Totoro Forest Project

"The Totoro Forest Project is a fundraising exhibition/auction to support the non-profit organization, 'Totoro No Furusato National Fund', Oscar winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki has been one of the big supporters of. The event will feature more than 200 pieces of original art especially created by internationally acclaimed artists in the fields of animation, comic books, illustration, and fine arts. Hayao Miyazaki has been actively supporting the preservation effort of Sayama Forest for more than ten years. This 8750 acre park in the outskirts of Tokyo is also known as Totoro Forest. It's in these woods in fact that the concept for the film My Neighbor Totoro was born.


"In the past few decades, the forest has been subject to urban development. Only continued support to the Totoro Trust Fund can help preserve this much needed island of green in the midst of Tokyo's urban sprawl. We intend to donate the entire proceeds of the project to this worthy cause.


"This event can also be a symbolic gesture, sending a strong message to the world in terms of environmental and social awareness.  Imagine artists from all over the world coming together to donate artwork to help conserve a forest they have never seen."

Check out the Gallery.

Full-Length Yamato Trailer

Toho has the full length trailer (100 sec) for Space Battleship Yamato up. Pluses: scenes of Underground City, Yamato under construction (bottom view), Cosmo Zero launching and in action, other Earth fighters and spacecraft, group shot of Black Tiger pilots, a shot of Mamoru Kodai, several scenes of what appears to be a ground assault of some kind, two or three scenes of Kuroki Meisa (Yuki) looking predictably adorable, and lots of KimuraSMAP with Farrah-perfect hair. Minuses: interminable cock-rock theme song by Steven Tyler (yes, that Steven Tyler ). Downloadable as .flv; worth looking at.

71 days to go.  Yamato... hasshin!

Chris Rock + Kurosawa = ???

During his movie junket for Death at a Funeral, he let slip his next project was writing a remake of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low for director Mike Nichols. Is this a joke? I'll let you follow the trail:

Black Voices
Film
Japanator

I like Rock's comedy and the work he's done, but this definitely has a "WTF" factor to it. I'm hoping for the best if it's true.

Bad JPNZ Movie Trailers

Great summer flicks from Japan. NSFW (Violence, nudity, lots of Karo syrup, and good, wholesome cheesiness).

Alien vs. Ninja


Mutant Girls Squad


Both these films are from Sushi Typhoon, a subsidary of Nikkatsu, which will specialize in "extreme gore" films with an eye on international theatrical and dvd releases.

Air Doll

Mid-April brings those PG'ers who call the great white north their home, the annual film festival. I didn't see too much that caught my attention, but there were a couple of movies that I'll try to see.

One is Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll. It's about a life-sized blow-up doll that gains a soul. One day she decides to go out on her own and ends up secretly falling in love with a video store clerk. Of course there's a twist towards at the end that puts all this in jeopardy, but it's the story of what it is to be human. Based off the manga by Yoshiie Gōda, it sounds like bad movie waiting to happen. However, with Kore-da at the helm (Nobody Knows, Maboroshi, After Life, et. al.), I'm giving it a shot.



The other film is from the producers of the Triplets of Belleville. This one is The Secret of Kells. Eye candy if anything.