Yubari Festival Hosts ART OF KAIJU Yuji Kaida Exhibition

Source: FieldWorks Inc. Event Site: yubarifanta.com (Japan) From Thursday, February 27 - Monday, March 3, 2014 the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival returns to Hokkaido in northern Japan. The festival will again present a selection of independent and amateur films and feature an international directors competition, to be judged this year by director Kichitaro Negishi (CRAZY FRUIT, VILLONS WIFE), writer Mike Hostench (ASMODEXIA, BENEATH STILL WATERS), Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival Managing Director Thomas Nam, actor Takumi Saitoh (SPACE BATTLESHIP YAMATO, ACE ATTORNEY), actress Eihi Shiina (AUDITION, TOKYO GORE POLICE), anime director Shinji Aramaki (APPLESEED, HARLOCK: SPACE PIRATE), Bucheon International Animation Festival programmer Eugene Kim and visual effects supervisor Tsuyoshi Kazuno (COLD FISH, ULTRAMAN SAGA). Kyoraku Pictures is sponsoring one of the highlights of this years festival -- "ART OF KAIJU: Monster Artist Yuji Kaida Original Exhibition" (ART OF KAIJU 怪獣絵師　開田裕治　原画展, ART OF KAIJU Kaijuu Eshi Kaida Yuuji Genga-ten) -- a display of more than 40 original paintings and illustrations by Yuji Kaida. A lifelong fan of monster movies and special effects films, Kaida has become one of Japans premier monster, robot and hero artists for magazines, books, posters and packages for models, home video and music software. His works have included daikaiju like Godzilla and Gamera, more than 100 home video package illustrations for the Ultra Series, and a similar number of GUNDAM plastic model packages. He supervises the fanzine Special Effects Are Here!, produced artwork for the Tokyo Fantastic International Film Festival posters, and designs characters for animated works and films. Yuji Kaida will attend the event to meet with fans, sell copies of his work and sign autographs. He will also take part in an onstage talk with two popular daikaiju directors: Shusuke Kaneko (the Gamera trilogy, GMK, ULTRAMAN MAX) and Kiyotaka Taguchi (GEHARHA: THE DARK AND LONG HAIR MONSTER, NEO ULTRA Q). ■ KYORAKU Pictures Presents "ART OF KAIJU: Monster Artist Yuji Kaida Original Exhibition" February 27 (Thu) - March 3 (Mon), 2014 (During the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival) Adire Kaikan (Hall) Yubari 3rd Floor Special Event Space 4 Honcho, Yubari-shi, Hokkaido 068-0403 Twitter: twitter.com/yubarifanta Facebook: facebook.com/yubarifanta