Possessed

Possessed (2009)

7pm, October 06, 2011

Lee Yong-ju

A young girl named So-jin survives a terrible car accident which left her father dead. It was a miracle for her to still be alive but her mother thinks that it was the power of prayer and she becomes obsessed with the church. Her older sister, Hee-jin receives a phone call from her mother that So-jin has disappeared. A detective named Tae-hwan starts investigation and faces a series of mysterious death of people around So-jin. While looking for So-jin, Hee-jin and Tae-hwan discover that So-jin’s disappearance and the deaths are mysteriously linked

 

Special Screening: Family Ties (2006)

September 12, 2011, 7pm

Family Ties (2006)

Kim Tae-yong

The KCCUK has a special treat for all you Korean film fans out there. The Centre will be screening Family Ties (2006) along with a Q&A from the director of the film Kim Tae Young. RSVP needed, please visit the KCCK website to book, admission is free.

Mi-ra, who runs a small snack food restaurant, has a trouble-maker brother, Hyung-chul. After being discharged from the military, he goes missing. After five years Hyung-chul suddenly comes back home accompanied by a middle-aged woman, Mu-sin. He gives a bunch of flowers to Mi-ra and introduces Mu-sin as his wife, even though they have not had a wedding ceremony. Mu-sin looks at least 20 years older than Hyung-chul. From that moment, an eccentric family is born.

The film has won numerous awards including Best Director at Pusan and Blue Dragon as well as Best Picture at Pusan, AKOFIC, Thessaloniki and Daejong film festivals.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director; Kim Tae-yong.

68th Venice Film Festival

31st August to 10th September 2011

The 68th Venice International Film Festival, organized by La Biennale di Venezia, will run at Venice Lido August 31st through September 10th, 2011.

The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote all the various aspects of international cinema in all its forms: as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and tolerance. The Festival includes retrospectives and homages to major figures as a contribution towards raising awareness of the history of cinema.

Marco Müller is the Director the 68th edition. He has been heading the Venice Biennale’s Cinema section since 2004.

For further information see here.

Villain

Villain

19 August – 8 September

Dir:

Lee Sang-il

Writer:

Shuichi Yoshida, Lee Sang-il

Cast:

 Satoshi Tsumabuki, Eri Fukatsu, Masaki Okada, Hikari Mitsushima, Kirin Kiki

Yuichi (Satoshi Tsumabuki) is a construction worker who has lived his entire life in a dreary fishing village. With no girlfriend or friends, he spends his days working and looking after his grandparents, with no enjoyment in life other than his car. Meanwhile, Mitsuyo (Eri Fukatsu) also lives a monotonous life pacing between the men’s clothing store where she works and the apartment where she lives with her sister. When the two lonely souls meet using an online dating site, they immediately fall in love with each other. But there’s a secret Yuichi had been keeping from Mitsuyo: Yuichi is the one suspected of killing the woman whose body was found at Mitsue Pass only a few days before…

As Yuichi and his new lover try to elude the police, the events that led up to the murder and its aftermath are revealed. We learn the stories of the victim, the murderer, and their families – stories of loneliness, love hotels, violence and desperation, exposing the inner lives of men and woman who are not everything they appear to be.

Who is the true “villain” here?

For more information and booking click here.

 

London International Animation Festival

The London International Animation Festival proudly showcases the whole spectrum of creative animation, showing that animation is for everyone…

Founded in 2003, LIAF aims to dispel the popular misconception that animation is just cartoons for kids by screening the broadest possible range of intelligent, entertaining and provocative current films on offer from all around the world as well as retrospectives and specialised sessions from countries and animators who don’t normally elicit such attention.

Our annual 10-day Festival in August and September includes gala premieres, retrospectives, Q&A’s with filmmakers, workshops, audience voting, and the Best of the Festival screening. Since this year LIAF has become much more than an annual Festival – we are programming more events, tours, screenings and masterclasses all year-round to as many cities and countries that invite us. LIAF strives to be the best, and we do so with a very small, very dedicated staff.

LIAF: Schedule

If you are passionate about the richly nuanced cultural experiences which the Festival so consistently provides, please consider becoming a LIAF Member, Benefactor or Partner to help us to run the best Animation Festival in the UK.

Contact

Take Care of My Cat (2000)

Korean Film Night

Take Care of My Cat (2000)

Jeong Jae-eun

In the port city of Icheon, five female friends struggle to stay close while forging a life for themselves after high school. When one of the groups, upwardly-mobile Hae-ju, moves to Seoul, the other girls deal with the loss in different ways. Feeling most rejected, shy Ji-yeong finds comfort in her new friendship with rebel Tae-hee.

September 08, 2011

Multi Purpose Hall, KCCUK

Shinjuku Diaries: Films from The Art Theatre Guild of Japan

1 August 2011 – 31 August 2011

BFI, London

This season celebrates a period in the 1960s and 70s when the Japanese film industry was experiencing considerable shifts in its development. The Art Theatre Guild of Japan (ATG) became for audiences an alternative to the traditional film culture, and brought together outcasts and countercultural icons. Beginning with Imamura’s genre-blurring A Man Vanishes, and Oshima’s absurdist farce Death By Hanging, the ATG became the driving force behind a burst of creativity that was to mould an entire generation of Japanese filmmakers. The season finishes with Terayama’s iconic Pastoral Hide and Seek, a fantastical look at the past, present and future of man.

For more information, please click here.

Twice Bombed: special film screening

Tuesday, 16th August 2011   5.45pm – 8.45pm

5.45pm Twice Bombed (2006, 60 mins)
7pm   Twice Bombed: the Legacy of Yamaguchi Tsutomu (2011, 70 mins)
8.15pm Q & A with producer Hidetaka Inazuka

Both films in Japanese with English sub titles.

Khalili Lecture Theatre
School of Oriental & African Studies
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG

Free. Booking recommended.

On the morning of 6 August 1945, Yamaguchi, a shipbuilder for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagasaki, suffered severe burns while on a business trip to Hiroshima when he was exposed to radiation from the nuclear bomb (3km from the epicentre).

On the following day he headed home on an evacuation train to be reunited with his wife and children. He arrived at Nagasaki station at midday on 8 August and received medical treatment.  On 9 August he reported for work at his marine architecture firm and, while telling of the horrors he had witnessed in Hiroshima, became for the second time the victim of an atomic bomb.

Twice Bombed: the Legacy of Yamaguchi Tsutomu (2011) tells his story and recounts the hard fought campaign of his later years against nuclear weapons. Also being screened is Twice Bombed (2006) about Yamaguchi and six other people who had been exposed to radiation from both bomb blasts.

We are delighted to welcome the film’s producer, Hidetaka Inazuka, who spent time with Yamaguchi until his death in January 2010 and is determined to pass on his legacy to viewers.

To reserve your place, please call the Japan Society office on 020 7828 6330, emailevents@japansociety.org.uk or submit the online booking form

In association with:

The Murmuring (1995)

Korean Film Night

August 25, 2011, 7pm (Korean Cultural Centre UK)

To celebrate Liberation Day in Korea the KCCUK will screen The Murmuring, a documentary about the surviving ‘Comfort Women’ of Korea. These were women that we forced into prostitution by the Japanese Army during the occupation. The film follows the women who are still very active, protesting the Japanese Government for an apology and compensation for their treatment.

This film is the first in a season of films looking at Women Directors which we will continue to look at for the next month.

Hurrah! For Freedom (1946)

Korean Film Night

August 11, 2011 (Korean Cultural Centre UK)

August 1945, Nam-bu, a Japanese collaborator reveals the name of an independence activist, Han-jung, putting him in prison, Han-jung escapes and goes into hiding in a nurse’s house as he prepares to raise an armed uprising. One of his conspirators, Park is caught and jailed for possessing a bomb. Han-jung breaks Park out off jail and the two continue there plans to over throw the Japanese while dragging in their reluctant, nurse host.
The screening of this film is in celebration of Korea’s liberation from the Japanese with Hurrah! For Freedom being the first film produced after the Japanese colonisation. Korea’s Liberation Day is August 15th.

Waterboys

Films at the Embassy: Waterboys

This high-spirited comedy follows a group of five hapless high-school boys who are roped into starting a synchronised swimming team. Despite a series of hurdles and hiccups, not least their own dismal record of failure, the boys bumble through the summer trying to prepare a routine for the school festival. Before long their public debut is upon them but will the Waterboys sink or swim…?

Directed by the talented Shinobu Yaguchi and nominated for eight prizes at the Japan Academy Awards in 2002, Waterboys won awards for ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Best Music Score’.

Wednesday, 27 July 2011, 18:30
Doors open at 17:45 No admittance after 19:00
The Embassy of Japan

101-104 Piccadilly,

London W1J 7JT

Admission is free, but prior registration is essential.

Click here for details on how to book your free seat.

A Talk by Documentary Film Director Kazuhiro Soda

Special Film Event – A Talk by Documentary Film Director Kazuhiro Soda.

Award-winning Japanese director Kazuhiro Soda is a documentary filmmaker who produces work which is consistently both captivating and intriguing. His past films Campaign and Mental have been screened at many prestigious film festivals, garnering awards and acclaim, and highlighting Soda as a talent to watch out for.

This year, Soda returns with his new work Peace, exploring the apparently ordinary lives of a few residents of Okayama. Prior to the premiere of Peace at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest, the Japan Foundation has invited Soda to talk about his latest work, as well as the observational style and methods he employs as a filmmaker. Yet to be commercially released, Peace has already been creating buzz in the international film circuit, receiving awards including Best Documentary at the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

This is a very special opportunity to learn about the work, inspirations and practical approach of Japan’s most exciting and highly regarded documentary filmmaker.

Date:

10 June 2011 from 6.30pm

Venue:

The Japan Foundation, London
Russell Square House, 10-12 Russell Square
London WC1B 5EH

Booking
This event is free to attend but booking is essential. To reserve a place, please email your name and the title of the event you would like to attend to event@jpf.org.uk.

Organised in association with Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Kazuhiro Soda’s latest film Peace will be premiered as part of this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest line-up.

To reserve a place to attend this event, please email your name and the event title to event@jpf.org.uk

13 Assassins

Takashi Miike, the director responsible for such uncompromising and unforgettable movies as Audition andIchi The Killer indelibly stamps his trademark style on the Samurai genre with the ultra-violent, all-action, blood-spattered epic, 13 Assassins.

One of the most prolific, wildly unpredictable and controversial directors in cinema, here Miike reinvents himself once more “in top, slash-tastic form” (Variety), throwing in several obvious nods to the works of Akira Kurosawa and enough grotesquery to satisfy his loyal legions of fans, with a movie that has been described as a “handsomely mounted samurai adventure” (Cinematical) that is “too damn magnificent to ignore” (Twitch). With special previews from 5 May

SHOWING AT:

• SOHO
• hmvcurzon

Norwegian Wood

Piu’ volte, in questo Blog, ho parlato del libro scritto da Haruki Murakami ‘Norwegian Wood’ ed il film tratto dal libro cosi oggi ho deciso di pubblicare la canzone dei Beatles che ne ha ispirato il titolo.

I mentioned several times, in this Blog, the book written by Haruki Murakami ‘Norwegian Wood’ and the film recently made from the bestseller. Today I’ve decided to publish the famous song ‘Norwegian Wood’ by the Beatles which inspired the title of the book.

Udine Far East Film Festival

Far East Film 13

L’edizione 2011 si aprirà venerdì 29 aprile presentando una sessantina di nuovissimi titoli dall’Estremo Oriente e due sezioni speciali: L’ASIA RIDE! (Asia Laughs!), una pioneristica retrospettiva sulla commedia pan-asiatica, e un piccante excursus nella storia del PINK EIGA dagli anni Sessanta ai giorni nostri.

Far East Film Festival, in 9 giornate di programmazione presenterà oltre 60 nuovissime pellicole in arrivo da Cina, Hong Kong, Corea del Sud, Giappone, Thailandia, Indonesia, Malesia, Filippine, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan e, new entry,Mongolia.

Una panoramica a 360 gradi, curata dal Centro Espressioni Cinematografiche, sulla produzione popolare e di genere che incontra i gusti del grande pubblico dell’altra parte del globo indagando, ancora una volta, un universo produttivo tra i più originali, artisticamente frizzanti e economicamente più esplosivi dell’intero pianeta.

For more information: http://www.fareastfilm.com