Since I first started seeing Midnight Madness films at TIFF in 2006, I’ve been progressively increasing the number of films I see from that programme. Last year, I saw four Midnight Madness films, two of which were actual midnight screening. I’m aiming to increase that number and that shouldn’t be hard based on the quality […]
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It’s that time again…. This morning saw the announcement of the initial line-up of films for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, consisting of 17 Galas and 45 Special Presentations. I am personally happy with the announcement that Rian Johnson’s Looper, a film that I am personally quite looking forward to, will be the opening
TIFF12: Rian Johnson’s Looper headlines First Batch of Film Announcments Read More »
This was my first time checking out the Shinsedai Cinema Festival. Even though I wasn’t able to make it to the entire festival, I managed to check out six of the film and I liked what I saw. Here is a ranking of the top three films that I saw at the festival: Hiroshimia Nagasaki
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In this post I will chime in a bit on the shorts and short programs that I saw at this year’s Shinsedai Cinema Festival. Short Programs Enter the Cosmos: Takashi Makino Special This short program featured three experimental shorts directed by Takashi Makino. The works here are very reminiscent of the works of Stan Brakhage in the
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This is one odd film…. That line pretty much sums up the film Tentsuki in a nutshell. The film can be described a drama with kooky comedic characters and just a dash of J-horror violence. The film focuses on the character of Noboru and his interactions with a variety of odd characters, including his fossil-loving supervisor, a
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The plot synopsis for the film Good for Nothing is as follows: A trio of young men coming up to their high school graduation find themselves walking a fine line between juvenile delinquency and adult respectability in the wintery landscape of Sapporo, Hokkaido . They try and choose the latter by getting jobs with a company
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You really wouldn’t expect a documentary screened early on a Sunday afternoon to end up being the highlight of the Shinsedai Cinema Festival. That is indeed the case for Hiroshimi Nagasaki Download, which went on to win the audience award for the festival. The film begins with the ringing of a loud and lingering bell,
Shinsedai Cinema Festival: Hiroshima Nagasaki Download Read More »
Ringing in Their Ears was the opening film of the fourth annual Shinsedai Cinema Festival, which will be screening new Japanese film all weekend at the Revue Cinema. The focus of the film is the real life Japanese rock band Shinsei Kamattechan. I initially had no idea that Kamattechan was an actual band, since the plot
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The Toronto After Dark Summer Screenings was an interesting experiment to see if people would attend Toronto After Dark screenings outside of the yearly festival. Based on the turn-out (including the sell-out crowd for the Canadian premiere of V/H/S), I would have to say that there is definitely an audience for year-round Toronto After Dark-hosted
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The headliner of the Toronto After Dark summer screenings was undoubtedly the Canadian premiere of this found-footage anthology horror film that sold out the Bloor Cinema with 700+ in attendance. The film features five segments, and a framing story, each directed by a different indie horror director. The framing story, directed by Adam Wingard (You’re Next), has a group
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