Saturday, June 28, 2008

Johanne Pelletier (1954-1983)


Requiem eternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion
et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem.
Exaudi orationem meam,
ad te omnis caro veniet.

Kyrie eleison.
Christe eleison.
Kyrie eleison.

                 -Missa pro defunctis

[Caerimonias videtis]

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Fantasia 2008


Today Fantasia announced its programmation:

The 12th edition of the Fantasia Film Festival, North America's premier genre cinema event, will be held from July 3rd to July 21st, 2008 in three theatres (Hall, J.A. DeSeve and D.B. Clarke) of Montreal's Concordia University. This year it offers more than 100 feature films, over 200 shorts, 7 documentaries and there will be also more than fifty guests present to introduce their movies. The Program Book will be on sale Sunday June 29th at the cost of $5. Tickets will be available from July 3rd for $8.00 or $70 for 10 tickets.

The programming includes 56 Asian movies: 23 from Japan, 1 from China, 10 from Hong Kong, 16 from Korea, 5 from Thailand and 1 from Vietnam.

The selection of anime is rather thin this year: Batman: Gotham Knight (a USA/Japan coproduction that give the Animatrix treatment to Batman with six animated shorts directed by Yasuhiro Aoki, Futoshi Higashide, Toshiyuki Kuboka, Hiroshi Morioka, Shoujirou Nishimi and Nam Jong-sik) and Genius Party (the experimental animated anthology from studio 4'C that we talked about in PA#96).

However, the selection offers more live-action movies based on manga. The most obvious is L: Change the World (Hideo Nakata's [Ring] prequel based on Death Note), but there's also Akanbo Shoujo (directed by Yudai Yamaguchi based on the popular Kazuo Umezu's popular manga), Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (dir. by Takashi Yamazaki and adapted from Yohei Saigan's manga Sanchome no Yuhi: Yuyake no Uta), Be a Man! Samurai School (dir. by Tak Sakaguchi, based on Akira Miyashita's manga Sakigake! Otoko Juku) and Le Grand Chef (a Korean movie dir. by Jeon Yun-su and based on a popular Manhwa).

The festival will also show three Nikkatsu action movies from the 60s: A Colt is my Passport (1967), Gangster VIP (1968), and Velvet Hustler (1967).

The other Japanese movies are: Accuracy of Death, Adrift in Tokyo, Black Belt, Chanbara Beauty, The Chasing World, Gachi Boy: Wresling with a Memory, Machine Girl (a coproduction with the USA), The Most Beautiful Night in the World, Negative Happy Chain Saw Edge, Robo Rock, Sasori (a coproduction with HK), The Shadow Spirit, Shamo (a coproduction with HK), Sukiyaki Western Django (the latest Takashi Miike), Tokyo Gore Police and X-Cross.

Another notable movie is The Midnight Meat Train (a USA movie dir. by Ryuhei Kitamura [Versus, Aragami] and based on a story by Clive Barker).

The Japanese guests will be Tak Sakaguchi (Tokyo Gore Police, Be a Man! Samurai School), Isao Karasawa (Be a Man! Samurai School), Ryuhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train), Eihi Shiina (Tokyo Gore Police), Yoshihiro Nishimura (Tokyo Gore Police) and we must also mention Mark Schilling (the movie historian, who will present A Colt Is my Passport).

The other Asian movies are: Alone (Thai), Art of the Devil 3 (Thai), The Assembly (China), Beautiful Sunday (Kor), The Butcher (Kor), The Detective (HK), Disciples of the 36th Chamber (HK, a Shaw Brothers movie with Gordon Liu, who will attend the movie presentation), An Emperess & the Warrior (HK/China), Epitaph (Kor), 4bia (Thai), Going by the Book (Kor), Handle Me with Care (Thai), A Love (Kor), Mad Detective (HK), May 18th (Kor), The Moss (HK), Muay Thai Chaiya (Thai), No Mercy for the Rude (Kor), Our Town (Kor), Paradise Murdered (Kor), Punch Lady (Kor), The Pye-Dog (HK), The Rebel (Vietnam), Seven Days (Kor), The Sparrow (HK), A Tale of Legendary Libido (Kor), Triangle (HK/China), Voice of a Murdered (Kor), Who's that Knocking at my Door? (Kor), and Wide Awake (Kor).

Happy Festival!

(See also the ANN news entry)

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

More Fantasia reviews

I've added some live-action reviews from last year's Fantasia Festival on PA's webpage.

There's not many of them so far, but I will add more when I have time (for the moment I am rather swamped in production and July will be a busy month with Fantasia and Otakuthon!).

I Survived a Japanese Game Show!

I usually hate reality TV, but I stumbled upon this one while channel surfing during my lunch break. I watched a few minutes out of curiosity and it was quite hilarious.

The idea behind this show is pretty simple: ten americans have been selected to participate in a reality TV game show -- the funny things is that they have NO idea in which kind of show they are participating -- and are send to Japan to compete in Japanese game shows (and we all know how silly and punishing those can be). All this for a chance to win a mere quarter of million dollars.

I've seen maybe ten minutes of it. It is funny, but not because of the silly game shows (I pity the poor souls who participate in this humiliation). Most of the participants never left the USA (even their State in some cases), so for them Japan is like they landed on Mars! I am not sure I could take more of it. I've recorded it on the PVR to check it later. Just in case!

It runs on ABC Tuesday at 9 PM.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Fantasia is coming!

Fantasia is coming soon and its programming will be unveiled at a press conference June 26th. Soon after, it will be available for consultation on their web site: www.fantasiafestival.com!

They will also launch the program book at a “Fantasia 2008 Preview Night“ hosted at the Centre St-Ambroise (5080 St-Ambroise, in St-Henri, Montreal) Friday June 27th from 9 PM. Come get your copy, watch this year's trailers and drink a nice cold St-Ambroise! Admission is free and the program of this 12th edition of the Fantasia Festival is $5. Spread the word!

I'll give details on the progamming Thursday. Stay tuned!

Bonne Saint-Jean Baptiste!

C'est la Saint-Jean pis je suis encore devant l'ordinateur à travailler... un vrai bourreau de travail! Mais j'm'enverrais bien un bière par example!

It's the Saint-Jean (one of our National Holidays) and I'm still here working... I guess I'm a workaholic. I'd rather have a couple shots of vodka!

Bonne Saint-Jean tout l'monde!


Monday, June 02, 2008

SPJA Nomination for PA

Protoculture Addicts is nominated in the “Best Publication” category for the 2008 Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation Industry Award alongside Anime Insider, Newtype, Otaku USA and Shojo Beat. The vote was closed on May 15th and the results will be announced during the SPJA Industry Reception at Anime Expo® 2008.

Source: Anime News Network.

ANN congratulates Claude J Pelletier

Anime News Network congratulates Claude J Pelletier, Protoculture Addicts' editor-in-chief, for receiving the Momiji Award. [Link]