Seijun Suzuki’s ‘Tokyo Drifter’ drifts into the TIFF Bell Lightbox
Playing Mar 22013 at 10pm, as part of theTIFF Bell Lightbox’s Spotlight Japan celebration from the ‘Tokyo Drifters: 100 years of Nikkatsu’ series, come the classic 1966 gangster film from Seijun Suzuki, “Tokyo Drifter”. The film is a smorgasbord of camera and film styles as Suzuki was clearly influenced by the changing cinema from the west from the 1950’s to the 1960’s.
Tokyo Drifter
Starring: Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Ryuji Kita and Hideaki Esumi
Written by Kôhan Kawauchi
Directed by Seijun Suzuki
Tetsu (Watari) has joined his yakuza boss in going straight, and is determined to stay straight, after his boss has disbanded his gang. But when a rival gang threatens to bring them back into the gang wars (more…)
TIFF’s ‘Packaged Goods’ series highlights animation for it’s winter program
Feb 20, 2013 brings the newest in the “Packaged Goods” series to the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The ongoing series surveys the world of commercial, music video and web content film-making. Exploring these by themes and highlighting the best that each theme has to offer, the series’ latest installment explores the ever changing worldanimation in the corporate sense in its “Artful Animation” presentation.
TIFF’s Packaged Goods: Artful Animation Program
Today’s animation has come a long way from Saturday morning cartoons: whether photo-real or illustrative, stop-motion or CG (more…)
TIFF’s Spotlight Japan series gets gritty with ‘Rusty Knife’
Screening Feb 9 2013 as part of TIFF’s Spotlight Japan celebration and part of the 100 Years of Nikkatsu series is the 1958 noir classic “Rusty Knife”. The setting of Udaka, a post-war city in the heart of the rebuilding phase and corporate development after the war, is a place that corruption has already taken hold. This setting provides a unique look into Japan during the rebuilding phase after the war while providing the necessary background for director Masuda to deliver a noir piece to rival the French and North American noir pieces dominating the box office at the time.
TIFF Spotlight Japan: Rusty Knife
Starring: Yûjirô Ishihara, Mie Kitahara, Akira Kobayashi, Naoki Sugiura, Shôji Yasui and Masao Shimizu
Written by Shintarô Ishihara
Directed by Toshio Masuda
A persistent district attorney desperately attempts to arrest and convict Katsumata (more…)
TIFF 2012 Yellow And Tim Buckley
Starring Heather Wahlquist, Sienna Miller, David Morse, Gena Rowlands, Melanie Griffith, Lucy Punch, Max Theriot, Ray Liotta and Daveigh Chase
Written by Heather Wahlquist and Nick Cassavetes
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Mary (Wahlquist) is a substitute teacher who flounders through her days with nonsensical daydreams and sneaking out to her car to drink mini-bar sized bottles of alcohol and pop at least 30 pain pills a day. Her shrink, or so we believe him to be, thinks she’s over-medicated and her complaints of not being able to feel anything stem from this. When Mary disappears into a broom closet to have sex with the parent of a student during a PTA meeting, even she knows she has gone too far. Broke after being fired by the school, she packs up her car and sets out alone on a road trip back to see her family to confront old…
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