Cover art for the Criterion Collection’s new DVD of THE
BURMESE HARP. © 1956 Nikkatsu Corp./2007 Criterion

The Criterion Collection Presents a Post-War Masterpiece by Director Kon Ichikawa
Author: John “Dutch” DeSentis
Source: The Criterion Collection

“The soil of Burma is red, and so are its rocks…”

THE BURMESE HARP is a very powerful and moving film. Its prime message is that music is a universal and uniting language of peace. It became director Kon Ichikawa’s breakthrough movie as it gained international recognition and won the San Giorgio prize at the 1956 Venice Film Festival (although in the recorded interview that accompanies the DVD Ichikawa says he wasn’t even aware the movie was entered in the festival until after it won!).

The film, along with another Kon Ichikawa movie called FIRES ON THE PLAIN (Nobi, 1959), was released on March 13th and given a stunning presentation by the Criterion Collection.
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Source: American Cinematheque

Saturday March 31 – 11:00 AM to 5:30 PM - KOREAN AND JAPANESE ANIMATION TODAY
At the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
FREE ADMISSION

AACHI & SSIPAK. Photo courtesy of the American Cinematheque. © 2006 Studio 2.0
/JTeam Studio

The American Cinematheque invites you to an all day event co-organized by The Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles and The Japan Foundation of Los Angeles, with support from the Korean Consulate General in Los Angeles, Consulate General of Japan in Los Angeles, Korea Culture and Contents Agency, Los Angeles and Wowmaxmedia.

It begins with:

11:00 AM - AACHI & SSIPAK, 2006, Studio 2.0, 90 min. Dir. Bum-Jin Joe. This fabulous new animated feature from Korea about a future city where human waste is the sole energy source sparked controversy for its vulgar and aggressive attitude (this film was R-rated in Korea and is recommended for mature audiences). Bizarre and original humor abounds, including the concept of an addictive laxative that produces acute hallucinations.

Followed by a reception with food and drink at 12:30 PM.

THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME. Photo courtesy of the American
Cinematheque. © 2006 TOKIKAKE Film Partners

1:30 PM: THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, 2006, Cathay-Keris Films, 98 min. Dir. Mamoru Hosoda. The acclaimed new Japanese anime with character designs by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (NEON GENESIS EVANGELION) and animation by Madhouse. High school student Makoto prolongs the fun she has during her free time and avoids problems when she learns to go back in time by taking giant leaps.

Followed by an intermission and an hour long panel discussion with moderator Ken Duer (Producer of THE ANIMATRIX), Bum-Jin Joe director of AACHI AND SSIPAK, Mamoru Hosoda director of THE GIRL WHO LEAPT THROUGH TIME, USC professor Mimi Ito and anime critics. FREE ADMISSION (Tickets available for pick-up only on day of event). To RSVP: please go to The Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles website or The Japan Foundation of Los Angeles website.

Updated packaging art for GHIDORAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER and INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER. The DVDs will be available online and from stores on June 5th. Photo courtesy of Classic Media. © 1964, 1965 Toho Co., Ltd.

Latest Info and Images for Upcoming Godzilla DVDs
Author: Keith Aiken
Source: Classic Media
Official site: Godzilla on DVD

A SciFi JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Region 1 DVDs of the fifth and sixth Godzilla films, GHIDORAH THE THREE-HEADED MONSTER and INVASION OF ASTRO-MONSTER (aka MONSTER ZERO), will be available from online retailers and in stores on June 5th. The good folks at Classic Media have provided new information, updated cover art, a press release and screen shots to give fans an early look at the discs here on SciFi Japan.

Publicity photo of Hitoshi Ueki and the Crazy Cats.

Beloved Toho Comedian has Died
Author: Stuart Galbraith IV
Special Thanks to Oki Miyano

Japanese comedian Hitoshi Ueki, whose films came to symbolize Japan’s postwar white collar age, died Tuesday of respiratory failure at the age of 80. The eternal wayward salaryman, Ueki’s prolific output in both his solo films and those he made as the co-leader of the Crazy Cats comedy team were among Toho Studios’ most popular of the 1960s — in 1967 alone Ueki starred in three of Japan’s six top-grossing domestic films. Conversely, he remains all but unknown in America; in the U.S., the only Ueki film currently available on DVD is his least typical, a memorable supporting role as the pragmatic samurai General Fujimaki in Akira Kurosawa’s RAN (1985). Of his more than sixty film appearances several have sci-fi/fantasy elements and feature special effects directed by Eiji Tsuburaya and others, hence this tribute.
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Godzilla fans can vote on which of these four new monsters will make it into the new GODZILLA: UNLEASHED video game.
Top row: Magmouth and Firelion. Bottom row: The Visitor and Lighning Bug. Photos courtesy of Atari, Inc. © 2007 Atari, Inc.

Source: Atari, Inc.

Atari and Pipeworks present the first ever GODZILLA: UNLEASHED New Monster Vote. Now is your chance to shape the future of Toho’s Godzilla universe and help bring a completely new monster to life. Running until April 4th, IGN is hosting the vote where fans get to choose one of four new monsters to be created for the GODZILLA: UNLEASHED video game that will be coming out fall 2007 from Atari. For more information and to vote now please visit the IGN website.

The art team responsible for designing the new monsters explained, “Throughout the entire process, our underlying goal was to arrive at monsters that we felt were fresh, would fit into the Godzilla genre, and would fit into the group factions as delineated in the design doc for the game. We initially generated forty different monster concepts. From these, we focused our selection down to fifteen, and finally down to four.”
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Just approved by Toho; the cover art for the
FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD DVD. Photo
courtesy of Media Blasters. © 1965 Toho Co., Ltd.

Latest News on the 2-Disc DVD Set from Media Blasters/Tokyo Shock
Author: Keith Aiken
Source: Media Blasters, Inc.
Special Thanks to Shinichi Wakasa and Keizo Murase

In the two years since Media Blasters began releasing DVDs of classic Toho films, the title they have received the most requests for has been FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD (Furankenshutain tai Chite Kaiju Baragon, 1965). Media Blasters took notice and quickly snapped up US rights to the film when they became available from Toho. On June 26, the company’s ‘Tokyo Shock’ label will release FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD on Region 1 DVD. This will be the first time the movie has been released on home video in North America.

Media Blasters has provided the lastest news about the upcoming release. For information on DVD specs and Special Features please go here.

Monster Zero News took its name from the classic
Godzilla movie. © 1965 Toho Co, Ltd.

On March 22, 1997 website designer and lifelong Godzilla fan Aaron Smith launched a Godzilla news site. In the decade since then other fan sites have come and gone, but Monster Zero News (as Aaron’s site came to be known) grew to become the internet source for the latest Godzilla news and information. MZ has broken stories time and again, features the largest English language Godzilla-themed message board and provides regular news updates for the official Godzilla website Godzilla.com.

SciFi Japan congratulates Monster Zero News on its 10th anniversary. Aaron Smith is no longer with us, but his legacy lives on. We hope it continues to do so for many years to come.

A twisted Garden of Eden is revealed in the production art for MATANGO. © 1963 Toho Co, Ltd.

Author: Sean Kotz

A strange growth turns men into a bizarre fungus in
Toho’s MATANGO. © 1963 Toho Co, Ltd.

Ishiro Honda’s MATANGO (aka ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE) is probably the most significant, disturbing and influential of Japan’s 60s horror/sci-fi psychodramas. Often cited as an anti-drug film, MATANGO is more significant in its conscious embrace of psychology, a creepy and intelligent film that stands in sharp contrast to Toho’s generally optimistic sci-fi of the decade. With a slow-boiling tension, smart writing, convincing portrayals and some simple but effective special effects, MATANGO deftly explores the limits of human will and the lengths of social restraints, directly questioning the fabric of reality and the nature of happiness. And somehow, it also manages to consider life in a post-nuclear world with a rather nihilistic point of view. These elements make MATANGO arguably the most complete and satisfying film in Toho’s sci-fi catalogue and equal to or perhaps even exceeding Honda’s GOJIRA.

To celebrate tonight’s sold-out benefit screening of MATANGO in El Cerrito, Sean Kotz takes a look at the many layers within the 1963 horror classic.
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We also present William Hope Hodgson’s The Voice in the Night, the 1907 short story that inspired MATANGO. You can read the entire story here.

Eiji Funakoshi is front row and center on the
Japanese poster for GAMERA. © 1965 Kadokawa
Pictures, Inc.

GAMERA and FIRES ON THE PLAIN star dies on his birthday
Author: Keith Aiken
Translations and Additional Material: Oki Miyano

On March 17, longtime Daiei actor Eiji Funakoshi died of a stroke at the age of 84.

Born Eijiro Funakoshi on March 17, 1923 in Tokyo, Eiji Funakoshi signed with the Daiei Motion Picture Company in 1947 and made his acting debut the following year with BEAUTIFUL ENEMY (Utsukushiki Teki). Initially cast in “young, handsome guy” roles, Funakoshi soon established himself as a strong and versatile character actor. In a career that spanned three decades Funakoshi starred in a variety of genres and worked for directors Kozaburo Yoshimura, Mikio Naruse and Yasuzo Masumura. Among his many films were the internationally acclaimed FIRES ON THE PLAIN (Nobi, 1959) and the popular kaiju movies GAMERA (Daikaiju Gamera, 1965) and GAMERA VS GUIRON (Gamera tai Daiakuju Giron, 1969).
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KFJC 89.7FM Interviews for Bob Wilkins Benefit Shows
Source: Bay Area Film Events

Two shows to Benefit Bob Wilkins in El Cerrito and
Sacramento. MATANGO © 1963 Toho Co, Ltd. HORROR OF
PARTY BEACH © 1964 Inzom Corp. Advertising art © 2007
BAFE

BAFE’s first CREATURE FEATURES FOREVER: A TRIBUTE TO BOB WILKINS show (featuring a screening of MATANGO: ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE at the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater this Thursday) sold out as soon as tickets went on sale last week. Tickets for the Sacramento show (HORROR OF PARTY BEACH at the Sacramento’s Crest Theatre) will go on sale this week.

In conjunction with the two shows, KFJC 89.7FM in Los Altos Hills, CA is running a series of interviews about CREATURE FEATURES, host Bob Wilkins, MATANGO and HORROR OF PARTY BEACH. The interviews will be available to listeners in the San Francisco Bay Area and as netcasts on the KFJC website. All appearances are courtesy of Rob Emmett, host of both THOUGHTLINE and THE NORMAN BATES MEMORIAL SOUNDTRACK SHOW.

Monday, March 19- 6:00pm
Interview with former CREATURE FEATURES host John Stanley and Bay Area Film Events’ Bob Johnson

Saturday, March 24- 11:00am
Bob Johnson and TRIBUTE host Mr. Lobo of CINEMA INSOMNIA

For more about CREATURE FEATURES FOREVER: A TRIBUTE TO BOB WILKINS please see the earlier coverage here on SciFi Japan. And check the BAFE website and blog for the leatest updates and information.

Textless poster art for THE HOST. Photo courtesy
of Magnolia Pictures. © 2006 Chungeorahm Film

Source: MJ Simpson
Official Site: The Host Movie

Fangoria has posted an excellent interview with THE HOST fx artist John Cox, conducted by author and film reporter MJ Simpson.

John Cox’s Creature Workshop in Australia has created creatures and animatronic props for such films as BABE (1995), GARGANTUA (1998), PITCH BLACK (2000), SCOOBY DOO (2002) and PETER PAN (2003). For THE HOST, the Creature Workshop crew made a realistic, full scale head of the monster with functional jaws.

Check out the interview on the Fangoria website.

Classic Media’s DVD of the original GODZILLA proves popular with fans and critics

We have a winner! Classic Media’s GOJIRA DVD wins a
Rondo Award, makes some Top 10 lists and is nominated
for a Saturn Award. ©1954 Toho Co., Ltd./2006 Classic
Media.

Classic Media’s GOJIRA was named “Best DVD of 2006” in the 5th Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. The DVD’s audio commentary by Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle also came in second place for “Best DVD Commentary” behind THE WICKER MAN commentary by Ed Woodward, Robin Hardy, Mark Kermode and the legendary Christopher Lee.

The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards were started by David Colton and Kerry Gammill of the Classic Horror Film Boards. The award statue is a bust of horror film actor Rondo Hatton, who starred in such films as THE PEARL OF DEATH (1944), HOUSE OF HORRORS (1946) and THE BRUTE MAN (1946). Further details and a complete list of winners can be found on the awards website. SciFi Japan offers our congratulations to this year’s award winners!

In related news, GOJIRA has also been nominated in the “Best DVD Classic Film” category for the 33rd Annual Saturn Awards. Created by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in Los Angeles, the Saturn Awards will take place May 10, 2007 in Universal City. The complete list of nominees is listed on the Academy website.

Last but not least, the editors of the Digital Bits included GOJIRA in their “Top 10 DVDs of 2006” lists. The DVD was a runner up in the “Best DVD- Psychotronic” category.

Source: American Cinematheque

The American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre follows this past January’s twelve movie Akira Kurosawa retrospective with another of the director’s classics on the big screen. A brand-new 35mm print of the HIGH AND LOW will launch the Aero’s “Essential Art House: A Celebration of 50 Years of Janus Films!”, a 50th anniversary tribute to the acclaimed art house film distributor that runs from March 28 to April 1.

Akira Kurosawa’s HIGH AND LOW plays the Aero Theatre.
© 1963 Toho Co., Ltd.

Wednesday, March 28– 7:30 PM
HIGH AND LOW (Tengoku to Jigoku), 1963, Janus Films, 142 min. Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct mystery King’s Ransom provides an ideal starting point for Akira Kurosawa’s study of a man who must measure the extent of his responsibility to others in a society with a huge gulf between the haves and have-nots. Toshiro Mifune stars as a Yokohama shoe manufacturer who has just arranged a 50-million-yen loan in order to gain control of his corporation. His phone rings and a kidnapper (Tsutomu Yamazaki) demands the very same amount in ransom for his only son. That the kidnapper has taken the son of his chauffeur by mistake only makes the manufacturer’s dilemma worse: must he face financial ruin in order to save the life of another man’s child? The answer lies in this supremely stylish and suspenseful film, as visually and structurally dazzling as it is provocative. With unflagging support from Tatsuya Nakadai as the unassuming head police inspector, Kenjiro Ishiyama and Isao Kimura as dogged police detectives, Kyoko Kagawa as Mifune’s wife and, last but not least, Tatsuya Mihashi as Mifune’s double-dealing personal secretary.

The Aero Theatre is located at 1328 Montana Avenue at 14th Street in Santa Monica, CA 90403. Ticket prices to the theater are $10.00 general, $8.00 students and seniors, and $7.00 for American Cinematheque members. Tickets can be purchased at the theater box office and on fandango.com. Check the Aero Theatre website for complete ordering instructions, parking info, directions and information on the other movies being shown in “Essential Art House” series.

Source: Asahi

Radio and voice actor Kyoji Kobayashi died March 8th of subarachnoid hemorrhage at the age of 75. His funeral will be held at the funeral hall of the Tokyo Shibuya Ward, Nishihara on March 14th.

Kobayashi was the narrator for SPECTREMAN (Supekutoruman, 1971), the 1980 NHK radio adaptation of Japan Sinks (Nihon Chinbotsu) and the anime series PLANETES (2003). He also worked on ULTRA SEVEN (Urutora Sebun, 1967), providing the voice of the villainous Alien Godola (Godora Seijin) in episode #4, “Vessel Machs, Reply” (Makusu Oto-seyo, US title “Double Trouble at Sea”). His other TV anime voice performances included OSOMATSU-KUN (1966), PRINCESS KNIGHT (Ribbon no Kishi, 1967) and STAR OF THE GIANTS (Shinjuku no Taiketsu, 1968). He also did Japanese dubbing for foreign TV shows, including Gerry Anderson’s JOE 90 (1968).

Contents of the special Memorial Box edition of ULTRAMAN MEBIUS & ULTRAMAN BROTHERS. © 2006 Tsuburaya Productions

New DVD Collectors Set With A Few Surprises
Author: James Ballard
Official Website: Ultraman-Movie.com

Last summer’s hit movie ULTRAMAN MEBIUS & ULTRAMAN BROTHERS (Urutoraman Mebiusu & Urutora Kyoudai, 2006) from Tsuburaya Productions was released on DVD in Japan on January 26th. Available alongside the regular one-disc issue of the film is this rather special two-disc Memorial Box.
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