Author: Ben Dimagmaliw

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Typhoon Noruda

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

One of 2016’s buzzwords was Your Name, the animated feature by likely the most recognized independent animation director, Shinkai Makoto. However, a year prior, there was animated feature made by another small animation house called, Colorido. Typhoon Noruda employs techniques similar to Shinkai Makoto, but there is a more youthful and innocent (for lack of a better term) air to the palette and character design. While it can be argued Shinkai’s works are driven by esoteric, adult themes, the works by Colorido are high-concept, yet more straightforward adventures in childhood and/or adolescence. Set on an unspecific outlying island, *Typhoon Noruda*, tells the tale of Azuma and Saijo, two friends since youth bound by their love of baseball. Their relationship is strained when Azuma decides to quit playing. Then Azuma comes upon a strange girl, Noruda, who appears out of nowhere. “When the whirlwind on the ground, the maelstrom in the sky and I are linked as one, this world will be reborn…” At this time, the largest typhoon in recorded history is bearing down on …

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Innocent Prayer

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

“Kill ’em all. I hope he kills everyone.” The tagline for Kamei Toru’s independent movie, Innocent Prayer, based on Hirayama Yumeaki’s short story collection, certainly isn’t mincing words. Only more shocking than the  request itself is the young heart and mind uttering it. Child-abuse and bullying are subject matters often dealt with in movies through varied ways, from over-the-top fantasies of heroism to grave calls to attention for previously unknown injustices. Revenge, of course, is one of the genres employed to achieve an effect, both in fiction and sadly, in real life. With Innocent Prayer, however, there is an interesting wrinkle which deserves notice. A 10-year-old girl, Fumi, is subjected to vicious bullying at school. Even at home, the daily abuse inflicted on her by her step-father worsening day by day, while her mother, seeking a spiritual solace from her husband’s abuse, is sinking deeper into a new religion. With no place for respite nor anyone to help her, Fumi’s endless despair is never-ending. Until one day, she learns of a series of murders occurring …

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Kiku and the Guillotine (unofficial)

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

Director Zeze Takahisa made waves with his 4-hour opus Heaven’s Story in 2010. Despite its running time, the independently produced movie took home the FIPRESCI Prize at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival among other praises & accolades at home and abroad. He has a completed shooting a new movie titled Kiku to Girochin – Onna Zumo to Anakisuto (lit. Kiku and Guillotine – a female sumo and an anarchist), the premise of which seems quite interesting. Set in the Taisho Era, just after the Great Kanto Earthquake, the story of two women sumo wrestlers who participated in an exhibition troupe of female sumo (think the women’s baseball league from WWII featured in A League of their Own) and their relationship with a group of anarchists calling themselves “Guillotine” promises stout-hearted entertainment that depicts “with romance, action, and social satire the rough and ragged power of the common people.” The existence of female sumo wrestlers in that period is sure to be a revelation to many, even in Japan, and the added element of the two female …

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An Indie Filmmaker in Cannes

Published by Ben Dimagmaliw

Selected as one person who has contributed to and influenced local films in the article by the prominent newspaper, Nikkei Entertainment, titled, ‘100 People Shaking Up Japanese Cinema,’ Tsujioka Masato was motivated to make movies by observing Tsukamoto Shinya’s film making while on Tsukamoto’s set as an actor. He attracted attention in 2003 at the age of 23 with his debut film, Lost by Dead which depicted teens on a self-destructive rampage. His second film Divide was decorated at the Toronto ReelHeART Film Festival in 2006. The film’s opening in Tokyo set a new record for attendance, and with numerous mass media exposure, resulted in the rare theatrical nationwide release for an independent movie. In 2014, Tsujioka took his completely self-produced 7th movie, Black Room, to the Cannes Film Festival’s Marche du Film and booked a screening room in order to generate awareness for it at an international level. He has written his impressions of being at the world’s most prestigious film festival as an independent Japanese filmmaker. Original Japanese Text by Tsujioka Masato Arriving …