competition and tour of Japan earlier this month with screenings in the trendy Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. $60,000 in prizes was awarded to filmmakers in three categories: National (Japan), International (non-Asian), and Asian. “Rien de Grave” (dir. Renaud Philipps, France) took home the Grand Prix, and “SHIROTAKU” (dir. Toshiro Sonoda, Japan) was honored with the Asa...