Want to impress your date by fighting off her molestor? Wish your stand-up comedy act would bring the house down? Or looking to pack your grumpy grandpa’s funeral with keening mourners? Call “Special Actors,” an agency that supplies performers to help you keep up with the Suzukis — or out-scam your scammers.
The third feature by Shinichiro Ueda, director of Japanese cult zombie comedy “One Cut of the Dead,” is a daffy ensemble trickster comedy with a few “gotcha” twists. Although a year-end 2019 theatrical release in Asia achieved only average gains, festivals that saw roaring crowds at midnight screenings for “One Cut” can still expect return audiences.
“Special Actors” would qualify as thoroughly enjoyable fare were it not such an anticipated follow-up to Ueda’s history-making sleeper, which grossed $31.1 million worldwide, recouping its $25,000 budget more than a thousandfold. But considering the expectations, Nevertheless, it sports a similar meta-narrative that playfully...
The third feature by Shinichiro Ueda, director of Japanese cult zombie comedy “One Cut of the Dead,” is a daffy ensemble trickster comedy with a few “gotcha” twists. Although a year-end 2019 theatrical release in Asia achieved only average gains, festivals that saw roaring crowds at midnight screenings for “One Cut” can still expect return audiences.
“Special Actors” would qualify as thoroughly enjoyable fare were it not such an anticipated follow-up to Ueda’s history-making sleeper, which grossed $31.1 million worldwide, recouping its $25,000 budget more than a thousandfold. But considering the expectations, Nevertheless, it sports a similar meta-narrative that playfully...
- 8/11/2020
- by Maggie Lee
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: North America’s largest festival of contemporary Japanese cinema, Japan Cuts, has selected 30 features and 12 shorts for a 2020 edition that will take place entirely online due to continued corona disruption.
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
Running July 17-30, the traditionally New York-based event will instead be available across the country via a digital platform set up in partnership with Festival Scope and Shift72. Films will be made available to rent with a limited number or virtual tickets per title, priced at $2–$7 with discounted bundles.
Alongside screenings, there will also be virtual Q&As, discussion panels, and video introductions from filmmakers in a bid to maintain the festival’s sense of community and dedication to intercultural communication.
The fest will kick off with a live virtual Q&a with Shinichiro Ueda, director of opening film selection Special Actors, the follow-up to Ueda’s popular breakout debut One Cut of the Dead. The festival’s Centerpiece...
- 6/24/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
As much as we wanted to sit down and talk to Naoki Murahashi at PÖFF (the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival), where he attended all screenings of his mockumentary “Extro”, it was impossible to find a translator to assist us. When we were okayed to send the questions per E-mail, the answers came back in Japanese. And although the journey to this publication took the incredible three months, it was worth our while.
When the translation finally reached Asian Movie Pulse, there was an apology right at the top coming from Mr. Murahashi personally: “I am sorry that due to my poor English, I wasn’t able to respond to your questions back in Tallinn”. His answers, on the other hand, were not apologetic, but straight to the point, and uncompromisingly honest.
The real star of “Extro” is a film extra by the name of Kozo Haginoya, a man in...
When the translation finally reached Asian Movie Pulse, there was an apology right at the top coming from Mr. Murahashi personally: “I am sorry that due to my poor English, I wasn’t able to respond to your questions back in Tallinn”. His answers, on the other hand, were not apologetic, but straight to the point, and uncompromisingly honest.
The real star of “Extro” is a film extra by the name of Kozo Haginoya, a man in...
- 2/10/2020
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
A loud anko-ru! goes to the Japanese director Naoki Murahashi for his quick-witted mockumentary “Extro” that has just had its European premiere at the 23rd edition of PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival), in the Rebels with a Cause festival section.
By putting the film extra(s) in focus of his story, Murahashi is placing the real-life stars in the shadow of his true leads – those who remain, if not invisible, then silent in movies, but who contribute to the atmosphere and the plot-building of films. The temptation of using the actual dialogues and the fake information strewn across the film to write a review of “Extro” is too big, and it is particularly difficult to ignore the lines spoken by the true Japanese hotshots Koji Yamamoto, Yasufumi Terawaki and Yuki Saito. But it is the singer-songwriter Tatsuya Ishii who delivers the most epic monologue in the movie by reciting...
By putting the film extra(s) in focus of his story, Murahashi is placing the real-life stars in the shadow of his true leads – those who remain, if not invisible, then silent in movies, but who contribute to the atmosphere and the plot-building of films. The temptation of using the actual dialogues and the fake information strewn across the film to write a review of “Extro” is too big, and it is particularly difficult to ignore the lines spoken by the true Japanese hotshots Koji Yamamoto, Yasufumi Terawaki and Yuki Saito. But it is the singer-songwriter Tatsuya Ishii who delivers the most epic monologue in the movie by reciting...
- 11/30/2019
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
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